Archive of the Digital Content Creation Category

(LOS ANGELES) Boxx Communications, the North America headquarters and official reseller for Emmy Award(r)-winning manufacturer Boxx TV, will unveil Boxx TV’s latest available technology, including the Meridian Lite and the Meridian Tallis, at its booth (C7219) at the NAB Show(r). The annual conference will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada, April 14-19. Boxx’s Meridian product line is used on a wide variety of projects from the upcoming James Bond film Skyfall, to the live Brit Awards, and Emmy Award-winning Modern Family, among others.

“Our demonstrations at NAB will illustrate the ongoing development and innovation in the product line,” notes Boxx Communications Owner Mark Walker. “The team at Boxx is constantly in the field, working events, in venues, and with broadcasters. Our understanding is derived from hands-on experience and drives us to continually evolve and improve our products. What Boxx offers is an incredible option for the industry in terms of functionality and affordability. In many, many tests, we have beaten head-to-head ratings with the more expensive, and in some cases more well-known, competitors.”

The Meridian Lite is an affordable, entry-level RF HD camera system with zero-delay transmission for live broadcast and videography. The less than $10,000 price puts the technology in reach of more budget-conscious users, and is upgradable to Boxx TV’s full-featured, high-end Meridian wireless RF HD camera system. With its lightweight, wireless transmitter, Meridian Lite supports full 4:2:2 video including all formats up to 1080/30p, and delivers uncompressed, artifact-free broadcast video and sound in synch.

Conference goers will also get their first look at the Meridian Tallis, an iris control and tally indicator accessory that provides tally and iris only control, and complements any brand of broadcast camera on a wireless rig or Steadicam. The product is small enough to mount on any camera and the control knob gives accurate high-resolution control to the iris. As Tallis only controls the lens, there is no black level or red/blue gain control, but at a price of around $3,500, it opens up a solution to productions where iris only control is sufficient.

“The Meridan Tallis solves the tricky problem of providing iris control for a variety of different manufacturers’ cameras by tapping directly into the lens to adjust the aperture,” explains Boxx TV co-founder Scott Walker. “There simply isn’t another solution as this price point to control the iris on wireless camera rigs. This enables you to match the brightness of the video from a wireless camera with other cameras.”

In addition to the Meridian Lite and the Meridian Tallis, Boxx will also be demonstrating the Meridian System which provides 4:2:2 uncompressed video with zero delay; the Cobalt system which offers an alternative to COFDM systems with a bi-directional packet acknowledgement protocol that offers extremely robust transmissions; the Cerulean which delivers the quality and reliability of full HD uncompressed fiber link in a cable-free, wireless environment; and a prototype of a lightweight h.264 HD system designed for UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles) including a quadcoptor.
For more information about Boxx Communications, visit www.boxxusa.com or call 310.287.1285.

About Boxx Communications
Boxx Communications is the Los Angeles-based headquarters and official North America reseller for Boxx TV, an Emmy Award(r)-winning manufacturer. Boxx Communications provides the broadcast industry with a wide range of innovative digital microwave systems for live broadcasts, as well as Steadicam, portable field, video assist and ENG applications. The Boxx product portfolio includes the Meridian System which provides 4:2:2 uncompressed video with zero delay; the Zenith Wireless system which is designed for HD live productions, big screens, helicopters, and reality shows where range and signal reliability are essential; and the Meridian Tallis, an iris control and tally indicator accessory that provides tally and iris only control, and complements any brand of broadcast camera on a wireless rig or Steadicam. Boxx is revolutionizing the industry with reliable, cost-effective, and groundbreaking technology. Continually innovating, constantly advancing, Boxx Communications offers impeccable solutions. For more information about Boxx Communications, visit www.boxxusa.com or call 310.287.1285.

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Media Contacts:
ignite strategic communications
Sally Christgau (sally@ignite.bz / 415.238.2254)
Chris Purse (chris@ignite.bz / 818.303.8088)

NEW YORK, New York- Nestled in the heart of New York City, premier audio post production house, Mixopolis, recently purchased a Fairlight Xynergi system in order to maximize potential and optimize workflow within their state-of-the-art mixing facility, providing television and radio advertising agencies high quality promotional material.

Mixopolis, who prides itself on being a full service audio post house, deploys Fairlight for post work including voiceover recording, lock to picture, sound effects and sound design. The ability to intake all audio and video formats through the Xynergi console allows them to stay on top of the game and offers the flexibility to handle any project.

Currently featuring work on Macy’s ‘Shop For A Cause’ campaign as well as other television spots and shows for NBC and HBO, Mixopolis continues to grow. With the addition of another Fairlight system, this time a Xynergi, Mixopolis looks to extend their reputation for delivering quality projects and top-notch client service from start to finish.

The addition of Fairlight’s Xynergi provides a secondary system that will allow the Mixopolis team to access projects and files while their other studio rooms are occupied. “It’s great to have the ability of prepping files or projects on the stand alone system,” said Mitch Raboy, owner, Mixopolis. “It fits perfectly in the area near our music library and is easy to access by everyone.”

For a system that wasn’t originally meant for full project development, Raboy and his team have been able to utilize it extensively due to ease of use and ability to edit material very quickly. “We all love the Constellation we have in our mixing room. This makes it easy for our team to take advantage of the second system. To our surprise it has been used regularly and we’ve even done a few complete projects on it.”

Speaking highly of Fairlight, Raboy continued,” We’ve maintained an upgrade path and still have and use the CC1/Constellation in house, which has been a work-horse throughout the years.”

“The addition of Fairlight to be able to drag and drop any file format to the timeline has been the deal maker,” Raboy added. “This was a huge step in the process to save time. We can now store video with the project and don’t need any other peripherals.”

Although Raboy and his team are not new to the workings of the Xynergi, some of the settings and processes of the console continue to make projects simpler. “The automation is great, being able to copy past projects to the current timeline saves time when working on multiple versions of a commercial. Having touch-sensitive faders and knobs under my hands is awesome. It’s great not having to use a mouse. Whatever knob or setting you’re looking for it’s right on the console.”

“Overall Fairlight has been there through it all and helped us to do our jobs at the highest level. The support has been outstanding and gives us confidence that we can tackle any job that comes our way,” Raboy summed up.

For additional information on Mixopolis, please visit: www.mixopolis.com

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About FairlightUS:
FairlightUS is headquartered in New Jersey USA and is the exclusive distributor for Fairlight products in the North American market. Fairlight has been at the forefront of digital audio development since its inception in 1975. Fairlight designs and manufactures media creation tools including digital audio recording, editing and mixing systems for standard and high definition audio post, broadcast and music production applications. www.fairlightus.com

About Fairlight:
Headquartered in Sydney, Australia Fairlight designs and manufactures media production systems powered by the company’s groundbreaking CC-1 FPGA digital processing engine. The Fairlight product range includes EVO, Xynergi and the new PyxisG2, all of which feature in the world’s leading broadcasters, commercial post facilities, music studios and film production studios. Fairlight has a rich tradition of innovation and development and is at the forefront of green computing technology.

XL Video supplied a projection system, Catalyst media servers and control, cameras and crew to the latest Florence + The Machine UK tour, once again working with visuals designer and video director, Richard Stembridge.

Stembridge was asked to present ideas for the influential and critically acclaimed band’s live show video early this year after they were impressed with his work on Arcade Fire. He collaborated very closely with Florence’s set and lighting designer Chris Bushell, and together they evolved a fresh, interesting live visuality for the show combining both mediums to great effect.
Stembridge has worked with XL Video on many previous projects and they are his first choice of supplier.
He comments, “I’ve always used XL as their level of support is unsurpassable! Their approach to, and their ability to provide for the most unconventional of touring situations puts them way ahead in my opinion”.
Stembridge had only a week to create the video elements of the show, which meant a lot of additions and support from XL, where the tour was project managed by Jo Beirne and Phil Mercer. “They came through every time,” he says.
Both Beirne and Mercer commented on how enjoyable it is to work with artists using video in more unusual and inventive contexts.
The flown set was 40 ft wide and 16 ft high. It comprised seven conjoined trapezoidal panels and was constructed by Hangman / Metalman from frosted polycarbonate material. It resembled a series of large Art Deco style glass mirrors with a milky-white finish. These were carefully edged in chrome to allow them to be joined together to form the overall backdrop and split into tour-able sections.
The idea was the panels could be lit from behind or projected on to from the front or the two different types of illumination could be merged and work together seamlessly.
To fit the video – playback and IMAG – content to the panels precisely, Stembridge created some very detailed, millimetre accurate masking in the Catalyst .. so much so that it actually resembled rear projection at times and also bounced its own very unique quality of light back onto the stage.
Central to Stembridge’s aesthetic goal was wanting the projections to have their own mystique and sense of magic.
The projectors were five Barco FLM R22s. Three were rigged on a downstage truss above the audience, trimmed at around 35 ft high – so well out of sight – and these fed images to the main set screen, with one focused on the centre and the other two corresponding to the stage left and right sections.
The other two projectors feeding two IMAG side screens were flown another 20ft out to the sides on separate trusses.
These side screens were also specially shaped and hung at a five degree angle to mimic the style and shape of the centre of the main set. Stembridge worked with Hangman / Metalman to design a lightweight frame to support the 18 x 12 ft surfaces which were covered in a ‘Translight Midnight’ rear projection surface made by Harkness. This allowed them to almost disappear when not in use.
The control system comprised three Catalyst v4 media servers operated via a Hog PC console.
Eight Sony robo-cams positioned all over the stage were fed into this picking up the action, together with an operated broadcast quality camera at FOH with a 50mm lens, which was focused on Florence Welch. All nine were all routed into the Catalyst system via an SDI matrix switcher and directed by Stembridge for the show.
In addition to this, Stembridge created all the playback media for the show. He was given an open brief, and used imagery from the previous and current albums (‘Lungs’ and ‘Ceremonials’) and as his starting points for some clips, along with a number of other inspirations.
He ensured that the band’s original and newer materials received completely different visual treatments to differentiate it as appropriate – more floral and organic for the older, and straighter, cleaner and more defined for the newer, as the projection surfaces took on an almost ‘stained glass’ role in the narrative experience.
The set screen panels received camera and playback footage in various combinations, with projection for each of the seven set panels controlled individually using 11 Mix Windows and 32 Catalyst layers.
Due to the angle of the three front truss projectors, he had to apply a transparent background and heavily keystoned Mix Window technique in the Catalyst to all the projected images and material. This avoided overspill between the surface areas across a single 1920 x 1080 output.
The feed was distributed to three Folsom ImagePRO HD machines used to scale and position the output respectively, ensuring that only the relevant portion of the output was sent to each of the three set projectors.
The keystoning of the Mix Windows was so extreme that the Catalyst layer keystone function could not un-stretch the content! Instead, Stembridge created a custom After-Effects Project to reverse the keystoning on any of the content he made before adding it to the Catalyst’s Library.
For the camera shots, this wasn’t possible, so he used a fusion of the Keystone function, scaling and X-Y-Z rotation on the camera layers to achieve the smallest possible amount of stretch, which fortuitously also fitted the overall look and design of the projection extremely well.
In some songs, the projection was precision masked to fill just the chrome detail edging of the set panels or just a circular section at the top centre of the set ‘wall’, leaving the main surfaces to be illuminated with lights.
All of this careful planning and meticulously imagineering combined to produce the distinctive, innovative and more provocative stage appearance that Stembridge and Bushell wanted.
The fantastic results were also due to the efforts of Stembridge’s hard-working XL Video projection crew – Toby Vogel and Kevin Parry – who additionally operated the eight robo-cams during the shows!
Video content ran for most of the performance, starting by subtly highlighting the chrome set elements and the circle. The full screen burst into life every night with massive impact in the fourth number “Cosmic Love” ….. greeted by an enormous and rapturous response from the audience …. and the visual trip expanded and invigorated from there.
Ends.
Date of issue : 28th March 2012.
For more press info on XL Video UK, please contact Louise Stickland on +44 (0)1865 202679 or +44 (0)7831 329888 or Email ‘louise@loosplat.com’. To contact XL Video UK direct, call +44 (0)1442 849400 or check www.xlvideo.tv

See Calibre UK at NAB 2012, Booth N1817, 16-19 April 2012, Las Vegas

Cost-effective HD and SD motion compensated standards converter with real-time noise reduction and image enhancement

British video image processing hardware manufacturer, Calibre UK will introduce the new FoveaHD MEMC motion compensated frame rate converter into the broadcast marketplace at NAB 2012.

“The FoveaHD is a completely new motion compensated standards convertor designed for cost-effective and smooth SD and HD broadcasting. Typical applications for FoveaHD include newsgathering, mobile operations, outside broadcasting and live events to studio dubbing and satellite broadcast communications,” says Tim Brooksbank, Chairman at Calibre UK.

The convertor has multiple SD and HD inputs and outputs to enable upconversion, downconversion, cross conversion, as well as converting between all common frame rates. Adding to its functionality, the FoveaHD convertor is equipped with 3G-SDI and Analog I/O. FoveaHD provides motion compensated HD and SD standards conversion at the price of a standard linear video converter.

FoveaHD also has powerful image restoration capabilities for archive conversion, a valuable library asset.

VITC embedded time code is supported and includes automatic delay and correction.

The 2U rack system has control via Ethernet or front panel keyboard ensuring smooth integration.

“The introduction of FoveaHD follows the success of our VideoExcel series broadcast grade universal format converters and frame synchronizers, which will also be on show at NAB alongside the latest HQView530 video scalers, format convertors and scan convertors aimed at the professional video market,” adds Brooksbank.

Calibre UK will exhibit on booth N1817 at NAB 2012 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA between 16-19 April 2012.

www.calibreuk.com

New sideKick HD(TM) and sideKick HD Studio(TM) Digital Video Recorders Enable Instant Import of Camera Footage Into Avid(R) Without Transcoding more

MONTREAL (March 20, 2012) — Fabric Engine Inc (www.fabricengine.com), a software engineering company focused on bringing multi-threaded, compiled performance to developers working with dynamic languages, has launched V.1.0 of its high-performance computing platform, Fabric Engine. The server- and client-side Fabric Engine technology is now available to programmers under the AGPL license.

Fabric Engine taps into the power of modern, multi-core hardware to bring multi-threaded, compiled performance to dynamic languages such as JavaScript and Python. The benefits of dynamic languages are well-known – they’re easy to use and fast to work with. However, they are slow when compared to compiled languages. Until now, dynamic language applications have to be re-built using compiled languages in order to provide performance, which introduces significant costs. Fabric Engine gives the same performance as multi-threaded C++, yet retains the ease of use and speed of iteration of dynamic languages.

On the desktop, Fabric Engine is well suited for high-performance applications, such as those used in game development, animation, film production, GIS, medicine, and other industries that are greedy for performance. Fabric Engine currently runs as a browser plug-in, and is currently in beta for a Python/QT desktop framework (http://vimeo.com/38520178).

On the server and in the cloud, Fabric Engine is well suited for addressing compute-bound problems that require raw execution performance. With node.js, Fabric Engine provides an asynchronous compute model that works well alongside the other services that node provides.

Fabric Engine has been used in 3D animation, facial recognition, image/video processing, remote collaboration on 3D data, GIS visualization, medical visualization and semantic analysis.

“This launch marks the culmination of more than two years of hard work,” says Paul Doyle, CEO and co-founder of Fabric Engine. “We have many ideas of what can be achieved with our technology, but we also look forward to seeing all of the creative directions in which developers push Fabric. With our open-source licensing model, it is easy for developers to get started with Fabric Engine and start building high-performance applications.”

Fabric Engine is now available for download (http://fabricengine.com/products/download) and developers can use Fabric Engine under the AGPL open-source license.

Minnetonka Audio Software will distribute & resell bellwether dialog loudness benchmark

MINNETONKA, MN – Minnetonka Audio Software, Inc., a leader in production software for motion picture, broadcast surround sound and consumer electronics applications, announced today that they have finalized a worldwide agreement with California-based Dolby Laboratories, Inc. to distribute and resell the Dolby(r) Media Meter 2 product

Dolby Media Meter 2 is a software tool that measures loudness in audio content for broadcast, packaged media, cinema, VOD and games. Differences in audio levels between programs and channels or between programs and commercials can cause major annoyances to TV viewers. These differences have proven much easier to hear than to measure. Dolby Media Meter 2 addresses this issue with award-winning Dialogue Intelligence(tm) technology. Dialogue Intelligence automatically detects speech in the audio track and only then measures loudness. Dolby Media Meter 2 also supports ITU-R BS.1770 and the EBU R-128 loudness measurement specifications.

Dolby Media Meter 2 runs as a stand alone, cross-platform application and as a plug-in for AudioSuite, RTAS, and VST formats. To better address the needs of the post-production community, Minnetonka Audio has created a new, all-inclusive product bundle that gathers together Dolby Media Meter 2 with SurCode for Dolby E Encoder and Decoder plus SurCode for Dolby E Stream Player. The SurCode for Dolby E Master Suite package replaces the existing Production Suite bundle. Dolby Media Meter 2, along with the new Master Suite, are available to channel partners and customers through a fully automated, online order fulfillment system.

As experts at surround encoding and decoding, dealing with correct dialnorm settings has been a vital part of Dolby Media Meter integration into AudioTools Server from the very beginning. Markus Hintz, Director of Global Sales and Business Development at Minnetonka Audio, reflected on the intrinsic value of Dolby Media Meter 2. “Dolby Media Meter is the most comprehensive loudness metering tool on the market, a solid and unobtrusive multi-platform work horse, with varied and unique measurement types. Dolby Media Meter is also the only assessment tool that can measure loudness within encoded audio and easily point to discrepancies between metadata settings and measured loudness.”

“Loudness metering and encoding are two essential steps to a successfully encoded program,” Hintz continued, “and Minnetonka Audio has an interest in assisting content producers to correctly encode their material, which hinges on correct dialnorm settings. Since software metering and software-based encoding products are typically used together, it can only benefit our customer base now that Minnetonka is able to offer a comprehensive solution. We are proud to be selling the pioneer in loudness measurement, bundled with our market leading encoding products.”

Dolby Media Meter is available for immediate delivery from Minnetonka Audio resellers and distributors and also directly from their eShop. Minnetonka Audio will be demonstrating the Dolby Media Meter 2 package at the upcoming NAB convention in April. For in-depth information on Dolby Media Meter 2 and how it integrates into the AudioTools Server family of automated QC and loudness control solutions for media production and post, visit booth SL7706 at the NAB show, head to minnetonkaaudio dot com on the web or, call Minnetonka Audio at 1-952-449-6481 or 49-2162-1062622.



About Minnetonka Audio Software
An award winning solutions provider for motion picture, video, broadcast, game, and optical disc production, Minnetonka Audio Software creates essential technology for top media professionals around the world. Their SurCode, discWelder, AWE and revolutionary AudioTools Server product lines broadly support the CD, DVD, BD and DTV standards, and represent the definitive leader in OEM codec licensing, as well as file-based QC and loudness control. Spanning over two decades of operation and based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, Minnetonka Audio Software, Inc. has a subsidiary in Germany in addition to an international network of distributors and channel partners who share their commitment to quality and service.

SurCode for Dolby E, SurCode, discWelder, AWE, AudioTools Server and the Minnetonka Audio Software logo are trademarks of Minnetonka Audio Software, Inc. All other company and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.

Verizon Wireless and creative agency Moxie recently tapped bi-coastal effects boutique Brickyard VFX to create seamless visual effects for Verizon’s :30 online spot “Send Reinforcements.” The spot broke last month as part of Verizon’s ongoing 4G LTE online video campaign.


“Send Reinforcements” features an embattled colonial-era general making a desperate plea to his superiors for backup. He sends off his request via carrier pigeon, hoping that his note will arrive in time. The general has barely turned around when all of a sudden the pigeon is back, response in tow. The spot closes with the general’s clever quip, “you’re quite the carrier,” a nod to Verizon’s speedy new service.


Led by Patrick Poulatian, the Brickyard team tapped Autodesk Flame to composite two unique performances by the general into one seamless shot of the bird leaving and then returning, landing on the general’s shoulder. Brickyard also animated a burst of CG feathers to emphasize the bird’s speed.


About Brickyard VFX
Brickyard is a digital production studio skilled in high-end visual effects, animation, design and creative development for advertising, feature films and emerging media. With shops in Boston and Santa Monica, Brickyard is artist-centric at the core, fostering a close collaboration of not only artist-to-director but the entire creative team. Within a cozy eclectic production space, Brickyard assembles a customized crew of designers, animators, and compositors for every project. Please contact Kirsten with Brickyard VFX Atlantic at (617) 262-3220 or Jeff with Brickyard VFX Pacific at (310) 453-5722, or visit http://www.brickyardvfx.com.


# # #


Production Credits


Client: Verizon Wireless, AOL StudioNow
Title: “Send Reinforcements”
Air date: February 2012


Creative Agency: Moxie
Creative Director: Carlos Ricque
Creative Director: Matt Whitfield
Producer: Cathy Weber
VFX Artist: Joel Roberts


Revolution Pictures
Executive Producer & Owner: Randy Brewer
Director: TK McKamy
Director of Photography: James King
Editor: Brent McCorkle


Acoustech
Sound Design/Audio Mix: Gopal Swamy


Co3
Colorist: Billy Gabor


VFX: Brickyard VFX
Lead VFX Artist: Patrick Poulatian
Producer: Linda Jackson
Executive Producer: Jeff Blodgett
CG Animator: David Blumenfeld

A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd. enjoyed a busy turnout to its recent ‘Video and Lighting Convergence’ UK open days, which showcased the latest products and innovations available from Green Hippo and PixelRange.

Staged at both AC-ET’s southern HQ in High Wycombe and northern office in Leeds, a good mix of people from many different industry sectors took up the opportunity to visit – including schools and educational establishments, theatres, venues, individuals working in broadcast and a cross-section of freelancers.

In a fast-moving industry constantly demanding quicker and more flexible control of multiple video sources and playback surfaces, the events emphasised the on-going creative and technical fusion between lighting, LED sources, ‘pixels’ and video technologies as a complete visual environment.

Attendees were able to delve deeper into the award-winning Hippotizer range of Green Hippo media servers. Product demos highlighted inventive new features of the latest v3 software like UberPan, for the control of multiple Hippotizer media servers as a single canvas, and VideoMapper, to fit and shape content across different scenic surfaces.

Visitors had the chance to discover why PixelRange are one of the industry’s most innovative providers of LED lighting solutions, with demos of the SmartLine versatile and powerful battens range, the QPar high output Par fixture and PixelSmart Par, which combines a vast colour palette with warm white LEDs for a brilliantly bright white.

To showcase today’s seamless convergence of lighting and visual elements, Green Hippo Hippotizer media server content was ‘pixelmapped’ onto the PixelRange SmartLine battens.

The format consisted of two sessions – morning and afternoon – separated by lunch and refreshments throughout the day. This casual format provided an ideal networking opportunity for guests to meet and discuss ideas with each other, as well as representatives from AC-ET, Green Hippo and PixelRange.

“Everyone was really impressed with the open days” reports A.C. Video’s Peter Butler. “The attendees really appreciated the chance to get hands-on with the products, and took the opportunity to discuss any inquiries directly with the manufacturers and AC-ET.”

Tom Warden from Milton Keynes based Impact Production Services comments that the events were “really useful”. He took the opportunity to quiz the Green Hippo representatives about the full product range, and take a close look at PixelRange’s newest LED technologies.

Eddie Stephens from the BBC comments on how “interesting and useful” the day was, adding that there was “a very pleasant lunch”.

AC-ET is the exclusive UK and Ireland distributor for Green Hippo and master European distributor for PixelRange.

Please visit the AC-ET website and Facebook pages for more information on future events.

Ends

For more press information on A.C. Entertainment Technologies, please contact Louise Stickland on +44 7831 329888 or +44 1865 202679 or EMail; louise@loosplat.com.

For more information from AC-ET direct, please contact:
A.C. Entertainment Technologies Ltd.
+44(0)1494446000
sales@ac-et.com
www.ac-et.com

New Single-Server Solution Delivers “Picture Perfect” Image Quality to the Giant Screen


Houston, TX: March 15, 2012 …The first commercial installation of Qube Cinema’s single-server 4K 3D system has been completed at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Using a single Qube XP-I server, the new configuration streams 4K image data to two Barco 4K projectors each with its own Qube Xi 4K Integrated Media Block (IMB). Visitors can now enjoy stunning 3D digital imagery on the giant screen, delivered from a system that is much easier to operate than the 70 mm film setup the museum used previously.


The digital cinema playback system at the museum’s Wortham Giant Screen Theater features a Qube XP-I server paired with two Qube Xi 4K IMBs installed in two Barco DP4K-32B projectors. Using a single DCP, the system is capable of streaming up to 1,000 Mbps of data through a dual Gigabit Ethernet interface, sufficient throughput to support dual 4K projectors at up to 30 fps, an industry first.


“Giant screen theaters have been anticipating 4K 3D for years. We’re very pleased to have partnered with Qube to finally make it happen,” said Derek Threinen, vice president, business development at D3D Cinema, which designed and integrated the new theater system. “The Houston Museum of Natural Science is one of the most prestigious giant screen venues in the world. To see full 4K content on the giant screen at HMNS is an important milestone for the industry.”


Moving from Film to Digital


“We decided a while back that we wanted to upgrade from 70 mm film to digital 3D,” said Charlotte Brohi, VP giant screen operations and film production at the museum. “When we saw a demonstration of the Qube technology in January, we knew we had found the way to do it. We showed our first 4K 3D digital movie on Feb. 19.”


“We wanted to give our audience the image quality they were used to with 70 mm film,” explained Brohi. “With the Qube Cinema 4K 3D system, not only are the images picture-perfect, but they’re steadier. And the artifacts we used to get from the wear and tear on film are gone. The quality exceeds that of 70 mm film.”


“Our projectionists love it because it’s so much easier to operate,” added Brohi. “Our techs used to have to haul 200-lb film reels up several flights of stairs to get them to the projection room – and then they had to load them onto the platters in our tight booth! We only had enough space for three 3D films at a time. It was a logistical challenge if we wanted to bring in a new film for a special event.”


With the new system, the Houston Museum of Natural Science is currently showing four different digital 3D movies: Space Junk 3D, Tornado Alley 3D, Flying Monsters 3D, and Ultimate Wave 3D.


Established over a century ago, the Houston Museum of Natural Science is one of the premiere institutions in the U.S., hosting over two million visitors per year. HMNS opened its movie theatre in 1989. The theater was converted to 3D in 2006, and has been one of the museum’s key attractions. The transition to 4K 3D digital technology allows the Wortham Giant Screen Theater to enhance its offerings while cutting costs and streamlining operations.


“Screening movies on the giant screen has always been a good revenue generator,” Brohi explained, “and that will continue. But we needed to find a way to reduce our expenses while maintaining, or in this case improving, the quality of the experience for our audience. We estimate we will save at least $200,000 in operating costs each year with the move to digital.”


HMNS is one of a very few museums which distributes and executive produces large-format films in addition to screening them. According to Brohi, they will soon make the move to an all-digital pipeline. “Sticking with digital prints saves money while keeping production quality really high,” she noted. “Other theaters will be looking to us as a leader using this technology. Very soon there will only be digital film in the giant screen theaters.”


“3D movies allow museums to extend their visitor experience, giving their audiences an immersive experience with documentaries which augment exhibitions and promote lifelong learning,” explained Threinen. “Visitors love them, and the simplicity and quality of the new Qube 4K 3D system makes this a win-win for the public and the exhibitor.”


The Qube XP-I server and Qube Xi 4K IMB are available now from Qube Cinema and its worldwide network of resellers and system integrators, including D3D Cinema. For more information visit www.qubecinema.com/products.


About D3D Cinema
D3D Cinema (D3D) offers complete digital 3D cinema solutions and services to museum and attraction industry clients worldwide, providing a unique partnership approach to cinema design and 3D content production built around four core capabilities – theater design and installation; touring exhibition theaters; an award-winning library of 3D film content, and custom signature film production. Visit http://www.d3dcinema.com.


About Qube Cinema, Inc.
Qube Cinema, based in Burbank, CA, is an international manufacturer of digital cinema technology and mastering solutions. A subsidiary of Real Image Media Technologies, Qube Cinema draws on decades of experience in cinema and holds a leadership position in the transition from analog to digital technology. The company is committed to creating a seamless digital cinema environment for exhibitors, filmmakers and postproduction companies with DCI-compliant products that are flexible, reliable and highly cost effective. Qube Cinema’s product lines include the Qube XP series of servers, QubeMaster software solutions, Qube Keysmith KDM generation and the Qube Xi 4K Integrated Media Block. For more information, visit Qube Cinema at www.qubecinema.com.