The year ahead looks promising with growing acceptance of digital technology and spin-offs from three mega-events.

The post production market in India suffered a dip in 2009, largely as a result of the global economic downturn which had its impact on the Indian market too. However, the year ahead, looks promising not only because of the growing acceptance of digital technology, the transition from standard definition to high definition and demand for tape-less workflow; but also because of the three high-value events in the offing - the Commonwealth Games, IPL Cricket, and the Football World Cup in South Africa.

The post-production market is divided into four segments: digital video editing, digital video effects, graphics & tilting, and film & video restoration. The digital video editing segment, traditionally the largest revenue-logging segment, registered revenues of about Rs. 63.67 crore in 2009. The digital video effects segment also registered growth, even if marginal. However, growth for the other two segments, and for the year as a whole, was decidedly less than par.

The run-up to the Commonwealth Games in India is seeing a massive infusion of funds to spruce up the content, production and transmission values of the state-owned Doordarshan (DD), to get it ready and running for the HD broadcast of the Games.

The government has allotted as much as Rs. 1209 crore for digitization of Doordarshan and for setting-up two studios to facilitate HD TV broadcast during the Games. The new studios would come up at Mumbai and Delhi, and field and production and post production facilities would be setup across the four metros.

Doordarshan will also augment its infrastructure through digitalization of its existing studios, replacement and augmentation of old studios, satellites, and transmission equipment. Thirty-nine studio centers, which are only partially digitalized or are still analog are planned to be fully digitalized.

While this spending may be one-time, it will immensely add to the growth of post production market for 2010.

The IPL, which is an annual event, and the four-yearly FIFA-Football World Cup in South Africa, which will be beamed live in India, will also spice-up the market in terms of new equipment and software for generation of cutting-edge content for these events.

That apart, the number of TV channels in the country has grown by leaps and bounds, and continues to grow. The about-500 channels, and the content providers catering to these channels, will increasingly look to post production technologies to improve the packaging and finishing of their programs, to give them an edge over the competition.

The film production process is constantly evolving, as most of the production houses are modernizing and are going into digital intermediaries in a big way, as it allows scanning of the entire movie at high resolution thus changing the way movies are color graded. It also enables creativity-with real-time, interactive environments and breakthrough workflows.

The movie industry seems be to in the very early adoption-stages of virtual production workflows. The use of latest 3D software, gaming, and motion capture technology will help to explore, define, plan and communicate creative ideas in new and more intuitive visual ways, thus reducing risk, eliminating confusion and addressing production unknowns, much earlier in the film-making process.

The runaway success of the special effects-rich movie Avatar is also perceived to give a fillip to the special effects and graphics market, at least in the short run, as moviemakers rush to replicate the movies, success by attempting to clone the mega hit.

The Indian media and entertainment industry registered a turnover of Rs. 58,400 crore last year and is projected to grow at 12.5 percent in the coming five years, to reach Rs. 1,05,200 crore. A Pricewaterhouse Coopers report also says that the Indian animation industry is worth Rs. 1,500 crore and growing at 20 percent each year. This growth is on the back of high-end outsourced work from international studios, apart from the increased demand for animated content in the Indian film and television industries.

On the evidence so far, 2010 promises to be a high-growth, if not a watershed, year for the post-production market.

Major players in the post-production market include Aditya Infotech, Benchmark Broadcast Systems, CDG Broadcast, Rahul Commerce, Real Image, and Telerad.

Aditya Infotech represents Autodesk and Blackmagic Design. Their major customers for the year 2009 were system integrators like Essel Shyam, Cat 5 Broadcast and HCL.

Benchmark Broadcast Systems represents Matrox, Assimilate, Incite, Apple, Diamant and Vizrt. The company sold 60 units of Incite, Apple Final Cut Pro and Vizrt for digital video editing segment. The major customers are P7, Delhi, Jamuna TV, Q Labs and Pixion along with some channels in Dhaka and Bangladesh.

CDG Broadcast represents Edius and Imaginate. The major customers are Doordarshan, Adlabs, UTV, UFO movies, Chandikala Time TV, Lemon TV in Delhi and Punjab, Focus TV, Hamar TV, Aditya Birla Group and Tata Communications.

Rahul commerce represents Avid, Apple, Autodesk and Adobe. Digital video effect segment comprises Plug -ins from Genarts, Vicon and Massive and other software from Toon Boom includes Harmony, Storyboard Pro, Animate Pro, Slip Boom, and Animation Ish.

Major customers are Prana Studios, Reliance Mediaworks, Crest Animation Studios, Anibrain Studio, Corner Shop Studio, and DQ Entertainment.

Real Image represents Avid Technologies and Digital Vision and Telerad represents Apple and Sony.

Adobe

Adobe in India is represented by Rahul Commerce. Adobe provides an end-to-end workflow for creation, distribution, and control of entertainment content. Adobe software supports tape-less post-production workflows, and other emerging technologies. Major product range includes:

Adobe InDesign CS4 catches production errors on-the-fly with Live Preflight and manages with links panels, zoom in images more smoothly and rapidly rotates canvas to any angle in Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended. Photoshop Extended automatically recomposes an image, smartly preserving vital areas of the image as it adapts to new dimensions.

InDesign CS4 simplifies the creation and updating of animations in Flash CS4 Professional without losing creative flexibility. It creates more natural animated interactions between linked objects or distorts a single shape using the new Bones tool. It designs and develops more sophisticated website in Adobe DreamweaverCS4, which features interactive code editing.

Adobe OnLocation shoots footage directly to disk from non-file-based cameras with redesigned CS4 and amplifies impact in video, film, and online interactive projects with Soundbooth CS4.

Apple

Apple in India is represented by Benchmark Broadcast Systems and Rahul Commerce. Apple provides a complete set of professional editing and trimming tools, with a full range of customization options for flexibility and control.

Final Cut Pro 4 delivers creative, professional and extensible tools for video and film editors working in virtually any format, and at any resolution. Final Cut Pro 4 has sophisticated editing, compositing, effects and audio tools that allow professional editors to meet demanding post production deadlines while maintaining their creativity. It is a powerful solution for creating high-quality programming in a broad range of formats, frame rates and resolutions. Final Cut Pro 4 standards-based architecture and flexibility allow it to fit into virtually any production pipeline.

It gives innovative features like real-time effects playback, a high-capacity offline format for seamless offline-to-online workflow, and powerful finishing capabilities such as advanced color correctors for SD finishing. Final Cut Pro 4 supports 23.976, true 24fps, 25, 29.97 and 30fps output, and even supports output to an NTSC external video monitor for greater previewing control.

Autodesk

Autodesk in India is represented by Aditya Infotech and Rahul Commerce. Autodesk Inferno visual effects software delivers incredible performance and one of the most sophisticated visual effects toolsets. It creates compelling visual and special effects to deliver the interactivity you need for true online experimentation. Autodesk Inferno offers an award-winning 3D compositing environment that enables deeper exploration of creative options and streamlined production.

Autodesk Maya 2010 offers an end-to-end computer graphics (CG) workflow based on the award-winning Maya Unlimited 2009 toolset, with its advanced simulation tools for cloth, hair, fur, fluids, and particles.

Maya has been at the cutting edge of feature development for over 10 years, and Maya 2010 is no exception. The software is packed with tried and tested features that help speed your project from initial concept to finished renderings. The comprehensive Maya Composite toolset gives keying, tracking, color correction, roto scoping, paint, and warping tools; advanced filters (including motion blur and depth of field); a full 3D compositing environment; and support for stereoscopic production. Through a combination of multi-threading, algorithmic tuning, sophisticated memory management, and tools for segmenting scenes, Maya 2010 is engineered to elegantly handle today's increasingly complex data sets without restricting the creative process.

Autodesk Smoke software is a comprehensive solution for online editing and creative finishing. Smoke provides real-time, mixed-resolution interactivity for many types of editorial finishing work and client-supervised sessions. Smoke is now available as a software-only application for Apple Mac OS X operating system.

Autodesk Flame software is the ultimate visual effects system for high-speed compositing, advanced graphics, and interactive client-driven design. Flame gives visual affects artists the interactivity and flexibility to tackle projects successfully from national television commercials and music videos to blockbuster films.

Autodesk Combustion software is an all-in-one professional compositing application designed to meet the needs of the world's most demanding digital artists. Work is done faster with the easy-to-use Combustion interface, efficient workflow, and extensive 3D graphics toolset.

Avid

Avid in India is represented by Real Image. Avid video editing and production solutions increase efficiency, productivity, and profitability. Avid solutions empower film and video professionals to create the media that define our digital age. Independent producers, studios, post production facilities, broadcast and media publishing companies rely on Avid to deliver flexible, open solutions tailored to their needs.

AvidDS is used to create high-end content quickly and efficiently, Avid DS source solution provides deep high-resolution effect capabilities and rich creative workspaces. Avid DS tools combines superior compositing, graphics, effects and finishing capabilities with advanced conform from Avid Media Composer and Avid Unity and Interplay integration.

Media composer Mojo DX tightly integrates the Mojo DX hardware with host computer's CPU and GPU giving a high-bandwidth effects engine that delivers without compromise, no matter what formats and codecs are used. Whether working with HDV, XDCAM HD, DVCPRO HD, AVC-Intra, Avid DNxHD, or a combination of multiple formats gives advanced film and editing system, plus capture and monitoring capabilities, with Media Composer Mojo DX.

Assimilate

Assimilate in India is represented by Benchmark Broadcast Systems. Scratch is a single, open, real time, resolution independent finishing workflow solution with a robust feature set that includes data management, review/playback, assemble/edit, conform, primary and secondary color grading, multi layer grading stack, audio, visual effects (enhanced by third party plug-ins), support for 1D, 3D and customer developed LUT's, and final mastering to any format. The organizational capabilities of Scratch allow users to make on-the-fly changes easily during a review session as well. Whether it is calling up a previous version of a shot or re-arranging existing shots, users can adapt quickly to the needs of the review session and provide directors and producers with the feedback they require to make accurate and timely decisions. Scratch is also being used extensively as a review tool by high-end visual effects and trailer facilities.

Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design in India is represented by Aditya Infotech. Blackmagic UltraScope 3Gb/s SDI waveform monitor combines broadcast technical accuracy with an elegant design specifically designed for creative video editors and colorists. Blackmagic UltraScope 1.1 now adds a new composite waveform view.

The new composite waveform view is digitally synthesized from the SD or HD video input, and allows editors to align video levels in a more familiar and traditional way. Many video professionals have been using composite waveform monitors for decades to align video levels, and now with Blackmagic UltraScope's latest update to its composite waveform views it can be monitored in a fast and familiar workflow that is also technically accurate.

Composite waveform view is also critical for color correction. Blackmagic UltraScope can show luminance, composite, or both luminance and composite displayed side by side. This side by side view allows colorists to see if objects in their images have color simply by comparing the luminance and composite views.

Diamant

Diamant in India is represented by Benchmark Broadcast Systems. Diamant software is used for automatic, semi-automatic and manual film restoration. Diamant is being used successfully in film archives, post-houses, studios and laboratories. The Diamant suite consists of several software tools to deal with restoration jobs. They allow the organization of restoration projects, defining of the restoration jobs, real-time viewing and generation of restoration reports. The restoration modules (plug-ins) are dealing with the different restoration issues and are for automatic and semi-automatic restoration. A manual image sequence painting tool M.I.R. (Moving Image Retoucher) is integrated for manual retouching.

Incite

Incite in India is represented by Benchmark Broadcast Systems. Incite editor delivers state of the art non-linear editing and post solutions, driving production with its fast cutting NLE toolkit, intuitive interface and extensive feature set.

The Incite Editor offers multiple real-time FX, advanced compositing features, animated titles and graphics, 3D software effects and multi-layer mixing capabilities in an editing environment based on open file format, transparent workflow and versatile database architecture.

Incite Editor comes bundled with Boris FX (vers. 6.1.2), TitleMotion 4.3, Incite's Speed Change Filter and Incite's Timeline export to Adobe After Effects. Incite Editor is also the basic foundation for Incite's other editor products: Editor Studio and Editor Suite which offer special tools for advanced audio, advanced networking and dedicated tools for the broadcaster.

Matrox

Matrox in India is represented by Benchmark Broadcast Systems. Matrox Axio LE provides a complete post-production solution that lets you get the best from the Adobe CS4 Production Premium software. It is designed to give you the most comprehensive real-time feature set, the highest quality native codec technology, and complete file-based workflows - totally integrated with the Adobe software. It goes far beyond the capabilities of systems that combine Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 with a simple I/O card. It has any more real-time layers of video and graphics in HD and SD including color correction, chroma/luma keying, speed changes and blur/glow/soft focus.

Matrox RT.X2 product line is the ideal solutions for corporate communicators, event video-graphers, project studios, educational facilities and digital filmmakers delivering work in SD.

Sony

Sony in India is represented by Telerad. Sony DFS-800 is a powerful DME switcher, despite its small footprint and affordable price it provides a wide variety of switcher functions, exceptional system versatility, and extreme creative power.
It is equipped with eight SD-SDI inputs and outputs as standard; however, as user requirements grow, these can be increased to 16 by adding optional expansion boards. Other standard features include six keyers (each capable of chroma-keying), frame memory and a six-channel 3D DME unit.
With its creative ability and high-quality special effects, the DFS-800 will serve as a powerful, yet cost-effective tool at live events, for small-scale production studios and editing suites.

Vizrt

Vizrt in India is represented by Benchmark Broadcast Systems. Viz Artist 3 is a complete redevelopment of Vizrt's successful graphics tool. The application is now even more versatile, having an unmatched feature set that is perfectly suited to build complete virtual sets and complex 3D animations. Maps and even videos are now fully supported throughout the workflow. The application also facilitates everyday tasks such as building geometry and creating fonts for lower third graphics.

Viz Content Pilot is used by broadcasters worldwide, from major TV networks to local TV stations. It is not limited to broadcast production; it can deliver graphics content to all types of graphics displays.

Viz Easy Cut, a timeline based editing tool that enables journalists to use the most important functions of professional video editing tools in one user friendly package.