SANTA MONICA, Calif. –December 15, 2010–Company 3 is completing digital intermediate work on a number of eagerly-anticipated feature films, including those below, listed by colorist:

Stefan Sonnenfeld: Green Hornet, Season of the Witch, Rango, I Am Number 4, Sucker Punch, The Rum Diary
Siggy Ferstl: The Mechanic, Lincoln Lawyer
Scott Gregory: No Strings Attached
Stephen Nakamura: The Conspirator

Company 3 is also proud to have completed DI work on two films selected to screen in the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, held next month in Park City, Utah. Also listed by colorist:

Siggy Ferstl: Circumstance

Alex Bickel: The Sound of My Voice

Hollywood, CA — December 2, 2010 — Encore Hollywood is pleased to announce the addition of Mark Intravartolo as Senior Inferno Artist of the company’s visual effects department. Intravartolo comes from Prime Focus’ Post Logic facility as creative director, North America/senior Inferno artist, where he worked on such projects as director Zack Snyder’s upcoming feature, “Sucker Punch,” as well as the “CSI” and “Law & Order” franchises. Previously, he worked for Modern Video Film and the Post Group creating impressive VFX on series such as “Desperate Housewives” and miniseries “John Adams.” He is recognized in the industry as a master artist/compositor, with multiple Emmy nominations and a win for his work on the HBO biopic “The Life and Death of Peter Sellers.”

“We’re thrilled to have Mark on board,” says Bill Romeo, Sr. VP of Ascent Media’s Entertainment Television division. “His reputation precedes him. He has done amazing work and been recognized with just about every award there is in the effects field.”

“I’m very excited to be joining the Encore VFX team,” enthuses Intravartolo. “The company has such a great reputation. I feel it has the opportunity to grow further and I look forward to growing with it.”

Intravartolo, who spent nine years as an editor on sitcoms, commercials and music videos and another 15 in the visual effects realm, explains that the skills he’s acquired in both fields often intersect. Editing, he says, “helped me develop a keen sense of timing and of seeing exactly how an individual effect is going to play within a scene. That infuses my VFX work every day.”

In addition to his VFX virtuosity, Intravartolo also possesses a high level of technical expertise in the area of stereoscopic 3D post, having contributed his skills to a number of 3D feature films, including the James Cameron blockbuster, “Avatar. ”

Intravartolo is proficient in Inferno, Flame, Smoke and Avid systems, and has been nominated for multiple Emmys, Monitor Awards, MTV Music Awards and British Design & Art Direction Awards.

Montreal, Canada – December 1, 2010 – Matrox® Video Products Group today announced the immediate availability of release 2.1 software for the Matrox MXO2 family of I/O devices for Mac. Key features of this release include Adobe Creative Suite 5 Production Premium support and a powerful new stand-alone software application, Matrox Vetura Capture.

Matrox Vetura Capture lets users quickly and easily capture QuickTime files using popular codecs installed on their editing systems. Users of Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 can capture to the Matrox MPEG2 I-frame full raster (1920 x 1080) HD codec or to other popular Adobe-supported codecs. Users of Final Cut Pro can capture to ProRes and other popular Final Cut Pro codecs. Users of Avid Media Composer can capture directly to Avid DNxHD .mov files or other popular Avid-supported codecs.

“Media Composer users in network environments will appreciate how the Vetura Capture and Playback applications allow the use of Matrox MXO2 LE, MXO2 and MXO2 Rack on SDI ingest and playout stations,” said Wayne Andrews, Matrox product manager. Editors on the network can use Matrox MXO2 Mini devices for monitoring while editing, then put material back on the network to go out SDI from another Matrox-based ingest/playout station.”

“We are listening to our customers and continuing to add value to the Matrox MXO2 product line,” said Alberto Cieri, Matrox senior director of sales and marketing. “This release rounds out Matrox MXO2’s cross-platform support with complete I/O, fast H.264 encoding, and other important productivity benefits for users of the three most popular professional editing applications: Adobe Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro, and Avid Media Composer.”

Availability

Matrox products are available through a worldwide network of authorized dealers. Release 2.1 for Mac is now available to registered users of Matrox MXO2 devices and
Matrox CompressHD as a free download from the Matrox website.

Key Features of Matrox MXO2 Family for Mac

· Convenient form factors for use in studio, on set, in the field, and in OB vans

· Works with Intel-based MacBook Pros, Mac Pros, and Apple Xserve systems

· Broadcast-quality HD/SD video and audio input/output

· Flexible support for leading codecs, file formats, cameras, and workflows

· Extensive application support including Final Cut Pro, Apple Color, Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro, and many more

· Support for popular 3D workflows

· Cost-effective HD monitoring for Avid Media Composer 5 with Matrox MXO2 Mini

· 10-bit HDMI input, output, and monitoring with calibration controls

· 10-bit realtime hardware up/down/cross conversion on capture and output

· Hardware acceleration of Final Cut Pro Dynamic RT segments, HDV, and DVCPRO HD

· Matrox Vetura Capture – stand-alone application for quick and easy capture to a variety of QuickTime codecs

· Matrox Vetura Playback – stand-alone application for convenient playback of H.264 and .mov files

· Also available with Matrox MAX for faster than realtime H.264 encoding

London, UK. December 1st, 2010: Leading visual effects software company, The Foundry, today launched an open beta of their brand new digital cinema camera workflow product, STORM.

Internally developed from the ground up, STORM initially brings assistance to RED Digital Cinema camera production workflows, addressing the growing needs of digital camera acquisition and metadata-rich production, on and near-set.

STORM helps camera operators, DITs, cinematographers or directors review their RED footage for content, editorial and visual intent. Quick and easy to use, STORM helps users sort their material and explore creative ideas with a flexible effects stack and timeline. Selects can be passed to Final Cut Pro as QuickTime and FCP timelines can be conformed to the original RED material in STORM.

The Foundry is making this public beta widely available in response to the huge amount of interest shown in STORM since it was first shown at IBC this year. “STORM has been developed in very close conjunction with users and has had a very involved alpha period. The open beta is a chance to gain wider feedback helping ensure STORM lives up to expectations and delivers a flexible, efficient digital workflow.” said Richard Shackleton, Head of Product Development at The Foundry.

The STORM beta can be downloaded from http://www.thefoundry.co.uk/storm and is FREE to use until the 1st Feb 2011 when the full product release is due. It requires a MacBook Pro or Mac Pro with at least 2GB RAM running OSX 10.6.4 or later. STORM is optimised for RED R3D footage and will use a RED ROCKET card if one is installed.

Ted Schilowitz, Leader of the Rebellion at RED, adds:

“Having seen STORM in detail, I’d describe it as REDCine-X on steroids. Well worth the time to investigate it’s capabilities if you are involved in post-production, working with RED footage. The Foundry have looked at RED workflow in great detail and taken logical integration with RED to a very evolved state. We’re very excited that those shooting and posting RED all over the world will soon have access to this software.”

More information about STORM including case studies and introductory videos can be found on our website http://www.thefoundry.co.uk.

NBC-affiliate WYFF has been serving the North and South Carolina regions for nearly 60 years. It has numerous Southeast Regional Emmy awards and a National Peabody award to its credit and was named Television Station of the Year by the South Carolina Broadcasters Association.

Always trying to be on the cutting edge of news, WYFF recently launched “Next Generation News” which consists primarily of streaming live video from the scene of a news event using cell phones and the internet. This presented an overwhelming opportunity but came with an unexpected problem. “We needed to find a way to take this video from a PC and integrate it seamlessly into our newscast,” said Douglas Durkee, Director of Broadcast Operations.

That’s when Durkee discovered Matrox Convert DVI. “Convert DVI provided the video and audio conversion and the genlock capability to allow us to use the computer generated video and audio in our broadcast system. Matrox Convert DVI is a very cost effective scan converter with excellent conversion quality that also allows us to benefit from embedded audio,” said Durkee.

“Being able to incorporate these videos into our regular broadcast has given us a real edge. For instance, on primary election night this past June, we went live from multiple candidates’ headquarters using the Next Generation News technology. On a normal night, with three ENG vans and one SNG truck, our live remote capability is adequate, but not on an election day. The Next Generation News equipment including Matrox Convert DVI enabled us to cover five additional candidates’ locations live, far outdistancing our competition with live coverage.”

WYFF also has plans to use Matrox Convert DVI in the future. “Last year, we converted our master control to HD but have continued to use an old SD stillstore when we need a station ID or an emergency slide. Instead of incurring yet another expense to upgrade our still storage, we plan to take advantage of Matrox Convert DVI’s excellent quality conversion capability. We’ll output 1920×1080 stills from the computer to a genlocked HD-SDI signal of the same resolution that we can use directly on-air.”

“For less than $1000, Convert DVI has really simplified our workflow – we never anticipated getting so much bang for our buck!”

Montreal, Canada – September 27, 2010 – Matrox® Video Products Group today announced that support for the Avid DNxHD® codec is now integrated into its Matrox DSX™ Developer Products. Manufacturers of PC-based ingest/playout servers, character generators, broadcast graphics systems, and transcoding systems can now easily support workflows that rely on Avid® Media Composer®, Avid NewsCutter®, Avid Symphony™, Avid DS, and Avid Interplay® Assist systems.

 

“For over 30 years Matrox has been supplying the hardware and software tools that keep broadcast equipment manufacturers at the forefront of emerging video markets,” said Alberto Cieri, senior director of sales and marketing, Matrox. “Avid editing systems are ubiquitous in broadcast facilities worldwide, and we are offering the enabling technology our partners require to provide smooth workflow solutions to their customers.” 

 

Key features of the Matrox DSX platforms

·        Modular architecture gives developers the flexibility to meet technical and price targets

·        Multi-channel HD and SD video/audio I/O support from a single card including 3 Gb/s for 1080p

·        Extensive native codec support in HD and SD including DV, D10 for IMX, HDV, DVCPRO HD, MPEG-2 4:2:2, MPEG-2 4:2:2:4 YUVA, MPEG HD for XDCAM HD, MPEG HD422  for XDCAM HD422, AVC-Intra for P2, H.264, Apple ProRes, and Avid DNxHD

·        Cross platform file format support – MXF, MOV, AVI, MPG, etc.

·        Multi-layer onboard HD scaler/compositor

·        Professional realtime effects including sub-pixel 2D/3D DVE, color correction, chroma/luma keying, graphics overlay, smooth speed changes, etc.

·        Application development support by a team of dedicated, experienced engineers

 

Availability

The Matrox DSX SDK with support for Avid DNxHD is available to developers now.

 

About Avid

Avid creates the digital audio and video technology used to make the most listened to, most watched and most loved media in the world – from the most prestigious and award-winning feature films, music recordings, television shows, live concert tours and news broadcasts, to music and movies made at home. Some of Avid’s most influential and pioneering solutions include Media Composer®, Pro Tools, Interplay®, ISIS®, VENUE, Oxygen 8, Sibelius®, System 5, and Pinnacle Studio™. For more information about Avid solutions and services, visit www.avid.com, Flickr, Twitter and YouTube; connect with Avid on Facebook; or subscribe to Avid Industry Buzz.

About Matrox

Matrox Video Products Group is a technology and market leader in the field of HD and SD digital video hardware and software for accelerated H.264 encoding, realtime editing, audio/video input/output, DVD/Blu-ray authoring, scan conversion, capture/playout servers, clip/still stores, and CGs. Matrox’s Emmy award-winning technology powers a full range of content creation and delivery platforms used by broadcasters, post-production facilities, project studios, corporate communicators, and videographers worldwide. Founded in 1976, Matrox is a privately held company headquartered in Montreal, Canada. For more information visit www.matrox.com/video.

 

DVEO to Launch New Version of Popular OnRamp S-S2/IP™ — Multichannel, SD or HD, MPEG-2 or H.264, Satellite to IP Gateway

New System Now Features HTTP Live Adaptive Bitrate Streaming

San Diego, California — DVEO, the broadcast division of San Diego based Computer Modules, Inc. (CMI), is introducing an updated version of their professional DVB-S or DVB-S2 to IP multi-channel gateway. DVEO will feature the new OnRamp S-S2/IP™ at the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam, September 10-14, at Stand 2.A48.

Designed for use in cable broadcasting, telco TV, IPTV, and A/V systems integration, the OnRamp S-S2/IP inputs a mixture of one to four satellite channels and outputs them to a dedicated IP network. The video streams generated can be viewed on television sets with standard IP capable set-top boxes, or on computers using streaming video software clients such as VLC or MPlayer.
The Linux®-based system supports MPEG-2 and H.264 input and output in SD and HD format. Customers can also order the system with the option to transcode MPEG-2 streams into H.264/MPEG-4, up to a maximum combined bitrate of 12 Mbps.

“The latest version of OnRamp S-S2/IP includes IP output with real-time live adaptive bitrate streaming, which sends multiple streams so receivers can adapt to the stream that best fits their bandwidth,” noted Laszlo Zoltan, Sales Manager for DVEO. “This delivers smoother online video that starts faster. With adaptive bitrate streaming, customers can send video streams to mobile phones and hand-held devices such as the iPhone and IPad. Another important new feature is near real time FTP output of segmented transport streams.”

The unit provides PID filtering of all unwanted traffic, increasing system performance and the number of channels which can be transmitted per unit. It features remote configuration management via a web browser and Secure Shell (SSH).

The system is available in a two-rack unit with one to four DVB-S/S2 receivers, or in a compact rack-mountable single channel unit. The option to transcode from MPEG-2 to H.264 can be included with the system, or added later as an upgrade.

Other multichannel IP gateways from DVEO include: OnRamp Analog/IP™, OnRamp ASI/IP™, OnRamp 8VSB/IP™, OnRamp DVB-C/IP™, OnRamp DVB-T/IP™, and OnRamp QAM/IP™.

Features
Multiplexes transport streams into IP packets
Simultaneously receives up to four transport streams
Supports MPEG-2 and H.264 input and output, in SD and HD format
Supports HTTP live adaptive streaming protocol for output to mobile devices
Capable of near real time FTP output of segmented TS streams with I-Frame boundaries
Input: DVB-S or S2
Supports DISEqC
IP Output – UDP, RTP, HTTP, HTTP Live, FTP
PID filtering
200 Mbps IP raw output capability
Optional 12 Mbps IP transcoded H.264 output capability
Transmits PAT, PMT, and PCR information
Receives and transmits at the same time
Remote configuration management via Web Browser and Secure Shell (SSH)
De-encapsulates data streams
Supports NTSC or PAL
Based on embedded Linux®

OnRamp IP gateways are typically deployed in “closed” systems where bandwidth is dedicated and is used for this purpose only. They are not designed to work over the public internet.

DVEO and OnRamp S-S2/IP are trademarks of Computer Modules, Inc.
All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.

Suggested Retail Prices:
Four Channel OnRamp S-S2/IP — $4,395 U.S.
One Channel OnRamp S-S2/IP — $4,195 U.S.
Option for Transcoding from MPEG-2 to H.264 — $3,495 U.S.

Montreal, Canada – August 18, 2010 – Matrox® Video Products Group today announced new features for Matrox Convert DVI, an SD/HD SDI scan converter with genlock priced at just $995 US. Matrox Convert DVI lets broadcasters easily and economically take the computer-based content that is quickly becoming a key part of the nightly news to air. It’s ideal for creating broadcast video from computer applications such as Skype, YouTube, Google Earth, video games, and web browser sessions, as well as citizen journalists’ mobile phone videos. New features in release 2.0 include support for Windows 7 (32- and 64-bit operating systems) and an advanced set-up mode that lets users configure Convert DVI with 50 Hz EDIDs (Extended Display Identification Data) to maximize output quality for 50fps broadcast.”European broadcasters asked us to find a way to compensate for the 60Hz default frame rate of GPUs so they too could benefit from the feature set, quality, and ease-of-use of Matrox Convert DVI,” said Daniel Maloney, Matrox technical marketing manager. “In release 2.0 we are giving them tools to allow their GPUs to render an output at a frame rate ideally suited for conversion to 50fps for broadcast.”

Matrox Convert DVI will be demonstrated at IBC 2010 in Amsterdam, September 10-14, on the Matrox stand 7.B29.

Key features of Matrox Convert DVI
· DVI-D input up to 1920 x 1200

· Digital outputs: HD/SD SDI

· Analog outputs: HD/SD analog component, S-Video, and composite

· SD analog black burst (bi-level) or HD tri-level genlock with timing offset controls

· Simultaneous analog and digital video output

· Stereo audio input can be embedded into the SDI output signal

· Realtime HD to SD hardware downscaling with proper color space and aspect ratio conversion

· Region-of-interest output support

· Can operate as a stand-alone appliance

· Advanced features such as an anti-flicker filter, underscan mode, customizable presets, and password protection

Price and availability
Matrox Convert DVI, priced at $995 US (?649, €799) not including local taxes, is available through a worldwide network of authorized dealers. The 2.0 software release is now available free of charge to registered users from the Matrox website.