5/3/99
BILL FERSTER’S VIDEOGRAPHICS NEWSWIRE
ISSUE 99-14
ABOUT THIS NEWSWIRE
Bill Ferster’s VideoGraphics NewsWire is published weekly and summarizes the important events in the convergent worlds of multimedia, video, animation, chips, mass storage and computers.
Please feel free to forward this NewsWire to someone who might appreciate an item, or heaven forbid, might want to subscribe to it. Please refrain, however, from continually mailing it to others on a regular basis. You can visit my website for more information, as well as read and search past issues of this NewsWire, at http://www.stagetools.com/bill.
Business
---> Sculley Leaves Live Picture
Apple's former boss, John Sculley, has abandoned the digital imaging startup he had funded and once headed, Live Picture (http://www.livepicture.com). The company started with tools for working with high-resolution images and eventually settled on technology for streaming immersive (i.e. panoramic) imagery over the Internet.
---> Cinebase Buys eMotion
Leading digital media asset database software maker Cinebase (http://www.cinebase.com) is acquiring startup eMotion (http://www.emotion.com), maker of the innovative "CreativePartner"
distribution and collaboration software.
---> Pixar's Sales/Revenues Down
Pixar Animation Studios (http://www.pixar.com) reported earning $1M on $3.4M in sales this quarter, as compared with last quarter's $4M on $5M in sales last year. Their latest feature "A Bug's Life" earned over $352M in box office receipts. Their previous film, "Toy Story" yielded $354M in box office receipts, for which the sequel will be release in 2001.
---> WallStreet Wire StageTools Address
For those interested in how the WallStreet Wire automated press release delivery system works, you can sign on to be updated when StageTools releases product information by signing on at : http://www.wallstcom.com/stagetools .
BROADCAST / POST-PRODUCTION
---> Quantel Jumps on the 24p Bandwagon
Leading graphics box maker Quantel (http://www.quantel.com) joined Avid and Sony with their own 24fps disc recorder. They introduced a 24fps option for their popular Editbox FX disc recorders for SD and HD production. They basic pitch is for a single digital source for all distribution formats.
---> Media 100 to Distribute ShakeVideo
Leading NLE maker Media 100 (http://www.media100.com) announced a deal to distribute a video version of Nothing Real's (http://www.nothingreal.com) highly regarded Shake compositing software. Media 100 has a similar deal with Puffin Design's Commotion compositing and rotoscoping tool.
---> Applied Magic Shows Nonlinear Editor
Applied Magic (http://www.applied-magic.com) showed a real time nonlinear editing system at NAB running under Windows NT. The under-$4K "ScreenPlay" ScreenPlay ships with a 9GB drive, customized keyboard and titling software.
---> Matrox Intro's New Dual-Stream Codec Card
Leading graphics card maker Matrox (http://www.matrox.com) showed a new codec card that will make it easy to integrate high-quality video servers in the DV, DV50, and MPEG 2 formats. The new "DigiServer DTV" codec card features 2 video capture and/or 4 playback channels per
PCI card, SDTI I/O for transfers at faster than real-time, and Multi-standard frame-accurate play-list playback with dissolve, fade, and wipe transitions, It is compatible with their popular "DigiSuite" line of digital video cards.
---> Be Licenses Canopus Codec
Trying to address some concerns of a lack of 3rd-party driver support, up and coming multimedia OS maker Be (http://www.be.com) has licensed Canopus' (http://www.canopuscorp.com) Software DV codec for the BE OS, and will write drivers for some of their well regarded codec hardware.
3D TECHNOLOGY
---> Intel Intro's i740 3D Chip Successor
When Intel (http://www.intel.com) announced their first foray into the world of 3D accelerator chips, other chip vendors were worried about Intel dominating the market due to its size and clout. As it turns out, the i740 was a relative dud and 3Dlabs and NVIDIA have run circles around its performance. Intel has announced the i740's successors, the "i752" standalone and "i810" embedded motherboard controller. They boast texture compression, bump-mapping, and integrated video stream management.
---> TNT Chip on Motherboard
Leading 3D chipmaker NVIDIA (http://www.nvidia.com) said their fast TNT chip will be integrated into on Intel's newest 440BX motherboard. This is the first time such a powerful accelerator chip will be integrated directly in a PC motherboard.
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CYA DISCLAIMER: The preceding NewsWire represents my best efforts to gather the facts and the offering of my opinions. Although I try to describe the world as it appears me, I make no representations as to the accuracy of the reports within, which are gleaned from press releases, print and online magazines and the Inquisit Information Service.
