Geneva, Switzerland, 07.04.16.2016 – At NAB 2016 Swiss-based developer of high-end solutions for post-production Marquise Technologies will create a new milestone in the mastering process for producing high quality and standardized deliverables for the digital cinema, the broadcasters and the OTT industries.
With the increasing requirement for multiple versions requested from source content, including 4K and HDR UHD outputs, some being delivered simultaneously or at different times, post-production facilities issues are not only coming from their capacity to deliver the content by transcoding masses of data, but also from the time consuming process of versioning.
At the forefront of Mastering for DCP and IMF for many years, Marquise Technologies has focused its R & D effort in the development of features that bring the versioning capabilities of MIST, the Mastering solution, beyond what has been made so far in terms of power, efficiency and ease of use.
MEDIA MANAGEMENT
Ease of use starts on the media management side, with an expanded Library module offering direct access from within the TimeLine and the Assembler modules.
With the new Drag & Drop feature, not only regular media can be dropped into the library, but also whole DCPs and IMF packages. Merging original versions and supplemental packages is now simply a matter of drag & drop.
The CPLs will be converted on the fly into compositions, directly available in the Timeline and the Assembler modules. In addition other important functions include media relinking.
ADVANCED EDITING
The TimeLine in MIST is the central place where complex mastering operations are performed. It has been improved with numerous time saving functions like NLE-style editing with source/record views, automatic reel creation, automatic composition format setting and much more. Beyond the enhanced toolset, a new way to manage multiple soundfields directly from the TimeLine is being introduced with this new release. This crucial feature allows an elegant display of the actual structure of the masters and version you work on. The soundfields are naturally made available automatically for DCP and IMF export as well as for any media output in the Render module.
A brand new audio TimeStretch feature complements the ability to mix multiple formats, color spaces and resolutions on the same timeline, by allowing various frame rates to co-exist as well. Combined with high quality retiming for the video tracks via the DVO tools, MIST can now perform these life-saving tasks when creating broadcast deliverables from a cinema source.
While advanced operations can be performed in the Timeline, some specific tasks can be performed more efficiently in the Assembler where fast insert/replace operations permit rapid creation or updates of existing DCP & IMF packages.
FAST DELIVERABLES
In this release, the deliverables creation has been drastically enhanced with ultra-fast rendering speed for all formats and of course DCP & IMF. MIST supports the latest standards and file formats for SDR & HDR delivery for broadcast, cinema and OTT services, such as Netflix, Amazon, etc. The release carries the most up-to-date IMF specifications required by App 2E and App 4 such as the new IMF JPEG200 profiles and 16bit JPEG2000 lossless encoding.
Advanced DCP and IMF export now includes creation and management of multi-PKL packages. It is also possible to create hard links for existing assets to eliminate redundant copying.
Broadcast standards support has been augmented with the new AS11 variations as required by the UKDPP/NABA, AS10 and other recommendations used by the industry.
The power and flexibility of the versioning features in the timeline are fully available in the Render module, where multiple deliverables can be created with independent combinations of subtitles/closed captions/audio mixes simultaneously.
Outputs are defined in the Render module via a flowgraph that can carry specific image processing and audio operations as well as color management operations for HDR delivery. Based on the Academy’s ACES color system, various versions can be generated for the traditional as well as brand new color spaces such as Rec 2020. HDR encoding is supported by ST2084 (PQ curve) and BBC/NHK’s Hybrid Log-Gamma.
BEYOND MASTERING
For large volumes and cloud-based workflows, Marquise Technologies’ TORNADO automates the creation of deliverables in all the supported formats. Beyond classic transcoding, TORNADO gracefully handles DCPs and IMF packaged with color conversion, pan & scan and much more. TORNADO is an advanced HDR-capable media engine that via its REST API can be easily integrated into large infrastructures and controlled by media management systems or orchestration systems.
Mastering and versioning means quality control, whether on reception of content or before delivery. ICE, the most advanced Reference Player for IMF and DCP allows content validation, metadata inspection as well as frame-accurate playback for all the formats/resolutions and color spaces, including 4K/UHD HDR. ICE comes with an impressive collection of scopes for video and audio analysis including the monitoring of HDR metrics like MaxFALL and MaxCLL.
Combined with an HDR monitor, ICE allows the faithful playback of PQ or HLG encoded content. Besides these standards, ICE can also create an on-the-fly ACES proxy signal as supported by some reference display devices. Multiple soundfields as well as multiple subtitles and close-caption tracks are supported for playback. This new release includes the support of the new ARRIRAW MXF and of AS-11 X1 for DPP deliveries in UHD.