At IBC stand 7:731 Digital Vision, the premier supplier of picture enhancement systems for film and television post-production, will unveil Digital Vision Phoenix, a first-of-its-kind software product for automatically restoring and re-mastering film and video content. Phoenix’s structural design is optimised to leverage economical computing power for high performance using a software-based toolset. It provides sophisticated algorithms to automatically fix common image problems, and provides fast, high-quality digital re-mastering in a range of media formats to address high-def DVD, pay-per-view and pay-per-download VOD over IP services.
Phoenix combines the technologies of Digital Vision’s Emmy Award-winning DVNR/DVO video noise reduction/image enhancement systems and elements of its Film Master grading system. It also incorporates new motion estimation methods that enable intelligent algorithms to automate much of the work required to fix common problems. By handling these problems with fast background processes and little operator intervention, Phoenix enables a viable new service line for restoring content in high volumes. Key automated enhancement capabilities include:
  • Picture correction – Phoenix provides tools to bring back original detail, enhance colour, stabilise picture, reduce noise, and manage grain.
  • Defect reduction ‘ Operators can quickly remove dirt, dust, hair, scratches and colour defects as well as blotch-restore the original colour fidelity.
  • Picture enhancement and conversion ‘ Phoenix delivers high-quality pictures, trims scene-to-scene colour differences and optimises for deliverable formats, sharpness and anti-aliasing.
Phoenix is timeline-based, enabling in-context restoration for multi-format deliverables and supports robust video ingest and machine control (VTR) capabilities. The software employs non-destructive working methods to ensure that users don’t lose original material at any point during the restoration process, and makes available an audit trail of changes. Digital Vision has also undertaken extensive research and is developing a simplified, task-oriented UI for Phoenix, which will deliver results quickly with minimal operator guidance, review, and adjustment instead of strict technical parameter input.

Simon Cuff, Digital Vision President and COO, said, “Just as non linear colour correction has opened up a new market for many facilities which until recently did not offer grading as a service, a re-engineered restoration process can provide new opportunities in volume re-mastering. Our goal with Phoenix is to enable facilities to process an entire project overnight on a single workstation and then review, tweak, and deliver it the next day. The combination of in-context restoration, a simplified UI, automated fixes and the ability to leverage available computing power delivers a toolset that makes volume re-mastering commercially viable.”

Technicolor Creative Services in Burbank, California is beta-testing Phoenix on a number of restoration test projects.

Pricing & Availability
Digital Vision Phoenix is expected to be available as a software-only offering for a range of Windows- and Linux-based systems in 2008. Pricing will be announced at availability. Please contact Digital Vision for further information.