THX has acquired the cineSpace Color Management Suite from privately-held Cine-tal Systems, a developer of image monitoring and color management systems. The acquisition complements THX’s existing technologies and services for ensuring picture and sound quality.
cineSpace is used in the world of digital intermediates, visual effects, broadcast, animation and games to render near-perfect representations of how an image will appear in its final form, from the wide array of digital formats to film. The cineSpace suite consists of several applications that work together to bring color consistency to workflows: cineProfiler, equalEyes, cinePlugins and cineCube Visual. Packaged with cineSpace is a set of standard target profiles, including a range of video standards and a selection of film stock samples.
Color matching has become a lengthy, iterative cycle in postproduction. cineSpace cuts down on these cycles by removing the guesswork when dealing with film images and producing accurate image representations which can be viewed and manipulated on a digital workstation monitor or projector.
“From the forest of Endor in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi to the rainforests of Pandora in Avatar, picture and sound are critically important to creating the art form directors are envisioning when telling their story,” said Rick Dean, senior vice president at THX. “The key to delivering on this artistic vision is to provide the postproduction community with powerful tools that enable them to accurately profile and match colors to the intended reference palate, from cinema to the home. THX, through our work delivering best practices, certification and technologies, has always been about preserving the artistic vision and the emotional impact brought forth by image and sound. We look forward to supporting the cineSpace community and further developing this technology.”
The sale comes after Cine-tal recently sold the core technology in its DAVIO product line to Dolby Laboratories, and the Cinemage Monitor product line to Houston-based iKan. Cine-tal will continue to manufacture and sell the DAVIO product under license from Dolby and the company reports that it is looking for a partner in that venture.
“When we started Cine-tal in 2004 we set out to mobilize our industry for the changes in display technology that were on the horizon,” said Cine-tal president Robert Carroll in a letter to customers, resellers and partners. “We did this by introducing new concepts and workflows in color management and display calibration with much success. Much like a relay race we are now handing the baton over to others to continue the race. Our partners are strong runners who will build on our technology and success creating stronger and bolder solutions to today’s display technology challenges.”
