From the revolutionary RED ONE 4K digital camera that impeccably outputted the same quality video as 35mm film in 2007, to the 6K RED EPIC DRAGON, RED Digital Cinema has trailblazed to the very forefront of the digital cinema evolution in Hollywood.  RED Studios Hollywood currently lies nestled in the heart of Hollywood, offering working sound stages and a showcase production facility. Integral to the studios is the warehouse-sized playback theater and showroom, where content shot with RED cameras can be witnessed in its true 4K glory, of which Gefen is an integral part.
 
“This is a showcase theater environment,” explained Hugo Cargnelutti, RED’s special ops agent who oversees 4K playback in the showroom. “We have three 4K projectors with multiple sources switching in from our servers so it’s a very specialized, ultra high definition viewing experience that we provide to the industry.”
 
Mounted at the back of the space, three 4K projectors are suspended over the large expanse, divided into two main viewing areas.  Leather sofas with low tables offer a comfortable, residential-type environment, while traditional theater seating provides a more customary viewing experience as if in a movie theater.  
 
Cargnelutti oversees all signal routing to the projectors, handling the timeline and video preparations for playback. His workspace is tucked away to the side and connected to the server room located right next to his station. Two more editing suites are situated between the living room and theater settings for on-the-floor editing.  
 
“Sometimes we have two people working in the same space and sometimes we are working on two different things at the same time so it can move pretty quickly here,” says Cargnelutti.
 
While always evolving, his current workstation includes a 4K DBS Clipster, 4K Mac and two 2K  PCs. Everything is connected to the server and he is constantly switching sources that output to the projectors especially during intensive content editing.
 
RED studios is currently using a Gefen 4×4 DVI DL KVM Matrix, GefenPRO 8×8 DVI DL Matrix and a few DVI DL and Audio Extenders that deliver video and audio content to both editing suites on stage.   
 
“Gefen’s KVM Matrix allows me to access content from any work station in the theater. I can select a source from either my control room monitor or from the remote editing station on the fly so this matrix performs a critical function for our theater space,” he explained.
 
A newer addition to the system, the GefenPRO 8×8 Matrix connects seven Local Area Network servers to four workstations: two editing stations on-stage and two work stations in the control room.  Because the control room is immediately adjacent to the servers, no signal extension is required. But for the two on-stage editing suites, Cargnelutti relies on Gefen’s DVI DL Extenders to deliver video to two monitors at each station and two Audio Extenders. Audio is synced to the video for both stations and is working flawlessly. 
 
“I’ve known the Gefen guys for a long time, and first encountered them when I was having a problem with EDID and DVI,” he explains. “Gefen’s DVI Detective solved the problem I was having when splitting video to two displays because delays were causing issues. The DVI Detective solved that immediately.” 
 
Right now, the Gefen infrastructure is handling signal management perfectly. “We needed a reliable method to access our servers while supporting ultra high video resolutions,” says Cargnelutti. “We found the Gefen solutions to be a perfect fit within our environment.”
 
Cargnelutti and his team at RED are always looking ahead and riding on the edge of new technology developments. They are already working with 6K video resolutions, often oversampling them then adding effects to stabilize their 4K output. “We require a bullet-proof and nimble system, and we found it with Gefen.”