Adlabs, part of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group and India’s largest entertainment conglomerate, has made a major investment in state-of-the-art 4K film scanning, colour grading and colour management technology from FilmLight. The key elements in the package include a Northlight 2 4K pin registered film scanner, five Baselight colour grading systems and facility wide Truelight colour management. The company plans to employ the systems in a new Digital Intermediate workflow at it’s post-production facility in Mumbai and expects to master, on average, three to four films per week for digital cinema release while achieving the highest possible standards for quality.

“Adlabs is proud to launch what is the most powerful DI facility in India and one of the most sophisticated in the world,” said Nishit Shetty, Head of Operations, Adlabs Digital Laboratory. “This resource will allow us to set a new standard for quality in India and keep pace with the rapid growth of the film market in India and South Asia.”

FilmLight’s Baselight EIGHT became the obvious choice for grading due to its seamless integration with the Northlight scanner and ability to grade multiple 4K streams in real-time. “We evaluated many possible solutions and found that nothing compared with the Baselight|Northlight combination,” said Ken Metzker, Senior Colourist, Adlabs Digital Laboratory. “The performance and creative toolset of the Baselight enables us to work with 4K media without proxy and perform the most complex grades.”

Adlabs, which provides processing services through its film laboratory for nearly 70 percent of all films produced in India, set out to build a native 4K DI workflow capable of meeting its current and future needs for productivity and quality. The quality and consistency offered by the pin-registered Northlight 2 was deemed essential for achieving quality standards required for digital cinema projection.

In addition to Northlight 2 and the two Baselight EIGHTs, Adlabs has deployed three Baselight Assist systems for use in conforming 4k material as well as quality control. The conform capabilities of Baselight allow the conformist to implement a last minute EDL, changing the edit, while retaining the grading work already completed.

Adlabs has implemented FilmLight’s Truelight colour management system facility wide, including the new Truelight Projector Probe and several Truelight boxes for calibration of third party devices. Truelight is integrated into each of the Baselight systems and provides a precise match between the image displayed on the Christie digital projectors in the DI grading theatres and the film prints produced on site and projected in Adlabs’ film screening theatre. Truelight will be used to produce color calibrated DCI masters and HDTV deliverables from the same digital film master files.

To handle the DI workflow’s media storage requirements, Adlabs has purchased a DVS-SAN. The Baselight EIGHTs connect directly to the DVS-SAN, which features 350 TB of storage, enough to accommodate several films simultaneously.

In addition to its laboratory and Digital Intermediate operations, Adlabs also operates the largest chain of cinemas in India, more than 100 of which are equipped with digital projectors. The company has been exhibiting first-run mega-hits in digital format since 2003.

Contact – Deepa Parbhoo ([email protected]) +44 20 7292 0400

About Adlabs

BSE: 532399, NSE: “ADLABSFILM””

Adlabs, a member of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, is the only integrated movie and entertainment company in India with a presence in production of films, TV content and animation, film processing and services, domestic and international distribution of content and the largest cinema chain in the country. Adlabs enjoys a dominant position in all its business segments. For further information, please refer to www.adlabsfilms.com.

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