The Pixel Farm, SGI, Sony, NTT and Dalsa show 4K interactive work flow at iGrid 2005.

The iGRID 4K Demonstration

At Keio University in Japan, uncompressed 4K digital footage from the Origin camera was fed into a Silicon Graphics Prism visualization system from SGI running The Pixel Farm's PFPlay software. The operator in Japan created a playlist from several 4K uncompressed clips on the SGI system using Pixel Farm PFPlay software. The 4K data was then encoded using an NTT JPEG 2000 encoder to approximately 200Mbps and sent from Japan over fiber optic IP networks to San Diego where it was decoded and played back on a prototype Sony SXRD 4K (3840 x 2160) projector installed at Calit2's new 200 seat theatre.

The 4K digital content from the DALSA camera was then edited in the iGrid conference auditorium and the modifications were sent back immediately in real-time to Tokyo for final conforming of the 4K data. The newly generated modified playlist was once again compressed and re-sent, decoded and played back in 4K to the audience in San Diego.

Commenting on the participant's reaction to yesterday's demonstration, iGrid 2005 co-Chair Tom DeFanti said, "The 4K workflow being pioneered by DALSA, SGI, NTT, The Pixel Farm and others for Digital Cinema appears to offer many benefits not only for those involved in motion picture production, but also for scientists and educators working with high resolution images. This demonstration shows how we can use networks as a common infrastructure to bring talented people together, no matter what their field."