NASA Uses HEURIS software as integral part of breakthrough
HDTV solution and public outreach strategy.
NASA uses MPEG Power Professional—DTV HD to create stunning HD theater presentations
and to build laptop HD players and editing stations.
September 24, 2002, St. Louis, Missouri—HEURIS, makers of the most widely used
professional MPEG encoding software, is pleased to announce that NASA has acquired several
copies of its recently released software encoder: MPEG Power Professional—DTV HD.
NASA has utilized the software to convert numerous stunning 2D & 3D animations as well
as manned space flight footage to HDTV format for playback in their popular Goddard Space
Flight Center Electronic Theater presentations. Ultimately, NASA plans to assemble these
animations and manned space flight footage into complete HDTV movies for display in their
Electronic Theater presentations.
The very popular Electronic Theater presentations are used for public outreach across
the US and around the world. The Goddard Space Flight Center estimates that audiences
comprised of up to 13,000 K-12 students, college students and the general public have
enjoyed the presentations.
In addition to playback in the large Electronic Theater presentations, The Goddard
Space Flight Center has worked closely with the Naval Research Lab (NRL) to present HDTV
footage on a laptop. The laptop is an Apple Power Book outfitted with a special graphics
card and a custom HDTV software player developed by the NRL. The laptop system allows NASA
to display their HDTV streams in an inexpensive and highly portable package.
The reason for conversion to HDTV format is simple—better quality. HDTV allows
NASA to display the materials at a much higher resolution than previously utilized digital
formats. Higher resolution means a clearer and better picture.
"I am very impressed with the gorgeous image quality produced by the MPEG Power
Professional—DTV HD software," said Fritz Hasler of the Goddard Space Flight
Center. "It looks absolutely beautiful and it’s so easy to use! I can encode
directly out of the timeline in Final Cut Pro."
NASA has integrated a HDTV production post production system utilizing an Apple G4
system, Pinnacle Cinewave Card and HEURIS’ MPEG Power Professional—DTV HD
encoding software. The NASA developers simply complete their edits in Apple Final Cut Pro,
then encode directly to HDTV format from the timeline. The entire system runs on a single
computer and costs under $50,000.
"MPEG Power Professional—DTV HD is extremely efficient," said Hasler.
"The software has cut a five day encode cycle down to overnight for a 10 min movie.
It also allows me to keep the whole process on a couple of Mac systems instead of
requiring moving from Mac to PC and back again."
This combination of cost-efficiency and simplicity has led NASA to
consider the HEURIS software for other applications. For example, the HEURIS MPEG Power
Professional—DTV HD software has been integrated into an extremely low-cost laptop
based HDTV editing system. Hasler expects to use this cost-effective and highly portable
system to assemble storyboards and rough cut HDTV movies in the field.
"HEURIS’ encoder will be used to test render critical sections
for viewing the next day," said Hasler. "I expect that fairly sophisticated
movies may be made on this laptop editing system with final touch-up to be done on a
real-time playback system."
Mr. Hasler reports that his experience with the HEURIS software has been extremely
positive. "It works great, and is extremely easy to use. HEURIS’ support team
has been very responsive and has rapidly helped me with any small problems I had. I
don’t hesitate to recommend it."
Pricing and Availability
MPEG Power Professional—DTV HD is currently available from HEURIS at a MSRP of
$8,700. For sales information, please contact HEURIS directly at 1-800-923-9232 or visit
www.heuris.com.
About HEURIS
Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, HEURIS has served as a leading manufacturer of video
compression and processing tools and applications for over a decade. From the Internet, to
DVD, to HDTV to Hollywood Movies--HEURIS has developed an impressive group of
award-winning tools for video production and post production applications.
Perhaps best known for its award-winning MPEG Power Professional Line of software
products, HEURIS has recently released two new products for the Hollywood Market: a
Digital Dailies solution developed in conjunction with partner Cohen Communications and
MPEG Power Professional—D-Cinema used to encode High Definition pictures for display
in movie theaters.
In addition to such major motion picture studios as MGM, HEURIS proudly includes the
following as its customers: NASA, Walt Disney, Sea World, Apple Computers, The Mirage
Hotel in Las Vegas, the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, Taco Bell Corporation, The Home
Depot, AT & T Labs, IBM, Boeing, Vanderbilt University, Boston Museum of Science and
the U.S. Military. More information about HEURIS Logic is available at www.heuris.com.
### |
