GLMT Featured In One To One Magazine!!!

Please take a look at the article published in One To One magazine featuring Great Lakes Media Technology and its unrivaled blu-ray authoring services.

CNET Posts on why Blu-ray will Succeed:

Summarized:

1. Digital downloads will not eliminate the need for discs anytime soon.
2. Having one clear standard is a big advantage.
3. Blu-ray isn't going to be replaced by another disc format anytime soon.
4. Prices for large-screen HDTVs will continue to drop.
5. Prices for Blu-ray players will continue to drop.
6. Prices for Blu-ray discs will drop to near DVD price levels.
7. Sony will sell lots of PlayStation 3 game consoles.
8. Sony can't afford to have Blu-ray fail.
9. Sony and its partners will figure out a way to have Blu-ray resonate with the public.

Read the full article here.

GLMT attending North American Music Manufacturer's (NAMM) Show

GLMT will be sending representatives to the 2009 NAMMM Show in Anaheim, January 16th-18th. Many of GLMT's customers and friends are music publishers and manufacturers which makes it an opportune time and location to meet with them.

The NAMM show has been an event that GLMT perennially attends due to its large scale service to the music publishing and manufacturing industry. GLMT has helped with many of the marketing materials distributed at the show and have also manufactured many of the disc-based products sold at the show.

BD-Live: Could it Make Blu-ray Applicable to the Corporate World?











I previously posted about BD-Live (see below) and what it has to offer to consumers. Call me a naysayer but those consumer features are not all that exciting... yet. Our business, disc replication/packaging and content development (NewMedia), has to be concerned with corporate communications as it is a major part of our business.

The DVD specification does not include web linking from a DVD player. Mostly because DVD players were not wired for internet connections from the beginning. Of course Sonic, Adobe, and other authoring platforms have created the ability to link through to websites from menu screens for DVDs playing in computers, but the compatibility and consistency of it actually working makes it difficult to include on any large scale project.

Blu-ray and BD-Live aims to make physical disc media more dynamic with web connectivity. Experts more negative than I, claim that if Blu-ray is adopted, they will never connect those players to their networks. I respectfully disagree with that view point. With 20% of current Blu-ray player owners already accessing BD-Live content, one can conclude that at least 20% of these early generation players are connected to the Internet.

This 2008 holiday season it is expected that the second generation players will have internal wireless networking capability(which will make it hard not to connect to the Internet) and will have a sub $250 price point. Will this be enough? It is important that consumers find this enticing because the potential for innovative corporate communications will be endless. It will be new medium, with stunning resolution, and an unparalleled way to attach excellence in branding with your business.

What about BD-Live and Corporate Communications? This is where I see BD-Live even more useful than on the consumer product side. Think of these possibilities:

• Allow your end-user to request slides, .pdf manuals, applications for credit- all contained in a carefully branded, high definition menu and have the materials pinged to home/office computers or handheld devices.


• After a stunning high-definition video, ask for feedback, ask for an order, and allow the user to communicate with your company right then and there, while the juices are flowing.


• Track who is actually watching your program.


• Become more responsive by allowing users to open up chat screens with experts from your company after questions about a how-to video.


• Provide up-to-date documents at all times to your dealer network without making new discs.

These are just some of the ideas I have for the medium. I know marketers and business communicators are looking for new, innovative ways to excite their customers and/or employees. Enthusiastic employees and customers grow your business and Blu-ray and BD-Live have the capability to harness and convey that sort of power. Now we wait for the consumer to adopt this technology and the major entertainment publishers have a responsibility to provide valuable content. We wait.... Enthusiastically.

BD-Live Gaining Momentum
Is this Tangible Media’s Answer to Digital Downloads?

With the swarm of Blu-ray titles touting BD-Live capability, many consumers want to know what BD-Live has to offer. BD-Live is the ability to use a Blu-ray Disc, a Blu-ray Player, and an internet connection to access additional features and interactivity not included on the disc. Some of the features make more sense than others. Below are some that may be of value:
-Make movie clips with user faces superimposed on characters in the movie and send them
over the BD Live network as viral marketing campaigns. See Sleeping Beauty.
-Edit movies for viewing with sensitive viewers and store the custom edits on remote
servers.
-Send digital copies direct from the disc menu to your portable device. See iPhone/iPod
Touch Application.
-Allow storefront merchandising from the disc menu.
-Update audio on older blu-ray discs for new audio codecs optimized for your home theater.
To get our opinion on how we actually see some of these features being useful for corporate communications see our blog.