At IBC 2004, FilmLight, pioneers of digital film technology, announced today that award winning post-production facility Framestore CFC has purchased the world’s first Baselight Eight system. The new generation Baselight system that brings real-time 4K grading together with the flexibility of software based systems will be installed in Framestore CFC’s Digital Intermediate department in September. Framestore CFC selected the Baselight Eight system after extensive beta testing, it will join the current FilmLight DI workflow of Northlight scanners, Baselight grading systems and Truelight colour management.
Framestore CFC chose the Baselight Eight system due to the speed benefits it will bring to the whole DI pipeline especially on time consuming 4K DI projects. The system will also eliminate the time spent waiting for renders or transferring terrabytes of data to HD DDR. The abilities to have real-time dissolves and grading at 2K were also highlighted as reasons for purchasing the system.
Steve Prescott, Director of Technology at Framestore CFC comments on the purchase: “The really clever thing about Baselight Eight is that it has better performance than dedicated hardware systems and big expensive graphics supercomputers yet it doesn’t cost the earth. You see it grading 4K in real-time and its not until you start thinking about what the system is doing that you realise how hard it is working and how smart the engineering behind it is.”
“The FilmLight team has proved they know more than most about digital film operations in the use of commodity hardware to deliver power and bandwidth, plus developing their own combiner to give you the extra graphics capability.”
About Baselight Eight
With support for real-time grading of 4K streams or multiple 2K streams that enables instant review and approval for an attending DoP, Baselight Eight is designed as a “hero suite” for high- end film grading applications. By utilising industry standard PC hardware, the Linux OS, and an open architecture, the Baselight hardware subsystem provides an economic and highly flexible platform, able to benefit from the rapid advances in disk, graphics and processor technology. Unlike other parallel processing platforms, the multi-node Baselight architecture provides true parallel operation of all hardware components. As with the current Baselight product, the new Baselight systems include FilmLight’s acclaimed Truelight 3D colour management system, ensuring accurate emulation of the final deliverable on the electronic grading display.
Baselight, Baselight Four and Baselight Eight systems are currently available for purchase. System pricing starts at $160,000 USMSRP (130,000 Euros).
Contact – Deepa Parbhoo ([email protected]) +44 20 7292 0400
About Framestore CFC
Framestore CFC is the largest effects facility in Europe, employing some 450 creative personnel. The company’s record is second to none, with numerous international awards to its credit including two technical Oscars, as well as eleven consecutive Emmys awarded for visual effects work since 1996..
