DVD Report Make Select-A-Stone Work For You: MX Entertainment Licenses Music-DVD Techniques November 24, 2003 DVD Report,Vol. 8; Issue 23 © 2003 Phillips Business Information Inc. SAN FRANCISCO -- The MX Multiangle system developed by MX Entertainment for music DVD authoring is gathering momentum after a year in the market. The process was used by Metropolis DVD (New York, NY) to author the "Select-a-Stone" multiangle feature on the Rolling Stones' Best Buy-exclusive Four Licks DVD boxed set, the highest-profile title in a group that also includes Rush's Rush in Rio and The String Cheese Incident's Live at the Fillmore Auditorium - Denver. MX Multiangle is a very slick process, using composited video "buttons" that appear while a concert plays as a cue alerting viewers that they can use the arrow buttons on their DVD remote controls to access alternate footage. But some DVD developers have wondered what it is about MX Entertainment's process -- the discs are authored using existing tools and within the parameters of the well-established DVD specification -- that warrants it being licensed as a proprietary technology. After all, couldn't any sufficiently clever DVD author duplicate the effect without any help from the folks at MX? 'Smart Development' "MX Multiangle is really a smart piece of development that is tying together pieces that other people have done before," explains Zane Vella, co- founder and executive producer at MX Entertainment. "Other people have done video compositing. Other people have created subpicture buttons on top of motion video. But we're putting these things together for the first time in a way that not only combines the authoring process and post-production, but the production process as well." That's what the Rolling Stones came to MX for, says Vella -- to license the MX Multiangle trademark as well as the integrated process, which begins during acquisition of the performance footage and culminates as the disc is actually authored. "We're in full agreement that a smart developer can look and see what we did and figure out how to do it on their own," he says. "We have no intention of stopping people from creating what the industry now knows is MX Multiangle. If people are interested, and have the chops and understand what it takes to do it -- including the pro-grade software that makes it possible -- we'll hold their hands, and provide the scripts and tools that we've developed to make it easy, as part of the license." But Vella makes it clear that his admission that MX Multiangle is a savvy application of the existing DVD spec to create interactive content does not mean he believes the process is not "protectable" by law. "Just because there's a spec doesn't mean that a developer or company or individual couldn't protect fully a solution or application that does something useful, unique and novel," he explains. "Yes, we agree with the development community that the MX Multiangle license is not for the technology, per se. But also, yes, we do believe that the licensing of DVD solutions is possible and is very much our future. We're really excited about what's coming down the pike for MX in terms of the interactive music experience on DVDs. We're going to extend our licensing strategy through those tools and techniques." Learning About P&Ls In conversation with Vella, it also becomes clear that technique and technology isn't the only thing the company sells as part of the MX Multiangle license. Vella has a mission of not just enabling the technology, but of helping labels figure out how to make money in the DVD-Video market. "Big indies like Sanctuary are very active in DVD right now," he says. "They recognize that they need to control the production costs, and that's become a big part of our job -- figuring out how to do production to get high quality, but also so projects can make money in their first year. We've learned a lot about P&Ls [profit and loss statements] in the last three years -- and I didn't know what that word meant three years ago." Does MX have any ambitions of helping the labels come to terms with DVD- Audio? Vella is fairly skeptical on the subject for the short term. "The DVD market is already a challenge," he says. "A band can look at their album sales and say [for example], 'I'm going to sell 20,000 DVDs.' But DVD-Audio isn't even on their radar. I've probably been in touch with 100 bands -- active, touring bands interested in advanced technology products -- and not once has 'I want to make a DVD-Audio' come up. "The only people I heard it from were Warner and BMG, where the label guys said it was going to be a big initiative this year. I think we'll see music on high-definition blue-laser DVDs before we see it on DVD-Audio -- unless Warner and BMG are able to stand behind it aggressively and deliver a killer music experience." Back to top