Sonic Foundry Makes Dolby Digital Encoding Tools More Affordable

Timed to coincide with the Digital Content Creation conference in Los Angeles from December 2-4, Sonic Foundry (AMEX: SFO) announced that they are working with Dolby Laboratories to make Dolby Digital (AC-3) encoding tools more affordable by reducing the price of their Soft Encode[TM] products for Surround Sound applications. The price of the 5.1 channel option will be reduced over 50% from $1,995 to $995. The 2 channel version will be reduced from $695 to $495.

Soft Encode was the first stand-alone software solution for Dolby Digital encoding for multi-channel audio delivery. Dolby Digital is a standard format for encoding the audio content in DVD (Digital Versatile Disk), laser disk, and DTV (Digital Television) applications.

"Dolby Labs is pleased that the Soft Encode 5.1 channel encoding tool from Sonic Foundry is now available for under $1000, the lowest-cost Dolby Digital professional encoder currently on the market," commented Ramzi Haidamus, Licensing Manager of Digital Technologies with Dolby Laboratories.

"As a Dolby-certified software encoding solution, Soft Encode can convert many multi-channel audio files to the standard Dolby Digital format in a single batch conversion operation, something that a hardware encoder cannot yet do. We expect this lower price point for Soft Encode will add momentum to the growth in new DVD applications, particularly in the area of computer games and corporate training programs. For example, we know of 35 DVD-based games incorporating Surround Sound effects that are either available now or in production, and Soft Encode is an ideal encoding tool for dealing with the multitude of sound effect files involved with these projects."

According to Keith Bieneman, Product Manager with Sonic Foundry, "We want Sonic Foundry to be known throughout the rapidly expanding digital content creation market as the reference source for superior production tools. Soft Encode was already the most cost-effective Dolby Digital Surround Sound encoder, and by driving that cost even lower we intend to establish Soft Encode as the standard audio encoding tool for emerging DVD-video applications."

System Requirements: Pentium or Alpha AXP microprocessor, Windows 9x or NT 4.0 or later, Windows-compatible sound card, VGA display, CD-ROM drive, 16 MB RAM, and 5 MB of hard-disk space for program installation.

Soft Encode is manufactured under license from Dolby Laboratories. "Dolby," "AC-3," and the double-D symbol are trademarks of Dolby Laboratories.