Novato, CA. Sonic Solutions today announced that its DVD premastering system, Sonic DVD Creator, has been enhanced to create DVD discs conforming to the DVD 1.0 specification. The 1.0 spec was eleased earlier in the week by the DVD Consortium, the industry body responsible for standards.

Sonic DVD Creator becomes the first DVD premastering tool to support the new specification, enabling Sonic users to create DVD 1.0 discs in time for this fall’s consumer launch of DVD.

“The DVD format is upon us,” said Ken Jones, marketing director for DVD for Toshiba Corp., founding member of the DVD Consortium. “Sonic’s DVD Creator system is paving the way for studios to create the content that will drive the burgeoning DVD market. Sonic’s compliance with the final DVD specification ensures that the titles will be ready to go when the players are introduced.”

The DVD Creator system is designed to enable content developers, movie studios, post production, and disc replication facilities to put interactive movie content on the new DVD medium. It includes modules for MPEG-2 video encoding, audio editing and encoding, and DVD disc authoring and formatting.

Johannesburg, South Africa. According to Reuters, South Africa’s government-run Independent Broadcasting Corp. yesterday approved the sale of two state-owned radio stations to the private sector. The stations were sold to Newshelf, which is partly owned by Primedia, owner of the private Johannesburg talk-station Radio 702.

The stations involved in the sale are Radio Jakaranda, Pretoria, sold for $14 million (US); and the highly profitable Radio Highveld station, which serves the Johannesburg commercial center, sold for $65 million (US).

Yonkers, NY. Voyetra Technologies announced today that Sony Electronics will bundle customized versions of Voyetra’s audio sequencing and editing software on Sony personal computers. Voyetra recently announced that it is expanding its activity in the OEM software arena, and more licensing deals are expected in the next few weeks.

“Sony is synonymous with the consumer A/V business, so we were looking for a company in the PC business who could provide high-quality software befitting Sony’s requirements,” said Tac Sugiyama, Director of PC Marketing for Sony Information Technologies of America. “Voyetra was the natural choice. It’s the industry’s leading provider of integrated, user-friendly software, which is easily customized to fit the specific needs of Sony.”

New York, NY. At the Interactive Multimedia Association’s IMA Expo’96 this week, Zoran Corp. and Dolby Labs have been demonstrating a DVD-enabled multimedia PC with Dolby Digital AC-3 surround sound.

The demonstration PC uses Zoran’s new DVD4PC reference design board, with Zoran’s ZR38521 single-chip, two-channel AC-3 audio decoder on board. The availability of the ZR38000 family of decoders in volume, as well as Zoran’s DVD4PC reference design, will enable many OEM and PC manufacturers to significantly shorten time-to-market for their DVD products.

Zoran is the leading supplier of Dolby AC-3 decoder chips and parts. “Virtually all existing Dolby Digital consumer products use Zoran devices,” comments Roger Dressler, Technical Director of Dolby Labs. “These decoders can be used in a wide range of applications, including professional studio audio equipment, PC-based and standalone DVD players, and the new consumer audio products of the future.”

Zoran’s DVD4PC reference design board includes a PCI multimedia controller, Windows 95/Windows 3.1 software drivers, and MPEG-2 video decoder, in addition to the AC-3 decoder, on a single PCI card. The AC-3 decoder can be either the ZR38521 for two-channel sound, or the ZR38500 for full six-channel Dolby Digital surround and Dolby Pro Logic. The reference board is available immediately, priced at $1995 (US), and the AC-3 decoders are all in volume production now.