The new services are scheduled to be unveiled tonight at a special event hosted by Dallas-based editorial house charlieuniformtango, which is the first "outpost" (satellite receiving suite) for UP Satellite, the newest and highest level of service in Ascent's arsenal, which offers a point-to-many-point real-time connection via a secure satellite based service; the connectivity can be used for variations of services, offered at different price points. UP Web is essentially a re-branded version of the Ascent Breezeway Internet-based proprietary serice that can accommodate realtime streaming or download on demand. Ascent Media Creative Services CEO Bob Solomon explained that Ascent aims to work with Clients to select the most economical service for their individual needs.

REMOTE SESSIONS

The UP Satellite service, currently available through its first outpost at charlieuniformtango, enables agency creatives to colaborate in real time with colorists, digital artists and other creative talents from Ascent's Los Angeles area facilities, including Company 3, R!OT, Method and Encore Hollywood. Solomon explained that the signal would be routed out of the Los Angeles facility via fibre to Ascent's Burbank, Cali.-based Satellite uplink facility, which would transmit the work via satellite to an outpost with a dedicated remote satellite suite.

Solomon noted that artists-primarily Company 3 president/colorist Stefan Sonnenfeld drove the development of this service. Calling it "a better way to increase reach in key areas of the market," Sonnenfeld told SHOOT that UP Satellite enables Ascent to offer telecine in different cities without having to set up shops in each location, At press time, Ascent anticipated soon announcing additional outposts in key U.S. cities such as Boston, Chicago and Minneapolis. Sonnenfeld added that further down the road, Ascent would like to offer the service in foreign cities such as London and Tokyo.

UP Satellite has been tested over the past few months at charlieuniformtango on actual commercial jobs, including Golden Coral via The Richards Group, Dallas; Southwest Airlines via GSD&M, Austin, Texas; Gatorade via Dieste & Harmel Partners, Dallas; Union PLanters Bank via Temerlin McClain, Irving, Texas; and BMW and GlaxoSmith, Kline (GSK), both via Publicis in Mid America, Dallas.

Charlieuniformtango president/partner Lola Lott reported that it's performance has been "flawless." She said the company offers a comfortable suite with calibrated monitors, proper lighting and a talk-back system. "I think this is big for business in Dallas as a whole," Lott said. "We plan to attract agencies from other Southern states; it is easier to stop here than go to the coast."

Charlieuniformtango VP/senior editor Jack Waldrip, who has participated in two UP sessions, added, "It's just like being in session with the colorists, only the back of their head isn't at the front of the room. Everything else is axactly the same."

Sonnenfeld emphasized that Ascent has "gone to extremes" to make sure the service is color accurate at each end of the service is not difficult to implement.

"We took great pains to ensure that the service is digital end to end, so it is color accurate," explained Ascent Media Creative Services director of engineering Phil Mendelson. "We are encoding MPEG-2 at a reasonably high bit rate and calibrating [identical] monitors at each end. It's a Sony BVM-20F1U twenty-inch broadcast monitor. This is the same monitor that is installed in our color correction suites. It is fed component video from the component digital output of the satellite receiver/decoder. And we have a field service team."