Press Release

Plug & Play      Volume 8     Issue Number 19
Circulation over 1,546 Members & Registered Readers. 
Official newsletter of the Interactive Digital Media Association and the DVD 
Association 
DVDA membership has reached 728 and is rising.

Contents:
>From the Editor
Well, the 1999 Summit and Awards are over. Approximately 12% of the 
membership attended the three day event  From the comments slips we received 
after the event, the attendees were above all very impressed with the value 
for money they received. This is, of course, only possible thanks to the 
generosity of our sponsors and the fact that all the speakers registered as 
attendees and covered their own costs. You will see the list of Trophy 
sponsors in the results that follow. The main conference sponsor was 
Panasonic, with Motorola, Visible Light, Rise Int'l and DCI marketing all 
sponsoring meals and coffee breaks.

As promised, those present saw the Nuon Interactive DVD player (which is 
still under wraps), along with many informative and exciting presentations 
from our members.  Another highlight, on Sunday morning, were the three 
glimpses into the future provided by speakers from Motorola, Infinite 
Ventures and Panasonic.

Following the Annual Meeting of the Association and the first meeting of the 
Advisory Council, we are now getting ready to announce the future plans for 
the structure of the IDMA-DVDA  I will be meeting with the Executive Director 
of DVDA-Europe over the next few days, so by the beginning of the new 
millennium we will have everything in place to become a very professional, 
dynamic association.  

Awards results press release

Winners of the 9th Annual IDMA Awards Announced

Dallas, Texas, October  24, 1999 -- The winners of the 9th Annual IDMA Awards 
were announced Saturday evening, October 23, in a gala award ceremony and 
dinner at the IDMA-DVDA Annual Summit, produced by the Interactive Digital 
Multimedia Association.  Held at the Harvey Hotel near Dallas/Fort Worth 
airport, the Summit was attended by over 100 conference attendees, press, and 
invited guests. Twenty-four awards were presented in ten categories during 
the two-hour awards dinner and ceremony. 

Sponsored by Spruce Technologies, Polywell Computers, Panasonic, Philips, 
Astarte and Pioneer New Media, the 1999 IDMA Awards was hosted by Paul 
Holmes, Chief Executive of the IDMA/DVDA.  John Barker, editor at large for 
Inside Multimedia, was the featured speaker for the awards dinner, providing 
a European perspective on DVD. This year's awards ceremony was the first for 
the newly formed DVD Association (DVDA).

"Our membership comprises some of the most creative and technically savvy 
producers in the world. While some think of technical constraints as 
limitations, others view them as creative opportunities.  By the looks of 
this year's award winners, our membership leans towards the latter," said 
Richard French, Executive Vice President and Principal of RISE Int'l.  "We 
are grateful to our sponsors for their commitment to excellence in the 
industry and expanding the use of DVD into new market segments by supporting 
our membership." 

Recognizing outstanding achievement in interactive digital media titles, the 
1999 competition drew entries in seven categories covering Education, Home 
Entertainment, Kiosk, Sales, Training, Web Connected and Most Unusual, plus a 
Best New Products for 1999 category that included Best Overall, Best Player 
or Peripheral, and Best Software.


Category: Education - Trophy Sponsor, Spruce Technologies.
Gold:       Encarta Reference Suite DVD 99  (Edelman PR for Microsoft)
Contact: Rachel Wilkins / 312-297-7508 / [email protected]
Silver:     Jesus  (Inspirational Films Inc.)
Contact: Greg Gregoire / 949-361-4491 / [email protected]
Bronze:     Mars the red planet  (Alpha DVD)
Contact: Ralph LaBarge / 410-721-9460 / [email protected]

Category: Home Entertainment - Trophy Sponsor, Polywell Computers.
Gold:       Sherlock Holmes  (Infinite Ventures )
Contact: Eugene Evans / 540-338-7443 / [email protected]
Silver:     Kingdom Two Shadoan  (DVant Digital)
Contact: Gabriel Murano / 415-883-9068 / [email protected]
Bronze: The Mummy - Universal Home Video  (InterActual Technologies Inc.)
Contact: Todd Collart / 650- 943-1440 x110 / [email protected]

Category: Best title for a Kiosk - Trophy Sponsor, Panasonic
Gold:       General Motors Interactive Merchandiser  (DCI Marketing)
Contact: Bob Chich / 414-228-7000 / [email protected]
Silver:         General Biscuits for Pim's  (Videotronic Benelux BV)
Contact: Jean Relou / 31-73-6488064 / [email protected]
Bronze:     Cadillac Product Information Kiosk  (McGill Multimedia Inc)
Contact: David McDowall / 519-974-2363 x111 / [email protected]

Category: Best Sales Title - Trophy Sponsor, Philips 
Gold:       Fiberspar Corporate Promo  (DVant Digital)
Contact: Gabriel Murano / 415-883-9068 / [email protected]
Silver:     BF Goodrich Tires KDW  (VuCom newMedia)
Contact: Tracy Maher / 248-362-4212 / [email protected]
Bronze: Fire Museum of Memphis Capital Campaign   (Rise International)
Contact: Richard French / 817-336-0404 / [email protected]

Category: Training - Trophy Sponsor, Astarte
Gold:       Advantage 2000, Welcome CD  (CMI WorldWide)
Contact: Robert Cross / 206-448-0354 ex 54 / [email protected]
Silver:         Daimler Chrysler Product Preview 2000  (McGill Multimedia 
Inc.)
Contact: David McDowall / 519-974-2363 x111 / [email protected]
Bronze: Linebacker CDROM Training - US ARMY  (pmpro)
Contact: John Gray / 202-965-5920 / [email protected]

Category: Best Web Connected Title - Trophy Sponsor, Philips
Gold:       Daimler Chrysler Web-Linked Training  (McGill Multimedia Inc.)
Contact: David McDowall / 519-974-2363 x111 / [email protected]
Silver:     Mars the red planet  (Alpha DVD)
Contact: Ralph LaBarge / 410-721-9460 / [email protected]
Bronze: The Matrix - Warner Home Video  (InterActual Technologies)
Contact: Todd Collart / 650- 943-1440 x110 / [email protected]


Category: Most unusual title - Trophy Sponsor, Pioneer New Media 
Gold:       Mars the red planet  (Alpha DVD)
Contact: Ralph LaBarge / 410-721-9460 / [email protected]
Silver:         General Biscuits for Pim's  (Videotronic Benelux BV)
Contact: Jean Relou / 31-73-6488064 / [email protected]
Bronze: I'm Your Man  (Zuma Digital )
Contact: Jesse Blanco / 212.741.9100 / [email protected]

Category: Best new Products for 1999 - Trophy Sponsor, IDMA

Best overall product for 1999
Gold:       POP Interactive Display  (Panasonic)
Contact: Jason Gastman / 201-392-4617 / [email protected]

Best new Player or Peripheral for 1999
Silver:     Philips 170  (Philips)
Contact: Job Mensink / +31 40 27 36786 / [email protected]

Best new Software Product for 1999
Silver:     ActiveDVD  (Zuma Digital)
Contact: Jesse Blanco / 212-741-9100 / [email protected]

For more information on the 10th Annual IDMA-DVDA Awards, scheduled for 
October 2000, or for further information regarding the IDMA-DVDA Summit and 
the IDMA-DVDA organization, contact Paul Holmes, Chief Executive Officer at 
[email protected], or visit the DVDA website at http://www.dvda.org

A great site to see the awards results is DVD Creation.com.  The actual page 
is:
http://www.dvdcreation.com/HTM/Features/11_99/dvda_idma_award_winners.htm

Some comments on the Summit from the survey we carried out

* Great DVD topics.  Close proximity of events makes conference flow easily.

* The move towards standards is extremely valuable (i.e. navigation), as well 
as new equipment. 

* More Nuon type stuff.

* Keeping a variety of speakers limited to 15 minutes is a good approach for 
presentation material.

* Probably only you know how hard you had to work to provide this conference 
with the funds available.  I received outstanding value in information & 
inspiration.  Thank you!

* I was a little disappointed with the support of members (number present) 
and manufacturers.  I don't presently have any suggestions, but I will try to 
take a more involved role in the future.

* Possibly a little more detail on the technical potential of the DVD format 
& the degree to which various pieces of equipment and authoring systems 
exploit the format.  Also, more input from encoding people and possibly an 
overall production process lecture to support the 'newcomers' to the 
organization.  Thank you for all your efforts and dedication!


CD-i Players available.

Videotronic North America have the following CD-I players available.
A few hundred Philips CDI370 Portables (used)
A hundred Philips CD-i 490 (new)
A dozen DVS VE200 (new)
And a few hundred LG GDI-1100 Portable without screen (new)

All are moving quickly, if interested please contact Andrew Hetzel as soon as 
possible at (248) 352-8720.



AOL + Blockbuster.

America Online and Blockbuster have joined forces to become a premier home 
video provider. As part of the agreement, America Online will make a $30 
million equity investment in Blockbuster.com that will be used for, among 
other things, joint development of broadband content and delivery.

Editors comment.

Instead of using this money to chase the 'Holy grail' of broadband content 
delivery by the Internet, why don't these two giants use it to create Web 
connected DVD content.
That would bring profits now. Blockbuster would provide the DVD titles, AOL 
control the viewers experience via the Internet. They just need a web 
connected DVD player.  (Maybe Circuit City still has some left.)

EVOLUTIONARY PRESENTATION TOOL ENABLES SEAMLESS INTEGRATION OF FULL 
SCREEN, FULL MOTION INTERACTIVE DVD VIDEO WITH MICROSOFT POWERPOINT

One product which will have a major impact on presentations using DVD is ZUMA 
Digital's ActiveDVD™. It is the only software plug-in for Microsoft 
PowerPoint that allows for the seamless integration of full screen, full 
motion, interactive DVD video on Macintosh or Windows computers.  It was 
voted by those present at the Summit Best New Software for 1999.

"The Best New Software award from IDMA and DVDA is further testament to the 
impact ActiveDVD will have on business," said Blaine Graboyes, ZUMA Digital 
COO and Creative Director.  ActiveDVD provides a dramatic, new element to 
business presentations, and is ideal for advertising and sales presentations, 
corporate meetings, analyst and investor meetings and employee or other 
internal presentations.

"ActiveDVD will change the way business does business," said Graboyes.  
"Adding the dimension of Hollywood-quality video to PowerPoint presentations 
creates a powerful new way to position brands, communicate key selling points 
and close deals.  Sales pitches, stockholder and investor presentations, and 
company meetings will never be the same."

Used in conjunction with a DVD-equipped computer and DVD program disc, 
ActiveDVD is a simple, intuitive plug-in for PowerPoint.  Any presenter can 
easily create, update or change a video-enhanced presentation by using a 
single interface to change the DVD clip being accessed.  This allows 
presentations to be customized or modified in a matter of seconds.

No longer will presenters have to scramble between the PowerPoint screen and 
a TV monitor, fumble with look-alike hand-held controllers operating 
different equipment or sit on pins and needles hoping the tape is cue'd up, 
or that the VCR is tracking properly or will not jam.

Also, with ActiveDVD, archiving videotapes will quickly become outdated.  
Eight hours of high-quality video can be archived on a single DVD disc and 
accessed for PowerPoint presentations in an instant.  No longer will climate 
controls and large, expensive, dedicated spaces be necessary to store videos 
while they multiply and degrade at the same time.

The ActiveDVD software is powered by InterActual Technology.  "Our 
relationship with InterActual guarantees that we will stay on the cutting 
edge of development for new, high-end technology products," Graboyes said.  
"As we continue to develop ActiveDVD, new features designed for specific 
business needs can be integrated into the software, based upon the feedback 
from thousands of users in the field giving presentations every day."

Contact: www.zumadigital.com.



Visible Light Delivers First Sub-$10k Power Mac G4 DVD Authoring System

Visible Light today announced that it has begun shipping its new Macarena
line of DVD authoring systems, which are based on the new Power Mac G4 series 
by Apple Computer.  These were due to be unveiled at the Summit, but Steve 
Perlman broke a collar bone a few days before the event and was unable to 
attend. 
However, here is the information on their Visible Light Macarena systems 
which integrate the new DVDirector authoring software by Astarte GmbH, and 
include a hardware DVD playback device, SCSI interface, software MPEG1/MPEG2 
encoder, 2/5.1 channel Dolby Digital encoder, and DVD-Video image 
pre-mastering software.

"We have leveraged our position in the DVD marketplace to provide a very
aggressively priced line of DVD authoring systems that work right out of
the box," says Steve Perlman, VP Sales and Marketing at Visible Light. "Our 
customers
demand high compatibility and these systems represent over a year of testing."

Available directly from Visible Light, the base Visible Light Macarena DVD 
authoring system is list priced at $9,995. The Macarena "Pro" version is list
priced at $14,995, and includes a hardware MPEG1/MPEG2 encoder, hardware-
assisted Quicktime transcoder, and tape deck control software and hardware. 
Optional equipment includes the new Pioneer DVR-S201 4.7 GB DVD-Recordable 
drive and a wide range of DLT storage products.


'Plug and Play' is published by the Interactive Digital Media Association as 
a free service to our members and readers

The Editor is Paul Holmes.  He can be reached at:
[email protected] (440) 349-9661

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