cineSpace is a digital film calibration system designed by Rising Sun Research. It came under my attention because of Apple’s Color component of the Final Cut Studio 2 software suite. Using a GretagMacbeth or similar colorimeter, cineSpace allows users to match his display to any film output stock, and to other displays.

There are three types of profile that cineProfiler, which is part of cineSpace, will create: ramp profiles, cube profiles and synthetic profiles. The latter are generated by cineSpace in memory, and they are recommended when you want to specify a custom gamma and white point for the target profile. Cube profiles contain a full 3D cube of data sampled evenly throughout the device’s colour gamut. The ramp profile contains four 1D data ramps. Each profile has its own use and it depends on your equipment and the purpose of its use, which profile you’ll want to create.

Rising Sun Research makes a difference between several display types, but basically a display will or will not decouple. If it doesn’t decouple --and I’ll save you the technical details of what decoupling is; simply put, it means that when the R channel is changed, the two others don’t change as well. You can read all about decoupling on Rising Sun Research’s web site and in the excellent cineProfiler manual. You’ll use a 3D cube for a non-decoupling device because that’s the only way you’re going to make sure the display is properly characterised.

I tested cineProfiler by creating such a 3D cube for a LaCie photon20visionII monitor. In fact, I created two of them, as the application enables you to create a 3D cube in fast mode. The other mode only cares about accuracy. The quick cube enables users to create a profile with 1000 patches, which takes approximately 2 hours. A full quality 3D cube took over 5 hours for my monitor, and about 76 patches were marked as bad, and were automatically re-measured again. The resulting profile is not visible, or at least does not result in a profile like what we’re used to from ICC profiles. Hence, you cannot view them in ColorSync.

cineSpace is a professional solution for video-editing on a professional scale. That means you can actually profile a monitor using the colorimeter --or probe as it is called in cineSpace jargon-- with another machine. This allows you to profile all monitors throughout a facility using only one computer --e.g. a laptop-- and one cineSpace installation.

Such more advanced functionality doesn’t come without a cost, however. You will need to use the command line in the Terminal when you’re running Mac OS X or Linux to properly set up remote probing. cineSpace has more features that require the command line. For example, you can buy cineSpace including its cinePlugins. These plug-ins allow you to see accurate colours in environments such as Shake, FilmMaster, Nuke, etc.

Propagating Display Profiles to Other Monitors

cineSpace comes by default with equalEyes, an application that matches the display to a target device or medium such as film. For example, when you want to make your Cinema Display behave as if it were a PAL broadcast monitor or a Kodak type film, equalEyes will enable you to do so, with some very few limitations. If you’re planning to use equalEyes, a 1D ramp profile is needed. The application will then use its own built-in target profiles to match the display with that of the target.

cineSpace or at least cineProfiler is easy to use, but you must take your time. While the monitor is being profiled, you can keep on working, but only in a limited fashion: the centre screen holding the colorimeter stays on top and all other windows slide underneath, effectively allowing you to keep writing or whatever else you want to do. However, some applications --especially those used in the film and broadcast industries-- won’t let another application make their windows slide underneath the cineProfiler measuring window.

The results of the quick cube were noticeable in Color, Apple’s new Final Cut Studio component, but only slightly. I don’t think that’s cineSpace’s fault. Colour accuracy in a video or film environment is just much more complex than it is in a printer’s world, and therefore I cannot vouch for not having done the whole process as it is supposed to have been done.

I wanted to check my cube by creating a second one, a full one, this time. However, this took well over 5 hours on a Mac Pro Quad 3GHz, and I had to abort after 5 and a half hours elapsed. I do believe that Rising Sun Research is one of the industry leaders in this area of colour management. Leaders can ghave it wrong, of course, but I don’t think that’s the case with Rising Sun Research. If they would be, they would be out of business fast. Instead, Rising Sun Research is announcing integration of cineSpace with da Vinci systems and Tippett Studio choosing cineSpace for their colour management needs.

The cineProfiler application also comes with test images, so you can see for yourself how well the profile describes the display characteristics, and what I saw was an almost perfect result on an old monitor. Pricing for cineSpace starts at 1,000.00 USD for a basic cineSpace license package, although this can vary depending upon your needs. Additional licenses are discounted based on volume and most licenses are floating and cross-platform.