3D Redux: Highlights of IBC 2008
Submitted by Nick Dager on Wed, 10/01/2008 - 10:08.
As it has been in recent years, big screen digital 3D was once again a highlight of the annual IBC convention in Amsterdam, which is fair given all the hard work that manufacturers and the creative community have poured into the emerging technology. The top award in the IBC Innovation Awards, the Judges prize, went to Disney’s Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert.
The Hannah Montana movie also won the content creation award for the stereoscopic post-production workflow created by Los Angeles post house FotoKem Film & Video, based on technology from Quantel including its Pablo 3D and Genetic Engineering. It allowed FotoKem to meet the requirements of its client, Walt Disney Pictures, to complete the movie in an incredibly short timeframe.
“It was pure serendipity when Walt Disney Pictures presented us with this project,” says John Nicolard, head of digital production at FotoKem. “The requirements exactly complemented the technical capabilities we had only recently incorporated into our pipeline using Quantel’s 3D technology. The opportunity to work on a project with this magnitude of technical challenge was a deeply satisfying experience.”
At the end of the ceremony Todd Cogan of Pace, who shot the movie, joined the team on stage. “Pace is proud to have worked with Disney on every level of the project to raise the bar within 3D and revolutionize the production experience,” Cogan says. “We are delighted that IBC has rewarded the Hannah project with this prestigious award.”
After accepting the award Howard Lukk, vice president of production technology at the Walt Disney Studios said, “Special thanks really does go to IBC because it was here last year that I actually met with all those people, and after looking Quantel in the eye and saying ‘will you support me in one month to do this project’, they stepped up to the plate and really supported us. So thank you IBC – thank you.”
Ray Cross, CEO, Quantel says, "It's a huge honor to be recognized in this way by our peers. This business is all about working closely with your customers; the creative partnership between Walt Disney Pictures, and everyone involved that brought the 'Hannah Montana' project to such a successful conclusion in so short a time is a fine example of this philosophy in practice."
IBC presented the team that developed Super Hi-Vision with a special award. Super Hi-Vision offers four times the resolution of HD in each direction: an image resolution of 7680 pixels on 4320 lines, with an immersive 22.2 channel surround sound system. Experiencing it is stunning, but it now forms part of international co-operative research between NHK in Japan – which created Super Hi-Vision – BBC, IRT and RAI with support from EBU, a team now known as the Broadcast Technology Futures Group.
The IBC special award is for the first international transmission of Super Hi-Vision content. Achieving this has called for considerable investment in time and technology by a large number of organizations.
In Central London there is a live Super H-Vision camera high above the River Thames. The BBC - along with its technology partner Siemens IT Solutions and Services and SIS Live - operate the camera and send video and audio over the London fiber network, compressed using MPEG-2 at 600Mb/s. Cable & Wireless carries it over an ultra-broadband fiber from London into the Rai Centre in Amsterdam.
In Torino, Italy, RAI is operating a Super Hi-Vision server, feeding into a unique compression engine, using 16 encoders in parallel to compress Super Hi-Vision’s native 24Gb/s to MPEG-4/H.264 at 140Mb/s. Eutelsat is providing two full satellite transponders to carry the signal to a downlink on the roof of IBC.
The award was presented on behalf of the partnership to Dr Keiichi Kubota, director general of the Science & Technical Research Laboratories of NHK. “It is a tribute to the alliance of forward-looking companies working on this project,” he says. “I know that my colleagues at the BBC, RAI and EBU will join me in thanking our industry partners – Cable & Wireless, Eutelsat, Siemens and SIS Live – who are investing heavily in broadband and satellite capacity over an extended period to make this work.”
Continuing the theme of recognizing achievements in large screen 3D developments, the 2008 IBC International Honor for Excellence, IBC’s highest honor, was presented to Jeffrey Katzenberg, one of the founders of DreamWorks SKG: he is the K in SKG between Steven Spielberg and David Geffen. Under Jeffrey Katzenberg’s leadership DreamWorks Animation has enjoyed a number of critical and commercial successes, including Madagascar, Shark Tale, three Shrek films and Kung Fu Panda. Shrek and Wallace & Gromit: the Curse of the Were-Rabbit were each winners of the Oscar for best animated feature film.
Peter Owen, chair of the IBC Council, says, “IBC now reaches every aspect of the electronic media industry: technical, creative, and commercial, and we constantly strive to remember that the technology exists just to support those who make possible great television and movies. Our International Honor for Excellence, the highest award we bestow, goes to someone who has the vision to seize on the technologies of today and tomorrow and use them to help realize popular storytelling in new and imaginative ways. We are delighted that Jeffrey Katzenberg has accepted this award.”
Receiving the award, Katzenberg said, “I am thrilled to be among the distinguished list of recipients to have received an IBC International Honor for Excellence. At DreamWorks Animation we aim to create and deliver quality and innovative entertainment for family audiences across the globe, and I am very grateful to IBC for acknowledging our efforts in this area. As we enter the year of 3D I have never experienced a more dynamic and exciting time within the film industry than right now. Thank you for this honor.”
At the same time as the awards ceremony an enthusiastic audience packed the IBC Big Screen to enjoy an interview with Jeffrey Katzenberg, in conversation with Elizabeth Daley, dean of the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California.
Their conversation in Los Angeles was captured in high definition 3D and delivered to Amsterdam over a live 3D high definition link. It is believed that this is the first time a live transatlantic link has been used for a 3D interview, part of the tribute from IBC to a man who uses the latest technology to create popular entertainment for everyone.
Christie demonstrated the latest addition to its digital cinema projector line-up, the Christie CP2000-XB. When combined with RealD XL technology, it the companies said it allows 3D cinema content to be projected brighter and clearer onto screens larger than any other digital 3D technology with a single projector, on screens greater than a width of 75 feet wide. The two companies used the projector to deliver the Katzenberg first-ever live transatlantic 3D broadcast.
Doremi Cinema featured the DCP-2000, which the company calls the most widely used JPEG 2000 DCI digital cinema player worldwide with over 6000 installed to date. The player includes 3D capability and support for the RealD system. The DCP-2000 is 2K native but can extend to 4K with the addition of the MB-4K media block.
Doremi also showed the DoremiAM asset manage, which offers comprehensive, easy, step-by-step operation for the import of universal media files to a wide range of Doremi players and servers. The DoremiAM XP/Vista PC software, available free of charge to Doremi customers, operates with many file types and coding formats for the automated Gigabit transfer of media files as well as offering transport control for Doremi servers.
The ‘universal’ digital media includes multiple video containers: Quicktime, WMV, AVI and MXF, and multiple codecs: Blackmagic 8-bit, Photo JPEG, MJPEG, Apple ‘none’, H264, MPEG-2, DV, DVCPRO25, Avid DNxHD, xvid and divx, and multiple image formats: TIFF, TARGA and JPEG as well as audio: MPEG (Layer I, II, III), WAV and AC3. DoremiAM works with Doremi servers including the high-end uncompressed V1U (SD), V1-UHD (HD) and V1-UHD/LE (HD) players. The next release adds the V1-HD JPEG2000 server and the DSV-J2 JPEG2000 player (up to 2K).
And, Doremi exhibited NuggetPost HD designed for post-production applications that require a standalone video playback device with comprehensive media file format support. It includes Sony 9-pin control for variable speed and frame-accurate playback of HD and SD video with jog and shuttle. DoremiAM software manages Ethernet transfers of popular video files - DV, HDV, Avid DNxHD, QuickTime, and WMV – to Nugget’s drive.
QuVIS announced the release of QuVIS Wraptor, a digital cinema mastering plug-in for Final Cut Studio. Wraptor provides the ability to transcode a 2K or HD Final Cut Studio project into an industry-compliant DCI JPEG2000 Digital Cinema Package (DCP).
“Wraptor completely changes the landscape of digital cinema mastering by enabling Final Cut Studio users, the world’s largest installed base of commercial and independent content producers, to output their content directly into a Digital Cinema distribution format,” Michael Paulson, QuVIS COO says. “One of the great benefits of Wraptor is that independent film producers, advertisers, and media professionals all benefit from the significantly lower content production costs that Final Cut Studio and Wraptor provide compared with other single-purpose DCP mastering solutions.”
Qube Cinema was showing their digital cinema server, the Qube XP-D. They also showed the latest updates on the QubeMaster Pro mastering systems and their latest innovation, the QubeMaster Xpress, both designed to create standards compliant DCPs.
International Datacasting Corporation exhibited the SuperFlex Pro Cinema Live Decoder and Encoder with Sensio technology. It supports both 2D and 3D live and pre-recorded events, which allows movie houses and other venues increased new revenue opportunities via alternative content programming. The Sensio 3D technology allows playback of broadcast and pre-recorded stereoscopic 3D content, up to 1080p 60fps, using the standard 2D video distribution infrastructure and is compatible with all types of digital projection systems available on the market. The company says it is the only corporation in the world to have successfully integrated its live 3D content broadcasting technology throughout a network of movie theatres.
"3D is an exciting new technology and IDC is at the forefront of its use and implementation," says Ron Clifton, president and CEO of IDC. "Our partners and our team have put together a truly unique demonstration that proves the power of live 3D transmission."
da Vinci Systems introduced its fastest digital mastering suite, the Resolve R-4K, a fully interactive, 4K real-time color correcting and DI finishing system.
"If da Vinci manufactured custom cars, this one would be setting land-speed records on the Bonneville Salt Flats," says Dean Lyon, director of marketing at da Vinci. "At the NAB Show in April, we wowed everyone with a demo of this machine, and five months later we are rolling it out, ready-to-ship. Like all of our Resolve systems, this one can read from shared SAN and plays well with others while still delivering top performance."
Da Vinci also unveiled a new version of the Resolve R-series digital enhancement suite designed expressly to meet the challenges of stereoscopic 3D processing. Based on da Vinci's C.O.R.E. processing technology, the Resolve R-3D enables colorists to exercise maximum creativity while performing in-context grading for the next-generation visual experience.
"Improvements in technology are enabling stereoscopic 3-D content creation to take off in an exciting way that promises to have a profound influence on the industry as a whole," Lyon says. "Recognizing this, all the major studios have built content divisions around stereoscopic projects, and da Vinci customers will be able to respond. No one has more experience with 3D color grading and image enhancement than we do, so it is only natural that da Vinci could develop an imaging suite with the targeted power and features of the R-3D."
There were also developments that did not relate directly to 3D.
JVC announced an alliance with Sony Corporation to support the XDCam EX MPEG-2 professional video file format and SxS (S-By-S) solid-state flash memory cards. “JVC is committed to collaborating with world-class partners to provide the best solutions and the widest range of options for our professional video customers,” says Hiroyuki Takekura, managing director, Professional Systems Business, Victor Company of Japan. “Our goal is to offer a variety of recording options including major video file formats and field-proven media. We are extremely pleased with our alliance with Sony Corporation to support the XDCam EX file format and the SxS memory card and thereby expand our professional application capabilities.”
“Sony is very pleased to license the XDCam EX file format to JVC. Sony and JVC are both well-established companies in the professional video market and Sony has enjoyed a strong relationship with JVC over an extended period of time,” says Yoshinori Onoue, corporate executive, senior vice president of Sony Corporation. “We see this announcement as a natural evolution of this relationship, which will help ensure the continued success of XDCam EX.”
JVC will launch the KA-MR100G docking media recorder as its first product featuring native XDCam EX file recording and an SxS memory card slot. It will be available in March 2009 with a suggested retail price under $3,000 US.
Thomson Grass Valley announced that is integrating Bright Systems’ BrightClip technology within its Bones open post-production framework. “BrightClip overcomes the industry-wide problem of disk randomization which causes major inefficiencies in digital file-based workflows,” says Morris Lindenkreuz, product manager for Thomson’s Post Production Solutions. “No other system lays down file sequences and media streams in the most optimal pattern. This capability makes BrightClip a much-welcomed innovation in the post community. By ensuring systems are BrightClip-enabled, customers will no longer need to optimize media before it can be used.” “We are delighted that Thomson is supporting BrightClip,” says Antony Harris, CEO, Bright Systems, Inc. “The Thomson name is long established and much respected, and as such, we value highly their support for BrightClip. We look forward to working with them and combining our knowledge of digital processes to benefit our mutual customers.”
intoPix was showing its new mathematically lossless family of encoders and decoders. The M-Lossless family is able to process 10, 12 and up to 16 color bit depth, HD 1080 resolutions up to 60p and DCI 2K and 4K compliant formats in real-time, keeping bit-to-bit reversibility. “This new IP-Core pushes the flexibility and performance levels even further and merges efficiently JPEG 2000 benefits with intoPIX’s hardware compression know-how. It is now possible to have the best of both worlds: uncompressed quality and compression efficiency,” says Pedro Correa, application manager.
Cine-tal and Iridas were demonstrating the integration of Cine-tal's acclaimed Cinemage Intelligent Display and cineSpace color management with the Iridas SpeedGrade and FrameCycler applications. Together these technologies provide filmmakers with a comprehensive solution for color-accurate review and grading from production through post.
SpeedGrade OnSet, the Iridas application for designing and sharing creative looks, interacts directly with the Cinemage display. Pressing the a button in SpeedGrade OnSet pulls a reference image from the display into SpeedGrade. Creative looks, saved as non- destructive "Look" files, are sent back to the display where they are applied to images during playback or during live acquisition. The result is that the director and cinematographer can check their footage at any time in a calibrated environment with their creative looks applied.
"These new technologies are changing the way we produce digital cinema," says Rob
Caroll, CEO of Cine-tal. "Producers and DP's can communicate the intended look of a shot to their postproduction vendors while maintaining the raw image data for post and finishing."
Also on display was Cine-tal’s Cinemage system in a post-production environment driven by SpeedGrade XR, Iridas' new review and grading application for RAW formats. Metadata-based Look files from the cinematographer are loaded in SpeedGrade XR and applied non-destructively to single clips or to whole timelines. Colorist Dado Valentic demonstrated to visitors how he
can use these looks as a starting point for final grading. "The SpeedGrade approach gives me reference looks directly from the DP," says Valentic. "Since the color is non-destructive and therefore editable, I can begin grading at any time, even while production is still going on. The original frames remain unaltered, and SpeedGrade saves my grading as metadata to continue working on later."
Creative looks, together with cineSpace calibration, can be loaded in any version of FrameCycler allowing other postproduction artists to work with accurate color while doing animation, compositing or review. The cineSpace product suite was on display, highlighting the benefits of end-to-end color connectivity allowing artists to make creative decisions with the confidence that
their work will translate accurately all the way through to final exhibition. The Iridas applications have included support for cineSpace since 2003.
"We are demonstrating the key benefits of digital cinema at IBC," says Iridas COO
Patrick Palmer: "instant access to your content; the ability to save additional information,
such as color instructions, as metadata, and the fact that the whole pipeline is now
connected."
Iridas unveiled MetaRender, a new application for automating complex transcoding tasks in production pipelines and post facilities. MetaRender works across platforms and greatly simplifies the task of managing file conversions, including burning-in grading or LUTs and adding file information for viewing with digital dailies. "This is perfect for working with editing applications, such as Final Cut Pro," says Michael Gallo, head of software development. "It provides a complete round-trip solution: proxies with file names and time codes are generated for off-line editing with MetaRender. Then the EDL is sent back to SpeedGrade DI for finishing work on the original full-resolution content."
MetaRender reads and writes all industry standard file formats, including AVI, QuickTime, OpenEXR, DPX files and many others. MetaRender incorporates Iridas' exclusive RealTime RAW 2.0 technology, supporting digital cinema RAW formats, including Arri D21, Dalsa 4K, Phantom, Silicon Imaging, Cineform and Weisscam, at resolutions of 2K, 3K, and 4K. Through the Red SDK MetaRender supports transcoding of R3D files for Mac and Windows.
MetaRender is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, and is fully scalable. Users can add nodes as required. A single license for MetaRender, including a render node for a second machine, costs $1499 US. Additional nodes are available for $499 US, with volume discounts for larger orders.
DVS exhibited its flagship product Clipster with many new features focused around extreme speed, efficiency and reliability for DCI Mastering and conforming. RAW data generated by the Red camera can be decoded and converted using Clipster.
With Red's SDK release, Clipster supports the direct decoding of RedCode RAW material in the timeline. R3D files can be combined with other file and video formats, thus providing a flexible workflow for data handling.
In the DCI Mastering process, Clipster allows users to automate all DCI steps from the DSM (Digital Source Master) to the DCP (Digital Cinema Package) with JPEG2000 playing a key role. With Clipster, this process can be completed at nearly double real-time speed.
Bernhard Reitz, head of product management says, "One of our priorities at DVS is to offer new developments and features to our customers as a complete solution. Since the requirements of our customers' workflows differentiate largely, it is important to offer an open yet powerful concept. Our new features for Red support, DCI Mastering and conforming will benefit all workflows: Clipster is easy to use, reliable, fast and, most importantly, future-proof."
Codex Digital announced that it is now shipping the first production-ready units of its Portable recording system for broadcast and digital motion pictures. The first customer, The Camera Rental Company of Copenhagen, Denmark, will immediately deploy its Portable recorder on the full-length digital feature film No Plans for Love.
The Portable enables tapeless workflow on broadcast and digital motion picture productions, and can record anything from SD video to 4K data, at cinema quality. It can be carried on an operator’s shoulder, or secured to dollies and cranes, and gives camera crews the freedom to move around a set, or a location, with enormous recording capacity.
The Portable can capture up to five continuous hours of 2K-cinema footage, or ten hours of high-end HD broadcast material – plus audio and metadata. Recordings are made onto robust, removable disk packs When shooting is done, the Portable offloads material much faster than real-time – typically three to five times faster, or better – either directly into post production or via the disk pack to a Codex Transfer Station, which Codex unveiled at the show. It is the first in a new line of transfer and back-up products that allows users to make everything from simple back-up copies to full production deliverables, directly on set or at a location office.
Bright Systems www.4bright.com
The Camera Rental Company www.kameraudlejningen.dk
Christie Digital Systems www.christiedigital.com
Cine-tal Systems www.cine-tal.com
Codex Digital www.codexdigital.com,
Da Vinci www.davsys.com
IBC www.ibc.org
intoPIX www.intopix.com
Iridas www.iridas.com
JVC www.jvc.com
QuVIS www.quvis.com
RealD www.reald.com
Thomson Grass Valley www.thomsongrassvalley.com
The Hannah Montana movie also won the content creation award for the stereoscopic post-production workflow created by Los Angeles post house FotoKem Film & Video, based on technology from Quantel including its Pablo 3D and Genetic Engineering. It allowed FotoKem to meet the requirements of its client, Walt Disney Pictures, to complete the movie in an incredibly short timeframe.“It was pure serendipity when Walt Disney Pictures presented us with this project,” says John Nicolard, head of digital production at FotoKem. “The requirements exactly complemented the technical capabilities we had only recently incorporated into our pipeline using Quantel’s 3D technology. The opportunity to work on a project with this magnitude of technical challenge was a deeply satisfying experience.”
At the end of the ceremony Todd Cogan of Pace, who shot the movie, joined the team on stage. “Pace is proud to have worked with Disney on every level of the project to raise the bar within 3D and revolutionize the production experience,” Cogan says. “We are delighted that IBC has rewarded the Hannah project with this prestigious award.”
After accepting the award Howard Lukk, vice president of production technology at the Walt Disney Studios said, “Special thanks really does go to IBC because it was here last year that I actually met with all those people, and after looking Quantel in the eye and saying ‘will you support me in one month to do this project’, they stepped up to the plate and really supported us. So thank you IBC – thank you.”
Ray Cross, CEO, Quantel says, "It's a huge honor to be recognized in this way by our peers. This business is all about working closely with your customers; the creative partnership between Walt Disney Pictures, and everyone involved that brought the 'Hannah Montana' project to such a successful conclusion in so short a time is a fine example of this philosophy in practice."
IBC presented the team that developed Super Hi-Vision with a special award. Super Hi-Vision offers four times the resolution of HD in each direction: an image resolution of 7680 pixels on 4320 lines, with an immersive 22.2 channel surround sound system. Experiencing it is stunning, but it now forms part of international co-operative research between NHK in Japan – which created Super Hi-Vision – BBC, IRT and RAI with support from EBU, a team now known as the Broadcast Technology Futures Group.
The IBC special award is for the first international transmission of Super Hi-Vision content. Achieving this has called for considerable investment in time and technology by a large number of organizations.
In Central London there is a live Super H-Vision camera high above the River Thames. The BBC - along with its technology partner Siemens IT Solutions and Services and SIS Live - operate the camera and send video and audio over the London fiber network, compressed using MPEG-2 at 600Mb/s. Cable & Wireless carries it over an ultra-broadband fiber from London into the Rai Centre in Amsterdam.
In Torino, Italy, RAI is operating a Super Hi-Vision server, feeding into a unique compression engine, using 16 encoders in parallel to compress Super Hi-Vision’s native 24Gb/s to MPEG-4/H.264 at 140Mb/s. Eutelsat is providing two full satellite transponders to carry the signal to a downlink on the roof of IBC.
The award was presented on behalf of the partnership to Dr Keiichi Kubota, director general of the Science & Technical Research Laboratories of NHK. “It is a tribute to the alliance of forward-looking companies working on this project,” he says. “I know that my colleagues at the BBC, RAI and EBU will join me in thanking our industry partners – Cable & Wireless, Eutelsat, Siemens and SIS Live – who are investing heavily in broadband and satellite capacity over an extended period to make this work.”
Continuing the theme of recognizing achievements in large screen 3D developments, the 2008 IBC International Honor for Excellence, IBC’s highest honor, was presented to Jeffrey Katzenberg, one of the founders of DreamWorks SKG: he is the K in SKG between Steven Spielberg and David Geffen. Under Jeffrey Katzenberg’s leadership DreamWorks Animation has enjoyed a number of critical and commercial successes, including Madagascar, Shark Tale, three Shrek films and Kung Fu Panda. Shrek and Wallace & Gromit: the Curse of the Were-Rabbit were each winners of the Oscar for best animated feature film.
Peter Owen, chair of the IBC Council, says, “IBC now reaches every aspect of the electronic media industry: technical, creative, and commercial, and we constantly strive to remember that the technology exists just to support those who make possible great television and movies. Our International Honor for Excellence, the highest award we bestow, goes to someone who has the vision to seize on the technologies of today and tomorrow and use them to help realize popular storytelling in new and imaginative ways. We are delighted that Jeffrey Katzenberg has accepted this award.”
Receiving the award, Katzenberg said, “I am thrilled to be among the distinguished list of recipients to have received an IBC International Honor for Excellence. At DreamWorks Animation we aim to create and deliver quality and innovative entertainment for family audiences across the globe, and I am very grateful to IBC for acknowledging our efforts in this area. As we enter the year of 3D I have never experienced a more dynamic and exciting time within the film industry than right now. Thank you for this honor.”
At the same time as the awards ceremony an enthusiastic audience packed the IBC Big Screen to enjoy an interview with Jeffrey Katzenberg, in conversation with Elizabeth Daley, dean of the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California.
Their conversation in Los Angeles was captured in high definition 3D and delivered to Amsterdam over a live 3D high definition link. It is believed that this is the first time a live transatlantic link has been used for a 3D interview, part of the tribute from IBC to a man who uses the latest technology to create popular entertainment for everyone.
Christie demonstrated the latest addition to its digital cinema projector line-up, the Christie CP2000-XB. When combined with RealD XL technology, it the companies said it allows 3D cinema content to be projected brighter and clearer onto screens larger than any other digital 3D technology with a single projector, on screens greater than a width of 75 feet wide. The two companies used the projector to deliver the Katzenberg first-ever live transatlantic 3D broadcast.
Doremi Cinema featured the DCP-2000, which the company calls the most widely used JPEG 2000 DCI digital cinema player worldwide with over 6000 installed to date. The player includes 3D capability and support for the RealD system. The DCP-2000 is 2K native but can extend to 4K with the addition of the MB-4K media block.
Doremi also showed the DoremiAM asset manage, which offers comprehensive, easy, step-by-step operation for the import of universal media files to a wide range of Doremi players and servers. The DoremiAM XP/Vista PC software, available free of charge to Doremi customers, operates with many file types and coding formats for the automated Gigabit transfer of media files as well as offering transport control for Doremi servers.
The ‘universal’ digital media includes multiple video containers: Quicktime, WMV, AVI and MXF, and multiple codecs: Blackmagic 8-bit, Photo JPEG, MJPEG, Apple ‘none’, H264, MPEG-2, DV, DVCPRO25, Avid DNxHD, xvid and divx, and multiple image formats: TIFF, TARGA and JPEG as well as audio: MPEG (Layer I, II, III), WAV and AC3. DoremiAM works with Doremi servers including the high-end uncompressed V1U (SD), V1-UHD (HD) and V1-UHD/LE (HD) players. The next release adds the V1-HD JPEG2000 server and the DSV-J2 JPEG2000 player (up to 2K).
And, Doremi exhibited NuggetPost HD designed for post-production applications that require a standalone video playback device with comprehensive media file format support. It includes Sony 9-pin control for variable speed and frame-accurate playback of HD and SD video with jog and shuttle. DoremiAM software manages Ethernet transfers of popular video files - DV, HDV, Avid DNxHD, QuickTime, and WMV – to Nugget’s drive.
QuVIS announced the release of QuVIS Wraptor, a digital cinema mastering plug-in for Final Cut Studio. Wraptor provides the ability to transcode a 2K or HD Final Cut Studio project into an industry-compliant DCI JPEG2000 Digital Cinema Package (DCP).
“Wraptor completely changes the landscape of digital cinema mastering by enabling Final Cut Studio users, the world’s largest installed base of commercial and independent content producers, to output their content directly into a Digital Cinema distribution format,” Michael Paulson, QuVIS COO says. “One of the great benefits of Wraptor is that independent film producers, advertisers, and media professionals all benefit from the significantly lower content production costs that Final Cut Studio and Wraptor provide compared with other single-purpose DCP mastering solutions.”
Qube Cinema was showing their digital cinema server, the Qube XP-D. They also showed the latest updates on the QubeMaster Pro mastering systems and their latest innovation, the QubeMaster Xpress, both designed to create standards compliant DCPs.
International Datacasting Corporation exhibited the SuperFlex Pro Cinema Live Decoder and Encoder with Sensio technology. It supports both 2D and 3D live and pre-recorded events, which allows movie houses and other venues increased new revenue opportunities via alternative content programming. The Sensio 3D technology allows playback of broadcast and pre-recorded stereoscopic 3D content, up to 1080p 60fps, using the standard 2D video distribution infrastructure and is compatible with all types of digital projection systems available on the market. The company says it is the only corporation in the world to have successfully integrated its live 3D content broadcasting technology throughout a network of movie theatres.
"3D is an exciting new technology and IDC is at the forefront of its use and implementation," says Ron Clifton, president and CEO of IDC. "Our partners and our team have put together a truly unique demonstration that proves the power of live 3D transmission."
da Vinci Systems introduced its fastest digital mastering suite, the Resolve R-4K, a fully interactive, 4K real-time color correcting and DI finishing system.
"If da Vinci manufactured custom cars, this one would be setting land-speed records on the Bonneville Salt Flats," says Dean Lyon, director of marketing at da Vinci. "At the NAB Show in April, we wowed everyone with a demo of this machine, and five months later we are rolling it out, ready-to-ship. Like all of our Resolve systems, this one can read from shared SAN and plays well with others while still delivering top performance."
Da Vinci also unveiled a new version of the Resolve R-series digital enhancement suite designed expressly to meet the challenges of stereoscopic 3D processing. Based on da Vinci's C.O.R.E. processing technology, the Resolve R-3D enables colorists to exercise maximum creativity while performing in-context grading for the next-generation visual experience.
"Improvements in technology are enabling stereoscopic 3-D content creation to take off in an exciting way that promises to have a profound influence on the industry as a whole," Lyon says. "Recognizing this, all the major studios have built content divisions around stereoscopic projects, and da Vinci customers will be able to respond. No one has more experience with 3D color grading and image enhancement than we do, so it is only natural that da Vinci could develop an imaging suite with the targeted power and features of the R-3D."
There were also developments that did not relate directly to 3D.
JVC announced an alliance with Sony Corporation to support the XDCam EX MPEG-2 professional video file format and SxS (S-By-S) solid-state flash memory cards. “JVC is committed to collaborating with world-class partners to provide the best solutions and the widest range of options for our professional video customers,” says Hiroyuki Takekura, managing director, Professional Systems Business, Victor Company of Japan. “Our goal is to offer a variety of recording options including major video file formats and field-proven media. We are extremely pleased with our alliance with Sony Corporation to support the XDCam EX file format and the SxS memory card and thereby expand our professional application capabilities.”
“Sony is very pleased to license the XDCam EX file format to JVC. Sony and JVC are both well-established companies in the professional video market and Sony has enjoyed a strong relationship with JVC over an extended period of time,” says Yoshinori Onoue, corporate executive, senior vice president of Sony Corporation. “We see this announcement as a natural evolution of this relationship, which will help ensure the continued success of XDCam EX.”
JVC will launch the KA-MR100G docking media recorder as its first product featuring native XDCam EX file recording and an SxS memory card slot. It will be available in March 2009 with a suggested retail price under $3,000 US.
Thomson Grass Valley announced that is integrating Bright Systems’ BrightClip technology within its Bones open post-production framework. “BrightClip overcomes the industry-wide problem of disk randomization which causes major inefficiencies in digital file-based workflows,” says Morris Lindenkreuz, product manager for Thomson’s Post Production Solutions. “No other system lays down file sequences and media streams in the most optimal pattern. This capability makes BrightClip a much-welcomed innovation in the post community. By ensuring systems are BrightClip-enabled, customers will no longer need to optimize media before it can be used.” “We are delighted that Thomson is supporting BrightClip,” says Antony Harris, CEO, Bright Systems, Inc. “The Thomson name is long established and much respected, and as such, we value highly their support for BrightClip. We look forward to working with them and combining our knowledge of digital processes to benefit our mutual customers.”
intoPix was showing its new mathematically lossless family of encoders and decoders. The M-Lossless family is able to process 10, 12 and up to 16 color bit depth, HD 1080 resolutions up to 60p and DCI 2K and 4K compliant formats in real-time, keeping bit-to-bit reversibility. “This new IP-Core pushes the flexibility and performance levels even further and merges efficiently JPEG 2000 benefits with intoPIX’s hardware compression know-how. It is now possible to have the best of both worlds: uncompressed quality and compression efficiency,” says Pedro Correa, application manager.
Cine-tal and Iridas were demonstrating the integration of Cine-tal's acclaimed Cinemage Intelligent Display and cineSpace color management with the Iridas SpeedGrade and FrameCycler applications. Together these technologies provide filmmakers with a comprehensive solution for color-accurate review and grading from production through post.
SpeedGrade OnSet, the Iridas application for designing and sharing creative looks, interacts directly with the Cinemage display. Pressing the a button in SpeedGrade OnSet pulls a reference image from the display into SpeedGrade. Creative looks, saved as non- destructive "Look" files, are sent back to the display where they are applied to images during playback or during live acquisition. The result is that the director and cinematographer can check their footage at any time in a calibrated environment with their creative looks applied.
"These new technologies are changing the way we produce digital cinema," says Rob
Caroll, CEO of Cine-tal. "Producers and DP's can communicate the intended look of a shot to their postproduction vendors while maintaining the raw image data for post and finishing."
Also on display was Cine-tal’s Cinemage system in a post-production environment driven by SpeedGrade XR, Iridas' new review and grading application for RAW formats. Metadata-based Look files from the cinematographer are loaded in SpeedGrade XR and applied non-destructively to single clips or to whole timelines. Colorist Dado Valentic demonstrated to visitors how he
can use these looks as a starting point for final grading. "The SpeedGrade approach gives me reference looks directly from the DP," says Valentic. "Since the color is non-destructive and therefore editable, I can begin grading at any time, even while production is still going on. The original frames remain unaltered, and SpeedGrade saves my grading as metadata to continue working on later."
Creative looks, together with cineSpace calibration, can be loaded in any version of FrameCycler allowing other postproduction artists to work with accurate color while doing animation, compositing or review. The cineSpace product suite was on display, highlighting the benefits of end-to-end color connectivity allowing artists to make creative decisions with the confidence that
their work will translate accurately all the way through to final exhibition. The Iridas applications have included support for cineSpace since 2003.
"We are demonstrating the key benefits of digital cinema at IBC," says Iridas COO
Patrick Palmer: "instant access to your content; the ability to save additional information,
such as color instructions, as metadata, and the fact that the whole pipeline is now
connected."
Iridas unveiled MetaRender, a new application for automating complex transcoding tasks in production pipelines and post facilities. MetaRender works across platforms and greatly simplifies the task of managing file conversions, including burning-in grading or LUTs and adding file information for viewing with digital dailies. "This is perfect for working with editing applications, such as Final Cut Pro," says Michael Gallo, head of software development. "It provides a complete round-trip solution: proxies with file names and time codes are generated for off-line editing with MetaRender. Then the EDL is sent back to SpeedGrade DI for finishing work on the original full-resolution content."
MetaRender reads and writes all industry standard file formats, including AVI, QuickTime, OpenEXR, DPX files and many others. MetaRender incorporates Iridas' exclusive RealTime RAW 2.0 technology, supporting digital cinema RAW formats, including Arri D21, Dalsa 4K, Phantom, Silicon Imaging, Cineform and Weisscam, at resolutions of 2K, 3K, and 4K. Through the Red SDK MetaRender supports transcoding of R3D files for Mac and Windows.
MetaRender is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, and is fully scalable. Users can add nodes as required. A single license for MetaRender, including a render node for a second machine, costs $1499 US. Additional nodes are available for $499 US, with volume discounts for larger orders.
DVS exhibited its flagship product Clipster with many new features focused around extreme speed, efficiency and reliability for DCI Mastering and conforming. RAW data generated by the Red camera can be decoded and converted using Clipster.
With Red's SDK release, Clipster supports the direct decoding of RedCode RAW material in the timeline. R3D files can be combined with other file and video formats, thus providing a flexible workflow for data handling.
In the DCI Mastering process, Clipster allows users to automate all DCI steps from the DSM (Digital Source Master) to the DCP (Digital Cinema Package) with JPEG2000 playing a key role. With Clipster, this process can be completed at nearly double real-time speed.
Bernhard Reitz, head of product management says, "One of our priorities at DVS is to offer new developments and features to our customers as a complete solution. Since the requirements of our customers' workflows differentiate largely, it is important to offer an open yet powerful concept. Our new features for Red support, DCI Mastering and conforming will benefit all workflows: Clipster is easy to use, reliable, fast and, most importantly, future-proof."
Codex Digital announced that it is now shipping the first production-ready units of its Portable recording system for broadcast and digital motion pictures. The first customer, The Camera Rental Company of Copenhagen, Denmark, will immediately deploy its Portable recorder on the full-length digital feature film No Plans for Love.
The Portable enables tapeless workflow on broadcast and digital motion picture productions, and can record anything from SD video to 4K data, at cinema quality. It can be carried on an operator’s shoulder, or secured to dollies and cranes, and gives camera crews the freedom to move around a set, or a location, with enormous recording capacity.
The Portable can capture up to five continuous hours of 2K-cinema footage, or ten hours of high-end HD broadcast material – plus audio and metadata. Recordings are made onto robust, removable disk packs When shooting is done, the Portable offloads material much faster than real-time – typically three to five times faster, or better – either directly into post production or via the disk pack to a Codex Transfer Station, which Codex unveiled at the show. It is the first in a new line of transfer and back-up products that allows users to make everything from simple back-up copies to full production deliverables, directly on set or at a location office.
Bright Systems www.4bright.com
The Camera Rental Company www.kameraudlejningen.dk
Christie Digital Systems www.christiedigital.com
Cine-tal Systems www.cine-tal.com
Codex Digital www.codexdigital.com,
Da Vinci www.davsys.com
IBC www.ibc.org
intoPIX www.intopix.com
Iridas www.iridas.com
JVC www.jvc.com
QuVIS www.quvis.com
RealD www.reald.com
Thomson Grass Valley www.thomsongrassvalley.com