Mumbai: Adobe Systems Incorporated announced that it plans to lead an initiative to define an industry-wide open file format for digital cinema files to streamline workflows and help ensure easy archiving and exchange.
 
Adobe intends to leverage its successful Digital Negative Specification (DNG) file format as a foundation, and plans to work with a broad coalition of leading camera manufacturers including Panavision, Silicon Imaging, Dalsa, Weisscam, and ARRI — along with software vendors, including Iridas and The Foundry, and codec provider CineForm — to define the requirements for an open, publicly documented file format that it plans to call CinemaDNG.
 
Adobe is currently working to develop the requirements of the CinemaDNG workflow and intends to subsequently publish a specification for the file format based on collaboration with companies throughout the industry.
 
"With the CinemaDNG initiative, Adobe is extending its leadership in developing open, interchangeable formats for digital still cameras into the realm of digital cinematography," said Dynamic Media at Adobe vice president Jim Guerard.
 
"By taking a proactive role and working collaboratively with leading digital cinema manufacturers, Adobe is helping to define an industry-standard approach that benefits the entire filmmaking ecosystem. Filmmakers will be able to adopt digital cinema cameras with confidence, and camera manufacturers will be able to provide specialized functionality while ensuring instant file format compatibility with existing workflows."
 
Many filmmakers are foregoing film in favor of digital cinema cameras and workflows that offer improved creative flexibility, lower costs, and significantly faster turnaround times. However, those new workflows involve complex hardware and software, with projects passing through multiple vendors along the production pipeline.
 
The proliferation of disparate, vendor-specific raw file formats has the potential to erode some of the advantages of digital cinema. By proactively leading the development of an open, public, and enduring standard that can be adopted throughout the production pipeline, Adobe and other companies through the CinemaDNG initiative are helping to solve an important, emerging workflow issue.