Sony DADC and Sony Pictures DVD Center today announced that the Sony DVD Center Europe (Sony DCE) will open September 18, 2000. Located within the DADC replication facility in Austria, Sony DCE is the first Sony DVD authoring facility in Europe and will offer a complete DVD solution to clients including authoring, replication and distribution.

‘We are proud to be part of the team opening the Sony DVD Center Europe,’ stated Leslie Haas, Vice President and General Manager of the Sony Pictures DVD Center. ‘The strength of these two world class companies joining together will further expand the DVD market in Europe and will be a powerful partner for studios and distributors alike.’

Services of the new facility include DVD compression and authoring, menu/graphics design and content development. In addition, the Sony DVD Center will offer integration of Internet/web links, e-commerce convergence and other multimedia hybrid applications.

Sony’s experience in digital compression technologies enabled them to develop an encoding technique which results in better image quality. Sony’s authoring system utilizes their MPEG2 VBR Encoder that offers exceptional video quality even at low average bit rates.

‘Sony technology, particularly the video encoder, has enabled us to develop a compression/authoring solution which ensures the highest video quality for our titles,’ stated Don Eklund, Vice President Engineering, Sony Pictures DVD Center. ‘We dedicated ourselves to create the very best system to produce titles that retain the integrity of the director’s original vision.’

The Sony Pictures DVD Center in Culver City first opened its doors in January 1997. The center has been recognized by the industry for its consistent quality of work and has won several awards including DiVi(TM) Awards 1998, 1999, and 2000 (gold prizes) as well as the highly regarded 2000 Milla d’or DVD Award presented in France.

Sony DADC, founded in 1987, is one of the largest providers for optical storage media and fulfillment services in the world. Sony DADC began DVD manufacturing in 1998 and currently provides a monthly capacity of more than 5 million DVDs. They have established industry leadership in the areas of replication and disc manufacturing and are the only studio in Europe granted THX certification for LaserDisc production.