New System Manages Image Processing Tasks for Production and Post

Widely recognized for its industry-leading line of colour grading systems, Pandora International will be introducing its new PLUTO image processing system at IBC 2011, Sept. 9-13 in Amsterdam. PLUTO is designed to run various applications for postproduction and production workflows.
The PLUTO hardware allows for HDSDi 4:2:2, 4:4:4 dual-link and 3G I/O with options for HDMi and display port to follow.

There are three PLUTO applications that can run on their own or in conjunction with one another ‘ PLUTO LUT Manager for display colour management, PLUTO LiNUS Cursor Generator for cursor and blanking generation, and PLUTO 3D Stereoscopic Processing.

PLUTO ‘ LUT Manager

The PLUTO display colour management system allows users to manage 1D and 3D LUTs across multiple displays from a single location. PLUTO can be operated from the local panel or via an ethernet-based remote GUI that can control any number of PLUTOs, individually or ganged together.

PLUTO LUT Manager can enable a display calibration workflow where PLUTO is controlled by calibration software for profile generation running the LUTs it produces. Pandora has teamed up with THX Cinespace for the joint development and support of PLUTO with the THX Cinespace software. PLUTO also supports Light Illusion’s Lightspace package.

PLUTO can run in dual-head mode that supports two 4:2:2 displays per unit with separate LUTs. Users can also add a second card in a single 1U box to double this capability if required.

New for IBC is manual calibration for matching displays.

PLUTO ‘ LiNUS Cursor Generator

PLUTO can be configured with the LiNUS Cursor Generator application to add variable blanking and safe area cursors. All are variable and user controllable. The application has two cursors available per frame.

This feature also contains adjustable line styles and colour.

The LiNUS Cursor Generator can be run concurrently and applied downstream of the LUT Manager, controlled from the software manager or from a soon-to-be-released control panel.

PLUTO ‘ 3D Stereoscopic Processing

This application enables users to combine stereoscopic left and right eyes to side-by-side multiplex, line-interleave and anaglyph views, with independent LUT control for each eye.

REVOLUTION ‘ Real-time File-based Grading

The Revolution colour correction system is used by some of the most prestigious post houses around the world for award-winning work.

“The system is renowned for its colour accuracy and efficiency,” said Adam Welsh, sales manager for Pandora. “With the RevoExpress option, users can natively grade file-based images directly from the on-set hard drives, or from local storage or a SAN without having to wait.”

PSi ‘ Breathing New Life into Old Spirits

The PSi Spirit interface can be installed in any Spirit Classic or Shadow telecine enabling dramatically faster scanning to 2K DPX files. The system provides users with full video monitoring, as well as simultaneous video and file transcoding capabilities for SD/HD or offline versioning. PSi can be added to an SD machine providing an instant upgrade to 2K and HD capability.

“The PSi is a simple upgrade that does not require any internal modifications to the Spirit or Shadow,” explained Welsh. “The speed of the system easily provides enough processing power to handle 2K data ”

PILOT ‘ Controller for Telecines, VTRs and Image Processors

PILOT is designed to give post houses a professional system controller for telecine, VTR and image processors with reliable edit control and an intuitive GUI. The system controls all parameters of the machine from a professional high-grade T3 control panel.

“PILOT is designed to allow customers to grow with Pandora’s award-winning colour correction technology as their business grows,” said Welsh.

Pandora will exhibit on stand 7.K01b at the RAI Convention Centre, in Amsterdam, Sept. 9-13.

For more information: www.pandora-int.com.