AMSTERDAM - Tools to support 4k production and postproduction—particularly telecine and color grading technology—were among the most talked about postproduction developments at the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC), held Sept. 11-16 in Amsterdam. No doubt the motion picture industry will be the first to adopt these expensive technologies, but commercialmakers in attendance at IBC largely believe that impact on advertising is imminent.

"We are seeing the beginning of a 4k world," said Santa Monica-based Ascent Media Group COO Ken Williams. "The Thomson products [including the unveiling of the Grass Valley Spirit 4k scanner], the 4k grading demos and the cost of storage going down �Eare contributing to discussion of 4k."

"Very shortly, the entire theatrical marketplace is going to be 4k," predicted commercial and feature DP Steven Poster, ASC. "We all know that. For television broadcast, [what this means is] we can work with television resolutions. If they are projected in a theater, it should be done at 4k. Why should the commercial look worse than the film? Will that sell products?"

Indicators do point to growth in cinema commercial distribution. Michael Karagosian, technical consultant for the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO) and partner in Calabasas, Calif.-based Karagosian MacCalla Partners, reported that NATO has a committee that is currently working on interoperability for commercial advertising, including how commercials should be packaged and formatted, and how to create new ads for theatrical distribution.

All of this was driving IBC attendees toward a host of new technologies to support 4k workflow. "The development of high-end digital tools for music videos and commercials were the forerunners to the sophisticated color correctors that we deal with now in digital intermediates," explained Poster. "The main difference I've seen is that the important developments in film-based color corrections are brought to us by filmmakers, so therefore the tools are more filmcentric. This gives us the ability to speak in a language that broadens the spectrum of our ability to create."

Among the newly unveiled technologies was Paris-headquartered Thomson's Grass Valley Spirit 4k scanner (formerly called Spirit 2). New York-based Nice Shoes director of engineering Joe Bottozzi examined the system at IBC, and said it looks extremely promising. "This is the last traditional telecine that we are going to see in this industry," Bottozzi predicted.

On the storage side, Steve Prescott, VP of technology at London's Framestore CFC, noted, "SGI has an advantage because they have the bandwidth to do 4k in the Onyx."

Greg Estes, VP of corporate marketing for SGI, Mountain View, Calif., agreed. "The market is moving toward us," he said. "We've been there and had this level of performance."

That includes supporting Final Touch, a real-time 2k and 4k color grading software in development at San Diego startup Silicon Color, as well as Discreet's Lustre color grading system, which began shipping in July (SHOOT, 7/18-31, p. 1).

Located a stone's throw from the Discreet booth, the Final Touch demo was attracting leading post house execs and colorists.

"Everyone's trying to crack the code on real time 2k and 4k," said Silicon Color co-founder Roland Wood. "For us, it was finding the math algorithm to do the image processing." Co-founder/CTO Andrew Bryant is the architect of the system who's leading the engineering team.

Wood reported that about 15 colorists are working with the company to help design the user interface. "They've had tremendous input," he said. "Shortform colorists like to experiment with many looks on the same clips. [Final Touch] can play back multiple grades on the same clip and multiple commercials with the same grade." The system runs on an SGI Onyx 4 or OS 10 on an Apple G5. Wood was not quoting price. He expects to ship Final Touch in November.

Meanwhile, Discreet hosted a packed booth of IBC attendees eager to see its now-shipping Lustre color grading software. On the floor, Discreet was also attracting attention for its new versions of its editing and compositing systems (SHOOT, 9/5, p. 1). More quietly, interest was building around a technology demo in the Discreet whisper suite.

For the commercial industry, Discreet's message was HD momentum. The company reported that Smoke & Mirrors, London and New York, used Discreet's Flame HD to post spots for Volvo and Stella Artois in HD for TV broadcast, and up-resed the spots for cinema distribution. "We are now encouraging clients doing cinema projection to master onto HD, and that is actively being taken up," reported Smoke & Mirrors head of production Emma Ibbetson. "Clients are pleasantly surprised by the quality and color depth of HD, and they like the ability to grade shots so easily in Flame. Producers are happy too, because contrary to popular belief, HD costs are not screamingly huge." Discreet reported that The Mill, London and New York, recently used Flame HD to post HD ads for clients including Toyota, Reebok, adidas, Doritos Mercedes-Benz and BMW; and London-based Rushes completed HD ads for Virgin Mobile Phones and Sony's Get Away game.

Discreet also reported strong sales, including Optimus, Chicago, which upgraded two Flames and two Smokes to the new SGI Tezro platform (SHOOT, July 18-31, p. 1), and purchased an additional Flame on Tezro. Other sales include a Smoke to K Post, an in-house post unit at J. Walter Thompson, London.

Newbury, U.K.-headquartered Quantel similarly reported strong sales and HD momentum in the commercial world. "HD has quite suddenly arrived in the U.S.," reported Quantel managing director Richard Taylor. "Ad agencies are starting to see the benefits of HD. The vast majority of commercials are shot on film. Why throw out quality? [Clients such as Santa Monica-based Steele FX and Farmington Hills, Mich.-headquartered Grace & Wild] are postproducing in HD and down-resing when needed. Agencies have a future proof commercial for theatrical release."

Taylor added that the momentum is extending beyond the U.S.—Australia's government-mandated HD transition is driving HD spots down under, and Europe is growing its 24p production.

At IBC, Quantel demonstrated incredible momentum in the 18 months since its generationQ products—including iQ, eQ and Qcolor—were introduced. Recently, the company recorded its largest sale to date to ESPN, as well as recent sales of an iQ to bicoastal Company 3, an eQ to Nashville-based The Filmworkers Club, an eQ to Santa Monica-based Brass Knuckles, and an eQ to newly launched New York post house Full Code Masters.

Quantel's Taylor reported that this past year the company experienced a 35 percent growth and the largest number of orders in its record book. At IBC, the company forged ahead with version 2 of the generationQ software, with 4k support and new editing, effects and workflow tools on the feature list.

It also introduced support for Windows Media 9, which means that using that compression scheme, clients can be a part of the remote approval process. "The ability of Windows Media 9 Series on iQ will speed the process up and enable us to deliver content for approval more readily," noted Roland Brown, head of engineering at London's The Moving Picture Company.

THE NEW COUPLE

Quantel also announced a working relationship with SGI. Yes, it's true. Longtime rivals Quantel and SGI are enjoying a harmonious new relationship aimed at improving workflow by qualifying elements of the SGI Infinite Storage SAN to work with iQ and other generationQ systems. Quantel marketing director Nigel Turner explained, "Combining SGI CXFS and iQ together lets our customers build new post infrastructures that realize new levels of creativity and productivity. It's also an excellent illustration of the openness of SGI and our generationQ products. We're looking forward to working with SGI to roll out the combination worldwide."

SGI was indeed looking well positioned in this space, which is getting into another popular IBC subject: asset management. SGI previously announced a relationship with Discreet for a similar workflow with SGI SAN and Discreet systems.

Meanwhile, Quantel was also collaborating with London-headquartered BBC Technology, combining its technology with BBC's Colledia asset management software system.

The Global Society for Asset Management (G-SAM), a trade organization that debuted earlier this year, continued its drive for members at IBC. The organization represents a wide range of member companies, including BBDO, Ascent Media Group, Avid, Harley-Davidson and Universal Studios. Its aim is to accelerate the adoption of asset management technologies.

G-SAM hosted a cocktail party at IBC. The organization's first conference, GSAM03, is scheduled to take place Nov. 10-11 in New York; and the group will co-produce a Digital Asset Management pavilion at The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention in 2004.

Also on the agenda is the formation of membership committees for more industry specific dialog. "We will set up an advertising committee specifically for that industry," G-SAM executive director Richard Eberhart told SHOOT, noting that the group would allow discussion about members who "speak the same language."

SPIRITED 4K

Thomson demonstrated its Grass Valley Spirit 4k in a complete post pipeline. In the demo, the scanner recorded to an SGI Tezro workstation and went into the new Grass Valley Specter FS. That system managed the data for color correction using the Pandora MegaDef, Thomson's Shout image restoration system with new image stabilization—as well as editing, compositing and final output—capabilities.

For a truly tapeless workflow, Thomson also demonstrated several recording options for use with its FilmStream data camera. The first was CineControl recording system and CineReel portable disk recorder, both from Hanover, Germany's DVS. This technology is the successor to Director's Friend, which was acquired by DVS.

Other recording options are the UDR-2E portable disk recorder from Heisoku Giken, Tokyo, and the S.two recorder from Reno-based S.two. Material on all three of these systems can be brought into the rack in the Specter FS for post.

Baytech Cinema, Santa Monica, demonstrated a prototype of CineRAM, which can record and store five minutes of FilmStream material while attached to the Viper on a Steadicam or other type of mobile system, meaning that a director and cinematographer would be able to work with the Viper untethered from cables.

Specter FS is currently being tested at aforementioned Nice Shoes and Hollywood-based LaserPacific. At IBC, colorist Mick Vincent of VTR, London, was on hand demonstrating the workflow with the Specter FS and a Pandora MegaDef. "It's completely nonlinear," Vincent enthused. "It's faster and better. The ability to work from a SAN means that more than one person can share the data. �EAlso, if a commercial client changes his mind and you are film-based, you have to start again. [With Specter] your decisions are flexible until you hit the 'go' button at the end of a session. You are tapeless until final output."

London-based Filmlight began shipping Baselight, a digital film grading and finishing software system that grades up to 4k resolution. It runs with the company's Truelight color management system, and is competitively priced at $75,000.

Cintel unveiled the Millennium II telecine, the follow-up to the Millennium machine that was obtained by Cintel when it acquired ITK a year ago. After evaluation, the team decided to launch version two of the machine (upgrades are available to current owners) with new lenses and a new CRT that would improve signal to noise and overall picture quality, reported telecine product marketing manger Gary Welch. The new telecine starts at $350,000.

Cintel also announced that it is developing a 4k-capable film scanner, capable of scanning 7.5 frames per second at 2k. It would have an HSDL output.

Munich, Germany-headquartered ARRI exhibited a prototype of Arriscan, a 16mm and 35mm film scanner; it is expected to ship during the second quarter of '04.

ARRI also unveiled its D-20 technology project. The latest results of ARRI R&D, D-20 is a functional model of a cine-style digital camera designed to produce content that will air on television, while saving time and money in production. Features include an optical viewfinder, variable speed support, and output resolution of 1080p.

MTI Film, Providence, R.I., was on hand showing workflow enabling technologies for a multi-resolution world, such as Control Dailies (SHOOT, 9/5, p. 1), Convert standards converter, Correct color correctors and Confirm, a new quality control system.

Additionally, in a private whisper suite, MTI was quietly demonstrating color research & development, while exploring potential applications.

On multi-resolution requirements, Twickenham, U.K.-based Snell & Wilcox demonstrated its Ingest Station mastering encoder, Mosalina quality control software and RepoDepot file transcoder—designed for file-based content creation, storage, quality control and repurposing for all required deliverables.

Pat Wittingham, president of Sony Broadcast's U.S. operations in Park Ridge, N.J., was on hand to discuss Sony's multi-format HDCAM SR system, which was introduced at NAB last April. Noting that Australia's HD standard is 1080/50p, the fact that the U.S. has various standards, and that HD production in Europe is increasing, the HDCAM SR system with multi-format support "can be used around the world," Wittingham said. "This makes sense economically."

Wittingham also told SHOOT of a recent mandate at Sony—that all future television commercials must be shot in 24p. Sony music is also encouraging use of 24p production for its music videos.

ADDITIONAL NEWS

Robin Shenfield, CEO of The Mill, was at IBC looking for technology for the growing New York operation. It currently resides in space shared with Outpost Digital. At the end of October, The Mill will move to a temporary 5,000-square-foot space. It will house four Discreet Flames and CG capabilities, as well as about a dozen artists. Shenfield told SHOOT that he is looking to move to a permanent 15,000-square-foot space and add telecine/color-grading capabilities next spring. This is where his focus was at IBC; he expressed interest in Discreet's Lustre—which impressed him with its developing interaction with Flame—and Filmlight's Truelight system.

Just prior to the start of IBC, there was a management buyout of Sohonet, the London-based high-speed network service. The partners—Dave Scammell, Ben Roeder and Jon Ferguy—purchased the company for an undisclosed sum from Sohonet parent company Scottish and Southern Energy, Perth, U.K. The team plans to expand its services overseas.

Media 100, Marlboro, Mass., continued to market its version 2 844/X production system with an announcement of plans to expand its sales offices in the U.S., which will include new hires. Some of that expense will come from a new $2.5 million investment from Coghill Management, Chicago, a major shareholder in Media 100.

Toronto-based Eyeon Software previewed the Cambridge, Mass.-based GenArts Sapphire Plug-ins for Eyeon's Digital Fusion, which are scheduled for availability later this fall.

Stockholm-headquartered Digital Vision demonstrated technologies including its motion estimation module for its ASC3 scratch & dirt concealer. It also announced the recent sale of its HD ASC3 to Post Logic, Hollywood.

Former Discreet VP of sales and marketing John Miller is now VP of sales and marketing at Montreal-based Maximum Throughput, whose new Sledgehammer HD!O is a storage appliance designed to bridge IT and video. Sledgehammer is already in use at Santa Monica-based Asylum and New York-based Sideshow.

Chatsworth, Calif.-based Ultimatte introduced Advantedge version 1.5, a blue screen matte extraction plug-in that could be used with visual effects systems from companies such as Discreet, Adobe, Apple and Avid.