EFILM Selects BARCO and SGI Professional Services to upgrade four Digital Intermediate Suites with Barco DP100 2K resolution projectors

o upgrade its four Digital Intermediate (DI) suites from 1K to 2K projection, EFILM LLC, a cutting-edge digital film laboratory in Hollywood, chose Barco Digital Cinema and a new offering of product and services now available through the SGI Professional Services arm of Silicon Graphics (NYSE: SGI). SGI Professional Services will sell and provide expert installation and integration services for the recently released Barco® D-Cine Premiere DP100, a state-of-the-art 2K resolution digital projector. Maintenance will be provided by SGI's world-class Support Services organization. With this comprehensive system solution launch, SGI and Barco—long-term collaborators in the implementation of SGI Reality Center visualization environments for the sciences, manufacturing, government and energy industries—begin a new strategic relationship in digital cinema.

The acknowledged market leader in Digital Intermediate, EFILM is wholly owned by Panavision and Deluxe Laboratories. SGI will be the single service source for the 2K projectors, providing complete installation, integration and service through SGI Professional Services and SGI Support Services. As part of the sale of the four Barco projectors to EFILM, SGI Support Services will provide 24 x 7 service with guaranteed two-hour on-site response, and will include all repairs, parts and labor. Based on the latest Texas Instruments DLP Cinema™ technology, the Barco DP100 enjoys the benefits of a 2048 x 1080 display resolution, 18000 Cinema lumens light output, and a minimum contrast ratio of 1700:1.

“The new generation of 2K projectors, including Barco’s DP100, offer much better resolution on-screen and also much better contrast,” said Bob Eicholz, Vice President of Corporate Development, EFILM. “The Barco projector itself is a great technical design, featuring modular design for all key components. Barco’s excellent brightness, color and contrast at 2K resolution, coupled with SGI’s world-class service organization are a very powerful combination.”

The four Barco DP100 projectors will be used as part of EFILM’s Digital Intermediate process, upgrading from the 1K projection theaters currently in EFILM’s DI suites. These suites are where Directors of Photography (DPs) and Directors and Producers of films can view their movie projected digitally as they collaborate with a colorist to digitally color grade films. “The DI process allows DPs to refine the color and other aspects of their images. In contrast with traditional lab timing, they can now see the results of their work displayed on theater-size screens, with great color, resolution and contrast using the new Barco DP100 projectors,” continued Eicholz. “In fact, these new projectors display about 70% more pixels on our screens, and provide about 65% better contrast. That translates to crystal clear, beautiful images on the screen.”

Barco D-Cine Premiere DP 100 projectors include CineCanvas™ sub titling capabilities, CineBlack™ and CinePallete™ control to emulate the look and feel of film, CineLink™ to protect content being delivered from the server and Barco’s automated anamorphic lens option, the DP100 guarantees ‘Premiere’ quality on the screen. A fully integrated electronics and illumination assembly ensures maximum performance, while high efficiency air and water-cooling systems maximize DMD, reflector and lamp life to optimize operating costs. In addition high efficiency filtering of the digital head, a hermetically sealed optical assembly, a unique convergence system and Constant Light Output control guarantee a constant display quality over time.

“Barco Digital Cinema is very pleased to enter into this exciting new phase of our long and successful relationship with the industry’s leading studios and post production companies like EFILM, and look forward to our strategic relationship in the media and entertainment industry with SGI, where SGI visualization computers and SGI Professional Services are widely used, well known and respected,” said Scott Spector, Vice President, Barco Digital Cinema America. “EFILM creates Digital Intermediates for Hollywood’s top DPs, directors and producers, and Barco’s DP100 will produce dramatic improvements in the projected images.”

SGI Visualization Supercomputers and InfiniteStorage Solutions Help EFILM Lead the DI Explosion
In 2001, EFILM, using an SGI Onyx family visualization computer and its own proprietary SGI IRIX OS-based color correction software, was the first digital lab in the U.S. to digitally master an entire film at an authentic 2K resolution—Paramount Pictures’ We Were Soldiers. In 2002, EFILM digitally mastered eight full-length feature films, including the Oscar®-winning Frida. In 2003, 23 full-length movies were digitally mastered at EFILM, as well as segments for many other films, including Master and Commander, starring Russell Crowe, and the made-for-television HBO mini-series, Angels in America. This year, EFILM is on target to entirely digitally master 35 to 40 major Hollywood features. EFILM’s DI credits for completely digitally mastered features in 2004 include: The Passion of the Christ, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Dawn of the Dead; recently released Van Helsing; New York Minute; The Alamo; and The Day After Tomorrow and upcoming summer blockbuster, Spider-Man 2.

“The DI business is exploding, and the vision for EFILM is to continue to lead the market by providing a full-suite of Digital Intermediate services, with the best color and imaging in the industry,” added Eicholz. “By having Panavision and Deluxe as our parent companies, we have the full lifecycle of the film industry covered—from Panavision, which rents the film and digital cameras, to EFILM, which offers a wide variety of digital laboratory services, to Deluxe, where the prints are made for worldwide distribution.”

The Barco DP100 projectors will be connected to EFILM’s four DI suites, which are driven by content generated on four SGI Onyx 3400 visualization systems. EFILM uses the SGI equipment to create Digital Intermediates, a process that includes high-resolution scanning, color correction, laser film recording, video mastering and digital cinema mastering. EFILM creates one high-resolution digital master that can be used for film output, digital cinema releases, and home video, designed to meet national and international theatrical and home video/DVD requirements.

At EFILM, the SGI Onyx visualization systems are connected, along with other applications, to an SGI InfiniteStorage SAN server now with hundreds of terabytes of SGI InfiniteStorage TP9400, enabling the 2K content to be shared by multiple artists without costly and time consuming copying of files. In preparation for the slew of summer blockbusters demand for DIs, EFILM purchased, over the last six months 120 additional terabytes of TP9500 storage for their facility.

“EFILM has a DI market share greater than all our competitors combined. Our SGI platform and new Barco projectors are both key components to our success,” said Eicholz. “With this technology, combined with our industry-leading color imaging, our people, our business processes, and our capacity to handle 10-20 Digital Intermediate projects at a time, we expect to maintain our leadership position for many years to come.”

“SGI’s expertise in visualization, state-of-the art systems and Barco’s superb digital projectors have combined for many years to create dazzling SGI Reality Center environments all over the world. We are now expanding that relationship with a new focus in the digital media arena,” said Bob Pette, Director of SGI Professional Services, North America. “Our work with EFILM further illustrates the powerful strategic alliance between SGI and Barco, combining the world-renown excellence of the SGI Professional Services organization with the state-of-the art digital cinema projector, Barco’s DP100. Leveraging our previous experience together we will provide complete, expertly designed solutions to better serve organizations seeking digital projection integration into their media facilities, and create a synergy that will open new areas of growth for both companies.”