April 17, 2005

GRASS VALLEY INTROS VENOM AND 2K SCANNER

LAS VEGAS - At a press event on Saturday, Thomson's Grass Valley brand introduced a new 2K film scanner, as well as a solid-state recording solution for its Viper FilmStream digital cinematography camera.

The new Spirit 2K, which will begin shipping immediately after NAB, offers realtime film scanning to 10-bit 2K (2048x1556) data along with telecine functionality in both standard definition and high definition. Grass Valley already has a 4K scanner, but sees the new 2K as a stepping stone product.

"While we believe 4K resolution is the ultimate aim, at the moment most work is done at 2K because the small data files are easier to handle," says Grass Valley president Marc Valentin. The Spirit 2K delivers unbeatable quality in the right workflow, and users can be confident knowing that, when the rest of their infrastructure catches up, it can be easily upgraded to the Spirit 4K."

Grass Valley also introduced the Venom FlashPak solid state recorder for its Viper camera. Venom mounts directly to the Viper camera, is powered by it, and offers a full resolution recording capacity of 10 minutes.