DreamTank, creator of hundreds of video consoles for such clients as Holio.net, Hustler.com, and currently host of HowardStern.com, has been awarded by Sony a license to author UMD (Universal Media Disc) for the PlayStation Portable.
DreamTank has added UMD authoring services to its state-of-the-art-facility in order to meet the growing demand for products for the new Sony PSP game console. UMD is a proprietary optical disc format developed by Sony for use with the PSP. At only 60mm in diameter, it can store 1.8GB of digital data. The new Sony PSP is a powerful multimedia handheld device allowing consumers to enjoy movies, music, games, Internet, and much more anytime, anywhere.
“DreamTank can create simple, complex, and dynamic custom authoring for movies utilizing the UMD format for use with the PSP,” says Lex Miles, executive producer and director of sales for DreamTank. “By providing rapid turnaround, very competitive pricing, and the best service possible, we can get our customers to market ahead of their competitors, turning their old assets into new UMD revenue streams. As you may know, many companies are not accepting any new UMD jobs at this time. We are.”
DreamTank has attributed its growth to a well-thought-out strategy of vertical integration and diversification in digital media. As a result, DreamTank has been able to respond to new and greater opportunities in the traditional markets it has served while also creating synergistic opportunities in emerging technologies and future mediums taking full advantage of the “early adopter” marketplace.
“During this period in which Sony owns the only UMD replication facilities and will not replicate explicit hardcore titles, this is a perfect opportunity for adult video content owners to explore a new revenue stream with their softcore titles,” says Miles.
DreamTank has received Sony’s approval for its first softcore title, a sample of which can be seen at hardr.tv.
Says Miles: “Since the UMD is a wireless device that can connect to the Internet and also has storage capacity of up to 4GB on a removable card, another way to optimize the vast potential of up-selling explicit titles is to create branded softcore clips for the PSP that can drive traffic back to a website that sells the hardcore titles, which can easily fit on the card and be transferred to the user’s PC. The best part is that all hardcore titles can be sold inside of an age-verification system.”
Currently, DreamTank is offering a full end-to-end solution to adult content owners in need of UMD, PSP, iPod, WAP, Windows Media, Real, and QuickTime encoding. For clients that give the company regular monthly encoding work, DreamTank offers free Web hosting with 5Mb of sustained bandwidth and the opportunity to join an affiliate program that pays out 55 percent to 75 percent.
The company’s future plans include the launch of a new IPTV end-to-end solution called Channels on Demand [CoD], which will be offered first to clients that have already utilized DreamTank’s encoding because the files can easily be transcoded for CoD.
For the past 10 years, DreamTank has encoded, hosted, and delivered rich-media services such as movies, music videos, television shows, extreme sports, and other niche-specific programming to clients such as Vivid, Playboy, IDT, On Demand, and Hospitality Networks.
