Zuma Digital activates conventional PowerPoint presentations and corporate libraries using DVD - Company Operations

Emedia Professional, May, 2000 by Marla Misek

in The Rivals, Anglo-Irish dramatist Richard Brinsley Sheridan wrote that "a circulating library ... is an evergreen tree of diabolical knowledge; it blossoms throughout the year." He went on to admonish that "they who are so fond of handling the leaves, will long for the fruit at last." And so it is with conventional libraries, which attempt to archive the world's fiction and nonfiction, written and recorded media, and reference volumes on the assumption that someone, somewhere, at some point will need the information contained therein.

The same can be said for corporate storage applications. The flagship New York office of BBDO Worldwide, an advertising agency, has taken a new approach to the process by working with DVD developer Zuma Digital to create a "living archive" spanning 45 years' worth of advertising campaigns for one of its leading accounts. While an archive of this nature isn't all that remarkable--companies of all types have been saving their corporate histories in paper files and on CD for years--the dynamic quality of this ever-evolving library, and its chosen medium of delivery, is noteworthy.

Completed in November 1999 after six weeks in development, the DVD library disc, on which BBDO has organized the creative and media assets of a key client in the packaged goods industry, includes television, radio, and print advertisements produced for the client, dating back to 1954. More importantly--at least, for industry observers searching for DVD's next big application--the DVD-Video disc is powered by ActiveDVD, a software plug-in developed by Zuma Research and powered by InterActual Technologies' DVD software to deliver seamless playback of full-screen, full-motion interactive DVD-Video discs in Microsoft PowerPoint presentations. According to Zuma, a single disc can hold four hours of content--from audio and video, to Web sites and applications, to high-resolution design documents and text files--that are accessed and linked to play instantly within any presentation.

"ActiveDVD changes radically the way a corporation can access and use its video assets, as they are now part of an updateable and changeable library of digital assets," says Blaine Graboyes, chief operating officer and creative director at Zuma. By installing the plug-in on any DVD-Video-equipped PC or laptop running Windows 95/98/2000/ NT, PowerPoint 97 or 2000 users can include high-resolution DVD-Video on any slide, as well as create, update, and change video-enhanced presentations at a moment's notice. "We believe its impact is revolutionary," Graboyes continues, "and represents the future of advanced integrated DVD technologies."

In addition to ActiveDVD, the BBDO library disc contains another proprietary Zuma technology. "SHUFFLER was authored into the discs, so BBDO account executives can assemble custom playlists using any DVD-Video player, both in-house and on the road," Graboyes explains, in turn allowing each executive to target his or her presentation to a specific audience's needs and interests.

According to the agency itself--which conceived the project as an agency tool to assist account executives in presenting recent and historical creative work--DVD was the ideal delivery mechanism for several reasons. "We were looking for a better way to review and access this client's advertising history," says Wick Smith, MIS director for BBDO Worldwide, "as opposed to relying on stacks of tapes, which are rapidly disappearing as a review medium. Digital tape players are simply too expensive, and some analog formats are no longer being produced. We had already identified DVD as the format of choice for this project, but we had not found a way to work with it. Then Zuma came in and showed us what they had done with the technology, and it proved to be a good fit."

Indeed, as BBDO discovered in working with the technology, DVD's strengths are numerous. Says Smith, "DVD provides broadcast quality, complete random-access track selection, a compact weight and size, durability, and the ability to make duplicate copies without generation loss. The library disc itself can be projected on a data projector, used as part of a PowerPoint presentation, or run to a TV. This flexibility, in turn, makes it possible to use the system in almost any presentation environment anywhere in the world."

To begin the project, Graboyes recalls, Zuma's team of project coordinators "physically acquired, reviewed, approved, and logged the 300 or so media elements that went into the library." Once the project coordinators helped BBDO organize the raw materials, BBDO handled the design, "with Zuma acting as a creative and technical resource." Like most of the development projects Zuma has managed over the years for clients in the advertising, financial, education, and entertainment industries, the BBDO library disc adhered to Zuma's standard 12-step development process.

"Everything starts with flowcharts, schedules, asset lists, and other planning mechanisms," says Graboyes. From there, developers research the elements of the project, conform all materials for input into the authoring system, design all screens and menus, and log remaining data from the media elements. Next, Zuma technicians encode using Digital Ventures Diversified's DVDComposer, author using Sonic Solutions' DVDCreator, and output to DVD-R (for testing and delivery) and DLT (for replication). Finally, technical support staff tests for bugs, delivers the disc, trains the client to use the product or service, and offers ongoing updates and customer service support.