Scalable creative workstation will deliver worlds’ first real-time interactive colour grading at 4K resolution
FilmLight, pioneers of digital film technology, unveiled today a high-bandwidth, high-performance creative workstation designed specifically to accelerate Baselight, its film grading and finishing system, to real-time 4k resolution. FilmLight will be showing the first ever technology demonstrations of the product, codenamed Baselight Speed-FX, at NAB 2004. Baselight Speed-FX provides world beating productivity, colour accuracy and creative control to colourists and directors of photography (DOPs). The system is controlled via a standard Baselight system and is available as an optional upgrade, with delivery planned for post IBC 2004.
By utilising industry standard PC hardware and an open architecture, Baselight Speed-FX provides an economic and highly flexible platform, able to benefit from the rapid advances in disk, graphics and processor technology. Specially developed software analyses the processing requirements for each frame and determines the required input strip. Each Speed-FX node processes a strip of the input frame, a video combiner then assembles the processed strips into a single frame, and plays the clip, in real-time.
The internal file system is able to utilise a very high I/O bandwidth as each node has its own directly connected RAID. Externally the file system appears as a standard NFS to enable network connectivity.
At NAB FilmLight will show a Baselight Speed-FX system capable of real-time 4K grading or multiple 2K streams. The scalability of the architecture will also allow the configuration of systems capable of multiple 4K streams and real-time 4K primary and secondary grading. The Speed-FX platform is also ideally suited to compositing and complex 3D visualisation applications.
“Speed-FX provides the bandwidth, interactivity and capabilities to achieve the potential of the Digital Intermediate process. It’s a “hero” suite for facilities with the ability to produce complex grades cost-effectively, and gives DOPs the ability to grade a movie at any required resolution in real-time, making sure that the projected film image will match what he/she is approving.” comments Peter Stothart, Commercial Director, FilmLight.
Contact – Deepa Parbhoo ([email protected]) +44 20 7292 0400
