Ephraim Lindenbaum has built a worldwide multimedia and video production company on a firm base of technological expertise.

By Harrison M. Rose
Photographs by Michael Sexton

Since its founding, BPG's emphasis has been on keeping abreast of new technology as much as on attracting clients. As a result, instead of having to scramble to become familiar with new facets of production as projects come along, BPG has both production experience and technological strength. The result is a range of projects and customers; recent jobs have included TV commercials, commercial CD-ROMs, CD-ROM promo discs, Web sites, take-away premiums, music videos and more.

Founded in 1987 by 19-year-old Ephraim Lindenbaum and 26-year-old Steve Gomes (who is no longer involved with the company full-time), BPG was set up as a film and video production company serving Silicon Valley's high-tech businesses. Many of its earliest clients were chip manufacturers. As Lindenbaum and Gomes accumulated experience in communicating the technical concepts of engineering and physics, however, they found themselves getting more and more heavily into the engineering side of technology, learning the How behind the What.

As part of this technical focus, BPG became an alpha site for some of the early motion-JPEG chips and boards under development in 1989 and 1990, including products from C-Cube Microsystems of San Jose, California, and the Israeli company Zoran. BPG allowed the board-makers' engineers to plug the jump-wired alpha boards into the company's video edit suites, risking the disturbance to their studio and production facilities. In exchange, BPG gained an inexpensive jump on new technology and the trust of the manufacturers, which paid off in assignments and business partnerships. The company was a test site for Intel's Indeo video codec, Apple's QuickTime, a number of Radius products and Philips's CD-I.

The relationship with Apple landed BPG a major contract to set up an editing system at the San Jose Convention Center during Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference in May 1992. Using IIfx and Quadra 700 Macs, BPG added heads and tails to videos for the conference sessions. Many producers could have done this, but BPG, using Macromedia Director, also set up an on-screen agenda system for the conference and hardwired it into the convention center's new video monitor system. By 1993, BPG had become an alpha test site for Apple's new Power Macs, concentrating on their video and multimedia capabilities.

Toward the end of 1993 and into 1994, BPG began to get involved with interactive television, handling concept development and pre-production work but not accepting any equity deals with clients - probably a wise decision, considering the fate of some of those clients. Interactive Network, among, others, swallowed large sums of cash before disappearing BPG helped its ITV clients marry creative technology to delivery technology, which in the early days of interactive TV placed severe limitations on content design. BPG had to create content that would take advantage of the high bandwidth of cable broadcasting but remain interesting and useful within the constraints of the low-bandwidth feedback path from viewers.

The shortcomings of the ITV process led BPG to explore the delivery process in greater depth, driving the company farther onto the Internet and the World Wide Web. BPG's management asked itself: "What should a production company for the wired interactive markets be able to do?" Among the answers were such techniques as Web broadcasting, Web-usage monitoring and data-base connectivity to graphically appealing Web pages. The company has also created Web sites for clients, grabbing attention and awards. The Valley of the Chips Web site, for example, produced as an alliance with a local advertising agency, won a four-star Magellan award in 1995.

BPG also got involved in software development, creating tools for internal use that are now beginning to enter the market as commercial products. Last month, BPG introduced SiteAudit, a Web-site analysis system that will give advertising agencies, Internet providers and corporations with multiple Internet and intranet Web Sites sophisticated information on how their sites are being used.

Tolerance For Idiosyncrasies

The quality of BPG's staff was tested in the late summer of 1994, when several key members of the multimedia department suddenly left the company without notice, abandoning projects that were in the middle of production. Finishing a number of jobs in time for the products' debut at Comdex less than a month after the walkout was not easy, and replacing the lost staff took time. But the company proved resilient: All the clients whose projects were affected still work with BPG. (Legal action concerning the walkout is in progress, so BPG cannot discuss the details further.)

With the exception of the team that deserted in 1994, BPG employees who have left the company have maintained strong relationships. Staff members have left to form several specialized production companies in the areas of high-end 3-D animation and film production, niche areas outside BPG's primary focus of corporate and consumer communications. All maintain business and personal contacts.

In 1994, Lindenbaum began to examine the global marketplace. He kicked off a Mexico office in January 1995 by recruiting Arturo Hernandez Stevens to head up BPG's Latin American operations. Stevens had been a top-level executive of Groupo Televisa, the world's largest television network, covering the entire Spanish-speaking world from its base in Mexico City. One of the first jobs of BPG's Latin American office was the Sony Professional Products Division's electronic catalog for Latin America.

In the spring of 1995, BPG picked up an interactive CD-ROM project for Samsung's Consumer Products, a division of the giant Korean manufacturer. By August of that year, BPG had opened an office in Seoul. International expansion continues: BPG has representatives in the Philippines, and the Japanese office should be operating by the time you read this. Operations in Vietnam and Eastern Europe are under consideration. The company added an international director of sales and marketing to its staff this year.

U.S. geographic expansion continues as well. Early this year, BPG opened a Los Angeles office, which it shares with a primary client, U.S. Interact. New offices are expected to open over the next two years; possible locations include New York City, Chicago, Atlanta and Austin, Texas.

As this is written, BPG's full-time creative staff in the United States numbers about 50, of whom about 20 are independent contractors. The management team comprises Ephraim Lindenbaum, the chief executive officer; two primary sales people; four vice presidents; two directors; and three people in general administration and accounting. Internationally, BPG has three people in Seoul, not counting Steve Gomes, the cofounder, who is helping to get the Korean office functional, and seven in Mexico.

Roots To Success

BPG's roots in video production are also a key to the company's success in multimedia. The staff knows the platform, limitations and requirements of every project. When a production is to cross from film to CD-ROM or the Web, they know what to do and what to avoid.

"Re-purposing assets is the soul of our departments," says Edward Olsen. "Cross-platform delivery is very important because some clients are more comfortable with videotape and others with CD-ROM. The majority of our clients don't have an idea of what tools are available; they just have an idea of what they want. It's not just knowing how to do things, it's knowing how to do things now and maintain the quality."

BPG is primarily a Macintosh house, with more than 35 machines in the Campbell office, including two Apple Developer Seed Site Machines; a Power Mac 8500 with a 240 MHZ PowerPC 604 CPU; a new Apple Server running AIX/Mac OS with 512 MB of RAM and a 10 GB RAID array; and even some old SE's. The company also has 10 PCs, four DEC workstations, an SGI workstation running IRIX and a Sun Ultra Sparc running UNIX.

The different parts of the BPG facility - the video-editing suite, the multimedia lab and the animation stations - are connected via 100BaseT Ethernet. The video setup includes cameras shooting to digital Betacam SP and three in-house editing bays: the Avid nonlinear system, one multi-format analog/digital system and one on-line digital system. There are Sony BVW and DVW broadcast systems, digital/analog Betacam SP edit facilities, an Avid Media Composer off-line editor, a Truevision Targa RTX and Targa 2000, an Intelligent Resources Video Explorer, and a Radius VideoVision Studio. The multimedia lab allows the testing of interactive projects, including those created for set-top platforms, such as Scientific Atlanta/General Instruments and Philips CD-I/ Microware.

BPG also uses a slew of on-line and off-line video editing and effects software packages, including Adobe's Premiere, Photoshop and After Effects; Fractal Design's Painter; Strata's StrataStudio Pro, Strata 3D and MediaPaint; CrystalGraphics' Crystal Topas Pro; and a complete set of Macromedia products. In addition, BPG has developed proprietary methods for tweaking and compressing video.

Finally, to handle the new and rapidly evolving potential of Web broadcasting, BPG has two Xing Technologies Alpha Encoding Stations for real-time Internet broadcasting with multiple T-3 level serving software, a VDOLive multiple T-3 level serving software and encoding system, and CU-SeeMee multiple T-3 level serving software.

Division And Addition

In April 1995, BPG picked up a huge job for Chevron, an innovative design and presentation project requiring the resources of all three divisions of BPG. The goal is to create a gas pump incorporating multimedia touch-screen interactivity; MPEG video; data communication between the pump and its control system; and credit- and debit-card authorization in less than eight seconds via satellite, all in a package that takes advantage of marketing and design focus-group work and user psychology. The results are expected to appear in America's gas stations in the coming year.

BPG is also at work on a half-hour show based on its IntermediaLive! "trimulcast." The show, Internet Live, will be broadcast on both television and the World Wide Web, and Web viewers will be able to participate in the live broadcast via real-time chat software. The first broadcast is planned for next spring.

BPG continues to increase its focus on the Internet/intranet business as a delivery medium. The company is a consultant to the first phase of a $20 million Internet project initiated by the International Business Bank, whose headquarters are in Vienna. The project is crafting a dedicated alternative to the EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) system that the bank's client base relies upon. It is a network that takes the concept of on-line banking to a global level. The first nodes of the system are to be unveiled in November 1996, with the rest of the project coming up over the next two to three years. When the system is up and running, participants in different parts of the world, using different languages and currencies, will be able to deal with each other directly, resulting in instant confirmation of transactions and a dramatic reduction in cost.

BPG is looking at three primary areas of expansion over the next year. First, it expects to continue growing its international business. Second, it plans to increase its investment in software development, enhancing content creation and productivity by reacting to the increasing mix of data with content. Finally, BPG plans to expand its presence and resources in telecommunications technology to enhance the delivery of the content.

Staying on top of multimedia and video technology is difficult, but when it is part of a successful corporate strategy, you do what is necessary. As new technology for corporate and consumer communications comes along, BPG plans to be there, early and forceful, blazing the path with technical precision and creative grace.

Harrison M. Rose is a writer and consultant covering multimedia and the Web.

Communication Breakdown: BPG's Structure

The job of the Interactive Multimedia Group, which is managed by Edward Olsen, is to produce retail, corporate communications, and point-of-purchase CD-ROM, kiosk, and CD+ products. The group also handles custom projects.

The Int**net Development Group provides Web design and production services, including a wide range of custom products to enhance Internet and intranet Web sites, such as specialized search engines and chat services. The division is managed by Scot Apathy.

The Internet Software Group, which is run by Angelo Gagliardi, is developing BPG's SiteAudit family of Web analysis products, the first of which should be commercially available by the end of this year.

The Network Services Group provides consulting on and deployment of WAN, LAN, Internet and intranet systems. The division is currently managed by Daniel Fortune.

- H.M.R.