Twentieth Century Fox Video Services, the DVD and video operations arm of the studios, will go with the Hanabi HVS-1000HS HD/SD video switcher from For-A as part of its overall upgrade to HD production on the Twentieth Century Fox lot in Century City, Calif. Fox approached For-A because it needed a switcher that could perform on the studio's multiple SD projects while it gradually moved to HD, according to the company
Fox Video Services routinely provides telecine transfer operations and duplication for PAL, NTSC and ATSC to support the business units of Fox TV and its theatrical units. It's gradually replacing its SD infrastructure with HD equipment. For-A's one M/E switcher supports 1080i, 24p, 720p, and the various SD formats (and will be used in Fox's linear editing bay in conjunction with a Sony BVE-9100 edit controller).
Dual Link 4:4:4 video uses two HD-SDI channels to carry full-color and color-space (4:4:4 RGB 10 bit). Most current HD and SD formats are 4:2:2 based, providing half the color resolution of the original image. For-A reported that when running in Dual Link 4:4:4, the additional color information is carried on the second HD-SDI link, establishing the full-color resolution of the original film or graphics, which can be a vital necessity for critical keying, heavy effects and/or feature film work.
