EMediaLive.com: Sonic Powers BD-Live With New Scenarist

Sonic Solutions® (NASDAQ: SNIC), the leader in digital media software, today announced the release of Scenarist® BD Version 5, a major upgrade to the industry's leading authoring solution for Blu-ray Disc (BD). Building on the field-proven strengths of previous Scenarist versions, Scenarist BD Version 5 adds new functionality focused on the creation of titles that fully leverage advanced interactive features such as BD-Live that enable the seamless blending of on-disc and online content. Scenarist BD Version 5 also streamlines data exchange with third-party interactive programming applications for BD-J - such as those available through the Sonic Extended Developer Group (EDGe) - to enhance and simplify the workflow in the production of cutting-edge BD title releases. The new version of Sonic Scenarist not only delivers the key features required for the rapidly growing BD authoring market, but also highlights Sonic's on-going commitment to the professional authoring industry in Hollywood and around the world.

BD-Live bridges the worlds of optical and streaming media, enriching the viewing experience by combining the stunning visual and audio quality of high-definition content from disc with network-hosted content that is up-to-date and user-customizable. The new Scenarist system uses network connections that are built into the latest BD players that connect to broadband via an on-board RJ-45 connector. With these enhancements in BD-Live support, Scenarist BD becomes the world's first BD-Live authoring system to fully enable and manage BD-Live updates, expanding the creative possibilities of BD title design within the fast, familiar Scenarist environment.

"Hollywood studios and BD publishers everywhere are enthusiastic about BD-Live because it offers them new ways to differentiate their titles and to keep products fresh long after their initial release dates," said Ole Lütjens, VP Product Development at MX Production in San Francisco. "With this new version of Scenarist, we can extend our services to offer these benefits to our customers without the inherent inefficiency of working with custom tools outside of our established Scenarist workflow. That's an exciting breakthrough that will spur the development of innovative new titles, which should help make consumers even more eager to upgrade to BD."

The BD-Live features of Scenarist BD Version 5 include progressive playlist support, which allows streamed content to start without waiting for the download to complete, and virtual file system control, which lets authors specify in detail how players handle downloaded BD-Live content. The new version of Scenarist BD also offers a number of other important enhancements for increased authoring power and flexibility including:

Ensequence on-Q integration – enhanced project data exchange between on-Q and Scenarist.
BD-J source creation – creation of Java class files containing all accessible project objects.
Partial mux control – fast, efficient project revisioning by focusing on only changed components for mux.
Portable project archives – two new archive formats optimized for shared network storage environments.

"Complemented by the innovative BD tools now available via the Sonic Extended Developers Group (EDGe), Scenarist BD provides a BD creation environment of unmatched capability, power, and efficiency," said Rolf Hartley, senior vice president and general manager of Sonic's Professional Products Group. "Version 5 proves that Sonic is once again moving full speed ahead to ensure its customers have everything they need to take full advantage of the creative and business opportunities offered by this exciting new format."

Sonic will be demonstrating Scenarist BD Version 5 at the IBC convention, Hall 7, Stand 7.D11, September 12 to 16, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.