Colorfront demonstrated mastering workflows with its own HDR Cinema Tools alongside HDR projection systems from Christie and Barco, advancing viewing quality and preserving creative intent
Colorfront came to CineEurope 2025, the official annual convention of the International Union of Cinemas (UNIC), to show its recent innovations 16–19 June at the Barcelona International Convention Centre (CCIB), Spain.
A recognised developer of cinema mastering, transcoding and streaming technologies, Colorfront showed its HDR Cinema Tools’ support for mastering workflows that comply with all major cinema HDR specifications. These include the recent standards from Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI), which develops specifications and practices for interoperability, quality and security in the cinema industry. All of these standards help filmmakers and exhibitors accurately preserve and reproduce original creative intent across multiple cinema deliverables.
HDR Cinema Tools
The HDR Cinema Tools, announced at IBC 2024, are used to guarantee colour accuracy, helping to avoid workarounds and opening opportunities for users to work with emerging industry standards that speed up workflows and improve efficiency.
Among the new tools is SDR to Dolby Vision round-tripping, which transitions SDR to Dolby Vision HDR and produces unique Dolby Vision XML metadata, guaranteeing that the Dolby-derived SDR output visually matches the original SDR content. It gives content owners a unified, single-source workflow for mastering and distribution.
In a similar way, the DCI to Dolby Vision tool in Transkoder transforms XYZ cinema master content, designed for 48-nit theatrical display, into Dolby Vision HDR for home video, simultaneously producing a Dolby Vision master with corresponding metadata.
Due to the many new projectors and other devices for HDR cinema display, tools that can efficiently produce additional deliverables without prolonging the colour grade are now in demand. Regardless of the main grade, the new HDR Cinema Delivery tool manages the conversions for any further cinema deliverables. As mentioned, Colorfront also supports the DCI’s new specifications for High Dynamic Range D-Cinema, which means HDR DCPs created in Colorfront’s Transkoder meet the DCI standard for HDR content.
With the HDR Roll-off tool, users can roll-off the highlights in HDR content using controls to manage peak luminance and the softness of the roll-off curve. HDR Harmony corrects overly-bright, saturated or out-of-spec HDR content and protects against colour artifacts and highlight clipping. The Broadcast Converter’s optimised controls manage broadcast-based display-referred conversions between SDR, HDR PQ and HDR HLG, with softness control for SDR source images and support for BT2408.
In the HDR Brightness Guard, users can identify shots in their timeline that may contain large blocks of overly-bright highlights, such as large titles, by setting the brightness warning to a custom nit value. Finally, Transkoder’s Subtitle Detection tool helps convert from SDR to HDR, when burned-in subtitles may appear much brighter than desired in HDR. Users can detect the subtitles and adjust their brightness independently of the background.
All of these new HDR Cinema Tools run on the Colorfront Engine, a colour processing system and colour-volume remapper that uses human visual perception to master content for multiple displays while maintaining the original creative intent. This same engine is used in Colorfront’s Transkoder, On-Set Dailies and Express Dailies software.
ICTA Panel Session and Demonstrations
Colorfront participated in the International Cinema Technology Association’s (ICTA) Barcelona Cinema Technology Summit on 15 June. Bill Feightner, Colorfront CTO and a recognised HDR cinema expert, joined a panel discussion titled Extended, Variable & High Dynamic Range Solutions: Exhibitor and Distributor Perspectives at The Phenomena Experience. This session explored critical operational considerations, market opportunities and future trends in HDR cinema adoption.
CineEurope attendees saw live demonstrations of Colorfront’s integration with several different HDR projection technologies. With Christie, Colorfront demonstrated split-screen side-by-side comparisons of Standard Dynamic Range (SDR) versus Christie’s Variable Dynamic Range (VDR). Using VDR, projectors are able to analyze each video frame as it arrives, in real-time, and compute and modify the output laser power as needed for that frame. Content is optimised for contrast, black-level detail and power savings, while the original creative intent is retained.
This demonstration was performed on the Sony BVM-HX3110 mastering monitor, recognised as one of the top reference displays for critical HDR evaluations. One of the demo’s goals was to highlight the visual enhancements achievable through Colorfront HDR Cinema Tools and Christie VDR laser projection, without specialized mastering requirements.
Compliance testing at DCI
With Barco, Colorfront presented a demonstration titled Barco HDR Mastering: Efficient Workflows For Consistent Creative Intent Across Formats. This HDR cinema mastering workflow, featuring Colorfront Transkoder integrated with Barco’s HDR Light Steering projection system and HDR Lightbox, emphasises efficient HDR mastering to achieve consistent creative outcomes across various formats. It was presented earlier this year at SMPTE’s Future Of Cinema event during NAB 2025.
Also about using light more efficiently, HDR Light Steering applies algorithms to direct the light from the projector to the parts of the frame that require it the most, and remove light where it isn’t desirable. The result is not only a brighter image but also greater contrast and improved black levels.
Sketch
CineEurope attendees also had the chance to see Angel Studios’ screening of Sketch from Seth Worley, ahead of its release. It was the first feature presented at CineEurope in HDR by Barco. The screening took advantage of the visual capabilities of Barco’s HDR Light Steering technique.
“As HDR continues to redefine premium cinema experiences globally, Colorfront remains dedicated to providing filmmakers and exhibitors with sophisticated, easy-to-integrate tools that maintain consistent creative vision and superior image quality across all cinema formats,” said Aron Jaszberenyi, Managing Director of Colorfront. “The demos at CineEurope 2025 were a great opportunity to show how efficient HDR mastering solutions can elevate audience engagement and creative fidelity.” colorfront.com
