Collaboration Provides Superior Video Quality at Substantially Lower Bit-Rates

Harmonic and Cinnafilm, a pioneering developer of advanced graphics processing unit (GPU)-based film and video post production technology, have teamed up to integrate Cinnafilm’s Dark Energy image processing tools with Harmonic’s Rhozet universal media transcoding solutions. The integrated solution allows post-production studios, media companies, broadcasters and service providers to produce superior quality video for delivery to TVs, PCs and mobile devices, while saving bandwidth.
The integrated Dark Energy Convert, Optimize and Resize plug-ins are powered by Cinnafilm’s Pixel Strings motion estimation engine, which harnesses the power of GPU parallel processing to deliver unmatched accuracy and performance. The Dark Energy plug-ins are integrated with the full Rhozet product family, which includes Carbon Coder, Rhozet Workflow System (WFS) and Rhozet Quality Control System (QCS), and provide the following capabilities:
  • The Convert plug-in is a multi-function motion estimation tool providing format conversion, high-quality resolution conversion (up to 2k), intermixed footage normalization, progressive/interlaced conversion and cadence correction.
  • The Optimize plug-in removes noise and grain without any loss in sharpness, and removes single-frame anomalies such as dust and scratches.
  • The Resize plug-in is a single function, entry level solution providing the same high-quality resolution conversion (up to 2k) found in the Convert plug-in.

“This integration offers users of Harmonic’s Rhozet products direct access to many of Cinnafilm’s Dark Energy features and the power of Cinnafilm’s Pixel Strings motion estimation engine,” said Ernie Sanchez, Vice President at Cinnafilm. “Our Dark Energy plug-in solutions enable Rhozet users to mitigate problems that could degrade transcode image quality and cause transcode failures ‘ all while lowering the transcode bit-rate.”

“The combination of Cinnafilm’s advanced image processing tools and Harmonic’s Rhozet transcoding solutions provide a very powerful solution for removing unwanted noise, grain and artifacts from video footage while improving the transcoding workflow and significantly reducing bandwidth requirements,” said Tom Lattie, Rhozet General Manager at Harmonic. “Rhozet’s open API leads the industry in extensibility and enables best-of-breed technologies, such as Cinnafilm’s Dark Energy, to be easily embedded into the transcoding pipeline.”

Harmonic’s Rhozet product family works together to optimize the transcoding process. Carbon Coder handles transcoding tasks and provides a host of additional functions, including standards conversion, logo insertion, timecode burn-in and digital rights management. Rhozet WFS manages a network of Carbon Coder engines in a distributed “farm” configuration, providing massive scaling for high-volume operations. Meanwhile, the fully integrated and automated Rhozet QCS provides file-based analysis before, during and after the transcode process.

Rhozet transcoding solutions facilitate the creation of multi-format video for Internet, mobile and broadcast applications and are used by leading media companies including Ascent Media Group, British Sky Broadcasting (BskyB), Lifetime Networks, MTV, NBC, YouTube and Yahoo! The full range of Rhozet transcoding solutions will be on display at Harmonic’s stand #1.C61 during IBC 2010 in Amsterdam, September 10-14.

For more information: www.cinnafilm.com; www.harmonicinc.com.