Sonic Solutions
Daikin Industries, Ltd.
Toshiba Corporation

TOKYO (March 21, 1996) - Sonic Solutions, Daikin Industries, Ltd. and Toshiba Corporation today announced their cooperation on the development, sales, and distribution of professional digital video disc content creation and authoring tools. Sonic Solutions, Daikin, and Toshiba are introducing technologies which combine to create an integrated workgroup-based DVD production environment supporting encoding, authoring and disc formatting.

Late last year, a group of consumer electronics and entertainment companies came together to announce the formation of a single best specification for DVD. Major consumer electronics companies, including Toshiba, have announced their commitment to delivering DVD-Video players to the consumer market in late 1996. DVD, while having the same size as a compact disc, can store up to 4.7 gigabytes of data on a single-sided version of the back-to-back bonded disc. This amount of storage, combined with MPEG-2 video and AC-3 audio compression, enables up to 133 minutes of high-quality digital video and surround sound audio with multiple language sub-titles to be placed on a single disc.

DVD is also an ideal storage medium for computer-related applications such as business and entertainment software, electronic encyclopedias, electronic catalogues and navigation systems, as it allows high level of interactivity and supports sophisticated graphic and audio content.

Sonic, Daikin and Toshiba have joined forces to develop various elements for DVD creation and authoring tools which, when combined, will comprise a complete, integrated solution for DVD production. Toshiba will provide a high-quality MPEG-2 video encoding system, used to compress digital video into variable bit-rate MPEG-2 streams required by the DVD format.
Scenarist-2, developed by Daikin, is a complete DVD authoring system which enables content layout, video and audio editing, DVD simulation and disc image generation. Sonic Solutions will offer audio formatting tools for AC-3, MPEG-2 and PCM as well as high-speed networking tools.

Sonic Solutions will serve as worldwide distributor for Scenarist-2, providing sales, system integration, training and after sales support worldwide, while Daikin will market the toolset in Japan. Toshiba will support its customers in cooperation with Sonic Solutions.

Time-Warner will be cooperating with the three DVD pre-mastering developers, providing counsel on the needs of content owners and production companies and helping to beta-test the tools. "We're very pleased to be cooperating with Toshiba, Daikin and Sonic in this." said Greg Thagard, Director of Advanced Technology at Warner Bros. Technical Operations. " DVD is a rich format which requires a complete and well architected pre-mastering environment. This combination creates a powerful 'soup to nuts' pre-mastering solution for DVD-Video."

"Sonic Solutions is pleased to be able to collaborate with Daikin and Toshiba," said Bob Doris, president of Sonic Solutions. "We feel that the successful pre-mastering of DVD-Video is contingent upon the tight integration of multiple systems. Sonic's DVD workgroup allows video systems, such as Toshiba's, to work with Sonic's own audio and video tools, as well as share data over a network with the Scenarist-2 authoring system."

"Authoring for DVD requires collaboration among the various tools used in audio, video, and disc layout and formatting. Our collaboration with Toshiba ensures that our authoring tools adhere to the DVD specification, and by working with Sonic Solutions, we are able to streamline the DVD production process by incorporating their audio and video systems within a workgroup environment," said Masato Ootsuka, Director of Scenarist-2 development.

"We are excited to be working with Sonic and Daikin on a fully integrated pre-mastering environment for DVD-Video," said Koji Hase, general manager of Toshiba's SD Division. "Preparing DVD-Video discs requires more than MPEG video compression. High-quality audio and careful attention to authoring are essential to fully utilize the format."

As a leader in DVD technology, Toshiba Corporation has developed the worlds first MPEG-2 video encoder offering full feature real-time compression of digital moving pictures. It features high-quality variable bit rate coding including frame-level control, and user-friendly system control capabilities utilizing graphic user interface. The system has met high evaluation by the motion picture industry.

Scenarist-2 runs on Silicon Graphics workstations and supports the entire DVD specification. Based on a simple point-and-click interface, Scenarist-2 handles all aspects of DVD creation, from video and audio editing to DVD multiplexing, DVD disc image layout, and DLT tape pre-mastering. Additionally, Scenarist-2 includes simulation of the DVD content and DVD data verification for compliance with the specification.

Sonic is developing an AC-3, MPEG-2, and high-resolution PCM audio encoding system and plans to introduce a cost effective MPEG-2 video compression system for the Mac and SGI environments. All of Sonic Solutions' audio and video workstations can be networked to the Scenarist-2 authoring system as well as to other MPEG-2 video and audio tools using MediaNet, Sonic's high-speed FDDI/CDDI networking solution.

About Sonic Solutions

Based in Novato, California, Sonic Solutions designs and manufacturers tools to assist audio and other multimedia professionals in preparing music, video, film, graphics, and entertainment software. The Sonic System is the leading digital audio workstation used around the world by audio professionals to prepare recorded sound for release on Digital Audio Compact Disc. Sonic systems are also used to prepare sound for film and video soundtracks and for broadcast on radio and television.

Based in Japan, Daikin Industries, Ltd. is the top-ranking maker of commercial and industrial air conditioning systems in Japan and is a leading supplier of residential air conditioners and industrial refrigeration equipment. The company's diverse operations also cover flurochemicals, oil hydraulic and lubrication equipment, defense products, computer graphics systems, and the new fields of vacuums and cryogenics, and medical equipment. In the multimedia industry, Daikin is providing various hardware and software solutions such as 3D graphic workstations from SGI, Softimage 3D animation from Microsoft, the Sonic sound system from Sonic Solutions, and Daikin's own product, the Scenarist authoring system for professional multimedia content developers.

Toshiba Corporation is an integrated supplier of diverse electronics systems, equipment and components, and is committed to assuming leadership in all aspects of the development and application of digital technologies. Toshiba has played a key role in developing and establishing the DVD format and technologies, a next generation high density optical disc medium. Toshiba works in close partnership with Time Warner, a world leader in media and entertainment industries.