Ramayan Katha

BR Films uses Matrox for editing television serials and ad films. They have two Matrox systems–DigiSuite and Digisuite LE. While Digisuite is used for editing, DigisuiteLE is used as a graphics dumping and compositing machine.

Matrox Digisuite resides in an IBM IntelliStation with a PIII processor, 512 MB RAM and an external SCSI disk array. A SCSI controller runs from the CPU to the hard disk box and display comprises two monitors. 

Matrox Digisuite lets you capture and work on lossless (uncompressed video). It comprises four cards–DigiDesktop, DigiMix for analog video, DigiLinks for digital video and DigiMotion for analog and digital audio. Output cables of the card–for component, composite and S-video signals – go to a breakout box containing output cables from the VTR that plays beta tapes. An RS232 to 432 converter cable is connected here for controlling the VTR remotely. The editor uses a remote control for controlling the VTR playing beta at a remote location available over LAN. The breakout box takes in BNC and XLR cables for video and audio as well.

One gets compressed analog video (1.3:1) to work with in Digisuite LE. An optional SDI (Serial Digital Interface) lets you work with compressed digital video. Digisuite runs Discreet’s Edit for video editing. The system takes in beta tape input and digitizes it, after which it is edited for final output on beta. 

The powerful platform lets you perform changes on the fly. For example, chroma keying, where you shoot a character against a plain background, cut him out and place him on a background of your choice. King Dasaratha offering prayers to the morning sun was done by shooting him on a blue background and then placing him on a set with the morning sun in the backdrop. With Matrox Digisuite, you can edit on lossless quality video up to two layers – beyond this will take up too much space on your hard disk. 

When workload is intense, part of editing is taken on to Digisuite LE. Digisuite comes with a built-in capture utility that can capture video or graphics and dump it in the machine. At BR Films other software for giving special effects to graphics (for e.g. Ravana with 10 heads) are used. 

With Avid, once editing is over, quality is upgraded to broadcast quality and captured on beta again. 

Digisuite costs up to Rs 10,00,000 while Digisuite LE is around Rs 2,00,000. 

Contact: Rahul Commerce, Mumbai. Tel: 022-4318541/42. E-mail: rconline@vsnl.com 

Pragya Madan in Mumbai

We thank Godfrey, Sujeet and BR Films for their inputs