FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SpectraCal and Pandora International ...

3528 Bagley Ave. N. Seattle, WA 98103

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SpectraCal and Pandora International Team Up to Deliver Next Generation Cube Processing Provides unsurpassed accuracy and speed for broadcast, production, and post production. (Seattle, WA) – February 12, 2013 – SpectraCal, Inc. and Pandora International announced today the availability of a complete color cube characterization package for the professional video creation industry. Featuring Pandora’s innovative new PLUTO image processor and a new version of SpectraCal’s CalMAN Studio software optimized for PLUTO, the package offers an accuracy of monitor characterization never previously attainable, while requiring less time than any previous solution. “A color cube calibration that might have taken four hours with previous software and hardware can be created in forty-five minutes with CalMAN and PLUTO,” said Dave Saville, President of Big Pic Media, exclusive distributor for the package. The need to characterize reference monitors has become more acute in recent years since the demise of the CRT reference monitors which used to be ubiquitous in studios. “A diversity of mastering displays are in use today,” said Charles Poynton, prominent consultant to the industry and author of the color science textbooks on which the industry relies. “If you’re working on an LCD in California and sending your work to a colleague in New York or Singapore who will view it on a plasma,” Poynton explains, “you won’t stand a chance unless both monitors are carefully calibrated to the same standard.” CalMAN Studio characterizes a display in detail and creates a characterization cube, also known as a 3D look-up table (LUT), to compensate for the monitor’s deviations from a reference standard. PLUTO applies the cube to the signal, allowing video professionals to be sure they are seeing exactly the same image on all monitors. CalMAN Studio is based on technology original developed in SpectraCal’s display calibration solution used by nearly every professional calibrator today. Several technological advances lead SpectraCal to claim that CalMAN Studio provides more accurate monitor characterization than any software previously available. “CalMAN provides a better LUT faster than any previous solution,” explained Derek Smith, SpectraCal’s Founder and CTO. Smith also explained that CalMAN provides a single workflow that characterizes the monitor, creates the cube, loads the cube into hardware, provides a validation test, and produces numerical indication of how good the correction is.

Phone: +1 206 420 7514

www.spectracal.com


“Some previous solutions required using three different pieces of software just to produce the LUT,” Smith said. “And even then, they didn’t validate it. If you wanted to know how good the result was, you had to get CalMAN to check it.” CalMAN also contains basic calibration routines to help bring displays closer to the standard before correcting with a color cube. “No one else has ever included that,” Smith said. PLUTO features twin HDSDI 3G connections and can be used to transcode from Dual Link 4:4:4 to single link 4:2:2 and or RGB/YUV color space. Each PLUTO has 16 available slots to host a chain of 1D/3D/1D LUT’s for complex color pipelines, all instantly switchable and changeable from either a local front panel or a remote GUI. A "Dual Head" mode allows a single Pluto unit to be used with two totally independent single link sources with separate 16/17/32/33 point cubes applied to each destination display. Alternatively the device can be used in dual link mode with a single display. The Pluto is also available in a configuration compatible with the emerging 4K displays. SpectraCal and BigPicMedia will show the CalMAN / PLUTO package at the Hollywood Post Association Annual Tech Retreat next week, February 19 – 21, at the Hyatt Regency Convention Center in Indian Wells, CA.

About SpectraCal SpectraCal is the worldwide leader in image fidelity solutions. SpectraCal provides everything needed for calibrating video displays: award-winning software, the best available test pattern sources, and a comprehensive education program. In addition to products for home theater enthusiasts, SpectraCal also provides most of the software used by video professionals. Please visit www.spectracal.com for more information. About Pandora Pandora International Limited is a pioneer in the design and manufacture of creative color correctors and image processing for the worldwide postproduction, production and broadcast industries. Pandora has been established for over 20 years and is dedicated to creating technologies crafted from the wish list of the artist. Pandora is a privately held company based in London. For more information, visit http://www.pandora-int.com/

Phone: +1 206 420 7514

www.spectracal.com


Phone: +1 206 420 7514

www.spectracal.com


For additional information contact: Dave Saville President Big Pic Media (661) 993-3985 [email protected]

Phone: +1 206 420 7514

www.spectracal.com