At the beginning of the year, Paris post house Digital Postproduction acquired a Quantel Pablo color-correction and finishing system equipped with a new Neo control panel to complete its HD offering for producers and broadcasters.
According to Digital Postproduction managing director Thierry Daghero, the post-production business has evolved in the past few years from one in which producers and broadcasters aren’t looking for “a specific piece of kit,” but rather a facilitator that can deliver a “global offer” setup to allow completion of global projects.
“With the development of HD, which is very demanding technically, the essential role of the facility is really to accompany the client through this change," Daghero said. To pursue this approach, Digital Postproduction integrated Quantel Pablo into its HD post-production workflow.
The Quantel Pablo delivers a complete solution “with a very realistic value-for-money proposition,” Daghero said. Before taking on the Pablo, Digital Postproduction could only offer a solution on the two extremes: expensive DI grading stations designed for feature films and less expensive PC-based systems with processing and rendering times that were too slow, he said.
This combination of performance and precision were the key factors in Digital Postproduction's decision. Pablo processes HD at the speed of SD, but also offers the ability to deal with different resolutions on the same timeline — something Quantel calls “resolution coexistence.” Pablo allows Digital Postproduction to integrate archive elements shot in different formats.
HD demands radical changes to traditional work methods. Producers, directors and directors of photography are obliged to learn to use this format, which is constantly changing. "HD forces everyone to reconsider their way of doing things," Daghero said.
Today, producers are being asked to work in HD with smaller budgets, so it’s “essential to propose a new business model and new ways of working,” Daghero said. The Quantel Pablo is a part that model, he added.
