· New Orders
· 24P Video - New from Edifis
· Soho Open House
· Edifis in the Specter Suite
NEW ORDERS
Agenda Wales
Purchased a Sting upgrade to one of their Brick Studio Servers. The new
system will be used as part of productions to be made in Agenda Studios
Llanelli and will complement existing Sting systems.
Arion Facilities Denham
Purchased a 3-Hour Graduate System for use in Telecine as well as
Scratchbox for use in restoring film-originated features for DVD
production.
Digisite Munich
Purchased a 4-Hour Scratchbox system for use in the restoration of
material for television broadcast and DVD mastering.
Subsequently purchased a Slow PAL option, allowing Digisite to record material at 25, 24 or 23.976 fps and subsequently play out at any different speed. This option is particularly useful for clients who have to deliver finished material in 24p or its US equivalent (23.976 psf)
ITFC London
Purchased an 8-Hour Scratchbox with the Lucifer option. The system will
be used to restore archive and feature film material prior to
transmission and DVD mastering.
ITFC are the first users of Lucifer, which was launched in late January 2003.
24P VIDEO
The world of film and television is truly global. Movies and TV
programmes made in one country are distributed to audiences throughout
the world. This is not a problem if the content was recorded on, and
distributed as film, but the whole situation changes when the original
master is videotape.
Until recently, videotape delivery elements or "deliverables" have been based on whichever broadcast standard pertains in the client region, for example, NTSC for North America and PAL for Europe as well as providing different video aspect ratios (16:9 Full Height, 4:3 and 1.85:1 Squeezed etc).
Making up to 6 deliverable items - 2 broadcast standards and 3 aspect ratios - is an expensive and time consuming process, which is becoming even more complex with the introduction of 18 High Definition standards for HDTV in countries like the USA and Australia.
Remaking programmes in all standards is impractical, so for the present and immediate future there are only two possibilities for a master which can assure compliant delivery in all required finishes, and they are film or 1080/24p HD videotape.
1080 line, 24 frames per second (24P) high definition
video
has been repeatedly proposed as the only video format from which all
current and expected future television deliveries can be made.
Nonetheless, 24P must integrate with existing technology and work
processes plus there is still a long way to go. It is into this arena
that Edifis have introduced two new options to their range of SD and HD
systems.
Slow PAL Option
Slow PAL is usually meant to imply a conventional 25 frame per second
(fps) VTR that has been modified to accept a 24 fps reference and is
able to record and playback at that rate. 24 frame per second mode is a
new synchronising rate, quite different from 525/60 or 625/50.
Slow PAL is normally required when an NTSC deliverable is needed but the PAL to NTSC transfer must not be standards converted. Instead the PAL VTR plays back at 23.976 fps and a 3:2 sequence is added to make an NTSC deliverable. Edifis now offer this possibility with our systems.
All Edifis Standard Definition systems are available in
50i,
25psf (Progressive Segmented Frame), 24 and 23.976 psf. The last rate
is an option, which must be ordered separately.
Cadenz Option
The Cadenz option is a 2 Rack Unit hardware solution that inserts the
3:2 sequence into a video sequence played out from the Edifis system at
23.976psf. The result is 1080/29.97 psf.
At present, Edifis deliver 1080/24psf (and its US
version
1080/23.976 psf) solutions in:
· HD Video to Film transfer
· HD Restoration
· HD Telecine
SOHO OPEN HOUSE - JANUARY 2003
We recently held our bi-annual Soho Open House, at The Crown &
Two
Chairmen in Dean Street.
In spite of the extremely bad weather, more than 100 hardy souls braved the snow and rain to witness the launch of the Lucifer Option and to see what else was new.
The High Definition Brick DDR received a lot of attention, particularly from telecine facilities looking to upgrade from SD to HD. The technical features of HD Brick are matched by the easy upgrade path and dual SD application, revenue-earning capabilities.
Standard Definition Scratchbox with the Lucifer option was of particular interest to clients, either already working in restoration or looking to diversify into this ever-growing market. The feedback received from this first public showing of Lucifer has already begun to be integrated into our deliverable product.
Networking between workstations and a cluster of Edifis disk applications was demonstrated with the aid of our new Media Management SQL database toolset. Still in development, and likely to be launched as a deliverable product at IBC 2003, the database was able to demonstrate shared resource management and control.
EDIFIS IN A SPECTER SUITE
Thomson Specter Virtual DataCine is a server-based telecine system that
offers a powerful 2k conformance-editing tool, with optical transitions
and real-time colour correction. Edifis Graduate achieves much the same
effect, but at Standard Definition resolution.
After loading film into Specter, selected scenes and takes can be edited in digital form before negative cutting. To achieve this, an operator uses an EDL (Edit Decision List) to extract and assemble the film, including dissolves and wipes.
Next the film is colour corrected or graded and last minute edit changes are incorporated. Graduate, like the Specter is also controlled by the Colour Corrector computer system operator.
Like Specter, Graduate is a random-access disk system. Its purpose within a Specter suite is to store the offline copy of the film and to be used as a real-time verification that the offline edited version and EDL, do indeed coincide. If not the EDL can be easily amended, and the 2k content edited to precisely match the offline version stored in Graduate.
Graduate is also used to assist the grading process by storing reference still frames, which are compared and matched to the output of the colour corrector. Both Specter and Graduate can frame-accurately and simultaneously, play identical content albeit in different resolutions.
Finally, once the on-line content has been edited and graded with Specter, it is ready for playout to the viewing theatre. Again, Graduate is used; this time to provide the 8 track audio that Specter lacks. Content in both systems is symchronised and cued ready to play; video from the Specter and guide-audio from the Graduate.
CONTACT DETAILS
Richard Lilley - Sales Director Edifis
The Old Bakery, Hyde End Lane
Brimpton
Reading Berks
RG7 4RH
Telephone : +44 (0)118 971 2279
Fax : +44 (0)118 971 2239
www.edifis.com