Archive of the Digital Cinema Category

Technicolor-Certified ProTune Mode Adds 24p, 35Mbps Data Rate; Non-Destructive 3D LUT and Color Presets to Greatly Enable Professional Production Workflow

HALF MOON BAY, CA & HOLLYWOOD, CA, – (April 17, 2012) – GoPro, the world’s most versatile camera, and Technicolor, a worldwide leader in technology and color-science, announced today at the NAB 2012 Show in Las Vegas they have worked to embed Technicolor’s CineStyle™ color profile for the debut of the new GoPro Protune™ (a free firmware upgrade available here for the HD HERO2 camera.

Certified by Technicolor, and developed by GoPro, the Protune mode firmware upgrade is a significant development for the professional production and post-production market, which incorporates Technicolor color science into GoPro’s latest product launch. These new features combine to allow professional filmmakers a vastly improved and flexible workflow for seamless integration with other source material and post-production platforms.

Key features of the GoPro Protune mode include:

• 24fps frame rate, enabling GoPro HERO2 content to be easily intercut with other sources without a frame rate conversion;
• 35Mbps data rate for the industry’s highest quality compressed image with virtually zero artifacts;
• Neutral color profile, allowing for greater flexibility in a color correction workflow;
• Log curve encoding, offering more detail in shadows and highlights;
• Reduced sharpening and noise reduction for improved flexibility in professional post- production and color design workflows.

“GoPro Protune mode is an extraordinary development for the entire professional production market – from filmmakers, cinematographers and DITs, to editors and colorists who are increasingly relying on the HERO2 for cinematic productions,” said David Newman, senior director of software engineering for GoPro. “Developing this with Technicolor has provided us with a level of technological expertise that optimizes Protune for the professional market. Filmmakers are making critical decisions every day on the tools they’ll invest in for their cinematic productions, and we are confident our collaboration with Technicolor makes their decision that much easier. We’re looking forward to our customers’ reaction when we unveil Protune at NAB 2012.”

“Technicolor is thrilled to make its color science available to GoPro throughout its Protune upgraded firmware,” stated Technicolor’s Alejandro Guerrero, senior vice president, Technicolor Digital Productions.  “With more than 130,000 (and counting) cinematographers already using our CineStyle color profile, we are committed to expanding the CineStyle toolkit and are thrilled to support GoPro as it expands its market base.”

Seamless Integration with GoPro CineForm Studio

GoPro Protune mode makes integration with GoPro CineForm Studio simple, automatically detecting Protune settings and applying the default adjustments to create stunning images. The workflow is further enhanced by a variety of color tuning presets, or ‘looks’ that further enhance the filmmakers’ story.

Using Protune with GoPro CineForm Studio Premium and GoPro CineForm Studio Professional provides additional benefits, offering extensive color correction controls and customizable presets to create professional, cinematic looks from the GoPro HERO2 captured content. Non-destructive 3D LUTs provide even more flexibility, enabling users to further tweak their images, manipulate saturation and contrast and color correction controls to create highly stylized content.

GoPro Protune mode is available as a free firmware upgrade through the GoPro CineForm Studio software, which is also available as a free download here.

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About Technicolor

Technicolor, a worldwide technology leader in the media and entertainment sector, is at the forefront of digital innovation.  Our world-class research and innovation laboratories enable us to lead the market in delivering advanced video services to content creators and distributors. We also benefit from an extensive intellectual property portfolio focused on imaging and sound technologies, based on a thriving licensing business. Our commitment: supporting the delivery of exciting new experiences for consumers in theaters and homes.

Euronext Paris: TCH   •  www.technicolor.com •  Twitter: @TechnicolorCo

About GoPro

Based in Half Moon Bay, California, GoPro makes the world’s most versatile cameras, enabling people to capture and share their lives’ most exciting moments in professional quality HD video and photos. GoPro’s HD HERO line of wearable and gear mountable cameras are used collectively by more consumers, professional athletes, and video production professionals than any other camera in the world. GoPro’s products are sold in over 140 countries via specialty sports retailers, Sport Chalet, Best Buy and at gopro.com

Bluefish444, manufacturer of the industry’s highest-quality uncompressed 4K/2K/HD/SD SDI video cards, announced that it has collaborated with ASSIMILATE to provide Windows and MacOSX X 3D HD SDI support for SCRATCH and SCRATCH Lab for its Epoch video card range.

Bluefish444 has been supporting 3D HD workflows since the release of its Epoch video card range at NAB 2009. Bluefish444 has extended 3D HD SDI support to its long standing industry partner, Assimilate.

Bluefish444 has a long history of collaboration with ASSIMILATE via 444 I/O with Symmetry software for HD SDI preview and print to tape. Now Bluefish444 has an even tighter integration with ASSIMILATE, offering 3D HD SDI preview and HD SDI print to tape, operated seamlessly from within SCRATCH and Scratch Lab on both Windows 7 and MacOSX X.

Bluefish444 will make the Epoch 3D HD SDI plug in for SCRATCH and SCRATCH Lab available as part of its next retail installer release for Windows and Mac OSX 10.7 in Q2, 2012.

Craige Mott, Managing Director of Bluefish444, states, “We’re pleased to continue our collaboration with ASSIMILATE. Both of our product lines are in wide use by colorists worldwide, and a tight integration ensures greater capabilities in DI and 3D workflows in a seamless fashion.”

“SCRATCH and SCRATCH Lab have built a well-earned reputation for being leading solutions in the digital workflows for DI and production dailies,” said Steve Bannerman, VP of Marketing at ASSIMILATE. “One of the primary reasons our customers love our products is because they can build solutions from a broad ecosystem of industry-leading technologies. Our long-standing relationship with Bluefish444 has delivered outstanding SDI solutions to SCRATCH customers for many years. We’re excited to see that trend continue with the addition of the Epoch 3D HD SDI support, and we look forward to support for the plug in as well.”

Bluefish444 is the manufacturer of the industry’s highest-quality uncompressed 4K/2K/HD/SD video cards for the Windows, Mac OS X and Linux operating systems. Its video cards are used in broadcast, feature film and post-production markets for editing, animation, compositing, color correction, restoration, digital intermediate, 3D and IPTV applications.

Bluefish444 cards have been used on award-winning feature films, commercials, music videos and sports events worldwide. Bluefish444’s range of video cards are incorporated in video servers, encoders, decoders and character generator solutions by numerous 3rd party OEM manufacturers, in addition to other niche & mainstream applications.

Founded in 1998, Bluefish444 is a division and brand name of Bluefish Technologies Pty Ltd., which is based in S. Melbourne, Australia. Its products are distributed via an extensive sales channel of OEMs, dealers, and system integrators globally. For further information, visit www.bluefish444.com

ASSIMILATE is the premier provider of digital workflow and post-production tools that have proven essential to the successful creation of thousands of studio and independent features, television shows, music videos and corporate video productions. The company’s SCRATCH products, running on Windows and Mac OSX, are the heartbeat of today’s most demanding digital post-production and dailies workflows for 2D and stereo 3D productions. They equip Directors, DPs and Artists with the state-of-the-art, intuitive, data-centric solutions they need to meet the continual challenges of increased creativity and productivity amid ever-shrinking budgets. ASSIMILATE’s SCRATCH data-centric DI system, is the most comprehensive, end-to-end cinema and broadcast imaging tool for playback, conform, editing, color grading, compositing and finishing of RED and other digital workflows. SCRATCH Lab delivers a comprehensive toolset for the review, versioning, color correction, conform and output of on-set or VFX dailies. ASSIMILATE is a privately held company, with headquarters in Santa Clara, California, USA, offices in London, UK, Groningen, NL and Beijing City, CN and markets its products worldwide via a global reseller network. To learn more please visit www.assimilateinc.com.

MAXX DIGITAL has teamed with ASSIMILATE and offer a turnkey Production Dailies Cart System, built around SCRATCH Lab, the industry’s most powerful end-to-end production dailies software. Designed to meet the needs of DITs and Video Engineers who produce dailies on-set for television shows, commercials and feature films, the new turnkey Cart provides image acquisition, data management, look refinement and dailies deliverables with support for all popular cameras formats such as ARRI Alexa, Sony F65, and RED Epic and Scarlet.

“Our new Cart System is designed to allow DITs, Video engineers, DPs and Directors to have the highest confidence in their shots, and produce dailies as fast as possible”, said Ron Amborn, CEO of MAXX DIGITAL. “We’ve taken the key elements of SCRATCH Lab- real-time playback for media up to 5k in resolution, sophisticated audio sync, and wicked fast background rendering- and surrounded it with the bullet-proof hardware, and lightening fast storage MAXX DIGITAL is known for. On-set professionals now have a go-anywhere system that offers the creativity and dependability that meets the extreme requirements of production.

The new MAXX DIGITAL Production Dailies Cart features include:

• An 8 Core Mac Pro loaded with 12 gigs of RAM, Nvidia 4000 Graphic Card, and AJA
Kona 3G SDI output card
• Assimilate SCRATCH Lab- the industry’s most powerful end-to-end production dailies
software
• Evo6G 16 bay 32TB Rackmount Storage at 1600 MB/sec, RAID 5 or 6 Storage with a
Spare Drive Module
• Eizo CG275W Monitor- cart mounted 27” Hardware Calibrated LCD with built-in
Calibration Sensor
• MAXX DIGITAL custom D.A.M. cart frame- a rock-solid 14ru cart with Mac Pro Drawer
with Optional Monitor Lid

MAXX DIGITAL is offering NAB show-special pricing of only $37,499 for the Production Dailies Cart System.

NAB 2012 Booth Demos

Visitors are invited to come to MAXX Digital booth number SL13105 at NAB 21012 to shoot with the RED Scarlet and experience the workflow of the new Production Dailies Cart first hand:

Shoot with the RED Scarlet and take your SSD to the Maxx DAM Cart, or Mobile Rocket RAID for processing. Also, capture live to Final Share, Maxx Digital’s shared storage network. See how D.A.M Cart: Digital Asset Management Cart backs up R3D files to multiple mediums, including SAS arrays, shuttle drives, and LTO5 tape. R3D files are then worked on in their RAW or processed format with ASSIMILATE SCRATCH.

Mobile Rocket RAID: MRR now supports Thunderbolt technology allowing fast access to Rocket acceleration and RAID 5 Storage within SCRATCH LAB. Final Share: MAXX DIGITAL’S premium shared storage network, allows clients to connect at 90 MB/sec over Cat5 or 450 MB/sec over 10 GigE. Edit files over shared storage just moments after shooting them with the Scarlet. www.maxxdigital.com

ASSIMILATE is the premier provider of digital workflow and post-production tools, that have proven essential to the successful creation of thousands of studio and independent features, television shows, music videos and corporate video productions. The company’s SCRATCH products, running on Windows and Mac OS® X, are the heartbeat of today’s most demanding digital post-production and dailies workflows for 2D and stereo 3D productions. They equip Directors, DPs and Artists with the state-of-the-art, intuitive, data-centric solutions they need to meet the continual challenges of increased creativity and productivity amid ever-shrinking budgets. ASSIMILATE’s SCRATCH® data-centric DI system, is the most comprehensive, end-to-end cinema and broadcast imaging tool for playback, conform, editing, color grading, compositing and finishing of RED and other digital workflows. SCRATCH Lab™ delivers a comprehensive toolset for the review, versioning, color correction, conform and output of on-set or VFX dailies. ASSIMILATE, a privately held company, with headquarters in Santa Clara, California, USA, offices in London, UK, Groningen, NL and Beijing City, CN markets its products worldwide via a global reseller network. To learn more please visit www.assimilateinc.com.

Production Tool Store is releasing its WaveCart Production Dailies Cart, based on ASSIMILATE’s Scratch Lab software, containing the latest production dailies and color grading technology for filmmakers and on-set technicians. Its compact foldout design makes it easy to quickly deploy and begin performing real-time color grading. It also does audio sync, iPad screeners and dailies. The cart includes Scratch Lab software, from ASSIMILATE Inc. to work natively with HD, Raw, and Stereoscopic projects during a shoot. Together with the Tangent Wave color ball controller, a color grading monitor, and Ocean Tides SuperSAN 18TB storage device, this integrated system brings on-set post workflow to new levels of sophistication. It is available to rent now through Production Tool Store and rental agent Panavision Canada. The WaveCart SuperSAN will also be on display at National Association of Broadcasters 2012 show in Las Vegas, located in ASSIMILATE’s Hospitality Suite and if room permits at Booth number SL13710.

The WaveCart makes it easy for colorists to grade raw camera and stereoscopic video. It has plenty of desktop real estate, while it’s designed for easy mobility in the field. Card-based workflows are quick and simple, making it easy to generate on-set LUTs for monitoring. The on-board mass storage device, the SuperSAN, uses RAID6 dual-drive redundancy for maximum data rate and reliability. Its file-sharing software allows for connection of many SAN clients to a single Scratch cart, so back-up and color correction can take place simultaneously. The SuperSAN centralizes data and improves disk bandwidth for working with native Raw files on-set, so production can review and adjust the days media in its true form.

The WaveCart has large inflatable wheels for going up and down stairs and over rough terrain. Hydraulic poles keep it from snapping shut, and the entire interior is lined with soft packing foam. Inside is the latest SAN-ready Intel MacPro computer with SCRATCH Lab, allowing MPEG4/H.264 with audio for streaming to iPad and iPhone, DVD dailies, and Avid OP-Atom MXF output. A unified balance of ingenuity and style, the Ocean Tides WaveCart is a one-stop solution to professional dailies and color management for qualified film-set personnel.

• Multi-core Intel MacPro with 12GB RAM, dual HD-SDI inputs/outputs
• Dailies, conform, color grading, and DI with Scratch Lab on Mac software
• Easily goes through standard door sizes and up/down stairs.
• 200-400MB/sec read-write speed sharable (SAN) external RAID
• Tangent Wave color-ball controls

To find out more about how this creative technology may benefit your production, please feel free to contact John Hooper from Production Tool Store at john@productiontoolstore.com 416-520-6293. Visit the Production Tool Store website at www.productiontoolstore.com or call toll free at 1-888-788-5496.

The WaveCart is also available through their rental agent Panavision Canada www.panavision.com with locations in Toronto and Vancouver. Contact Panavision Toronto at 416-444-7000, and Vancouver at 604-527-7262.

Based in Canada, Production Tool Store – a.k.a. Ocean Tides – have been at the forefront of developing technologies for acquisition and editing. Providing the best quality tapeless production tools, they strive to improve the digital workplace with new product innovations that demonstrate superior strength and reliability. They collaborate with Cinematographers, Digital Imaging Technicians, and Post Supervisors in the local and international marketplace as a key integrator of on-set post technology selling and renting on-set computer systems along with their proprietary QOS line of portable software RAID products. The QOS are quiet and lightweight RAID drive arrays that production crews can easily carry; each holds approximately 16-24TB of storage space. Production Tool Store Headquarters are in Burnaby, BC, with rental agents across Canada. For more information, please visit the Production Tool Store website at www.productiontoolstore.com.

ASSIMILATE is the premier provider of digital workflow and post-production tools, that have proven essential to the successful creation of thousands of studio and independent features, television shows, music videos and corporate video productions. The company’s SCRATCH products, running on Windows and Mac OS® X, are the heartbeat of today’s most demanding digital post-production and dailies workflows for 2D and stereo 3D productions. They equip directors, DPs and artists with the state-of-the-art, intuitive, data-centric solutions they need to meet the continual challenges of increased creativity and productivity amid ever-shrinking budgets. ASSIMILATE’s SCRATCH® data-centric DI system, is the most comprehensive, end-to-end cinema and broadcast imaging tool for dailies, playback, conform, editing, color grading, compositing and finishing of RED and other digital workflows. SCRATCH Lab™ delivers a comprehensive toolset for dailies, review, versioning, color correction, conform and output of on-set or VFX dailies. ASSIMILATE a privately held company, with headquarters in Santa Clara, California, SA, offices in London, UK, Groningen, NL and Beijing City, CN markets its products worldwide via a global reseller network. To learn more please visit www.assimilateinc.com.

ASSIMILATE, makers of the powerful real-time SCRATCH and SCRATCH Lab digital Intermediate and dailies workflow software, today announced support for AMD (NYSE: AMD) Radeon HD 5770 and 5870 graphics cards on the Mac OSX versions of these applications. AMD Radeon Graphics join NVidia Quadro graphics and AJA Kona SDI to form an extremely flexible line-up of powerful GPU and video-playback solutions for SCRATCH and Lab on MacOS X.

“SCRATCH and SCRATCH Lab for MacOS X have proven hugely popular since their introduction a year ago”, said Jeff Edson, CEO of ASSIMILATE. “Our support for AMD Radeon Graphics, coupled with our support for AJA SDI and NVidia Quadro graphics, offers our customers the best possible menu of options when it comes to Mac-based performance. Now, regardless of whether the camera formats and CODECs our customers choose to use are optimized for NVidia CUDA, or AMD OpenCL, SCRATCH and Lab will deliver the most intuitive, interactive user experience with the fastest rendering speeds possible.”

“We believe that applications like SCRATCH and SCRATCH Lab, optimized for FirePro graphics and OpenCL, can form a powerful, creative cornerstone for some of the most talented artists and storytellers in the world,” said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager of AMD Graphics. “We can’t wait to see what’s coming next as ASSIMILATE continues to optimize their software to our technology, further pushing the envelope of what’s possible, while enabling ever-more breathtaking entertainment experiences to television and movie screens alike.”

SCRATCH Digital Workflow Tools
ASSIMILATE’s SCRATCH end-to-end data workflow — from dailies, to conform, color grading through to finishing — and SCRATCH Lab, a robust dailies and VFX digital pipeline, deliver the industry’s most comprehensive toolset for data-centric digital cinema and episodic television productions for 2D and 3D stereo projects. Both products support multiple formats, including ARRI RAW, Sony F65, Phantom, and Canon 5D, as well as enhanced support RED r.3d at up to 5K resolution and beyond. New 6.1 versions of SCRATCH and Lab software, running on Mac OS X and Windows 7, feature SDI output via AJA Kona 3G graphics cards, wicked-fast dailies rendering, improved metadata and timecode handling. For pricing and sales, visit www.assimilateinc.com

ASSIMILATE is the premier provider of digital workflow and post-production tools, that have proven essential to the successful creation of thousands of studio and independent features, television shows, music videos and corporate video productions. The company’s SCRATCH products, running on Windows and Mac OSX, are the heartbeat of today’s most demanding digital post-production and dailies workflows for 2D and stereo 3D productions. They equip Directors, DPs and Artists with the state-of-the-art, intuitive, data-centric solutions they need to meet the continual challenges of increased creativity and productivity amid ever-shrinking budgets. ASSIMILATE’s SCRATCH data-centric DI system, is the most comprehensive, end-to-end cinema and broadcast imaging tool for playback, conform, editing, color grading, compositing and finishing of RED and other digital workflows. SCRATCH Lab delivers a comprehensive toolset for the review, versioning, color correction, conform and output of on-set or VFX dailies. ASSIMILATE a privately held company, with headquarters in Santa Clara, California, USA, offices in London, UK, Groningen, NL and Beijing City, CN and markets its products worldwide via a global reseller network. To learn more please visit www.assimilateinc.com.

Same curriculum offered by ASSIMILATE Authorized Training Centers is now available in comprehensive self-paced format

ASSIMILATE (www.assimilateinc.com), the leading provider of powerful post-production tools for digital workflows, announced today that it is offering a comprehensive, self-paced training course for its industry-leading SCRATCH Lab production dailies software. The new SCRATCH Lab course is designed to introduce DITs and Video Engineers to all the features of the software as well as train them on using Lab for the entire production dailies workflow.

Priced at only $49 USD, the course features the same curriculum that serves as the foundation for classes offered by ASSIMILATE Authorized Training Centers such as Movilola, Manhattan Edit Workshop and Digital Film School, and includes a detailed script and the media and project files needed for artists to easily learn the SCRATCH Lab dailies workflow. The script can be downloaded immediately from the ASSIMILATE Store, while the larger media files can be shipped on a USB drive for an additional flat rate of $10 for shipping and handling. In addition, artists who complete the self-paced course can achieve a SCRATCH Lab certification by simply visiting an Authorized Training Center and successfully completing the proctored exam.

“SCRATCH Lab has taken the production dailies market by storm, and is being used in major feature film, television and commercials productions around the world”, said Steve Bannerman, VP of Marketing at ASSIMILATE. “This training curriculum has already proven to be a huge success for ASSIMILATE Authorized Training Centers like Moviola as they have already sold out all the classroom courses they have scheduled. Now, DITs and Video Engineers can have access to the very same curriculum in a comprehensive self-paced format, so they can learn the entire SCRATCH Lab production dailies workflow at their own speed, and then earn their SCRATCH Lab Certification by simply visiting any Authorized Training Center and taking the exam. We believe that this type of training will make a huge difference for on-set professionals as they ramp up to meet the ever-changing challenges of the production process.”

SCRATCH Lab is the most comprehensive, powerful, and intuitive real-time tool for the production dailies pipeline, and has been used for films such as Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Company 3); TV shows such as Harry’s Law (Warner Brothers); and commercials for the likes of BMW, Audi (Brownian Motion).

ASSIMILATE is the premier provider of digital workflow and post-production tools, that have proven essential to the successful creation of thousands of studio and independent features, television shows, music videos and corporate video productions. The company’s SCRATCH products, running on Windows and Mac OS® X, are the heartbeat of today’s most demanding digital post-production and dailies workflows for 2D and stereo 3D productions. They equip Directors, DPs and Artists with the state-of-the-art, intuitive, data-centric solutions they need to meet the continual challenges of increased creativity and productivity amid ever-shrinking budgets. ASSIMILATE’s SCRATCH data-centric DI system, is the most comprehensive, end-to-end cinema and broadcast imaging tool for playback, conform, editing, color grading, compositing and finishing of RED and other digital workflows. SCRATCH Lab™ delivers a comprehensive toolset for the review, versioning, color correction, conform and output of on-set or VFX dailies. ASSIMILATE, a privately held company, with headquarters in Santa Clara, California, USA, offices in London, UK, Groningen, NL and Beijing City, CN markets its products worldwide via a global reseller network. To learn more please visit www.assimilateinc.com.

Cinedeck LLC (www.cinedeck.com), pioneering developer of mobile capture systems for motion picture and broadcast production, has enjoyed considerable adoption success with Cinedeck RX, its rack-mount, solid-state recorder, and today released details of how customers have implemented the technology across a diverse range of broadcast, mobile OB, visual effects (VFX) and aerial cinematography applications.

Cindeck RX was launched in January 2012, and one of the first customers was All Mobile Video, NY, which integrated multiple Cinedeck RX systems into its fleet of OB vehicles, and also offers Cinedeck RX systems for rental.

Eric Duke, CEO All Mobile Video, commented: “Cinedeck RX has instantly replaced the tapedeck, and we’ve done a number of shows right out-of-the-box, without any issues. Our clients have latched on to the Cinedeck RX immediately too. They are excited about the cost savings and the workflow options – it just works for them.”

MTV recently combined nine Cinedeck RX decks, rented through All Mobile Video, New York, to shoot the “2012 mtvU Woodie Awards”, which took place during the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas. Each Cinedeck was dedicated to recording a camera ISO, capturing simultaneously to ProRes 140 and ProRes Proxy on one SSD sled, with a redundant copy of each format pair on a the second SSD sled. The speed of Cinedeck RX processing meant that all of the footage was offloaded and ready for the offline edit within two and a half hours of the ceremony’s conclusion. Seamless relinking of high-resolution footage and proxy materials in editorial enabled the MTV editorial team to work problem-free and with unprecedented speed, with the show ready to air in less than two days.

PDG Helicopters, based in Scotland, is the UK’s leading on-shore helicopter operator, and is the first in the UK to use Cinedeck RX to deliver the ultimate quality in digital aerial filming to clients in TV broadcast, commercials and corporate production. Cinedeck RX is used to record uncompressed 4:4:4 from a gyro-stabilised Cineflex V14 HD camera, in wide range of frame rates, delivering variations of Apple ProRes, Avid DNxHD and Cineform codecs, according to each customer’s preference.

Peter Jones, aerial cameraman and PDG Helicopter’s camera systems manager, said: “Cinedeck RX has allowed us to mirror the industry trend towards tapeless capture, and to extract the full performance of our Cineflex camera system for the first time. As it records to a range of codecs, clients can leave the shoot with edit-ready footage, which ultimately helps their production costs – and that’s a great selling point for us.”

Procam Television, an internationally-acclaimed broadcast hire company in London, UK, has equipped a new, multi-purpose, mobile OB production vehicle with four Cinedeck RX systems, enabling capture from up to eight cameras. Along with its removable SSD disks that enable continuous multi-cam shooting, Procam Television selected Cinedeck RX for its guaranteed leading-edge performance.

John Brennan, managing director of Procam Television, said: “Given the constant changes in technology we wanted a product that was as ‘futureproof’ as possible. Cinedeck RX ticks all the boxes. It is always kept up-to-date through regular upgrades – a true futureproof investment. We have around 350 broadcast clients, all with different acquisition requirements. Cinedeck RX lets us meet all of their capture requirements effectively through one box.”

Stargate Studios, Pasadena, CA, a longtime Cinedeck EX user, is renowned for delivering high-quality VFX for feature films, TV and commercials. It recently deployed dual Cinedeck RX systems, in combination with dual Cinedeck EXs and on-board camera recorders, to assist the rapid delivery of 700 VFX shots for the ABC pilot Beauty And The Beast. The Cinedeck RX systems recorded, via HDSDI, the 444 output from dual ARRI Alexa cameras shooting live action greenscreen plates, plus the realtime composites of the greenscreens, with CGI imagery delivered by Stargate’s Virtual Backlot. The Cinedeck RX’s also transcoded the footage to Cineform 444 for color grading and editorial. The processing power of Cinedeck RX, and convenience of recycling SSD sleds, meant that morning dailies could be downloaded within 15 minutes, ready for shipping to the color grading facility. Ultimately, this enabled Stargate to meet the VFX production deadline of just three weeks.

Sam Nicholson, president of Stargate Studios, said: “Due to the extremely rapid turnaround and the sheer volume of data, we needed an incredibly fast workflow – and the Cinedeck RX’s gave us that speed. As with our previous experience of using the Cinedeck EX, the Cinedeck RX is highly-dependable, fast and helps to streamline the VFX workflow.”

Founded by cinematographers, and headquartered in the heart of New York City, USA, Cinedeck manufactures innovative, touchscreen recording systems for use with all popular digital cinematography cameras. Along with on-set monitoring, playback and quality control capabilities, these recorders also unify camera-to-post workflows by offering the industry’s most comprehensive range of edit-ready output formats. Cinedeck EX, the industry’s first camera-mountable device, has proven essential to the workflow on hundreds of TV and cinema productions, and has won TV Technology’s “2010 STAR Award”, the “2010 Vidy Award,” and DV Magazine’s “Award of Excellence”. Continuing this pioneering spirit, Cinedeck LLC has addressed the challenges of the mobile OB broadcaster with its Cinedeck RX rack-mounted, multi-format recorder, monitor and playback system. Cinedeck RX was awarded the prestigious “2011 Pick Hit Award at IBC 2011” from Broadcast Engineering Magazine. The new Cinedeck MX builds on the company’s proven technology platform to offer fully-tapeless workflow for broadcast and cinema entertainment production and post. For more information, visit www.cinedeck.com.

Upgrade features extended codec support for DNx444, DVCPRO-HD, H.264 and DPX

Cinedeck LLC (www.cinedeck.com), pioneering developer of mobile capture systems for motion picture and broadcast production, will premiere a significant software upgrade to its Cinedeck RX, record monitoring and playback system, plus brand new configurations of Cinedeck RX for broadcast and cinema applications, at NAB 2011 (Cinedeck Booth #SL13417).

Cinedeck RX is a rack-mountable, solid-state recording, monitoring and playback system. It delivers tapeless workflow to studios, broadcasters and post-production facilities working across the broad range of entertainment production in both 2D and 3D stereoscopic formats. It has the greatest native capture and codec versatility of any recorder currently available, delivering ready-to-edit files, and eliminating time-consuming and costly transcoding processes.

Now Cinedeck is launching brand new configurations – the Cinedeck RX Broadcast and Cinedeck RX Cine/444 (current Cinedeck RX system) – that focus on the different needs of the broadcast and digital cinema markets.

The new Cinedeck RX Broadcast configuration is focused on ease of integration into broadcast, mobile OB and multi-camera workflows. Along with delivering unparalleled HD codec and format diversity, it provides two-channel single-link HDSDI inputs with four single-link HDSDI outputs, full duplex video I/O for simultaneous record/play, character overlay to display/embed metadata on a control room monitor, such as status or timecode, and supports eight channels of embedded audio. It also offers uncompressed 422 2D and 3D stereo support, plus realtime up/down/cross conversion.

The existing Cinedeck RX is now the Cinedeck RX Cine/444 configuration, and supports high-resolution workflows that are typical in digital cinema production. Expanding the already unmatched codec choice, it also now adds Apple ProRes 444 and Avid DNx444 codecs for editorial, and comes with HDMI, dual-link and 3G HDSDI I/O, two channels of AES audio, and 16 channels per video input of embedded SDI audio. It also offers uncompressed 422 2D and 3D stereo support, plus realtime up/down/cross conversion.
The new, free-of-charge, v3.5 software upgrade extends Cinedeck RX’s native support to include Panasonic DVCPRO-HD cameras, and adds a DPX codec for post production, and H.264 for playout to broadcast servers, dailies deliverables, web-based services and iPad.

Cinedeck RX’s unparalleled codec support now encompasses all types of Avid DNxHD, Avid Meridien JFIF Apple ProRes and CineForm formats; uncompressed 444 (10-bit) or 422 (8- or 10-bit); AVC-I 100/50; XDCAM HD50/XDCAM EX35; DVCPRO-HD; H.264 and DPX. Footage is immediately ready for editing in popular editors such as Apple Final Cut Pro, Avid Media Composer, Adobe Premiere Pro, Sony Vegas and GV Edius. Avid DNx444 and Apple ProRes 4444 are available on the Cinedeck RX Cine/444 configuration.

Both configurations of the Cinedeck RX will ship with Cinedeck Controller, a free-of-charge TCP/IP Windows-based Windows application enabling multiple Cinedeck RX systems to be managed from any PC, or via a browser, with no additional hardware requirements. Cinedeck Controller will drive up to 24 channels (across 12 Cinedeck RX systems) from a single interface.

“The flexible architecture of Cinedeck RX has allowed us to rapidly develop brand new configurations that meet the operational requirements of different markets,” said Charles Dautremont, CEO of Cinedeck LLC. “With the launch of Cinedeck RX Broadcast and Cinedeck RX Cine/444, broadcast and cinema producers can select a tool that’s already tuned for their specific purposes. The latest v3.5 software upgrade extends the reputation of Cinedeck RX as the industry’s most flexible and versatile record, monitoring and playback tool, while delivering the same extreme performance.”

Availability: Cinedeck RX Broadcast and Cinedeck RX Cine/444 will ship in May 2012, and are priced at $14,995 USD. The new v3.5 software upgrade is also available in May at www.cinedeck.com

Founded by cinematographers, and headquartered in the heart of New York City, USA, Cinedeck manufactures innovative, touchscreen recording systems for use with all popular digital cinematography cameras. Along with on-set monitoring, playback and quality control capabilities, these recorders also unify camera-to-post workflows by offering the industry’s most comprehensive range of edit-ready output formats. Cinedeck EX, the industry’s first camera-mountable device, has proven essential to the workflow on hundreds of TV and cinema productions, and has won TV Technology’s “2010 STAR Award”, the “2010 Vidy Award,” and DV Magazine’s “Award of Excellence”. Continuing this pioneering spirit, Cinedeck LLC has addressed the challenges of the mobile OB broadcaster with its Cinedeck RX rack-mounted, multi-format recorder, monitor and playback system. Cinedeck RX was awarded the prestigious “2011 Pick Hit Award at IBC 2011” from Broadcast Engineering Magazine. The new Cinedeck MX builds on the company’s proven technology platform to offer fully-tapeless workflow for broadcast and cinema entertainment production and post. For more information, visit www.cinedeck.com.

Cinedeck EX v3.5 supports XD-Cam/AVC-Intra codecs, plus third-party control functionality

Cinedeck LLC (www.cinedeck.com), pioneering developer of mobile capture systems for motion picture and broadcast production, has announced significant enhancements to its award-winning Cinedeck EX portable, multi-format, recording, monitoring and playback system, with the forthcoming release of Cinedeck EX v3.5.

The new Cinedeck v3.5 software, to be shown during NAB 2012 at Cinedeck’s Booth #SL13417, extends Cinedeck EX’s native, multi-codec support to include popular native HD camera formats, and also enables control via a range of third-party devices.

With its robust and flexible architecture, Cinedeck EX is already the fastest gateway from production to post. It enables any camera with an HD-SDI or HDMI output to record to a choice of the most preferred finishing standards used in editorial and VFX post production today, including all flavors of Avid DNxHD, Apple ProRes, CineForm, plus uncompressed 444 and uncompressed 422 recording. Time-consuming and costly transcoding processes are eliminated, and material is read-to-edit straight from the Cinedeck EX.

Cinedeck EX v3.5 now adds support for the record/playback of HD footage from Sony’s XDCam 50 and XDCam EX 35, and Panasonic AVC-Intra class 50 cameras, and transcodes to a range of editorial and review standards. Additional codecs include JFIF Meridien and H.264 for playout to broadcast servers, dailies deliverables, web-based services and iPad.

Cinedeck EX v3.5 also ushers in VTR-like control of common functions including Record, Pause, Stop and Play, via several third-party USB control devices. These include P.I. Engineering’s X-keys XK-12+Jog & Shuttle, Logitech’s Professional Presenter R800, as well as USB keyboard hotkeys.

“Cinedeck EX remains as popular and treasured among users as it always has, and the new features included in v3.5, will keep it at the leading edge in terms of deployment and performance,” said Charles Dautremont, CEO of Cinedeck LLC. “With its sheer range of capabilities, Cinedeck EX represents unbeatable value for money for content creators working across the broad spectrum of the media and entertainment industries.”

Pricing and Availability:
Cinedeck EX v3.5 will be available for download in May 2012, free-of-charge to customers with a current maintenance subscription. Cinedeck EX is available for purchase via resellers worldwide starting at $8,495 USD–MRSP. Visit www.cinedeck.com to find your nearest reseller.

Founded by cinematographers, and headquartered in the heart of New York City, USA, Cinedeck manufactures innovative, touchscreen recording systems for use with all popular digital cinematography cameras. Along with on-set monitoring, playback and quality control capabilities, these recorders also unify camera-to-post workflows by offering the industry’s most comprehensive range of edit-ready output formats. Cinedeck EX, the industry’s first camera-mountable device, has proven essential to the workflow on hundreds of TV and cinema productions, and has won TV Technology’s “2010 STAR Award”, the “2010 Vidy Award,” and DV Magazine’s “Award of Excellence”. Continuing this pioneering spirit, Cinedeck LLC has addressed the challenges of the mobile OB broadcaster with its Cinedeck RX rack-mounted, multi-format recorder, monitor and playback system. Cinedeck RX was awarded the prestigious “2011 Pick Hit Award at IBC 2011” from Broadcast Engineering Magazine. The new Cinedeck MX builds on the company’s proven technology platform to offer fully-tapeless workflow for broadcast and cinema entertainment production and post. For more information, visit www.cinedeck.com.

Christie® hosted a high frame rate (HFR) Summit yesterday at Christie’s worldwide center for engineering, research and development in Kitchener, Ontario, touring cinema-industry luminaries through its manufacturing facility and providing the first-ever laser projection of high frame rate cinema and alternative content on to a 30-foot white screen.
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Recent Gordon E. Sawyer Academy Award winner Douglas Trumbull, Ian Bidgood, Technical Director, Park Road Post Production; Matt Cowan, Chief Scientific Officer, RealD; John Helliker and Bert Dunk, Directors at the Screen Industries Research and Training Centre and Demetri Portelli, Stereographer met with Christie engineering and product development staff for a vibrant information sharing session and discussion on high frame rates, laser projection, and the future of 3D and 4K projection.
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“Our guests were very impressed with our demonstration of high-frame rate content using one of our prototype laser projectors,” said Don Shaw, senior director, Product Management, Christie Entertainment Solutions, “as well as the laser projector development roadmap we shared in these frank discussions.”
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Big, Bright and Crystal Clear Will Spark Cinema Industry Renaissance
The consensus of the assembled industry experts was that the industry needs to differentiate itself from the plethora of varied viewing options, from tablets to home theaters and all manner of exhibitor setups, to raise itself out of its current malaise.
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Doug Trumbull said “Spectacular movies delivered at high-frame rates, on to big and vividly bright screens, will enable the production and exhibition of amazingly immersive cinema experiences that will be far more powerful than any other medium.”
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Echoing Mr. Trumbull’s sentiments, Ian Bidgood suggested that “…3D images must be awe-inspiring to bring back the crowds to theaters worldwide, and the higher brightness levels that are required to do justice to these images, along with higher frame rate material, will be delivered by Christie’s technology in the laser field, with new projector and cinema solutions for today and the future.”
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Christie plans on incorporating laser projection technology into its cinema product line, business products line and visualization and simulation solutions where it benefits its customer base.
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The Kitchener facility for projection, visualization/simulation, DLP Cinema and LED-based products and solutions is Registered to ISO14001 (Environmental Management System) and Registered to ISO9001 (Quality Management System).
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Christie’s Commitment to HFR
The two main goals of Christie’s HFR activities are to help the industry develop the best HFR content and the best delivery system for HFR content. The first goal involves assisting leading-edge filmmakers and post-production companies in perfecting HFR movie creation, so the industry has the most engaging, entertaining content possible. The second goal is to assist exhibitors in showing these 3D HFR movies in all their glory. To these ends, Christie is helping create the standards for 3D HFR movies through formal and informal technology-development alliances with major producers and directors, post production facilities, studios and technology partners. On the exhibitor’s front, Christie provides one stop shopping for all the hardware, software and services that enable exhibitors to deliver a filmmaker’s vision in stunning 3D HFR quality.