Kodak purchased two video computer systems from high-tech computer company Teranex and installed them in the Kodak Cinelabs facilities in Romania and Bulgaria late last year. The purchase of these systems represents a continuation of the strategic alliance signed by Kodak and Teranex which integrates Kodak's proprietary film restoration and enhancement algorithms with Teranex's high-performance video processing solutions for the broadcast and postproduction industries.

Teranex was awarded a Primetime Emmy® Award for its video computer technology last August. The technical innovation award recognised 'the company's innovative design which offers a flexible software-based platform delivering the highest image quality in a variety of video processing applications.'

Teranex's video computer is based on the company's patented SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data) array processing technology. The video computer delivers unsurpassed real-time processing and performance. The scalable architecture can perform trillions of operations per second. Combined with Kodak's algorithms, the Teranex platform offers a post-production tool that can substantially improve film images and make them much better for HD broadcast compression.

Other post-production tools reduce grain but soften or degrade detail in images. Kodak's algorithms provide two functions that together reduce grain but without softening images;

Adaptive sharpening is a sharpening process that minimises the loss of image detail by analyzing content.

Motion estimated grain reduction provides a grain reduction based on motion vectors or the estimation of movement across frames which allows the system to still perform grain reduction in areas of motion without causing image blur.

Teranex has only been demonstrating its computer with the Kodak algorithms since last September but already there has been significant interest. In Europe, as well as the two Cinelabs mentioned earlier, two post-houses in France, Teletota and Transatlantic Video, have been evaluating the application. IBF in the UK is also testing it.

In the US, Cine. lm in Atlanta and Splice Here in Minneapolis have purchased the application to install on their existing systems. Teranex is hoping for many more orders after its showing at the NAB show in Las Vegas in early April. Cinefilm and Splice Here are using the application to clean up 16mm Super 16 and even 35mm before electronic editing and distribution. It will clean up anything that has got grain including bad video content.

Mike Poirier, Teranex's General Manager said, "Our strategy is to get the product out there, show it to potential clients and get them to understand what it does. The Kodak algorithm has helped create a lot of extra interest."

Thierry Perronnet, Marketing Director for Kodak Entertainment Imaging concluded, "Kodak's relationship with Teranex shows that it is dedicated to the best of both worlds, film for the capture of images and the highest quality post-production tools to enable artists to extract all the richness and information that film can provide."