| Print | |  Email

Drastic Corporate Profile

Drastic Technologies Ltd, founded in 1991, is a proven industry provider of products for digital video capture, control, conversion and delivery. These products are sold as integrated hardware solutions as well as end user and OEM software components.

Strengths

Drastic’s strength lies in its modular, field proven, core technologies for the manipulation of digital video and audio. Key software components include: RS-422 serial control, VTR/Server Serial Emulation, real-time production HD-SDI I/O and high speed media file conversions. All of Drastic's technologies use open, industry standard formats and protocols. This allows simple and seamless integration with other software, SAN/NAS and local file systems as well as traditional production and broadcast equipment.

From these core components, Drastic builds a variety of products, including:

  • The Titan Series production/broadcast Digital Disk Recorders with full VTR and Server capabilities
  • MediaNXS capture/control/conversion/playback software for AJA and Bluefish hardware
  • MediaReactor real-time and offline file translation software
  • DrasticPreview software for real time viewing of audio/video sequences up to 4K
  • OEM/SDK of selected technologies including VTR control, file reading/translation and previewing

Current Products

Titan Series

The Titan Series digital disk recorders are Drastic's third generation of digital disk recorders for video capture, control, conversion and delivery. The Titan Series is available in uncompressed SD/HD/2K in 8/10 bits YCbCr or RGB, in single or multiple channel configurations, and includes VTR Emulation and Serial Control support, wide previewing capabilities, import/export file transcoding, an editable/exportable timeline and much more.

MediaNXS

MediaNXS software provides a subset of the Titans’ DDR functionality for the user of specific digital video hardware. MediaNXS software is available for (uncompressed) AJA SD / HD, Bluefish444 SD/ HD, and as a resolution-independent VGA/DVI system. Features include signal display and measurement, capture/playback, control over external VTRs, import/export file transcoding.

MediaReactor

MediaReactor file conversion software allows the user to convert between dozens of digital media file types including streaming video files, high quality still image/ graphic and audio file types. Features include batch processing, an aggressive preview app, and support for a wide range of industry-crucial file types.

DrasticPreview

DrasticPreview is a skinnable VGA screen media player which allows the user to view a wide variety of file types via VGA/DVI output. It also displays a wealth of metadata and real-time information about the media file including time code, file type/codec, file name, Reel ID, Composer etc. The user is able to browse for saved digital media clips for individual viewing, compose play lists for sequenced clip playback, and run or save to disk for later review.

Drastic SDKs

Drastic Software Developer Kits offer a range of tools for the developer of custom video and audio capture, control and playback applications. Specific SDK packages include:

  • MediaReactor SDK - build MediaReactor file conversion into your application.
  • DTMediaRead SDK - Build MediaReactor file import into your application.
  • Drastic DDR SDK - Build digital disk recorder functionality into your application.
  • MediaCmd Control SDK - Control external VTRs and DDRs from your application.
  • MediaCmd Emulation SDK - Allow your application to be controlled via RS-422 as a serial device.
  • DrasticPreview SDK - View broadcast and production file types from your application

Customers

A few of the well respected facilities across North America and internationally we are proud to list as customers are:

  • Technicolor (US, Europe and Canada )
  • ByDeluxe (US, Europe and Canada )
  • Thomson/Grassvalley ( Europe )
  • Glassworks
  • Arri
  • Warner Bros
  • Fox
  • CBS
  • BBC
  • Univision
  • RTL
  • Philips/Luxoom
  • Alcatel
  • BWM/ICTIRT (European Standards Group)
  • ST Micro
  • Microsoft Studios

Some of our OEM relationships include:

  • SGI
  • VideoBank
  • Bright Systems
  • Microsoft Studios

Locations and Resellers

Drastic’s head office is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Drastic Technologies Ltd. has resellers and distributors operating in the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, and Asia.