“We are known for staying on the forefront of emerging technologies,” Geoff Mills, managing director at SGO told The Broadcast Bridge, “and what we are going to be showing at IBC is quite exciting. To begin with, we’ll have a new version of Unicolour that let’s you cross-convert between different color gamuts and transfer curves and provide a graded master in ST2084, ITU-BT 2100, HLG1000, HLG2000, HLG4000, and ITU-BT 2100 PQ.”

They have also introduced a new, more intuitive HDR-specific grading curve in vers. 8.7 and at IBC they will be showing an HDR image and a standard definition pictures side-by-side on a Canon DP-V 3010 4K SDR reference display monitor next to a Canon prototype 4K HDR display so viewers can see the difference as operators grade for HDR in real time.

“We are also focusing on Virtual reality finishing,” Mills continued. “This is building on our 3D capabilities to form the Immersive Reality Toolset. This includes the ability to stream VR to multiple headsets such as the Samsung GEAR VR in real time, which is going to prove invaluable for the evaluation process when finishing VR projects.”

Version 8.7 of Mistika will enable users to import and link a growing assortment of client provided AAF, EDL, and XML timelines to their original media thanks to new smart filters and matching tools. And visitors to the SGO booth at IBC will be able to witness a range of Keyers enabled by version 8.7 including the 3D keyer, RGB keyer and improved HSL keyer.

 For HDR grading work outside of the standard 0-100% luminance range, they will have access to Mistika’s signature 4th ball highlight recovery tool, HDR mode, and expanded HDR range sliders.

“This new release of vers 8.7 software is designed to keep Mistika on the high end of our industry,” Mills said. “That gives our customers a competitive edge. Some in our business are racing to the bottom of the bottom line and that’s fine, but we are determined to provide the features that define the highest edge of performance and, most importantly, our relationship with our vendors and customers.”

That’s probably one reason on August 18^th it was announced that SGO’s Mistika was one of the recipients of the Hollywood Professional Association (HPA)’s 2016 HPA Engineering Excellence Awards for “enabling new levels of creative power, performance and workflow efficiency.”