Gamma Ray Digital, Inc.

We have scanned quite a few of the films in Tommy José Stathes collection over the past couple years. Nice to see this article in the Times!

You Need Felix the Cat? Early Popeye? Talk to the King of Silent Animation. Tommy José Stathes might have the largest collection of vintage animated films in the world stuffed into a storage unit in Queens.

Inching closer. This simple test application is now capturing frames. Still haven't had time fix the weird reflections on the side, but that'll be easy. The priority right now is getting the camera interface wrapped up so that code can be moved into the main application.

At this stage, we can move the film, we can control the lights, and we can take images of the film. And as of today, we can set any parameter on the camera or frame grabber board from software. So next up is finishing the camera code then moving on to frame registration and auto-focus. By then, we'll pretty much have a scanner.

16mm kinescope film that we scanned, graded, and digitally restored for the Harvard Math Department earlier this year.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CwnF8Emup02/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

It was a business-as-usual day in the fall of 2022 when a small but meaningful piece of department history was unearthed while cleaning out a third- floor office in the Harvard Science Center. A heavy, brown case sat innocuously on a shelf, safekeeping a 16mm black-and-white film shot in 1966. On it, Harvard professor emeritus Andrew Gleason gives an hour-long lecture about nim—a mathematical game of strategy in which two players take turns removing objects from distinct heaps or piles—and other oriented-graph games. More than a recording of an old lecture, the film is a time capsule. Frame by frame, it brings to life a mathematician who left an indelible mark on our department, made fundamental contributions to widely varied areas of mathematics, and was a leader in reform and innovation in mathematical pedagogy at all levels of education. . Go to math.harvard.edu for the full story. . #harvardmath #mathhistory #history #harvard #harvardhistory #nim #maa #math #mathematics #andrewgleason #gleason #film #filmreel

So hey, it's been a while! We're mostly posting on instagram now that facebook has made it a giant pain in the butt to manage. In any case, quick update on things:

The giant HVAC compressor on the roof (mostly) died and it took a few weeks for the landlord to decide to simply replace it with separate systems for each unit. Meanwhile we've been using portable AC units to keep the temp and humidity stable.

Separate systems for each office is the right move but it’s a little invasive. Step 1 is building a closet for the new air handler, which started today.

Once step two begins we will be closed for 2-3 days (but here to accept packages) while they tear apart the ceiling and run new duct work.

At least the volcano in Iceland started back up. Entertainment while trapped in the office listening to the soothing buzz of an oscillating saw.

I am hopeful they’re going to move that ceiling light but you know, not that hopeful.

After years of trying to get this thing moving properly, we just finished a remote tuning session with the motor manufacturer, and have things going the way we want. We have completely redone the firmware in our controller, added a second controller (one for transport and one for imaging controls like the camera/lens positions and the LED control), and we've got a basic test application that's almost fully functional. Today's goal was to dial in the capstan motor to get it to move the film smoothly.

What you see in the video is a combination of our software (the dark-themed app) maintaining tension on the film while the motor manufacturer's software generates repeated motion with the capstan. The red line in the scopes shows the velocity, the blue shows the error rate. The goal is to get the blue to settle by the time the red line is flat, because that's where we take the image. While this isn't moving as fast as we will eventually move it, it's fast enough for testing.

On to more software work over the next several weeks.

Sasquatch is alive! After a very helpful remot motor tuning session with teknic, we now have the transport moving smoothly and settling into position without jitter at the end o...

It took some doing but we managed to get Sasquatch around the corner, through the door, and into the workshop space. Which we had to completely re-arrange to make room, because that thing is a monster.

It's a bit of a mess in there, but we're just about ready to get back to work on it, now that almost everything else in the office is set up and running.

Yes, the window is a weird touch. This one looks in from an interior room with no windows of its own. Why? Anyone's guess. This office is full of this kind of "charming" architectural detail.

Things are coming together. We have all the racks in place for the audio and video decks. We're starting to put the big 4 and 5 unit 1/2" tape decks into the racks now, and will be wiring it all up next week. Speaking of wiring, the funky cable that came with the Nagra needed attention. Yesterday we got the workbech back up and running so today was cable making day. We start capturing a box of old nagra tapes next week, as soon as the new 10G fiber optic hardware arrives and we can get the old macs on the SAN.

All the audio gear is racked except for the Nagra. Waiting on a full extension rack shelf for that, which will be here next week. Did we mention we can capture 1/4” tape? From left to right, top to bottom:

-Magnatech 16mm/35mm reproducer (up to 6 track 35)
-Otari MX5050 4-track 1/4”
-Technics/Super8Sound Super8 full coat reader
-Teac 3340S Quad 1/4” (for an upcoming project)
-Presonus AudioBox interface
-Tascam DA-98 8-track DTRS deck
-Behringer/Midas X32 Rack interface
-Tascam DA-30 DAT
-Tascam DA-60mkII DAT (Timecode)
-Nagra IV-L (soon)
-old macs that will never die

We'll be racking the video gear next week, and then comes the tedious task of wiring everything. Hopefully we can re-use most of what we had in Allston, but there will be a fair bit of custom wiring happening as well.

Picture #2: we’d be remiss if we didn’t have a nap room in the new office. Not shown opposite the nap couch: the workstation with SDI video drop, so we have an extra seat for conforming or other non color-critical tasks. Mostly though, this room is for naps.

We're still getting non-scanner stuff hooked up. The network is mostly done, and today we racked the storage systems. Probably about 600lbs of servers right there.

We've upgraded our storage density a little bit. Those Dell servers on the bottom will come online once we've got everything else up and running, and we'll migrate our SAN to those at that time. The old SAN is the two sets of drives on top. Need to get that back up and running first, then we can start moving things around.

We are ready to scan, starting tomorrow!

The scanner is completely self-contained and doesn't require our high speed network storage, so we're ready to start rolling film through it after a weekend of moving and setup.

Working on the network and servers today, and we're hoping to have that all back online in a few days. Today, though, we're pulling new Cat6 and Coax to the rooms that need it, and getting some of the basic network hardware racked and powered up.

15 years ago we moved from a sublet in Fort Point Channel to a thriving artists building in Allston. We’ve seen a lot of change at 119 Braintree St over the years but today was a tough one. Allston is a different place now and it’s kind of sad to say goodbye but it is what it is.

Almost everything is in Newton now. We got the scanstation assembled and we’ll be testing it and calibrating tomorrow.

We kept the same wall color scheme in the new office so it feels familiar even though it’s all new

We couldn’t have done this without Michael's Moving & Storage - they did an amazing job today and hauled thousands of pounds of insanely heavy equipment super carefully and for that we’re grateful.

We should be partially up and running on Tuesday. We’ll post some glamor shots of the new space once we’ve unpacked and set stuff up.

Special thanks to Benn and Adam for the help today!

Soon, we'll be able to offer file delivery via download for much bigger files than we can now. It was a bit of a process getting this installed, but as of this morning it's up and running.

We are moving next week, January 14. Our new address is:

Gamma Ray Digital, Inc.
288 Walnut St, Suite 105
Newton, MA 02460

Our phone number will be the same. If you're sending anything to us for scanning, please make sure it arrives before January 12. Anything arriving after the 12th should go to the address above. If it comes to our current office in Allston after that date, it will be safe (our building management will hold onto it in a secure location until we pick it up).

Scanning operations will stop on the 12th for a few days and we should be back up and running on the 17th, followed by other services the week after.

In other news, we made a valiant effort (IMHO) to try to place gear with homes that could use it, and we did manage to get rid of a *lot*. But there were just no takers for some of this stuff. This morning, we have an IT recycling company coming over to take what's left. Best guess is that when this gear was all new, it was probably worth about $750k, combined? Now you can't give it away.

As you can see, our basement storage space still has quite a bit of stuff we're bringing along with us but that is way emptier than it was just a few weeks ago!

Sneak preview of the video and audio rack setup in our new office.

We're trying to clear some stuff out before we move. We have boxes of brand new blank videotape. All SD tape: BetaSP, Digibeta, DVCAM, and more. All of it has to go - If you know someone (or better, a school or nonprofit) that could use these, hit us up. They're going to get recycled if not so we're getting rid of them for free. There are more than 100 tapes.

The catch: you've gotta take 'em all and you have to come get them or arrange for someone to pick them up, at our current office in Allston MA. They're boxed up and easy to move but it will fill your trunk for certain. These pictures are just some of what we have. There are a *lot* of tapes, and in more formats.

We're Moving!

If we've chatted in the past year or so, then you likely know that the building Gamma Ray Digital has been in since 2007 is being redeveloped to make way for shiny new life sciences lab space. We have been actively looking to buy, and then rent a space, for what seems like an eternity. It's a long story involving shady realtors, deadline-averse contractors, poker playing lawyers, and ultimately, just bad timing during a crazy commercial real estate market.

After 15 years at 119 Braintree Street, we're moving just up the road to a cool old renovated church in Newton.

Our new office is just as convenient off the Mass Pike, with plenty of parking in the area -- and walking distance to good coffee, too. The new office is larger with a better layout, giving us more space to work on projects like our Sasquatch 70mm scanner, and to separate different functions into discrete spaces. And it's quieter. It is, after all, a former church.

The tentative move date is January 15, 2023. We will send out another email before the move with the exact date, the new address, and more information.

In the mean time, we expect to be conducting (most) business as usual right up until the move:

FILM SCANNING:
There will be no appreciable downtime for film scanning. We will be accepting orders at our current Braintree St location right up until the day before we move. We will be back to scanning the first business day after the move.

COLOR CORRECTION:
We have an off-site color correction studio that was set up during the COVID pandemic, so like scanning, we expect minimal downtime except for a week on either side of the move date.

RESTORATION:
Our Phoenix restoration system will remain online until the week before the move, and will likely be offline for about a week afterward.

VIDEO & AUDIO TAPE CAPTURE:
Most of our racks of tape decks have been pulled down already to get the decks ready for the move. If you have a tape capture job in the next few weeks, let us know because we left the core of our capture system online and can plug in individual decks as needed.

If you are planning to send us work in December, we are here and ready to help! But please contact us first to make arrangements. The office will be staffed through the entire month, but we'll also be packing and disconnecting stuff, so a little coordination may be necessary and things may take an extra day or two to complete.

One final note: as we prepare for the move, we are going to be contacting clients who have materials here that need to be returned. Look out for a separate email from us if your film, tape, or old hard drives are still here from a past project.

Stay tuned for more details in a few weeks!

The mother of all film splicers. It appears to do 16mm, 35mm, and 70mm (?!?). Never seen one like this. And yeah - it's as wide as an extended keyboard.

We're gonna need a bigger rewind bench!

This afternoon we got the feed and takeup motors working. They now hold the film in place, so the capstan motor can drive it back and forth. What you see here is some 10 perf 70mm film, holding itself in place. Since it's just holding itself, a video seemed unnecessary. Just trust us, it's not moving, and that's the point.

Next up: getting the tensions tuned and then on to the capstan drive. For that, we will have video.

Working on the front end software for the scanner. Hopefully we’re close to pulling all the pieces together.

Having it loom over your desk like this is quite something. Sasquatch really lives up to its name.

Our latest newsletter. We're going to try to do these more frequently, so if you're interested in getting more updates, please subscribe!

A new life for “Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern” In anticipation of the award-winning film's 25th anniversary re-issue, Steven Ascher, filmmaker and author of The Filmmaker's Handbook, brought us the 16mm A/B roll negatives for the 1996 film he made with Jeanne Jordan, Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern. Our team scanned the film at 4k, in 2-flash HD...

Necessity is the mother of invention. Need some 28mm leader, which hasn’t been made for decades? Hold my beer.

Over the course of about three years, we remastered nearly 100 of these films. 16mm original and intermediate elements scanned, conforming A/B rolls, color grading and restoration.

For a limited time, you can view some of them online (link in the article). We highly recommend checking out the two Thelonious Monk films. Beautiful, crunchy 16mm B/W reversal!

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/16/movies/michael-blackwood-christian-blackwood-movies.html

In our last few months here at 119 Braintree St, we're shooting some timelapse footage of the redevelopment going on next door. This is the beginning of the second phase of that project. They're tearing down half of the brick building, and presumably a very large hole will be dug there for the foundation. (and if that happens before we leave we'll shoot that too!)

It's a much-needed project (600+ residential units being built, in a city that has nowhere near enough housing to keep rents under control). Fascinating to watch, but definitely not ideal to be next to (traffic, noise, etc).

New digs will be much quieter, for sure.

https://youtu.be/nFUZ-V85gs4

Allston Yards Phase II Demolition - 8 days in 3 minutes (timelapse, short version) This is timelapse we've shot of the Phase 2 demolition work for the Allston Yards development in Boston, MA. The view is what we see outside our office windo...

Free to a good home!

We're getting rid of one of our Magnatech dubbers (the one on the right in the photo below). It is partially disassembled because we were going to make it into a film scanner, before picking up a Cintel chassis. Currently located in a basement storage space in our office building in Boston. You just need to arrange to get it out of here. Building has a loading dock, which makes it fairly easy to move (though it's heavy and tall at 7' high). comes with a box or two of parts we removed.

Something new. Stay tuned.

A big day down in the mines today. The transport for Sasquatch is now complete. We had to redesign the capstan roller setup, as well as the way the PTR rollers were held onto the scanner's deck plate. They were almost impossible to get perfectly perpendicular, so the film would slowly telescope off the PTRs. The new shaft sleeves hold the rollers perfectly in place.

The new capstan design has an extension shaft for the motor with a "paddle" that transfers motion to the bottom half of the PTR hub. This half is keyed with the top half, which is removable, so you can easily take the PTR out for cleaning. A single thumb nut with an o-ring between the outer half of the hub and the PTR core ensures there's no slippage. You just need to get it thumb tight and it's locked.

The film is now moving from reel to reel with no telescoping and a nice smooth wind, with consistent distances from the deck plate. Next week we'll get all the motors wired back up and see how it moves.

Back to mechanical stuff today: Finally finished the PTR roller hubs. Some of the bearings were dragging on the Delrin hubs so they had to be bored out a bit more. Also installed the mounts for the PTR hubs, put some lock nuts on the capstan motor bolts, and installed spring plungers in the PTR hubs to keep the PTRs from riding off of them when in motion. Hopefully tomorrow the capstan shaft will be completely finished, and we'll be really close to testing this in full motion!

Calling all Super 8 double system sound experts. Here's a fun one! We just got one of these SPR-1 units (first 5 pix), and we're wondering if maybe the 7-pin (round) connector on the side is meant to go into the mysteriously labeled "Sync" port on our Super8Sound modified Technics fullcoat deck (last 2 pix). This may be the missing link that's keeping us from using that deck to do Super 8 sync playback.

Any ideas?

Technically, we're closed this week, but we're here. Typically we spend this time doing backups, upgrades, bookkeeping and other year-end stuff. This year we tried to organize the mess that is the scanner build area, but universe has other ideas...

Just cannot get these labels to stick!