Archive notice: This article was originally published on July 25, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Quantel’s new Neo color correction panel is attracting attention. On its premiere tour of Germany, with presentations in Cologne, Hamburg, Berlin and Munich, the color correction panel is currently receiving an excellent response from the colorists and broadcast operators in attendance.
First unveiled at NAB in Las Vegas this spring, the Neo panel was developed in close cooperation with leading colorists worldwide. With Neo, expanded by numerous control functions, Quantel is now launching a control console designed specifically for colorists’ work.
“We are now delivering a new approach to color correction in post-production and broadcasting with the new Neo color grading panel,” explained Thomas Birner, Director of Sales, Central Europe, during the demonstration at Cinepostproduction Atlantik Film in Hamburg. “Colorists are accustomed to working with extensive controls. With Neo, we now have a panel that meets precisely these requirements.”
Neo features an ergonomically designed, easy-to-use keypad for all important primary and secondary color correction functions and settings. Equipped with keyboard-style and push buttons, rotary controls and an optional slide pad, it makes it possible to draw masks optimally for selective color correction. All important keying functions and effects such as HSL, DVE or blur can be performed using function buttons. Complex composites can use any number of layers, with every layer accessible directly.
Forty OLED displays, ranging from simple indicator lights to reference-image displays, provide operating feedback.
Quantel has even significantly increased processing power for Neo. The Multimedia Engine package (MME) in the new V4 software supports color correction on the Neo console with up to five parallel processors. Quantel keeps the full image data in the system and renders the material during corrections. Colorists accustomed to real-time grading displays now have a comparable panel with Neo that offers real-time performance and combines it with the familiar strengths of Quantel’s high-end equipment. Colorists see all results in real time in the native format, meaning that throughout the workflow they always look directly at the finished result rather than merely previews or proxies.
The frame-based operation of Quantel systems also makes it possible to import material at different resolutions and combine the images directly. Different color spaces such as RGB or YUV can also be mixed on a timeline and edited immediately without difficulty.
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