On Demand DVDs for a Recession

Thank you to Dan Farber, president of editorial at CNET Networks and editor in chief of ZDNet, and his Jan 11 mention and quote from Jeff Kaplan -- and I quote directly below:

"With 'recession' permeating the air, on demand services are looking even more attractive to CIOs and investors. Jeff Kaplan, managing director of THINKstrategies, wrote: Escalating oil prices, the uncertain political landscape and faltering financial institutions beset with the aftereffects of the sub-prime lending debacle could mean a tough year for the economy. In this tenuous climate, consumer and executive confidence could decline, leading to an economic slowdown. As a result, many companies could hold back on their capital investments to mitigate their risks. The ability to adopt on-demand services on a pay-as-you-go basis will be a perfect sourcing strategy for businesses seeking greater cost-controls and flexibility."

Acutrack already knows that On Demand services are the future because of customers who are happily garnering the rewards. This is a system that allows customers to manufacture CDs & DVDs on an "as needed" basis, eliminating the up-front costs normally associated with CD/DVD production.

"We give the highest marks to Acutrack for their DVD On Demand solution. We are thrilled with the level of services that they provide SimpleStar," said David McKie, vice president of business development.

This is a company that develops software products and services to help consumers share their memories in new ways via its photo platform called PhotoShow, an easy-to-use photo platform. The software is distributed through partners such as cable companies, digital media software providers, online photo services, retailers with photofinishing services and hardware manufacturers.

SimpleStar has been working with Acutrack for three years, for its PhotoShow DVD service, enabling fulfillment of online slide shows that people want to share with family and friends. A combined solution, SimpleStar and Acutrack have mastered on demand video encoding and one off DVD manufacturing. They use Acutrack for SimpleStar branded customers and service other customers.

SimpleStar customers view the slide show and then they can select custom packaging for CD or DVD labels and cases. They preview the show, order it. Acutrack then provides the back end for manufacturing services, therefore the quality of Acutrack’s printing and fulfillment services is an integral part of SimpleStar’s business.

The bottom line is that while SimpleStar does the rendering, Acutrack burns, prints, and handles the packaging including, labels, covers, cases and shipping.

Filmmakers Discover On Demand Publishing

For most filmmakers, unless you’re discovered at a film festival, it is very difficult to get your movie out to a potential audience. For one company based in Austin, Texas, B-Side Entertainment, they wanted to change things and make it much easier for great films, regardless of their initial commercial potential, to get a chance to develop and grow an audience.

B-Side Entertainment and Acutrack are helping filmmakers extend their reach, by changing the way film makers distribute their work. Nowadays, it's possible to deliver content via DVDs, cost effectively to target audiences.

We spoke with B-side's product manager Joe Butros who said, "At B-side our main goal is to help undiscovered independent films find the audience that they deserve. We power 110 film festival audiences who go online and rate and review films. This gives us a chance to watch - through those websites - how festival audiences review films. We can watch in real time and see how the films are liked before any one else does."

Film makers are separated into two categories. Those who get a lot of buzz via studio interest, and others where it is their first film festival, and who have few or no resources to get the buzz out. In fact, Joe said that close to 90 percent whose films have little life outside of the festival.

He said that what led them to Acutrack was the fact that they focused on "sure thing films" and they knew these had great commercial appeal and would probably require alot of duplication for sales. But they also knew there were other films that didn’t shout out, so they appeared to be more high risk. B-side knew they might be successful commercially and still represented a revenue opportunity.

But, a DVD investment would put B-side at risk because 5 to 10 thousand DVDs run off and warehoused before people started buying them made it tough. WHereas Acutrack allows them to order DVDs on demand. Acutrack helped B-side to diversify the films by integrating with B-side's web store. As soon as orders come in, the films go out the same day via Acutrack's On Demand model. It helps B-side keep their costs down due to no inventory.

Now they are able to reach out to more filmmakers and essentially the per title costs are one. Acutrack can also provide fulfillment through to shipping worldwide which appeals to an international film audience.

Filmmakers simply send a master DVD, logos, photos, etc. to Acutrack who has their art department do the artwork for the disc and DVD jacket, and duplicaiton DVD, and in a day they send a check disc in the mail. If the client approves it, it’s ready for sale and integrated into the website.

From a business perspective, Acutrack helps take away roadblocks with filmmakers, removes up front risks of up front capitol. Plus today there's more dynamic content for on demand DVDs. Short films are great to watch online, but for 3 minute films Acutrack can offer its customers 5-10 short films. Acutrack will author them, and send them out. Customers and filmmakers want it.

The trend for the future is giving consumers choices for more content on a DVD, and Acutrack has all the latest new DVD formats in place for their on demand system.

The Latest in DVD Replication for the New Year

There have been so many changes in the technology of CDs and DVDs in recent years -- actually even in recent months. And even more important is the fact that now, people have certain expectations when it comes to delivering personal as well as professional content via a CD or DVD. They have come to expect a certain amount of professionalism when receiving content on a CD or DVD.

It is no longer acceptable, for example, to deliver a CD with a messy black marker label. Or worse, a yellow sticky note on the CD cover that describes what's inside. CD duplication, and DVD publishing are not only easy to do on desktop computers, but people can also take their content to the nearest quick printing company and have them produce labels and cases. The trouble is that even that takes time.

Now there are companies like Acutrack, delivering On Demand Short run production for DVD replication or CD duplication, which is a much smarter way to order small batches of CDs and DVDs without ever even having to pick up the phone. There are many benefits of using this service.

There is really no need to deliver discs to your clients in an unprofessional manner. You can produce the latest version of any of your content via Acutrack with no inventory or product storage required. People can also customize their artwork any time, from anywhere, and send a new message to audiences with each new order.

The bottom line is that in this New Year of 2008, you don't need to get up from your desk to pack and mail a DVD or CD. For example, a musician can send a finished product directly to a talent agent, producer or prospective radio station without having to first produce hundreds of copies and store them in his studio. Users simply provide their graphics and the master and CD or DVD and orders will be filled from a website on an as-needed basis, making it possible for to send music out with very little expense and little or no inventory.

On Demand Short Run offers multiple packaging choices, retail finish quality, quick turnaround and no minimum orders. The entire process of ordering, production, packaging and shipping is automated with the company’s On Demand engine, which enables processing for thousands of orders.