Metro Broadcast invest in Edifis SD Scratchbox

Metro Broadcast, a leading video restoration specialist, has joined the growing number of video facilities to invest in an Edifis Scratchbox noise reduction system.
Metro Broadcast, who required a fast and easy-to-use de-spotting system for use in its film restoration suite, decided to purchase Scratchbox because it allows sparkle and scratches on film and video media to be concealed quickly and easily.
Once manipulated within this Edifis programme, frames which contain scratches, blemishes and sparkle are painted away and replaced by good material. The resulting repaired frame is re-recorded at the press of a single button.
Being disk-based, Scratchbox eliminates time-consuming video tape pre-rolls and incurs no degradation of image quality.
Metro Broadcast technical operations manager Mike Smith said the purchase was part of a 500,000-pound investment in image and sound restoration equipment.
“Working alongside a Cedar audio noise reduction system and Snell & Wilcox Archangel, Scratchbox gives us precise manual control over image defects,” Mr Smith said.
“Any two adjacent frames of a film normally resemble each other quite closely unless the camera is moving quickly or there is a complete scene change. Large or small defects can therefore be masked by importing the clean section of a good frame over a damaged section of an adjacent image. With a little practice, this can be achieved so well that the original defect is completely concealed,” he added.
The restoration suite has proved popular with broadcasters and film industry clients, processing old and new titles for transmission or remastering to DVD. Recent contracts have includes the vintage Hitchcock classic 'Suspicion' and a 16 mm print of John Kennedy's assassination originally captured by Marie Muchmore using an 8mm cine camera.
Edifis was formed in July 1997 and is located at the centre of Britain's electronics industry. The company has achieved a high reputation for large-capacity uncompressed digital video and audio systems meeting film, post-production and broadcast requirements worldwide.
(AMcE)