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In addition to Wii, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 store game platform is one of the biggest online movie distributors after iTunes, and Sony is reportedly lining up content for its PlayStation platform. (Both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation can also handle high-definition video.) Then there are all the set-top box solutions out there, including Roku, Boxee, ZillionTV, and Apple TV. What this means is that massive amounts of digital content will have to be optimized for each type of distribution proposition. "We might do four to 10 different format flavors from just a single set of A/V masters now, where just a few years ago they did only one: DVD," says Randy Berg, executive director at Deluxe Digital Services in Burbank. Kuehle estimates that Ascent’s digital content services division has to be conversant in over 100 file formats to accommodate all of the proliferating distribution propositions. The vast majority of video files are configured for well-established formats, including DVD, iTunes, and HD cable, with Blu-ray headed in that direction. However, the flood comes from the growing number of alternative channels, like Hulu and TV.com, that facilities like Ascent, Deluxe and Technicolor, three leading brands in this space, cannot ignore. "We have an explosion in the number of formats and even though each one has little demand at this point, their files all need processing at similar levels to those intended for more conventional distribution channels," says Kuehle. "That’s where the bottlenecks are occurring." Compounding this is the fact that many start-up channels can only get feature film catalog content from major studios, who are largely withholding their prime material for bigger distribution venues for now. "And the quality of the catalog stuff is often horrible, so we spend that much more time on that cleaning it up," Kuehle adds. Once a file has been readied for viewing, it sometimes has to undergo numerous file format conversions to assure compatibility with a specific distribution configuration. For instance, Kuehle says, an American television series from the 1990s that is intended for an Italian telecom that wants to distribute both over IP and to mobile devices. "The specs are completely different, do they want dialog dubbed or superimposed on screen, what bit rate should it be optimized for, do they want metadata and if so what kind? There are dozens of questions that have to be asked for each file each time it goes through another digital distribution channel," he says wearily. Consumer Driven
Peter Staddon, executive VP at Deluxe Digital Studios, sees a kind of tectonic shift taking place, as an industry that had grown comfortable pushing with one large, well-defined format is now being pulled in many directions by consumers who want choice in not only their content but the format it takes. "Consumer choice is what’s starting to drive the business," he says. That puts pressure on the studios, which in turn puts the squeeze on post facilities, which must place wagers on how to allocate capex. Many of the new virtual file formats, from iTunes to Roku, require mainly new software and encoding engines, as well as staff training, but they’re proliferating a pace that facilities find hard to keep up with; on the other hand, physical formats are few but costly to engage. Staddon concedes that the investment in HD DVD cost Deluxe substantially. Another physical format seemed as though it would soar: The Universal Media Disc (UMD) had the backing of several major studios that provided movie content that could be played on Sony’s PSP platform. But in less than two years what had quickly grown to a $29 million business for Deluxe Digital was virtually gone, as consumers sought out movies on iPods and mobile phones. Capitalizing new encoders, servers, QC platforms, digital asset management and other technologies is costly, but so is not getting it right every time, no matter how many file formats. That’s led Deluxe Digital to dedicated human resources to specific formats. "That’s not the most cost-effective use of people, but it’s the only way to assure the kind of attention to detail these formats require," he says. "The potential for error is always there." New Post/IT Landscape
All of this is redefining the basic nature of post production in the digital age. Kuehle, who came from the IT world at HP before joining Ascent Media, is convinced he’s going back to that space and the post production world will be with him. "It’s not going to resemble what we have now in five years," he states. "Right now, we’re struggling with a hundred formats through dozens of channels that are increasingly on-demand. How will it be handled when advertisers will want to insert ads directly into content that are customized for the viewer? That add an entire new layer to projects." Kuehle says the sheer amount of work and its increasingly customized nature will call for much more automation in the post production landscape, and that’s going to come from closer collaborations with the IT sector, where Kuehle says companies like HP and Sun are closely watching the "video value chain" as it moves from TV to computer to mobile device. After automation, storage will have to be taken to an enterprise level. "We have 85,000 unique files and 350,000 derivative versions of them, and it takes many multiple PetaBytes to store them," he says. "It’s going to have to go into the cloud." Ascent and Microsoft are considering ways to jointly develop solutions for this, he says. Deluxe Digital’s Staddon says Blu-ray’s connected BD-Live version is already bringing IT elements into the post space. "The programming and workflow infrastructure for that is what you’d find in some enterprise IT situations," he says. Another collateral effect he says to watch out for is more large facilities edging out the boutique post houses that can’t keep up with expense or sheer number of formats. "The studios are going to want their titles available on the same day in every format. They’re going to want one-stops for that." The analogy to what Apple did to the music business is apt. The computer company took an IT view of a sector that was no longer able to economically cope using its traditional processes. Apple was able to create a workflow and business model that worked at the single-file level. As video entertainment moves in that same direction, but with its vastly larger storage and retrieval requirements as well as its digital Babylon of codecs, the effort to bring post production into the next age will be more revolutionary than evolutionary. Dan Daley (danwriter at aol.com) is an experienced journalist and author, covering the business and technology of the entertainment industry for over 20 years. His work has appeared in numerous publications, both trade and general interest, including Billboard, The New York Daily News, Mix Magazine, GRAMMY Magazine, American Way, Spin, History Channel, TravelHost, International Business, USA Today, ArchiTech, and many others.
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