Autodesk today unveiled Flame® 2021, introducing new features aimed at innovating and accelerating creative workflows for VFX, color grading, look development, and editorial finishing. Flame 2021 increases workflow flexibility for artists, expands A.I. capabilities with new machine learning-powered human face segmentation, and simplifies finishing for streaming services with new functionality for Dolby Vision HDR authoring and display. By popular demand, the release also adds a new GPU-accelerated Physical Defocus effect as well as finishing enhancements to make it easier to adjust looks across many shots, share updates with clients, and create beautiful work, faster. Flame®, Flare™ and Flame® Assist 2021 are available at no additional cost to Flame Family 2020 subscribers. To learn more, visit: https://www.autodesk.com/flame/

UK-based reference monitor manufacturer PMC will be highlighting the importance of its products in the burgeoning immersive sound market by making a PMC-equipped Dolby Atmos® demo suite the centerpiece of its booth (16112) at NAMM 2020.

Artists, composers, sound designers, producers and recording engineers will have an opportunity to experience a 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos enabled system, consisting of the company’s award-winning large, active three-way MB3-XBD-A monitors (left, right and center channels), four PMC twotwoSub2 monitors and a total of 16 Wafer 1 compact slimline monitors for the surround, rear and height channels. Content will be played back using Dolby Atmos renderer software, Pro Tools and Focusrite RedNet I/O.

At NAMM, PMC will also showing other products from its extensive range of professional monitors, including its ever popular twotwo series, its powerful IB2 and BB6 monitors and the result6 compact nearfield reference monitor that combines all the attributes for which the company’s pro reference monitors are internationally renowned and distils them into an affordable monitor with the emphasis on elegant simplicity.

www.pmc-speakers.com. NAMM 2020 Booth 16112.

Testronic, a leader in quality assurance (QA), localization services, and compliance for the film, television and games industries, has achieved Dolby Vision® Certification following an intensive period of training and investment in their Burbank facility. In order to achieve this certified status, the facility was subjected to rigorous review and is now configured and set up to meet the standards of a Dolby Vision certified facility.

Dolby Vision® certification ensures that all of Testronic’s Master QC personnel have been trained by Dolby and that the facility has been commissioned by Dolby engineers. Dolby Vision post production tools and workflows give content creators what they need to efficiently create both Dolby Vision, HDR, and legacy SDR content. Dolby Vision ensures that the look they create in the color suite stays true when experienced across TV’s PC’s, tablets and mobile devices.  Testronic can now test that this stays true across all OTT Platforms.

Blackmagic Design today announced that CHEAT has continued its expansion with DaVinci Resolve Studio, adding a new HDR ready grading suite as well as a research and development lab.

This adds to CHEAT’s three preexisting grading suites, which include Linux machines with dual Intel Xeon E5-2600 v4 processors supported by four Nvidia GTX 1080Ti GPUs and the DaVinci Resolve Advanced Panel.

The first project to be realized through the new workflow is The End of the F***ing World season 2. Returning following the critically acclaimed first season, which has been nominated for BAFTA and Primetime Emmy Awards, the grade on series two was led by CHEAT’s owner and colorist Toby Tomkins.

“Season two was a challenge because it introduced a new director, new DPs and a new production designer. It was also our first Dolby Vision grade as a facility,” says Toby. “There was a lot of pressure to ensure we delivered to the same high standards expected of us from our work on season one.”

Dalet, a leading provider of solutions and services for broadcasters and content professionals, today announced that the latest release of the Dalet AmberFin media processing platform is the first software-based transcoding asset management system to include Dolby Vision® technologies, a leading HDR technology for media professionals, studios and streaming service providers. In addition to Dolby Vision and a raft of new software-only features, Dalet AmberFin can also be enhanced with hardware acceleration tools such as the M820L HEVC encoder plugin card from SoC (System On a Chip) specialist Socionext.

Steve Higgins, Product Manager, Dalet AmberFin, states, “The latest release of the Dalet AmberFin media processing engine marks a new era for this renowned high-quality content processor. Whether you process on-premises, in the cloud or with a mix of both; the efficiency of the processor coupled with high throughput and exceptional audio-visual quality are key for delivering your content in a timely and cost-conscious fashion.”

Unique in its class, Dalet AmberFin media processing capabilities enable automated Dolby Vision mastering and distribution workflows that generate outputs from IMF, through broadcast, cable and satellite packages to OTT HLS and DASH bundles. The integrated BPMN-compliant workflow engine and API let administrators configure user interfaces, assign tasks for operators, and push through ad-hoc QC processes; creating workflows that are just right for their facility.

Cobalt Digital today announced Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting Co., which owns and operates stations in nine markets in addition to MeTV and other digital multicast networks, is using Cobalt’s software defined 9922-FS-DSP platform for openGear® frames to provide microservices for Emergency Alert System local insertion and CALM compliance for its terrestrial stations. Most recently, the company purchased five cards in March for KTLN, a Heroes & Icons and MeTV affiliate serving San Francisco (DMA #8).

“It’s one of the few cards of its kind that is flexible,” explained Kyle Walker, vice president of technology for Weigel Broadcasting. “It’s the Swiss Army Knife of cards. This card can literally do it all at the right price point.”

Weigel has deployed dozens of 9922-FS-DSP cards, which offer a combination of rich broadcast connectivity and flexible microservices that make them cost effective options for many applications. The +EAS option allows Weigel to key EAS text crawls into active video and insert station logos. Some stations also add the +TTS option, which provides Text-To-Speech conversion of EAS text.

Leading London boutique post house Fifty Fifty has added a second Baselight grading suite as part of its expansion programme. With the growing interest in top end content for broadcast and streaming, both suites are equipped for 4K and HDR Ultra HD, and certified for Dolby Vision grading and delivery.