Pandora International is a maker of hardware and software systems for video editing, Telecine Control and Colour Correction. Pandora was founded in 1985 By Steve Brett and Martin Greenwood, later Aine Marsland joined the team and took over the administration of the company. Pandora International devices are able to colour-correct video and 16 mm and 35 mm motion picture film in real time. Pandora International is based in

Greenhithe Greenhithe is a village in the Borough of Dartford in Kent, England, and the civil parish of Swanscombe and Greenhithe. It is located east of Dartford and west of Gravesend. Area In the past, Greenhithe's waterfront on the estuary of the riv ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

Pogle Colour corrector

Pandora Int. was the maker the Pogle colour corrector controller. The Pogle can control a

Telecine Telecine ( or ) is the process of transferring film into video and is performed in a color suite. The term is also used to refer to the equipment used in the post-production process. Telecine enables a motion picture, captured originally on ...

machine, like the FDL60 the first digital telecine. New models could control FDL 90, Quadra and

Spirit DataCine Spirit DataCine is a telecine and a motion picture film scanner. This device is able to transfer 16mm and 35mm motion picture film to NTSC or PAL television standards or one of many High-definition television standards. With the data trans ...

sthameside.tv Spirit DataCine
/ref> Pogle used customized external control panels. The Pogle also included a VTR deck controller which was capable of controlling up to four video tape decks for field accurate editing including 3/2 sequence control. Other systems made do with a separate computer system .g. TLCfor this function. Pogle has a CPU rack which used twin Motorola 68020 CPU's and a telecine interface rack which varied depending on the make and model of the Telecine system in use. The first Pogles controlled the telecine's internal colour corrector. Originally Pogles used a PDOS operating system which was quickly replaced with a proprietary system named ANDIX. The program and list are stored on a

SCSI Small Computer System Interface (SCSI, ) is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, electrical, optical and logical interface ...

hard disk A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with mag ...

, with backup to a 3.5" floppy disk.

Video Video is an Electronics, electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving picture, moving image, visual Media (communication), media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, whi ...

display Display may refer to: Technology * Display device, output device for presenting information, including: ** Cathode ray tube, video display that provides a quality picture, but can be very heavy and deep ** Electronic visual display, output dev ...

is to a multi-sync monitor. The newer operating system updated to a

Silicon Graphics Silicon Graphics, Inc. (stylized as SiliconGraphics before 1999, later rebranded SGI, historically known as Silicon Graphics Computer Systems or SGCS) was an American high-performance computing manufacturer, producing computer hardware and soft ...

(SGI) platinum

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...

ran on a SGI Indy computer and later an SGI O2; these replaced the internal

CPU A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, and ...

and video cards in the Pogle controller rack. The Indy computer and O2 computer's backup is usually to an external

zip Drive The Zip drive is a removable floppy disk storage system that was introduced by Iomega in late 1994. Considered medium-to-high-capacity at the time of its release, Zip disks were originally launched with capacities of 100 MB, then 250 ...

or ext. floppy. The O2 has an internal CD-ROM. Pandora's DCP external colour corrector is a

Rec. 601 ITU-R Recommendation BT.601, more commonly known by the abbreviations Rec. 601 or BT.601 (or its former name CCIR 601) is a standard originally issued in 1982 by the CCIR (an organization, which has since been renamed as the Internatio ...

digital system so some telecine's .g. FDL60which only had analog output's had to first send their signal to an external

analog-to-digital converter In electronics, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC, A/D, or A-to-D) is a system that converts an analog signal, such as a sound picked up by a microphone or light entering a digital camera, into a digital signal. An ADC may also provide ...

DCP

DCP or Digital Color Processor was a standard-definition digital video processor controlled by a Pogle. DCP was one of the first commercially available systems which was built entirely with digital circuitry using programmable logic. Until this time most color manipulation ncluding the circuitry within Telecine machineswas predominantly analog. With the DCP, primary .g. Lift/Gamma/Gainand secondary onal and Hue basedcolour processing could be done outside the telecine and so input could be from film or video tape. Standard definition processing was of

NTSC The first American standard for analog television broadcast was developed by National Television System Committee (NTSC)National Television System Committee (1951–1953), Report and Reports of Panel No. 11, 11-A, 12–19, with Some supplement ...

and

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a colour encoding system for analogue television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

video. The DCP was a modular system so over the life of the product various add-on's and upgrades were made including the "Electric Sunroof" option. This was launched in direct competition to the "Power Windows" feature from DaVinci System in Florida. It enabled multiple secondary colour corrections to be applied each within a separate area of the image. ESR windows featured an advanced keying system which allowed the user to identify the areas of the image using Hue, Saturation and Luminance keys combined with the physical position of pixels on the screen.

PiXi

The Pixi Colour Corrector was launched in 1995 and replaced the DCP. Pixi was a High Definition colour corrector and so could handle video resolutions up to 1920x1080 at 30 frames per second. The feature set was similar to the DCP but upgraded in many ways. For example, the Pixi also provided circularly shaped windows and vignettes rather than just squares and rectangles. A version of Pixi was incorporated into the Picasso system from Post Impressions Ltd (later purchased by Snell & Wilcox). This was an HDTV capable disk server designed to handle 10bit RGB signals. Industrial Light & Magic purchased one of these systems for use on Star Wars episode I "The Phantom Menace" and another for episode II "Attack of the Clones".

MegaDEF

In 1997, Pandora introduced the MegaDEF system. MegaDEF uses two PiXi chassis with an additional multiplexer rack. MegaDef was the first commercially available system that was capable of working at full 2K resolution

048 x 1556 48 may refer to: * 48 (number) * one of the years 48 BC, AD 48, 1948, 2048 * ''48'' (novel) * 48'' (magazine) * "48", a song by Tyler, the Creator from the album ''Wolf'' * 48, a phone network brand of Three Ireland * "Forty Eight", a song by ...

in real time

p to 30fps P, or p, is the sixteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''pee'' (pronounced ), plural ''pees''. History The ...

The MegaDEF could be used with both the

and the Specter VDC-2000 virtual telecine. MegaDEF was controlled with a Pogle Platinum controller. In the virtual telecine this data was playing off a

Storage area network A storage area network (SAN) or storage network is a computer network which provides access to consolidated, block-level data storage. SANs are primarily used to access data storage devices, such as disk arrays and tape libraries from se ...

- SAN through the VDC-2000. What many people do not realise is that MegaDef connected to the Spirit or Specter machines internally using a special interface that was jointly developed by Philips anufacturer of Spiritand Pandora. This meant that the images from film

r disk R, or r, is the eighteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ar'' (pronounced ), plural ''ars'', or in Irelan ...

were always processed at full 2K resolution before being converted to HDTV or SDTV formats. In this way the accuracy of the internal keyer's and other image processing was greatly enhanced as they were in effect always over sampling the video image. *The 1998 Movie ''

Pleasantville (film) ''Pleasantville'' is a 1998 American teen fantasy comedy-drama film written, co-produced, and directed by Gary Ross. It stars Tobey Maguire, Jeff Daniels, Joan Allen, William H. Macy, J. T. Walsh, and Reese Witherspoon, with Don Knotts, Paul ...

'' was processed using a MegaDef system, this featured many scenes in which selected colours were removed. * Specter - VDC - Virtual DataCine. In 1999

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters is ...

introduced the Specter the first virtual telecine. It is able to colour correct, re-size and grain reduce 2K DPX files in real time. Used in DI work and to make multiple video formats off one film transfer scan (PAL, NTSC, Pan scan, letter box...). This was accomplished by playing the DPX files back through the Spirit Datacine's process electronics and a Pandora MegaDef Colour Correction system. *The 2000 movie '' O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' was scanned with Spirit Datacine, colour-corrected with a VDC-2000 using a Pandora Int. Pogle Colour Corrector with MegaDEF at

Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...

's Hollywood Cinesite facility. A

Lightning II film recorder was used to record the data output back to film. This process helped change the trees and grass backgrounds from green to a yellow/brown, creating the 1930s "Dustbowl" effect wanted by the

Coen Brothers Joel Daniel Coen (born November 29, 1954) and Ethan Jesse Coen (born September 21, 1957),State of Minnesota. ''Minnesota Birth Index, 1935–2002''. Minnesota Department of Health. collectively known as the Coen brothers (), are American film ...

and cinematographer Roger Deakins. Pandora was awarded an Emmy in 2001 for MegaDef in recognition of its pioneering work in developing the concept of

Digital Intermediate Digital intermediate (typically abbreviated DI) is a motion picture finishing process which classically involves digitizing a motion picture and manipulating the color and other image characteristics. Definition and overview A digital intermediate ...

. Other versions of MegaDef were interfaced to the

Quantel Quantel was a company based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1973 that designed and manufactured digital production equipment for the broadcast television, video production and motion picture industries. They were headquartered in Newbury, ...

iQ system using an optical fiber using a proprietary connection protocol known as "FreeFlow". This system was also capable of operating in real time at 2048x1556 resolutions as well as standard TV formats. Systems were purchased by Peter Jackson's Company "Film Unit" in New Zealand during the filming of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Current products

Evolution - Pandora Pogle Colour Suite Controller

Evolution - Pandora Pogle Colour Suite Controller is a Telecine controller.

Pluto Colour Management System

Pluto is a LUT management tool.

Revolution

Revolution is the current product; it is a non-linear data grade system. Revolution is built entirely using Programmable Logic Devices and so it can be programmed to perform different tasks and handle different types of image Data. Image resolutions of up to 4K 096x3072are possible but currently most systems delivered are specified for 2K. Unlike most of the software based systems currently on the market the Revolution is designed to deliver all image processing in real time. It can be configured to perform up to 50 layers of colour correction, and some layers can also provide, defocus, sharpening and other special effects. Operational speed is always consistent no matter how many layers are in use at any time.pandoratek.global Revolution
/ref>

Photo gallery

File:EvolutionSideView.jpeg, Evolution Control Panel

ogle Ogle may refer to: Places * Ogle County, Illinois, United States * Original name of Ashton, Illinois, a village * Ogle, Kentucky, United States, an unincorporated community * Ogle Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, United States * Ogle, N ...

File:Evo T3 Top Low RES.jpg, T3 Control Panel

File:Pogle_control_panel_3.jpg , Pogle control panel and soft knob display File:Pogle_control_display.jpg , Pogle SGI monitor display File:Pogle_control_panel_2.jpg , Pogle control panel and keyboard File:Pogle_display_close_up.jpg , Pogle display close up of telecine control menu File:Pogle_control_panel_1.jpg , Pogle control panel joyballs File:Pogle_control_MegDef.jpg , Pogle MegaDEF: Two PiXi systems with a multiplexer rack File:Pandora International Pixi Colour Corrector.JPG, Pixi Colour Corrector Internal View File:Pogle_control_rack.jpg , Pogle control rack, CPU and Telecine interface File:O2_large.jpg , Silicon Graphics 02 use to run Pogle software File:Silicon_Graphics_Indy.jpg , Silicon Graphics Indy use to run Pogle software File:Fdl60-cap-gate.JPG , Pogle can control a: Bosch Fernseh FDL 60 Telecine Film Deck and Lens Gate File:BTS Quadra 444 Telecine.JPG , Pogle can control a: Quadra Telecine Film Deck File:SDC-2000 Spirit DataCine Telecine.JPG , Pogle can control a:SDC-2000 Spirit DataCine Film Deck File:Pandora International Colour Correction System.jpg, Pandora System installed in London Post House lassworks

References

External links

Pandora Pandora International Web site

DFT Digital Film Technology - Manufacturer of CCD based telecines and data scanners

tig for colorist
* "FDL 60-Progress in Film Scanning Using CCD Sensors and Digital Processing", D. Poetsch et al., `International Broadcast Engineer`, Jan. 1981, pp. 47–49.
creativeplanetnetwork.com, DCP emmysreativeplanetnetwork.com, Piccaso
{{VideoProcessing Film production Film and video technology Television technology Video hardware