Ascent Media Group announced today that it has teamed with Akamai Technologies and Sofatronic to create an integrated digital workflow and distribution solution for the production, hosting and delivery of BD Live functionality for Blu-ray discs (BDs). The platform provides an efficient and cost effective way for content creators to harness the power of BD Live’s Internet-enabled features, such as bonus content, online community, and interactive and e-commerce applications.

“In partnership with industry leaders Akamai and Sofatronic, we are able to offer studios a new solution to BD Live functionality which simplifies the process of delivering this new and exciting interactive experience to the consumer. Our head-to-toe package still leaves room for flexibility, plus our best-in-breed partnership allows us to deliver high-quality performance with greater efficiencies for our studio and Blu-ray distribution partners, said Jose Royo, chief executive of Ascent Media Group.

Under the joint initiative, Sofatronic is responsible for the development of a new software platform based off its Kaleidoscope technology, a development platform for interactive entertainment on Blu-ray. Akamai’s global distribution platform will enable Internet-connected devices to support large file downloads and acceleration of rich, interactive media content and applications. Blink Digital is responsible for providing creative delivery, design, authoring and programming services and BD Live integration for high quality BD production.

The companies said that together, the three companies have addressed many of the outstanding industry issues that previous BD Live platforms have experienced by providing improved authoring tools, better disc quality assurance, increased menu functionality, secure retailing interface, improved bonus content download times, and fixed disc pricing.

BD Live offers a wide array of interactive features to the home entertainment ecosystem. With the highly interactive BD Live platform, personalized avatars can be created, subtitles can be frequently updated and viewers can simultaneously interact with others while watching a movie. By instantly connecting users to the Web and empowering them to browse and download online content with special features, new trailers and games, BD Live enables content creators to deliver an interactive service, as opposed to a static product that becomes obsolete once it has been shipped.

Tags: Blu-ray, Ascent Media, Akamai, Sofatronic