Tony,
There are 2 interesting articles in the February 1997 issue of WIRED magazine.
1) One describes the crosscurrents between the different agendas of the broadcasters, the manufacturers, and the content providers. As you probably know, those crosscurrents almost drowned AXC in the late eighthies and early nineties when it was beginning to develop products for the anticipated shift to HDTV. The author ends up firmly on the side that even now with the watered down HDTV standard, the broadcasters still do not have the incentive to upgrade their systems because digital compression has developed to a point where the broadcaster now have the luxury of choosing between using the full spectrum of the free signal allocated to them for HDTV OR splitting it by using lesser quality video on a portion of the signal and using the rest for premium video and data services. There are also interesting insights into how tv post-production differs from movie post-production.
2) The other article is an interview with George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars and the owner of Industrial Light & Magic, an AXC customer. To the extent that he is considered the father of digital post-production and even today, considered to be at the leading edge, his views are interesting, as follows:
Q: Is there any technology you're working on today that has the potential to revolutionize film a few years from now?
A: We are still pushing the envelope to get a really good and well-run all-digital post system.
Q: What's holding it up?
......It advances every year, but we always need more storage.
.....
Q: Well, it could be that editing system you always wanted.
A: If I could have that magic wand, I guess what I'd love to have is infinite storage.
I would appreciate it if you can give us more insights into this part of AXC's business. Because of the HDTV fiasco, AXC has largely retreated from this market and really depends on its strong brand equity (no signficant marketing budget) in this area to sell its bare bones line of tape drives, digital effects equipment and interconnect equipment.
AXC has also indicated that the DCT and DST combination is getting increasing play in this market.
Thanks.
Gus
P.S. Any thoughts on TODD-AO? |
