AmberFin Enriches iCR Solution to Support Evolving Customer Needs

AmberFin iCR 3.5 to Incorporate Extensive New Compatibility Functions

AmberFin today announces the launch of the newest upgrade to its iCR software, the open standards, future proof platform that digitises and transforms new and archived content, across multiple delivery platforms.

The latest version of AmberFin iCR incorporates enhanced compatibility features, supporting evolving customer needs, including support for the Sony XDCAM and Panasonic P2 DVCPRO SD/HD encoding standards as well as increased interoperability with Apple Final Cut Pro and Avid editing systems. This combats the compatibility challenges faced by content owners today.

Scott Allen, VP of Marketing at AmberFin, comments: "Incompatibility is a key issue facing the TV, film and broadcast industry today. At any stage of the content creation process, incompatibility can increase the time and cost in getting content to market and can prevent owners from making the most of the revenue potential from their content. The latest version of AmberFin iCR provides further functionality that eliminates incompatibility barriers and easily creates content for any required format."

Sony XDCAM and Panasonic P2 DVCPRO SD/HD

By incorporating the latest Sony and Panasonic formats, AmberFin iCR 3.5 eliminates the need for re-encoding and maintains quality while improving the speed of operations and reducing costs. Content owners can seamlessly mix camera resolutions and formats, solving numerous compatibility issues between different types of production formats without tying up creative staff and equipment.

iCR 3.5 also allows easy conversion between standard definition (SD) and high definition (HD) formats, without extra equipment. As HD becomes more essential to deliver, from traditional TV to the internet, this ability to convert content from one format to another and between platforms is becoming increasingly critical.

AmberFin iCR can also be used to review and quality control any of those formats in real-time allowing detection of faults that are invisible to the human eye. With as much as 40% of ingested content needing to be re-encoded due to issues that could have been detected and fixed at the mastering and quality control stage, iCR brings significant improvements to a facility's throughput.

Apple Final Cut Pro and Avid editing

AmberFin iCR 3.5 supports background ingest to generic centralised storage systems for both Apple Final Cut Pro and Avid, supporting both P2 DVCPRO and XDCAM SD/HD formats. iCR can also enable content capture of DVCPRO and XDCAM directly to the Apple Final Cut native QuickTime format, thus eliminating time intensive clip imports. The system can also be fully controlled by automation or asset management systems, helping to industrialise the encoding process for production or archive ingest.

As content owners increase their focus on expanding the reach of their assets there is an enormous opportunity for those who can deliver the same content at a high-quality across multiple platforms. Content must be delivered quickly and cost-effectively to meet consumer demand, but in order to do this content owners are looking at ways to resolve the challenges inherent in the traditional workflow. AmberFin iCR's modular approach enables content owners to select the applications most critical for their business needs, creating the most effective processes for their market segment.

About AmberFin

AmberFin enables content owners to maximise the value of their TV, film and video content, from capture through to distribution, while increasing revenues, reducing costs, saving time and eliminating incompatibility issues. AmberFin iCR, with four-time Emmy-award winning technology, plays a key role in turning the content that owners have into the content their customers want. As an open standard, future proof platform that digitises and transforms new and archived content, AmberFin iCR delivers the best quality pictures at smaller file sizes across multiple delivery platforms, including the Internet, VoD, mobile and other small screen devices. AmberFin already has 100s of iCR systems in the field, and is trusted by some of the world's most prestigious companies including Sony, NBA, Turner Broadcasting, BT, Channel 4, RTM and Warner Brothers, managing the digitisation and repurposing of their content.

Privately held by Advent Venture Partners, AmberFin is part of the Snell & Wilcox Group, headquartered in Basingstoke, UK. More information is available at: http://www.amberfin.com

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