YAV's Spike Revolutionizes QuickTime Data Rate Control

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

YAV Interactive Media
Brederodestraat 47
2042 BB Zandvoort
The Netherlands

CONTACT:
Stephanie Yavelow, Public Relations Manager
voice: +31-23-571-6282
fax: +31-23-571-6245
info@yav.com
http://www.yav.com

YAV'S SPIKE REVOLUTIONIZES QUICKTIME DATA RATE CONTROL

The Netherlands -- April 15, 1997 -- YAV Interactive Media (http://www.yav.com) today announced the release of Spike, the first batch-processing data-spike detection and analysis tool for QuickTime movies. Spike solves the stutter and glitch playback problems of CD-ROM and Web-based QuickTime files. Given a batch of QuickTime movies, Spike determines which among them will provide optimal playability from a range of deployment platforms and media. Offering many of the features of Apple's long-discontinued MovieAnalyzer, Spike is compatible with QuickTime 2.5 and beyond.

Current QuickTime compression software reports the average data rate of files; many people mistakenly use this figure to make decisions about the suitability of compressed video for their playback targets. A QuickTime movie can have a perfectly acceptable average data rate while still containing data spikes that will seriously disrupt playback on any machine. Spike identifies these problems and offers a suite of options for controlling their detection. Other features include detailed data-rate graphs, "Spike Alerts" and reports in frames-per-second and SMPTE, several preview options, and batch processing.

Spike automates the techniques that YAV developed while compressing more than a million frames of QuickTime for the LEGO CD-ROM released earlier this year. According to lead programmer, Christopher Yavelow, "Spike is designed to optionally utilize log files generated by Terran's popular Movie Cleaner Pro and this can accelerate Spike's batch analyses."

YAV's president, Christopher Yavelow, co-authored "Mastering the World of QuickTime" (Random House) and was honored with the Computer Press Association's "Best Advanced How-To Book" award for his "Macworld Music and Sound Bible" (IDG). He has received dozens of awards for his music as well. Acclaimed in 1994 for launching the first opera into cyberspace, he has developed or co-developed landmark interactive media products and CD-ROMs for clients such as Apple Computer, Coda Music Software, Verbum Magazine, Random House, A-R Editions, the VPRO Television Network, and LEGO.

YAV Interactive Media is currently creating the interactive music exhibit for the "newMetropolis Science and Technology Center," which will open in the Netherlands in June 1997. The building, designed by Erasmus prize-winning architect Renzo Piano -- designer of the Centre Pompidou in Paris -- rises 90 meters above the water next to Amsterdam Central Station. The exhibit is built upon the YAV Music Engine, a pioneer technology that uses "computer-simulated creativity" to allow anyone to compose music. A CD-ROM version of the exhibit is slated for Summer 1997.

The following URLs provide additional information:

Spike URL (with tutorial, docs, and screen shots): http://www.yav.com/docs/Spike.html
World Wide Web site of YAV Interactive Media: http://www.yav.com
Representative Interactive Media Portfolio: http://www.yav.com/docs/Media.html
YAV Client List: http://www.yav.com/docs/Clients.html

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Spike and YAV are trademarks of YAV Interactive Media. QuickTime is a trademark of Apple Compuer, Inc. Movie Cleaner Pro is a trademark of Terran Interactive

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