Studios hook up to fiber optic transmission services; movies, soundtracks instantly whisked around town.

The information superhighway, far from being mere political rhetoric, has been a reality in Tinsletown since director Steven Spielberg pioneered its use about two years ago, while making his blockbuster film "Jurassic Park."

And now the superhighway is quickly becoming a commonplace tool used by Hollywood studios, post-production houses, ad agencies and other ancillary service providers.

The superhighway, or more specifically Pacific Bell's Advance Broadcast Video Service, is being used to whisk entertainment images and accompanying soundtracks around town. Those images and soundtracks were until recently transported exclusively by human messengers.

Other phone companies besides Pac Bell offer fiber optic transmission services. Among those mentioned by industry sources were TelePort and Metropolitan Fiber Systems. However, Pac Bell's service is by far the one most widely used by Hollywood companies.

Paramount Pictures Corp. earlier this year hooked up to Pac Bell's electronic delivery service, which translates traditional analog video and audio signals into telephonic digital format and transmits them over fiber optic phone lines. Upon arrival at their destination, the images and sound are re-translated into analog format so they can be displayed on monitors.

Such fiber optic transmissions have dramatically expedited the work flow at Paramount's marketing department by allowing ads for the studio's summer releases to be more speedily completed and approved. "It makes our business more efficient," explained the studio's Worldwide Marketing President Arthur Cohen. "It isn't just about what it saves you," he noted, citing the elimination of duplicated efforts, messenger services and occasional confusion, "but what it allows." That is, Cohen related, "making creative people work in a more integrated fashion."

One creative company with which Paramount is now electronically linked is Hollywood-based Kaleidoscope Films, one of the firms that produces "coming attractions" trailers for the studio's upcoming releases.

Kaleidoscope has already used Pac Bell's fiber optic network to expedite advertising work on Paramount's summer 1994 releases "Beverly Hills Cop III" and "Clear and Present Danger," said Kaleidoscope Vice President Steve Panama. "It enables me to keep my people here (and) get approval on our screen downstairs."

Panama has also electronically hooked up with some of his major subcontractors and pointed out that other major studios -- including Walt Disney Co., Imagine Entertainment and Warner Bros. -- have also recently hooked up to the Pac Bell system.

Two of Kaleidoscope's competitors, Aspect Ratio and Cimmaron-Bacon-O'Brien, are also hooking up to a fiber optic system, Panama said. Neither of those Hollywood-based companies had returned phone inquiries from the Business Journal by press time.

Panama credits director Steven Spielberg with the idea for using Pac Bell's system for advertising purposes. "'Wouldn't it be nice if you didn't have to drive over to my office?' Spielberg suggested," Panama recalled, to which the trailer producer agreed heartily. "We used it between L.A. and Krakow (Poland) for 'Schindler's List,'" he added.

That made it possible to prepare advertising for the 1993 film, transmit it to Spielberg on location in Poland, get it approved and get word back to Kaleidoscope in less time than it would have taken the quickest courier. "We're replacing the FedEx (Federal Express) trucks," proclaimed Rich Meizer, Pac Bell's technical manager for advanced video services.

Jim Corbett, owner of Hollywood-based Mix Magic, a sound-mixing company and Kaleidoscope subcontractor, went on-line in May, citing the same client-service and convenience reasons cited by Panama and others. In past collaborations, Kaleidoscope executives would have to travel to Mix Magic's Hollywood offices to preview the work. But now they exchange on-line transmissions.

But some Hollywood companies have been slower to embrace the dawning high-tech era, Corbett said. "MGM sends people over from Santa Monica," he noted. "We've mentioned this to just about every company that's come in."

Since hooking up in May, Mix Magic has used the fiber optic service on about eight Paramount commercials, Corbett said. "We sent (the commercials) over, and (Paramount and Kaleidoscope executives) watched them in Steve Panama's office. We got feedback on the spot."

And Mix Magic is not alone in its praise of fiber optics.

"We often work for projects on a very tight schedule. Timing can be very important," related Todd AO/Glen Glenn Studios supervising engineer David Tourkow, who has been using the Pac Bell service for the past few months.

While enjoying the speed and convenience of the fiber optic network, Tourkow and Corbett both said they have encountered some potholes and traffic jams in their electronic commutes. "It's not perfect quality yet," the engineer noted.

"It's not perfect yet for master transfer," Meizer of Pac Bell conceded. A "master" is the original version of a tape or film. In sending the images back and forth repeatedly, Meizer explained, "compression" takes place and information is lost, resulting in a loss of clarity to the images and sounds. "Right now you need to limit transmissions."

Corbett said he has also had occasional trouble getting through to the fiber optic lines of studios he serves directly, and has found incompatibility between his analog-to-digital translating equipment and other users' equipment. Pac Bell and other service providers are going to have to resolve these glitches before Hollywood can more fully work on-line, he asserted.

Studios and their suppliers are speeding ahead anyway, mindful of the occasional potholes and seemingly unconcerned about the hefty tolls. The information superhighway is most definitely not a free ride.

Mix Magic expects service fees of about $22,000 a year for its hook-up. "Since it's more or less a test situation, I haven't seen any bills yet," Corbett commented. Here's what he can expect:

The service has a basic flat-fee cost of $850 a month per circuit location, plus a long-distance service charge, which is typically $400 an hour, and long-distance per-call charges, Meizer detailed. Obviously, those long-distance charges are not applicable to local link-ups.

Fortunately, the lines and analog-to-digital translation machines are fully compatible with Hollywood companies' existing video equipment, Meizer reported, so no additional hardware investment is required. All the companies need to do to get hooked up is to have fiber optic phone lines run into their facilities. Then, those phone lines and translation machines can be hooked into their existing video equipment.

"I commissioned a nominal sum of money to explore it," Paramount's Cohen noted. He said he is delighted with the progress he buys for less than $2,000 a month. "It's about feeling a sense of community (with fellow users) -- and pushing the envelope," he said.

There may come a time when analog-to-digital translation machines, known as "Codecs," are as common in Hollywood as car phones and power lunches -- and just as necessary for doing industry business. But Cohen said he doesn't see that happening immediately, and doesn't see Paramount limiting its business dealings to on-line suppliers any time soon.

"You have to have a way for the random person to come in with a great idea on a yellow piece of paper," Cohen said. Yellow pieces of paper, he speculated, will probably be around Hollywood for the next 20 years.

But the electronic superhighway "is the wave of the future," pointed out Panama. And for a number of Hollywood companies, that future has already arrived.

Spielberg blazes trail for high-tech service

Just as busy Wilshire Boulevard was once paved over dinosaur bones, so Hollywood's access to Pacific Bell's Advance Broadcast Video Service was paved on the re-created dinosaurs of the hit movie "Jurassic Park."

San Rafael, Calif.-based Industrial Light & Magic, the special effects firm working on the film in 1992, became aware of Pac Bell's fiber optic service and expressed an interest in using the technology to transport work they were doing in Northern California over the phone lines to director Steven Spielberg at his Universal Studios-based Amblin Entertainment offices.

Pac Bell set up a trial for Industrial Light & Magic, running fiber optic phone lines into its studios and those of Amblin. Pac Bell also installed at each location a "Codec" machine, which translates the analog video and audio signals into telephonic digital format and then, upon their arrival at the destination, re-translates those signals back into analog format for viewing on conventional monitors.

The test was successful and the industry took note. "They (entertainment companies) embraced the idea," said Rich Meizer, Pacific Bell's Technical Manager for Advanced Video Services. The fiber optic service has allowed Hollywood to "shorten the time it takes to make a movie," and cut labor and other location costs, as well, Meizer said.