The latest version of Digital Vision's Film Master will allow colourists to grade in real time at resolutions of up to 4k directly from an open storage area network (SAN).

In data-based grading set-ups, large amounts of data are moved on and off local storage machines, which can create bottlenecks.

A SAN is a high-speed sub-network of shared storage devices. Because stored data does not reside directly on any of a network's servers, server power is utilised by the application, in this case the Film Master grading system, and network capacity is released to the colourist.

Digital Vision chief operating officer Simon Cuff said the development could be a world first: “It is definitely something that is going to enable more interesting workflows and more efficient and faster mastering for Digital Cinema.”

Film Master is a data-centric, resolution-independent film grading and mastering system.
The new enhancement will be unveiled at NAB in April, when the company will also show a new software-based standards converter and a new render grid.

The grid, which is added to the back end of the Film Master, is designed to accelerate all processes, especially time-consuming ones such as noise reduction.