German Subtitling Provider Adds Multiformat Production Switch To Its Facilities

Snell & Wilcox has announced that Germany's Film und Video Untertitelung Gerhard Lehmann AG, a leading provider of subtitling services, has added a new Kahuna SD/HD multiformat production switcher to its facilities in the Potsdam-Babelsberg district.
The Kahuna system enables both SD and HD postproduction in one of the company's digital edit suites, while Snell & Wilcox format conversion technologies secure the company's ability to work with and deliver content in all 16 HD standards and both SD standards.
"We rely heavily on the quality and efficiency of our format and standards conversion to provide the highest-possible product quality to our clients," said Gerhard Lehmann, founder of Film und Video Untertitelung. "We work with virtually every conceivable standard and format, striving to achieve perfect broadcast-quality results in subtitling HD content. The Kahuna provides us with very sophisticated technology for processing a variety of HD and SD signals within a single video mixer, which brings a great deal of flexibility to our HD operations."
Film und Video Untertitelung offers video transfer, standards and format conversion, online editing, and subtitling services for a broad range of clients, working with television programming including dramas, feature films, documentaries, children's programming, and concerts. The company's unique subtitling processing ensures that subtitle in and out points are inserted into HD content with half-frame accuracy. Proprietary software enables operators to accomplish this task in real-time, so a 120-minute programme, for example, only requires 120 minutes in the edit suite to become a new broadcast-quality tape with subtitled programming.
In fact, Film und Video Untertitelung is the first company in the world to offer real-time subtitle superimposition services for HD content, and the company's investment in leading-edge HD technologies such as the Snell & Wilcox Kahuna SD/HD production switcher allow for delivery of that content in any format or standard required by the client.
Snell & Wilcox's Kahuna is the industry's most advanced production switcher and the first ever to offer simultaneous HD and SD operations in the same mainframe with the same control panel. Future-proof and flexible, it allows operators to work initially in SD-only or HD-only mode and then upgrade to multiformat SD/HD operation whenever they choose. In multiformat SD/HD mode, Kahuna users can mix existing SD camera feeds, graphics, handheld shots, and archive footage directly into an HD production with no need to purchase expensive HD upgrades or extra HD upconversion equipment.
Film und Video Untertitelung is also using Snell & Wilcox upconversion, downconversion, and crossconversion technology to handle different frame rates, image sizes, and aspect ratios, complemented with functionality such as tilt, pan and zoom, time code conversion with precise frame mapping, comprehensive audio handling, and 3:2 cadence detection and repair — all performed in a single pass.
"We are very satisfied with the results from our new Kahuna switcher," added Lehmann. "The smooth performance and superior image quality delivered by the Kahuna play a significant role in our delivery of top-quality subtitled HD content."
(DS/SP)