Snell & Wilcox Introduces iCR Version 2.5 at IBC2007

"In a significant upgrade to its industrial content mastering and repurposing workstation, Snell & Wilcox today announced iCR 2.5, which further enhances file-based workflows to deliver the industry's highest image quality at the lowest cost per deliverable.

iCR 2.5 enables users to create high-quality, error-free digital masters of their content and then repurpose these for distribution on multiple, revenue generating platforms. The new version of iCR being introduced at IBC2007, offers a wide range of significant enhancements, including :

- Expanded and enhanced automated real-time quality control (QC) functionality for a wide range of third-party file types and videotape ingest.

- Comprehensive QC review tools that generate detailed error reports and allow operators to review and annotate QC alarms.

- Support for uncompressed video and a wide range of codecs including DV, DVCPRO, and QuickTime, offering streamlined repurposing support for new devices like Apple TV, iPhone, Xbox 360, and Web applications using QuickTime and Flash video.

- Up to a 30 percent increase in overall repurposing speed.

- Optional built-in Alchemist IP file-based standards conversion for MPEG-2 files, offering 525/625 motion-compensated conversion in the software domain.

- Support for the AMWA-sponsored MXF Master File format adopted by major content providers and equipment manufacturers.

- Real-time MPEG-1, WM9 and QuickTime proxies with burn-in timecode, creating a more efficient workflow without the need for a separate proxy generation system.

With as much as 40 percent of a customer's content needing to be re-encoded due to QC issues, quality control has emerged as one important aspect of content mastering and repurposing. Unfortunately, it can also be very time-consuming and costly. This is because most customers manually perform QC tasks by reviewing content in real-time.

iCR 2.5 changes this by automating QC functionality for baseband video as well as a wide range of files, including MPEG-2, DV, DVCPRO, QuickTime, and WM9/VC-1. During ingest, iCR's QC tools monitor problems with videotapes or the VTR itself, as well as sound levels, timecode, and compression performance. iCR's QC review tools allow the operator to review and annotate alarms in order to generate an error report.

Enhanced automated QC monitoring is integrated into each step of the iCR workflow. This streamlines QC by enabling operators to pinpoint errors rapidly. Going far beyond monitoring the technical characteristics of the video, the QC functionality in iCR 2.5 can also evaluate the quality and makeup of the video, audio, and metadata content within the signal.

iCR 2.5 is the only content repurposing system available that allows the operator to view QC clips on a broadcast monitor in real-time with audio. This allows not only automated QC verification, but simultaneous real-time manual verification of video and sound on a video monitor."

Source: BroadcastBuyer