COLORFRONT Showcases 8K HDR And Previews Major Product Updates At NAB 2019

Colorfront (www.colorfront.com), the Academy, Emmy and HPA Award-winning developer of high-performance, on-set dailies and transcoding systems for motion pictures, broadcast, OTT and commercials, is showcasing brand new, market-leading 8K HDR capabilities and major product updates across its product lines. The company has also deepened its technology partnership with AJA and entered into a new collaboration with Pomfort to bring more efficient color and HDR management on-set.

Colorfront showcases 8K HDR:

Colorfront is showing Transkoder 2019, which sports a brand new HDR GUI, performing the real-time decompression/de-Bayer/playback of RED and Panavision DXL2 8K R3D material displayed on a Samsung 82-inch Q900R QLED 8K Smart TV in HDR and in full 8K resolution (7680 X 4320). The de-Bayering process is optimized through the latest NVIDIA GeForce RTX graphics cards with Turing GPU architecture (also available on Colorfront On-Set Dailies 2019), with 8K video output (up to 60p) using AJA Kona5 video cards.

“8K TV sets are becoming bigger, as well as more affordable, and people are genuinely awestruck when they see 8K camera footage presented on an 8K HDR display,” said Aron Jaszberenyi, managing director, Colorfront. “We are actively working with several companies around the world originating 8K HDR content. Transkoder’s new 8K capabilities – across on-set, post and mastering – demonstrate that 8K HDR is perfectly accessible to an even wider range of content creators.”

Colorfront ships Transkoder 2019:

Colorfront Transkoder is recognized as the ultimate post workflow tool for handling the vast range of UHD, HDR camera, color and editorial/deliverables formats – with recent customers such as Sky, Pixelogic, The Picture Shop and Hulu adding to its lengthy global user list.

Powered by a re-engineered version of Colorfront Engine™, and featuring the HDR GUI and 8KHDR workflow, Transkoder 2019 supports the latest camera/editorial formats including Apple ProRes RAW, Blackmagic RAW, ARRI Alexa LF/Alexa Mini LF and Codex HDE (High Density Encoding) – which are also in the new 2019 Colorfront On-Set Dailies and Express Dailies.

Transkoder 2019’s already formidable mastering toolset has been further expanded to support Dolby Vision 4.0, as well as Dolby Atmos® for the home with IMF and Immersive Audio Bitstream capabilities. The new Subtitle Engine 2.0 supports CineCanvas and IMSC 1.1 rendering, ensuring the preservation of content, timing, layout and styling. Transkoder can now also package multiple subtitle language tracks into the timeline of an IMP. Further features support fast and efficient audio QC, including Solo/Mute of individual tracks on the timeline, and a new render strategy for IMF packages enabling independent audio and video rendering.

Andy Scade, SVP and general manager of Pixelogic’s Worldwide Digital Cinema Services, said,

“Colorfront technology is paramount across our localization and distribution services. Colorfront tools bring an unparalleled arsenal of advanced technology, helping us to stay on the cutting edge of content creation. All Colorfront systems deliver best-in-class capabilities to assist in the ever-evolving world of deliveries for cinema and the home. Having such advanced capabilities behind what we offer, is the only way we can deliver to our customers today and into the future.”

Colorfront Announces On-Set Dailies 2019 and Express Dailies 2019:

For a decade, Colorfront On-Set Dailies and Express Dailies have prevailed in motion picture and high-end episodic TV production, due to their powerhouse dailies turnaround capabilities. At NAB 2019, Colorfront is showing major enhancements to the 2019 versions of both products, which underscore the viability of 4K/8K SDR/HDR dailies and monitoring on-set.

On-Set Dailies and Express Dailies both now feature support for ProRes RAW, Blackmagic RAW, ARRI Alexa LF/Alexa Mini LF and Codex HDE (High Density Encoding). As with Transkoder 2019, the new version of On-Set Dailies supports realtime 8K HDR workflow to create a streamlined set-to-post pipeline from HDR playback through QC and rendering HDR deliverables.

Colorfront supports new AJA FS-HDR 3.0:

AJA Video Systems has unveiled v3.0 firmware for its FS-HDR real-time HDR/WCG converter and frame synchronizer. The feature-rich update introduces enhanced coloring tools, several other improvements for broadcast, on-set, post and proAV HDR production developed by Colorfront.

A new, integrated Colorfront Engine Film Mode offers an ACES-based grading and look creation toolset with ASC Color Decision List (CDL) controls, built-in LOOK selection, including film emulation looks, as well as variable Output Mastering Nit Levels for PQ, HLG Extended and P3 colorspace clamp.

Since launching in 2018, FS-HDR has proven a best-seller and been used on a wide range of TV and live outside broadcast productions. It has also found traction in motion picture production, including deployment on Paramount Pictures’ Top Gun: Maverick, shot by Claudio Miranda ASC.

Colorfront licensed its HDR Image Analyzer software to AJA for AJA’s HDR Image Analyzer in 2018. A major new version of AJA HDR Image Analyzer is set for release during Q3 2019.

Colorfront partnership with Pomfort delivers color-accurate HDR workflows:

Colorfront and Pomfort have teamed-up to integrate their respective HDR-capable on-set systems. This collaboration, harnessing Colorfront Engine, will include live CDL reading in ACES pipelines between Colorfront On-Set/Express Dailies and Pomfort LiveGrade Pro, giving motion picture productions better control of HDR images while simplifying their on-set color workflow and dailies processes.

Where to see Colorfront at NAB 2019:

Colorfront technologies can be seen at: AJA Video Systems (#SL2416) and Pomfort (#C7935). Invitation-only demos are at ALT Systems (#1530, Renaissance Hotel) and Colorfront NAB 2019 Suite (#832, The Renaissance Hotel).