Sonic Redefines Authoring By Cutting Production Time

Sonic Solutions has launched Studio and Professional editions of Scenarist Publisher, a revolutionary system for the creation of full-featured DVD-Video titles from a simple, yet powerful, wizard-driven interface.
Simplifying the authoring workflow to enable facilities to maximize title output while maintaining player compatibility, the new editions, in addition to the previously released Scenarist Publisher Enterprise, provide solutions to meet any budget. From an off-the-shelf entry-level solution all the way to a custom-integrated product, the Scenarist Publisher line automates the authoring workflow, allowing multiple titles to be generated from a single Scenarist DVD project with virtually no additional authoring. Scenarist Publisher also dramatically reduces QC requirements to allow authoring facilities to effectively serve content owners wishing to prepare catalog video entertainment for release to DVD or for on-demand electronic distribution.
"The authoring community is undergoing a dramatic shift with even greater demands being placed on them with the emergence of high-definition formats," said Rolf Hartley, senior vice president and general manager of Sonic's Professional Products Group. "Facilities are being asked to maintain or even lower production costs, while at the same time increasing title output. That is why Scenarist Publisher comes at just the right moment, in some instances cutting production time by as much as 90% or more, which helps facilities maintain DVD revenue streams while leveraging their in-house expertise and key resources for new HD business opportunities."
Titles produced in Scenarist Publisher are created using the same powerful engine used in Sonic's Scenarist Professional DVD-Video authoring platform, which has been used to deliver over four billion DVDs worldwide. The Form Builder component of Publisher analyses the structure and features of a Scenarist SD project and by simply selecting assets from the original project, automatically creates a "form" for building similar titles. With a simple user interface that allows the video, audio, and graphics for the title's movies and menus to be specified in minutes by semi-skilled staff, Scenarist Publisher forms can save days of re-authoring and QC work for each new title in a given series. With a single click, completed forms are then processed in the Mux Manager all the way to disc image in Scenarist Publisher Professional and Enterprise editions, completely freeing other Scenarist authoring systems for custom work. Or, in the case of the entry-level Scenarist Publisher Studio edition, customised projects are read back into a Scenarist SD station for muxing and image creation.
Scenarist Publisher for DVD production is available now, and will be demonstrated by Sonic at NAB (Stand SL4314), April 16th to the 19th, Las Vegas, Nevada.