- Monetize your archive by easily and quickly creating the best possible quality master files out of your old tapes.
- Create a wide range of formats/wrappers, ingest uncompressed files and transcode them in software.
- Ingest direct to network-attached storage or storage area networks (NAS/SAN) so you can save time in copying files and forget about having to pay twice for storage space.
- Integrate into proprietary systems with software regularly updated and upgraded to the latest industry formats, which means that no matter what other systems you use, you will no longer have to perform major upgrades.
- Release personnel from ingest operations by only needing a single operator to supervise the ingestion of dozens of channels of video at a time.
- Automate annotation tasks with tools which can be easily customized to your needs, even pre-filling descriptor lists.
- Integrate quality control into your mastering, with a QC report which is so complete that it can even serve as a ‘pedigree’ for your master file, to be stored on your media asset management system along with your content.
- Provide low-bit-rate proxies to be able to provide editors, producers or other partners your content at a low bit-rate so you do not have spend time and money sending large files.
- Encode satellite feeds direct to disk with standard definition (SD) and high definition (HD) serial digital interface (SDI) ingest and pre-compressed asynchronous serial interface (ASI) MPEG-2 ingest.
- Repurpose masters from high definition into standard definition tape, different flavors to feed different non-linear editing systems, to create dailies or multiple proxy formats.
- Repurpose vertical blanking information/vertical ancillary data space to different formats to provide professional metadata for the broadcast market.
The best masters in the business
Unrivalled quality of master files with AmberFin’s iCR Mastering
Benefits at a glance:
If you want to get ahead in the content business then you need a good master.
Any copy of any content you create will automatically inherit the problems of its parent; problems that might not even seem apparent to the naked eye but which might compromise the quality of your output.
Whether or not you are subject to service level agreements with your customers, you will almost certainly be responsible for maintaining the integrity of valuable brand assets, either your own or your clients’.
And increasingly you may need to deliver high-definition (HD) content where quality expectations can be very high. But all of this is not just about quality.
In order to keep your costs down you need to be able to ensure the maximum quality at the minimum bit rate for your output. And the best way you can do that is with iCR Mastering.
Quality encoding
If your business relies on quality video and audio then you’ll be glad to know that iCR Mastering is the system of choice for high-end encoding in a wide range of professional formats.
As leaders in moving image technology, we’ve loaded iCR Mastering with more than 35 years of experience in picture processing algorithms to give you superior looking pictures even at low bit rates, keeping your storage, distribution and transmission costs down and helping you save money on each byte.
We have established our reputation on leading image quality and so we can ensure iCR Mastering will cater for even the most exacting of encoding tasks.
It is all down to an ultra-reliable ingest process which ensures there are no dropped frames or other quality issues. This may mean you can now serve more customers if you are in the business of providing downloads or streaming on channels with limited bandwidth.
Or you can choose to produce higher-quality content for the same amount of money, allowing you to target premium customer segments. Either way, it’s more revenue working for you.
Improve your mastering workflow
iCR Mastering can ingest and play back directly to generic IT platforms using storage area network (SAN) or networked attached storage (NAS) servers from mainstream vendors such as IBM, HP, SGI and EMC.
iCR Mastering can also produce multi-format proxies in real-time during the ingest, for easy integration with workgroup operations or asset management systems.
These frame-accurate proxies can be marked with burned-in time code and contain time code tracks to help you lower your production costs in large work group environments.
In addition, iCR Mastering offers metadata logging capabilities which can be sent to an asset management or automation system. This metadata can also be stored inside the content file, allowing easier identification throughout your workflow.
Finally, iCR Mastering includes file repurposing software, providing some of the best conversion and transcoding tools on the market, including:
- HD and SD up-, down- and cross-conversion including audio rate changes.
- Support for a wide array of codecs and wrappers you need to create deliverables for Web TV, video on demand, broadcast playout, IPTV, personal media players, mobile phones and more.
- Fully motion-compensated standards conversion for international distribution.
- Automated dynamic reframing and background blurring to significantly improve user enjoyment of sports content delivered on small screens.
- Integrated job management and reporting for improved efficiency.
Automate as much as you want
iCR Mastering can be anything from an acrobat to a robot. You decide.
Its flexible graphical user interface (GUI) allows you to easily and quickly specify complex one-of-a-kind jobs, but equally templates can be pre-defined to help complete regular, repetitive work more simply.
You can even use iCR Mastering for completely automated tasks, for example integrating it into your asset management and automation architecture.
However you choose to use it, you’ll find iCR Mastering is simple to set up, integrate, configure and run.
In addition, iCR Mastering offers the widest range of integration and automation interfaces on the market.
These include VTR control and emulation, Video Disk Control Protocol support, Web Service interface, scripts, e-mail and Really Simple Syndication notifications as well as a full plug-in Application Programming Interface should you want to customize the application.
Mastering - Traditional Workflow
Mastering - Improved iCR Workflow