- Lowry Digital
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Lowry Digital 
Industry Film restoration Founded 1988 Headquarters Burbank, California
USAKey people John D. Lowry, founder
Michael Inchalik, PresidentParent Reliance MediaWorks Ltd Website www.lowrydigital.com Lowry Digital is a digital film restoration company based in Burbank, California. It is part of India's Reliance Big Entertainment, which is part of the Reliance ADA Group.
John Lowry gained industry recognition in 1971 for his computer-based proprietary algorithms used in the restoration of the NASA Apollo missions 16 and 17 films.[1] As of December 15, 2006, Lowry Digital has 700 Apple Power Mac G5s, a server bay with 700 terabytes of storage and two $300,000 digital motion picture film scanners. The company is becoming increasingly involved in work on digital 3-D films, such as U2 3D and Journey to the Center of the Earth 3-D.[2] Reliance MediaWorks (formerly known as Lowry Digital) was instrumental in adapting existing technology and developing new image processing techniques that set a new standard for 3-D in the landmark film Avatar. The Burbank, California subsidiary was lauded in helping Avatar — the highest grossing film in history — to earn its Academy Awards for technical achievement.[3]
Lowry describes the restoration process as overcoming three obstacles: wear and tear, age, and multiple generations of optical copies. Each frame is scanned into a high-resolution digital format, where the computer first checks for standard problems like size alterations or jitter. Then the files go through the lab's render farm for speck removal, which is then eye-checked frame-by-frame. The system works natively in 32-bit floating point, can process any format like HD and 4K, and outputs to a pristine digital master.Lowry Digital’s advanced digital image processing is also used to minimize grain in image quality without losing any quality, even in modern major motion-picture releases like Miami Vice and Zodiac.[4]
On 16 July 2009, in time for the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, NASA tasked Lowry Digital to restore original video footage of the missing Apollo moon landing tapes. At a cost of $230,000 the refurbishing effort is only three weeks into a monthslong project, with about 40 percent of the work completed. Lowry president Mike Inchalik commented that the video "is by far and away the lowest quality," the company has dealt with.[5]
Contents
History
It was founded as Lowry Digital Images in 1988 by John D. Lowry. The company was known as DTS Digital Images while it was owned by digital audio company DTS from 2005–2008.[6] The company changed its name to Lowry Digital in April 2008, when it was acquired by India's Reliance Big Entertainment, which is part of the Reliance ADA Group, owned by Anil Ambani.[7][8] In 2010 Lowry Digital's name was changed to Reliance MediaWorks to bring the brand in unity with AdLabs Films, an Indian film and media services company, whose name in September 2009 was also changed to Reliance Mediaworks Ltd.[9]
Films that Lowry Digital has worked on
See also
- Apollo 11 missing tapes
References
- ^ Cellini, Joe. "John D. Lowry, Restoration Software". Apple Inc.. http://www.apple.com/ca/pro/film/lowry/. Retrieved 2008-09-23.
- ^ "DTS Digital Images Fine Tunes Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D for Upcoming Summer 2008 Release". Business Wire (Reuters). 2008-03-26. http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS108017+26-Mar-2008+BW20080326. Retrieved 2008-08-04.
- ^ "‘Avatar’ producer lauds Reliance MediaWorks for its Oscar". Reliance – Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. 2010-03-08. http://blog.taragana.com/e/2010/03/08/avatar-producer-lauds-reliance-mediaworks-for-its-oscar-98348/. Retrieved 2010-03-08.
- ^ http://www.lowrydigital.com/noise.html
- ^ http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090716/ap_on_sc/us_sci_moon_video
- ^ "DTS Extends Business With Lowry Digital Images Acquisition". 2005-01-18. http://mixonline.com/mixline/DTS-Lowry-Digital/. Retrieved 2008-08-04.
- ^ "Reliance Big Entertainment acquires Digital Images Business of DTS Inc.". Reliance – Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. 2008-04-09. http://www.relianceadagroup.com/adportal/ADA/media/Reliance_Big_Entertainment.html. Retrieved 2008-08-04.[dead link]
- ^ "DTS Sells Digital Images Business to Reliance Big Entertainment". TradingMarkets. 2008-04-08. http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1329907/. Retrieved 2008-08-04.
- ^ "Adlabs Films to be renamed Reliance MediaWorks". Reliance – Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. 2009-09-04. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/business/india-business/Adlabs-Films-to-be-renamed-Reliance-MediaWorks/articleshow/4971690.cms. Retrieved 2009-09-04.
External links
- Lowry Digital official website
- Lowry Digital at the Internet Movie Database
- Interview with John Lowry at http://www.TheBIGPictureDVD.com
- John Lowry on Restoration Software and Restoring Indiana Jones at http://www.apple.com
- John Lowry Discussing Restoring Star Wars at http://www.starwars.com
- John Lowry Discussing Restoring Star Wars at http://www.apple.com
- Analysis of the change of ownership from DTS to Reliance at http://www.dnaindia.com
- Inside Lowry Digital Image's Restoration Pipeline at http://www.studiodaily.com
Companies Reliance Communications · Reliance Capital · Reliance Power · Reliance Infrastructure · BIG Entertainment · BIGFlix · BIG FM 92.7 · BIG TV · BIG Cinemas · BIGADDA · BIG Star Entertainment Awards · Reliance Health · Reliance Life Insurance · Reliance MediaWorks · Big CBS Prime · Big CBS Spark · Big CBS Love · Reliance Natural Resources · Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group · Zapak · Reliance General Insurance · Reliance World · Mumbai Metro One · Reliance Venture · Delhi Airport Metro Express · Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe · Java GreenNotable non-Indian Companies Technological Institute Notable People Categories:- Film preservation
- Companies established in 1988
- Media companies of the United States
- Companies based in California
- Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group
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