Chicago Digital will be exhibiting at Booth# 611 at the 2008 WEVA (Wedding And Event Videographers) Expo at the Grand Lakes Resort in Orlando, FL on August 12th - 13th, 2008.

“The focus of our exhibition this year will be the demostration of the Macrovision RipGuard and ACP Product now available to independent producers creating product on Recordable DVD.” states company President Tim Montague, “We are excited to provide an education to small and independant producers about the availability and value of protecting their content on Recordable DVD-R discs.”

Demonstrations of the viability of RipGuard and ACP will be conducted on both hardware and software for attendees. Special show pricing also avialable.

Pubilshed in REELCHICAGO - by Warner Sills

Digital Post’s Tim Montague

For the first time and exclusively in Chicago, a local company offers the same kind of copy protection to non-theatrical producers with short order needs that big studios use to prevent DVD piracy.

Tim Montague’s Chicago Digital collaborated with Macrovision’s RipGuard copy protection to create RipGuard-MOD (ManufacturingOnDemand) to protect recordable DVDs.

“The piracy of independent producer material has been rampant and unchecked up until this point,” says Montague. “We put the power back in the producer’s hands. That’s what really makes this so exciting.”

Montague said he approached Macrovision early in 2007. “I said, ‘Listen, we have an idea to take this technology and apply it to a whole new segment.’ They never intended to introduce it to this part of the market.”

Rip-Guard MOD was officially launched last June after a significant Chicago Digital investment, but Montague said it hasn’t been widely marketed yet on a national basis.

The MOD technology not only prevents consumers from ripping the DVDs (digitally uploading the content on a computer for purposes of making duplicates) but CDP also pioneered technology that thwarts copying discs using peripheral analog recorders.

CDP also pioneered the mainstream application of ACP (analog copy protection), another Macrovision technology, on recordable DVD after the DVD has already been authored, another industry first, according to Montague.

Macrovision’s ACP has been an established technology for more than the last decade and is still employed on virtually every mainstream Hollywood title to protect analog content.

CHICAGO DIGITAL IS A FULL SERVICE OPERATION UNDER ONE ROOF

Currently, the technology will work for all standard and dual layer DVDs, but hasn’t branched out to the high-definition market through Blu-Ray discs.

The cost of RipGuard-MOD service is lower than competitors, Montague noted. While the competition might sell 10 DVDs for 5.99 each, CDP can afford to offer them for $3.24 a piece, a savings of 54%.

Since its launch, RipGuard-MOD has protected thousands of discs ranging from training DVDs to wedding photographers to special family events.

They’ve also copy protected training videos for police officers. Montague finds this ironic, since he wouldn’t expect this segment of the market to be breaking copyright laws.

Montague started Chicago Digital Post in 2004 and in early 2007 merged with Great Lakes Digital Media to create a full service company – production, post, multimedia and crew staffing — under one roof.

The company also makes Pre-Packaged Blank Recordable DVDs for videographers and other producers who don’t mass-replicate their products.

Chicago Digital Post is located at 913 S. State St, Lockport; phone, 815/588-5000. See www.4myvideo.com.

LOCKPORT, Ill., February 7, 2008 / EventDV.net — Chicago Digital Post & Great Lakes Digital Media have consolidated into the midwest media powerhouse of Chicago Digital.

Chicago Digital Post & Great Lakes Digital Media joined forces in early 2007 to bring together a full service production, post production and multimedia service center under one roof. Headquartered in the Chicago market, Chicago Digital Post and Great Lakes Digital Media provides services to Studios, Networks, Corporations and Producers nationwide.

“Now that we have completed the consolidation of the two divisions,” says Tim Montague, CEO, “we are now an even greater resource than before. We have trimmed down to our core services, and have established a number of B2B relationships with non-competitive, regionally diverse service providers to expand the availability of our services through indirect channels across the country.”

Prior to the consolidation Chicago Digital Post’s core services centered around post-production including Audio Post, Authoring, On/Offline Editing, and light disc manufacturing, while Great Lakes Digital Media’s services focused upon Live Production, Multimedia, including Interactive & Flash Development, and Disc Manufacturing Services.

Chicago Digital’s service offerings now focus upon three core areas including ‘Live Production – SD & HD Event and Traveling ENG Crews’, ‘Post Production - Editorial & Authoring services for SD / HD / Blu-Ray’ and ‘Multimedia - Disc Manufacturing & Packaging, Macrovision RipGuard-MOD Recordable DVD Copy Protection Services and Interactive Disc Development’.

By Debbie Galante Block

Finally, affordable copy protection for any video content, even if the per-job minimum is only three discs! In December 2006, Chicago Digital (CD) actively began pursuing, with Macrovision, a rollout of its RipGuard copy protection technology for the recordable market. RipGuard-MOD (Manufacturing on Demand) was officially launched nationwide this past June.  “We’ve been selected by Macrovision to lead the charge into protecting Recordable DVD,” says Tim Montague, president, CD. “Therefore we’re committed to making the technology available to even the smallest producers.”

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