ZOO Digital, the provider of software and software-led services for the filmed entertainment market, has launch its automated authoring software for producing regionalized Blu-ray Discs and its first customer for the Translation Management System.

Following on from the success of its software tools for menu regionalization and automated authoring of DVD-Video titles, ZOO will shortly begin deployment of a similar solution for Blu-ray Disc. The requirements that major film studios have for their Blu-ray titles lead to highly complex production processes. This is in part due to the complexity of the Blu-ray format and partly to the work necessary to adapt titles developed in one language to create multiple language variants.

ZOO’s integrated software toolset automates the preparation of digital content including complex interactive menus, regionalisation into multiple language variants, and assembly and formatting for full compliance with the Blu-ray Disc specification. This enables customers to produce Blu-ray titles for multiple languages more quickly and easily and at lower cost.

ZOO charges a fee for each title processed and therefore recurring revenues will scale with the volume of Blu-ray titles created by the system. The company says the system is currently being evaluated by a major Hollywood studio.

The regionalization capabilities of the Blu-ray automated authoring toolset are delivered through integration with the company’s Translation Management System (TMS). “Following extensive trials, this system has now been deployed for a major Hollywood studio where it is beginning to be used to manage, coordinate and regionalise worldwide marketing campaigns for theatrical film releases,” say ZOO who expects the system will be used by this studio’s staff on a daily basis in more than 60 territory offices.

The TMS is a web-based system that is licensed on a Software-as-a-Service basis, generating recurring revenues for ZOO that scale with the total number of subscriber users.

Story filed 08.04.10