Augsburg, Germany-based hardware and software solutions provider Silicon Philosophies has acquired the Cinema Craft product line from Japanese developer Custom Technology Corporation, for whom they have been providing marketing, sales distribution, technical support and integration services since 1998.

Considered the fastest, most accurate and efficient encoders for DVD and 2D/3D Blu-ray disc production, Cinema Craft products are utilised by over 100 leading authoring and video post-production studios such as Paramount, Warner, Disney, MGM, Sony, Deluxe, Technicolor, Pixar, Imagion, Toshiba, and Panasonic, as well as broadcasters like Fox, HBO, Turner, in Hollywood, Europe and Asia. This leading family of encoders is also used by more than 1,500 video producers around the globe.

The agreement signed by both companies grants exclusive intellectual property, development and distribution rights to Silicon Philosophies for Cinema Craft MVC, HDe, Xtream, MPe and SP3 (CCE) video encoding and related products, for the European, American and Asian markets (excluding Japan).

"We will capitalise on the joint history and engage our engineering partners and customers more closely in decision-making," says Silicon's CEO Miguel Clarke. "Through synergy and cohesive customer/client relationships, we will continue to grow and achieve mutual success and profitability. Our products have been used for many award-winning productions."

Silicon Philosophies - formerly Front Porch Video - engineered the world's first MPEG-2 encoder for Toshiba and Warner in 1996. The company provides customised hardware, software and workflow solutions geared towards video post-production, broadcast and Internet delivery, deployed in several automated DVD, Dolby AC3 encoding, media archiving and video streaming products.

Story filed 21.01.13