Digital Factory, Normandy, France

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When Luc Besson, one of the most prominent French independentfilmmakers, set up Digital Factory in 1998, he dreamed of a unique placewhere artists and technicians from the film and music worlds could workin the best possible conditions. No doubt he has achieved that aim. In anexquisitely furnished 17th century chateau in Normandy, Digital Factoryhosts Europe’s most technically advanced audio post-production studios.A second facility, in the center of Paris, offers image editing solutions.

Since 2006, Digital Factory’s digital color grading department has beenusing Barco’s DP-90 digital cinema projector. In September 2009, thecompany installed an RHDM-2301 monitor and an ultra-bright DP-3000digital cinema projector, which boost the efficiency aswell as the quality of its post-production processes.

Barco boosts quality at France’s top post-production studios

“The Barco products really enhanceour workflow and comfort, therebyboosting productivity and efficien-cy, while enhancing the quality ofour work as well.“Frederic Warnotte, Technical Director,Digital Factory

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Digital Factory features five mixing the-aters, several image and sound editingsuites as well as a digital color gradingsuite. By bringing all post-productionservices together under one roof, thecompany offers an all-in-one solution.All Digital Factory theaters are Dolby Dig-ital and DTS accredited and adapted toeach and every need: image and soundediting, digital color grading, music scor-ing and mixing, ADR, dubbing and filmaudio mixing.

The cooperation between Barco and Dig-ital Factory goes back to 2006. When Dig-ital Factory decided to set up apost-production unit at that time, Barcodistributor XDC installed the DP-90, acompact 2K digital cinema projectorbased on the DLP Cinema™ technologyof Texas Instruments. Widely acknowl-edged as the industry standard for post-production, the DP-90 ensuresexceptional brightness standards, anenhanced color gamut with a very deepblack color, robustness and reliability. Allthese characteristics have been greatlyappreciated by Digital Factory’s colorgraders ever since.

Only Barco could match CRT quality

Three years after this first investment inBarco technology came the RHDM-2301Preference monitor and a DP-3000 projec-tor. “We really needed to replace therental CRT reference monitors,” explainedBruce Guerre-Berthelot, General Manag-er of Digital Factory. The search for analternative was a real challenge, though,as none of the LCD-based monitors test-ed matched the CRT-based ones. Eitherthere were problems with the viewingangle, there was too little detail in theblack tones or the Service Level Agree-ments were too complex. When Barcodistributor Post Logic proposed Barco’shigh-definition RHDM-2301, Digital Facto-ry realized they had, at long last, foundthe right solution.

Deep darks and color stability

“After some extensive testing with thecolorists, we unanimously selected Barcobecause of the exceptional black levels,perfect representation of grayscales, thelarge viewing angles and the colorime-try,” continued Frederic Warnotte, Techni-cal Director. “When compared to a CRTmonitor, an LCD display normally comesshort in contrasts and black. But notBarco’s RHDM-2301. It even performedbetter on the grayscale colors than itsCRT counterparts.” The RHDM-2301 doesnot need frequent maintenance, as itfeatures advanced calibration sensortechnology, integrated into the display’selectronics. “This internal calibration sys-tem works very well, thereby ensuring astable calibration in time, which is crucialfor our colorists,” Frederic Warnotte con-firmed.

Ultra-bright projector

Post Logic installed the new display, towork in tandem with Barco’s DP-90 pro-jector, in September 2009. At the sametime, auditorium 4 was equipped withBarco’s ultra-bright DP-3000 digital cine-ma projector, to be used for the digitalmixing of film and sound. “Auditorium 4is a 370 m2 room with an exceptionaldécor and top-notch technology that canbe used both as a dubbing theater and aprojection theater for tests, marketing,press conferences and previews,” Guerre-Berthelot explained. “The DP-3000 pro-jector in that theater allows our peopleand/or our clients to visualize the filmand work interactively to fine-tune everysetting, until it fully meets everyone’sexpectations. Besides, it is nice to showclients how their finished films will looklike.”

Increased efficiency, quality and low TCO

The new Barco projector and referencemonitor are used by both Digital Factorytechnicians and freelance digital colorgraders. Post Logic has organized sometraining to ensure that they would soonget the hang of the new systems. “Infact, training was hardly needed with themonitor, as it has an exceptionallyergonomic and intuitive display,” FredericWarnotte said. “The projector comes witha Communicator Touch Panel which did,at first, require a bit of guidance but is infact great to work with. It is obviousthese are dedicated products for a post-production environment. They reallyenhance our workflow and comfort,thereby boosting productivity and effi-ciency, while enhancing the quality ofour work as well. More than this addedefficiency and quality, the DP-3000 alsoensures a low total cost of ownership: asit uses the industry’s most efficient 6.5kW lamps, our cost of projector lamps isfairly low.”

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