“There are two classes of our software. The first application allows you to work with audio and video, using drag-and-drop. This is designed for the passive user who doesn’t really know how to create and is a little skeptical about their abilities. The user can create a movie or a song without actually having to do anything except reorder different bits that we’ve put together. And it really empowers them to take the next step, to create a little more in depth.”

“For that next step, we offer the Screenblast creation suite, a professional grade suite of software that includes five applications. There’s an audio capture technology called Screenblast Soundforge, a remixing tool which enables users to make music, called Screenblast Acid and a video editing program called Screenblast Video Factory. Users can actually take the sound they’ve created from Soundforge and Acid into Video Factory and create music videos. We have an image editing application that allows full editing of digital stills, but also allows you to make frame by frame animations. Finally, we have an integrated jukebox which will let you do things such as rip your CD’s and burn new ones, but more importantly, it’s a multimedia jukebox that plays back all media types.”

“We did an overall joint venture with Sonic Foundry and made it as an equity contribution to the company. We created a derivative suite of products around their core products and basically “Sonyized” them. When we do that to a product, we offer something that’s extremely powerful, yet easier to use. Most of the software titles are the same, except they now have Screenblast in front. Since there is brand equity in both Acid and Soundforge in particular, we wanted to capture that and to make it better by putting Sony Screenblast aspects into it.”

“Soundforge is literally the industry standard for audio capture, a fantastic application with a lot of bells and whistles. But it’s hard to get all the power out of it unless someone shows you how to use it. We have an actual audio/visual walkthrough that shows you, step by step, what to do with Soundforge, and with Acid and Video Factory.”

Nathan: And that’s all onscreen?

Mike: “Yes, it is. We did a lot of market research on Screenblast and how to get people to create and not just watch what we do. Of course, we do want them to watch what we do, that’s part of what being a motion picture company is all about, but enabling people to actually create their own stuff and then manipulate our material is a completely different way to interact with the user and we need to teach them how. So, giving them the tools and the tutorials was imperative to us and to make it as simple as possible.”