DMOD's new WorkSpace software allows users to review and approve video or audio content or share files over the Internet.
According to company CEO Mark Overington, the software, which is priced at $30,000 for 10 client licenses, builds on DMOD's digital rights-management technology by integrating it into a peer-to-peer application that can establish secure one-to-one connections between computers. The company's next version, to be available in March, will be suitable for client/server applications and priced at $50,000. It will allow the content to be stored at a central server and accessed by separate clients.
"We originally started with the client/ server methodology, but it became apparent that customers wanted control of the media on the desktop rather than entrusting the IT department to handle their pre-release material," he says of the upcoming iteration.
The server software will run on Unix, Linux, NT and Solaris workstations.
Two real-time encryption algorithms are used in the software to provide security. "There's both a public/private key algorithm and a symmetric algorithm," says Chairman and co-founder Ty Rauber. "Both are 128-bit keys so it's a high level of real-time security."
The application must be installed in both locations sharing the file (which can be the original file or a Quicktime-encoded version). The two computers exchange information for setup, and, once that information is exchanged, access is given. "From that point," Rauber explains, "there is a list from which the user selects the host and views the file available."
Currently, the reviewer can make only general comments, but the version to be released in March will include the ability to offer more-specific feedback. "We're definitely looking at enhancing the metadata," Rauber adds, "so they can go beyond simple comments on a file."
