Smart Screen Exclusive

By Lyndsey Schaefer

Sony Creative Software just released an update to its DoStudio Authoring software that integrates more efficiently with the second screen BD Touch iOS App. The app allows users to download and save specific video and audio and Web site URL content that is downloaded from a Blu-ray Disc in a BD player to the handheld device. Both are being showcased at the NAB Show next week.

The DoStudio authoring  software has all of the second screen editing functions built into the app, so it’s much easier for developers to add content to Blu-ray Disc titles. The content lives separately from the movie itself, and the BD Touch app allows users to access independent files like audio, videos, images and URL links for use on second screen devices.

The latest BD Touch app, created by GlassThumb, is more compatible with iOS devices, inclusive of an improved mechanism to connect rapidly with the user’s home wireless network. The app can be used in conjunction with the movie title from the disc through a Wi-fi-enabled Blu-ray Disc player with a router and the second screen device connected to the same router. An Android version of the same app is currently in development.

“The connectivity of the whole loop is a Wi-fi router that the two devices are connected to, allowing for transfer of files from the BD player to the second screen device through the router,” explains Denny Breitenfeld, CEO, GlassThumb.

GlassThumb’s BluTouch technology allows studios to add bonus content to the existing 1,000 Blu-ray Disc titles enabled with BD Touch. BD Touch works with tablets, smartphones, PCs or Google TVs. It also can control a PlayStation 3 game console. Sony Creative Software is focused on growing the catalog of BD-Touch enabled titles, and re-branding it for consumers with a new portal, says Rob Aubey, Manager, Software Engineering, Blu-ray Technologies, Sony Creative Software.

“Second screen really started to get hot a year ago, and now we’re really getting excited,” Aubey says. “We need to remind people that BD Touch is there and it’s easier to use since it’s integrated into DoStudio 3.0, so there are more options for consumers to get it on their device of choice.”

Aubey explains that Blu-ray Disc authoring has been consolidated down to a handful of fully capable applications, and Sony Creative Software’s DoStudio Authoring software allows for independent production or small broadcast facilities to affordably create Blu-ray Discs and add bonus material that isn’t necessarily a part of the movie itself.

“DoStudio3.0 allows you to add second screen content to a Blu-ray project within the app and then allows you to access that second screen content via the BD touch app on any of your second screen devices,” Aubey says. “I think with this second screen technology, when users are watching any Blu-ray title at home, the prominence of Wi-fi networks and connected devices gives us an opportunity to re-purpose the delivery of bonus content to the end user in a way that wasn’t previously envisioned. The proliferation of those devices in every home prolongs the lifespan of the Blu-ray Disc and ties into new technology and the expansive increase of usability.”

To learn more about BD Touch and DoStudio, visit booth C11001 at NAB on April 8-11 or click here.