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Navigation Tips 1. Click on margins to turn page 2. Click on ads to visit company websites 3. Click items in Table of Contents to jump to content 4. Use the magnify tool in your browser toolbar to zoom in It takes strength, ambition and foresight to carve out your position in the optical media market. Whether you work with pre-mastered or recordable media, the competition is too intense and the potential pitfalls to great to leave any part of your business plan to chance. AudioDev understands this. Protecting your quality reputation is the reason we’re always at the forefront of new media development, as both an independent authority and provider of precision testing systems and support. sales@audiodev.com • www.audiodev.com A single-source supplier, we make sure you meet your QA targets, supporting your productivity and profitability goals. Today’s increasingly sophisticated consumer is ready to invest in high-definition blue laser media. The potential reward is great. Can you deliver? Contact AudioDev. We tailor complete solutions that protect your reputation and your bottom line. www.pyramid.se Luck is not an option November/december 2008 CONTENT DELIVERY & STORAGE ASSOCIATION Editor-in-Chief: Storage Formats ddixon@contentdeliveryandstorage.org +1-609-466-5448 20 SanDisk slotMusic: The Next Music Album Format By Claudia Kienzle Douglas Dixon Art Director: Michael E. Bevel mbevel@contentdeliveryandstorage.org European Correspondent: Elizabeth Toppin Contributing Editors: Thomas Arnold, Chuck Azar, Jim Bottoms, Tom Coughlin, Dan Daley, Larry Jaffee, Claudia Kienzle, Tom Moran, Bruce Nazarian Contributors: David English, Tim Gorman, James Wise Advanced Blu-ray 30 Advanced Interactivity with BD-J: Independence Day By Van Ling 38 Advanced Blu-ray Authoring for BD-Live By Dan Daley 44 White Paper - The Other Format War By 3rd I QC, Intellikey Labs, DIRECT QC Digital Delivery 48 Digital Music Distribution By Dan Daley international Advertising Director: Ellen Parker eparker@contentdeliveryandstorage.org +1-561-374-5959 Content Delivery & Storage Association www.contentdeliveryandstorage.org Suite 204, 182 Nassau Street Princeton, NJ 08542-7500 Phone: +1-609-279-1700 Fax: +1-609-279-1999 General E-mail: info@contentdeliveryandstorage.org President: Charles Van Horn cvanhorn@contentdeliveryandstorage.org Director of Communications: Michael E. Bevel mbevel@contentdeliveryandstorage.org Production 52 White Paper - Into the Blu: Process Optimization for Blu-ray By dr.schwab Inspection Technology columnists 6Media / Setting Music Free By Dan Daley 10 Authoring / The Blu-ray Lockout By Bruce Nazarian 12Digital / Ownership and Intellectual Property By Tom Moran 16 Content / Riding Out the Storm By Thomas K. Arnold 18 Analyst / The Demand for Flash By David Miller Director of Finance and operations: Gail Muller gmuller@contentdeliveryandstorage.org Director of Anti-Piracy Compliance – worldwide: Timothy Gorman tgorman@contentdeliveryandstorage.org +1-301-941-0308 director – Anti-Piracy and Compliance Programs – Americas: Linda Dyson ldyson@contentdeliveryandstorage.org Phone: +1-404-349-9600 director – Anti-Piracy and Compliance Programs – europe/middle east/africa: Peter Wallace pwallace@contentdeliveryandstorage.org Phone: +44 (0) 7850 331033 director - Anti-Piracy and Compliance Programs – Asia: James S. Wise jwise@contentdeliveryandstorage.org Phone: +852-2290-9852 Entire contents copyright 2008 Content Delivery & Storage Association. The CDSA logo is a trademark of the Content Delivery and Storage Association (CDSA). INSIDE CDSA 4 CDSA Board of Directors/Platinum Members 24 Anti-Piracy Certified Plants 54Plastic DVD Packaging Certification Program On the Cover: SanDisk slotMusic: The Next Music Album Format Daniel Schreiber, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the audio/video business unit at SanDisk, introduces the new slotMusic format for selling physical media for today’s portable devices. Containing DRM-free MP3 music in standard microSD flash storage media, slotMusic cards are playable on devices including multimedia phones, iPods and MP3 players, in-car sound systems, and computers. November/December 2008 - MEDIAWARE - 3 CONTENT DELIVERY & STORAGE ASSOCIATION Executive committee CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD Frank Russomanno President & Chief Executive Officer IMATION CORPORATION VICE PRESIDENT Paul W. Scott Executive Vice President Sony DADC EUROPEAN VICE PRESIDENT Hans-Peter Huelskoetter CEO arvato digital services Manufacturing EMEA TREASURER James N. Fiedler Chairman & CEO BENWOO, INC CHAIRMEN EMERITUS Bruce M. Allan Scott N. Bartlett Stan Bauer Gordon W. Bricker Samuel Burger Alfred Markim Richard F. O’Brion John E. Povolny Dave H. Rubenstein Donald E. Rushin Paul W. Scott Louis P. Vaccarelli Brian R. Wilson Donald P. Winquist LEGAL COUNSEL Ronald D. Spencer, Counsel CARTER, LEDYARD & MILBURN Donna Murray Director, Sales & Administration CARTHUPLAS, INC. Daniel Schreiber Senior VP and General Manager SANDISK CORPORATION Morris Ballen Chairman DISC MAKERS Tom Moran Senior Director, Media and Entertainment WAM!NET, A DIVISION OF SAVVIS COMPANY Steve Gilbertson President, No. America KAMMANN MACHINES, INC. Alex Wardell Director of Sales KYOTO AMERICA, INC. Stephen Scherger President, CSG Americas MEADWESTVACO Greg Burns Market Manager - Media Packaging MILLIKEN & COMPANY Boudewijn van Dijk General Manager Business Support PHILIPS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY & STANDARDS 4 - MEDIAWARE - November/December 2008 Digital Media Technology PT Bekasi, Jawa Barat, INDONESIA Entertainment Distribution Company LLC Blackburn, Lancashire, UNITED KINGDOM Fishers, Indiana USA Grover, North Carolina USA Langenhagen, GERMANY New York, New York USA Reno, Nevada USA Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania USA Flash Cargo, Inc. Jamaica, New York USA IMS SpA (IMS Manufacturing SrL and IMS Logistics SrL) Caronno Pertusella (VA), ITALY NEXPAK Duluth, Georgia USA BOARD MEMBERS J. Bradford Springer Chief Financial Officer JVC AMERICA INC arvato digital services Manufacturing EMEA Gutersloh, GERMANY JVC America, Inc. Tuscaloosa, Alabama USA PRESIDENT Charles Van Horn CDSA President CONTENT DELIVERY & STORAGE ASSOCIATION Spencer Mott Dir - International IP/IT Security and Risk Management ELECTRONIC ARTS LTD The ADS Group Plymouth, Minnesota USA Louis P. Vaccarelli Co-CEO SHAPE MEDIA, LLC Neil Brokenshire President/CEO SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES AG Gerhard Blum Vice President Distribution Services-Europe SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT INT’L, LTD Brett Scott Vice President TEIJIN KASEI AMERICA, INC. Rodney Jones Executive Vice President - Operations UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP Shanghai Huade Photoelectron Science & Technology Co., Ltd. Shanghai, CHINA Singulus Technologies, Inc. Windsor, Connecticut USA Sony DADC Pitman, New Jersey USA Terre Haute, Indiana USA Sony DADC Austria AG Anif, AUSTRIA Sony DADC UK Ltd. Southwater, West Sussex, UNITED KINGDOM Summit CD Manufacture Pte.Ltd. Singapore, SINGAPORE Summit Technology Australia Pty. Ltd. Silverwater, AUSTRALIA Targray Technology International Inc. Pointe-Claire, Quebec CANADA Technicolor Aachen, GERMANY Alexandria, NSW, AUSTRALIA Boulogne-Billancourt, FRANCE Camarillo, California USA Livonia, Michigan USA Memphis, Tennessee USA Mexicali, B.C. MEXICO Mexico City, MEXICO Mississauga, Ontario CANADA Piaseczno, POLAND Zapopan Jalisco,, MEXICO WAM!NET, a division of Savvis Communications Bloomington, Minnesota USA up To 100% recycled Le Parc Paumier 72600 La Fresnaye sur Chedouet -France / Tél. +33 - 02 43 31 12 62 / Fax. +33 - 02 43 97 52 95 Ms Maria Bissolotti - Sales Manager : maria.bissolotti@mip-packaging.biz / Ms Catherine Garnier - Sales Assistant : catherine.garnier@ mip-packaging.biz MEDIA Setting Music Free There’s a lot of money to be made in “free” music Dan Daley has covered the entertainment media and related industries for 20 years. He also writes for Wired, Fast Company, the London Telegraph and History Channel magazine. He lives in New York and Nashville. We know all about the Long Tail, but what about the Short Nose? The front end, whether it belongs to a car or a consumer, is the place where the first impact generally takes place, where the nature of the experience is determined. Western content companies have had mixed results with their encounters with the digital front end. Their obsession with monitoring and monetizing every pixel and audio sample has led to a misplacement of priorities that has hobbled the evolution of their business models into fully digital economics. Take, for example the e-book, a decidedly niche product at the moment, but one that typifies the divide between what content providers think is their primary mission (to protect content, both before and after a sale) and what knowledgeable consumers actually are looking for (to access content when and where they want it). Copy Protection Comments Benjamin Higginbotham, director of new technology for the introspective geek site TechnologyEvangelist. com, “How much money are these [content distributors] losing in developing DRM that’s 6 - MEDIAWARE - November/December 2008 Michael Heller is Lawrence A. Wien Professor of Real Estate Law at Columbia Law School and author of The Gridlock Economy (Basic Books). cracked before it hits the streets, implementing the DRM, taking support calls on DRM-based material, and lost sales because users would not tolerate the DRM? Is it really worth all the headaches to stop a few pirates? Won’t the pirates find a way to steal the content anyhow? Why not allow the law-abiding consumer to do with the media as they please? Now rather than protecting assets, DRM seems to be pissing people off while the content is still stolen. It appears to me to be a lose-lose situation.” Higginbotham is hardly alone in railing that copy protection hinders commercial progress, and the success of companies like Apple (which is stripping DRM from its music products in stages) shows that the flaw resides not in infinite flavors of copy protection, but rather in the increasingly irrelevant business models it seeks to protect. That suggests that the sooner new attitudes towards content control are implemented, the better. The instinct to protect content has become less organic and increasingly institutional in the digital era, from the ubiquitous litigation that began against repli- cators in the 1990s, and that has since been extended to consumers via the RIAA, to seemingly endless extensions of copyright law that have the effect of limiting IP exploitation rather than encouraging it. As author Michael Heller has noted in his book The Gridlock Economy, it took World War I and Federal intervention to get the dozens of holders of aircraft patents from nearly 100 years ago to let loose enough of them so there could actually be an aircraft industry. The creation of the same kind of patent pools is what gave DVD its own astounding success. The imperfect protection offered by anti-piracy technologies – the notion that every lock can be picked - is no reason to completely give up on them. Speed bumps do work, and the implementation of anti-piracy technologies sends an important message. But Prohibition’s lesson goes well beyond the whiskey: Continued on page 8 November/December 2008 - MEDIAWARE - 7 Continued from page 7 Forbidding things that people want will not stop people from getting them, and when they do get them, the losers in the end are the entities that didn’t want them to have it. The taxes that government could have collected on alcohol between 1920 and 1933 combined with not having had to pay the costs of enforcing the Volstead Act could have offset some of the effects of the Depression. Going Free Free music is no longer economic samizdat -- a Google search of the phrase turns up over 127 million responses, most of them likely completely legitimate, from give-aways 8 - MEDIAWARE - November/December 2008 to library music for corporate video productions. Expect plenty more hits of this sort as various “free” propositions continue to roll out. Universal Music Group’s Total Music plan would charge the cell phone makers and/or wireless services providers a $5 fee (which is rolled into the device), that would pay for unlimited digital access to all of the label’s music. What makes this proposition different from previous aggregation models is that phone users get to keep the music. Taking it a step further, Nokia, which sold 146 million phones in 2007, launched its Comes With Music program this year and, acting as the aggregator, has lined up both Universal and Sony BMG for content. Nokia is being coy about exact terms – if the phone maker is indeed paying $35 per phone sold as the licensing fee for the service, it could give the music in- dustry payments significantly in excess of the $2.9 billion that digital sales posted last year. In September, Sony Ericsson followed up by expanding its new music distribution scheme, called PlayNow Arena, by making 1 million DRM-free tracks available from Sony BMG, Warner Music and EMI vaults. Phone service provider Orange also has one on the way. It should be mentioned that these schema are launching outside the U.S., mostly in Europe, where cellular service comes without the contractual restrictions common in the U.S., making the phone itself (and the services it’s a hub for) the focus of all marketing strategies. But Europe is also a place that’s considerably less obsessive about IP controls, making it a better place to test and assess how it will work. And if it does, expect to see these models over here shortly – The Wall Street Journal reports that Sony Ericsson expects to have 5 million tracks available when it rolls the service out globally in 2009. Film, video and game executives will be watching closely to see how all this “free” music will work out. AUTHORING The Blu-ray Lockout As with DVD, enabling independent producers can help drive the growth of the BD market The Thin Blu Line: Why police who can create advanced content? by Chris Brown, vice president, DVDA , CEO, Metabeam T echnology providers for the entertainment industry often refer to market “tiers” -- Tier 1 is typically Hollywood; Tier 2 is outside Hollywood. Tier 1 is smaller, but more influential. To be successful, you need to garner at least one Tier 1 customer, because then you can attract Tier 2 customers. If you’re lucky, then you make it to the broader market of Tier 3: the pro-sumers, amateurs and wannabes. Or so the theory goes. 10 - MEDIAWARE - November/December 2008 A decade ago, DVD toolmakers did pretty well by this theory. Because the DVD format was friendly to Tier 2, the market for selling tools grew quickly. The industry was fresh and open, everybody was welcome to join. Industry fellowship was tremendous, innovation exploded, and competition grew, which resulted in a lot more consumer choice: Tier 2 now represents about two-thirds of the DVD titles market. Bigger market, more players, lower prices. So, how does Blu-ray compare? Since the Blu-ray format launched, Tier 2 producers have been stuck in a holding pattern, waiting for prices to drop low enough so they can join the party. Both production costs and consumer prices have remained high. Producers seeking to innovate are disappointed to learn that an expensive AACS license is required in order to replicate, and advanced content capabili- As President of the DVDA, I share Chris’s concerns on the implications of current Blu-ray Disc format and license issues. DVDA has surveyed and had conversations with Bruce Nazarian, “the Digital Guy,” is many DVD Tier 2 and 3 propresident of the DVD ducers, many of whom are Association (DVDA). corporate or industrial authors. Many of these have yet to create or burn their first BD, for a variety of reasons. Over half have expressed their opinion that the cost of AACS licensing is “fiscally impossible for us,” and many have voiced their dismay at being “priced out” of BD publishing due to the mandatory AACS licensing for BD. Some of these producers had already produced HD DVD titles with success, and with far less fuss and bother. As a DVD developer, I have been actively involved with a large number of Tier 2 producers, and we have seen many Tier 2-produced titles emerge as DVDA Excellence Award winners over the years. The impact of Tier 2 and 3 creativity on optical disc development cannot be overlooked, and should not be discouraged. Yet it seems both ties such as BD-Live and persistent storage are only accessible through expensive programming tools, or through time-consuming hand-programming. BD promises true high-quality, interactive imagery with connected potential. The Web is finally poised to arrive in the living room… but how will the industry grow if only major media can participate? Can you imagine what the World Wide Web would be if only Hollywood created content for it? are happening at this point in BD’s young life. The DVD format received tremendous benefit from the influx of creativity provided by Tier 2 and Tier 3 producers that took to DVD’s capabilities, and “open access” approach to content protection. If you wanted DVDs with CSS, you could have it, without flipping cartwheels. A big concern about the current state of BD is that by “pricing out” Tier 2 producers with unaffordable AACS license and participation fees, the BD format will not receive the benefit of the creativity that helped push DVD into the mainstream position it occupies today. We’re not discounting the tremendous input of Hollywood, but we’re also not overlooking the “grass roots” acceptance of DVD from Tier 2 and 3 producers. We fear this acceptance may not happen in time for the BD format to firmly establish itself as a viable option to the migration to online distribution, and in some ways, might actually be accelerating that migration! We would encourage re-thinking the AACS licensing schemes in a way that allows greater participation by the many Tier 2 and 3 producers who are anxious to being their creativity to the Blu-ray format. Locking pirates out of the format is the longrange goal – but locking producers out of the format is not the answer. November/December 2008 - MEDIAWARE - 11 DIGITAL Ownership and Intellectual Property Tom Moran is Senior Director, Media and Entertainment, at Savvis Communications ... but the views and opinions expressed here are solely his own. Thoughts from the Austin Game Developers Conference With the phenomenonal growth of the video gaming market over the last few years, many of us have turned our attention to this area of the business looking for new opportunities. To that end, and in the interests of educating myself a little more about the gaming industry, I recently attended the Austin Game Developers Conference, the smaller of two events held every American science fiction author & futurist Bruce Sterling keynoted the Austin Game Developers Conference 2008. year that bring together Photo courtesy of the Austin Game Developers Conference game developers, publishers and of course the are indeed fascinating, considering the vendors who supply the audience I’ll stay here in the real world for tools of the trade -- because somebody has now. to pick up the tab for all those wonderful Tex-Mex meals. Intellectual Property Relative to other conferences, the Austin One of the issues that I have become GDC is targeted at a particular subset of increasingly curious about over the last the gaming industry, as evidenced by the couple of years is the evolving definition of fact that even keynote addresses cover topintellectual property. The gaming industry ics like “next generation audio for console and other types of Internet based compagames”. However it was abundantly clear nies struggle with the common challenges after spending a few days in the heart of of managing and protecting intellectual game country that the gaming industry property, while at the same time having to offers valuable insight into the direction deal with issues of identity. Virtual worlds of the entertainment industry as a whole. create very real liability issues and chalWhile next generation audio and fractal lenges around managing the behavior of shape shifting avatar-based virtual worlds users who are by and large anonymous. 12 - MEDIAWARE - November/December 2008 Considering that the very attraction of many role playing games is the escape from the rules and mores of the real world, it is no wonder that many in the gaming industry are now struggling with how to preserve the appeal of this escapist experience while at the same time ensuring it is safe for everyone. More than one discussion at the GDC surrounding identity eventually morphed into a discussion of both identity and intellectual property based on the common thread of “ownership.” Consider for a moment how even those of us who take precautions to protect ourselves from “identity theft” are not protecting our identity so much as we are protecting our assets -- In this case the asset is our access to credit and the financial wherewithal to go about our daily lives. Within virtual worlds players are now accumulating real assets that have value outside the virtual world in the sense that they are bought and sold with more traditional currencies such as uhhhh ... money. Using the more generally interesting but by no means mainstream keynote address of science fiction writer and futurist Bruce Sterling as inspiration, I can see in the not so distant future a monumental challenge that could make putting the Napster cat back in the bag seem as complex as a game of Pong by comparison. The issue of adjudicating ownership of digital assets first came to my attention in a meaningful way when I heard that a judge in the Far East had thrown out a case against someone accused of illegal file sharing, based on the principle that he could not determine the actual ownership of a digital file because there was no means of establishing either a chain of custody or some other judicially accepted proof of ownership. approach has not been universally accepted, and more importantly, it only works in cases where ownership of the content has been established prior or can be easily established. While many of us think of “intellectual property” in relatively grand terms, we are in fact creating and dealing with intellectual property every day, and while it may be somewhat easier to protect the big assets, it is everyday ideas, what I will call “common intellectual property” that is potentially going to be difficult or even impossible to protect sufficiently for the near term. As a real world example, I recently had a conversation with the legal representative of a Continued on page 14 Protecting Assets While U.S. judges in file sharing cases have established ownership based on the contents of a file, e.g. the music or the video it contains, this November/December 2008 - MEDIAWARE - 13 Continued from page 13 rather large publisher who was troubled by the fact that some of their employees had been using the “Google Docs” service to share pre-release drafts of manuscripts. These particular employees had neglected to read the license for Google docs, which clearly suggested that the service was not suitable for the sharing of such content, and left this particular publisher on very shaky ground with regards to protecting their intellectual property from being available to the general public prior to them actually “publishing” it. These professional people were essentially giving away valuable rights to their company’s assets without even knowing it. While I am very much a believer that it is the ability to execute an idea successfully that is far more important than the idea itself, I find myself feeling that we have 10/29/08 not done nearly ADS_MediaWareAD.qxd 10:20 enough AM Pageto1 1.800.759.0992 www.theadsgroupdifference.com Studio 120 is a division of The ADS Group protect the very foundation of the Western economy by failing to come up with a way to protect our ideas. Without a common way of “fingerprinting” a digital file available to us, every idea we share in digital form, whether it be a word doc, a storyboard or an email, is essentially being given away the moment we hit the send button. And while many of our ideas are not really worth protecting, I am willing to bet that most of us have and share ideas that are worth protecting on a regular basis, and do not give a second thought to them being stolen. Now that you have read this you can’t say you weren’t warned. Someday that new screenplay, ice cream flavor, or cure for a previously incurable disease that you thought of might make someone very rich -- and that someone might not be you... STUDIO PRODUCTION | DVD AUTHORING | DESIGN & PREPRESS DVD & CD GLASS MASTERING | DVD & CD REPLICATION SILK-SCREEN & OFFSET PRINT | DVD-R & CD-R DUPLICATION USB FLASH DRIVE DUPLICATION | PACKAGING & ASSEMBLY FULFILLMENT & DISTRIBUTION © 2008, The ADS Group 14 - MEDIAWARE - November/December 2008 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More Storage than a Speeding Network at the 2009 Storage Visions Conference By Tom Coughlin, Coughlin Associates Don’t go to the 2009 CES until you know about the convergence of technologies including digital storage that are revolutionizing the creation of digital content, its distribution and consumer electronics. The pre-CES 2009 Storage Visions Conference (SV09) brings together technologists, vendors, retailers and users to explore the pod-, web-, life-casting consumer revolution. Participants will learn how to capture, preserve, protect, and search their lives on Digital Storage. Conference sessions explore key infrastructure supporting the growth of richer media experiences including storage technologies, privacy protection, power creation and management, search and indexing technologies, home and mobile storage, next generation user needs and business opportunities. The 2009 Storage Visions Conference will have the usual Visionary Product and Service awards, but in addition there will be a new media center challenge using high definition audio and video content from HD Giants. Media centers and media servers are poised to be a very high growth area as rights management issues are resolved, and as the technology and software to support sharing content in the home is resolved. This challenge will match major players in this developing market. External storage demand is also growing as consumers accumulate ever greater libraries of digital content, especially user generated photos and videos and expansion storage for DVRs. Backing up data with external storage is another major trend and one of the most significantly growing markets in the consumer space. In addition to speakers discussing personal storage management and devices, there will be a special area in the SV09 exhibit area focusing on mobile and fixed external storage. Conference Program At SV09, keynote speakers from Panasonic and Warner Brothers will explore digital storage developments in consumer electronics including Blu-ray optical technology and the developments in display and entertainment technology will point the way to future applications demanding ever increasing supplies of data storage. Other speakers will include leading suppliers of storage and its use including: NBC Universal, Seagate, STMicroelectronics, Fujitsu, Silicon Image, iSuppli, IDC, Intel, Samsung, SanDisk, Toshiba, Brocade Communications, Macrovision, HD Giants, Pinnacle Systems, Oxford Semiconductor, Pioneer Electronics and Plasmon. Returning again to the 2009 conference is the Young User Panel, “I’m Your Future, Hear me Roar!” that will be composed of consumers in their late teens and early 20’s discussing how they use devices, and what role digital storage will play in the products that appeal to them. This was an extremely informative and well received panel at the 2008 event. Sessions will focus on digital storage for content creation, editing, archiving and distribution as well as smart and secure storage. There is a session with a panel of VARs and resellers discussing the trends and drivers for digital storage in professional and consumer markets. Another session will explore technologies enabling the next generation of rich content consumer devices, as well as one on digital storage needs for social networking and remote access. The expanding use and growing sophistication of metadata will also be explored, including automated generation and use of metadata to help organize and protect professional and personal content. With the rise of numerous flash memory storage options the conference will explore all the different storage devices and how each technology can be used most effectively. Optical storage developments will also be explored in an optical storage session looking at the future of optical technology and physical content distribution in general. For more information on conference registration, hotel reservations, and sponsorship and exhibit opportunities, visit www.StorageVisions.com, call +1-408-871-8808, or email us info@StorageVisions.com. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Content Riding Out the Storm Can home entertainment save the holiday season? Thomas K. Arnold is publisher and editorial director of Home Media Magazine. He also is home entertainment editor for The Hollywood Reporter and covers entertainment for USA Today. He regularly comments on entertainment for such broadcast outlets as CNBC, CNN and the G4 Network’s Attack of the Show. These are challenging times, not just for the home entertainment industry but for everyone. With the mortgage meltdown, skyrocketing unemployment, and the Dow an unpredictable roller-coaster, it’s beginning to look more and more as though we are headed for a recession — if we’re not already in one. Three late-summer studio financial reports fingered home entertainment as saving the day. And yet DVD sales are flat, at best, while Blu-ray Disc is taking off a little slower than many had hoped. So the mood in Hollywood these days is to ride out the storm as long as it lasts, with the expectation that better times are ahead. Ultimately, the world will go Blu, 16 - MEDIAWARE - November/December 2008 and that will give packaged media another five to 10 year ride. But in the meantime, studio executives can’t sit idly by and simply play the waiting game. Keep in mind Hollywood’s dependence on home entertainment as its No. 1 revenue source — and, as recent financial reports indicate, its savior in rocky economic times. Study after study has shown that home entertainment is remarkably resilient when the economy crashes; Buying a DVD for $15, or renting one for $3, is a cheap date in comparison to other entertainment activities — including going out to the movies, where you’re going to be out quite a bit of cash once you factor in the overpriced popcorn and jumbo-size Jujubes. Forward Thinking So what’s Hollywood doing? Look for a flurry of activity to lift home entertainment sales in the weeks leading up to Christmas. You can see it in the rash of ultra-ultra-ultra special editions coming to market, like Warner’s recent How the West Was Won package. You can see it in the stampede to release high-profile titles on Blu-ray, such as Paramount’s Godfather trilogy and Disney’s animated classics. And you can see it in the parade of big summer theatricals being rushed to home video, including The Dark Knight, which Warner is releasing right before Christmas — in part, sources say, to prop up the studio’s bottom line for the calendar year. Then you can see stepped-up marketing efforts such as Sony Pictures’ Emmy tie-in for TV DVD collections, and a studio-wide Blu-ray awareness campaign that should be starting right about now, just in time for the holiday rush. The home entertainment industry also is doing an unprecedented amount of forward thinking, experimenting with new technologies in the hopes that something, anything, will stick. Studios are adding digital copies of movies to DVDs and Blu-ray Discs in the hopes of beating the Internet at its own digital-downloading game. We’re also seeing all sorts of out-of-the-box interactive features, such as video messaging and live on-screen chats, through the Web-enabled BD-Live technology. And the record companies, after suffering several years of steadily declining CD sales, are toying with putting albums on media cards in the hopes of pumping up packaged media sales, at least for the short term. If history is any indication, we as an industry will ride out this storm with only a few bumps and minor bruises, and then once again enjoy sunny days ahead — at least for a while. But that’s just the way this business is. And if you start to feel sorry for yourself, just think how better off you are than, say, the folks at GM, who are trying to figure out what do with all those Hummers! Courtesy Warner Home Video November/December 2008 - MEDIAWARE - 17 Analyst The Demand for Flash Flash memory storage is accelerating I n both the consumer and professional fields the demand for storage space continues to skyrocket, with the three key competing formats -- removable optical, flash memory, and hard disk -- battling it out on an ever-expanding landscape that continues to demand larger and larger storage capacities. At Futuresource Consulting, David Millar is an expert on the global storage media market. His projects also have included professional broadcast, optical and magnetic storage media, electronic distribution of entertainment, and digital imaging. In the consumer arena, traditional optical media solutions such as CD and standard definition DVD are becoming unsuitable for high volume storage requirements, as capacities fall short of the demands of many users. Consumers’ changing attitudes to physical content also mean that less removable optical media is needed in order to share or store content. We’re also seeing a continued migration from optical disc to hard disk devices via PVRs, feature-laden set top boxes, personal media players, and Media Centre PCs, with DVD recording becoming a more peripheral activity. Looking to North America, like elsewhere, the recordable optical media market has reached its peak, with annual shipments estimated to hit just over 2.8 billion discs in 2008, a decline of nearly 15 percent compared with last year. Within this total, the Mexican market is still showing some signs of growth. Increased competition from alternative storage devices, such as HDD and Flash memory, remain a key contributor to declining volumes in the optical media sector. This is having an impact on the professional sector as well as the con- 18 - MEDIAWARE - November/December 2008 SanDisk Cruzer Gator USB Flash Drives sumer arena, as it is no longer critical for professional end-users to receive content on optical media. For example, the music and movie companies are sending out far fewer discs for promotional purposes and are increasingly pushing more data filebased promotions, a trend we expect to see increase as we move forward. Despite the installed base of recordable hardware continuing to increase steadily - with many households having access to more than one optical disc recorder - this won’t stimulate demand for blank optical media. Flash Growth Instead, the Flash memory card is one of the fastest growing consumer storage products of all time, with aftermarket sales expected to reach over 100 million units this year in Europe alone, representing growth of over 20 percent from 2007. Demand for Flash memory is being driven by a widening range of suitable applications including photos, music, movies, gaming, and sat nav, as well as the storage of data. The success of Flash memory comes not only from the applications themselves, but also the way the cards and USB drives can be used to store and move content from one hardware device to another. Regardless of the primary storage format used within a particular device, the USB port is now becoming a ubiquitous feature within the CE hardware universe. The increasing demand for Flash is also driven by the sharp price declines seen over the last year, which is prompting many users to buy more than one card per hardware device. Typically, in any given territory, the previous year’s average 1 GB price will become the average 2 GB price for this year. Although with accelerated price declines this year, Futuresource expects 2 GB cards to drop slightly below this level by year end. However, looking at the market as a whole, the total average trade price is not falling as fast as the price for individual capacities, and this is because we’re seeing the lion’s share of the market being taken by high-end cards. In particular, sales of premium-priced cards for video applications are growing, with the format proving attractive for both consumer and professional applications alike. The card’s ruggedness – particu- larly desirable in the field of electronic news gathering – and the fast transfer rates of material to digital editing systems, is moving Flash memory to the forefront of this market segment. In addition, USB Flash ‘sticks’ have become the ‘sneakernet’ weapon of choice for transferring data between computers. Additionally, their larger form factor, when compared with SD cards and the like, means that the primary constraint on capacity is the cost of the memory. Though the battle between hard disk, optical disc, and tape has run for decades, Flash memory continues to emerge as a worthy contender. Initially capacities were low and cost per megabyte was very high, pricing it out of the marketplace, but this has most definitely changed. In the brave new world of Flash memory, price points have dropped to a level that allows PC manufacturers to offer products with hybrid Flash/hard disc drives and, increasingly, Flash-only drives. November/December 2008 - MEDIAWARE - 19 Storage formats slotMusic: The Next Music Album Format SanDisk introduces music on a flash card for portable players By Claudia Kienzle T Claudia Kienzle is a professional freelance writer who has been covering the digital media market since 1988, including film, video, broadcast, multimedia, and the Internet. he need is clear: consumers want their media on demand, and they want it to go. No longer wanting to be tethered to a playback device, music aficionados have taken to portable media devices, including Apple iPods, MP3 players, and multimedia-enabled cell phones. Recently, Apple announced that music fans have purchased and downloaded over five billion songs from the iTunes Store, making iTunes the number one music retailer in the U.S. The iTunes music catalog now offers Daniel Schreiber with the SanDisk slotMusic over eight million songs, as well card and Sansa slotMusic Player as over 50,000 movies for sale or rent. too big to be popped into today’s compact Yet as music downloads — both legal playback devices like MP3 players or moand illegal — have grown in popularity, bile phones. music sales on CD have been sinking year But there may be life yet in physical after year. While music CDs have had an media -- SanDisk Corporation of Milpitas, impressive 30-year run, the optical disc California is betting that there is still market format is quickly being relegated to the demand for music distributed through sidelines by the burgeoning digital media big-box retail channels, but preloaded onto revolution. After all, optical discs just are smaller media. 20 - MEDIAWARE - November/December 2008 Introducing slotMusic Setting its sights on the mobile entertainment market, SanDisk launched its new slotMusic product in October that combines the appeal of listening to digital music files on a portable device with the convenience of buying pre-packaged music on physical media. The idea is to distribute music albums in DRM-free MP3 format on slotMusic microSD cards, which then can be played back on mobile phones, iPods, MP3 players, and other devices that have a microSD slot -- as well as on the new SanDisk Sansa slotMusic Player. “There are hundreds of millions of mobile phones already on the market that can play slotMusic cards,” says Daniel Schreiber, senior vice president and general manager of the audio/video business unit at SanDisk. “Consumers already have the players, and the ability to play this media, so the technology to support this new business model is already in the hands of consumers. They don’t need to adopt any new technology to make this work.” (Schreiber also recently became the SanDisk representative to the Content Delivery and Storage Association). This assessment was reinforced by market analyst Danielle Levitas, vice president, consumer, broadband, and new media for IDC: “This year, more than 1.2 billion mobile phones will ship globally, outstripping portable media players by an order of magnitude—and this trend is accelerating.” The slotMusic cards will be sold as a preloaded music “album,” with roughly a dozen MP3 tracks performed by top recording artists -- in much the same way that music has been distributed on CDs. With 1 GB of storage capacity, slotMusic cards also can hold liner notes, album art, videos, and other creative content. The suggested retail price is $14.99, comparable to a music CD. Recognizing a global marketing opportunity, SanDisk joined forces with the four largest music companies to Continued on page 16 ’Consumers will be able to walk into a Wal-Mart or Best Buy, spot an artist or song they like, buy the slotMusic album, open the package, and plug the card into their phones. And, before they leave the store, they can be enjoying the music.’ Daniel Schreiber SanDisk SanDisk Sansa slotMusic Player with slotMusic card November/December 2008 - MEDIAWARE - 21 Storage formats Continued from page 15 launch the slotMusic format: EMI Music, Sony BMG Music, Universal Music, and Warner Music. The first wave of slotMusic releases, due in stores in the U.S. by the holidays, has more than 40 albums from artists including Coldplay, Katy Perry, Leona Lewis, Rihanna, Daughtry, Kelly Clarkson, Toby Keith, Tim McGraw, Usher, Nelly, Connie Talbot, Sugarland, Weezer and Young Jeezy. SanDisk also has created personalized, branded slotMusic players for popular artists such as ABBA and Robin Thicke. Innovation in a Flash As the inventor and leading supplier of Flash storage cards and drives, SanDisk’s Flash storage technology serves as the platform enabling slotMusic. slotMusic is based upon microSD cards—a compact, solid state Flash storage card that was originally developed by SanDisk and has become a widely adopted industry standard. As a result, slotMusic cards can be enjoyed in a wide variety of playback devices with microSD slot -- just plug and play in most microSD-enabled multimedia phones, MP3 players, and a growing number of in-car sound systems. slotMusic cards are also packaged with a tiny USB adapter so they can be read and played on virtually all computers, including Windows, Macintosh, and Linux. 22 - MEDIAWARE - November/December 2008 The music pre-loaded onto the microSD cards is encoded DRM-free in MP3, at up to 320 kbps, offering a high-fidelity music experience. “There’s no DRM on slotMusic,” says Schreiber. “Consumers have paid for the songs; they own them; and frankly they’re not the problem. It’s the people who are downloading content illegally that are the problem, and that will happen whether or not you sell the cards with DRM.” He adds that CDs have never sold with DRM, and if people were determined to rip them, and put songs on the Internet, they’ve always been able to do that. Since the tracks are DRM-free, consumers also can move their favorite songs from the slotMusic card to other portable devices that have a microSD slot, or to a computer. And since the slotMusic card is a standard microSD flash device, consumers can load their own content onto the slotMusic cards to create their own personalized plug-and-play media library. So, in a way, the format is a hybrid of the pre-packaged and digital downloading paradigms. In addition, SanDisk has introduced the small and inexpensive Sansa slotMusic Player for $19.99, expressly designed to play slotMusic card albums or a self-loaded microSD card full of music — without any need for a PC, Internet connection, or computer skills. At a little over 2 ounces, the slotMusic Player has no display and no separate built-in memory. A New Music Paradigm This holiday season, consumers will see slotMusic products on the shelves at Best Buy and Wal-Mart, as well as at their respective online outlets. slotMusic cards then are expected to be available in Europe in 2009. “Consumers will be able to walk into a Walmart or Best Buy, spot an artist or song they like, buy the slotMusic album, open the package, and plug the card into their phones,” says Schreiber. “And, before they leave the store, they can be enjoying the music.” “This is a completely different experience from the iPod paradigm,” he says. “To do digital downloads, the consumer must buy an iPod, install special software, have a broadband connection [ideally], and a credit card handy to buy the songs. If they’re comfortable using all of those elements, then they can tap into that ecosystem. But for many people, some or all of those elements may be unavailable, or they may not want to engage in the timeand labor-intensive process of computer downloads every time they want to put a song on their players.” Schreiber adds that there still are consumers that want to browse, own, collect, and gift music on physical media, and this miniaturized storage fits well with today’s digital media lifestyle. The slotMusic format is not intended to supplant digital downloads from sources like iTunes. “This just gives consumers a new choice,” says Schreiber. “slotMusic and digital music downloads will co-exist, and they’ll satisfy two different needs. Some consumers will want the creative control of digital music downloads, while others will want the immediate gratification and convenience of buying music that’s pre-packaged on physical media—and in some cases these markets will overlap.” “With slotMusic, the consumer cedes control over the music choices, but gains the simplicity and immediacy of plug-n-play media,” he says. “Rather than compiling single songs by a variety of artists onto one player, slotMusic will feature a collection of songs on a single card, largely from a single recording artist-- to promote ‘album’ sales.” Schreiber points out that the use of flash storage has been happening at the grassroots level for some time, but now the entire music industry is embracing the technology. Bands can market their own music using flash drives, for example through MusicFlashDrives.com, an independent website (not connected to SanDisk) for musicians to promote and distribute their music using branded flash drives, complete with customized designs and logos. He adds that Disney also has been selling movies for kids on flash cards, since the cost per gigabyte has been falling to the point where it’s now a very cost-efficient and attractive distribution option. With slotMusic, says Schreiber, “For the first time in decades, the entire music industry is standing up behind a single new format, and each of the four major music labels and the physical music retailers— Best Buy and Wal-Mart—have come out in support of this. It’s a pretty big deal to see such a unanimous vote of confidence in a single new format—the microSD card, and yes, slotMusic.” November/December 2008 - MEDIAWARE - 23 The Content Delivery & Storage Association (CDSA) and its worldwide AntiPiracy and Compliance Programs reduce the risk of intellectual property being pirated, stolen or produced without authorization. Supply chain sites providing post production, manufacturing, and physical and digital distribution services are certified by ISO-accredited auditors to ensure compliance with rigorous APCP content protection and security standards. Your content is in safe hands when you use a CDSA-certified site. FOR MORE INFORMATION: • Timothy J. Gorman, Director of Anti-Piracy Compliance Program - Worldwide tgorman@contentdeliveryandstorage.org • Peter Wallace, Director of Anti-Piracy Compliance Program - Europe/Middle East/Africa pwallace@contentdeliveryandstorage.org • James S. Wise, Director - Director of Anti-Piracy Compliance Program - Asia jwise@contentdeliveryandstorage.org w w w. c o n t e n t d e l i v e r y a n d s t o r a g e . o r g The CDSA Anti-Piracy Certification/Compliance Programs are supported by the following worldwide agencies: • International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry (IFPI) • Business Software Alliance (BSA) • Digital Software Association (DSA) • Entertainment Software Assoc. (ESA) • Software & Information Industry Assoc. (SIIA) • International Video Federation (IVF) • Motion Picture Association (MPA) • Bureau International des Sociétés Gérant les Droits d’Enregistrement et de Reproduction Mécanique (BIEM) • Bescherming Rechten Entertainment Industrie Nederland (BREIN) We're proud to protect your content Copyright and Licensing Verification Certified Sites Africa South Africa COMPACT DISC TECHNOLOGIES, Midrand Asia/Pacific Australia ARVATO DIGITAL SERVICES PTY LTD, Chester Hill, NSW www.arvatodigitalservices.com SONY DADC AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, Huntingwood, NSW www.sonydadc.com SUMMIT TECHNOLOGY AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, Silverwater, NSW www.summittechnology.com.au TECHNICOLOR PTY LTD, Alexandria www.technicolor.com.au TECHNICOLOR PTY LTD, Braeside, Vic www.technicolor.com.au China SHANGHAI EPIC MUSIC MANUFACTURING OPERATIONS/SONY DADC CHINA CO LTD, Shanghai SHANGHAI HUADE PHOTOELECTRON SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY CO LTD, Shanghai Hong Kong ARVATO DIGITAL SERVICES LTD, Tai Po www.arvatodigitalservices.com.hk SONY DADC HONG KONG LTD, Tuen Mun www.sonydadc.com India SONY DADC INDIA PVT LTD, Mumbai www.sonydadc.com Indonesia DIGITAL MEDIA TECHNOLOGY PT, Bekasi www.dmtech.web.id PT. TAKDIR JAYA ABADI, Tangerang Malaysia GSB SUMMIT CD (M) SDN BHD, Kuala Lumpur www.gsbsummit.com.my Singapore ARVATO DIGITAL SERVICES PTE LTD, Woodlands www.arvatodigitalservices.com SUMMIT CD MANUFACTURE PTE LTD, Singapore www.smsummit.com.sg Taiwan INFODISC TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD, Taipei www.infodisc.com U-TECH MEDIA CORPORATION, Tao-Yuan Shien www.utechmedia.com.tw Europe Austria KDG MEDIATECH AG, Elbigenalp www.kdg-mt.com SONY DADC AUSTRIA AG, Anif www.sonydadc.com Belgium VOGUE TRADING VIDEO NV, Kuurne www.vtv.biz Czech Republic GZ DIGITAL MEDIA, Lodenice www.gzcdm.com France CINRAM OPTICAL DISC S.A./CINRAM FRANCE, Louviers www.cinram.com CINRAM OUEST S.A., Gallion www.cinram.com MPO FRANCE, Averton www.mpo.fr Germany ARVATO DIGITAL SERVICES MANUFACTURING EMEA, Gütersloh www.arvatodigitalservices.com CINRAM GmbH, Alsdorf www.cinram.de ELSÄSSER GLASSMASTER GMBH, Horb an Neckar www.elsaesser.com ENTERTAINMENT DISTRIBUTION COMPANY, Hannover www.edc-gmbh.com INFODISC TECHNOLOGY GMBH, Renchen www.infodisc-gmbh.de OPTIMAL MEDIA PRODUCTION GMBH, Röbel www.optimal-online.de Italy IMS MANUFACTURING SRL, ITALY, Caronno Pertusella (VA) www.imsgroup.it Netherlands docdata media b.v., Tilburg www.docdatamedia.com Poland TAKT Sp. z o.o., Boleslaw www.takt.eu Russia REPLIMASTER, Moscow www.dvdpro.ru Spain ARVATO DIGITAL SERVICES, Madrid www.arvatodigitalservices.com Sweden DICENTIA SWEDEN AB, Kista www.dicentia.se United Kingdom CINRAM UK LTD, Ipswich www.cinram.com EDC BLACKBURN, Blackburn, Lancashire www.edc-blackburn.co.uk ENTERTAINMENT DISTRIBUTION COMPANY (EDC) BLACKBURN LTD., Blackburn www.edcllc.com SONY DADC UK LTD, Southwater, West Sussex www.sonydadc.com North America Canada Q-MEDIA SOLUTIONS CORP, Richmond, British Columbia www.qmscorp.com SONY DADC CANADA CO., Toronto, Ontario www.sonydadc.com USA AMERIC EVOLVED INC., Charlotte, North Carolina www.americdisc.com arvato digital services llc, Weaverville, North Carolina www.arvatodigitalservices.com CINRAM INC., Huntsville, Alabama www.cinram.com CINRAM INTERNATIONAL, Richmond, Indiana www.cinram.com DELUXE DIGITAL STUDIOS, Burbank, California www.bydeluxe.com DISC MAKERS, Pennsauken, New Jersey www.discmakers.com DISCFARM CORPORATION, Corona, California www.discfarm.com ENTERTAINMENT DISTRIBUTION COMPANY, Grover, North Carolina www.edcllc.com JVC AMERICA INC., Tuscaloosa, Alabama www.jvcdiscusa.com L & M OPTICAL DISC LLC, Brooklyn, New York www.dxbind.com OPTICAL DISC SOLUTIONS, INC (formerly SANYO Laser Products), Richmond, Indiana www.odiscs.com OPTICAL EXPERTS MANUFACTURING (OEM), Charlotte, North Carolina www.oemdisc.com SONY DADC US, Terre Haute, Indiana www.sonydadc.com THE ADS GROUP, Plymouth, Minnesota www.theadsgroupdifference.com UNITED RECORD PRESSING, Nashville, Tennessee www.urpressing.com VIGOBYTE DE MEXICO, San Diego, California www.vigobyte.com.mx South/Latin America Argentina AVH S.R.L, San Luis www.avh.com.ar EPSA FABRICACIÓN, Buenos Aires www.epsa.com.ar LASER DISC ARGENTINA S.A., Buenos Aires www.grupolaserdisc.com TELTRON S.A., Buenos Aires www.teltron.com.ar Brazil ARVATO DIGITAL SERVICES, Manaus www.arvatodigitalservices.com.br ARVATO DIGITAL SERVICES, São Paulo, SP www.arvatodigitalservices.com.br MICROSERVICE TECNOLOGIA DIGITAL da AMAZONIA, Barueri, São Paulo SONY DADC BRAZIL, Manaus, Amazonas www.sonydadc.com.br VIDEOLAR S.A., Barueri, São Paulo www.videolar.com VIDEOLAR S.A., Manaus www.videolar.com Mexico ARVATO DIGITAL SERVICES MÉXICO, Atzcapozalco, Mexico City www. arvatodigitalservices.com CINRAM LATINOAMERICANA, S.A. DE C.V., Mexico City www.cinram.com.mx SONY DADC MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., Tlalnepantla, Edo. De Mex. www.sonydadc.com Digital Download Supply Chain Certified Sites Europe France OPENDISC, Paris Post Production Anti-Piracy Security Certified Sites North America USA DELUXE DIGITAL STUDIOS, Burbank, California www.bydeluxe.com CONTENT DELIVERY & STORAGE ASSOCIATION 28 - MEDIAWARE - November/December 2008 November/December 2008 - MEDIAWARE - 29 Advanced Blu-ray Advanced Interactivity with BD-J A Creative Designer/Producer’s Perspective By Van Ling A fter working on several Blu-ray titles using the more rudimentary HDMV format, I was extremely aware of its limitations in creating compelling and often complex navigation Independence Day Blu-ray images courtesy Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment 30 - MEDIAWARE - November/December 2008 systems of the kind I had done in the DVD format. As a result, I was very much looking forward to trying out BD-Java to see if it lived up to the promise of being touted as HDMV’s more advanced and capable brother. So I took my first baby steps into designing for BD-J authoring on Independence Day for Fox Home Entertainment (also known by its promotional abbreviation ID4). We authored the disc at Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory (PHL) under the production supervision of Paulette Pantoja and Lisa Casella at PHL and Sven Davison and Gina Vadnais at Fox Home Entertainment. I made it a point to work closely and directly with the BD-J programming team of Bhani Srikanth, Juan Reyes, Nathan Epstein and Walter Mor at PHL because they were my direct partners in making sure that my designs and features are realizable. Once the team realized that I was serious in learning how the programming worked and that I was willing to revise my graphics delivery and instructions in order to make it easier for them to program, they put in extra effort to try new ways of getting me the functionality I wanted. On ID4, Fox and I made a conscious decision to design for the faster, most current players like the PlayStation 3, because we believe that the players will evolve in their speed and graphics power. This way, we can encourage manufacturers to build players with bigger buffers and processing power, which may be the key to showing off the format’s capabilities and accelerate consumer adoption. Coming to Blu-ray from DVD as a menu designer as well as disc producer, I was initially concerned by what seemed like a series of particularly strict graphics limitations in using BD-J: a limited buffer size, only so much complexity due to processing times, and no guaranteed synchronization of the graphics and video elements when working with the admittedly “asynchronous” interactive layer for pop-up menus. Even without sounding the bells and whistles of BDLive Internet connectivity and video picture-in-picture (PiP), it is possible to design and execute creative features just using the less processor-intensive BD-J graphic functions like translation and scaling of elements. For example, I wanted to have a full HD video first-play where an alien destroyer from the film (a giant saucer 26 miles wide) comes in over New York City and hovers, and a portion of its surface seamlessly becomes the interactive menus. My extensive experience in feature film visual effects made it possible for me to design my graphic elements to create the illusion of dimensional perspective shift using only the scaling and translational moves, without resorting to multi-frame animation elements that would have used up all the allotted graphic buffer space. Similarly, the transparent green energy beams that emit from the underside of the saucer to display the various submenus were done with a single graphic file that was used in multiple instances and animated over time. By using minimal graphic elements and providing the programmers with transformational data over time in a spreadsheet, I was able to achieve the desired result. Continued on page 32 November/December 2008 - MEDIAWARE - 31 Advanced Blu-ray Continued from page 31 Subchapters There is also a physical limitation in creating menus in BD-J, and that’s the buffer size for active graphics. When the player loads a set of graphic elements to be used in a BD-J menu system, there is a limit to the amount of graphics that can be buffered at the same time. It’s roughly equivalent to five HD frames worth of elements (5 x 1920 x 1080 pixels). Since menus should react quickly to the viewer’s remote operations, the general goal is to try to fit all of the menu graphics into that 45 Mb buffer. If you have complex menus or a lot of chapter thumbnails, this can be a challenge. I’m a big believer in nonlinear access via granularity, so I like to include a lot of chapter stops; on the 32 - MEDIAWARE - November/December 2008 original ID4 DVD, I had included 52 of them. For Blu-ray, I went a wee step further and effectively had 432 chapter stops (!) using a combination of BD-J and metadata tagging. From a graphic standpoint, I had only 52 thumbnails, but each chapter had a submenu that listed anywhere from 2 to 17 subchapter points that could be jumped to in the feature. Arrowing down from the currently selected chapter thumbnail would display the subchapter menu for that chapter, which included both the elapsed time from the start of the film plus a full text description of the scene. This feature allows the viewer to locate a particular place in the film with much greater precision. Detailed Keyword Search One of the most powerful capabilities of Blu-ray is that you can use the primary video timeline as a base structure for invoking and displaying metadata. Any point or points in a video feature can be tagged with nearly any sort of information and commands in BD-J, which allows the viewer to access data in different contexts or search for specific items in the film. Creating a search function involves taking a list of desired keywords and building a timecode-based list of instances in the film where that person, action or item is seen. In this instance, I took a standard “keyword search” function a step further by providing a full text description of the action taking place at any given keyword instance, providing the viewer with the detailed information they need to locate 120 of their favorite scenes and characters. The graphic interface design for this feature was critical, in that it had to be intuitive as well as themed to the film. I used a scrolling columns design that went from general (an alphabet column on the left) to specific (keyword instances in chronological order with scene descriptions on the right). And since HD is higher resolution than SD, text can be smaller onscreen and still be legible in Bluray, allowing for a denser, more detailed array of information on the screen. Continued on page 34 November/December 2008 - MEDIAWARE - 33 Advanced Blu-ray Continued from page 33 Detailed Personal Bookmarks Similarly, a “simple” feature seen on many discs -- the user-defined index marker -- can be made more useful and compelling by adding an informational component based on a database stored on the disc. In this instance, the normal ability for viewers to “bookmark” any point in the film and display a custom list of timecode points that could be jumped to was augmented by a text description of the exact scene and screen action that they had marked. This provided a “smart” interface that proved much more useful to the viewer than the standard “numbered-marker with a chapter number and abstract timecode” display often seen with this feature. 34 - MEDIAWARE - November/December 2008 In addition, I added visual interest to the marking process – usually indicated by a static pop-up graphic when you hit the designated “add a bookmark” button on the remote — by creating instead a quick animation of an alien fighter swooping in, hovering for a beat while displaying the new marker number, then flying off the screen. This 3-second dimensional animation was achieved using only seven actual graphics (with pre-rendered motion blur) that were animated using the standard translational capabilities of BD-J. Furthermore, these user-defined bookmarks were stored in the player’s persistent memory so they were not lost when the player was shut off or the disc ejected. Presentation Graphics Even with indexed color graphics, it is possible to take a capability that often is relegated to carrying simple subtitles and use it for more creative features. Rather than simply doing “pop-up” style text-only graphics, I used the presentation graphics plane to create a dense trivia track that sometimes included both images and animation, all in sync with the film. There were over 250 graphics that consisted of informative text wrapped in one of three different high-quality spaceship image frames: an alien “mothership” frame for real-world research-related trivia; an alien “destroyer” design for film production-related factoids; and an alien “fighter” background for in-story, narrative-related notes. These graphics backgrounds, themed to the film and the rest of the menus, not only added visual interest to the trivia info but gave a subtle cue as to the type of information that was being presented at any given point. In addition, supportive photos were sometimes incorporated into the graphics as well, and in some instances, an animated box would flash over a specific area of frame to draw the viewer’s attention to something the trivia graphic then explained. Continued on page 36 November/December 2008 - MEDIAWARE - 35 Advanced Blu-ray Continued from page 35 Alien Scavenger Hunt Game The idea of a movable cursor is a familiar one to anyone with a computer, but for set-top home entertainment, it tends to evoke images of joysticks and first-person shooter games. Indeed, this cursor technique had been previously used for such shooter overlays on Blu-ray. However, I felt it was possible to tie such an interface to a game of observation, rather than a shoot-em-up, so I designed the “Alien Scavenger Hunt” to allow the viewer to pay attention to the feature itself and locate a wide variety of items seen throughout the course of the film. A list of 12 items (a pitcher of orange juice, a bust of Lincoln, Ron Howard’s dad, etc.) is presented to the viewer in an unobtrusive interface at the bottom of the screen, and it is their task to find these 36 - MEDIAWARE - November/December 2008 items during the film and use the movable cursor to click on them while they are visible on screen. This necessitated the ability to designate moving, active areas on the screen in sync with the feature video, which meant tracking dozens of objects throughout the course of the film. These bounding-box locations in both time (via timecode) and space (via XY coordinates) were provided to the programming team, along with the control grid for the “targeting reticule” cursor itself, which could be manipulated using either the arrow keys on the remote or the joystick controls on a PS3 game controller. Other enhancements included the randomization of the game (the 12 items to be found were randomly selected from a list of 36 items, so almost no two plays of the game would be the same), the saving of the game progress even after player shutoff (by writing data into the player’s persistent memory), and a reward for finishing the game (a hidden video clip of outtakes that only became available if the game was completed). This Blu-ray BD-J game was the recipient of a 2008 DVDA Excellence Award, but for me the key creative element is not necessarily the game itself – some folks enjoy such games, while others do not — but the creative possibilities that this application represents. Imagine such an interface applied to an entirely different type of movie and application: a romantic comedy about fashion, in which the viewer could use the cursor interface to select outfits on the screen and then be taken to a new page on the disc (or even on the web through BD-Live) -- to not only find out more about the clothes, but also purchase them immediately. The possibilities are endless, as it can be applied to any genre of In Conclusion film for any variety of comIn all, the ID4 Blu-ray disc afforded me mercial or educational puran opportunity to explore the possibiliposes. Moreover, this “point ties of BD-Java and provided a glimpse and click” hyperlink paradigm at the future of interactive media. And is already familiar to anyone even though this disc was designed who has used a web browsand created in early 2007 and released er. The labor-intensive portion almost a year later in 2008, many of its of creating such applications features still remain unique, and hopeis the tracking of items in fully will inspire other Blu-ray designers the feature footage, but and producers to further build upon the there would be specialized capabilities of Blu-ray and BD-J to carry companies (such as my own and harness the power of metadata to division, called lingKedge) to create compelling content. provide such services. Van Ling is a freelance DVD/ Blu-ray producer, visual effects supervisor, consultant and digital artist whose film credits include The Abyss, Terminator 2, Twister, Starship Troopers, Doctor Dolittle and Titanic. A veteran of ground-breaking feature productions with James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment, Ling has brought the same envelopepushing spirit to the home entertainment arena, producing in-depth special features on titles from Field of Dreams to Titanic and often creating innovative menu systems, including those for The Abyss Special Edition, Independence Day, Terminator 2 and all six of the Star Wars films. His work on many of these titles have helped define and inspire the DVD art form, garnering multiple awards and nominations from various home theatre and industry trade organizations, and is widely respected by both DVD professionals and consumers. November/December 2008 - MEDIAWARE - 37 Digital delivery Advanced Blu-ray Authoring for BD-Live by Dan Daley Blu-ray’s second generation technology poses creative challenges Advanced authoring at Giant Interactive A s the Blu-ray disc format takes on its hard-won mantle as the future of the physical media industry, the transition for the entertainment business has just begun. “It’s like going from driving a car to flying an airplane,” says Timur Insepov, digital content services manager at the Sony DADC DigitalWorks facility in Los Angeles. The metaphor is indeed apt: the introduction earlier this year of BD-Live, which makes Blu-ray network connected via a Java-based authoring environment, is not an incremental step but a quantum leap. BD-Live effectively takes the twodimensionality of DVD and adds a third dimension, in which scores of interactive applications are added in authoring that will await instructions from the player and from an Internet connection, as opposed to DVD’s prerendered MPEG elements and preset menus. This connectivity will allow Blu-ray discs to be updated, adding content such as additional subtitle languages and promotional features that are not included on the disc at the time of replication. So is BD-Live a creative boon or creative nightmare? It’s a bit of both -- The process of authoring these socalled BD-J titles is radically different enough that it calls for a completely different type of specialist. “The ideal candidate for BD Java authoring is someone with a background in programs like Macromedia Director, rather than conventional DVD programs,” says Jeff Jewett, account executive at the Sony DADC DigitalWorks authoring technology center. Rather than DVD’s integrated bag of pre-processed elements, each Blu-ray title is a landscape of discrete elements that will be called upon randomly by the processing in the BD player. Some of these take the form of on-disc games, which are becoming a popular add-on for early Blu-ray discs, such as the 38 - MEDIAWARE - November/December 2008 ’There’s such a range blackjack game integrated onto Sony Pictures’ film 21 and a trivia game with Men In Black. Picture-in picture (PIP), which allows animated storyboards or interviews with cast and crew to play simultaneously with the program elements, is also a Blu-ray feature. These can be programmed to pop up automatically at appropriate points in the film, but also can be disabled by the viewer. “Using these features presents a moderate [authoring] challenge,” says Insepov. “It’s not as easy as adding a drag-and-drop plug-in onto a standard DVD disc, but PIP is a standard type of BD features and doesn’t require Java engineering ability. There’s such a range of possibilities that we have to learn to be technically creative before we can just focus on being esthetically creative.” Most studios have BD-Live titles already in the pipeline; some, like Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, plan to make all of their Blu-ray releases BD-Live titles starting in later this year or in early 2009, though Java content will not necessarily accompany them immediately. “All titles released to market after November 1, 2008 will be BD-Live-ready, but they will not have specific features on them,” states Sven Davison, vice president, worldwide product development and production at Fox, who declined to discuss which specific features the studio is including in the BD-Live releases. “We have a very long list of features we’re working on, but we of possibilities [with BD-Live] that we have to learn to be technically creative before we can just focus on being esthetically creative.’ Timur Insepov, Sony DADC DigitalWorks Continued on page 40 Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment November/December 2008 - MEDIAWARE - 39 Digital delivery Continued from page 39 could certainly add content to [the titles] anytime we see a reason to do so. This is based on if a title merits a specific BD-Live feature or not.” Davison acknowledges that BD-Live authoring is both laborintensive and time-consuming, but says Fox plans to stay on its release schedule. “We have to work a lot harder, but it will not affect release dates,” he says. Complex New World The complexity of BD authoring contributes to concerns caused by a still-ramping-up manufacturing base about the ability of Hollywood to produce enough product to support Blu-ray’s necessary big push at this year’s end-of-year selling season. Insepov says the creation of more third-party drag-and-drop authoring environments, as well as programs like Biddle, from Korea-based Dreamer, which streamlines the addition of new content to the player via its Internet connection, will help bring more authoring capacity to the business and help facilitate the creative process. But BD’s connectivity means that as complex as the format may be, there will still be aspects beyond the control of authoring that will impose artificial boundaries on the creative process. For instance, the speed of the user’s Internet connection, which will largely determine the kind of experience the user will have with BD-Live’s post-purchase use, is a key concern but one that Hollywood has no control over. Another issue is the compatibility and processing power of the set-top player in the home. “For BD-Live, it’s still a challenge figuring out how much to push through the pipe at any given time,” says Insepov. “Blu-ray is presented as a revolutionary technology that can do anything, but the reality is that there are limits on creativity in the form of interoperability concerns, Internet connection speeds and so forth. The programming may have to be scaled to the lowest common denominator to avoid these problems, at least in the beginning. And we don’t have all the players that will be on the 40 - MEDIAWARE - November/December 2008 Courtesy Sony Pictures Home Entertainment market yet, so in testing the discs we have to work on assumptions to a large extent.” Player compatibility is among the issues that Pi Waller, vice president of digital operations at Giant Interactive, ponders. The New York City authoring facility, which does catalog film titles and television series work for clients including HBO Films, started experimenting with BD-J last winter, drawing expertise and base knowledge from an array of sources, including Java-savvy new hires. The studios are in the loop on these matters. “We are cognizant of these issues, but we go out of our way to push the envelope, not dumb down our features,” says Fox’s Davison. “So, no, at the end of the day this is not a factor in what we deliver.” On the other hand, Waller is seeing some of the ways that BD-J discs will actually make the authoring process a bit more streamlined, such as the ability to rectify mistakes or missing content after the fact by updating titles in the field via the Internet connection. “The studios are going to have adjust their way of thinking for this,” he says. “The creative decisions [for BD-Live] are not all going to be made before the disc is done. The creative process could potentially be an ongoing process for every title.” Todd Collart, senior vice president for new media at Deluxe Digital Studios in Burbank, California, says this all argues for achieving an efficient work methodology as soon as possible. “With DVD, the creative aspect was encapsulated within the authoring process – when you delivered the finished product, you were done with it, you put the SKU on the shelf and moved on to the next one,” he says. “With BD-Live, the creative is ongoing, before, during and well after a title is delivered for manufacturing.” Collart says that Deluxe is integrating its recently expanded technical and creative staffs so that both understand the needs and the limitations of the other. “We want what gets presented to the studios to be what’s feasible and doable, to have already gone through player compatibility testing and QC,” both capabilities that Deluxe has as part of its “microplant” – a pair of Blu-ray replication lines to test disc performance. “The marriage between technology and creative has to be accomplished as quickly as possible.” Another way of accelerating that is the development of third-party applications developers. Keith Prokop, CEO of Radius60 Studios, which has authored several BD-Live titles for Sony Pictures and other studios, says that developing code templates can accelerate the workflow, as for the trivia game they created for the Sony Pictures Men In Black BD-Live title. “They become like game engines that can be updated as you go along for future use,” he explains. In fact, workflow is part of the creative proposition. “With any pure code like Java, there’s more than one way to do most things,” says Waller. An example of this intersection is how Giant has developed its menus to have the disc query the player to see if there is an Internet connection; if not, menu buttons relating to connectivity will remain hidden. “We don’t want to frustrate users who have Profile 1 players or who don’t have Internet connections,” he says. Given the cost of new software, testing systems, additional human resources and the extended time frame it requires, “It’s rare that you make a profit on BD-Live authoring at this point,” Prokop says. But he’s not feeling particularly pressured by this. “We’re all in the same boat at the moment – if everyone working on BD-Live doesn’t do what it takes to get it to take off, no one’s going anywhere.” Studio POV If the authorists are still feeling their way around BD-Live, so are the studios. “We’re at the ‘Pong’ stage of the video game world in terms of BD-Live,” is how Tracey Garvin, senior vice president of worldwide marketing at Sony Pictures, JVC REVISION_2.pdf 10/23/08 Continued on page 42 12:02:09 AM Mapping the Perfect Experience REPLICATION VMI PACKAGING POP C M Y DISTRIBUTION DIRECT TO STORE EDI CM SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT MY WAREHOUSING CY CMY K America Inc. www.jvcdiscusa.com November/December 2008 - MEDIAWARE - 41 Digital delivery Continued from page 41 ’BD-Live authoring is going to be working on a kind of time line that home entertainment is just not used to. There is a real potential to have the workflow back up, jeopardizing deadlines.’ Austen Teofan Director of Blu-ray, Java and New Format Development, Blink Digital describes the moment. Garvin is at the nexus of a complicated universe, trying to parse the results of numerous polls and surveys – some even taken online by BD-Live-connected users – as to which features they like best and why. At the same time, Garvin’s team is ramping up an aggressive marketing plan that will use the Internet connection feature to send trailers and other promotional materials to users; Sony will also extend its Sony Points customer reward program through BD-Live later this year. Garvin even senses BD-Live as a social networking proposition. For instance, the trivia game included on the Men In Black title can be played solo or can take the user to a game lobby to play with others elsewhere in the world. This all suggests that a huge new infrastructure will need to be built out behind BD-Live. Garvin says it is in the process of being assembled, bit by bit, right now. She also is establishing protocols for directors and other creatives to have input into their BD titles’ feature sets and trying to manage all of that on the extended workflow timelines that BD-Live demands. “It’s not easy,” she says. “But we’re in the process of building a sharedexperience community based on Blu-ray, and that’s a major undertaking. There are a lot of things to worry about, like player interoperability and consumer connection speeds. But the value that the connected Blu-ray disc can bring will make it the ultimate packaged media for entertainment.” Authoring companies are essentially doing the same. Austen Teofan, newly appointed director of Blu-ray, Java and new format development at Blink Digital’s Burbank facility, says that creating a viable 42 - MEDIAWARE - November/December 2008 workflow will be critical to making BD-Live authoring profitable. “[BD-Live authoring] is going to be working on a kind of time line that home entertainment is just not used to,” he says. “There is a real potential to have the workflow back up, jeopardizing deadlines.” Teofan says that it’s inevitable that some BD-Live titles will hit the street even as their connected content is still being developed. That buys the still-evolving BD-Live authoring and creative processes some time. “But the extra content will be advertised on the packaging, so we don’t want to wait too long,” he says. “It has to be transparent to the user. That‘s critical to ensuring the format is accepted by consumers.” To that end, Blink Digital’s BD-Live crew is being cross-trained in Java as well as standard BD and DVD. Tools of the Trade If authoring BD-Live is more like writing software code, then its current toolsets reflect that focus. Sony’s own Blu-Print software kit has been scaled to cover BD-J; Technicolor released its initial version of its BD Jive software late last year. Sonic, the major independent supplier of authoring software, announced the release of Scenarist BD Version 5 in September. While not a BD-Live authoring kit, per se, it adds functionality focused on the creation of titles that fully leverage advanced interactive features, and also streamlines data exchange with third-party interactive programming applications for BD-J - such as those available through the Sonic Extended Developer Group (EDGe) - to enhance and simplify the workflow in the production of cutting-edge BD title releases. Initially, these new products will range from $5,000 to $15,000, and hope to do what products like Dreamweaver did for website building years ago: create templates that minimize or eliminate the need for the user to actually write his own code. “This will open up Java creation tools for nonprogrammers,” says Simon James, Sonic’s senior marketing manager in the U.K. “But you’ll still need to have a degree of programming expertise to integrate the Java elements into the finished title.” BD-Live presents the authoring world with a rare creative proposition: a format with virtually no inherent technical limits but one with plenty of external ones, ranging from bandwidth limitations to the need for facilities to rethink their knowledge base. Despite having won a protracted and costly battle to become the successor format to DVD, Blu-ray’s interactive iteration is essentially in a neonatal stage. “We are in the early stages of technical development and know-how for interactive Blu-ray,” says James. “It’s like web programming was years and years ago. The knowledge base had to be built one day at a time then, and that’s what’s happening now.” November/December 2008 - MEDIAWARE - 43 Whitepaper The Other Format War Comments on developing the Blu-ray format from three independent Quality Assurance houses by 3rd i QC, Intellikey Labs, and Direct QC Blu-ray is the undisputed victor in the war for the winning high-definition format. But there’s been another format war underway. One that was overlooked while the winning format battles took center stage. The other format war is the one between Blu-ray and Standard Definition DVD (SD). One could say that the installed base of SD is in large part responsible for the delay of the mass adoption of the Blu-ray format. From a consumer perspective, there’s nothing wrong with Standard Definition DVD. It’s affordable, it is compatible with most TVs, image and audio quality are satisfactory, and usually it delivers on its promises. From a content owner perspective, production of Standard Definition is practically rote. Looking at Blu-ray from those same two perspectives, the consumer is required to make a substantial financial commitment to experience what Blu-ray has to offer. And to the content owner, Blu-ray presents daunting development and production challenges that the less complex format of SD will never be expected to address or even compete with. Recently, three independent Quality Assurance houses -- 3rd i QC, Intellikey Labs, and Direct QC -- met to discuss the subject of Blu-ray; how well the technology is working, the consumer attitudes towards it, and how the testing houses can best help Blu-ray get from where it is now to where it can be. Each of the testing houses has been on the front lines of Quality Assurance for high-definition DVD since its inception in early 2006, servicing the major movie studios and testing hundreds of Blu-ray discs from concept to delivery. Following is a selection of the discussion highlights from each of the QA participants: From Al Limón, President 3rd i QC, Culver City, California “The challenge to bring about the adoption of Blu-ray is a complex one. As a result of strong Blu-ray marketing efforts, consumers have been educated to expect more from Blu-ray than they do from SD. They want the spectacular image, the crystal clear audio, but they also want the same speed, connectivity, and basic intuitiveness that SD players exhibit. 44 - MEDIAWARE - November/December 2008 When we test the newest Blu-ray bell or whistle, we are often faced with a compromise in player speed, and intricate functions which confuse intuitiveness -- along with a less than optimal number of discs on which to test and too little time to complete what we’re being asked to test. “One of my Blu-ray mantras has become ‘A fast QC is an oxymoron.’ I have enormous respect for the programmers, designers, and everyone working in the Blu-ray trenches! We do everything we can to support their efforts so that Blu-ray and BD-J technology can realize its full potential. But the necessary time to develop and test these great ideas isn’t there--and may never be. Consumers don’t yet appreciate the capabilities that Blu-ray has. They only see what’s in front of them at the moment. It’s too early to expect Blu-ray to be perfect, so when a consumer compares Blu-ray to their standard DVD player at home, Blu-ray can come up looking inferior, even though in theory, it’s not. “Some titles put a lot of effort into added value that becomes very complicated to test. Things like extensive indexes, real-time tracking locators, and additional film footage made available during the feature. Testing reveals the potential of the programming--the good and the bad. And sometimes that reality check can be too risky to the content owner. They may end up pulling the entire VAM (Value Added Material) because the risk of a failure is too great. “There are some Blu-ray applications that do work well. Like something as simple as including themed menus for each of the titles. Consumers already get this on every SD title, so it’s logical to expect it on Blu-ray. But it’s not a given, and this is so easy to do. Taking small technological steps is okay—isn’t it better to try new Blu-ray ideas incrementally, rather than over-program, which means over-testing, which can also mean ‘over budget.’ If every Blu-ray title would incorporate something a little different than what’s expected, but maintain the simplicity of the idea and the implementation of it in the disc, it would create less stress on everybody in production.” From Lauren Evers, President Intellikey Labs, Glendale, California “The demand for a substantial number of Blu-ray titles requires an accelerated production of all the titles in the pipeline. This in turn limits the time and resources to markedly differentiate a Blu-ray title from an SD title. Other than the obvious image resolution and audio enhancements, however, the average consumer may see little or no difference between the SD title and the Blu-ray one. When an innovation does make its exclusive way to a Blu-ray title, it is often under-tested or overly technical--too complex to be practical. “In answer to the need for immediate and firsthand evaluation of how consumers are responding to digital technology, Intellikey began conducting independent Usability tests in concert with the conventional QA testing. (Last holiday season, Intellikey provided the world with the first ever Buyer’s Guide to Blu-ray, generating an inundation of interest from consumers, publishers, and content owners alike.) “In a recent survey of potential Blu-ray buyers, Intellikey demonstrated the Bonus Content which was exclusive to Blu-ray (not available on the SD movie version) on the top-selling Blu-ray movie titles. Participants were asked to list the five Blu-ray exclusive features that were the most appealing and would contribute positively to their decision to buy a Blu-ray About 3rd i QC: Since 1982 from VHS to Blu-ray, 3rd i is a collaboration of talent and expertise, pioneering procedures in quality control for the Home Entertainment software market. In 1996, 3rd i established a quality assurance procedure for the launch of the then new DVD format. 3rd i prides itself in delivering the most detailed and intensive 3rd party independent quality control and assurance that offers hands on support from Digital Master to Blu-ray test disc. To date 3rd i has worked on over 400 Blu-ray projects for both Domestic and International markets. Continued on page 46 November/December 2008 - MEDIAWARE - 45 Whitepaper Continued from page 45 system. Interestingly, no one participant could come up with five. “In a separate Blu-ray study, Intellikey made a surprising correlation: The more Functionality testing that is required per Blu-ray title, the less intuitive and/or engaging the title tends to be. A Blu-ray menu design can look absolutely gorgeous, but be tricky as hell to navigate. You have to ask yourself: What will make the consumer more satisfied: If they perceive the navigational menus to be broken (when they’re just overly complex)? Or is it smarter to create and program a menu that is less stunning, but ease of navigation is assured? “In one Blu-ray survey, we cringed when a participant stated: ‘BD-Live does what we can already do, only worse.’ It’s almost heart-breaking From James Richardson, President Direct QC, Studio City, California “SD DVD has had more than 11 years to shape the technical expectations of the DVD consumer. So now, it’s like Bluray is being marketed to the technically elite. You really have to have the technical know-how to navigate the vastness of the Blu-ray landscape. It’s a process of educating the consumer so they can understand why it’s important to have the latest BD profile and how the varying decoding capabilities will affect their Blu-ray experience. I can’t tell you how many friends who have seen the ads for Blu-ray, still want me to explain the requirements of Blu-ray, the TV, the sound system, the receiver, and why it’s all necessary. Some people may not be able to see or hear any difference between SD and Blu-ray until it is actually pointed out to them. 46 - MEDIAWARE - November/December 2008 to hear comments like that, when we know that the best of Blu-ray is just getting started. We believe that when the full potential of Blu-ray and especially BD-Live is fully realized, it will excite consumers enough to tip that tenuous balance.” About Intellikey Labs: In August 1997, Intellikey Labs became the first independent testing facility dedicated to quality assurance for DVD technology. Since then, Intellikey has been widely recognized for its unique expertise in combining technical quality assurance for digital media with consumer experience testing. Intellikey provides services for the major movie studios, as well as corporate and educational content developers for digital consumer technology, and has tested over 300 Blu-ray titles. “One of my friends had a Blu-ray system for several months, but didn’t flip the switch to activate high-definition. For 3 months he thought he was experiencing Blu-ray, but it was just his bigger TV screen. It’s not going to be easy to simplify something as complex as Blu-ray. “The number of active Blu-ray players within each Blu-ray region is still well under 50; many hundreds of players less than SD. Even so, some studio clients reluctantly eliminate several first generation and other problematic Blu-ray players from their compatibility tests. They lack the time and resources to debug the technical challenges, which forces a dramatic compromise of Blu-ray compatibility.” About Direct QC: Before he founded Direct QC in 2003, James Richardson spent more than six years overseeing domestic and international production of optical media content for home entertainment divisions of major movie studios. Specializing in testing for SD DVD, Hi-Definition DVD, emulation, electronic media, hardware, authoring, telecine, video and down conversion services, Richardson has established himself as an invaluable partner to the entertainment sector, testing hundreds of thousands of optical media products. In October, the QC facilities of Intellikey Labs and Direct QC merged their operations to form a single entity, THE TESTING GROUP. The three QC houses concluded their meeting with the following consensus: technology for the masses. It’s a thrill to experience-at times even downright spectacular. The efforts of the content owners and production houses know that this technology is capable of more than the average consumer realizes. The QC houses, those of us who see the disappointments, the stumbling blocks, and the setbacks, see these things because that’s what we’re being asked to do, and because that’s what we’re good at doing: We point out the flaws because we know about perfection. It’s only a matter of time before we really start to experience the uniqueness and perfection that is truly Blu-ray. It’s not likely the QA houses will be given the time or budgets that a format as new and significant as Blu-ray requires. Even setting aside the strength of Standard Definition’s installed base, Blu-ray faces more contenders in the other format war, as alternative entertainment options like On Demand and Download-to-rent/own vie for consumer dollars. That said, Blu-ray is still far and away the greatest distance we’ve come in terms of home entertainment Lauren Evers, Founder and CEO of Intellikey Labs and Direct QC Founder and President James Richardson announce that the companies have merged under the newly formed corporate entity: the testing group 1265 los angeles street glendale, ca 91204 818-241-7373 thetestinggroup.com November/December 2008 - MEDIAWARE - 47 music distribution Digital Music Distribution by Dan Daley Internet music begins to fragment as iTunes rivals get busy M usic has been the point man for the larger entertainment industry’s evolution into the digital distribution model. Movies and later games learned from the music experience in its ongoing transition from a purely physical media to one that is distributed across a wide range of formats. So new developments in music distribution are of interest well beyond the walls of the Capitol Tower in L.A. and Sony’s Manhattan Blackrock redoubt. Apple’s iTunes and its iPod carrier remain the dominant force in digital music distribution. Citing data from The NPD Group, Apple CEO Steven Jobs recently told the media that the iPod has a 73.4 percent market share, followed by other MP3 players at 15.4 percent, SanDisk at 8 percent and the Microsoft Zune at 2.6 percent. And the iPod remains a purposely incompatible device with other digital music carriers, locking its users in via its protected AAC format, versus Windows Media Audio (WMA) used by most other players. But iTunes, which since it launched in 2001 has sold 5 billion legal downloads at about a buck each, is beginning to experience some blowback against its position as the 600-pound gorilla of digital music. 48 - MEDIAWARE - November/December 2008 Pandora on Sprint Upstage by Samsung During that period several major record labels and artists have held back content from iTunes, most notably the Beatles (whose Apple Corps brand management company has had regular litigious skir- mishes with computer maker Apple over branding and markets). Other notable holdouts include Led Zeppelin, Garth Brooks, Radiohead and Kid Rock. However, newer digital distribution paths are beginning to draw some of the holdouts out of their protective shells, such as the V CAST music and video service from cellular service provider Verizon Wireless, and in the process are creating a map of a digital distribution landscape on which iTunes may not seem as dominant. New Distribution For instance, the band AC/DC says it’s bypassing Apple’s iTunes and has brokered an exclusive arrangement with Verizon to sell its music through Verizon’s online music store. In addition, content owners are finding that they can use their own portals to distribute unique content and thus avoid the approximately 30 percent vig that iTunes reportedly charges its vendors. For instance, BBC Worldwide is reportedly working on an ad-supported music service that would offer free streaming or paid downloads of songs and videos from the BBC archives, including live performances from its “Top of the Pops” and “Live Lounge” programs. That service is expected to launch next year with at least 1,000 tracks, and the BBC is reportedly negotiating rights with record labels including EMI, which was the last and most vocally reluctant of the four remaining major labels to license content to iTunes. But these mavericks are not simply recreating the iTunes model on a different street, and how they are reconfiguring digital distribution could suggest some of the new wrinkles that other digital content distributors could pattern after in the future. For instance, Verizon is not allowing customers to buy individual AC/DC songs, Verizon V CAST Music on Samsung Glyde but rather compelling them to buy entire albums – those who want to download Shoot To Thrill will have to buy the entire Back In Black album, which will sell for $11.99, compared to the CD of the same album on Amazon for $9.97. (One track available as a single download is “You Shook Me All Night Long,” but it’s only available to Verizon Wireless subscribers on their mobile phones.) Garth Brooks made a deal to distribute his new product and back catalog titles (which were ceded to him contractually by his erstwhile label, Capitol Records) exclusively through Wal-Mart. The Eagles made a similar deal with the store for their new recording. Seeking Change At the heart of these moves lies Apple’s dominance of the digital music distribution business – it reportedly handles over 70 percent of the legitimate music download transactions globally, and that dominance and ubiquitousness has allowed Apple to set the terms of Continued on page 50 November/December 2008 - MEDIAWARE - 49 music distribution Continued from page 49 those transactions. Labels and artists have bristled at Apple’s refusal to up its 99-cent per-song fee and Apple CEO Steven Jobs’ demand that labels furnish more DRM-free tracks (which Apple currently sells at a slight premium cost of $1.25). Universal reportedly hesitated before renewing its deal with iTunes for those reasons. That sets the stage for deals like the AC/DC/Verizon pact, and the variations on the terms that come with it. But so far, the latest iterations of digital distribution recall many of the problems that iTunes solved in the first place. Radiohead famously made their most recent album available through their own website at whatever price buyers wished to pay, but most wished to pay less than the $12 the band had suggested (if they paid anything at all). And pundits wonder if raising prices for music or limiting its distribution to configurations like albums that implicitly cost more will make it harder for fans to get what they want legitimately, thus encouraging more illicit downloads. A study by U.K.-based Entertainment Media Research indicates that music piracy in the U.S. is down this year, at least in part due to the easy availability and affordability of iTunes. Ed Ruth, Verizon Wireless’ director of digital music, says his company isn’t trying to challenge iTunes, but does see music distribution as a way to grow the market share of its core communications business, as well as create new sticky points between it and its 80 million cellular subscribers. To that end, Verizon is pursuing a format-agnostic strategy, using DRM-free files and streaming MP3 (versus the strings-attached AAC files of iTunes) from aggregators like Rhapsody to maximize content and access. Music distribution is highly competitive, Ruth agrees, but he says Verizon Wireless would not pursue it even as a marketing strategy for cellular service if it weren’t able to be profitable on its own. “That’s a prerequisite for anything we do,” he says, “so it tells you there is profit to be made from music distribution.” Unique Content Apple’s entry into the cellular phone business two years ago might at first seem only peripheral to music distribution, other than the fact that the phone can download, store and playback music files. But the entry of other cellular service providers more forcefully into music distribution and the imminence of both new “4G” wireless broadband service (with LTE and WiMAX) and GPS capability in phones ties into a range of music-related tangents. These include Sprint’s newly rolled-out Eventful service, an API created by a thirdSprint Digital Lounge Music Store 50 - MEDIAWARE - November/December 2008 more comfortable with party developer of the music on their phone, same name and part and the usage curve of Sprint’s new XOHM increases, much like it WiMAX business unit, has for earlier data apwhich will offer listplications such as text ings of local events like messaging, then we concerts displayed in will continue to review a map view. Customother music-related ers can select suboptions to offer our categories of interest, customers.” search for events and Music distributed click through to Eventthrough cellular phone ful.com to get more networks will be a slivevent information and er of the larger content purchase tickets. collections that these Like Apple, Sprint is wireless providers will pricing music downultimately channel. loads at 99 cents, but Market research comhas broadened its aupany NSR estimates dio offerings to include that mobile TV and ringers, call tones, mobile video services video, and streamoffered over broadcast ing radio applications and unicast distribution from partners such as are projected to grow Pandora and SIRIUS. almost ten-fold, from It also is offering an estimated user base unique content -- Sprint Verizon V CAST Music with Rhapsody Store of over 57 million at the Exclusive Entertainend of 2007 to 566 milment, the only netlion users in 2013. Global service revenues comprising work of original content produced by a U.S. carrier, subscription, advertisement and transactional revenue includes music news about artists, album releases and are projected to reach $9 billion by 2013. Cellular providupcoming tours. The carrier’s Sprint Radio streaming ers also could benefit from the dwindling Internet radio radio application also is included in some form in every sector, which has been squeezed by the Federal deciconsumer data plan – the entry level $15 plan includes sion to compel them to pay performance royalties that 10 channels, and the other plans include 50 channels satellite and cellular providers have thus far avoided. as well as 100 more local channels. “Sprint’s music But if the future of mobile entertainment is video, the strategy is to make mobile music as easy to use and incanary in the coal mine is music, which is creating the expensive enough for all our customers to enjoy,” says template for revenue and operating models for cellularAaron Radelet, corporate communications manager distributed media. for Sprint. “As customers gradually become more and November/December 2008 - MEDIAWARE - 51 Whitepaper Into the Blu: Process Optimization for Blu-ray Discs Dr. Leonhard Schwab, CTO and managing director, comments on the latest technical developments from dr.schwab Inspection Technology Dr. Leonhard Schwab, dr.schwab Inspection Technology New PTM processes for Blu-ray mastering and the ´Art of Coating´ within the limits of BD specs are still demanding tasks for every manufacturer. Focussed on 3rd generation media, dr.schwab Inspection Technology is supporting the industry with new features and enhancements for process control and optimization, including inline environmental control and climate chamber test. PTM Mastering As one of the most relevant enhancements to the diffraction order measurement system DOMS XEblu, it offers now the integrated functionality to fully control the Phase Transition Mastering (PTM) processes for Blu-ray Disc. A high-precision spectrometer measures the thickness of phase-change layers for all types of PTM Mastering, two layers at a time, on Si-wafer and glass-masters. Spin Coating Layer Thickness The spin coating process is very sensitive to changes of temperature. This is of particular importance in case of Blu-ray Disc cover layer application due to its thickness with tight variation limits. dr.schwab offers 200th Blu-ray Scanner from dr. schwab On Monday, 18th of August 2008, dr.schwab Inspection Technology delivered the 200th IQPCblu to Singulus Technologies, one of the leading manufacturers of production lines for Blu-ray Discs. Stephan Hotz, Head of Product Management Optical Disc at Singulus Technologies, comments the reasons for his commitment to dr.schwab solutions: “Singulus is pleased to have a competent and reliable partner with dr.schwab as provider of inline scanners for our Blu-ray Disc production systems. The IQPCblu is a technically mature product and widely accepted throughout the optical disc industry. A significant number of renowned replicators rely on this system.” Ceremonial presentation of the 200th BD scanner from dr.schwab. From left to right: Oliver Großenbach - Service Manager dr.schwab, Jürgen Sperfeldt – Director of Sales and Marketing dr.schwab, Stephan Hotz – Head of Product Management Optical Disc Singulus AG, Serverine Josun – Operational Procurement Singulus AG). 52 - MEDIAWARE - November/December 2008 a solution for in-line CLT layer thickness measurement directly after coating process with immediate feedback to the production line. This allows to quickly and automatically adapt process parameters in a closed loop process. Measurement is possible while the disc is moved from one station to the next by the disc handling. Particle Counter & Temperature Sensor Inline measurement and monitoring of the ambient air are an essential enhancement to control and optimize the production process. Measuring size and count of particles as well as temperature and humidity inside of production lines is made easy. Integrated in our Trend and Analysis software this offers the ability to monitor production yield and environmental conditions. Climate Chamber Test The asymmetric layer structure makes Blu-ray Discs highly sensitive to environmental changes. Tight specifications require ensuring the accuracy under all climatic conditions. Therefore dr.schwab IT has developed a special off-line version of IQPCblu for Tilt measurement inside a climate chamber. November/December 2008 - MEDIAWARE - 53 Certified Safe for the Health of Consumers and the Environment Your customers demand it CDSA helps you provide it Your customers trust you to protect them from harmful substances that can impact the health of their families through inhalation, ingestion and absorption. With the new Content Delivery and Storage Association (CDSA) Plastic DVD Packaging Certification Program, you can now give your customers the piece of mind they deserve. Plastic DVD packaging manufacturers can apply for certification by submitting representative samples of their products to an independent testing facility. After confirming with the CDSA that they have met the requirements as set forth in the CDSA standard, they will be certified as safe suppliers of DVD packaging. Studios, replicators, content holders and buyers of optical media packaging are encouraged to insist on utilizing packaging from CDSA certified suppliers. The following facilities have received Certificates of Compliance from CDSA after independent laboratory testing of finished plastic DVD packaging samples from their facilities were found to comply with the limits for hazardous materials as set forth in the CDSA Standard AGI Polymatrix - Elizabethtown, Kentucky, USA - Pittsfield, Massachusetts, USA Carthuplas - Gaffney, South Carolina, USA Infiniti Plastic Technologies Inc. - Paducah, Kentucky, USA Lenco-PMC - Waverly, Nebraska, USA Nexpak - Duluth, Georgia, USA VIVA Magnetics -Scarborough, Ontario, Canada For more information about CDSA’s Plastic DVD Packaging Certification Program, please visit www.contentdeliveryandstorage.org/plastics or contact us at +1-609-279-1700 or via email at: standards@contentdeliveryandstorage.org the Industry Leader. Imation is a leading global developer and marketer of branded offerings that enable people to capture, save and enjoy digital information. Imation’s global brand portfolio, in addition to the Imation brand, includes the Memorex brand and the XtremeMac brand. Imation also is the exclusive licensee of the TDK Life on Record brand. For more information visit us online at www.imation.com. flash & SSD magnetic tape optical external & removable HDD
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