Tiger Technology GmbH announced MetaLAN Server which, combined with the MetaLAN client software, virtualizes the shared storage and eliminates hotspots and I/O bottlenecks by transparently aggregating the total bandwidth of multiple LAN servers feeding off a common SAN backbone.
Iridas launched FrameCycler Professional 2006 and FrameCycler DDS 2006. FrameCycler 2006 offers a simplified interface and a new drag-and-drop timeline and includes support for multiple sound tracks. FrameCycler DDS 2006 offers HD-SDI out for broadcast quality review. A module adding stereoscopic playback capabilities will be available for all of the 2006 FrameCycler products.
Edifis has opened the Finaliser system to third-party storage, or direct connection to an NLE system. The Finaliser HD real-time nonlinear color-correction system will sell, without storage, for $65,000. It's primarily targeted at smaller facilities although large post houses with media on a central SAN can use it to add another color-correction suite.
Industry veteran Dan Germain, who has worked in the high-end post environment in the U.K. and Australia, was appointed product specialist for Digital Vision. Based at Digital Vision's headquarters in Stockholm, he will represent the company's image processing, color-correction, conforming, compositing and editorial product portfolios worldwide.
Bob Fernley has been named director of digital intermediate (DI) operations at LaserPacific Media Corporation. He will be responsible for guiding the post-production facility's operations in the DI arena. Fernley comes to LaserPacific from Efilm, where he has been a DI producer since 2003. He began his career in traditional visual effects at ILM.
Autodesk said the Lustre 2007 digital color-grading solution will be available in September 2006 for Windows. Lustre 2007 can be used to round-trip a project from the Autodesk Smoke editing/finishing system or Autodesk Flame visual effects system without the use of videotape or file exports. Interlaced video can be graded using animated roto shapes, animated repositioning/resizing and displayed in 10-bit.
ARRI bought an Iridas FrameCycler DI for the film-scanning department of its Digital Film facility in Munich. ARRI will use FrameCycler to review uncompressed frames for quality testing of scanned material and applying initial "tech-grade" color correction.
Cine-tal announced that the eLumaHD visual display processor for precision HD monitoring and color management ships in Q4 2006. The open architecture system provides display device profiling, calibration and digital color processing for monitors and projector technologies including CRT, LCD, Plasma, DLP and D-ILA.
Michigan post facility GTN has installed a Grass Valley Spirit 2K DataCine System for use with HD and cinema advertising projects. GTN ultimately plans to incorporate the system into a complete digital intermediate workflow.