Paris is already a European leader in the digital world with particular expertise in software development, software services, multimedia and video-games. The backbone to the Paris area’s strength in digital technology is the extent and quality of its higher-level education. World majors such as Microsoft, Cap Gemini, Apple, Oracle, Business Objects, SAP... are established members of the Paris business community and work together with innovative SMEs to foster a business culture of success. Today Paris is the most dynamic city in France and one of the most dynamic in Europe in this field.

Objective: The objective of the Paris Digital Cluster is to place Paris at a world level, notably for the creation, programming and services for numeric content and mulimedia know-how. 
6 Activities: Image & Sound (numeric content); Video Games (numeric content); Education (learning industries); Knowledge Industries; Numeric Heritage; Numeric Life (communication & services).

CASE STUDIES - Companies and Projects supported by Paris Développement

 SEQUANS: A graduate from Paris Développement's incubator Paris CyberVillage, the company Sequans is emerging as a  rival to global giants Intel and Fujitsu in developing Wimax. The company received €18.9M from US VC specialist Kenneth Venture Partners, €1.5M from Cap Décisif while Motorola has taken a direct stake.

 DIGITAL LIFE LAB is an 18-month project.
Objective: To create a living laboratory for testing future multimedia solutions.
The project is divided into 4 categories: Gigacom (very high debit applicationa), Urban Mobiles, Lutin XL and Cybertech.
Project Investment: €1.6M from Paris
Partners: France Telecom, TF1, Blu-Wan, Mobiluck, Qosmos, 6 Wind, Telecom Paris, ENST, LIP6, ENS, CNRS, Laboratoire Lutin, Euronetlab, Renater    

 INFO@GIC is a 36-month project.
Objective: To create powerful multimedia search tools, extract information and expand know-how in applications.
3 categories: advanced search engines, information extraction and merging multimedia sources.
Project Cost: €65M Pilot: Thales
Partners: EADS,XEROX, Bertin, Europlace, Intuilab, Odile Jacob, Pertimm, Temis, Fist, CEA, INA, CNRS, ONERA, GET/ENST/INT, Paris Vl, Vecsys, Paris Vlll, Paris lX, Paris Xlll, Paris-sud Orsay, Univ. Marne la Vallee, CBRS/LIMSI, CNRS/LACAN  

 HD3D is a 30-month project.
Objective: To federate the largest studios in post-production, special effects, animation and numeric labs dedicated to cinema and TV.
Project Cost: €17.3M Paris Participation: €800,000 (4.6%) for 3 Paris-SMEs
Partners: France Telecom, Thales, Attitude Studio, Duboi Duran, Eclair, LTC, Mac Guff, Mikros Images, Teamto, 2 minutes, EESA, Artemis-INT-GET, Institut Louis Lumiere, Paris 8 (CICM), Paris 13 (L2TI)  

 CLASSES NUMERIQUES is a 36-month project
Objective: Industrialisation of production processes for educative publishing, to create an innovative and affordable content between educators and students for educative on-line content.
Project Cost: €6.5M Pilot: Editis
Partners: Jouve, Ilobject, Odile Jacob, EISTI, LCU, LIP6, MSH, Univ. Paris X  

 PLAY ALL - European leader in Middleware for game creation
Objective: To merge the technologies of several studios to develop a common driver for game creation as well as a technological standard shared between middleware companies and R&D labs.
Partners: Atonce Technologies, Bionatics, Darkworks, Fandango Games, Load Inc., PlayAll Inc., RVP-Kylotonn, Sixela Productions, Spir Ops, Voxler, White Birds Productions, Wizarbox, Etablissement P.E.R., CNAM-CEDRIC, ENJMIN, GET/ENST, LIRIS, Paris 6 - LIP6