Technology

Tomorrow’s technology for today’s solutions.

At Reliance MediaWorks, we believe in ‘innovation by creating’. By applying technology in fresh ways, one discovers new methods and insights which makes imagination comes closer to certainty. To us, this is the most productive way of researching with human imagination.

A passion to deliver something new has lead to the overall journey that RMW has covered in relatively short span of time. Our Digital Imaging Process, over all these years starting with the Analog lab and now with one of the Asia’s best Digital Image Processing Digital Lab with Integrated Color and Digital Camera Workflow processes is just one of the tiny indicators.

+Facilities:

Our facilities spread across India, UK, US are equipped with the industry’s leading Digital Intermediate and Digital Image Processing manufacturer Filmlight’s Baselight. The individually customized setup with Baselight Cloud enables faster output along with the regimented data and Metadata management for real-time 4K and beyond workflows.

Some of the unique technologically advanced contributions include the new digital cinema formats capable of processing native data with remarkable pace and refined deliveries.

The definition of Big Data can be extended to accommodate the space provisioned to our media platforms. With our overall distributed size running close to petabytes, we’re never bottlenecked for size, even with 4K real-time SAN Storage and Baselight Internal Cloud Storage storing.

+Deliverables:

Our System, right from Content Ingestion, Processing and Content delivery is being taken along with a prescribed Workflow, so that any external changes would be nailed immediately. The Deliverables from the system stands as a one shop stop, be it for a Digital Cinema DCP, Reference Stills, Rendered Final Images for Recording, DVD’s or the Mobile Deliveries. In terms of the Color Management System, the Facility is certified with the Leading Industry TRUELIGHT CMS (Color Management System).

+Digital Lab:

Our digital labs have processed more than 250 Full Feature Films and counting.

The future Digital Lab is gearing up for services that require Remote Color Grading Sessions where the Clients would sit at different parts of the world and share their dreams, and finish their products via the RMW Cloud. Any Digital Camera Files from any part of the world would be secure through an unmanned file transport for Content Processing.

We also possess ONSET Color Grading and Editing Solutions with Advanced client services to enable better DATA Handling and deliver ONSET deliverables. 8K Digital Processing is not a far task for us, while test beds have proven enough results to cater to clients’ expectations.

Our lab services have also be recognized by the Sci-Tech Academy Awards where our stalwarts- Kimball Thurston, Tim Conolly and Ian Godlin were honored with the Hollywood Post Alliance Innovation Award.

+MediaNet:

Our MediaNet platform uses the global grid of fiber with latest 128 bit encrypted data transfers.

This makes our three facilities in India, LA and London one connected workstation; ensuring seamless high-speed data exchange across our service offerings, including Restoration and Image Enhancement, VFX, Digital Cinema, DI Lab and Studios.

The MediaNet platforms also allows our offices to work as a one stop shop for any media life cycle requirement; empowering you- our customer to access our worldwide expertise from any geographical point close to you.

+Setup:

Our MediaNet platform harnesses Reliance GlobalCom’s undersea FLAG network. All end locations are connected to their respective hubs forming a Global Area Network (GAN) and the link can be scaled up as per the company’s business requirements.

MediaNet Hubs’ Locations:

1. RMWL , Filmcity, Goregoan (E), Mumbai, India

2. 624S, Grand Ave, One Wilshire, LA, USA

How can our technology help you?

We firmly believe in ‘actionable intelligence’- be it human or artificial. Which is why we’ve laid down the world of possibilities that our technology holds for your business:

Production:

Opportunities in this area involve continuing to solve production problems and developing new solutions as new problems crop up, to offer as a premium service. The 3D production tools have been formalized into a suite so that they can be widely used within the company including UK and India.

• Create a unified look via grain management by assembling disparate captures (as we’d executed for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Social Network), giving artistic freedom to the director and cinematographer to shoot with the capture device of their choice without having to worry about a unified look

• Enabling better visual effects by providing clean plates using grain management and noise reduction. Good visual effects are about the suspension of disbelief and the application of our technology greatly aids in that process.

3D Production:

• Vertical Alignment

• L/Eye to R/Eye color matching, soft focus issues, flare correction

Post Production:

• Enhancement and uprez from 2K to 4K, 4K to IMAX

• Selective enhancement

• Miscellaneous problems, flicker, flare correction, soft focus, dead pixels, low light capture

3D Conversion:

• Noise removal and grain management

• Automated occlusion fill

• Proprietary automated integrated conversion suite

Application in Media Services

• Automated uprez services from SD to HD

• Grain removal for 16mm archives and uprez to HD

• Noise removal for compression and streaming

Media Services is where the value of technology lies, and it is possible to enable a paradigm shift by making high quality HD archive available. There are many challenges (none of which are insurmountable) chief amongst which is fully automating a software solution that can apply the correct solution to the problems encountered in imagery without human intervention.

Consumerising the tools

Plug-ins for commercially available software such as Adobe After Effects, Nuke etc.

Overview of the Lowry Enhancement Engine

A process where media arrives in various forms, physical or digital, goes through a series of sub-processes involving stabilization, color correction, grain removal, dirt/scratch removal, touch up, enhancement ( detail reconstruction ), color correction for an appropriate media output either digitally, on film or video. Here’s what exactly transpires in the process:

1) MEDIA PROCESSING

a) Film: Film arrives at the facility and is then scanned at 2K or 4K. This is then stored on the storage system

b) Video: Arrives either in analog or digital format. If digital, it is processed through a Digital Video Recorder and stored on the storage system. If analog then the footage goes through an encoder before it goes to the DVR and storage

c) Digital format: Is directly loaded into storage system

2) EDITORIAL: In some cases, additional footage may be added to the film or video sequence (such as a restoration with added scenes, director’s cut etc.)

3) PRELIMINARY PROCESSING: Stabilizing the images and initial color correction pass.

4) AUTO DIRT/SCRATCH REMOVAL AND GRAIN REMOVAL: A series of software tools are applied to the images, where artifacts such as dirt and scratches are automatically removed. The original grain is also identified and removed from the digitized images. Artifacts that cannot be removed are also flagged for repair with the manual touch up process. This process is iterative with several test passes to determine the correct parameter settings for the tools.

5) MANUAL TOUCH-UP: In this process, artifacts that cannot be removed using automated tools are removed manually by artists. This process is labor intensive, subjective and iterative. Images may be passed back to the previous process and returned to touch up.

6) ENHANCEMENT: A series of tools are applied to extract additional detail from the images. The tools apply temporal processing to extract detail from prior or subsequent frames in a sequence. After the image sequence is enhanced, the original grain is put back on, or a different grain pattern is used for a uniform or changed look (depending on client’s requirements).

7) FINAL COLOR CORRECTION: Based on film or video outputs, color correction is applied to the finished image sequence. This is also a highly subjective process and is done under the client’s guidance.

8) OUTPUT TO DELIVERY MEDIA: The finalized image sequence is then output to film, video or digital format as required.

IP OWNED:

1) US Patent # 7,973,977 B2 issued on July 5, 2011 for "System and Method for Removing Semi-Transparent Artifacts from Digital Images caused by Contaminants in the Camera's Optical Path"

2) US Patent Serial Number 11804416 Filing Date 5/18/2007.  Recorded with US Patent and Trademark Office for "System and Method of Static Pattern Removal from Movies Captured using a Digital CCD Camera".