Ascent Media orders Digital Vision's latest concealer

Digital Vision, the leader in image processing for postproduction, has announced that Ascent Media is the first customer for Digital Vision's latest generation Dirt and Scratch Concealer with Motion Estimation.
The new product has just been released and will be installed at Ascent's Wardour Street facility in London.
The new product, ‘ASC3 ME’, incorporates a sophisticated motion estimation engine that allows the system to apply a variety of temporal and spatial filters to an image, including sections that contain frame-to-frame motion. Ascent plans to use this new Digital Vision system in conjunction with software-based restoration tools; they can pass material through the new ASC3 ME to remove the vast majority of film dirt and scratches before going to off-line software tools that require substantial rendering time. This improves the facility's throughput without compromising image quality.
Chris Watson, Technical Manager of Restoration Services for Ascent Media in the UK, said: "One of the key elements of providing a successful restoration facility is to automate the process as much as possible especially with regard to the number of manual pen and tablet de-spot operations. To do this you must be confident that any automatic scratch and dirt concealment used is fast, effective and introduces no unwanted picture artefacts in the process. We have tried and tested various solutions but the ASC3 from Digital Vision is the only product that provides the image quality and speed of operation that we require. Now we are able to dramatically increase work flow and improve project turn around times while maintaining the level of excellence that our customers have come to expect."
Bengt Broman, CEO of Digital Vision, said: "We have been working closely with our customers for some time to better understand their requirements and workflows. We know how important it is to increase the throughput for these high-end facilities so that they can provide cost-effective, high quality restoration services to their clients.
"The new ASC3 ME is part of our new range of products to help post production companies operate more efficiently and profitably while still delivering high quality restoration work."
Ascent Media has been the major pioneer in restoration services in the UK and offers a complete solution for film and video restoration projects in Data, HD and SD formats and includes Telecine transfer and grading through to final delivery on film, tape and/or data formats.
The ASC3 ME is the 3rd generation of Digital Vision's film dirt and scratch concealment system. It builds on the proven technology used in the ASC2 product and provides significantly more advanced restoration algorithms and filtering techniques as well as a powerful motion estimation engine. This combination of new features result in substantially enhanced performance and efficiency.
Users can now apply the aggressive dirt and scratch parameters required for heavily damaged archive material without being concerned about creating an ‘over processed’ look or undesirable processing artefacts. The system is equally well suited for subtle and minor corrections in the telecine environment where the colourist can de-blotch on a single frame or apply light concealment throughout a scene; they can then concentrate on creative grading.
The ASC3 ME can be used at 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 RGB formats in both Standard and High Definition.
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