SALT LAKE CITY -- Feb. 26, 2008 -- Utah Scientific today announced that Cutters, Inc., the high-end Chicago post-production house, will rely on the company‘s routers and SC-4 control system as part of a major facility redesign that will also further its transition to HD. To complement the project, Utah Scientific engineers worked closely with Cutters to develop software-based, customizable router control to enable editors, effects artists, and sound engineers to route signals directly from both Mac and PC desktop workstations.
“When I came to work for Cutters more than 15 years ago, I chose Utah Scientific because its router was the only one able to control all the layers I needed,” said Cutters Chief Engineer Arnell Patscott. “Later, I came to appreciate Utah Scientific equipment even more because the company‘s panels -- and the control system itself -- make intuitive sense to my operators, even to those who have never used a router before. Now that I‘ve worked with Utah for many years, I‘m impressed both with the reliability of the equipment, and with the outstanding service.”
Cutters, Inc. specializes in short-form work on behalf of well-known brands such as Budweiser, Allstate, Honda, Kellogg‘s, and Disney. Founded in 1980, it comprises three divisions -- editorial, effects and finish, and sound -- and since 2006 has had offices in Santa Monica, Calif. The current facilities‘ renovation began in late 2007 and is slated for completion this spring.
As a longtime Utah Scientific customer, Cutters will take advantage of the easy upgrade path afforded by its existing UTAH-400 routing switcher by swapping out SD cards for new 3-GHz HD cards, resulting in layers of 96 x 96 HD and 24 x 24 SD. The post house is also upgrading to Utah Scientific‘s SC-4 control system, which provides central control and monitoring of all multiformat routers and switchers from a single network. A further addition is a UTAH-300 32 x 32 analog video router, which will enable operators to switch reference signals between U.S. and European SDI and HD formats. Finally, the facility is deploying a UTAH-400/DATA RS-422 64-port data router, which will route machine control to follow video and audio paths, eliminating the need for patching.
“At Utah Scientific, we pride ourselves on responding to our customers‘ needs,” said Tom Harmon, president and CEO. “In this case, a customer needed a solution to a difficult problem -- how to control signal-feeds directly from Mac or PC desktops without adding a lot of hardware in a tight space. To solve the problem, we devised a GUI-based system to interface with our own controller. The customer‘s happy, and that means we‘re happy, too.”
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About Utah Scientific, Inc.
Utah Scientific, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of analog, digital, and HDTV routing switchers, master control switchers, and related products including a full range of software for controlling and managing switching systems. The company has been serving the broadcast industry for 30 years with industry-leading products and best-in-class service and support as recognized by Frost & Sullivan with its 2005 Customer Service Leadership Award and demonstrated by the industry‘s first 10-year warranty. Additional information about the company can be found at www.utahscientific.com.
