Cintel To Demo RASCAL, Callisto At NAB.
By Robert Goldrich
This spring, at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention, telecine firm Cintel plans to showcase what it claims to be a pair of cost-effective HD options for post houses that want to get their feet wet in DTV, without getting soaked financially. For its existing user base of URSA Gold and Diamond telecines, Cintel has devised an upgrade package called URSA Callisto. Developed around proven electronics in Cintel’s high-end C-Reality, the Callisto is designed to add HD capabilities to the URSA Gold and Diamond lines.
Additionally, Cintel will demo the RASCAL at NAB. Based on the Callisto upgrade, the RASCAL is a stand-alone, entry-level SD/HD machine. Don Edmonson, president/CEO of Cintel’s North American operation (a subsidiary of the U.K.-based Cintel International Ltd.), estimated that the Callisto upgrade would sell for about $400,000, and that the price point for the RASCAL would be in the $600,000 to $625,000 range.
Those figures are a far cry from the seven-figure investment embodied in the top-of-the-line, HD-capable telecines such as Philips Spirit Datacine and the aforementioned C-Reality. "In some markets, RASCAL can serve as the facility telecine and can be used in commercials and longform work," related Edmonson. "In major markets like L.A., New York and Chicago, though, RASCAL would serve more of a longform purpose for features and episodic television—the type of work that doesn’t require the higher end tools like commercials."
Edmonson explained that the Callisto and RASCAL were born out of Cintel’s desire to offer "a family of products across a broad budget range for different clients. … URSA Gold and Diamond users can move into HD transfer work at an economical price. This helps lengthen the legs of the Gold and Diamond as the platform in a facility."
The Callisto and RASCAL put Cintel in direct competition with Innovative TK (ITK), which, during last year’s NAB, announced a relatively affordable upgrade set for Cintel’s URSA telecines. Cintel and ITK had a close relationship at one time; when that dissolved, ITK got into the HD upgrade market for URSAs. ITK’s previous URSA upgrade offerings included TwiGI and SCAN’dAL (SHOOT, 2/26/99, p. 25).
Cintel’s leap into this mid-priced market addresses earlier-voiced concerns that the company neglected URSA users by introducing C-Reality at such a high level. But RASCAL and Callisto, contended Edmonson, are tangible products that prove that by focusing on the top-end, Cintel has been able to develop technologies that now can benefit URSA houses. Adrian Rees, managing director of Cintel, noted that the company is "determined not to neglect the needs of facilities that demand high quality, but more appropriate levels of functionality."
The sales of C-Reality have "fallen short a few units of what our expectations were in ’99," acknowledged Edmonson, who reported that 21 have been installed in the U.S.—two or three less than Cintel’s original projections. "We have plenty of negotiations in progress, and there are people in post that are starting to spend money. But the HD market didn’t move forward as fast as everyone thought it would in ’99."
In a roundabout way, continued Edmonson, the slower than expected high-end HD market offers further justification for the introduction of Callisto and RASCAL. "It’s a step that some people can take while waiting to see how the market develops," he observed.
Edmonson added that the development curve on Cintel’s two new products has progressed quickly. "Three weeks ago, we were committed to having prototypes of both Callisto and RASCAL at NAB," he related. "Now it’s looking very much like we could have a couple of Callisto packages in the field prior to NAB, as well as a more advanced production version of RASCAL than we had anticipated." (A prototype RASCAL was shown at last year’s IBC in analog form.)
The Long and Short of The IDA Documentary Awards’ Shortlists
The lineups are set as 20 feature-length and 20 short documentaries have been shortlisted for the 40th IDA Documentary Awards.
This year, the IDA Documentary Awards shortlists and nominees are selected by independent committees of 300 documentary makers, curators, critics, and industry experts from 40-plus countries. More than 700 total entries were submitted for all categories from 77 countries.
Additional IDA Awards will be presented in the following categories: Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Writing, Best Music Score, Best Curated Series, Best Episodic Series, Best Limited Series, Best TV Feature Documentary, Best Music Documentary, Best Audio Documentary, the David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award, the ABC News VideoSource Award, and the Pare Lorentz Award.
All nominees in the above categories will be announced on November 19.
The 40th IDA Documentary Awards Ceremony will be held on December 5 at The Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles.
Here’s a rundown of the feature and short film IDA Documentary Awards’ shortlists.
FEATURES SHORTLIST
Agent of Happiness
Black Box Diaries
Brisa
Dahomey
Ernest Cole: Lost and Found
Hollywoodgate
Igualada
Kamay
Mediha
Motherboard
My Sweet Land
No Other Land
Queendom
Seeking Mavis Beacon
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Sugarcane
Tell Them You Love Me
The Last Journey
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin
Water For Life (Agua Es... Read More