Interactif Delta Production SA, a small French multimedia production company, has come up with a way to eliminate the headache of dealing with different CD title formats. CD titles sporting its technology, CD-Universel, can run on either Windows personal computer, Macintosh, CD-i or CD audio players. The company, which produces titles and sells production tools, simply put all three file structures – HFS for Macintosh, ISO 9660 and PVD for Windows and CD-i – on the same disk. Chief executive Patrick Laffitte said that the 6Mb needed for the three file structure formats is only a restriction for full motion video data. Whereas 70 minutes of animated video can be normally put onto a standard 655Mb CD-ROM disk, after including the three necessary video formats, CD-Universel will carry only about 20 minutes. Fixed images require only two formats, one for CD-i’s television and for Windows and the Mac together. Interactif Delta has already used the technology on a CD-ROM catalogue title it produced for French mail order company La Redoute. Interactif Delta is experimenting with Generale des Eaux to put the catalogue on-line on French cable television. Lafitte noted that the CD-ROM catalogues cost La Redoute much less than the paper variety, even if the number of buyers in France equipped with a CD-ROM reader is still pretty low. The company included CD-i because it found that when companies want to do training or point of distribution kiosks with video information, the difference in the cost of personal computer and CD-i stations pays for the investment. Secondly, CD-i produces a decent quality image on a television screen. Interactif Delta might license the technology and has attracted attention in the US. Boston-based producer of multimedia production tools IIM holds 10% of the company. Lafitte hopes to double the company revenue by the end of its fiscal year next June.
