Total Multimedia Software Development History

TMM's initial software development began with UVC (Universal Video Corporation) proprietary software based on the 7710 hardware teleconferencing communications board in 1990. The initial configuration consisted of a CD/ROM handling package from Sinano-Kenski utilizing the DOS 3.0 MSCDEX handles integrated with the UVC hardware board. This beta version delivered 30 FPS (frames per second) video from CD/ROM at 130–135 KBS (kilobytes per second), with a maximum of 150 KBS — TMM Beta TMMUVC 1.0.

This software version relied on the UVC 7710 hardware board and had no audio sync capabilities, relying instead on a secondary source for the audio stream. A first public demonstration was delivered at the Microsoft Multimedia show in San Jose, California. Developed for this show was a secondary capability to broadcast video from a remote video source, such as a camera, to the TMM system with the UVC 7710 hardware, decoding this signal in real time and displaying it at full screen 30 FPS — TMMUVC 1.1, 1990.

At this conference, TMM began negotiations with its soon-to-be software development team, headed by Andrew Young of Young Minds Corporation. Dan Shields (President and Founder) struck a deal to hire the Young group to build Microsoft extension tools, and TMM undertook moving the UVC 7710 code from hardware to software. UVC's direction had become completely different from TMM's, and agreements were reached to develop different products in different arenas. John Looney, President and founder of UVC, sold the source code of the 7710 chip set to TMM. TMM's Taylor Kramer designed and outlined software-only video delivery off CD/ROM. The first version was a standalone system for video compression, with input delivered through a video capture device and manually entered into the system via command-line DOS instructions — TMM Softvideo version 1.0, 1991.

Thomas Simpson (Director of Engineering) was given the Softvideo code to integrate and build a demonstration video. The capture stations were very particular, and only a few configurations and types of boards would work with the hardware. Once a configuration was reached and baselined, a 1-minute-20-second clip of the State of the Union address was placed on a 1.2 Meg floppy disk in March 1991. This video played full screen at 30 FPS and demonstrated the compression capability; the high compression ratio was reached due to the "talking head" effect and the software's ability to control flags and carry-forward capabilities. A floppy with this demonstration was given to Richard Doherty of Envisioneering magazine and shown at the Apple Multimedia conference in Palm Springs. Apple was set to announce that it would have proprietary first-party video software for computers in its next release, due out in six months, to be called "QuickTime." TMM Softvideo version 1.1 was the first software-only video product on the market. Softvideo version 1.2 added audio capability without SMPTE coding, using an "on your mark, get set, go" type of audio player best suited when lip sync was not a required element of the video production — TMM Softvideo version 1.1 and 1.2, fall 1991.

Development with Young Minds came to an end due to a difference between David Cote and his crew and the direction TMM believed it should take. It was Mr. Simpson's view that they didn't "get" what TMM was trying to achieve with hardware independence and resolutions applicable to Hollywood standards; the majority of the people working at Young Minds were tied to academia and were driven by disciplines acquired there rather than being consumer-oriented. This, combined with being behind on delivery and constantly changing options without engineering review, caused Mr. Simpson to deliver an extremely negative assessment to TMM's President and Board of Directors. Dan Shields backed Tom Simpson's assessment and made the decision to terminate the Young Minds relationship. TMM engineering cleaned up the code and baselined TMM Softvideo with the proper options and resolution to meet the emerging market and support the resolutions needed for the gaming market — TMM Softvideo Version 1.3.

At the Chicago CES conference, Tom Simpson met Richard Cowart of Savannah, Georgia, who represented a software development group, "Stage-Front." A team was put together to build an appropriate GUI (Graphics User Interface) for integration with Softvideo. Directed by Tom Simpson of TMM, Richard Cowart, Larry Cowart, and Vladimir Pullinkin designed the TMM DMK (Desktop Multimedia Kit) for production of CD/ROM-based video. With the help of Taylor Kramer of TMM, a MIDI-designed SMPTE code was developed to synchronize audio to video using the NTSC standard. Softvideo version 2.0 was developed and was the first package to sync digital audio and video for playback from CD/ROM, with decompression in software-only format on all PC-based systems — Softvideo beta 2.0, June 1992.

TMM designed a hardware platform that could handle the speed required to capture video files without dropping frames. With the growing personal computer market flooded with hardware and firmware from around the world, and no quality assurance or de-facto standards on the firmware and controller sets built into the motherboards, many of these systems would not interface with the different capture cards or hardware accelerators on the market. A special low-level format had to be developed to allow for sequential writing to hard drives and removal of error correction on the video stream, allowing the 600–700 KBS needed to maintain 30 FPS without frame dropping. These TMM producer stations were hand-built and quality-assured to capture 640x480 NTSC or PAL signals from any video source. After capture, the TMM Producer would allow the video to be edited and used with audio, test, and graphics; CD/ROM mastering capabilities were added and resizing controls enabled — Softvideo release version 2.0.

TMM began the task of enabling the personal computer, with CD/ROM capability, to be used in education. TMM partnered with JEDI (Joint Education Department Initiative) to build education software that utilized the power of software-only video delivered via digital storage (CD/ROM) that was not proprietary and would play on any PC without extra hardware needed.

Through its relationship with the JEDI group, TMM met with a local school system run by Dr. Ron Rigsigno of Blackstock School in the Port Hueneme School district, adding many features for education and ergonomics for students — Softvideo Version 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3, 1992–1993.

The CD/ROM market began to explode at this time, and TMM's first retail producer stations became available to the general public. At a cost of $50,000.00 for a producer station, demand was very good and orders were being taken. Tom Simpson was working with Paramount and Spectrum Holobyte, producing CD/ROM games such as "Falcon Gold F-16," "Star Trek: The Next Generation," and "The Art of the Kill." These titles were top sellers and were all produced using the TMM production system. TMM was also the first company to receive a Sony CD/ROM mastering system, which was hard to obtain and extremely expensive.

This was an added incentive to purchase the TMM producer station, since buyers received preferential treatment and one free master per title. Demand for Sony's mastering system was so high that Sony Corporate had even Sony Electronics line up behind everyone else. Feedback from TMM customers was incorporated, generating Softvideo Versions 2.4, 2.5, and 2.6.

Multi-speed CD/ROMs were hitting the market, and higher-quality video was being demanded. The honeymoon with CD/ROM was ending, and quality was in demand if artists were going to release content with their names attached — content would have to pass an approval process. TMM had already been using double-speed and multi-speed technology in its demo systems, allowing 300–600 KBS transfer rates. With processor speed doubling roughly every six months, TMM had the ability to produce even higher-quality video. Rodger Hutchison of CD-ROM INC Colorado was modifying CD/ROM drives for TMM, making the jump to multi-speed a seamless integration for MS-Softvideo beta 3.0.

This demo software was shown to Bill Gates at the 1993 San Jose Multimedia Expo. It was the first full-screen, super-high-quality video with SMPTE time coding to produce fully synchronized audio. Bill Gates' comment to Taylor Kramer and Hill Branscom (who had introduced TMM to Mr. Gates) was, "How do you do it?"

Softvideo Version 3.0 was a fully debugged release version that could be bundled with other manufacturers' boards and resold. The biggest technical support issue was the computer's ability to capture video. TMM's software worked with all Intel-based systems as well as AMD and other processors using the Intel Micro Code. New features were added as TMM worked with groups such as Fleetwood Mac and Mick Fleetwood, and Scott Page of Pink Floyd and Level Nine Video. Interactivity and special effects were added to increase the user experience — Softvideo Version 3.0, 3.1, and 3.2.

Knowing that RLE (run-length encode) based video had its limitations and would be hard-pressed to handle larger-format, high-action video — high-definition TV had not yet been proposed at this time, but logic dictated that better resolution and larger formats were on the way — Taylor Kramer enlisted the help of Tom Simpson to propose to the President/Chief Executive Officer and the Board of Directors of TMM that research was needed to look at different options for TMM's next-generation video. Dan Shields agreed and instructed TMM engineering to produce an API to allow the current Softvideo product to be proliferated throughout the industry — Softvideo Version 3.3.

Mr. Kramer and Mr. Simpson worked on a digital scheme to handle the conversion of video from analog form to a digital file. Using the logic of the telecine color block to preserve color depth, they built "swaths" for the look-up tables — the "swath" pre-processing technology. Dan Shields, having a superior understanding of mathematics, had Taylor Kramer and Tom Simpson look into the Mandelbrot progression. Based on the fractal design, Mr. Kramer worked on a fractal solution to the swathing technology, which was added to TMM Softvideo. This addition worked well with the RLE Softvideo version and produced higher-quality video as well as reducing file size. During the years of 1992–1994, roughly 70% of all video-based PC CD/ROMs were using TMM's video solutions — Softvideo Version 4.0 – DMK API Version 2.0.

TMM's DMK Producer stations were selling well as complete units and as an upgrade software solution, starting at $2,995.00 for a basic kit up to $50,000.00 for a professional production station with all the bells and whistles as well as 10 hours of customer and technical support. These, as well as the CD/ROM mastering service, were growing TMM well. Dan Shields was doing an outstanding job growing the company, smartly allowing R&D work to develop the next-generation Softvideo product. TMM's use of fractal-type 3D pre-processing led the R&D effort to Iterated Systems of Atlanta/Norcross, Georgia. Dan Shields met Dr. Michael Barnsley at the winter COMDEX in Las Vegas and introduced Taylor Kramer to Dr. Barnsley. After the initial meeting in Las Vegas, a trip to Georgia was arranged, and TMM and Iterated investigated the potential for a partnership in the video arena.

ISI (Iterated Systems Inc.) was focused on the fractal still-image market and had not had much success in the video market. Iterated was impressed with TMM's video and audio capabilities. Alan Sloan (VP of Engineering, ISI) was asked to interface with Tom Simpson so Mr. Simpson could evaluate ISI's fractal code. Mr. Simpson, using TMM's swath technology, produced a number of video clips for evaluation by ISI. Alan Sloan and Lyman Heard (Lead Software Engineer, ISI) reviewed the clips, and Mr. Heard commented that TMM had produced better video in a week than ISI had been able to achieve since building the video codec. ISI decided to let TMM take the lead on fractal video development and dedicate a team to develop the code to TMM's specifications. VDK Beta was engineered with Stage-Front as the engineering group to integrate the fractal code into TMM's existing software; this made sense, as both companies were in Georgia and did not have a time-zone differential to contend with. Mr. Simpson went to Savannah to supervise the setup and discuss the direction needed to bring TMM fractal video to market. Fractal video was extremely asymmetric in nature and required heavy processing power to maintain its resolution independence; this software was ten years ahead of its time and needed to be engineered to grow with the market given the limitations of contemporary video display capabilities — TMM Softvideo VDK Version 1.0 Beta.

Fractal video needed to have audio SMPTE sync added and Microsoft Video capabilities to enhance the DOS player. The Microsoft decompressor was a monumental task, as Microsoft was only interested in supporting Video for Windows; Microsoft had tried to suppress TMM's technology in the past, and there was no reason to believe that would change any time soon. Version 1.0 Beta was basically a demo player where one could control the environment. The VESA standard was just emerging for video cards and was a year away at best. Version VDK 1.0 was followed by Version VDK 1.1 with audio capabilities and a DOS universal driver — TMM's Softvideo VDK 1.0 release.

TMM and Tom Simpson were approached by Taylor Finn of Caballero Video, who had seen a demonstration of the new fractal video. Mr. Finn had a new full-length video project and wished to use fractals as a discriminator for his product. Due to the asymmetry involved in producing fractal video, Mr. Finn offered to accelerate a deliverable product by providing financial support to meet his timetable. This was acceptable to TMM, and the fractal engineering effort was accelerated, with production facilities moved to Stage-Front in Savannah. Mr. Finn's video was the best-selling product to date and the first to deliver a full-screen, full-motion 30 FPS video on CD/ROM to the industry. During this process, TMM Softvideo Version VDK 1.1 and 1.2 were developed and integrated into DMK Version 3.0.

TMM was the hit of the industry and the most actively traded small-cap stock of 1993. Development continued on the fractal decoder, with the majority of the work centered on the display mode. Due to the resolution independence of fractal video, the video display drivers had to be updated continuously; the most common drivers were added, plus a 320x240 universal driver, so CD/ROM productions could deliver a product usable by all. If the end user had a compliant video driver, they could watch the video in 800x600, 24-million-color display; if not, they could view the same video in 320x240, 16-bit color — TMM Softvideo VDK Version 1.3.

TMM needed a player for Microsoft Windows to stay ahead of the CD/ROM market. Microsoft was buying up titles, and the DOS application was becoming harder and harder to use, as Microsoft was limiting the ability to shell to DOS and take advantage of the DOS environment. A Windows VESA driver was added to the Softvideo player, and a streamlined decompressor was added to help offset the Microsoft overhead — TMM Softvideo VDK Version 1.4.

With TMM's migration to Windows, and interactivity becoming more and more important to users, TMM added key-frame jump ability and window-dragging capabilities. This allowed the Windows user to resize the video inside a window under Microsoft Windows v3.0. TMM also added support for stereo surround sound and analog audio types, allowing presentations to be built with audio overlays and Dolby audio. A VESA-compliant DOS player was added, and Microsoft MIME type support was added — TMM Softvideo VDK Version 1.5.

TMM worked towards making the fractal player less processor-dependent, adding the ability to utilize the processor power being added to video cards. Graphics-intensive applications were being built, and card manufacturers were adding video processors to their video cards; as standards were being adhered to, it became easier to build drivers for these cards. TMM Softvideo VDK Version 1.6 added these capabilities to its software as well as reducing processor dependence for video display — Softvideo VDK Version 1.6.

InstallShield was on the list for upgrades, as well as upgrading the swath technology. Version 1.7 was a jump forward and reduced the swath look-up table from 128 to 12 swaths. This also reduced overhead and increased Softvideo display capabilities. An easy-to-use install program was added, giving Softvideo the ease of use and ability to build standalone applications — Softvideo VDK Version 1.7.

In October 1993, Total Multimedia and IBM announced a joint marketing relationship at a press conference held during the SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) conference in Los Angeles. The technology — Iterated Systems' patented fractal compression running on the IBM Power Visualization System, paired with TMM's SoftVideo authoring tools — allowed still and motion imagery to be digitally converted into resolution-independent form, letting a single CD-ROM hold hours of material where traditional digital video of the era yielded only 30 to 72 minutes. At the time, TMM (founded in 1990 and publicly traded on the Electronic Bulletin Board under the symbol TMMM) held the exclusive worldwide license for fractal video compression and decompression for CD-ROM optical media from Iterated Systems, and counted entertainment-industry backing from Randy Jackson among its supporters.

In April 1996, TMM (by then trading as TMMI) announced a new licensing agreement with Iterated Systems to develop an enhanced fractal product aimed at full-screen, full-motion, software-only playback on Pentium-class computers. Consultant William Burnsed — President of Digital Video Engineering and a builder of Hollywood post-production houses including Hollywood Digital, Editel, and 525 Post — joined to assist on technical matters. Iterated's VP of Marketing, Bob Davis, Company Chairman Anthony Papalia, Company President Mike Fernandez, and software consultant Robert Holtz of Zeros & Ones, Inc. all took part in shaping the plan, which included a series of "fractal plug-ins" for tools such as Macromedia Director, IconAuthor, and Adobe Premiere. That October, following what Michael Fernandez described as "the TMM reorganization this past year," TMM and Iterated (led by President John R. Festa) announced they were working to redefine their business relationship to meet the challenges of the multimedia market together.

In March 1997, TMM relocated its corporate offices to Camarillo, California to deepen its relationship with Advanced Multimedia Concepts, Inc. ("AMCI"), a development partnership begun the previous September and led by Tom Simpson — TMM's original founder, then serving as AMCI's president. Among AMCI's projects was a still-image compression codec and browser plug-in called TRUDEF Image Technology: this is the origin of the TRUDEF™ name later carried forward into TMM's video codec. The following month, TMM outlined plans to produce a high-definition fractal video demonstration using Iterated's new Clear Video codec, with technical support from Iterated President John Festa and a Technical Advisory Committee drawn from AMCI, Zeros & Ones, and Highway One Media Entertainment.

In June 1997, TMM announced the acquisition of AMCI outright, bringing Tom Simpson back to TMM as Chief Operations Officer and board member, along with AMCI's web hosting business, secured internet shopping infrastructure, and the TRUDEF product line. The acquisition was finalized on October 9, 1997. TMM's release at the time noted that Simpson had previously led the engineering effort that took TMM to a $140 million market capitalization, and that AMCI's SoftVideo was "the first Fractal based software only video package for consumer use." TRUDEF was slated for distribution through SMG Software Solutions of San Diego, with an initial projection of 50,000 units and $20 per unit returned to TMM. Later that October, TMM and the Preferred Lending Group of New York reached a debt restructuring agreement tied to recovery of claims in excess of $5 million, with Lorne J. Mattner (VP of Business Development, formerly of Creative Cafe and the World Cup Organizing Committee) coordinating the company's planned DVD compression services center and related sports-media projects.

By December 1999, TMM had entered a development agreement with Digital Focus (led by President Robin Haskins) to introduce a new generation of products for the converging entertainment and computer markets: EZ Images, a $29.95 consumer still-image compression and editing program built on TruDef technology, and NexGen SoftVideo, aimed at bringing full-screen, full-motion video to broadband internet users — the same SoftVideo compression technology that had powered "Falcon Gold," "Star Trek: The Next Generation," and "Top Gun." In February 2000, audio engineer Ryan Eldred (a Recording Institute of Technology graduate with two decades of film and music production experience for Disney, Warner Brothers, Fox, and MGM) joined to develop an "enhanced audio" surround-sound technology for the next-generation SoftVideo player, working alongside Thomas Simpson, then Digital Focus's President and Technology Officer. That April, TMM brought on Joe Stratter as a full-time in-house Investor Relations specialist, with Magnum Financial Group retained as a consulting firm for shareholder communications and OTCBB compliance.

The archive is silent between 2000 and 2007, consistent with the dormancy described on the Technology page's account of this period, during which Digital Focus's ASF (Advanced Streaming Format) integration work went unfinished amid a series of legal disputes. TMM re-emerged in December 2007 (by then OTC: TMMI.PK, based in Calabasas, California under President Mike Fernandez), announcing it had completed a deal with Tom Simpson and the principals of Digital Focus — doing business as TruDef Industries — to acquire all rights to their enhancement work on the 1990s fractal video codec.

The turning point referenced on the Technology page began in mid-2011, when a group of TMM shareholders petitioned a Nevada court to compel a shareholders' meeting under Nevada Revised Statute §78.330. At that meeting, held October 17, 2011, shareholders voted overwhelmingly (97.03% in favor) to remove Michael Fernandez and Dan Shields from the board and replace them with Gerard V. Cavanaugh (who became President and Chairman) and Michael K. Kozole, CPA (Treasurer and Secretary). By November 22, 2011, the new board committed the company to serious rebuilding, describing a "back-to-our-roots strategy of relevant innovation" centered on the VDK 2.0 fractal technology and promising that "our enthusiasm for the fractal code's potential increases daily" — this is the point at which the company's real reconstruction of the codec began in earnest.

Through 2012, the new management raised capital (a $500,000 private placement in January, followed by a $1,206,500 offering in July) and rebuilt the technical organization from the ground up. On June 8, 2012, TMMI acquired Digital Focus, Inc. outright and the board authorized expanding the programming team by up to ten additional programmers to accelerate development. Dr. Alan Sloan — who had co-founded Iterated Systems with Dr. Michael Barnsley in 1987 and negotiated the original 1992 TMMI license for VDK 1.0–1.4 — rejoined the effort as an advisory board member in February 2012, closing the loop between the codec's fractal-mathematics originators and its modern rebuild; the advisory board also grew through the year to include figures such as NFL Films veteran Hal Lipman and Oscar-winning Steadicam inventor Garrett Brown. A delelopment lab was build in Vancouver, BC and Spectrumbyte Technologies was contracted to provide performance enhancments. By TMMI's own December 14, 2012 historical overview, this accelerated engineering effort had brought the codec — traced back to its origins under Phillip "Taylor" Kramer in the early 1990s — to the point of private demonstrations to industry leaders, with a working VDK3 prototype in hand by year's end, using its own in-house developed TRUDEF VDK3 player.

The rebuild was not without conflict: on March 21, 2013, TMMI and Digital Focus filed suit in Nevada state court against several individuals and entities alleged to have misappropriated an early version of the fractal compression source code that contained TMMI's proprietary Softvideo (SVF) framework from a protected computer around 2002, seeking its return along with damages. Development continued in parallel, and on April 22, 2013, TMMI gave TRUDEF™ its first major public showing, privately demonstrating 4K fractal video compression and a new Fractal Video Player to broadcast industry attendees at the NAB Show in Las Vegas, displayed across a 110-inch, four-panel 4K monitor wall. In July, 2013 the codebase was rebuilt as 64-bit software to run on modern multi-core hardware.

In 2013 TRUDEF™ VDK3 Fractal Video was designed for high quality 4K playback at 2,000 mbps, 8x the data rate as specified by the DCI for Digital Cinema (2012 250mbps JPEG 2000 2K or 4K) on commodity hardware.

The company's public-facing momentum continued into 2014 — a Raytheon joint research program applying TRUDEF™ to Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance workflows in May, an alliance with Geppetto Avatars in December, a new investor relations advisor, and another round of NAB Show demonstrations — but active VDK engineering work stopped around 2014, as the March 2013 source-code lawsuit continued to consume the company's resources and attention.

The company remained at a standstill until April 2020. During settlement talks in the long-running litigation, Lawrence "Larry" Panik of Dimension, Inc. — one of the parties TMMI and Digital Focus had sued back in March 2013 over the alleged theft of an early version of the fractal video compression source code — attempted to license the legally disputed DFI/DFMI 2000 player version back to TMMI. In producing that source code for the licensing discussion, Panik inadvertently revealed that the disputed version was built directly on TMM's own Softvideo (SVF) framework, handing TMMI the legal leverage it needed in court.

The vindication reinvigorated development. Spectrumbyte Technologies undertook a significant refactoring of the 2013 codebase to modern 2026 engineering standards, the effort documented elsewhere on this site as the hardening of TRUDEF™ VDK3 into its final legacy version. That work produced TRUDEF™ VDK3.1, which is now publicly available — and, per the Technology page's roadmap, the springboard for the next-generation FractalPix codec.

Critically, the architecture of the TRUDEF™ VDK3.1 fractal video player proves with 100% certainty that TMMI built its own player code from scratch, based on its original 1994 engineering. This makes the modern TMMI technology completely separate and independent from the 2000 DirectShow filter version that Panik claimed to own and for which he falsely accused TMMI of theft. The historical reality is that in 2000, TMMI merely subcontracted DFI to port TMMI's Softvideo and VDK2.1 for Windows DirectShow integration; Panik’s 2019 claims that TMMI "stole" this player are entirely baseless, as TMMI's current codebase is a distinct, modern advancement developed independently by TMMI starting in 2012/2013.

While TRUDEF™ VDK3.1 serves as the definitive legacy standard, it also acts as the springboard for the next-generation FractalPix codec. This upcoming evolution represents a complete departure from the long-standing VDK legacy, utilizing an entirely different architectural foundation to meet the demands of future media standards.