Director of Photography, Visual Effects Cinematographer, Motion Control Cinematographer,
Stereographer, Special and Large Format Cinematography.
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Visual Effects Consultant, Image Technology Consultant .
A small dedicated (6-10 seat) electronic preview theater. This is not only used as an Electronic Cinema research project, but it is also available for rent for Production Companies who wish to screen rushes or edits in progress. The installation produces a very high quality image, approaching a video to film transfer simulation in real time. The mini- theater simulates a cinema-theater-like setup in a fully darkened and soundproof room. Nearly all sorts of electronic images can be displayed in near to theatre-like conditions.It can be particularly useful for:
- Productions who are shooting in video or HDTV with the intent to transfer to film (or D-cinema) later. Finally you can have a closer idea of what your film or shoot is going to look like before you commit your images definitively to film. Rushes or Edits. HDTV users can evaluate their images in full detail.
- Screening video rushes when shooting on film. Evaluate your work in a calm environment with the right angle of view, and close-to-film contrast and color.
- Checking off-line edits in a theater like environment. Rhythm changes with screen size. Check off-line edits in a closer-to-theater environment before committing to film.
- Preview High Def. CGI or VFX files before committing them to film.
- Screening 3D stereoscopic video during 3D productionHigh image quality was achieved by installing an oversized, powerful and very high performance CRT projector on a medium size screen, the use of a high performance de-interlacing progressive scan line doubling pre-processor, and a very precise alignment of the whole setup and image chain.
The mini theater is also equipped with a Dolby Surround and a Dolby Digital 5.1 channel surround sound system. The center speaker is installed behind the sound transparent screen.
Screen size is 1.65 by 1.24 meters. At a viewing distance of 2 - 3 meters, the viewing angle is approaching that of a real cinema theater. The room is soundproof, light proof and has a silenced and soundproof continuous ventilation system.
There are Betacam SP, DVCAM and DV players available for 625/50 (PAL/SECAM) and VHS, S-VHS, U-matic LB, LD, CDV, VCD, DVD players for PAL, SECAM and NTSC. Connections are available to connect any other player you would like to bring in (Digi-Beta, HDTV) as long as it has analog outputs. You will have to bring a D/A converter to view D5-HD or HDcam. The HDCAM 900 camcorder has analog outputs and can be connected directly. The projector will scan any actually known electronic picture format without resizing nor resampling. Interlaced, de-interlaced or progressive scan. It has variable spot size and can scan in both 4:3 and 16:9 anamorphic.
All scanning frequencies are available between 48 and 120 Hz vertical and between 15 and 90 KHz horizontal. RGB amplifier bandwidth is > 100MHz. The optical system has an -3dB adressability of 1600 pixels horizontally, but will show higher detail (up to 2048) with a slight contrast fall-off in the upper frequencies.
An IBM compatible pentium PC is also present to allow you to display graphic files. You can bring your data in on CD, DVD-ROM or an USB device, on almost any SCSI device, or send it in over the Internet. The screen room PC has its own e-mail address and is connected to an on-site mail and FTP server so that posted files are quickly available upon arrival. This allows you the preview CGI files on a bigger format than a monitor. The projector will scan up to 2048x1536 pixel geometry. Bigger files can either be resized, examined by parts (sliding window), or both.
Actual Equipment list:
- BarcoGraphics 801s CRT projector with liquid cooled 8 inch SONY CRT's featuring genuine Sony phosphors. Grade one DC video amplification. More than 10.000:1 contrast ratio, 120 lux white on screen. By using a projector specified for screens up to 6 meters wide, on a less then 2 meter screen, it produces the contrast and power needed for a near-to-film simulation.
- IEV Turboscan 1500 Progressive scan line doubler and real-time de-interlacer. The IEV de-interlaces video on the fly and sends complete images to the projector in progressive scan. The complete images are then projected two times, much like a film projector does. RGB and component inputs. 525/60 and 625/50 compatible.
- IEV High performance digital PAL/SECAM/NTSC to RGB decoder with digital comb filter and chroma detail enhancement based on Y-signal detail, effectively limiting color bleeding. Composite and S-Video inputs. Decodes PAL, SECAM, NTSC, NTSC4.43 and PAL60.
- HDTV component to RGB matrix convertor for connection of HDCAM camera in replay mode with the correct colorometry
- Players for any type of optical videodiscs from any country, color system or region. (LD, VCD, SVCD, CD-I, DVD, DVD-+R)
- VHS, S-VHS and U-matic players for PAL, SECAM and NTSC.
- Betacam SP and DV/DVCAM players for 625/50 (PAL/SECAM).
- The PC, DVD, Betacam SP and DV/DVCAM players all use a fully separated three channel (component) signal path up to the projection tubes (no coding).
- Mono, Stereo, Stereo MS, Dolby Stereo (Lt,Rt), Dolby Surround, Dolby Pro Logic and Dolby Digital (5.1) sound decoding and full 6 channel discrete sound amplification and reproduction. Dolby Digital is reproduced at measured reference volume level.
- Pentium PC permanently linked to the Internet and in-house E-mail and FTP servers. SCSI-2 interface and CD/DVD-rom player. The PC is also equipped with real- time, hardware MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MJPEG (Pinnacle format) to video decoder boards. (PAL/NTSC)
- FFV Omega Deck Dual Sterescopic video server for convenient recording and playback of two synchronised full broadcast simultanous video signals. Enables jog/shuttle study of sterescopic video.
- Stereographics CristalEyes Record/view unit processor enabling 100Hz (50Hz per eye) full resolution Stereoscopic projection from two full resolution separate video sources. Also equipped with a ChristalEyes Anamorphic format record video output.
- StereoGraphics ChristalEyes Playback unit. Allows 100Hz (50Hz per eye) Stereoscopic projection of stereoscopic videotapes recorded in PAL side-by-side Stereographics ChristalEyes Anamorphic format.
- Nine pairs of professional wide-view high speed ChristalEyes LCD wireless shutter glasses.
- H3D shutterglass setup for 25/30Hz interlaced consumer system stereoscopic viewing. Six pairs of consumer type wireless 3D shutterglasses and corresponding IR transmitter. PAL and NTSC compatible installation.
