Duplicating & authoring DVDs: corporate world sees slow but steady growth - Video - Industry Overview

Post, May 1, 2002 by Edmond M. Rosenthal

"We thought the corporate world would migrate to DVDs two years ago, but it just didn't," says Karl Renwanz, owner of Video Transfer (www.vtiboston.com) in Boston. "But now we're finally seeing technology-hip companies looking at it for kiosks and trade show presentations."

Renwanz's observations are typical of those of his counterparts around the country. While many of them are well-entrenched in authoring and mastering DVDs for the entertainment industry, they're seeing a slow but definite growth in duplication for corporate marketing, communications and training purposes. The general feeling is that this growth will accelerate when hardware compatibility issues are resolved and consumer playback becomes more widespread.

The Video Transfer owner reports that only the largest companies are starting to use DVDs to distribute marketing, sales and software support information. Others are waiting for a larger installed base in the workplace and home. Even as computers with DVD drives are purchased, he observes, many consumers aren't aware of the capabilities that they have.

"Another issue is the ability to play back duplicated DVD-Rs in many machines," he adds. "Hardware manufacturers and DVD-R manufacturers have to get together on the specs. Some major, name-brand player manufacturers have issues in the playback of DVD-Rs, and some of them are not such old machines,"

Corporate clients, he says, also fear the heavy hands of software developers who are too quick to take advantage of the DVD's generous space for information. "They raise the bar and this means a longer time to get to market as they make the product feature-rich." He adds that there is also some concern that this will raise cost. While authoring motion pictures that are replicated elsewhere for the consumer market, Video Transfer is duplicating smaller-run projects on Pioneer AO3 drives. Video Transfer also has two Sonic Solutions Creators in its Boston facility and one in its Las Vegas office. About 80 percent of its work is corporate and the remainder is for entertainment industry kiosk use.

DVD PICKS UP AT CD SOLUTIONS

Jerry Warner, president of CD Solutions (www.cds.com) in Pleasant Hill, OH, says there has been a healthy pickup in DVD duplication since Pioneer came out with a home DVD recorder that's selling at a street price getting close to $500. He points out that the Pioneer PRV-9000 allows its users to create DVDs at home as easily as they create material on videotapes. This may not seem an asset to his business, but CD Solutions benefits in two ways. It sells blank discs and it has also done some work in converting home movies from tape to DVD, using the Zapex encoding card.

In the business-to-business realm, Warner's company has been doing a number of training DVDs or Wendy's. In addition to training and marketing projects for corporate clients, it has handled duplication projects for data distribution and classroom use. Its primary DVD duplicators are from Primera Technology, and it also uses the Microboards series. It is a reseller of both lines. In terms of technology improvement, Warner is looking for faster recording speeds and more competition among drive manufacturers -- and he believes this will happen.

Warner had thought that the DVD duplication service market would have become oversaturated because of the low cost of hardware. But, he observes, the high labor cost per disc for a small facility tends to be prohibitive.

ALDEN FOCUSES ON AUTHORING

Derek Hoffman, director of DVD services for Alden Image Network (www.aldenimage.com) in Bristol, CT, notes that when his department was launched last January, it may have been convenient that is was operating on the same block as ESPN headquarters. So far, things are still in the proposal stage with the cable network, but the opportunity lies in authoring existing programs for giveaways or demo discs to go to potential advertisers. Alden has been involved in video and TV production since 1985 and in print work since 1979.

Alden's biggest customer for DVD authoring and duplication is Pfizer. A recent training project for the pharmaceutical manufacturer, also shot and edited by Alden, featured comedian Wayne Brady, to lighten the mood. Handling runs of 100 to 300 discs, Alden focuses more on the authoring side. It uses the Rimage AutoStar duplication system and the Sonic Solutions Fusion authoring system.

"Even though we have to burn a disc for each unit," Hoffman says, "Rimage offers the advantage of a lot of automated features, including a robot arm that loads discs in and out of the drives and the printer. It prints a thermal label on the disc and then puts it in the 'finished' bin."

He adds, "In the corporate market, the challenges are more in the authoring side -- to see that the playback can take place in any playback mechanism, such as laptops. So we have to go with the lowest common denominator if we want trouble-free playback."

ALLIED VAUGHN LOOKING AT ONLINE ARCHIVING

Allied Vaughn (www.alliedvaughn.com) began offering DVD duplication services in its 16 facilties throughout last year, adding Microtech's automated equipment and DVD towers, with five to 15 CDs stacked in them and handled by robotic arms. Doug Olzenak, president, states, "Manufacturers are responding to our needs in quality and versatility. This allows integration with print graphics design needs as well as offering professional, finished quality."