Assimilate Inc

If you’re a DIT or video engineer creating production dailies for a feature film or episodic TV show, SCRATCH Lab is the workflow tool for you. SCRATCH Lab is hands down, the industry's most powerful end-to-end dailies system. First and foremost, SCRATCH Lab is the fastest way to meet even the toughest dailies deadlines. Featuring real-time playback and review of media up to 5K resolutions, highly advanced metadata and LUT handling, sophisticated audio sync and wicked fast background rendering, SCRATCH Lab delivers your dailies faster and more efficiently than any other tool at any other price. Period.

Lab can mix any resolution, colorspace and format- such as RED (including Epic 5K), ALEXA ARRIRAW and DSLR’s like Cannon 5/7D and GoPro. And Lab can simultaneously output to any popular deliverable format – including DPX, DNxHD MFX and ProRes- while rendering completely in the background. This means that you can load and work on your next shot right away- without the need to wait for the render to finish. Of course, SCRATCH Lab also offers full stereo/3D support, controls for image and convergence adjustments with full dual stream playback.

SCRATCH Lab benefits:

SCRATCH Lab is fast.
Either on-set, or in VFX, SCRATCH Lab delivers the performance you need to hit the tightest deadlines.

• Review, QC and playback full resolution shots in real time
• Automatically sync audio to timecode or clap, or slip visually to waveform
• Seamlessly create and manage Looks and LUTs
• Render simultaneous deliverables completely in the background - while you continue to work

More camera formats than anyone else.
SCRATCH Lab’s unique CONstruct™ view of your shots supports side-by-side loading of any camera format at any resolution or colorspace - even mix 2D and Stereo/3D. Organize jobs and set looks - including sophisticated color grades. Try an unlimited number of versions without the need to ever render. In addition, SCRATCH Lab’s multilayer timeline supports even the most intricate EDL’s including AAF and FCP XML conforms.

Unrivaled shot, timecode and metadata management.
SCRATCH Lab allows you to seamlessly manage an unlimited number of takes, plates and units from a shot on a single timeline. Unique timecode options can sync timecode from multiple cameras and even create timecode for cameras that don’t support it (such as the Cannon 5/7D or the GoPro). Meanwhile, powerful metadata handling carries scene, take, audio, even stereo convergence information through the entire project. Lab can even capture metadata automatically from broadcast wave audio files. This unparalleled level of management saves huge amounts of time in review.

Powerful QC and Look management.  
Lab is built on world-class primary color grading tools that allow artists, DPs and Directors to collaborate in real-time to set looks and create LUTs. Of course Lab can also instantly apply 1D or 3D pre-created LUTs. Meanwhile Lab’s unlimited versions allow instant side-by-side comparisons of your different looks or color grades, keeping the creative process flowing smoothly.

One-of-a-kind creative review tools.  
Only SCRATCH Lab elevates the creative process by offering an innovative “sticky notes” feature that allows any reviewer to add pertinent information about any file so that anyone, at any stage of the process, can open the file and read the comment. Moreover, full HMTL support allows reviews to happen in your theater or anywhere in the world.

Wicked-fast, background output rendering. 
SCRATCH Lab is fully GPU-accelerated, so it renders up to 52 FPS- a full 60% faster than its closest competitor. Meanwhile, you no longer have to wait for a render to finish before you continue working. Lab can load and process the next shot while it renders any number of nodes seamlessly in the background. Lab supports all popular deliverable formats from DNxHD, DPX, or Open EXR to any variety of QuickTime (including ProRes), with our without burn-ins. Best of all, Lab hugely streamlines your deliverables process by building templates of all your output preferences that you can easily recall whenever you need them. All this makes Lab the most productive tool on the market for producing dailies. Period.

SCRATCH Lab means digital.  
ASSIMILATE was the first DI partner to natively support RED, so it’s no surprise that Lab is the most mature, reliable tool you can buy for any digital workflow, from GoPro to Alexa to F65 to EPIC. Period.

SCRATCH Lab features include:

Real-time full resolution, native playback of all popular camera formats

• REDCODE RAW.r3d with support for dual RED Rocket cards
• Support for the latest RED color science
• Support for RED EPIC HDRx (including Magic Motion and Simple Blend)
• REDCINE and on-camera color settings can be read and manipulated within SCRATCH and augmented using SCRATCH’s powerful color tools
• ARRI RAW
• Phantom
• Panasonic P2/MXF and AVCHD
• SI2K
• Canon 5D
• GoPro
• Sony F65

For a complete list of supported formats click here

State of the art metadata and timecode support

• Sync timecode from multiple cameras (including stereo) with a unique “Match Timecode” function. Stack cameras into a single slot, then automatically sync the timecode all of cameras to one of them.
• Generate dailies by automatically naming clips based on any metadata field, including camroll, scene and take.
• Create flash burns either at the top and tail of a clip, or throughout its duration.
• Capture scene and take metadata automatically from broadcast wave audio files.
• Automatically generate new timecode for DSLR cameras such as the Phantom, Cannon 5D/7D and GoPro that don’t support it. Easily increment the timecode with each slot and even skip by user-defined intervals.
• Populate Avid AAF files with extended metadata, avoiding the double pass to access that ALE files required. This effectively removes the need for separate ALEs.

World-class Color Grading

• Real-time, non-destructive primary grading
• Heads-up color grading interface and support for Avid Artist Color series or all Tangent panels - including the Element
• Source-side adjustments for mixed color space workflows
• Match and auto grading
• Integrated Histogram, Waveform, Vectorscope and Color Curve views
• Group shots, copy/paste color grades and reference libraries
• Key frames and animation curves
• Import and save 1D and 3D LUTs based on primary color grades
• Import or export CDL

Advanced Audio Sync

• BWAV support
• Sync on TC
• Auto-sync to Clapper
• Interactive Waveform for sync
• Interactive Audio Scrub

Flexibility and Extensibility

• Automate SCRATCH Lab via XML to maximize productivity
• Extend SCRATCH Lab via HTML for remote review and comments
• Integrate SCRATCH Lab with other applications in your workflow via XML
• Enhance SCRATCH Lab via our OFX plug-in architecture
• Built-in SQL database supports a full range of metadata
• Automate deliverables by designing templates based on output format, metadata and LUTs/grades

High-Speed Conform and Confidence Checking

• Mix-and-match RED.r3d files with ARRI RAW or Phantom (or any other media format recognized by SCRATCH), even Canon DSLR, within the same resolution-independent timeline
• Dual-View, Half-Mix and Side-by-Side comparison options
• Quick Keys for moving through a timeline
• AAF import and MXF integration
• FCP XML import
• DNxHD and ProRes Read and Write (ProRes write only on Mac OS)
• Export TIFF with timecode and metadata
• Import and export ALE
• Shot log metadata import
• Metadata search
• Stereoscopic versioning
• CDL support
• Output to multiple file formats such as DPX, DNxHD, ProRes (Mac OS version only) Tiff, JPG, QuickTime and more
• Quick visual sync of audio to waveform or by timecode
• Multilayer timeline

Deliverables

• Avid DNxHD as MXF or QuickTime
• QuickTime (MPEG4, TIFF, JPEG, etc)
• ProRes 422 and 444 (Mac version only)
• DPX
• Real-time tools for frame-rate conversion, image-resolution scaling and frame-accuracy to monitors, projectors and tape decks using both DVI and SDI interfaces
• Create deliverables in different resolutions, image formats and framing, all from a single source and output multiple targets simultaneously
• Queue and manage outputs for unattended batch processing
• Export metadata in a variety of formats, even add notes to shots and include them in XML or MXF files

Stereo Workflow

• Real-time, resolution independent playback to all stereoscopic delivery systems
• Side by side
• Over/under
• Line interleave
• Checkerboard
• Anaglyph
• Check and adjust stereo with dedicated link and convergence controls
• Immediately review decisions in stereo
• Panasonic stereo camera support includes auto de-muxing of stereo streams