QubeMaster - Digital Cinema Encoding & Packaging Solution

August 13, 2007

Learn More About The QubeMaster Workflow

QubeMaster Datasheet

QubeMaster Whitepaper

QubeMaster is a uniquely flexible and powerful Digital Cinema encoding and packaging solution designed to integrate fully into the modern post environment. It is a database-driven software solution for the Microsoft WindowsTM platform with an intuitive and familiar user interface that is simple to understand for the beginner. And for power users, the software provides fast keyboard-based control over virtually all operations.

The architecture of QubeMaster closely mirrors the Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) Object Model with a hierarchy of Shows, Compositions, Reels and Track Files. It is this design that makes QubeMaster unarguably the best choice for every digital cinema mastering application.

While QubeMaster has been designed from the ground up to conform to the DCI Specification and is the ideal product to go from a Digital Cinema Distribution Master (DCDM) to a Digital Cinema Package (DCP), it has also been designed to operate in the real world where workflows don't always represent the ideal.

To this end, QubeMaster has been provided with powerful pre-processing capabilities that allow it to crop, scale and add borders to the image and to combine multiple audio files with flexible channel assignments. And to further enhance its capabilities, QubeMaster can perform Log to Linear conversions with control over White Point, Black Point, Soft Clip, Colour Balance and output Gamma as well as convert between XYZ, RGB and YCrCb colour spaces with user defined R, G, B and White Point colour coordinates. Best of all, QubeMaster handles all pre-processing calculations with an internal precision of 16-bits to preserve every bit of image quality.

The software supports multiple methods of bringing in picture and sound elements including digitizing from tape-based sources, file import and image sequence import. Numerous picture formats are supported including TIFF, DPX, Cineon, TGA and BMP image sequences apart from MXF, Quicktime, QT Reference and AVI based sources. And since QubeMaster works with any existing local or shared storage, its flexible support of multiple file formats will quickly become a boon in a post facility without any need to copy or convert.

QubeMaster provides a very powerful mastering interface, which allows Picture, Sound and Subtitle Track Files to be added to the database by a simple drag-and-drop operation. These files are then synced accurately using a Sync Point such as the 2-Pop to form Reels. Sync Points are marked for each Track File using the Clip Editor as are In and Out Points representing the First Frame of Action (FFOA) and the Last Frame of Action (LFOA) of each Reel.

Subtitles are xml files in the TI CineCanvasTM format and must be created in an external application. Qube Cinema has a subtitling application that supports the CineCanvas format under development.

Multiple Reels are ordered and chained together to form a Composition along with additional metadata that is entered by the user. The Composition is the basic unit of distribution in the digital cinema world and QubeMaster produces standards compliant Digital Cinema Packages (DCPs) and Key Delivery Messages (KDMs) for distribution to digital screens.

In order to retain the maximum flexibility, QubeMaster allows encoding and encryption at the Composition level, at the Reel level or at the Track File level. Encoding of JPEG2000, MPEG-2 and VC1 can be performed in software and where speed is of the essence, optional hardware accelerators are available for each of the formats to achieve near real-time performance, limited only by source file throughput.

And while QubeMaster has the capability to encode into all supported image compression formats, it fully supports MXF wrapping and/ or 128-bit AES encryption of already encoded material to the DCI specification. This allows post-houses to take advantage of their custom encoding solutions for JPEG2000 or to continue to utilize their fast and dependable hardware MPEG-2 encoders, whether these output Elementary Streams or MXF files with unencrypted essence.

One of QubeMaster's most powerful features is its versioning capability. Not only can multiple Reels refer to the same Track File and multiple compositions refer to the same Reel, but making copies of Reels and Compositions is quick and easy. The software also has very powerful Packaging features including the ability to merge multiple items into a single DCP and to include or exclude every element of one or more Compositions or Shows in a DCP.

Another powerful tool in the application is the Clip Editor. This is used throughout the QubeMaster application to mark Sync Points and In & Out Points and to check Reels and Compositions for Sync and Transitions. The Clip Editor uses familiar icons and keyboard commands that will make the user instantly comfortable with the system.

QubeMaster also allows for Compositions to be edited for censorship or localization requirements of different territories. Existing Compositions may be loaded into the system along with a valid KDM using the Qube Ingestion Controller and then modified with total control of all parameters.

The QubeMaster software is available in three versions to optimally cater to various applications. QubeMaster PE allows MXF Wrapping and Encrypting of already encoded material and editing of existing packages for localization purposes but has no encoding capability. QubeMaster SE has all the functions of QubeMaster PE with the addition of software-based encoding of JPEG2000, MPEG-2 and VC1 formats. And QubeMaster XE has all the features of QubeMaster SE with the addition of a hardware accelerator board for JPEG2000 encoding.

Whatever your digital cinema mastering application, QubeMaster is one system that has the power and flexibility to support it all!

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