Archimedia Technology, a company whose applications bring precise multiformat viewing to the professional’s desktop, TV, UHDTV, and SDI infrastructure, today announced the release of Atlas 3.1.1, the newest version of its full-featured precision media player. Atlas now makes it possible to watch 4K 60p content encoded in practically any format from all kinds of sources and manufacturers on all kinds of displays.
That capability is a breakthrough for anyone in the media and entertainment industry — from technorati to producers to executives to archivists to lawyers — who until now had no way to view 4K 60p and high dynamic range (HDR) content outside of the edit suite where it was created without first transcoding it to a smaller format to suit hardware limitations.
“We continually look for ways to expand our customers’ media format independence to meet their business objectives, and playing 4K content at higher frame rates is quickly becoming an imperative. Major content owners have begun specifying 4K 60p for master deliverables of new content, yet they are hard-pressed to screen that content once it arrives,” said Josef Marc, Archimedia’s chief marketing officer. “Atlas solves that problem for everyone in the industry by presenting high-frame-rate and HDR content on any display to the best of its native ability. Atlas reduces or eliminates the cost of buying and maintaining viewing environments for the wide range of video formats that media professionals use in their jobs today.”
Atlas is unique in that it incorporates a professional-grade scaler that presents any frame size or media format to full screen on any HDMI, DisplayPort, SDI, or Quad Link display with frame-accurate precision up to 4K 60p. The comprehensive range of formats supported includes the latest IMF, HEVC, and AS-11 DPP formats; more than 100 caption/subtitle formats required by law around the world; DPX, TIFF, and EXR frame sequences; encrypted DCP; and Dolby” audio codecs.
This combination of features means that now all media professionals in technical and nontechnical jobs can watch 4K 60p content on everything from a laptop to a UHDTV, with external sound files for those concerned with DPX, TIFF, and EXR formats; embedded and external captions and subtitles; and the whole gamut of video, audio, and file formats for broadcasters, OTT providers, and webmasters. In addition, lawyers, customer support personnel, marketers, advertisers, and copyright administrators — such as the Library of Congress — who provide legal protection for 4K 60p content can see the content, too.
Atlas is also capable of professionally scaling HD, 2K digital cinema, UHD, and 4K to even larger sizes for exhibitions — such as playing a movie on the side of a building at a film festival or awards ceremony — or for fitting unusual frame sizes into SDI-legal sizes to suit other equipment’s limitations. This feature is also useful for checking what 4K 60p will look like on the mind-boggling variety of screen sizes found in today’s tablets, smartphones, and computer monitors.
Atlas with 4K 60p support is a free upgrade for Atlas 4K and Atlas 4KSE owners, who can download the upgrade from their Archimedia users’ support portal at support.archimediatech.tv. For new customers, there is no price increase for 4K 60p, so outstanding quotes remain valid. Standard broadcast-grade test patterns are included with every Atlas media player, and Archimedia can deliver custom 4K test patterns upon request. Archimedia’s personal tech support comes standard with every player to help customers deal with the unforeseen challenges of today’s multiscreen workflows.
Archimedia’s “Getting Started With Atlas” videos demonstrate the features that a professional media worker needs to support UHD in an HD world. The four-minute version is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV5gejK4TFY, and a 17-minute version with chapter links is available at http://www.archimediatech.com/#!getting-started-with-atlas-video/c24g4.
More information about Archimedia and its products is available at www.archimediatech.com.
