Cutting Edge Technology Launches Its Business

Cutting Edge Technology, reseller and developer of storage and asset management products for video professionals, has officially launched its business.

The company, spun out of Media Distributors, the nation’s largest independent distributor of professional recording media products for the production, broadcast and entertainment industries, will continue to offer an array of products and services for large-scale media and entertainment, corporate, and government and military video firms and will continue its status as an Avid premier gold reseller for Southern California and as an Apple Pro reseller.

Cutting Edge Technology, based in Studio City, California, has developed a reputation as one of the industry’s leading file-based workflow experts, having developed storage and asset management software system, Constellation VCM, which has been sold to firms that include Universal Sports and Point360. Its Archive Station system was recently used to manage all video workflow for the David Fincher feature The Social Network.

Cutting Edge Technology has developed products such as the Fusion Drive, a unique hybrid recorder/asset management system that enables cost-effective HD video editing and effects processing, as well as the Remote Station, a remote editing facility-in-a-box solution, for clients that include the X-Games, Iron Man Triathlon and the Grammy Awards. The company also provided technical services for the live 2-disc DVD If All Goes Wrong, which chronicles the rock band Smashing Pumpkins’ return to performing.

"Our growth in the software and services side of our business over the past two years at Media Distributors had been so astronomical that it made sense to create a stand-alone, separate entity to focus more directly on the asset management needs of our customer base," said Steve Klein, CEO of Cutting Edge Technology. "The media industry has reached a tipping point in file-based workflow, and we are poised to take greater share of this powerful shift in the creation and distribution of digital assets."

Klein founded Media Distributors in 1998, and created a division in 2008 within the company to focus on the development of proprietary products and solutions for its growing base of file-based workflow customers. In addition to Klein, the entire technology group of Media Distributors will come over to Cutting Edge Technology.

Media Distributors will retain its tape and optical disc media sales and services business. Cutting Edge Technology will retain its renowned film product and services business, in addition to its roster of hardware and software products.

Klein is highly regarded in the film and recording media industries for understanding technical inflection points. He was previously a partner in a media company that sold to Daisytek. in 1995, just as the digital media business was ramping up, prior to founding Media Distributors. He began his career as a film editor, working on such Hollywood blockbusters as Star Trek and alongside such producers and directors as Richard Donner and Hal Ashby, among others.