TV Werk Chooses Snell & Wilcox Kahuna and IMPAKT

Snell & Wilcox's Kahuna SD/HD multiformat production switcher with IMPAKT 3-D DVE is at the core of an innovative online editing solution in use by TV Werk GMBH, a major post-production house serving broadcasting and film customers in Munich, Germany. Based on Kahuna and IMPAKT, TV Werk's PostPro editing tool offers significant improvements in response times and production speeds over traditional non-linear editing (NLE) suites.
The Kahuna/IMPAKT solution offers TV Werk significant advantages over NLE, which requires raw video to be loaded into the editing system at rates that are often slower than real time. Adding visual effects with NLE is also a slower, more cumbersome process requiring extra time for rendering each effect. As the first production switcher to offer simultaneous SD and HD operations in the same mainframe and with the same control panel, Kahuna enables seamless integration of SD sources into TV Werk's HD productions without outboard upconversion. The IMPAKT 3-D DVE option provides a rich portfolio of effects and effects models that can be added quickly and easily into the online editing process.
"With the growth of high-definition broadcasting, our customers are pressured to deliver HD programming as quickly as possible - and consequently we are pressured to reduce our own cycle times from raw material to finished program," said Michael Hieber, Managing Director, TV Werk. "The combination of Kahuna and IMPAKT provides an ideal solution for high-quality programs that need to be delivered in a short time."
"In the new and emerging field of HD editing, TV Werk has taken a novel approach by applying a production switcher as an online editing tool for HD programming," said Joe Zaller, Vice President, Corporate Development at Snell & Wilcox. "TV Werk's application of Kahuna and IMPAKT shows the versatility of the systems for any type of project that requires rapid delivery of HD output from multiple SD video sources such as camera feeds, graphics, handheld shots, and archive footage."
Further information is available at: www.snellwilcox.com.
(KMcA/JM)