Star Wars: Episode II Makes Ground-Breaking Use of Avica Technology

Avica Technology Corporation announced that its Platform for DigitalCinema was utilized extensively during the acquisition, postproduction,Digital Cinema mastering and digital playback of Lucasfilm’sStar Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones.

Star Wars Producer Rick McCallum said, “We have beenworking with Avica throughout the making of this motion picture andfound their products to be ideally suited for use in several importantareas within digital acquisition, post production and playback. Perhapseven more importantly, Avica provided on-going solutions to the manychallenges we encountered during this groundbreaking effort. We reliedheavily on the technology they delivered, and they continue to innovateand pioneer digital motion picture production and delivery.”

“This is an exciting time for all of us involved in this newmedium,” commented Andy Maltz, President/CEO of Avica Technology.“We designed our product line from the ground-up for DigitalCinema, and we are honored to have had the opportunity to participateso broadly in this historic motion picture release. Digital Cinema ishere — it is reality, and we are gratified that our efforts havebeen received so positively by both filmmakers andexhibitors.”

During principal photography, Lucasfilm utilized the AvicaStillStore™ to examine, at a pixel-by-pixel level, the output ofthe Sony CineAlta™ Digital Cinema camera, providing image qualityanalysis right on the set and on location. The Avica StillStore is theonly product of its class available with the capability to zoom up to256x resolution, while maintaining completely accurate pixel-levelrepresentation of the original captured image.

The Avica MotionStore™ was used at Skywalker Sound during thefinal mix of the motion picture to provide playback of high definitionimages while interlocked with a multi-channel audio recorder.MotionStore’s random access, uncompressed high definitionplayback capabilities ideally suited Lucasfilm’s requirements forhighest-quality picture playback during the mixing process.

Working together with Industrial Light & Magic, Avica provided acomprehensive suite of encoding hardware, software and contentpackaging tools to manage the process of creating final digitaldistribution masters, encrypted for secure delivery via satellite andDVD. The Avica DataStore™ was used to encode, secure and packagethe digital movie data in formats for worldwide distribution in ninelanguages, including both dubbed and subtitled versions.

Avica’s technology also played a key role in enabling themotion picture’s delivery for multiple manufacturers’Digital Cinema servers, a significant advancement over previous DigitalCinema releases. Avica, working alongside Lucasfilm’s THXdivision, encrypted and packaged the movie for secure delivery to beplayed on any of the MPEG2 Interop Partners’ servers.

The Avica FilmStore™ product line is the first line of DigitalCinema servers to have earned THX Certification, and has been deployedfor Episode II playback in eleven countries across Europe, NorthAmerica and Asia thus far, and at more locations than any other DigitalCinema server. Compression-, encryption-, and deliverymedium-independent, the FilmStore is a standards-based, flexible andcost-effective solution for theatrical exhibition that supports manyforms of content and protects exhibitors’ investment with itscomponent-based, future-proof design.