Mani Ratnam's Guru, A milestone for Qube and Indian cinema

May 3, 2007

Source: Qube Cinema

Mani Ratnam is known for his quest for perfection and quality. This led him to evaluate digital cinema technologies and the quality that can be achieved with high quality Digital Projection and Digital Mastering for his Guru.

He chose Real Image to master his film after evaluating results on the QubeMaster mastering system, a part of the Qube Cinema end-to-end suite of products.

Operating directly from original Digital Intermediate (DI) files from Prime Focus where the film was digitally graded, Real Image showed him impeccable quality that can be achieved with picture and sound. Both Mani Ratnam and his ace cinematographer Rajeev Menon were thrilled to see the full impact of their work on the screen without any loss whatsoever and with sharpness that has never been seen before on film.

Guru was digitally mastered from DI exclusively by Real Image on QubeMaster and a Hi-Definition transfer of this digital master was provided to other digital cinema providers as the source. Worldwide Premier of Guru on Qube Cinema and Christie Digital Systems India's first film on DCI JPEG 2000 Toronto, Canada.

For the first time a world premier of an Indian film was in digital format. Qube Cinema, Inc., a leading provider of end to end digital cinema solutions, and Christie, a major provider of visual solutions for entertainment, business and industry, powered the worldwide premier of acclaimed writer-director Mani Ratnam’s latest venture Guru, at the Elgin Winter Garden Theatre in Toronto. The movie, screened on a Christie CP2000-X DLP Cinema® projector and an XP-D Cinema Server from Qube Cinema, was received with great enthusiasm and applause.

Guru is India's first film encoded on DCI specified JPEG2000 format for digital cinema - mastered and screened using Qube Cinema technology. Qube not only meets the demanding DCI international standard for playback but is also the only technology platform in the country that can encode a film in JPEG2000 today.

Qube is also the only format independent server that can play JPEG2000, MPEG2, H.264 and VC1 out of the same box as a combination in the same show! This is one of the reasons why Qube Cinema is admired and accepted world over today, from North America to Europe to Asia. With Guru, Qube initiated digital screening of Indian films in North America. Cinemas in Chicago and Detroit are screening for the first time, an Indian film digitally - adding another feather to Qube Cinema’s and Real Image's cap.

Qube Cinema is already powering over 50 screens in North America and is soon poised to reach over 300 screens soon, opening up the huge potential for Indian cinema in this key market.


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