Archimedia Technology, a company whose technology and applications bring precise multiformat viewing to the professional's desktop, TV, UHDTV, and infrastructure, has renamed its Archimedia Master Player, now called Archimedia Atlas.
The name change reflects the solution's rapid evolution from a reference player and tool kit for master files to a full-featured player that supports all kinds of video, audio, and caption/subtitle formats — not just masters — with professional scaling tools to handle everything from the smallest Web video to UHD, 4K, and beyond. Atlas represents the newest version of the player, with new features that were not found in the last release.
- "This is now the third generation of the Archimedia product, which has become the reference standard for virtually all major broadcast networks and movie studios," said Mark Gray, Archimedia president and CEO. "With the addition of the latest advanced features, this new product is so much more than a media player. Hence the new name, Atlas, which signifies strength, precision, and reliability. Like its namesake, Atlas has become the 'heavy lifter' player for all media professionals."
- Critical new features in Atlas include frame-accurate syncing of timecodes, caption/subtitle navigation, waveform monitor, vectorscope, and audio-meter measurements, and multichannel audio. Atlas also contains digital cinema decryption in the studio model and a sophisticated frame-size scaler that detects a file's frame size and offers logically related display formats. It now plays frame sequences through subfolders and alerts the user to errors in the frame sequence. The player's timecode reader now shows all timecode tracks, such as MXF MaterialPackage, MXF SourcePackage, and Essence Track, embedded in the media file. Finally, in jog/shuttle/seek mode, Atlas can display interlaced video formats in precision modes, which is critical for verifying pulldown sequences and the accuracy of scene transitions in interlaced video.
- "All of the features we've added are by customer request from very sophisticated professionals who have been using the software nonstop. It's their job to 'know when it's right,' regardless of the type of video, and one of their biggest challenges right now is having to support HD and UHD in the same working environment," said Josef Marc, chief marketing officer of Archimedia. "With the release of Atlas, our customers now have the tools they need to overcome the challenges of dealing with UHD in an HD world."
- Atlas is a free upgrade for Archimedia customers, who can download it from their Archimedia support portal. For new customers, Atlas is available in single-seat licenses, group licenses, and on all Archimedia hardware media appliances at the same prices as the previous version of the player.
