Valley special effects studio going on stage for concert.

WHEN Country and Western singer Toby Keith hits the stage next week at Staples Center, Brick Price and John Palmer, the principals of Wonder-Works special effects studio, will likely be smiling.

That's because their Canoga Park-based firm is responsible for a specially built Ford F-150 truck that will kick-off the concert by transforming from a truck to a music stage, complete with lights, speakers, pyrotechnics and guitar amplifiers.

"We were asked by Toby Keith's people about doing something like a transformer robot that made the truck turn into a stage and we thought it was crazy, but we wanted to give it a shot," Price said.

After six weeks of designing and rebuilding the truck, the company completed the vehicle and shipped it to Nashville where Keith was rehearsing his summer tour. The truck features two hidden moving arms on the sides of the truck which fold the sides of the truck bed flat to mimic a stage while other arms add moving lights, speakers and guitar amplifiers to the track-turned stage.

"The whole idea of using a Ford truck is also to honor 50 years of Ford pickup trucks," Price said.

In rebuilding the truck, WonderWorks engineers were forced to tear up much of the truck's bottom, including its 40-gallon fuel tank in exchange for a four gallon fuel cell to make room for the heavy and bulky hydraulics needed for the truck's transformation.

While all of the hydraulics had to be built from scratch, the truck does use the fork segment and hydraulics of a forklift.

Although Price would not reveal construction costs for the modified truck, he said it surpassed $100,000.

To eliminate possible shaking from Keith's movement while atop the stage, the truck's suspension was removed, making the back more firm for the performer but more difficult to drive, Price said.

"It's driven onstage, but not much after that, so that should be fine," Price said.

Keith has said he wants to keep the truck after the tour ends.

"He just loves it," Price said.

Anti-Piracy Group Collects

Washington D.C.-based Business Software Alliance has collected $368,000 from three Valley-based firms as part of a series of settlements with companies for using unlicensed software.

Among the companies who agreed to settle with the group were Youbet.com, based in Woodland Hills, Fresh Entertprises, based in Thousand Oaks; and Innovative Merchant Solutions, based in Calabasas.

Youbet.com paid the largest amount of the three local companies when it paid $228,000 to the group in order to settle claims filed against it. The company did not admit any wrongdoing although the group said it had used unlicensed copies of Microsoft and Symantec software.

Fresh Enterprises, a restaurant company. Paid $50,000 to settle claims that it had illegal copies of Adobe, Autodesk, Microsoft and Symantec software programs.

Innovative Merchant Solutions, a bankcard processing firm, paid $90,000 to settle claims for having unlicensed copies of Adobe, Macromedia, Microsoft, Network Associates and Symantec software.

Bob Kruger, president of enforcement for the group, said the settlements are the latest in a series of aggressive moves by the watchdog group to stem the impact of pirated software.

The settlements were part of 37 separate settlements reached with 37 companies around the country, including eight in the Los Angeles area, totaling a combined $3.1 million.

The group said the U.S. software industry lost nearly $2 billion in revenue due to the proliferation of pirated software. The group claims more than 105,000 jobs were also lost as a result.

Technicolor Networking

Technicolor is pushing into networking and data management after it created Technicolor Media Asset Management unit earlier this month.

The Camarillo-based company, a unit of Thomson Media, created Media Asset Management as a way to provide network operators and content owners with the digital assets to better manage data using software from IBM and Ancept.

The company says it hopes to translate its experience in high definition video technology, digital mastering services, DVD authoring and digital cinema and encryption services into a coherent asset management division for industry.

Lanny Raimondo, a spokesman for Thomson, said the new unit's partnership with IBM will provide customers with an integrated platform for the digital storage, management, access, processing and distribution of all forms of entertainment-related content.

DIC Launches Children's Network

Burbank-based DIC Entertainment will launch the DIC Kid's Network on Sept. 1, as a three-hour programming block aimed at television stations seeking to meet federal educational programming requirements.

By law, all television stations must provide at least three hours of educational programming for children.

David Ozer, DIC's senior vice president of domestic television, said the new effort will make DIC the only network that can effectively reach 100 percent of U.S. households.

The programming block will be offered to independent stations as well as WB and UPN affiliates, often in the same market, Ozer said.

The three-hour block of programming will feature advertising that would air on separate stations in some markets, giving advertisers greater visibility for one price, he added.

"With such an extensive reach, we anticipate meeting advertisers expectations," Ozer said.

The network will feature six half hours of animated programs from DIC's library of shows, including "Sabrina," "Sherlock Holmes," "The Archies," "Stargate Infinity," "The Littles," and others.

The programs will entertain, but will also provide educational content aimed at satisfying U.S. Federal Communications Commission guidelines for the educational programming on local television stations.

The programming block will also feature brief segments with DIC's first major animated character, Inspector Gadget, who will give tips about children's nutrition.

Already, the network has signed a number of major advertisers, including Kellogg's, McDonald's, Nestle, Chuck E. Cheese and Bandai, among others.

Business Journal Reporter Carlos Martinez may be reached by calling [phone] or by e-mail at [e-mail].