itfc installs Alchemist Ph.C-HD to complete HD broadcast services

itfc has installed the Alchemist Ph.C-HD converter from Snell & Wilcox to supply services to ITV for their recently launched HD “red button” service on Freesat.  The first film broadcast on the new service was the comedy romance Wimbledon, starring Kirsten Dunst.  This was followed by classic suspense thriller Jaws and more recently The Mummy and  Unleashed.  All have been prepared by itfc for transmission on ITV1 in both standard and high definition.

itfc provides broadcast services for all ITV’s acquired material including editing for compliance, QC, subtitling for hard of hearing and audio description.  Chris Higgs, itfc Managing Director: “As soon as ITV embraced HD, it was paramount for us to ensure we could meet their demands, support all their needs and deliver their materials for transmission.”

David Willis, Director of Video Operations explains in more detail. “We needed a solution that would address the issues of HD to SD motion interpolated conversion, colour space conversion and aspect ratio conversion capability. The Alchemist Ph.C-HD ticked all the boxes and additionally gives us the capability for cross conversions between HD and SD standards conversion and time code conversion.  Of critical importance too was the ability of Snell & Wilcox to commit to a very fast build and installation lead time.  This enabled us to go live with our service to ITV with minimum delay.”

The Alchemist Ph.C-HD is the latest addition in a £250,000 upgrade of itfc’s HD services which also includes a Sony HD Cam SRW 5500 and suite with Dolby E 5.1 surround sound, Sony BVM D24 Grade 1 CRT HD monitor and Final Cut Pro system, utilising uncompressed digitised HD files.

David Joel, ITV Broadcast Director, said “itfc responded quickly and efficiently to our requirements and, as ever, met all our deadlines in order to launch this exciting new service for ITV”.  Liz Clarke, itfc´s Sales Manager added:  “We’re very happy to have worked so closely with ITV on this project.  Many clients are increasingly delivering in HD. They will now be able to take advantage of our fully calibrated HD environment and can be assured that our HD standards and levels of service meet the high benchmarks set by ITV.”