Trends in Insert Print Production and Tracking to the Web

The latest news, as told by DM News, is that the proposed merger between Vertis Communications and American Color Graphics is back on, after the two printers announced plans to merge last summer, and then the deal fell apart in September. Apparently their mutual goal is to better address the advertising insert and pre-media services marketplace by enriching their print capabilities and offering a wide range of pre-media and workflow solutions.

Which brings us to the fact that as Acutrack has focused quite a bit in the last couple of years on our on demand CD and DVD replication model. However, we have always been doing the basics, assisting our clients with print production, design, and fulfillment. Now we are seeing a nice combination of online and traditional marketing tactics that will continue to flourish as marketers get a better handle on measurement and metrics for results both online and offline. This leaves room for tweaking campaigns and improved results.

That said, our industry's trends are constantly changing. Back in April, for instance, was the DM News 5^th Annual DMA Insert Media Day, having to do with anything insert-oriented. The latest issues involve the concept of tracking and attibuting. For example, an insert with a Web coupon requires the consumer to respond by typing in specific code - then it is up to the Web tracking technology to capture more informaiton - something more robust like HitsLink or Google's tracking which is free.

Some insert responders won't enter the code but nonetheless were driven to the designated Website by the insert. While many of our clients are now creating incentives for consumers that drive them from print vehicles to their Websites, we continually consult with them to check the ability of these programs to work in conjunction with one another, which is critical for success.

Other trends indicate that in reality every time there are paper cost and postage increases, print insert programs and direct mailers get a boost, as strange as it may seem. Apparently that is when advertisers see dollars that could be saved using insert media and direct mail.

Acutrack knows that our customers can save extra time and money having us handle their printing, then shipping directly to their customer lists. Our direct mail services team is in-house, so we can start the fulfillment process the second a project is complete - no matter if its a job for printed brochure, software in boxes, or DVD production. We're experts on postal rules and regulations, presorting, and postage, plus we use USPS-certified CASS address standardization software for postal rate discounts.

Trends in Entertainment Media

The big issue affecting all sectors of the entertainment and media industry is maintaining control of content and audiences. The days are gone when television and radio programmers held captive audiences. Today's consumers demand control over what they watch, listen to and read, and trends are indicating that more and more people are doing it online.

-Total spending (including advertising) in the U.S. on media of all types was about $930 billion in 2007.
- U.S. advertising spending alone was about $284 billion.
- The number of broadband Internet connections in the U.S. has reached true mass market in size, at about 80 million homes and businesses in 2007
- Advertising on the Internet is now a $17 billion industry.
--Comcast has more than 12 million high-speed Internet subscribers.
(Source: Plunkett Research, Ltd.)

In the recent past DVDs, digital video recorders (DVRs), video-on-demand (VOD) and MP3 players have changed the way we experience entertainment. If you miss your favorite show, you can rent or buy it on DVD or record it to watch any time.

However there are so many new electronic delivery venues, competition among entertainment delivery platforms are evolving more quickly. Now we have the Third Screen cell phone for video and music entertainment purposes. Game machines can now connect to the Internet and play DVDs. Wi-Fi enhances the mobility of entertainment and media access. A serious evolution of access and delivery methods will continue at a rapid-fire pace, and media companies will be forced to be more nimble than ever. The current battle for high definition (HD) video standards is part of it all.

Advertising, the revenue source for alot the media industry, is rapidly moving to the Internet with online advertising growing by leaps and bounds. Just today it was announced in an article in the Wall Street Journal that marketers are likely to start making digital-ad buys a key part of their upfront TV network ad-purchase negotiations.

These are just a few reasons why the business models used by most entertainment companies are now becoming out of date. And as this revolution in new media continues, platforms will evolve quickly, allowing consumers even greater control; therefore competition will become even more fierce. Entertainment companies must evolve in order to deal with new technologies and new demands from their audiences of consumers.

These trends are also affecting the traditional CD and DVD publishing market as well, filled with musicians, smaller independent filmmakers, documentarians or other content producers. In the past, their goods, so to speak, were limited to quantity orders that were warehoused. Minimum orders of 1000 pieces had to be ordered to save and be profitable, with costs were paid up front.

The good news is that Acutrack's On Demand Production allows our customers to manufacture CDs and DVDs on an "as needed" basis, eliminating the up-front costs associated with CD/DVD production. We create custom CDs and DVDs one at a time and ship them world-wide directly to your clients. All our customers have to do is set up a web store, a shopping cart with their product(s) in our effortless-commerce, e-commerce platform. It makes CD and DVD replication, orderiong and delivery really easy.

Advanced technology will continue to change the way we all interact with entertainment venues. And just as fast as it changes, we will be there with new fulfillment solutions.

Eco-Friendly CD and DVD Manufacturing

R. Fayerweather Babcock, b. 1887. "Don't Waste Paper, Paper Is Essential" : a Pound of Paper Wasted Is A Pound of Fuel Wasted.

It appears as if people back in the late eighteen hundreds were thinking about the environment, as this poster demonstrated. Today more and more companies are seriously doing something to accommodate the Green Movement towards leaving behind a smaller footprint. It’s simply not possible to continue with business as usual and not take into consideration how their business practices are affecting our environment. For companies who are in the business of putting out a CD or DVD-based product, there are even more issues that must be addressed compared to that of a service-only business. In fact we even have produced a podcast on the topic of Eco-Friendly DVD Production.

Acutrack has been helping its clients ease the burdens they are placing on the world we live in a number of ways, including manufacture their CDs and DVDs in more environmentally friendly ways.

Last month on April 22nd it was Earth Day, so it is no wonder why the Green Movement is a number one topic. We are all conscious about it, but we are all still trying to learn the different ways that we can leave a smaller carbon footprint – both at home and on our jobs. The concept of being green is important.

There are many types of companies from small businesses such as an artist, to various sized corporations, and even to the government, each are being driven by family, friends, business associates, even politicians, to help plan for the future of our environment. There are a number of frustrations.

One problem for companies who are selling or distributing CD or DVD based products is that many people do not know specifically what to do to render a smaller footprint. For example, many people do not know that the energy efficient light bulbs cannot be tossed in the garbage. That’s illegal in the state of California because they contain mercury! They must be discarded properly at a recycling facility.

Acutrack focuses on talking to our clients in detail in the beginning to seek possible eco friendly solutions. We talk with them about their goals, audience, and even time constraints, of where their products will be delivered and how long it takes -- all of which have an impact on going green. We also help them to look for redundancies and eliminate environmentally inefficient steps.

Basically, the way we do this is to focus on the three R’s: Reduce Recycle and Reuse.
Reduction: We are in the business of optical media, which in itself is very good for the environment. There’s no paper printing involved in optical media.

One example is that we recently helped a client who ships parts manuals to 780 dealers. These 4,000 page catalogs of parts used to be really heavy and expensive to ship. We came up with a DVD ROM where we scanned the manuals and created a DVD ROM with a searchable index. The cost went from $136.00 to $3.00 each, and the job went much faster too. We produced them in nine versus 14 days. Shipping used to cost $11.00 each for postage with UPS Ground and that went to .58 cents each with the U.S. postal service. We saved a lot of trees, and electricity. Overall the DVD ROM left a much smaller footprint. Dealers were thrilled with the searchable index because it takes them less time to find the parts.

Our On Demand Production model also allows customers to have zero inventory, meaning lots less waste and less obsolescence. Acutrack’s On Demand Production is a system that allows our customers to manufacture CDs and DVDs on an as needed basis, eliminating the up-front costs normally associated with CD/DVD production. We create custom CDs and DVDs one at a time and ship them world-wide directly to your clients.

For more information visit the Cal/EPA Education Web site for information on environmental education programs, environmental health hazards and pesticides.

iTunes and Blu-ray DVD Duplication and the BD-ROM

Today, Apple announced via a press release that new movie releases from major film studios and premier independent studios will now be available to purchase on the iTunes® Store on the same day as their DVD release. iTunes movies can be viewed on an iPod with video, iPhone, Mac, or PC or widescreens with Apple TV. New releases are priced at $14.99, and catalog titles at $9.99.

Apple lists that catalog titles will be available from 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Lionsgate, Image Entertainment and First Look Studios.

This week films that are in the iTunes Store this week concurrent with DVD releases include "American Gangster" and "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly."

Blu-ray.com is a website that talks about everything related to Blu-ray Disc (BD). The technology uses a blue-violet laser to read and write data, ergo the name, which is a combination of "Blue" (blue-violet laser) and "Ray" (optical ray).

On a separate note, the Blu-ray Disc Association says that the spelling - or mispelling depending on how you look at it - of "Blu-ray" isn't a mistake. In order to register the name as a trademark they left the "e" out on purpose.

More an more people are getting used to using Blu-ray because one single-layer disc can hold 25GB of data, or around nine hours, while a dual-layer disc holds 50GB, or apx. 23 hours of standard-definition (SD)video. In order to make sure that the Blu-ray disc format is easily extendable the technology includes support for multi-layer discs, which should allow the storage capacity to be increased to 100GB-200GB, which is 25GB per layer, in the future by adding layers to the discs.

How fast can you read or write data on a Blu-ray disc? According to the Blu-ray Disc specification, 1x speed is defined as 36Mbps. However, as BD-ROM movies will require a 54Mbps data transfer rate the minimum speed we're expecting to see is 2x (72Mbps). As for the future, the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) already has plans to raise the speed to 8x (288Mbps) or more in the future.

Asheesh Barman has done a podcast on the topic -- How will Blue-ray impact Acutrack, independent filmmakers and our customers? Asheesh Barham has even done a podcast on this topic. Ever since Warner Brothers decided to support Blu-rey, there's been alot of confusion about the topic The difference is it the format of disc that delivers content to the user? Both are high definition discs, we do not need both formats, so now it looks like Blu-ray may win out. In the short term it is too expensive for most of our customers, who are independant film makers, documentarians, and folks who make training films none of which are shooting in HD yet. The authoring is more complex. The programmers need to know JAVA.

We always recommend that our customers focus on content and production, and marketing it. You can maximize your return by using our DVD Manufacturing On Demand, which is a DVD duplication service. It is a system that allows our customers to manufacture CDs or DVDs on an as needed basis, which eliminates the up-front costs typically associated with CD and DVD production. It is perfect if you are selling download-able content, don't know how many units to produce, and do not want to mess with inventory, packaging and fulfillment.

On Demand also allows for custom branding on each DVD disc with unique content or artwork.
It is the best way to automate order processing too, and reduce inventory build-up.

DVD Duplication of Old VHS Tapes

How many of us still have dusty copies of old VHS tapes stacked in the corners or on the shelves of our homes and offices? If you do, then you may be happy to know that the copying process of switching valuable content from VHS tapes over via DVD duplication is quite easy. It's a great way to preserve and also share your old tapes.

If you want to transfer VHS tapes to DVDs there are several options for the conversions. If produced properly, the DVDs can look even better than the original VHS tapes and that includes VHS-C, SVHS, Hi8, regular, and Betas. Following are some ways that you can do it.

First, you can capture the VHS video to a computer video editing program using an analog-to-DV converter, or you could encode it to MPEG-2 and publish a DVD. This is provides the flexibility to edit the video as much as you want, adding transitions, special effects, or music. It can be time consuming though...

OR you can capture the video to your computer as MPEG-2 using hardware capture devices that will convert the VHS to MPEG-2 as they capture and then author a DVD. Many of the inexpensive hardware analog-to-MPEG boxes offer pretty good quality, in part because the analog source video does not have to be converted to DV before its encoded to MPEG.

Third, you could connect your VHS VCR or camcorder to a standalone DVD recorder which works much like a VCR, and this VHS to DVD recorder basically gives you a DVD copy of your tape in real time. This is the fastest and easiest way to convert VHS to DVD.

You need to make sure your analog video is of the best quality possible because any flaws in the original video tape may be magnified when encoded to MPEG-2 and then converted to DVD.

Insofar as some more details -- the process of converting to a DVD basically requires a VHS tape player, or a camcorder. Simply plug either the camcorder or the VHS tape player into your PC, as long as your computer has the ports for plugging in these devices in. You would also need a minimum of 512 MB of RAM and a 2 GHz processor, plus about 20 GB of free space in the hard drive. Next your computer also needs a CD-RW drive for the duplication process. And you also need video editing software.

It takes very little time to copy VHS tape to DVD. However if you are not inclined to take on this kind of project yourself, Acutrack is happy to do it for you via our duplication dvd packaging process.

DVD Production and Content Management Mistakes NOT to Make

As Acutrack continues to work with clients an interesting trend has emerged reflecting growing complexities related to managing CD and DVD production, as well as the production and management of other content such as CD or DVD, movies, music, software intended for your target audiences.

“Our customers are up against many challenges, including the fact that typically the CD or DVD is just one component of a larger project," said Todd Shur, vice president of sales of Acutrack, Inc. “Multiple pieces are procured via several vendors, so there are growing complexities to managing content, period.”

Shur continued, stating that for example, most of the company’s customers have from five to ten employees, versus hundreds or thousands of employees, and they are responsible for producing several different pieces that need to be managed along with the manufacturing of CD or DVD. This might include brochures, manuals, user agreements, data sheets, stationary, or presentation folders and press and sales kits. There are digital or offset printed materials and packaging that are all procured through several vendors.

Acutrack can come in and assist with these tasks and quality control issues. One example is that if a manual is produced by one company and the CD is produced by another vendor there may be no cohesiveness between the two so problems occur such as the colors don’t match. There are also shipping logistics. It is difficult to manage quality control when production is in the hands of several companies. Plus, shipping, coordination and the logistics of managing a multitude of vendors is usually the responsibility of only one person managing it all in an organization.

It is best to have someone like Acutrack handle it all to help keep branding in check, and when that is being controlled, marketing and strategic sourcing love it. This is one stop shopping that leverages their spending so they get the best bang for their buck. It’s all tied under one umbrella that they can order off of one storefront or in reality, an Acutrack e-commerce site that is basically accessing an online catalog. People can actually go online and access the specific content that they need.

The internal audience is usually the sales team, or corporate communications teams who need sales and corporate collateral, such as business letterhead and cards. Whereas VARS can get their own versions of materials needed and external customers can go in and get what you want them to see and order. Then of course there are materials for HR, training, and the technical departments.

Acutrack's On Demand Production is a system that allows our customers to manufacture CDs and DVDs on an "as needed" basis, eliminating the up-front costs normally associated with CD/DVD production. We create custom CDs and DVDs one at a time and ship them world-wide directly to your clients. All you need is a webstore, shopping cart/e-commerce and your product(s). Check out our effortless-commerce, an e-commerce solution that anyone can use and it’s set up based on the company’s rules.

Acutrack can demonstrate our services if you email tshur@acutrack.com to set up a Web demo.

Why does Acutrack Sell Printing Equipment?

This country is full of do-it-yourselfers, and that includes people or companies who want to do their own CD or DVD duplication without working with an outside service organization such as Acutrack. However, many who choose this without guidance get into trouble. That said, it's important to stay up to speed on the most cost effective ways to get your content such as movies, music, or materials, out to your target audience. What do you need to know before buying your own CD or DVD publishing equipment? There are many options available.

Often times, when purchasing this type of manufacturing equipment, people's selection criteria may have been off, and so they may not have purchased what they really needed. Before purchasing any CD DVD manufacturing equipment, there are a few facts that everyone should know -- and because we are in this industry -- we can offer some advice.

In fact we have a complete podcast on DVD manufacturing equipment that is devoted to this question, so feel free to listen to it! Featuring our president, Raj Barman, the podcast will arm listeners with the information they need to know before purchasing any type of CD or DVD manufacturing equipment. what's more, we even have a special promotion. If you listen to the podcast, we'll give you 500 CDs or DVDs at no charge. Listen now!

First of all, why does Acutrack sell printing equipment when being an outside printing service is the business we are in in the fist place? It would appear somewhat competative. There can be many reasons such as security or time constraints. Some businesses want to distribute CDs and DVDs just as soon as the content is ready, so they don't have the time for someone like Acutrack to handle their production and do it for them. Many of our clients rely on us for other services, including production or packaging needs, as opposed to their internal needs. Software publishers are just one example.

In selling CD and DVD duplication equipment, however, we always make sure that our customers have done their homework. There are a number of considerations. It can be like buying a Honda versus a Ferrari, and many options require a detailed understanding of the market, as well as an analysis of the needs. You also need to do a cost comparison too. Because our Acutrack Short Run DVD Production services might actually be a better choice than purchasing your own publishing equipment.

First you must take a hard look at your daily or monthly needs to determine if you would even require industrial equipment. There are desktop units versus commerical -- workgroup, network sharing equipment for example, versus smaller equipment meant for the desktop. Then there are three very different choices to print on the disk surface. Ink jet printing is for small jobs, while there are commerical color printers for high volume jobs. In other words, we advise our customers not just think only about the cost comparisons. Plus there are options for integrating with applications. One example might be a mortgage company who wants their equipment to automate and put customer documents on a CD.

What is important when you speak to a dealer? Chosing the right dealer includes finding out how long they have been in business. If the equipment provides a two versus three year warrantee, you want to feel sure that the company will be in business if you need it! Do they have tech support? What product mix do they carry? You want to make sure that if you select a printer from one company, integration is possible with other equipment. Look for seamless integration. Find out what they are offering and why.

Acutrack works with Rimage and Primera, the world's top two manufactureres of CD and DVD duplication and printing equipment. Both companies are pioneers in the industry, are reliable , and provide great service. They 90 percent of the market. Premiera makes the best desktop equipment for smaller needs. Their solutions are sold out of the box and are simple to use. Rimage covers the high end networking group producing robust industrial high volume photorealistic needs.

Acutrack knows this industry because they use the equipment in our own environment. There are long and short term needs. We have the technical staff to support our clients, plus a capable software team, and a web store. When our clients purchase from us, we can support all their questions, making the investment safe.