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To: BillyG who wrote (28369)	1/22/1998 3:12:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

DVD Authoring...................................... ijumpstart.com Immediate Impact Ltd claims to have established the first While-U-Wait DVD-ROM and DVD-Video premaster service in the UK. It also sells DVD premastering and check disc systems, as well as playback hardware. Contact tel: +44 1322 553505; email: immediate@dial.pipex.com. Cambridge Multimedia Systems plc is now selling (exclusively) the Philips high level DVD authoring system, a snip at Pounds 303,750. The system is aimed at large corporate DVD publishers and comprises a disc Designer, multichannel MPEG-2 audio encoder, VBR MPEG-2 video encoder, DVD authoring toolset and simulator, plus a Pioneer DVD writer for emulation. Contact: Tony Blake, Sales Director, CMS, +44 1638 743121, email: dvd@cmsisl.dungeon.com, or visit cambridge-multimedia.co.uk. Disctronics and Freehand Graphics have teamed up to provide what they say is the UK's first 'one-stop shop' DVD production service. Clients can now have DVD discs encoded, authored, mastered and replicated by a single UK-based facility. Freehand Ltd is a computer graphics company based in Surrey, Freehand Graphics is its MPEG bureau facility (tel +44 1483 894000 email DVD@freehand.co.uk). Disctronics is one of the largest UK CD replicators with plants in the UK, France and Texas (tel +44 1403 732302 email DVD@disctronics.co.uk).

To: BillyG who wrote (28369)	1/22/1998 3:26:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

Mobile HDTV.................................................... ijumpstart.com MOBILE HIGH-DEFINITION STUDIO PAVES PATH FOR BROADCASTERS <Picture><Picture><Picture> Although there are no high-definition TV sets in any American living rooms, broadcasters are testing the HDTV waters and a few entrepreneurs are exploiting a profitable new market that will eventually grow out of its niche status. Right now, companies such as Irving, Texas's HD Vision Inc. are winning lucrative contracts to help broadcasters "transmit to the trees" with HDTV public demonstrations. It's true there aren't home viewers for these demos, but just as tests will turn to reality in the next few years, so too will the checks doled out by broadcasters to production crews who shoot and edit using high-def gear. "The only risk there is for somebody wanting to get into HDTV production right now is how good they are compared to their competitor," said Robert Graves, chairman of the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) in Washington, D.C. Indeed, HD Vision president Randall Paris Dark says he expects his company's bottom line to expand "ten-fold in the next two years," and plans to expand his three-truck mobile HDTV fleet by outfitting a new network-class mobile unit. In the three days following the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this month, HD Vision picked up five contracts totaling $230,000 from the likes of NAB, Texas Instruments [TXN] and LIN Television [LNTV] in Providence, R.I. HD Vision will demonstrate HDTV by shooting a soccer game in Mexico City for the ATSC Jan. 25, including an interview with Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo. "It's crazy for us [right now] because of the momentum-we're booked through August," Dark said. How much of the company's work is for broadcast to viewers who aren't filing into a stadium ringed with large HDTV demo sets? Dark estimates that 25 percent of his work is for broadcast to home viewers overseas, with the rest of his contracts ranging from "gee whiz" HDTV demos to product launches and educational projects. Within two years, however, he thinks 50 percent of his productions will get airtime domestically or overseas. NHK has been a steady client since 1994, when the Japanese broadscaster and Polygram Records hired HD Vision to capture the Woodstock 2 Music Festival on tape to be aired in high-definition. The new $80K contract with LIN means executing a demo HDTV broadcast of a Texas Rangers baseball game March 31. LIN VP of engineering and operations Bob Ogren said his company is convinced that "HD is the way to go" instead of SDTV multicasting, and they plan to perform several similar exhibitions during 1998. "We want to be in broadcasting as far and as long as we can see," he said. "We felt we needed to take the lead in HDTV." While citing other HD-capable companies such as Rebo Productions and Turner Engineering, Ogren said HD Vision is the only company presently operating in North America that has mobile units that can shoot an event in high-definition. "I haven't looked any further than HD Vision," Ogren said. But naysayers in the industry exist. One high-level manufacturing executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Dark's outfit is making money now because "they're promoting the myth," that HDTV will arrive in living rooms soon. "I think people like that are foolish," responded Dark. "They think technology stops because the infrastructure has to be altered to accommodate the new technology. It's evolutionary that the consumer will want better-quality picture and sound." ATSC's Graves is equally defensive, saying not only will HDTV come sooner than many are willing to admit, as Dark espouses, but that opportunities for revenue will be swept up by manufacturers as well. "This is where I want to get my little badge out that says 'whining' with a slash through it," Graves said. "If the networks don't invest in DTV and HDTV they'll be gone a decade from now. (HD Vision, 972/432-9630; ATSC, 202/828-3130; LIN, 401/457-9511)