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Go Modular!

Bonolabs enclosure

 SATA dock station

modular SATA shelves

file insurance

SATA Drives

Improve your workflow and your cashflow

• Repeat clients of the "Purchase and Load" Program will now receive a discount on the tapeless (drive) service fee. Each time that you send your drive back in for additional transfers after the initial purchase and load shipment, your per minute fee will drop from $2.40 to $1.60. How's that for an incentive?

• Do you need to integrate material into your HD show that is only available in NTSC video? We are now able to upconvert your NTSC to 720p or 1080i or 1080/24p. Receive your upconverts direct-to-drive.
• 10-bit format converter
• Maintain aspect ratio or "re-aspect"
• Available for Digital Betacam NTSC source tapes

HDV

• Good news for Premiere Pro hi def media makers: realtime 10-bit uncompressed 1080/24p (23.98sF) transfers are shipping on NTFS (PC) drives. See tapeless.
• DVCPro HD codec option is now available for MAC hard drive clients
• The inverse anamorphic transfer has been officially added as a spec choice for both D5 HD and hard drive services
• Repeat clients are eligible for the "Purchase and Load" option in which the client buys a SATA drive  from Bonolabs. The client receives hi def files on his or her own drive and may send the drive back for additional project transfers.

Totally Tapeless
in 2008.

We ask the question "why not?" constantly. When Bonolabs opened its high definition telecine suite in June of 2003, the mastering medium of choice was the Hi Def D5 (Panasonic) videotape format. Our crew asked how could we make future-proofing a little bit easier?   Since almost everyone was immediately digitizing  transferred material for further editing, we began to ask: “why not transfer directly to hard drive and provide files to our clients that were ready to edit?"   So in February 2004 we became the first lab in the country to by-pass the tape route and offer  direct-to-drive high definition services. Although we held on to our two HD decks for the increasingly rare "tape" client, now, in 2008, the tape route just doesn't make sense anymore. So we went "totally tapeless."  Why not?

Designed to make the delivery and workflow move more efficiently in the High Definition world of electronic motion imaging, Bonolabs began offering telecine transfers direct to hard drives in QuickTime MAC compatible file format in early spring of 2004.    New tapeless options have been added, often in anticipation of their popularity.  We provide   10-bit uncompressed QuickTime for MAC or AVI for PC files. See our tapeless section for full details.  Client film, whether 35mm, S16, 16mm, S8 or R8, is transferred via the Bonolabs High Definition Cineglyph (from DAV) to Bonolabs hard drives or increasingly to SATA drives purchased through us. The client receives the drives, downloads the files and is ready to edit in 1080/24p. Bonus: there is no need to digitize from videotape.

With the goal to make it possible for clients to perform true high definition native editing with Final Cut Pro, Bonolabs configured a G-5 DP 2 GHz machine with 1 TB internal RAID with COS (commercial off the shelf) parts for a very reasonable amount of money back in February. Benefiting from continued R&D and the recent availability of faster cards and larger hard drives, our internal RAID now weighs in at 2.2 terrabytes, which can handle over 100 minutes of high def material. The material is off loaded from the internal raid and loaded to drive, once again employing COS drives purchased from anyone in the computer business. The new service was introduced at NAB2004 although some skeptics were still saying it couldn’t be done. Now, four years later later,  Bonolabs has switched completely to the tapeless workflow.

To help clients try out the film-to-file “tapeless” workflow, Bonolabs offers a “test drive” option at minimal cost to the prospective client.  Several high definition transfer ready-to-edit sample clips can be sent out on a Bonolabs external hard drive. Basically, the client is borrowing the drive and has a 3-day free rental period during which to offload the clips and get the drive on its way back to Bonolabs. The only costs to the client are shipping, handling, and sufficient insurance to cover loss or damage. Pre-authorization on a credit card for the replacement cost of the drive is also required. The test drive is required for all new drive clients.   Sometimes test clips are offered via ftp if the client has the capability to handle large downloads.

And just where have our drives been traveling? Drives loaded with archival clips for integration into feature documentaries destined either for theater or high definition broadcast have shipped as far away as Belgium and Germany in addition to multiple stateside clients in LA, New York, Boston and Washington DC.    “Indies,” including a previously released comedy/spoof and a new dramatic feature, have been transferred direct to drive. Our international clients are sending in film to be transferred direct-to-drive from as close as Canada and as far away as Japan and Malaysia. Our test drives have been “out for a spin” in Ottawa, Richmond, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Austin, and NYC, Malaysia, Japan, Berlin,  Australia, and London, to name a few.  

The “tapeless” option may very well become the avenue of choice among museums, libraries, churches and educational facilities that wish to “re-purpose” their existing film titles for display in their new high definition presentation spaces. The 10-bit uncompressed files can be integrated with new material for display, broadcast or distribution via formats such as Windows Media (HD WMV10) or MPEG2.