This spring at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention, longtime telecine leader Cintel promises to show a full production version of its much anticipated C-Reality telecine, accommodating standard and high definition imagery as well as 2K data.
At NAB we will be delivering C-Reality and taking orders, said Don Edmonson, who recently replaced Brad Hunt as Cintels CEO. The machine is completed. It is out of its development cycles and ready to be used in post facilities.
SD C-Reality machines are already installed at Company 3 and Encore, both in Santa Monica. An SD/HD alpha machine is at 4MC, Burbank. Edmonson said eight C-Reality systemsafive SD/HDawould be installed in the U.S. during the next three to four weeks. Sunset Post, Burbank, which has held a purchase order for the system since 1997, will be among those installations. C-Reality with SD and HD capabilities lists for $1.2 million. Pricing varies by configuration.
The company is very optimistic about its prospects for 1999, Edmonson said. Its been a long time coming. We are ready to sell and regain market share from Philips and to a lesser extent [Innovation TK].
Cintels plans to build the machine were first announced in 1997, but the systems sluggish development disappointed many in the post community at both NAB A98 and last September at the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Meanwhile, Philips Spirit Datacine has been gaining momentum in the post community. In fact, Philips expects to celebrate the sale of the 100th Spirit at this years NAB. Philips NAB plans were detailed in last weeks The Road to NAB (SHOOT, 2/19, p. 19).
In addition to the Spirit, C-Reality could get some competition from an attractively-priced upgrade set to be unveiled by Innovation TK. ITK said it would announce the development of an HD upgrade for Cintels URSA telecines that would combine the capabilities of ITK options TWiGi, SCANdAL and Y-Front. ITK sales director Delphi Durrant said the upgrade is priced at $500,000, although the company will subtract the cost of TWiGi, SCANdAL and Y-Front, which she said for most post houses that have all three equates to $365,000 for the HD upgrade. We believe it is a more economic way, a better way, to HD, Durrant stated, adding that the upgrade is expected for availability in September at IBC.
We view ITK as a competitor, Cintels Edmonson admitted. We are not entirely sure [their upgrades] reach the same segment of the market.
Durrant acknowledged that Cintel and ITK once had a closer relationship. She said that when made privy to some information about the ITK HD upgrade, Cintel was dismissive, thus we [ITK] did it ourselves. Her expectations are high for the HD upgrade. ITKs first offering, TWiGi, is currently installed in two-thirds of the URSAs worldwide, Durrant noted, adding that SCANdAL has already reached half penetration. At press time ITK had 50 orders for the newly available Y-Front.
Acknowledging that the market for this upgrade could quickly dry out, Durrant said ITK is already taking steps to develop product for new markets. She told SHOOT that ITK is developing its own film transfer system with HD capabilities and enhanced capabilities. ITK aims to show a prototype at IBC.
Edmonson is aware that ITK has further development on the way, but emphasized that Cintel would show a full product set at NAB that addresses every market segment. … Its our mission to regain market share. We intend to do that with products for every market segment.
He said Cintel would show a film resolution non-real time film scanner and a standard def telecine on the URSA platform, although he would not specify if it would be the currently shipping Diamond. He also promised very exciting surprises.
Sights Set
Each year at NAB, attendees get a first look at some technology startups. Last year, Avid founder and former president/ CEO Curt Rawley caused a stir in the post community with his Lowell, Mass.-based startup Synapix.
This year, another Avid alum is preparing an NAB debutafor his newly-launched Sight Path, Waltham, Mass. Sight Paths president/CEO is former Avid VP of marketing Jim Ricotta. He founded the company in 1998 with two MIT professors, David Gifford and Frans Kaashoek. Also tapped was James OToole, who comes from Open Market, a publicly held company in Burlington, Mass., co-founded by Gifford that develops e-commerce software. To start the privately held business, the founders raised $3.5 million from Greylock Venture Capitol, Boston and San Francisco.
Sight Path aims to transform the Internet into a distribution channel for business television by bringing TV-quality (MPEG-1 or MPEG-2) video on demand to the desktop. Ricotta explained that the company believes there is a substantial demand for this sort of service, fueled in part by global Fortune 2000 companies that spend more than $1 billion on video production and distribution annually.
Sight Path calls its channels Private Internet Video Networks. Ricotta refers to the channels as TV merged with the Web. Creative use of these networks offers a host of possibilities. For instance, Ricotta sees these networks offering e-commerce opportunities and suggests that advertisers can repurpose existing spots and other content for these new, private distribution channels in order to effectively target a given customer base. He said he is exploring various ad models.
For content creators, Sight Path could essentially act as a sort of non-real time video store and forward system. While it lacks the bells and whistles offered by systems dedicated to this application, it has some attractive pricing and is carrier independent.
A post house that expects to distribute content would require the Sight Path Studio server, which Ricotta said would run between $50,000-$100,000. But an agency that only needs to receive work could purchase a plug and play Sight Path Appliance for a one time fee of $3,000-$5,000. Agencies could also use a subscription model, like a cable box, that would run $200-$500 per month. These technologies are scheduled to enter beta this month at locales including CF Video, Watertown, Mass.; Pisces Productions, Boston; and Avid in Tewksbury. Ricotta expects the product to begin shipping in March, prior to the start of NAB.
