Following initial successes in the London Post market, Edifis (www.edifis.us) recently launched their product range in the U.S. by showing The FinaliserT at the HPA Technology Retreat, and in private demonstrations at L.A. facilities.
Edifis, a new name for many in North America, was formed eight years ago in the U.K. to create tools for the post production and broadcast industries using uncompressed disk storage and firmware-based real-time video and audio processing. Sting, the company’s dual-channel DDR, is widely used in London telecine applications. Sting is also used by the BBC and other broadcasters for clip playout and long duration program delay.
The Finaliser is a new product offering dramatic improvements in color correction and output formatting of SD and HD television programming. Launched at IBC last year, Finaliser is designed to take over the postproduction process after the edit is finished, providing all the tools needed for high-end in-context color correction and production of multiple deliverables from a universal master. Interest from the post industry has been strong with six systems sold so far in London.
Finaliser speeds up many facets of the color correction process, freeing up more time to spend on the creative subtleties that create the “look” of the program, or alternatively allowing more work to be handled in a given time period. These improvements come from the unique combination of real-time firmware based processing, random access uncompressed storage, and a user interface combining the best of traditional large panel interfaces with an intuitive Linux-based GUI.
To market and support their products in North America, Edifis has incorporated a joint venture, Edifis Media Technologies Inc, together with Pete Challinger. Familiar with both traditional and workstation based post tools, Pete brings a background at GVG, Abekas, and ImMIX to the venture. In addition, his experience as a founder of Spruce Technologies and Quartz Electronics, Inc. means he is familiar with the challenges of building a new business in a competitive marketplace.
The new venture is based in Northern California and will handle all aspects of marketing, sales and support of Edifis products in North America, as well as consulting closely with the UK office on the feature set of future products and enhancements.
