Universal opens data-centric studio: Universal Studios Digital Services re-opens with a focus on digital intermediates

Post, May, 2005 by Daniel Restuccio

UNIVERSAL CITY, CA -- A brisk walk from Gate 3 and surrounded by giant soundstages, Universal Studios Digital Services is now open for business. The 33,000-square-foot facility is data-centric, primed for 2K and, as Law & Order co-executive producer Arthur Forney says, conveniently located "right on the lot"

The upgraded facility is the brainchild of Mike Daruty, senior VP, Universal technical operations group. A 20-plus year post veteran, Daruty saw the pixels on the wall and pitched top management with an ambitious but savvy plan. Broadcast is going HD, film is going digital, upgrade the facility to handle both. First take care of all the TV shows and ease into digital intermediates. He cut the Gordian Knot of the gazillion formats with a sharp idea that just saw a mass of data, not dozens of formats, and is gently moving toward an in-house standard for television products that's uncompressed HD RGB 4:4:4.

Universal Studios Digital Services, he says, has been profitably supporting internal business for a number of years so they strategically decided "to move the operation to a new bigger, better facility, expand the capacity and bring more talent forward." They will also actively pursue outside work. Daruty's operation is now included under Universal's production services "Filmmakers Destination" brand (www.filmmakersdestination.com).

THE GEAR

The new post location houses seven da Vinci 2K Plus color correction suites, four more than the previous facility, with Defocus and Power Windows. "We did the Meet the Fockers film transfer and color correction," says Daruty. "We do episodic [TV] remastering, feature trailers and DVD mastering."

There is also a Grass Valley Spirit DataCine, two Cintel C-Reality machines, Autodesk Smoke 6.7 and Fire 6.7 systems, an Avid Nitris and a linear Grass Valley system. The Fire is used mainly for "composting, paint work, graphics, high-end titling, a lot of scratch removal, and product replacement," describes Daruty. "We repurpose our features films for the networks so we have to paint out the Coke cans. The Avid Nitris room is used for a lot of straight conforming. We just finished editing Erin Brockovich to meet standards and practices and program time."

What's in the room is solid gear, but the heart of this re-conceptualized post facility is the Gig Ethernet pipes interconnecting the suites and running back to the 90TB of storage on the purring, custom-designed SGI Infinite Storage servers. Taken as a whole, Universal Digital services is the epitome of the new post paradigm--workflow integration.

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

"People are looking for a whole new way to run a facility," says SGI senior marketing manager media broadcast and production Jim Farney. SGI calls it "rich media technology." Farney explains that an HD post facility infrastructure has to be the data equivalent of running multiple streams of VTRs. "So we use this [server] technology when we want to have a realtime shared file system do deterministic playback of 2K or 4K or HD." The custom-designed SGI server at Digital Services, he continues, is scaleable and resolution independent. Universal can grow the business, acquire any type of digital asset and the infrastructure can accommodate it. It's OS agnostic; you can hang a Wintel, Mac or Linux machine off of it and the server is just another desktop hard drive icon.

Daruty is upbeat, but thoughtful about his facility. "In 2005, the goal is not to do full 2K features, but start with 2K feature marketing trailers. The goal is to build an infrastructure that will allow us to get there in 2006." Working with the server allows them the flexibility to do log scans of 16mm and 35mm in uncompressed HD RGB 4:4:4 1080i format. Their tests show that the image has more range than normal HD 4:2:2 and none of the compression. The advantages are from service to service, editing to color correction, they stay uncompressed with no generation loss. Plus, they are saving a bit on storage because it's not a full 2K scan.

Ron Silveira, VP of digital services, says that the technology and top talent are the key. Silveira, formerly an exec at The Post Group, manages a team that includes colorists Mike Holgate, Lenny Fohrer and Scott Garrow; editors Craig Hibbs and Harvey Landy; director of engineering Bob Blanks; and director of technical operations Rick Colton.

What's distinctive about this facility, says Silveira, is that everything on the lot--production, sound post, visual post--is tied together via fiber. Now Universal can offer services from production to the end of post and everything in between. "If a filmmaker is shooting on the lot, there is a convenience and security factor."

Daruty and Silveira are excited about the opportunities of working with many of the productions on the lot, like Law & Order, and expanding to third-party clients. Soon Daruty says they'll have a new projector for their HD theater and, after getting into Dl, he plans yet another upgrade to have full "film-out" capabilities.