*Two series finish online

The move to digital nonlinear finishing is on.

Avid, one of the leading providers of digital film and television editing equipment, announced in mid-October that two u.s. primetime series, Profiler and King Of The Hill, will online their seasons using the Avid Symphony system.

Using digital equipment to online reduces the time in the edit suite, Avid says, because the work done offline does not have to be recreated for the final edit.

Avid also announced that its systems now account for 96% of all offline work completed for u.s. primetime programming.

*Agreement brings convergence a little closer

The hardware that will open the door to browsing the Web while watching tv is inching ever closer. Mountain View, Calif.-based VM Labs has announced an agreement with SpyGlass which will enable hardware manufacturers to include a Web browser with vm's nuon dvd players.

vm plans to include "breakout" content such as games that can run at the end of a film with the players. The dvd players with modem and browser capabilities will allow studios to provide online links to supplementary content on movies such as scripts, storyboards and cast bios.

The company's nuon media processor features an MPEG 1-2 audio/video decoder, a pal/ntsc digital video encoder, advanced 2D and 3D graphics, and a 32-voice Wavetable audio synthesizer.

No word yet on when the player will be on the market.

*First Wave of music off the Web

Vancouver's Peace Arch Entertainment has announced a groundbreaking agreement to obtain source music for sci-fi series First Wave exclusively from World Wide Web digital music distributor MP3.com.

Under the agreement, artists registered with the MP3 site can access links to view upcoming episodes of First Wave. Peace Arch, the prodco run by Larry Sugar, will select 30 songs submitted by artists to be featured on the series.

First Wave airs on Space: The Imagination Station in Canada.

*ADI gets exclusive rights to Microboards' systems

Quebec-based Audio Distributors International will begin shipping Microboards' StartRec multidrive cdr duplicator and digital audio editing system.

The StartRec system can be interfaced with most digital audio workstations or mixers, and allows for a variety of applications, ranging from studio recording and mastering to audio post and live recording.

adi owns exclusive Canadian distribution rights to Microboards audio equipment.

*Lions Gate signs up to buyers' site

A new website for film and television buyers will allow worldwide access to trailers, electronic press kits, synopses, credits, one-sheets and stills of selling companies' products.

Reelplay (www.reelplay.com) has signed up more than 50 foreign sales organizations, including Lions Gate Entertainment, since its launch Oct. 11, the company says. Since revenue will be generated through advertising, buyers can register free of charge. Content is also free to users.