Aside from a brisk business year, Toronto-based program delivery company International Image is reporting the release of a new electronic alternative for producers formatting shows for the international marketplace.

International Image’s Image Plus is a proprietary system designed to electronically change the aspect ratio of tv programs and provide an alternative to multiple telecine transfers for the growing number of producers making product available to the format-variable international market.

International Image vp sales and marketing Dan McLellan says the system allows producers to deliver shows to international broadcasters who require not only a different standard in terms of pal or secam but also different aspect ratios, the onscreen dimensions of a show.

He also says delivering programs using the Image Plus system could mean a saving of about 50% compared to traditional methods.

‘To accommodate the different standards and aspect ratios of broadcasters, a producer formerly may have had to transfer film five or six times, but with this system the process requires the transfer to happen once – electronically,’ says McLellan. ‘And we can now create this system for about half of what they pay on a telecine system.’

International Image tested the Image Plus with client New Line in the u.s., using the New Line feature The Mask to compare the new system with current methods, and McLellan says the client found no discernible difference.

‘Image Plus will allow us to take a show on a 4:3 ntsc master and create a 16:9 pal master,’ he says, citing the increased usage by European broadcasters of PAL Plus, an essentially wide-screen tv format.

The system, which consists of adapted off-the-shelf and proprietary technologies, will initially be installed in International Image’s l.a. facility, which will service Canadian clients. Plans are to offer the service out of the Toronto office in the coming year.

McLellan says International Image has been filled to capacity, with the l.a. shop booked solid since early fall.

In other news, International Image will be hosting a conference in l.a. in April, dubbed the International Image Program Delivery Conference. The event, being staged April 5, the Saturday before the nab onslaught begins, is a gathering of Canadian and u.s. clients of the company and representatives from labs and facilities in North America and Europe. TI