Tag Archives: hobbit

Technique Bin

Gone and Back Again–Return of The Hobbitses

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Film is dead and badly done CGI is dead and it is about time that badly done 3D be dead too. In the future, that will mean 24fps shown as 96fps (triple flashing the same picture) is dead and it won’t mean replacing it with 48fps double-flashing. 

As we learned at the 2012 SMPTE/NAB DCinema Days event (or whatever they are called now), there are problems with 48fps that are alleviated at somewhere above 52fps. Jackson’s representative (Phil Oatley, the post group head of technology from Park Road Post) said that 48 was chosen because they didn’t know if 60fps was achievable in the exhibition field, so they stuck with what seemed do-able: 2X the frames and the data rate. 

Even at that, Warner Bros. wasn’t sure enough of the field changes to trust that audio tracks for the blind or visually impaired wouldn’t negatively affect the movie, so were left out of the HFR mix. (Captions with 3D are still a different Pandora’s Box.)

But 48fps was shown to the SMPTE/NAB attendees to be the wrong choice by Dr. Marty Banks (of the Visual Space Perception Laboratory at the University of California – my tax dollars at work~!) Presumably Jackson is in too deep to change from 48. But there is no news that anyone else is going to follow. The next announced HFR (besides Hobbit II) will be Avatar II’s 60fps, and the script isn’t written for that. 

So film is unwatchable and thankfully dead. HFR as announced will be a rare jewel – though wouldn’t it be nice if Disney/Pixar/Lucas were to surprise us. Katzenberg announced at CinemaCon 2011 that we should expect new chips from them that will dramatically change computation time in production and post…maybe that will bring more/better as well.

That leaves exhibition. It was relatively painless to get to 48fps. 60fps is a different story. Will a doubling of the datarate to 500mb/s suffice? Testing remains, but at least there is time to do it. Perhaps now there will be some backing for the www.image.matters.pro road show. Image Matters Powers High Frame Rate Digital Cinema Quality

Technique Bin

Gone and Back Again–Return of The Hobbitses

Leave a comment

 

Film is dead and badly done CGI is dead and it is about time that badly done 3D be dead too. In the future, that will mean 24fps shown as 96fps (triple flashing the same picture) is dead and it won’t mean replacing it with 48fps double-flashing. 

As we learned at the 2012 SMPTE/NAB DCinema Days event (or whatever they are called now), there are problems with 48fps that are alleviated at somewhere above 52fps. Jackson’s representative (Phil Oatley, the post group head of technology from Park Road Post) said that 48 was chosen because they didn’t know if 60fps was achievable in the exhibition field, so they stuck with what seemed do-able: 2X the frames and the data rate. 

Even at that, Warner Bros. wasn’t sure enough of the field changes to trust that audio tracks for the blind or visually impaired wouldn’t negatively affect the movie, so were left out of the HFR mix. (Captions with 3D are still a different Pandora’s Box.)

But 48fps was shown to the SMPTE/NAB attendees to be the wrong choice by Dr. Marty Banks (of the Visual Space Perception Laboratory at the University of California – my tax dollars at work~!) Presumably Jackson is in too deep to change from 48. But there is no news that anyone else is going to follow. The next announced HFR (besides Hobbit II) will be Avatar II’s 60fps, and the script isn’t written for that. 

So film is unwatchable and thankfully dead. HFR as announced will be a rare jewel – though wouldn’t it be nice if Disney/Pixar/Lucas were to surprise us. Katzenberg announced at CinemaCon 2011 that we should expect new chips from them that will dramatically change computation time in production and post…maybe that will bring more/better as well.

That leaves exhibition. It was relatively painless to get to 48fps. 60fps is a different story. Will a doubling of the datarate to 500mb/s suffice? Testing remains, but at least there is time to do it. Perhaps now there will be some backing for the www.image.matters.pro road show. Image Matters Powers High Frame Rate Digital Cinema Quality

Technique Bin

HFR, New ‘Silver Screen’ and 2 Hobbit Projectors

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Analytics for US Patent No. 7,898,734, Polarization preserving front projection screen by Coleman, David A;Sharp, Gary D

The Christie PR on the dual projector set up is at the end of this article for download.

Here are some interesting articles on HFR (High Frame Rate): 

Beyond DCI – The Need for New D-Cinema Standards – Rajesh Ramachandran, CTO of Qube

Setting Standards for High Frame Rate Digital Cinema – Creative COW

Setting Standards for High Frame Rate Digital Cinema PART 2 – Creative COW

Variable HFR (High Frame Rate) Film Blog #1 | S3D Centre

Q&A ON HFR 3D Peter Jackson answers with some details on S3D48

Technique Bin

HFR, New ‘Silver Screen’ and 2 Hobbit Projectors

Leave a comment

Analytics for US Patent No. 7,898,734, Polarization preserving front projection screen by Coleman, David A;Sharp, Gary D

The Christie PR on the dual projector set up is at the end of this article for download.

Here are some interesting articles on HFR (High Frame Rate): 

Beyond DCI – The Need for New D-Cinema Standards – Rajesh Ramachandran, CTO of Qube

Setting Standards for High Frame Rate Digital Cinema – Creative COW

Setting Standards for High Frame Rate Digital Cinema PART 2 – Creative COW

Variable HFR (High Frame Rate) Film Blog #1 | S3D Centre

Q&A ON HFR 3D Peter Jackson answers with some details on S3D48

The Future Holds...

Beyond DCI – The Need for New D-Cinema Standards

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Those of us who create and manufacture digital cinema projection equipment face the challenge of knowing what standards to aim for as frame rates jump from 24 to 48, 60 and beyond. At 24 fps, the DCI-specified peak bit rate of 250 Mbps for the picture is satisfactory. It seems logical then that, by doubling the frame rate to 48, we also need to double the bit rate to 500. Indeed, the general industry direction for exhibiting 48 fps 3D material is leaning toward a bit rate of 450 Mbps, leaving some room for peaking to 500.

As we move toward HFR and its necessary twin, high bit rate (HBR), the whole production and exhibition chain must move in unison. Cameras, servers, IMBs and projectors all have to be modified and advanced to keep up with the necessary speeds. Nowhere is this more evident than in the giant screen venues, which require multiple synchronized projectors and servers that can handle high bit rates and high frame rates. As an industry facing change, we need to come to agreement on what is necessary and update the DCI and SMPTE specs for the D-cinema industry. Before we can, we need to address some technical issues, namely the need for HFR content to test, how to measure frame rate specs of equipment, and what to do with mixed content within the same show. An additional concern is the special needs of Giant Screen exhibition, namely servers capable of streaming 4K 3D data to dual synchronized projectors.

First, there is the problem that testing new equipment at high frame rates and high bit rates requires content. This won’t be an issue if filmmakers begin filming at 48 or 60 fps. We’re looking forward to The Hobbit presentations later this year to see the full potential of the media.

Another technical issue is the varied ways in which bit rate is measured. We saw at NAB and CinemaCon this year that most manufacturers of D-cinema projection equipment now stream 48 fps data at aggregate speeds of 500 Mbps. However, this does not necessarily mean that all the internal independent components within the JPEG 2000 codestream, each of which may have limitations, can run at bit rates of 500 Mbps. DCP providers need to be aware that these limitations exist when making decisions about mastering. We will need to ensure that manufacturers report both aggregate and component bit rates.

An interesting dilemma that has not yet been solved is what to do with content of different speeds played in the same show. Servers and projectors will behave differently when switching between content with different frame rates and this can lead to viewing problems. What if a 24 fps trailer is played before a 48 fps presentation of The Hobbit? We will need to hear from exhibitors and content owners about want they want to provide in terms of an acceptable user experience. The Inter-Society Digital Cinema Forum (ISDCF) is aware of this problem and has been conducting tests with various manufacturers and content owners involved.

One major limitation to implementing HFR stereo 3D that we have solved is that of moving data at sufficient speeds from server to projector. This has been accomplished by swapping the HD-SDI cable for an Ethernet connection, as well as embedding IMBs in projectors. IMBs have now become industry-standard equipment shipped with all servers, and a necessary part of any new spec. Coupled with improvements in Series 2 projectors, including image brightness, the IMB’s increased speeds will certainly enhance image quality and alleviate some of the viewer discomfort during stereo 3D projection.

How Qube handles these challenges

The Qube XP-I server is capable of a bit rate of 1 Gbps, while each Xi IMB can handle up to 500 Mbps, with no component bit rate limitation. This is in keeping with current storage throughput and image decoder specs. Qube servers have the same component and aggregate bit rates.

The Qube XP-I server and Xi IMB are capable of frame rates up to 120 fps per eye. This gives a frame rate of up to 240 fps for dual projection driven by a single server streaming a single DCP for stereo 3D.

Qube has also shown that exhibition of 4K 3D content on Giant Screens is possible from a single XP-I server, streaming data at 1 Gbps and 30 fps to dual synchronized ultra-bright projectors. This greatly enhances the 3D viewing experience at Giant Screen venues.

When updating digital cinema specifications, we should aim high with respect to HFR in anticipation of where filmmakers might go. In this way we will be future proofing the next set of standards.

Rajesh Ramachandran is the CTO of Qube Cinema.

The Future Holds...

Beyond DCI – The Need for New D-Cinema Standards

Leave a comment

Those of us who create and manufacture digital cinema projection equipment face the challenge of knowing what standards to aim for as frame rates jump from 24 to 48, 60 and beyond. At 24 fps, the DCI-specified peak bit rate of 250 Mbps for the picture is satisfactory. It seems logical then that, by doubling the frame rate to 48, we also need to double the bit rate to 500. Indeed, the general industry direction for exhibiting 48 fps 3D material is leaning toward a bit rate of 450 Mbps, leaving some room for peaking to 500.

As we move toward HFR and its necessary twin, high bit rate (HBR), the whole production and exhibition chain must move in unison. Cameras, servers, IMBs and projectors all have to be modified and advanced to keep up with the necessary speeds. Nowhere is this more evident than in the giant screen venues, which require multiple synchronized projectors and servers that can handle high bit rates and high frame rates. As an industry facing change, we need to come to agreement on what is necessary and update the DCI and SMPTE specs for the D-cinema industry. Before we can, we need to address some technical issues, namely the need for HFR content to test, how to measure frame rate specs of equipment, and what to do with mixed content within the same show. An additional concern is the special needs of Giant Screen exhibition, namely servers capable of streaming 4K 3D data to dual synchronized projectors.

First, there is the problem that testing new equipment at high frame rates and high bit rates requires content. This won’t be an issue if filmmakers begin filming at 48 or 60 fps. We’re looking forward to The Hobbit presentations later this year to see the full potential of the media.

Another technical issue is the varied ways in which bit rate is measured. We saw at NAB and CinemaCon this year that most manufacturers of D-cinema projection equipment now stream 48 fps data at aggregate speeds of 500 Mbps. However, this does not necessarily mean that all the internal independent components within the JPEG 2000 codestream, each of which may have limitations, can run at bit rates of 500 Mbps. DCP providers need to be aware that these limitations exist when making decisions about mastering. We will need to ensure that manufacturers report both aggregate and component bit rates.

An interesting dilemma that has not yet been solved is what to do with content of different speeds played in the same show. Servers and projectors will behave differently when switching between content with different frame rates and this can lead to viewing problems. What if a 24 fps trailer is played before a 48 fps presentation of The Hobbit? We will need to hear from exhibitors and content owners about want they want to provide in terms of an acceptable user experience. The Inter-Society Digital Cinema Forum (ISDCF) is aware of this problem and has been conducting tests with various manufacturers and content owners involved.

One major limitation to implementing HFR stereo 3D that we have solved is that of moving data at sufficient speeds from server to projector. This has been accomplished by swapping the HD-SDI cable for an Ethernet connection, as well as embedding IMBs in projectors. IMBs have now become industry-standard equipment shipped with all servers, and a necessary part of any new spec. Coupled with improvements in Series 2 projectors, including image brightness, the IMB’s increased speeds will certainly enhance image quality and alleviate some of the viewer discomfort during stereo 3D projection.

How Qube handles these challenges

The Qube XP-I server is capable of a bit rate of 1 Gbps, while each Xi IMB can handle up to 500 Mbps, with no component bit rate limitation. This is in keeping with current storage throughput and image decoder specs. Qube servers have the same component and aggregate bit rates.

The Qube XP-I server and Xi IMB are capable of frame rates up to 120 fps per eye. This gives a frame rate of up to 240 fps for dual projection driven by a single server streaming a single DCP for stereo 3D.

Qube has also shown that exhibition of 4K 3D content on Giant Screens is possible from a single XP-I server, streaming data at 1 Gbps and 30 fps to dual synchronized ultra-bright projectors. This greatly enhances the 3D viewing experience at Giant Screen venues.

When updating digital cinema specifications, we should aim high with respect to HFR in anticipation of where filmmakers might go. In this way we will be future proofing the next set of standards.

Rajesh Ramachandran is the CTO of Qube Cinema.

Exhibitor News

Black Screen Alert~! InterOp Losing Life Support

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Long Live InterOp

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. The engineers contributing to SMPTE, and the studios who contributed to DCI, came up with enough elements to create a secure and beautiful D-Cinema environment. The same studios financed the equipment qualification standards and partially financed equipment purchases for many exhibitors. These exhibitors agreed to buy this qualified equipment and use it in a way that somewhat assured that copyrights and quality-better-than-film would be typical on screens world-wide.

Fortunately, there were written and unwritten agreements which allowed the simple DCinema origins of MPEG and a fairly loose mechanism of security keys to transition to the full on (and just recently completed) versions of standards, specifications and practices known as SMPTE Compliant Digital Cinema, with SMPTE Compliant DCPs and Security and screen fulls of other ingredients. These transitional agreements are known as InterOp.

Unfortunately, InterOp worked well enough to be added to…and added to…and added to…

For example, the simplest multimedia tools use metadata to describe computer needed info and human interface info within the songs or movies that we get to and from iTunes and Hulu and Netflix. Workers who had to get equipment and people working together in the InterOp world had to come up with an interim…maybe one year or so to live…Naming Convention. It wasn’t useful for computers at all, and cumbersome for humans at best and kept getting added to without increasing the number of characters since some old equipment only had so many display characters…kinda like computers in the 60’s. There were (and are, since years later it is still in use) dozens of ways for it to go wrong, beginning with the fact that some studios chose to ignore it when it gets in the way (according to the logic at their end of the string) while projectionists might miss some nuance that is needed for logic at their end of the string.

What happened to adding metadata like modern sciences do, and which everyone knows eventually will be needed? There are other panics with higher priority. It sits partly formed, probably until it becomes a keystone item needed for some other important development.

There are other examples of InterOp and loose de facto ‘standards’ living beyond their time, the most garish being what is hopelessly called 3D.

Instead of using valuable engineering time to progress the computer to computer interface and give exhibitors a fighting chance at perfection, engineers have had to shoehorn one feature after another into the InterOp structure. It is done with the best intentions, of course. It begins with, “My customers were asking for this now, not at some point in the SMPTE-Compliant future.” It ends with, “I have to do this because my competitor is bragging about how they can do this at no extra cost even though it violates the spirit and the essence of every standard.”

There are too many examples to mention ranging from forensics and audio mapping. Specifics aren’t as important as the fact that the entire industry has floated out far enough from land that some see letters in the water, and some seem to think that they spell H – E – R – E    B – E    D – R – A – G – O – N – S

DCinema Dragons don’t breathe fire. They are light suckers. They cause Dark Screens. Coming to theaters and drive-ins near you.

Why?

Many reasons, partly centered around the effects of software upgrades. Because the upgrade from InterOp to SMPTE-Compliant software is not a simple ‘add a feature or two’ software upgrade. At the best of times, you just never know what you will be causing when you hit that ‘Upgrade’ button. Did the software writer anticipate every single parameter of combinations of hardware and software that is in your situation?

There just are some odds that you come out of the hospital feeling worse than how you went in (look up HAI). Anyone with a computer has had software upgrades that worked for thousands of others, but did not work for them (look up: damn, not again.) There is probably some inverse squared proportionality involved as well. Getting closer to a deadline quadruples the odds of failure.

So, don’t change~! Jeez. That is sooo obvious. Which is what many do. Don’t get the first generation of anything, including upgrades. Especially during summer when all the big movies are playing.

But a horizon event approaches. Some InterOp juggling just won’t work for some combinations of . There are an amalgam of changes coming though, prompted by the teams of Jackson and Cameron. It might be easy to ignore the 60 frames per second requirement of a Cameron release (famous for pushing deadlines forward as he is), but The Hobbit will probably not be delayed. 48 frames per second, stereoscopic 3D. Will it work in the InterOp world? And what other changes will be made

Why 48fps? Phil Oatley, the post group head of technology from Park Road Post (Mr. Jackson’s facility in New Zealand) who spoke at the SMPTE/NAB DCinema Days last April said that they choose 48 because they didn’t know if equipment and exhibitors could change to 60fps in time and in significant numbers. As it turns out, all server and projector manufacturers have announced 48 and 60 fps capability. Sony even put a price on it…$3,000…which they can more easily do for their 13,000 users as they have always used an internal media block in their system.

In this case, Sony has something like the Apple advantage: They control the server, the media block and the projector so the odds are higher of getting a smooth transition. And, they have gotten DCI Compliance (at one moment of software version time…does HFR cause enough of a technology disruption that they need to re-certify?)

A TI-based projector with an SD-HDI interface will be a lot more complicated. An IMB (internal media block) needs purchasing and inserting, which isn’t a cheap investment. It is dependent upon TI-code and code from the projector manufacturer as well as code from the server all working together. How different is the server, which will have had its graphics-serving guts ripped out? …will that need a new cert? Check the DCI site for Compliance passed equipment.

But we have gotten off point. Back a few years ago you could sign a VPF deal and promise that you would use DCI-Compliant equipment and run with the latest SMPTE specs and recommended practices. At the time there wasn’t one piece of gear through the compliance procedures. And since you know that there is no SMPTE Police checking your screen for the required 48 candela/square meter luminance standard, you didn’t feel bad breaking the luminance number when showing 3D, a number that approached moonlight-equivalence at the sides of the theater and barely reached 10cd/m2 in the center. (For info on the light fall off from silver screens, see: 23 degrees…half the light. 3D What?)

But the history of the studios has been to look the other way until there is a technology that fulfills the DCI requirement. When Doremi proved they could do JPEG as the standard required, MPEG suppliers were given notice. When laser light engines can provide 3D at 48 cd/m2 (14 foot-lamberts), will the studios insist that passive 3D systems with their horrid high gain silver screens are no longer allowed (as was done in France recently? See: The Death of Silver Screens~! Vive la France)

We’ll see, but this doesn’t have anything to do with HFR. HFR is outside the DCI specs. It falls into the ‘no less than’ zone, similar to the color primaries. Laser suppliers can pick primaries outside the capabilities of xenon if that is financially and politically worthwhile, just as long as they don’t chose primaries inside the DCI/SMPTE limits.

So what does HFR and SMPTE compliance have to do with each other? Only that they are two locomotives that are running on two separate but not parallel lines. There is no firm deadline for SMPTE compliant DCPs, and no one is saying that InterOp compliant DCPs have a limited life. In fact, the studios expect that DCI equipment will play future SMPTE-compliant DCPs as well as what will become ‘legacy’ InterOp DCPs.

But something, at some time, is going to bulge the balloon of InterOp to the point that going SMPTE-Compliant is the logical move. Engineers at the manufacturers are just going to say, “I can’t play this game anymore. We were promised SMPTE would be the container that fit everything, I did the work, I will InterOp no more.”

There is rumor that this will happen soon. There is a particular setup that is rubbing against the InterOp balloon. Exhibitors are saying, “We don’t want to change until the summer season is over.” Will everything play nice together if only one condition is changed in a system? Possibly. How can you increase your odds?

Go to the ISDCF site that lists all the latest software/firmware versions for the equipment in the field. See to it that you have the latest. That will increase the odds. ISDCF Current Versions

Another thing you can do is prepare a database listing all of your equipment at each projection position, all of the software and firmware versions and all the serial numbers, and leave a field where you can download your .pem file from each piece of gear. Save this and get ready for a note from your distribution center asking for this info.

 

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,
we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,
we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way
– in short, the period was so far like the present period,
that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil,
in the superlative degree of comparison only.

Charles Dickens – Tale of Two Cities

Exhibitor News

Black Screen Alert~! InterOp Losing Life Support

Leave a comment

Long Live InterOp

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. The engineers contributing to SMPTE, and the studios who contributed to DCI, came up with enough elements to create a secure and beautiful D-Cinema environment. The same studios financed the equipment qualification standards and partially financed equipment purchases for many exhibitors. These exhibitors agreed to buy this qualified equipment and use it in a way that somewhat assured that copyrights and quality-better-than-film would be typical on screens world-wide.

Fortunately, there were written and unwritten agreements which allowed the simple DCinema origins of MPEG and a fairly loose mechanism of security keys to transition to the full on (and just recently completed) versions of standards, specifications and practices known as SMPTE Compliant Digital Cinema, with SMPTE Compliant DCPs and Security and screen fulls of other ingredients. These transitional agreements are known as InterOp.

Unfortunately, InterOp worked well enough to be added to…and added to…and added to…

For example, the simplest multimedia tools use metadata to describe computer needed info and human interface info within the songs or movies that we get to and from iTunes and Hulu and Netflix. Workers who had to get equipment and people working together in the InterOp world had to come up with an interim…maybe one year or so to live…Naming Convention. It wasn’t useful for computers at all, and cumbersome for humans at best and kept getting added to without increasing the number of characters since some old equipment only had so many display characters…kinda like computers in the 60’s. There were (and are, since years later it is still in use) dozens of ways for it to go wrong, beginning with the fact that some studios chose to ignore it when it gets in the way (according to the logic at their end of the string) while projectionists might miss some nuance that is needed for logic at their end of the string.

What happened to adding metadata like modern sciences do, and which everyone knows eventually will be needed? There are other panics with higher priority. It sits partly formed, probably until it becomes a keystone item needed for some other important development.

There are other examples of InterOp and loose de facto ‘standards’ living beyond their time, the most garish being what is hopelessly called 3D.

Instead of using valuable engineering time to progress the computer to computer interface and give exhibitors a fighting chance at perfection, engineers have had to shoehorn one feature after another into the InterOp structure. It is done with the best intentions, of course. It begins with, “My customers were asking for this now, not at some point in the SMPTE-Compliant future.” It ends with, “I have to do this because my competitor is bragging about how they can do this at no extra cost even though it violates the spirit and the essence of every standard.”

There are too many examples to mention ranging from forensics and audio mapping. Specifics aren’t as important as the fact that the entire industry has floated out far enough from land that some see letters in the water, and some seem to think that they spell H – E – R – E    B – E    D – R – A – G – O – N – S

DCinema Dragons don’t breathe fire. They are light suckers. They cause Dark Screens. Coming to theaters and drive-ins near you.

Why?

Many reasons, partly centered around the effects of software upgrades. Because the upgrade from InterOp to SMPTE-Compliant software is not a simple ‘add a feature or two’ software upgrade. At the best of times, you just never know what you will be causing when you hit that ‘Upgrade’ button. Did the software writer anticipate every single parameter of combinations of hardware and software that is in your situation?

There just are some odds that you come out of the hospital feeling worse than how you went in (look up HAI). Anyone with a computer has had software upgrades that worked for thousands of others, but did not work for them (look up: damn, not again.) There is probably some inverse squared proportionality involved as well. Getting closer to a deadline quadruples the odds of failure.

So, don’t change~! Jeez. That is sooo obvious. Which is what many do. Don’t get the first generation of anything, including upgrades. Especially during summer when all the big movies are playing.

But a horizon event approaches. Some InterOp juggling just won’t work for some combinations of . There are an amalgam of changes coming though, prompted by the teams of Jackson and Cameron. It might be easy to ignore the 60 frames per second requirement of a Cameron release (famous for pushing deadlines forward as he is), but The Hobbit will probably not be delayed. 48 frames per second, stereoscopic 3D. Will it work in the InterOp world? And what other changes will be made

Why 48fps? Phil Oatley, the post group head of technology from Park Road Post (Mr. Jackson’s facility in New Zealand) who spoke at the SMPTE/NAB DCinema Days last April said that they choose 48 because they didn’t know if equipment and exhibitors could change to 60fps in time and in significant numbers. As it turns out, all server and projector manufacturers have announced 48 and 60 fps capability. Sony even put a price on it…$3,000…which they can more easily do for their 13,000 users as they have always used an internal media block in their system.

In this case, Sony has something like the Apple advantage: They control the server, the media block and the projector so the odds are higher of getting a smooth transition. And, they have gotten DCI Compliance (at one moment of software version time…does HFR cause enough of a technology disruption that they need to re-certify?)

A TI-based projector with an SD-HDI interface will be a lot more complicated. An IMB (internal media block) needs purchasing and inserting, which isn’t a cheap investment. It is dependent upon TI-code and code from the projector manufacturer as well as code from the server all working together. How different is the server, which will have had its graphics-serving guts ripped out? …will that need a new cert? Check the DCI site for Compliance passed equipment.

But we have gotten off point. Back a few years ago you could sign a VPF deal and promise that you would use DCI-Compliant equipment and run with the latest SMPTE specs and recommended practices. At the time there wasn’t one piece of gear through the compliance procedures. And since you know that there is no SMPTE Police checking your screen for the required 48 candela/square meter luminance standard, you didn’t feel bad breaking the luminance number when showing 3D, a number that approached moonlight-equivalence at the sides of the theater and barely reached 10cd/m2 in the center. (For info on the light fall off from silver screens, see: 23 degrees…half the light. 3D What?)

But the history of the studios has been to look the other way until there is a technology that fulfills the DCI requirement. When Doremi proved they could do JPEG as the standard required, MPEG suppliers were given notice. When laser light engines can provide 3D at 48 cd/m2 (14 foot-lamberts), will the studios insist that passive 3D systems with their horrid high gain silver screens are no longer allowed (as was done in France recently? See: The Death of Silver Screens~! Vive la France)

We’ll see, but this doesn’t have anything to do with HFR. HFR is outside the DCI specs. It falls into the ‘no less than’ zone, similar to the color primaries. Laser suppliers can pick primaries outside the capabilities of xenon if that is financially and politically worthwhile, just as long as they don’t chose primaries inside the DCI/SMPTE limits.

So what does HFR and SMPTE compliance have to do with each other? Only that they are two locomotives that are running on two separate but not parallel lines. There is no firm deadline for SMPTE compliant DCPs, and no one is saying that InterOp compliant DCPs have a limited life. In fact, the studios expect that DCI equipment will play future SMPTE-compliant DCPs as well as what will become ‘legacy’ InterOp DCPs.

But something, at some time, is going to bulge the balloon of InterOp to the point that going SMPTE-Compliant is the logical move. Engineers at the manufacturers are just going to say, “I can’t play this game anymore. We were promised SMPTE would be the container that fit everything, I did the work, I will InterOp no more.”

There is rumor that this will happen soon. There is a particular setup that is rubbing against the InterOp balloon. Exhibitors are saying, “We don’t want to change until the summer season is over.” Will everything play nice together if only one condition is changed in a system? Possibly. How can you increase your odds?

Go to the ISDCF site that lists all the latest software/firmware versions for the equipment in the field. See to it that you have the latest. That will increase the odds. ISDCF Current Versions

Another thing you can do is prepare a database listing all of your equipment at each projection position, all of the software and firmware versions and all the serial numbers, and leave a field where you can download your .pem file from each piece of gear. Save this and get ready for a note from your distribution center asking for this info.

 

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,
we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,
we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way
– in short, the period was so far like the present period,
that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil,
in the superlative degree of comparison only.

Charles Dickens – Tale of Two Cities

Interesting Blogs

HFR-S3D Post SMPTE/CinemaCon Hobbit

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Your analogy Michael, of going from standard definition to high definition or from VHS to DVD is a good one, but it doesn’t inform one of how it is similar. It is not that there are more pixels, it is that more pixels are able to be a discernible part of the picture…or can be if the director chooses. Another analogy would be to say that there is more depth of field, but instead of talking about the amount of available focus behind the point of focus, we get more ability to focus in front of the point of focus. Normally all that area in front is not only out of focus, but during any kind of motion in the scene or the camera, there is a smearing that contributes to destroying contrast in the picture. It is also very tiring for the eyes.

Cameron’s demonstration a year ago at CinemaCon made use of sword fighting and sweeping the camera around a fairly large room. The most vivid shot that allowed the technology to prove itself was a long, medium speed pan of several actors and actresses sitting at a long table with food and candles in front of them. There was also another set of actors whose backs were to us, so we’d see the back of their heads, with the view of the candles going in and out. At 24 frames per second (fps) the scene was typical, in-focus faces and quasi-focused candle flames with smeared blurs of the actors backs in front. At 48 frames per second, the smearing left. It wasn’t so important that the backs of these heads and shoulders were in focus, but that the smearing was gone so the discernible luminance of the scene increased – loosely, more contrast means colors and more colors means more natural feeling. The candle flames were brighter without being any more in focus.

Now I will bring 3D into the conversation and tell you that you are wrong Michael. 3D is not just a gimmick, and not just another tool. In fact, each picture that we see has dozens of clues of dimensionality without the parallax clues that stereoscopy brings. Everything from colors fading as we see them in the distance, to a fuzziness at the intersection of two objects (notice the shoulders compared to their background) to comparative sizes and not seeing a person’s legs when a table is in front of them, all tell the human visual system of eyes and brain and mind that there is a third dimension in the scene we are looking at. On the other hand, my guess is that most technical people in the business generally dislike the current implementations of Stereoscopic 3D, but for reasons that don’t have to do with the ugliness of the glasses or the upcharge or whether a well written scene could have served just as well. Most dislike it because even with the inherent horrors of the combination of high gain and silver screens (each with their own set of insurmountable problems), there isn’t enough light to do the process justice. And again, less light means more in-the-mud colors and fewer colors overall, especially whites and the light subtle colors that we normally use to discern subtle things.

I also was not a fan of S-3D until I saw the ‘dimensionalization’ of the final scene of Casablanca. I thought it was marvelous. It was on the other side of compelling. It was as if there needed to be an excuse to leave out the parallax. That doesn’t make badly shot or poorly dimensionalized S-3D OK, but it does make any S-3D ‘Not Ready for Prime Time’ when it isn’t then presented correctly – and that mostly has to do with the amount of light from the screen to the eyes. Which brings us back to High Frame Rates.

There was a two day set of SMPTE seminars dealing with digital cinema before NAB, which was the week before CinemaCon. Several thousand engineers got full geek treatment with an hour of ‘why lasers in the projector’ then seeing 6 minutes of demonstrations of Sony projectors with retrofit Laser Light Engines, Inc.’ laser systems, and 40 minutes on the various problems that high frame rates bring to the post production workflow, then 20 minutes of presentation from a technical representative from Peter Jackson’s team who explained some technical considerations of HFR.

There is a commonly held misconception that 24 frames per second was chosen because testing determined that this speed had something to do with the natural flutter rate of the eyes. In fact, 24 fps was chosen because it brought a movies sound to the point where it was not horrible. Similarly, there is some magic above 50 something fps and as we also learned (while Sperling was at Coachella missing the SMPTE event), there are potential problems to be wary of at 48 frames per second, demonstrated by Dr. Marty Banks of Cal Berkeley. So…

To answer one of your questions Michael, 48 frames was chosen at the time because they weren’t certain if equipment manufacturers would be able to get a working high frame rate system available by the time that The Hobbit was going to be released. But anyone who reads the trades most certainly knows that frame rates up to 60 have been in the specifications and doable since Series II projectors became available from Texas Instruments. Ah! but not in S-3D. As Sperling pointed out, this requires “in the projector” electronics to be fitted (or retrofitted) and a whole new way of thinking servers for the projector. An example: Sony announced to their 13,000 customers – give us $3,000 and we will retrofit your software to do S3D-HFR.

Going back though, to the demonstrations that Cameron did a year ago. In addition to 48fps S3D – which got rid of the front of focus blur – there were also identical shots taken at 60fps S3D. They were less WOW! but still importantly beneficial. Because of time constraints and the fact that we were sitting among Cameron’s other several thousand friends in the auditorium, there wasn’t a lot of time to look at these shots, but they reminded me of the arguments that George Massenburg made in a famous 3 part article entitled Lace and Filigree, written during audio’s transition to digital in the mid-80’s. There is something special as the speed improves akin to the benefits of increasing signal to noise in its various forms. Perhaps it all serves to put technology into the sphere of philosophy where it belongs. It certainly reminds us that all technology involves the art of compromise.

Last short aside, during the SMPTE event with the HFR panelists still on stage. One engineer came to the open mic and made a statement about government S3D skunkwork experiments that he had been part of which indicated that there was something that ‘popped’ at 53 fps and wondered if anyone else had run into that phenomena. The chair answered with a few speculations then expressed regret that Douglas Trumbull wasn’t there to give insights to his experiments in the field, since he not only had the longest record of making high frame rate movies but just opened a new digital high frame rate studio that has made several technical break-thoughs. And just like the Annie Hall/Marshall McLuhan moment, Doug came to the mic and added a few quips… OK; so that’s all we geeks get for high-level entertainment.

Keep up the good work. I enjoy the show and don’t begrudge any extra minutes you take to get all the interesting news of the week to us.

[Author’s salutations]

References:

 

High Frame Rates – The New Black, Getting to Speed

Combine 3, Drop 2, 120 becomes 24

 

Interesting Blogs

HFR-S3D Post SMPTE/CinemaCon Hobbit

Leave a comment

Your analogy Michael, of going from standard definition to high definition or from VHS to DVD is a good one, but it doesn’t inform one of how it is similar. It is not that there are more pixels, it is that more pixels are able to be a discernible part of the picture…or can be if the director chooses. Another analogy would be to say that there is more depth of field, but instead of talking about the amount of available focus behind the point of focus, we get more ability to focus in front of the point of focus. Normally all that area in front is not only out of focus, but during any kind of motion in the scene or the camera, there is a smearing that contributes to destroying contrast in the picture. It is also very tiring for the eyes.

Cameron’s demonstration a year ago at CinemaCon made use of sword fighting and sweeping the camera around a fairly large room. The most vivid shot that allowed the technology to prove itself was a long, medium speed pan of several actors and actresses sitting at a long table with food and candles in front of them. There was also another set of actors whose backs were to us, so we’d see the back of their heads, with the view of the candles going in and out. At 24 frames per second (fps) the scene was typical, in-focus faces and quasi-focused candle flames with smeared blurs of the actors backs in front. At 48 frames per second, the smearing left. It wasn’t so important that the backs of these heads and shoulders were in focus, but that the smearing was gone so the discernible luminance of the scene increased – loosely, more contrast means colors and more colors means more natural feeling. The candle flames were brighter without being any more in focus.

Now I will bring 3D into the conversation and tell you that you are wrong Michael. 3D is not just a gimmick, and not just another tool. In fact, each picture that we see has dozens of clues of dimensionality without the parallax clues that stereoscopy brings. Everything from colors fading as we see them in the distance, to a fuzziness at the intersection of two objects (notice the shoulders compared to their background) to comparative sizes and not seeing a person’s legs when a table is in front of them, all tell the human visual system of eyes and brain and mind that there is a third dimension in the scene we are looking at. On the other hand, my guess is that most technical people in the business generally dislike the current implementations of Stereoscopic 3D, but for reasons that don’t have to do with the ugliness of the glasses or the upcharge or whether a well written scene could have served just as well. Most dislike it because even with the inherent horrors of the combination of high gain and silver screens (each with their own set of insurmountable problems), there isn’t enough light to do the process justice. And again, less light means more in-the-mud colors and fewer colors overall, especially whites and the light subtle colors that we normally use to discern subtle things.

I also was not a fan of S-3D until I saw the ‘dimensionalization’ of the final scene of Casablanca. I thought it was marvelous. It was on the other side of compelling. It was as if there needed to be an excuse to leave out the parallax. That doesn’t make badly shot or poorly dimensionalized S-3D OK, but it does make any S-3D ‘Not Ready for Prime Time’ when it isn’t then presented correctly – and that mostly has to do with the amount of light from the screen to the eyes. Which brings us back to High Frame Rates.

There was a two day set of SMPTE seminars dealing with digital cinema before NAB, which was the week before CinemaCon. Several thousand engineers got full geek treatment with an hour of ‘why lasers in the projector’ then seeing 6 minutes of demonstrations of Sony projectors with retrofit Laser Light Engines, Inc.’ laser systems, and 40 minutes on the various problems that high frame rates bring to the post production workflow, then 20 minutes of presentation from a technical representative from Peter Jackson’s team who explained some technical considerations of HFR.

There is a commonly held misconception that 24 frames per second was chosen because testing determined that this speed had something to do with the natural flutter rate of the eyes. In fact, 24 fps was chosen because it brought a movies sound to the point where it was not horrible. Similarly, there is some magic above 50 something fps and as we also learned (while Sperling was at Coachella missing the SMPTE event), there are potential problems to be wary of at 48 frames per second, demonstrated by Dr. Marty Banks of Cal Berkeley. So…

To answer one of your questions Michael, 48 frames was chosen at the time because they weren’t certain if equipment manufacturers would be able to get a working high frame rate system available by the time that The Hobbit was going to be released. But anyone who reads the trades most certainly knows that frame rates up to 60 have been in the specifications and doable since Series II projectors became available from Texas Instruments. Ah! but not in S-3D. As Sperling pointed out, this requires “in the projector” electronics to be fitted (or retrofitted) and a whole new way of thinking servers for the projector. An example: Sony announced to their 13,000 customers – give us $3,000 and we will retrofit your software to do S3D-HFR.

Going back though, to the demonstrations that Cameron did a year ago. In addition to 48fps S3D – which got rid of the front of focus blur – there were also identical shots taken at 60fps S3D. They were less WOW! but still importantly beneficial. Because of time constraints and the fact that we were sitting among Cameron’s other several thousand friends in the auditorium, there wasn’t a lot of time to look at these shots, but they reminded me of the arguments that George Massenburg made in a famous 3 part article entitled Lace and Filigree, written during audio’s transition to digital in the mid-80’s. There is something special as the speed improves akin to the benefits of increasing signal to noise in its various forms. Perhaps it all serves to put technology into the sphere of philosophy where it belongs. It certainly reminds us that all technology involves the art of compromise.

Last short aside, during the SMPTE event with the HFR panelists still on stage. One engineer came to the open mic and made a statement about government S3D skunkwork experiments that he had been part of which indicated that there was something that ‘popped’ at 53 fps and wondered if anyone else had run into that phenomena. The chair answered with a few speculations then expressed regret that Douglas Trumbull wasn’t there to give insights to his experiments in the field, since he not only had the longest record of making high frame rate movies but just opened a new digital high frame rate studio that has made several technical break-thoughs. And just like the Annie Hall/Marshall McLuhan moment, Doug came to the mic and added a few quips… OK; so that’s all we geeks get for high-level entertainment.

Keep up the good work. I enjoy the show and don’t begrudge any extra minutes you take to get all the interesting news of the week to us.

[Author’s salutations]

References:

 

High Frame Rates – The New Black, Getting to Speed

Combine 3, Drop 2, 120 becomes 24

 

The Future Holds...

500Mbps Good Enough Tests

Leave a comment

hfr test logo image mattersMany eyes and many tests later, the specifications for quality digital cinema playback was decided upon by the community. Then, in the spirit of ‘good enough’, Stereoscopic 3D quality problems were ignored. And more recently, it appears that High Frame Rate (HFR) and in particular HFR S3D is moving like an unexamined juggarnaut into the future.

At the SMPTE event last month held in conjunction with NAB, Dr. Marty Banks tossed some landmines into the Knowledge Base. Then one of the people who did tests that made the 48 frame per second decision for the Hobbit gave their historical view. His bombshell was that 48 was chosen because it wasn’t known whether (enough…any?) hardware manufacturers  could come to the plate with working equipment by the time of the release in late 2012.

One part of the DCI and SMPTE and ISO Specification for D-Cinema is a 250Mbps interface between the projector and the media player. In the early days this meant the link from the server, but since Series II TI systems capable of running 4K material (and all systems from Sony), this means an internal media block.

[Update: Qube announced at CinemaCon that their IMB supplies a 1Gig stream to the projector. A quick scan of the interwebz and the memory of other visits at CinemaCon puts the rest of the manufacturers at 500Mbps.]

24 frames per second times 2…OK, let’s double the Mbps into the projector…500Mbps is the bar that seems to be accepted wisdom for ‘good enough’ 48 frames per second stereoscopic 3D material, such as The Hobbit. Anyone got a problem with that? Answer: Who could? No one really has varied sources of material or even firm software to test it with.

Enter the new company image-matters. They have assembled equipment that will be able to show material at speeds above and below 1Gbps. They will show this at 6 cities around the world for the next 6 months. People will look and talk.

Here is the link for the press announcement:

High Frame Rate & High Bit Rate Test Equipment and Test Series

April 14, 2012, NAB Show, Las Vegas, for immediate release.

Image Matters, intoPIX, MikroM and Virident collaborate beyond the state of the art. The target is a series of tests on June 7 and 8 2012 in Burbank CA, coordinated by Michael Karagosian of MKPE Consulting, and cinematographers Kommer Kleijn SBC and David Stump ASC, as co-chairs of the SMPTE 21DC Study Group for Higher Frame Rates.

These tests will be conducted in collaboration with studios and the creative community. They will measure the minimum JPEG 2000 codestream bit rate requested by high frame rate content to reach the visually lossless quality demanded by digital cinema applications.

The experimental equipment set will enable playback of JPEG 2000 codestream bit rate higher than 1 Gbps (i.e. more than 4 times the current DCI specification). The decoded 2K images will be transmitted to a single projector at a frame rate of up to 120 fps (i.e. 60 fpe for Stereoscopic 3D content).

In order to speed up the test process and to allow the easy production of multiple encoding flavours, the equipment set will also be capable of encoding high frame rate content from uncompressed files in near real-time.

The assembled equipment will consist of one server incorporating 4 Virident FlashMAX boards and one intoPIX JPEG 2000 PRISTINE-P4 board. The PRISTINE will playback the decoded codestream on four 3G SDI links to the MikroM IMB inserted into the projector. The MikroM’s IMB will receive the four 3G-SDI links and pass the uncompressed image data directly to the projector backplane. Image Matters will insure project coordination and integration.

The integration has enough headroom to allow, on request, multiple equipments to be combined to achieve higher bit rates and/or higher frame rates.

Storage

  • Four 1.4 TB Virident FlashMAX MLC cards: 
    • total capacity of 5.6TB
    • total read bandwidth of 5.2 GB/s
    • total write bandwidth of 2.2GB/s on XFS file system.
  • Each Virident card has: 
    • a half height and half length form factor
    • a PCIe x8 Gen1 bus • power consumption of 25 W
    • a sustainable random read of 1,3 GB/s

JPEG 2000 Encoding/decoding

  • One intoPIX PRISTINE P4 board
    • 2K & 4K JPEG2000 decoder FPGA IP-cores
    • high frame rates capacity: up to 120 Fps
    • high bitrate capacity: up to 1 Gbps
    • four 3G-SDI outputs
    • one Genlock input
    • One MikroM Integrated MediaBlock MVC 201
      • four 3G-SDI input
      • Formatting and pass through of uncompressed image data
      • Up to 120 2K fps

      Information

      Please contact Jean-François Nivart
      [email protected]
      +32 495 23 00 08

      About Image Matters

      Image Matters offers innovative hardware and software modules for professional image and sound handling. This new venture helps OEMs, integrators and end-users to develop advanced imaging systems and applications easily and quickly.

      More information on www.image.matters.pro

      About intoPIX

      intoPIX is a leading supplier of image compression technology to audiovisual equipment manufacturers. We are passionate about offering people a higher quality image experience and have developed FPGA IP cores that enable leading edge JPEG 2000 image compression, security and hardware enforcement. Achieving a major breakthrough in digital cinema, intoPIX has achieved a leading position in the professional image compression industry based on the JPEG 2000 standard. More information on our company, customers and products can be found on www.intopix.com

      Interested in HFR technology? Contact Gael Rouvroy, intoPIX C.T.O. – [email protected] – +32479774944

      About MikroM

      MikroM is a leading design house and provider of state-of-the-art audio/video technologies for selected professional markets. The portfolio covers silicon-proven IPs, ASICs, PCBs and Systems in combination with professional design services. With a variety of products and services MikroM focus on application-specific and reliable solutions for system integrators and OEMs in quality-driven markets as HD Broadcast, Digital Cinema and Advertisement/Presentation.

      About Virident

      Virident Systems’ professional Storage Class Memory (SCM) solutions deliver unconditional consistent performance that supports the most data-intensive content and applications. Virident Systems is backed by strategic investors, Intel®, Cisco® Systems and a leading storage hardware and software solutions provider as well as venture investors Globespan CapitalPartners, Sequoia Capital, and Artiman Ventures. For more information visit www.virident.com.

      References:

      High Frame Rates – The New Black, Getting to Speed

      HFR-S3D Post SMPTE/CinemaCon Hobbit

      Combine 3, Drop 2, 120 becomes 24

The Future Holds...

500Mbps Good Enough Tests

Leave a comment

hfr test logo image mattersMany eyes and many tests later, the specifications for quality digital cinema playback was decided upon by the community. Then, in the spirit of ‘good enough’, Stereoscopic 3D quality problems were ignored. And more recently, it appears that High Frame Rate (HFR) and in particular HFR S3D is moving like an unexamined juggarnaut into the future.

At the SMPTE event last month held in conjunction with NAB, Dr. Marty Banks tossed some landmines into the Knowledge Base. Then one of the people who did tests that made the 48 frame per second decision for the Hobbit gave their historical view. His bombshell was that 48 was chosen because it wasn’t known whether (enough…any?) hardware manufacturers  could come to the plate with working equipment by the time of the release in late 2012.

One part of the DCI and SMPTE and ISO Specification for D-Cinema is a 250Mbps interface between the projector and the media player. In the early days this meant the link from the server, but since Series II TI systems capable of running 4K material (and all systems from Sony), this means an internal media block.

[Update: Qube announced at CinemaCon that their IMB supplies a 1Gig stream to the projector. A quick scan of the interwebz and the memory of other visits at CinemaCon puts the rest of the manufacturers at 500Mbps.]

24 frames per second times 2…OK, let’s double the Mbps into the projector…500Mbps is the bar that seems to be accepted wisdom for ‘good enough’ 48 frames per second stereoscopic 3D material, such as The Hobbit. Anyone got a problem with that? Answer: Who could? No one really has varied sources of material or even firm software to test it with.

Enter the new company image-matters. They have assembled equipment that will be able to show material at speeds above and below 1Gbps. They will show this at 6 cities around the world for the next 6 months. People will look and talk.

Here is the link for the press announcement:

High Frame Rate & High Bit Rate Test Equipment and Test Series

April 14, 2012, NAB Show, Las Vegas, for immediate release.

Image Matters, intoPIX, MikroM and Virident collaborate beyond the state of the art. The target is a series of tests on June 7 and 8 2012 in Burbank CA, coordinated by Michael Karagosian of MKPE Consulting, and cinematographers Kommer Kleijn SBC and David Stump ASC, as co-chairs of the SMPTE 21DC Study Group for Higher Frame Rates.

These tests will be conducted in collaboration with studios and the creative community. They will measure the minimum JPEG 2000 codestream bit rate requested by high frame rate content to reach the visually lossless quality demanded by digital cinema applications.

The experimental equipment set will enable playback of JPEG 2000 codestream bit rate higher than 1 Gbps (i.e. more than 4 times the current DCI specification). The decoded 2K images will be transmitted to a single projector at a frame rate of up to 120 fps (i.e. 60 fpe for Stereoscopic 3D content).

In order to speed up the test process and to allow the easy production of multiple encoding flavours, the equipment set will also be capable of encoding high frame rate content from uncompressed files in near real-time.

The assembled equipment will consist of one server incorporating 4 Virident FlashMAX boards and one intoPIX JPEG 2000 PRISTINE-P4 board. The PRISTINE will playback the decoded codestream on four 3G SDI links to the MikroM IMB inserted into the projector. The MikroM’s IMB will receive the four 3G-SDI links and pass the uncompressed image data directly to the projector backplane. Image Matters will insure project coordination and integration.

The integration has enough headroom to allow, on request, multiple equipments to be combined to achieve higher bit rates and/or higher frame rates.

Storage

  • Four 1.4 TB Virident FlashMAX MLC cards: 
    • total capacity of 5.6TB
    • total read bandwidth of 5.2 GB/s
    • total write bandwidth of 2.2GB/s on XFS file system.
  • Each Virident card has: 
    • a half height and half length form factor
    • a PCIe x8 Gen1 bus • power consumption of 25 W
    • a sustainable random read of 1,3 GB/s

JPEG 2000 Encoding/decoding

  • One intoPIX PRISTINE P4 board
    • 2K & 4K JPEG2000 decoder FPGA IP-cores
    • high frame rates capacity: up to 120 Fps
    • high bitrate capacity: up to 1 Gbps
    • four 3G-SDI outputs
    • one Genlock input
    • One MikroM Integrated MediaBlock MVC 201
      • four 3G-SDI input
      • Formatting and pass through of uncompressed image data
      • Up to 120 2K fps

      Information

      Please contact Jean-François Nivart
      [email protected]
      +32 495 23 00 08

      About Image Matters

      Image Matters offers innovative hardware and software modules for professional image and sound handling. This new venture helps OEMs, integrators and end-users to develop advanced imaging systems and applications easily and quickly.

      More information on www.image.matters.pro

      About intoPIX

      intoPIX is a leading supplier of image compression technology to audiovisual equipment manufacturers. We are passionate about offering people a higher quality image experience and have developed FPGA IP cores that enable leading edge JPEG 2000 image compression, security and hardware enforcement. Achieving a major breakthrough in digital cinema, intoPIX has achieved a leading position in the professional image compression industry based on the JPEG 2000 standard. More information on our company, customers and products can be found on www.intopix.com

      Interested in HFR technology? Contact Gael Rouvroy, intoPIX C.T.O. – [email protected] – +32479774944

      About MikroM

      MikroM is a leading design house and provider of state-of-the-art audio/video technologies for selected professional markets. The portfolio covers silicon-proven IPs, ASICs, PCBs and Systems in combination with professional design services. With a variety of products and services MikroM focus on application-specific and reliable solutions for system integrators and OEMs in quality-driven markets as HD Broadcast, Digital Cinema and Advertisement/Presentation.

      About Virident

      Virident Systems’ professional Storage Class Memory (SCM) solutions deliver unconditional consistent performance that supports the most data-intensive content and applications. Virident Systems is backed by strategic investors, Intel®, Cisco® Systems and a leading storage hardware and software solutions provider as well as venture investors Globespan CapitalPartners, Sequoia Capital, and Artiman Ventures. For more information visit www.virident.com.

      References:

      High Frame Rates – The New Black, Getting to Speed

      HFR-S3D Post SMPTE/CinemaCon Hobbit

      Combine 3, Drop 2, 120 becomes 24