IRIDAS to Introduce SpeedGrade XR
at NAB 2008

New Application for Digital Cinema RAW Workflows

Munich: April 8, 2008 ... IRIDAS, the industry leader in RAW playback technologies, has announced the release of SpeedGrade XR and will introduce the new application at NAB April 14 - 17. Designed as a companion product for RAW camera workflows, SpeedGrade XR features IRIDAS' new RealTime RAW 2.0 technology providing superb image quality for review, grading and finishing of unrendered RAW formats at any resolution. The ability to stay in RAW for postproduction offers filmmakers considerable advantages: RAW files provide more image data than RGB formats, yet are just one third the size.

Along with realtime interpolation of RAW formats, SpeedGrade XR can play video formats (QuickTime and AVI) at HD, 2K, and 4K resolutions. The application offers powerful primary and secondary grading tools, refined conform capabilities, animated masks, pan & scan, and numerous FX shaders such as bleach bypass, Technicolor 3-Strip, and more for creating stylized looks. In addition, IRIDAS DualStream technology for realtime stereo playback and grading is now offered standard. For final output SpeedGrade XR renders to any standard video or file format.

"We are using SpeedGrade XR with DualStream for dailies and pre-grading on production for 'Dark Country,' a new stereo feature film," said Jim Hays, Digital Workflow Supervisor at Paradise FX. "When people see the 3D dailies they are blown away. With this system we can really see exactly what we are doing."

For most of the shooting, Paradise FX used the Silicon Imaging 2K camera recording in CineForm RAW. "With the SI camera we can apply SpeedGrade .Looks right in the viewfinder," explained Jim Hays, "it just makes sense to stay with the same system for our dailies." SpeedGrade's realtime RAW capabilities mean that CineForm RAW files can be loaded straight from the camera into SpeedGrade XR for review and pre-grading.

"The IRIDAS software has greatly changed the way we work with stereo," said Tim Thomas, president of Paradise FX. "We had been making do with other solutions for a few years but now we are able to work at five times the speed, which means quicker feedback, much more efficient post work, and a happy client."

"SpeedGrade XR provides the key for enabling RAW digital cinema workflows," said IRIDAS CEO, Lin Kayser. "Staying in RAW makes so much sense, but until recently it was only a theoretical possibility. Now filmmakers have a practical way of keeping the pipeline in RAW through production and post - all the way to final rendering."

IRIDAS is the only developer offering live deBayering of all available RAW formats. Currently the IRIDAS SpeedGrade and FrameCycler applications support ARRI D20 RAW, CineForm RAW (used by Silicon Imaging and others), DALSA 4K RAW, Phantom RAW, and WEISSCAM RAW. Support for additional RAW formats will be added as soon as these become available.

SpeedGrade XR runs on Max OS X and Windows XP and sells for $20,000 USD (US and Canada) or 15,000 EUR (international). Fully functional trial downloads will be available from the IRIDAS web site on May 1, 2008. Visitors to NAB can see SpeedGrade XR at the IRIDAS booth (SL10708) in the South Lower Hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center. To schedule a demo contact IRIDAS at at +49 89 330 35 142 or IRIDAS USA at +1 818 951-8927. For more information, please visit www.speedgrade.com/xr.

About IRIDAS
IRIDAS pioneered desktop film-resolution playback in 2001. Its FrameCycler products are now the industry standard for frame-based image review. In 2003 IRIDAS introduced the first non-destructive color correction application. Today SpeedGrade and FrameCycler provide the critical links in an end-to-end pipeline for uncompressed content and color metadata. IRIDAS' applications are used by filmmakers around the world and most major animation and postproduction houses. IRIDAS is an independent, privately held company headquartered in Munich, Germany. For more information, visit www.iridas.com.