COLORFRONT SHIPS TRANSKODER 2017 AND NEW DEPLOYMENTS REINFORCE MARKET-LEADING REPUTATION

IBC 2017, Amsterdam, Sept 15, 2017 – Colorfront (www.colorfront.com), the Academy and Emmy Award-winning developer of high-performance, on-set dailies and transcoding systems for motion pictures, broadcast, OTT and commercials, today announced that Transkoder 2017 is now shipping with even more advanced UHD/HDR toolsets enabling post houses, broadcast and OTT content service facilities to further streamline the delivery of Ultra High Definition (UHD), High Dynamic Range (HDR), Wide Color Gamut (WCG) content.

Colorfront Transkoder has become the ultimate workflow tool for handling the latest UHD, HDR camera, color, editorial and deliverables formats used in digital cinema, high-end episodic TV and OTT/Internet entertainment ¬– with customers including Sony, HBO, Warner Bros., Disney, Fox, Dolby, Samsung, Netflix, Amazon, Vubiquity, Deluxe, Technicolor, Light Iron, Éclair, BBC and NHK.

Transkoder 2017 is powered by Colorfront Engine™ to ensure color transform and metadata fidelity, and expanded toolsets now perform an even larger range of UHD/HDR/WCG processing tasks. These include: HDR-HDR, HDR-SDR and SDR-HDR conversions; content/tone mapping with metadata to reference displays; and the calculation/setting of required light levels on subtitled HDR content.

Key features of Transkoder 2017 include: 240FPS JPEG2000 encode-decode, support for the latest Cinema Mezzanine and ProRes IMF Apps, IMF/IMP authoring/naming, packaging, verification and QC, and multi-channel audio (MCA) labeling. Transkoder 2017 also features improved closed-caption and subtitle language support, including IMSC1, forensic watermarking delivered via Civolution NexGuard, editorial conform improvements for program delivery, and new audio tools supporting up to 24-channel audio output and Dolby Digital Plus audio encoding.

Showcasing AJA FS-HDR with Panavision DXL camera: AJA’s breakthough FS-HDR, powered by Colorfront Engine, is now shipping. FS-HDR’s extensive HDR and WCG capabilities enable the real-time processing of 4K/UltraHD and 2K/HD, including HDR conversions, and 4K/UltraHD HDR down-conversion to HD HDR. FS-HDR also enables the conversion of popular camera formats from multiple vendors into the HDR space, plus conversion to-and-from BT.2020/BT.709 as needed, critical for the widespread acceptance of HDR alongside SDR in broadcast and OTT workflows. During IBC 2017, Colorfront is showcasing the AJA FS-HDR in combination with Panavision’s DXL 8K camera.

Amazon, Samsung & Panasonic: Colorfront is working closely with Amazon, Samsung and Panasonic to ensure the readiness of Dynamic Tone Mapping, with dynamic metadata, for the new HDR10+ standard. Customers are already using Transkoder 2017 to deliver shows to Amazon in HDR10+, guaranteeing unparalleled HDR viewing experiences across the 2017 ranges of Samsung and Panasonic UHD TVs.

Amazon Web Services (AWS): Colorfront continues to pioneer in cloud-based computing. At NAB 2017 the company showcased Transkoder 2017 performing automated dailies and deliverables on Amazon AWS. Further to this, Amazon Video has put into operation multiple Transkoder licenses on AWS, to automate the generation of light level statistics and transform of Amazon’s extensive catalog of TV shows from HDR10 to HDR10+.

Dolby Vision & Dolby Cinema: Colorfront Transkoder was certified by Dolby Laboratories for the creation of Dolby Atmos Digital Cinema Packages (DCPs) in 2015. Now, Transkoder has additionally been certified for Dolby Vision Mastering and Mezzanine packaging and playback of UHD, HDR and Wide Color Gamut (WCG) content.

Transkoder supports Dolby Vision’s 10,000 nits peak brightness target, 12-bit color depth and Rec.2020 color space standards. Via integrated Dolby Vision processing Transkoder can preview mapping content with light level metadata to a given reference display. It can also drive an external Dolby Content Mapping Unit (CMU), calculate the required light level statistics, and render and playback Dolby UHD IMF mezzanine format with per-frame metadata.

Sony 6K Venice CineAlta & Canon EOS C200: Colorfront Transkoder 2017 supports the very latest RAW camera formats. These include Sony’s X-OCN, which recently saw Colorfront partnering with Sony for the formal launch of Sony’s new 6K Venice CineAlta cinematography camera in London and LA. Transkoder also supports Canon’s new uncompressed RAW EOS C200 format.

NHK: Colorfront Transkoder is approved by NHK for 8K Super Hi-Vision Ultra HD. Multiple Transkoder systems are now being used to support a variety of 8K-originated productions in advance of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, which the broadcaster has targeted for the global launch of 8K Ultra HD. Colorfront is also providing support for both Panasonic's Super Hi-Vision 8K P2 Recorder and NHK's 8K ProRes Hypercube recorder formats.

During IBC 2017, Colorfront systems will be shown at the following partner booths: AJA 7.F11, Dolby 2.A11, and Sony 13.A10, as well as in scheduled demonstrations at The Okura Hotel, Amsterdam.

For more information:
Ron Prince, Prince PR
Email: ronny@princepr.com
Tel: +44 7802 447 484

About Colorfront:
Colorfront is headquartered in Budapest, Hungary, with offices in Los Angeles, plus sales partners worldwide. The company’s popular, award-winning on-set dailies and transcoding systems are utilized by small, medium and large companies alike, to process and deliver media for Hollywood blockbusters, high-end episodic TV and OTT internet entertainment. The firm was founded in 2000 by Mark and Aron Jaszberenyi, who were instrumental in the advent of non-linear DI color grading. Combining in-depth expertise in image color science with a pedigree in cutting-edge software development, the company's R&D team earned an Academy Award in 2010 for Lustre, Autodesk's DI grading system, and a Primetime Engineering Emmy in 2012 for Colorfront On-Set Dailies. Colorfront has since become renowned for the innovation, excellence and performance of its camera-to-post products, which include On-Set Dailies, Express Dailies and Transkoder. The company has leveraged its technology to successfully offer Colorfront Cloud Services, and also owns and operates a state-of-the-art DI and post-production facility, of the same name, in Budapest. www.colorfront.com