Silicon Studio Reveals Future of Entertainment Authoring

New Architecture to Enable Multimastering of Original Digital Content; Silicon Studio Live to Help Evolve Creative Community

On November 8, 1994, at the Entertainment Authoring Conference at Hollywood, California, Silicon Studio, Inc. unveiled three programs that promise to define a new future for the creation of entertainment, from motion pictures to new interactive media.

The company announced the Keystone initiative, a new open environment for content creation, and Silicon Studio Live(SM), a trend-setting new service and support structure for the industry's emerging authoring community, including new Training Studios in Los Angeles and London.

Silicon Studio also revealed a preview of its plans for FireWalker, a set of tools that will allow filmmakers and other entertainment authors to take original digital source materials and use them to create interactive titles. Through a dramatically new approach called Multimastering, these source materials can not only be used for the initial project-such as a film or game title-but can be redeployed to other interactive media, including CD-ROM, location-based entertainment and interactive television programming.

The Keystone Initiative

Silicon Studio, with support from the world's leading makers of animation and content creation software, announced the technical specifications for the Keystone initiative. The Keystone initiative will result in an open environment for software tools that includes the definition of an application framework. The Keystone initiative breaks new ground by creating a common interface metaphor for 3D modeling and environments, dramatically broadening the acceptance of next-generation 3D technology in content creation.

Designed to significantly improve the ease-of-use among many of today's content creation applications, the new framework defines specifications for the following features:

Desktop integration and user interface design, creating a consistent look and feel among Keystone-compliant applications, making applications easier to use.
Data interchange among third-party programs, allowing users to drag and drop multimedia elements from one Keystone-compliant application to another.
File compatibility, allowing a file created in one Keystone-compliant application to be read and edited in another. This specification is based on Silicon Graphics' Movie Library, which will be extended to support AVID's Open Media Framework(tm) (OMF) format, as well as QuickTime(tm) and MPEG, and a subset of Silicon Graphics' Inventor(tm) 3D file format.

Open to all developers, the Keystone initiative was jointly defined by several leading software companies: Adobe Systems, Alias Research, AVID Technologies, ELECTROGIG and Wavefront.

Application software conforming to the Keystone specification will be labeled with a Silicon Studio seal of approval, indicating that the software does "plug and play" within the Keystone environment. Applications complying with the Keystone specification will be demonstrated at the National Association of Broadcasters conference in April 1995. Third-party software products will begin shipping in the second half of 1995.

SILICON STUDIO LIVE

Silicon Studio also announced Silicon Studio Live, a new service and support program that introduces the advantages of collaborative service and support, high-speed networks, and access to the company's Training Studios for training and education.

The first available service of Silicon Studio Live is an on-line World Wide Web server with free access to Silicon Studio product information, technical papers, events information and company updates. Silicon Studio Live members will be able to communicate with colleagues, as well as exchange solutions, share ideas and solve problems. Another available service is Sprint's Drums(tm) high-speed network to enable creative professionals in different geographic production facilities to erect "virtual studios" for long distance, real-time collaboration.

With Silicon Studio Live, Silicon Studio will offer an escalating array of service and support options, as well as tutorial and training courses at its Training Studios worldwide. The two new Training Studios in Los Angeles and London will join Silicon Studio's established training partners throughout North America and Europe to provide training and tutorials based on Silicon Graphics' systems and third-party applications.

Designed not only as an educational center but also a showcase for the latest advances in content creation techniques and technology, the Training Studios are intended to provide a gathering space for industry creatives and technologists. The new centers will develop and publish a curriculum with scheduled courses for beginning through advanced study.

The Training Studio in Los Angeles is expect to open in January 1995. The Training Studio in London is expected to open in the first half of 1995.

FIREWALKER

Silicon Studio also revealed plans to develop a suite of tools that will help entertainment companies revolutionize their approach to creating interactive entertainment. A suite of powerful software tools, code-named FireWalker, will allow content producers to author interactive experiences and deliver them through a particular medium, such as CD-ROM, location-based entertainment or interactive television.

The key components of FireWalker, which will build upon the framework of the Keystone initiative, include:

Authoring software tools, which allow producers to author an interactive title using digital media elements produced with Keystone-compliant applications.
Mastering software tools, which enable producers to optimize titles created with FireWalker authoring tools and produce them on various target platforms.

"This approach to authoring is the wave of the future," said Michael Backes, co-founder of Rocket Science Games, Inc. "People in the industry once talked about moving from computer platform to computer platform. In the new age of Multimastering, we will be moving from one media to the next."

The first FireWalker tools will be available in the first half of 1996.

Silicon Studio, Inc. delivers authoring and production solutions based on Silicon Graphics systems to the entertainment and interactive media industries. The company has headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., with Training Studios in Los Angeles and London opening in 1995. Silicon Studio is a wholly owned subsidiary of Silicon Graphics, Inc.

Contact: Carl Furry, Silicon Studio 415-390-3365