Oregon’s  Silicon Forest has some exotic denizens, but few can compare with Video Encoding, the dot com conjuring enhancements to your viewing pleasure in cinemas, on the internet, your home television, and when you fly commercial air.  This two-year-old enterprise, created by Portland’s  Brian Maguire, practices, by Brian’s own designation, a ‘black art.’  And does it so well it is a major supplier to Stephen Spielberg’s Dreamworks film production company, among others…if you’ve seen “Shrek” or “Saving Private Ryan,” for instance, you’ve been exposed to what Video Encoding creates.

The recent entertainment rage called ‘DVD’ (Digital Video Disc) is Brian’s bailiwick. He describes DVD as “the future for maximum quality in both video and audio.”  Video Encoding transfers any tape source (VHS, Beta, Digibeta, DV) to disc, digitizing content in the process.  Expensive, ever-evolving equipment is required for encoding, but the process, according to Maguire, “demands artistic skill for maximum results.”

Brian, 33, honed his cyber art skills following his 1991 graduation from the University of Oregon with an economics degree and companion studies in computer science.  He chose the San Francisco Bay Area as more fertile ground than Oregon to launch his post graduate career.  A technician’s post with Visa card services led to a stint in a Stanford high tech research center, followed by an engineer’s position with Silicon Graphics (SGI) in Silicon Valley, where he got his first exposure to the film industry.  SGI also exposed him to work for NASA and the National Security Agency.  Maguire relates that visits to the latter’s headquarters were “a scary, sci-fi sort of experience.”

Seattle cyberspace beckons

While with SGI (now a Video Encoding client), Brian was invited to move to a Seattle dot com startup that sprang to life when it seemed anyone who could talk computer was the darling of venture capitalists.    Now married, Maguire found himself commuting northward weekly from Portland, where his bride kept house.  

There were big dreams afoot in Seattle, as dot com mania reached its financial apex.  However, Maguire credits his academic background in economics for telegraphing the impending dot com crash.  “I quit the Seattle job the day before the firm went public because I sensed everything financial was over-inflated.”  
 
That decision begat the launching of Video Encoding two years ago.  The new firm nailed business from contacts and reputation Maguire made in the Bay Area.  The fledgling operation applied for and passed the severe encoding test for providing technical support for Spielberg’s feature films.  Today, Video Encoding also authors movie trailers for Disney’s Buena Vista studio. Video Encoding has taken flight with its cinematic skills, encoding films for airline use, with its in-flight disc production including an animated French Canadian series for Air Canada.

In the swim with DVD

The Video Encoding web site, http://videoencoding.com, presents work samples that include 3D animation for Portland Trailblazer big screen entertainment at the Rose Garden, online translations for PBS programs, national TV advertising spots, and more…the least of which would not be a recent DVD production on Sports Illustrated magazine’s infamous swimsuit issue.   Video on the Internet is expected to become an ever-growing market for encoding services.

Video Encoding encourages corporations to digitize their videotape archives.  This preserves existing material from the degrading endemic to tape and enhances quality.  Any firm can practice do-it-yourself encoding with a major investment in both hardware and software, but using a supplier such as Video Encoding streamlines cost and then there’s that talent to practice ‘black art’ that Maguire bring into the mix.   
 
Maguire is launching a new DVD encoding service titled “Reelmonster,” creating discs of audio/video producers’ work for review by companies or their agents in selecting a resource.  These demo discs are easily and inexpensively distributed.  

No nerd here

While you might expect that Maguire would fit the nerdy image of a computer geek, such is not the case.  No long hair, no thick specs.  He’s a dedicated outdoorsman (particularly a bird hunter) and can discourse and at length on environmental issues concerning Northwest fish and wildlife.  

A Republican, Maguire has seriously considered running for state or national public office, seeking, he avers, to “inject knowledge and good sense” as inoculation against bureaucracy.  That plan went on hold recently when Brian learned that wife Elizabeth is expecting their first child, due only days after the November election.

Meanwhile, Video Encoding prospers with the vision of a young entrepreneur who says he “grew up with computers from the sixth grade on,” and who has found a solid niche in cyberland.

© 2002 Dennis Dobson