The story
Six channels are easy. Six channels in the wrong order are a disaster.
As DVD and multichannel production became file based, professional encoding created a surprisingly mundane problem: several source files had to travel together, remain complete, retain the correct channel order and arrive with the right instructions. Encoding time was valuable, and discovering a missing or misplaced channel at the end of the process was a poor use of it.
AGM’s XEncode architecture treated that as a workflow problem rather than merely a codec problem. A 2002 AGM document describes a networked server managing encoding and transcoding jobs, secure receipt and delivery, content assets and modular processing. Its first module was DTS encoding for CD and DVD, described in the document as the first commercially available implementation of DTS-ES 6.1 encoding.
dotAGM: pack first, encode later
The companion dotAGM utility ran on Macintosh and Windows workstations. It collected the source audio, checked completeness and integrity, and packed the material into a transportable job before it was sent across the network. That separation mattered: the workstation could prepare a job while the server did the processor-intensive encoding elsewhere.
When the technology moved to DTS
A later background document states plainly that the solutions developed by AGM were by then owned and marketed by DTS as the DTS Pro Series Surround Encoders. The standalone suite became Pro Packer, Pro Encoder and Pro Encrypter. For larger installations the DTS Pro Series Network Server ran on a Macintosh Xserve, allowing multiple users to submit jobs to a central encoder.
The Institute of Sound Recording at the University of Surrey was an early adopter of that network system. The attraction was straightforward: many students and researchers could prepare surround material without each workstation needing to become an encoding station.
A naming point worth preserving
Xserve was Apple’s server hardware platform. AGM’s historical product was XEncode and the associated network/software workflow. The later DTS network product ran on Xserve hardware. Keeping those names separate makes the development trail clearer rather than less impressive.