SCRATCH Lab is designed, tuned and priced specifically for on-set and VFX dailies ecosystems

Apr 11, NAB 2011, Las Vegas, USA: ASSIMILATE, the leading provider of powerful post-production tools for digital workflows, today announced SCRATCH Lab, the industry’s first Digital Lab tool specifically designed to meet the unique requirements of on-set and visual effects dailies ecosystems.
Available on Mac OS X and Windows 7, SCRATCH Lab is a comprehensive end-to-end digital solution for the review, versioning, color correction, conform and deliverables in on-set and VFX dailies pipelines. Priced at $4,995 USD, Lab’s flexible design enables it to handle the unique workflow complexities that each production requires. SCRATCH Lab is paired in the product line with the new version 6 of SCRATCH ®, ASSIMILATE’s high-performance, digital cinema and broadcast finishing tool for RED and other digitals workflows.

First and foremost, SCRATCH Lab is fast. Featuring real-time playback and review of 2K, 4K and 5K media, instant conform and highly interactive color grading, Lab delivers industry-leading tools within a powerful and consistent user interface. It unifies a broad range of native camera and other input formats, such as Red Epic 5K, ALEXA ARRIRAW and DSLR RAW, and outputs to any popular deliverable format ‘ including DPX, DNxHD MFX and ProRes. SCRATCH Lab also offers full 3D stereo support, controls for image and convergence adjustments, plus full dual stream playback.

“While many major features, like Thor and Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, have built dailies pipelines around SCRATCH, we are now offering this same battle-tested capability in the industry’s first Digital Lab tool designed, tuned and priced for the different dailies ecosystems,” said Steve Bannerman, Assimilate VP of marketing. “SCRATCH Lab helps solve the most important problem we hear from our artists: it helps them meet critical deadlines. With Lab you can input anything you want, and output to every format that matters. All the tools you need are in once product, at a realistic price.”

SCRATCH Lab’s comprehensive toolset and functionality includes:
•       Broad range of input/output formats for 2D/3D stereo (native REDCODE RAW.R3D, ARRI RAW, Phantom, Panasonic P2, DSLRs, plus MXF, AVCHD, DPX, MXF and QT ProRes)
•       Real-time playback at up to 5K and beyond
•       Audio synch
•       Unlimited, non-destructive versioning
•       Fast, accurate and flexible conform with Dual-View, Half-Mix and Side-by-Side comparisons, plus Quick Keys for moving through timelines and Edit tools for shot manipulation
•       Sophisticated, interactive color grading tools
•       Support for Avid Artist Series and Tangent Wave and CP 200 panels
•       Powerful, integrated 3D stereo tools
•       Automated deliverable templates to simultaneous outputs based on format, metatdata, and LUTs/grades

Michael Wrightson, director of operations UK, at Prime Focus in London, said: “With the announcement of SCRATCH Lab, ASSIMILATE is proving how close it is to the changing needs of the production and post production markets. As a busy VFX vendor we welcome the announcement of this new VFX dailies tool. Harnessing SCRATCH’s best-in-class conforming capabilities, SCRATCH Lab will help us to manage the complex challenges our commercials and features artists face every day.”

SCRATCH Lab Pricing & Availability

ASSIMILATE is advancing its position of price-performance leadership, with SCRATCH Lab for Mac and Windows at $4,995 USD, and will ship during Q2 2011.

SCRATCH v6 Pricing & Availability

ASSIMILATE is advancing its position of price-performance leadership, with SCRATCH v6 for Mac and Windows at $17,995 USD. SCRATCH V6 ships during Q2 2011.