Snell To Provide Alchemist Ph.C-HD Standards Converter To NBC Olympics

Snell has been selected once again to provide its Alchemist Ph.C-HD standards converter to NBC Olympics, a division of the NBC Sports Group, for its production of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, from 6-23 February.
The announcement was made by David Mazza, senior vice president of engineering for NBC Olympics, and Robert Rowe, chief technology officer at Snell.
"With Alchemist Ph.C-HD content can be exchanged internationally across standards boundaries at the highest possible quality and with virtually no conversion artifacts, an important factor for challenging moving images, such as those we'll see throughout the 2014 Sochi Winter Games," said Rowe. "As NBC Olympics brings coverage from Russia to the viewers in the United States, Alchemist Ph.C will assure that the images viewers see maintain the sharp clarity and detail that help to make sports broadcasts so exciting and engaging."
"This marks the 6thOlympics we have used Snell Alchemist converters. We have always been able to count on the best possible conversion of the native 50Hz content, which assures us that our viewers will see the best pictures from the 2014 Olympic Winter Games on the networks of NBCUniversal," said Mazza.
The winner of four Emmy Awards since its launch in 1992, the Alchemist standards converter uses Snell's unique Ph.C technology for motion measurement, allowing the system to deliver exceptionally clean and detailed conversions, even for the most dynamic content.
During the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, NBC Olympics will use the Snell system for frame rate conversion from 50Hz to the 59.94Hz U.S. television standard. In all, NBC Olympics will use 25 Snell converters, the majority of which will be Alchemist Ph.C-HD units. Of these, several will be outfitted with the FileFlow option to enable seamless input and output of broadcast file formats.
NBC can also take advantage of an easy upgrade to Snell's new Alchemist On Demand, offering instant access to Snell's award-winning signal processing algorithms in file-based, virtualized broadcast and digital media environments.
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