News posts from 2002

[Bill Ravens]

Well, anyone who's kept up with the news knows, by now, that Steinberg has been sold to Pinnacle Systems and that Sonic Foundry has a part of their business on the chopping block. Is it Vegas Video? Rumors appear to abound that it is. This is a shame. After years of struggling with Premiere's nebulous UI and Pinnacle's faulty software coding, I shudder to think what I may have to use for my NLE app.

All good things come to an end.

[John Locke]

Call for Entries

$50,000 Target Filmmaker Award, which will be awarded to the winning director of the Best Dramatic Feature...and they "will consider works-in-progress, films with temporary soundtracks, digital outputs and work that did not originate on film"

Films submitted for consideration to the 2003 IFP Los Angeles Film Festival must meet the following criteria:

- Must have been completed after January 1, 2002;
- Must not have had any commercial, theatrical or television play in the United States;
- Feature films must be at least 60 minutes in length and must not have been screened at other festivals or publicly in the Los Angeles area;
- All films in a language other than English must be subtitled in English for festival presentation;
- The festival will consider works-in-progress, films with temporary soundtracks, digital outputs and work that did not originate on film.

Submissions for the 2003 IFP Los Angeles Film Festival must be received no later than Friday, February 21, 2003 for short films and music videos; and Friday, February 28, 2003 for full-length narrative and documentary features.

Entries should be sent to the IFP Los Angeles Film Festival, 8750 Wilshire Blvd, 2nd Floor, Beverly Hills, CA 90211. For a complete description of the submission requirements and an entry form, please visit the IFP Los Angeles Film Festival web site at www.lafilmfest.com or call (323) 951-7090.

www.lafilmfest.com

[Julian Luttrell]

This is the first I heard of this one. But buying Steinberg does make sense for Pinnacle - they are German, and they do audio (which Pinnacle, bless their cotton bed socks, never really "got").

My concern is, will the new Cubase now get launched before it's ready like everything else Pinnacle markets?

I wonder what they'll call it? Audition?

Julian

[Brian M. Dickman]

Could you post some actual news links? This is the first I'd heard of any SoFo sale. I don't follow "industry news" sites much but do get around on the forums and hadn't seen any buzz until now.

[Edward Troxel]

Here is the URL for the Sonic Foundry Reports Fourth Quarter and Year-end Results for Fiscal 2002

http://www.sonicfoundry.com/news/ShowRelease.asp?ReleaseID=498&CatID=

You can listen to the conference call via vcall.com - see bottom of above page.

[Ken Tanaka]

Bias, the folks that brought us Peak, have recently introduced a new noise reduction tool called SoundSoap. Bias claims that SoundSoap:

"Easily & instantly reduces noise from your digital video or digital audio files..."
"...scrubs audio squeaky clean — dramatically reducing tape hiss, buzzing and hum, rumble, and most other types of background noise."

SoundSoap is available for Windows XP and Mac OS X and has in introductory price of US$99.

For more information see Bias' site at: http://www.bias-inc.com/

[Michael Wisniewski]

http://electronics.cnet.com/electron...9-8-20761493-1

[Eric Emerick]

I didn't know that the GL2 had interchangeable lenses.

[Scott Silverman]

It dosn't. That's just a mistake. I dont think the DVX100 has them either, although I could be missing somthing.

[Ken Tanaka]

Nor the Panasonic AG-DVX100. <g> Also "Info unavailable" under the GL2's "Focus Adjustment" column? Uh, "Auto, manual" would be fine. And does anyone really think of their video camera's ccd resolution in terms of fractional megapixels?

This is a great comparative chart in design. But, as with so many other compilations on the now struggling-to-survive CNet, this is misleading or just plain incorrect in implementation.

Nevertheless, thank you for pointing it out "mikeysbistro".

[Joe Carney]

Others who are in the know about Sonic Foundry are not worried about Vegas Video. There are lots of assets available at SoFo that can be sold without getting rid of Vegas, SoundForge or Acid.

If the CEO of SoFo is stupid enough to sell VV, he will be vilified beyond recognition. The same word of mouth that 'made' VV can also be used to crush Sonic Foundry. And we are not afraid to do that.

I'ts all just rumors at this point. As long as Corel doesn't get their hands on it, I'm not worried.

[Jeff Donald]

This kind of says it all:

“I used to work on high end Avid systems — you know the ridiculous $100,000 systems,” says Gasparino. “We used to rent out Avid suites in Manhattan for $1,500 a week, before Final Cut Pro came out." Gasparino studied film at C.W. Post, as part of Long Island University, graduating in 1998.

“One reason that Final Cut Pro is such a revolution is because all the extra money that used to be used for post production can now be used for better images and higher end production. If you own a good camera you have everything you need,” he adds.

This link tells a little about some of the films shown at the DV Expo Film Festival.

http://www.apple.com/hotnews/article...12/dvfilmfest/

The article contains links to some great sites about the films at the festival. Some great reading.

Jeff

[Richard Alvarez]

"If the CEO of SoFo is stupid enough to sell..."

Never underestimate the stupidity, arrogance or ignorance of a CEO or a CFO...

Bill from Houston, Home of ENRON.

[Robert Knecht Schmidt]

Don't forget greed.

[Rick Spilman]

Greed? No way. These folks are hanging on by their finanicial fingernails. No one is being greedy. Struggling to survive is more like it.

The company continues to bleed cash. Sales for the year are flat for the third year running and for every dollar of revenue they are spending a $1.25, an improvement over last year when a $1 of revenue cost $1.67, but still not good.

The company has got to sell assets because it is running out of cash. Without going into the numbers too deeply it looks like the margins on software are much better than the services margins, which would suggest that they should focus on software and sell services. The only problem with that approach is that if the service side of their business is a dog, it might not raise the necessary cash. That might force software asset sales.

The stockholder's letter talks about their MediaSite business as an area for growth and suggests that " the current market capitalization of Sonic Foundry does not properly reflect the true combined value of various intangible assets and intellectual property that the company owns." That sounds like they are ready to sell anything that can be easily carted away, which to me anyway, sure sounds like software sales.



Rick