Sound & Vision Home Theater Tune-Up

Ovation Software, 2002

My writing life during the few years I functioned as Marketing Director for the Entertainment Group at Hachette Filipacchi Media was largely restricted to promotional and advertorial work, but co-producing and scripting this set-up DVD on behalf of the Sound & Vision brand was a major exception. Ovation Software was a specialty publisher that had already released a couple of DVD set-up discs with video and audio test patterns that technically-inclined enthusiasts could use to fine-tune their televisions and audio systems. Ovation’s owner Tony Stump wanted to partner with us on something more accessible to a broader audience, and I jumped at the chance to take it on. We cast two actors as a young couple struggling to properly learn about and set up their home theater, and the script put them in comic situations to introduce the different steps in the process: learning about home theater basics, installation, tuning the video and audio, etc. The disc earned a Design & Engineering Showcase Award at the 2002 Consumer Electronics Show. We sold it with ads in the magazine and online for about $20 a pop, and retail giant Best Buy liked what they saw and combined the DVD with a few wire-ties in their own branded box for sale at their stores. Ultimately, the project generated about $300,000 in revenue just for Hachette during its several year run.