Qube Cinema announced the appointment of Lewis Thorne as their official Level 2 technical support specialist for Australia and New Zealand. Thorne brings many years of experience in the digital cinema industry to his new position, strengthening Qube’s presence in the region. Users of Qube Cinema’s digital cinema servers, Integrated Media Blocks (IMBs), and postproduction mastering and distribution products now have full local technical support.

Qube Cinema will provide its XP-I server and Xi 4K Integrated Media Block (IMB), with Quad 3G inputs, to Canon U.S.A., a leader in digital imaging solutions, for its 4K Digital Intermediate (DI) theater at NAB 2013. The 4K DI theater will demonstrate a seamless pipeline from reviewing uncompressed 4K image files from the Canon EOS C500 4K digital camera, through the Quantel Pablo Rio high-end color and finishing suite with new 4K output, to the Qube Xi 4K IMB and projected via Barco’s new DP4K-P postproduction projector.

Qube Cinema will present the new version of QubeMaster Xport at the National Association of Broadcasters trade show in Las Vegas, April 8-11. QubeMaster Xport 2.0 offers powerful multithreaded CPU optimization with Qube’s proven 64-bit encoding pipeline and support for SMPTE DCPs on the Mac OS X platform. With QubeMaster Xport 2.0, Apple Compressor users can now experience faster than real-time encoding of 2K DCPs and greatly accelerate the speed of 4K DCP mastering.

Qube Cinema will be demonstrating its system for integrated 4K DCP review and playback at the NAB Show in Las Vegas in April. The Qube XP-I server, Xi 4K Integrated Media Block (IMB) and the Quad 3G interface for digital cinema projectors allow integrated postproduction and digital cinema mastering workflows. Postproduction facilities with 4K DI suites are now able to use one projector setup for both HD-4K uncompressed color grading and 2K-4K digital cinema playback providing comprehensive review and quality control with this one Qube system.

Qube Cinema installed its single-server 4K 3D system at Moody Gardens in advance of the GSCA Film Expo and Digital Symposium happening now in Galveston, Texas. The single Qube XP-I server delivers 4K stereoscopic imagery to two Barco 4K projectors each with its own embedded Qube Xi 4K Integrated Media Block (IMB). Moody Gardens now joins the ranks of giant screen theaters in North America with 4K 3D capabilities, offering visitors stunning stereo digital imagery.

Qube Cinema continues to work with the Italian digital cinema service provider, Microcinema, to supply its D-cinema servers and Integrated Media Blocks (IMBs) to theaters throughout Italy. Since 2008, the partners have installed the Qube XP-D and XP-I servers in over 250 theaters. Due to this ongoing collaboration, cinema owners in Italy have equipment providing them with access to a wide array of digital content, including Microcinema’s vast library of movies, as well as live and recorded events.

Oblique FX continues to produce visual effects for the television series Being Human, now in its third season. The Montreal facility was recently nominated for a 2013 Canadian Screen Award from the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television for best visual effects in television for its work on the second season of the program. The Canadian Screen Awards celebrate the best in Canadian film and television and this nomination recognizes the work Oblique FX produces for Being Human.

Oblique FX poursuit son travail d’effets visuels sur Being Human, qui en est maintenant à sa troisième saison. Le studio montréalais a récemment été nominé pour un prix Écrans canadiens 2013 de l’Académie canadienne du cinéma et de la télévision dans la catégorie “Meilleurs effets visuels” pour son travail réalisé sur la deuxième saison de la série télévisée Being Human. Les prix Écrans canadiens rendent hommage à la crème du cinéma et de la télévision canadiens et cette nomination souligne le travail d’Oblique FX sur cette série.

When the animated feature The Legend of Sarila opens tomorrow it will be making film history in Canada. According to the producers behind the film, 10th Avenue Films and Carpe Diem, it is only the third feature-length animated film to be made in Canada and it is the very first to be made in 3D. A project that began as a script in 2001 has taken a long time to finally come to the screen and it features the voices of some of the country’s best including Christopher Plummer and Geneviève Bujold.

For visual effects supervisor Wayne Brinton, the secret to doing great work is great relationships. That means that the first task in every job is to put a face to the name. Not only does work move more smoothly that way, but for Brinton, even a short period of time together on set can save days of work back at the studio.