Director of Photography Michael Lohmann First to Use JMR's New BlueStor DigiLab Video Server for Major Studio Production

LAS VEGAS, April 13 /PRNewswire/ -- JMR Electronics, Inc., the leading value provider of scalable storage systems for video and data intensive applications, announced today that its newly introduced BlueStor™ DigiLab™ Video Server which will debut at NAB in Las Vegas in Booth SL 7408, was recently field test proven during an on-location shoot for the Disney Channel.

The groundbreaking new system significantly reduces the production time and expense for on-location shoots, offering an extremely flexible, open platform storage system that delivers unprecedented on-location digital image processing performance, high resolution monitoring and control functionality for the most demanding digital cinema workflows.  

Director of photography Michael Lohmann was the first to use the BlueStor DigiLab during the production of the upcoming Disney Channel movie, Sixteen Wishes. Lohmann successfully created his own on-set digital lab with JMR's DigiLab (3x3 foot) portable system, equipped with 32TB of RAID storage. The system remained in the camera truck while he shot footage with the Red Digital Cinema RED ONE™ camera.  

When combined with optional hardware like the RED Rocket™ accelerator and a color timing application, the DigiLab makes on-location ingesting and transcoding from any of today's digital media formats a breeze – resulting in huge time and cost savings. The DigiLab provides the ability to quickly capture files directly from the camera's storage, monitor raw footage in real time, apply first pass color correction right on location and even burn a Blu-ray™ disc for dailies with the viewing LUTs (Look Up Tables) applied.

According to Lohmann, "When BlueStor DigiLab was combined with Assimilate's Scratch™ – we found we could color time, store, process footage and create dailies with viewing LUTs (Look Up Tables) right on the set, and be fast enough to be practical.

We produced much higher quality dailies than the SD versions created by editorial. It's also great that the BlueStor DigiLab allowed us to view those dailies within an hour of wrapping, when our creative intentions are still fresh in our minds. We can make sure they look the way they were intended to look, instead of waiting on results from people at the lab, who would have to guess what I wanted those scenes to look like."

The ability to view RAW digital footage in full resolution and create dailies on-location will have a profound positive impact on how production shoots will be done in the future. Added Lohmann, "Huge cost savings can be realized with the BlueStor DigiLab because it essentially eliminates the digital lab from the dailies process, which usually costs upward of $15,000."

Another benefit of DigiLab made itself known during the production. "Editors can also be moved on location to begin editing scenes an hour or two after dailies have been created – saving additional time and money," concluded Lohmann. "The DigiLab is so powerful, it can service up to two editors at the same time. Bottom line – the DigiLab was rock solid in performance and everything was linked to the phenomenal storage capacity and power of the BlueStor RAID, which was more than we'd ever need."

About JMR Electronics

JMR is the leading value provider of scalable storage systems for performance, capacity and availability driven applications in the government, rich media, VOD, video surveillance and Web 2.0 markets. As a pioneering leader in high performance RAID storage technologies since 1982, JMR's complete line of BlueStor PeSAN(TM) DAS, NAS and SAN solutions are ideal for nearly every IT and video production need. 

The DigiLab Video Server seamlessly integrates top-of-the-line Quad-Core Intel® processors, nVidia® (or other brand) graphics card, built-in Blu-ray™ writer and a 19-in-1 media reader into a high performance 16-drive hot-swappable RAID storage system. Using JMR's patented PCI-Express based storage technology for higher RAID performance and easy capacity scaling, each DigiLab contains dual RAID controllers and dual SAS expanders that provide higher real world throughput rates than any competing solution. The result – the DigiLab Video Server delivers a sustained transfer rate of over 1,400 MB/s, easily accommodating 4 streams of 1080p24 @ 16 bit RGB, 3 streams of 2K x 1,556p24 @ 16 bit RGB or one stream of 4Kp24 (RED) at 16 bit RGB, while providing the processing power to run sophisticated digital intermediate and editing applications

For more information about JMR or the BlueStor product line, visit www.jmr.com or contact the company at 818.993.4801, or [email protected].

All trademarks, trade names, service marks, and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies.

SOURCE JMR Electronics, Inc.