Los Angeles — Adobe Systems Inc. at the IBC 2011 Conference and Exhibition in Amsterdam, over the weekend announced that it will reinforce its digital video software arsenal through the acquisition of technology and employees from privately held IRIDAS, a leader in high-performance tools for digital color grading and enhancement of professional film and video content, including stereoscopic technology.
The company’s popular video applications–Premiere Pro and After Effects–are poised for higher-end users, and the company in a deal hopes will strengthen its position in the professional film and TV production sector, Adobe has acquired certain assets of privately held IRIDAS, which supplies in high-performance tools for digital color grading and enhancement of professional film and video content.
Adobe says that with the addition of IRIDAS technology, which contains tools for working with stereoscopic 3D footage–to its video product line, Creative Suite Production Premium and Adobe Creative Suite Master Collection will gain a comprehensive set of color manipulation tools enabling Adobe editors to manipulate color and light for any type of content, all the way improving the usefulness of Premiere Pro and After Effects for high-end TV and film work.
“Adobe has set the standard for rich communication and collaboration across all media and we have been rapidly innovating on solutions for professional filmmakers,” said Guerard, VP/GM for professional video and audio, Creative and Media Solutions Business Unit, Adobe.
Color grading and enhancement has become increasingly essential in the creation of professional film and television content with the increasing use of High Dynamic Range (HDR) video and Adobe executives believe the acquisition of IRIDAS technology will consolidate the position of Adobe Creative Suite Production Premium and Adobe Creative Suite Master Collection in the digital film and video content creation space.
The acquisition of Iridas’ the foremost color grading technology helps us continue to deliver high quality tools and redefines how professionals in the motion picture and video industry view, manipulate, enhance and produce their digital creations from script to screen, said Guerard.
The Iridas acquisition includes SpeedGrade, an award-winning application that offers the ability to refine video in a number of ways, a tool-set for stereo 3D, RAW processing, and notably a technique called color grading, which can shift a video’s color tones to give a particular look and finishing of digital content. Think of the greenish cast of the Matrix movies, for example. Color grading is popular as a way to impart mood and emotion to video.
In its news release, Adobe also said the acquisition will help with perhaps the most obvious trend in video these days, 3D. IRIDAS offers non-destructive tools for primary and secondary color correction that are optimized for multi-core CPU and GPU performance.
The Iridas asset integration also will support Adobe with (HDR) and raw video, Adobe’s Todd Kopriva said in a blog post. HDR photography and videography is a hot and rapidly-developing technique that seeks to captivate details in both shadows and highlights, something that is technically difficult. Raw video uses the unprocessed data from a camera’s image sensor, which can offer more better dynamic range and color than what has been processed in the camera. Raw imagery requires more after-the-fact processing, though.
“Joining forces with Adobe provides us with an amazing opportunity to get our technology into more peoples’ hands,” said Lin Sebastian Kayser, chief executive officer, IRIDAS. “Adobe has demonstrated real commitment to the professional film and video market with its recent releases and has a known track record of integrating acquired technologies. With the addition of our color grading technology I believe Production Premium can lead the HDR video and stereoscopic charge as the film and professional video industry evolves.”
Terms of the acquisition were not revealed, and Kopriva would not comment on specific details of how the technology will be incorporated.