Sunset Digital Remasters Entire "Cheers" Television Series in HD with Snell & Wilcox HD1012 Production Switcher

Sunset Digital, a post production facility in Glendale, Calif. renowned for a variety of film and video post production services, is utilizing its Snell & Wilcox HD1012 high-definition production switcher to remaster the entire "Cheers" television series in high-definition. The project, which is scheduled for completion in the spring of 2002, will provide Paramount, the distributor of the series, with high-definition masters of all 275 episodes for future use.

The HD1012 allows Sunset Digital to quickly and easily "tilt and scan" the original 4:3 master to create 16:9 high-definition versions of each episode. Sunset Digital is also creating new 4:3 and 16:9 standard definition masters for each episode, allowing Paramount to provide new masters of the series in standard definition format for its clients not yet ready to broadcast in high-definition.

According to Michael Kaidbey, Senior Editor at Sunset Digital, they would not be able to complete the high definition remastering of the series without the HD1012, principally because of its versatility in all high definition formats, including 1080 at 24 p, 1080i @ 59.94 and 720p @ 59.94. Kaidbey also pointed to the high quality images that result from the switcher's integrated DVE and its aspect ratio conversion capabilities, which according to Kaidbey rival a direct telecine transfer to 16:9 at a fraction of the cost.

"Since we are dealing with images that were originally made for traditional 4:3 television, we needed a method to cost-effectively create high-definition 16:9 versions of the material, as well as 4:3 and 16:9 standard definition masters," said Kaidbey. "With the aid of the HD1012 and its ability to extract the 16:9 from the 4:3, we are able to use a single telecine master transferred in the ‘4:3 anamorphic wide' format to create all of the subsequent versions of each episode. All of this is accomplished at a tremendous cost savings with exceptional quality."

Kaidbey added that the four built-in frame stores are also of importance to the project because of their quality and versatility. "Combined with an image import and export utility, a computer image file can easily be loaded into one of the frame stores and displayed as video," he said. "That same image can then be saved as an image file in another format. This happens instantly and with perfect quality every time."

Sunset Digital also owns a Snell & Wilcox Archangel Ph.C real-time restoration system, which it uses for a variety of projects including an ongoing film restoration project for MGM Studios. Other current Sunset Digital projects utilizing the HD1012 include "The Laramie Project," a documentary-style feature for HBO that opened the Sundance 2002 film festival.