Digital F/X purchases audio, video firms

Digital F/X, long known for its expertise in the broadcast and desktop digital video editing markets, recently went on a buying spree, acquiring two companies specializing in digital audio and a third company that specializes in digital 3D video effects.

While the purchase price for each company remains under wraps, it is interesting to note that the privately held, six-year-old Mountain View, CA-based company found it more cost effective to buy the three established companies than try to develop the technology in house. “It made much more sense,” says Barbara Koalkin, VP of marketing for Digital F/X, “to buy the companies outright since, in addition to acquiring the expert development teams, we also gained three loyal customer bases and established channels in both the United States and abroad.”

ROUNDING OUT ‘ONE-STOP SHOPPING’

The technologies from Hybrid Arts and WaveFrame, both of Los Angeles, and Microtime, of Bloomfield, CT, will be used to round out Digital F/X’s current product line, which includes the PC-based Composium digital post-production suite, Paint F/X, the company’s PC-based graphics compositing workstation, and the Macintosh-based Video F/X desktop video production system.

Digital F/X’s goal, according to chairman and CFO Steve Mayer, is to become a “one-stop shopping” company for video producers. “What we would like to do,” says Mayer, “is tie our expertise into other people’s expertise, and offer the customer one solution. For us to get good in audio, for instance, we needed to be in the audio business.”

Leveraging audio technology. To that effect, Digital F/X opened the Digital F/X audio division based in Los Angeles. The goal of the newly created division, says Koalkin, is to develop midrange digital audio editing systems, priced from $5,000 up to $100,000, for broadcast production, video and film post-production, record production and musical instrument applications. The division’s first product, Digital Master EX, is a four-channel, 16-track digital recording and editing system based on technology from Hybrid Arts, which made low-end, Atari-based audio sequencers and audio editing suites. The $4,995 system began being shipped in September.

According to Koalkin, Hybrid’s own product line, including the ADAP II hardware editing system and SMPTE Track Gold audio sequencer, will be discontinued in light of the acquisition. But the company “plans to leverage the technology in a variety of ways,” she says, and will continue to develop audio products such as the Digital Master EX for the Atari platform.

A stellar user group. Digital F/X’s second purchase, WaveFrame, is a highly regarded digital audio recording and editing systems manufacturer. It has established installations at Sony Pictures and Warner Bros. as well as in the studios of musicians Peter Gabriel, Herbie Hancock and Stevie Wonder. The company makes digital audio workstations that operate under Windows 3.1.

Digital F/X will continue to develop and support the WaveFrame products, which marry nicely to the company’s Composium online editing suite that was developed for the PC in 1989.

A world bigger than PCs. Digital F/X envisions and is planning for a time in the future when all products — Digital F/X and otherwise — will be fully compatible on all platforms. “Our strategy as a company,” says chairman Mayer, “is get the products going and then have the products talk to each other. The next step in this industry is different products on different platforms talking to each other.”

To that end, Digital F/X is currently considering becoming a member of the Open Media Framework consortium, which was founded by Avid Technology of Burlington, MA, this year to provide a standard development platform for the import and export of digital media types from the myriad of workstations and specialized peripherals that are at work in the video editing business (see Vol. 2, No. 1, p. 21).

‘Generally inclined’ toward compatibility. Though the company has no plans to publish its proprietary technology as an open specification, Koalkin says Digital F/X is “generally . . . inclined toward compatibility, and if we keep all our products compatible across product lines, we can still join the consortium. They are not mutually exclusive.”

MICROTIME DELIVERS VERY SPIFFY 3D EFFECTS

To aid the company in its development of video production tools Digital F/X acquired Microtime, makers of the PC-based Impact series of 3D digital video effects systems. Priced from $25,000 to $110,000, the Impact products enable users to create and manipulate — including the ability to control the point of view — 3D objects in real time. In addition, users can quickly and easily map, or overlay, video from three different live sources onto the surface of a 3D object. Much of the TV signage for the Winter Olympics, for example, was created using Impact technology.

According to Mayer, Digital F/X will see the benefits from these acquisitions right away. For instance, Microtime, which now exists under Digital F/X’s broadcast division, has a very good distribution channel established in both the U.S. and Europe, which Digital F/X now can utilize for its product line as well.

A WIN-WIN SITUATION IN EXPERTISE

And, of course, the company now has a well-regarded audio product line, an essential (and underrated) ingredient in the multimedia market, particularly in the professional and industrial segments of the market, where Digital F/X already has a strong foothold. For many video producers, in fact, integrated audio production tools that are simple to use are the next technological hurdle in the digital video production market.

One can also assume that all these technologies will become part of the suite of products available at Digital F/X’s service bureaus, thus making high-quality, low-cost video production even more affordable for those who can’t purchase their own equipment (see Vol. 1, No. 4, p. 13).

Finally, each of the companies will benefit from Digital F/X’s manufacturing expertise. Mayer said there will be some consolidation of manufacturing but that most of the employees from the three companies will become part of the Digital F/X staff.

Janice Maloney