Stable Over Time And In Colorimetry

• RGB + IR
• No thermal stress for film
• Closed loop regulation
• Excellent color separation
• Long-term stability
• Uniform illumination via integrating sphere
• Allows flexible dynamic range enhancement

As a light source ARRISCAN uses an array of LEDs, which are characterized by low power consumption, high efficiency, excellent color separation and durability. LEDs guarantee perfect image quality and low strain for film due to the minimum thermal dissipation.

The most common approach in motion picture scanners is to use a traditional white light source as the illumination system, for example xenon lamps or halogen lamps, which evenly cover the color spectrum. For color separation between red, green and blue filters are utilized. Due to rapid deterioration, white light sources have to be changed regularly to maintain a constant illumination quality. In this approach filtering can only be done close to the sensor, so the film is exposed to unnecessary thermal stress. Any filtering that is needed decreases the efficiency level, because the filters waste a lot of light.

ARRI therefore uses LED illumination - RGB plus infrared. These components are more reliable and robust than commonly used white light sources. The narrow band light emitted by the LEDs doesn’t need to be filtered, and the RGB levels can be digitally adjusted to elegantly adjust for the masks of various film stocks. The LED signal is pulsed, giving the advantage that the film is not exposed to a constant light. By turning the LED’s on and of (flashing) the ARRISCAN also avoids film dehydration and bleaching.

By stabilizing the LED temperature a constant color temperature is guaranteed. Dedicated sensors measure the luminous flux and regulate – when necessary – every color channel separately. An integrating sphere diffuses the light for a first optical scratch concealment.

An additional infrared scan allows for identification of dust and scratches, and the file produced by the infrared scan can be used for scratch removal procedures in postproduction.

An ARRI DESIGNED Peace Of High Tech

• Large 35mm format CMOS chip
  • 2k oversampling
  • 4k oversampling, using Microscan

• Distortion free geometry

• High dynamic range, CDS enhancement

For grabbing the image a custom designed CMOS area sensor is utilized. CMOS technology presents several advantages: High speed performance through parallel data outputs, flexible output modes through active- pixel-technology, protecting film through short exposure times.

The light sensitive devices in commercial film scanners are known to be either CCD line sensors or Avalanche diodes (for flying-spot-systems). ARRI on the other hand counts on custom designed CMOS technology (see interview about "D-20" with Dr. Lenz). In CMOS sensors a different kind of signal processing is applied than in CCD sensors. The photo-induced charge is not transferred as in a charge-coupled device (CCD), they are transformed to a voltage and amplified right in the pixel ("active pixel"). As a consequence, the sensor element can be read out multiple times without destroying the photo information. There are more advantages of a CMOS sensor: no artifacts like "blooming", "fading", "smearing", they are robust with a high life time expectation, parallel signal processing (in 32 channels) increases the processing speed dramatically. The sensor has a basic resolution of 3k x 2k pixels. An additional technique called micro-scanning is applied to generate images in 6k x 4k resolution. To achieve this, the sensor is shifted in sub pixel units by means of piezo actuators, and additional sub-images are grabbed at intermediate positions. A set of special digital image filters was designed to scale down to the conventional 2k or 4k image formats. These digital filter kernels have been optimized for excellent sharpness and alias suppression at the same time.

It is a basic advantage of the area sensor that the complete image is exposed simultaneously. Thus low exposure is sufficient, optical characteristics are equivalent in all directions (in transport direction and across the film from edge to edge), and it is impossible to generate geometric image deformations.

Film Safe, Rock Solid And Precise

The fast and pin-registered film transport of the ARRISCAN is another innovation in itself.

Designed and manufactured by ARRI, the transport mechanism is a precision system that ensures film safety at all times and guarantees maximum image steadiness. The exchangeable film gate makes it very easy to switch from 35 mm to 16 mm or to switch to future ARRISCAN film gate options.

The transportation unit is constantly monitored to maximize the safety of potentially irreplaceable film negatives. Benefiting from ARRI's experience in camera design, the ARRISCAN film transport is robust and reliable; even shrunken film can be put through the mechanism in a specific software option mode ('Soft Archive') and will be transported with the necessary caution.

The safe and cautious treatment of film is another important aspect of the ARRISCAN: digital motor control ensures gentle transportation, fail safe procedures (power down situation), and mechanical breaks to treat the film with maximum caution.

Application Matched Parameters

• Resolution up to 6K
• Speed up to 8fps in 2K resolution
• Optimized MTF response for high quality images
• Linux based
• Script interface
• EDL import
• Key code reader included
• Filmtransport speed and mechanical pins are fully controllable

With the ARRISCAN creative decisions are no longer taken during the scanning process, but subsequent to the scanning process.

Without tying up the scan session, the colorist can take the time to work on a color grading system to tweak and fine tune the colors.

This dramatically enhances the workflow, because the colorist can concentrate on the creative work while the scanner is running and delivering data, without being used for ‘design’ work. The ARRISCAN is controlled by a joblist and only setting up and editing the job list as well as changing of film rolls needs the attention of an operator. An integrated keycode reader, EDL support and Thumbnails/ Preview functions help to speed up the job list setup process. Further than that no operator assistance is necessary; the data is being transferred via gigabit Ethernet and is then available for further postproduction work.

Given the ARRISCAN flexibility, the ARRISCAN can be used for applications like Digital Dailies, High End Postproduction, Archive & Restoration.

On top of the described functionalities the ARRISCAN concept offers some more features: The parameters needed for a certain application can be easily set and defined in the ARRISCAN software. Whether the client wants to have maximum quality scans for special effect shots or just needs a quick preview of the film roll, the parameters are all controllable and adjustable – depending on the application. With the level of interaction given for the ARRISCAN, it is delivering more speed and productivity as a result.

Having the ability to define the quality and productivity needed is -on it’s own- another ground breaking approach of the ARRISCAN.

Long Experience In Film Industry

• Established worldwide sales & service channels
• Proven reliability
• Application experience
• Expertise of ARRILASER team
• History of preserving value through performance upgrades

ARRI is a well known industry leader in the film industry business.

With the experience coming from the ARRILASER and with the knowledge and feedback collected from Postproduction Houses all over the worl, ARRI is the number one partner for scanning and recording.

With a worldwide Sales & Service channel ARRI supports clients like no other vendor of high end film equipment.

Hard Facts

• Fibre Channel (FC) and Gigabit ethernet
• Direct Connection to SAN via FC (ADIC, CXFS)
• Native support for Quantel Gene Pool
• NAS connection via 1G Ethernet (single or multichannel) or InfiniBand
• Direct support of FTP protocol
• BrightClip enabled

For more information about our Certified Partner Program and for further infrastructure information please also visit the Applications & Network section on our webpage.