Da Vinci Systems


da Vinci Systems was an American digital cinema company founded in 1984, based in Coral Springs, Florida and wholly owned by JDSU. It was known for hardware-based color correction products, such as 888, 2K and 2K Plus; GPU-based color grading and digital mastering systems, such as TLC and Resolve ; and film restoration and remastering systems, such as Revival.
The company's innovations include the color control panel, based on trackballs, and other discrete controls that enable colorists to control the software that manipulates motion picture images. As one of the earliest pioneers in post production products, da Vinci Systems introduced several innovative products and was considered a significant player in the post production industry during its 25 years of operation. da Vinci Systems equipment was initially developed by Video Tape Associates in 1982 for use by the Hollywood, Florida, USA-based production/post production facility to alter and enhance colors from scanned film and video tape. The Wiz system, as it was later known, was marketed to other post production facilities, laying the foundation for the creation of the colorist and the post production color suite.
In September 2009, after the liquidation of the company, the assets of da Vinci Systems were acquired by Blackmagic Design, an Australian digital cinema company and manufacturer known for its products based in digital cinema and cameras.

History

The Wiz

The Wiz was the predecessor to the da Vinci Classic color corrector and was built in 1982 by VTA Technologies in Ft. Lauderdale. It was built on an Apple computer, the program was stored in EPROM and the list could be backed up to mini cassettes.
The Wiz was the first color correction system to have a customized external control panel and was also the first color corrector with internal primary and secondary processing. Prior to that, the primaries in the telecine were used. The Wiz had 10 vector patented secondary color correction.
The first two systems were bought by Editel, Chicago, which at the time used the color corrector on Bosch Fernseh's FDL60 telecine.

da Vinci Classic

da Vinci Classic analog system was manufactured from 1985 to 1990 and had customized external control panel with internal primary, secondary processing and an internal NTSC encoder. It ran on a Motorola 68000 Multi Bus 1 system computer. The program and color correction list were stored on a 20MB MFM hard disk, with backup to a 5.25" floppy disk.
Its features include:
Options include:
Used with FDL60/90 and MK3 telecines and tape-to-tape. Early models had knob only color correction controls; trackball control was introduced later.

da Vinci Renaissance

da Vinci Renaissance was the analog system that followed the Classic and was manufactured from 1990 to 1993. It was similar to the Classic but ran on Motorola 68020 Multi Bus 1 system with a 3.5" floppy.
Its features included:
The early/budget 68000 models had two control panels and 16 vector secondaries, the same as the Classic. The later 68020 versions usually feature Kilovectors, advanced secondary correction and had three control panels.
Options included:
12v panels were used on early versions with 5v panels with separate PSU on later versions. Both 525 and 625 standards were offered and a B&W menu monitor was used. Often connected to a FDL60, FDL90, MK3 or URSA telecine, it was also used with videotape machines for tape-to-tape grading. Some versions used an extra interface module to function with the URSA serial control busses. Normally used with a separate TLC editor, an additional interface is required for this on URSA installations.

da Vinci Renaissance 888

da Vinci Renaissance 888 was similar to the above system, but had 888 digital video processing in place of the analog video processing. This system was manufactured from 1992–1998.
Its features included:
Additional options for the digital 888 included:
Early versions had a double backplane chassis and used an extra interface module, the EMC, to function with URSA control busses. 888s were normally used with a separate TLC1 or 2 editors and an additional interface was required for this on URSA installations.
da Vinci also made the da Vinci Light. This was not marketed, so not many were sold. It is a da Vinci DUI 888 without the digital 888 cards. The telecine interface card controlled the telecine's internal color corrector. This came in two configurations: the first was the DUI with an SGI Indy workstation; the second DUI system used an SGI O2 workstation. These systems supported da Vinci's new control panels.

da Vinci 2K and 2K Plus

The da Vinci 2K Color Corrector, manufactured starting in 1998, was a completely revised color correction system that supported HDTV, SDTV, and 2K formats. The later system, the 2K Plus with improved color corrector tools was used on high-end DataCines and telecines like Thomson-Grass Valley's Spirit Datacine and Cintel's C-Reality & ITK Millennium. The 2K operated with a 4:2:2, 4:4:4 or 8:4:4 input in NTSC or Pal. In HDTV it operated with either 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 inputs. Many were interfaced to the Spirit DataCine.
Its features included:
2K and 2K Plus systems were intended for use with the then latest generation of telecines including Spirit, URSA or similar, C-Reality, Rascal, Sony and ITK telecines. MK3 / FDL / Quadra types were not supported. Many USA delivered 2Ks were supplied with an onboard TLC2 which supported 24/30 dual sync functionality for 24P operation. A TLC Assistant station comprising another IBM PC was available for dual operator installations. Alternatively, a standalone TLC2 of the traditional type could be interfaced if it was required.
In addition to telecine control, 2Ks were often used for tape-to-tape, virtual telecine and DDR applications.

TLC

The TLC was an edit controller for telecines and VTRs. It provided accurate 2/3 editing. TLC 1 was originally made in Moorpark, California, later TLC was acquired by da Vinci and the TLC 2 was released. The da Vinci DUI 888 had an option to have a built-in TLC built. If the TLC is not built in, an external A/B switch box is needed to switch control between the TLC and other Color Controllers. Some versions had a separate CPU and Telecine interface rack.

Splice

Promoted for use with non-linear storage/SAN sources and a 2K or 2K Plus, the da Vinci Splice was to provide data management to/from DPX files to SD/HD/HSDL with a built-in DVE for XYZ sizing, rotation etc., with subsequent color correction in the conventional fashion through the 2K. Built with Resolve’s Transformer II, Splice had Resolve’s basic conform and I/O features, but was promoted to extend the life and capabilities of a 2K. Very few were delivered.

da Vinci Resolve

Resolve, when launched in 2004, was a next-generation color grading system and the first system to use multiple parallel processing engines within normal PC computer infrastructure for real time 2K resolution color grading. It was the first scalable color grading system offering multiple levels of acceleration, features and capabilities, providing colorists with exacting and intuitive color control over static or moving objects. Resolve scaled lower-resolution SD and DV formats to HD, 2K and 4K without compromising quality by using proprietary da Vinci engineered Transformer technology.
Following their acquisition of da Vinci Systems, Blackmagic Design continue to develop and distribute this application, which is now known as DaVinci Resolve.

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