Versatile Distribution Services (VDS), the leading value-added distributor in the Media and Entertainment market, announced today that it has teamed with ASSIMILATE, Inc, the makers of SCRATCH® Digital Intermediate (DI) software, to create the industry’s first 4K turnkey DI systems for the price of 2K systems.
These incredibly powerful SCRATCH 4K turnkeys feature HP Z820 workstations, NVIDIA Quadro K6000 graphics and Fusion IO storage to deliver the sheer performance required to handle today’s 4K DI workflows. The full turnkey system specifications include:
12 Core | Turnkey Configuration
HP Z820 Energy Efficient Workstation Chassis
2x Intel® Xeon® E5-2630 2.6 GHz v2 6-Core
32GB DDR3-1866 ECC (8x4GB) Unbuffered
NVIDIA Quadro K6000 Video Card
1TB 7200RPM SATA HDDD – Boot
Fusion IO 1.65TB PCIe Accelerator
USB Standard Keyboard
USB Optical Scroll Mouse
Windows 7 Pro – 64-bit
Hardware/Software Installation
10TB Array | 5x 2TB 7200PRM SATA HDD – Media
Blu-ray Writer SATA Drive
Thunderbolt-2 PCIe 1-Port
Liquid Cooling Solution
HP 5yr Onsite 7×24, 4Hr Response Global Warranty
ASSIMILATE SCRATCH® v8
24hr Ingest/Playback Stress Test
Windows 7 64-bit+Recovery Media, 3/3/3, VDS ASSIMILATE System Optimization.
“ASSIMILATE SCRATCH has been at the core of 4K feature film, episodic TV or commercials DI workflows for over 3 years,” said Steve Bannerman, VP of Marketing at ASSIMILATE. “But, many of our boutique DI customers have been concerned about the cost of building out their 4K pipeline. These new VDS SCRATCH turnkeys deliver no-compromise 4K DI and finishing systems with none of the associated expense risk. Now, both boutique facilities and freelancers alike can easily build out their workflows to deliver any 4K project.”
Leandro Marini, Founder and Supervising Colorist at Local Hero Post in Santa Monica, CA, recently used a VDS SCRATCH 4K turnkey to finish a 4K feature film. “I was blown away by the performance,” he said. “I was able to work with over 10 layers of comps and color grades in SCRATCH while still keeping ALL the real-time interactivity that I’m used to in 2K and HD systems. To get this kind of performance in a turnkey system that costs no more than a 2K system? It’s astounding—it’s the moment we’ve been waiting for. Now, we can upgrade our entire facility to 4K.”
According to Jason Quast, VDS Managing Director, performance and reliability are essential components of every VDS turnkey system. “Our customers are on the leading-edge of 4K workflows and we’ve worked closely with ASSIMILATE and HP to ensure that each fully integrated, customized SCRATCH system we deliver is the most stable, reliable and fastest on the market today. We know our clients’ businesses depend on it.”
How to Buy
The 4K for 2K SCRATCH turnkey systems are available in North America only, from the following resellers:
The Studio B+H
Maxx Digital
Key Code Media
SkyTech Media Solutions
For more information on SCRATCH 4K for 2K turnkey systems, please visit: http://www.assimilateinc.com/4k-for-the-price-of-2k
About Versatile Distribution Services (VDS)
Versatile Distribution Services (VDS) is your go-to high-performance computing expert and distributor for turnkey Avid, Adobe, Assimilate and Grass Valley systems. Qualified and recommended by HP, our best practice integration approach optimizes HP platforms for Avid 7, Adobe Creative Cloud, Assimilate SCRATCH and Grass Valley EDIUS media workflows, ensuring your customers receive unbeatable performance right out of the box.
About SCRATCH Digital Workflow Tools
ASSIMILATE’s SCRATCH, a “post house in a box” – from dailies, to conform, color grading, compositing, through to finishing – and SCRATCH Lab, a robust dailies or VFX review digital pipeline, deliver the industry’s most comprehensive toolset for digital cinema and episodic television 2D and 3D productions. Both products support multiple formats, including ARRI RAW, Sony F5/55/65, Phantom, and Canon C300/C500, as well as enhanced support for RED cameras including the new EPIC DRAGON at all resolutions. SCRATCH enables mixing and matching of any camera format, resolution or color space (including ACES) on the same timeline – and play back in real-time. All versions of SCRATCH and Lab software, running on OS X version 10.7.5 or higher and Windows 7/8, feature SDI and 3G output via AJA Kona 3G graphics cards, fast dailies rendering, and improved metadata and time-code handling. For the latest feature film and TV credits, visit www.assimilateinc.com
