Digital Color Grading and Finishing Solution For Postproduction

Trade Agreement: Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT)
Tendering Procedures: Generally only one firm has been invited
to bid
Attachment: None
Non-Competitive Procurement Strategy: Interchangeable Parts
Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement: No
Vendor Name and Address: 
Applied Electronics Ltée
7715 BOUL HENRI-BOURASSA OUEST
MONTREAL Quebec
Canada
H4S1P7
Nature of Requirements: 
Digital Color Grading and Finishing Solution For Postproduction

1. An ACAN is a public notice indicating to the supplier
community that a department or agency intends to award a
contract for goods, services or construction to a pre-identified
supplier, thereby allowing other suppliers to signal their
interest in bidding, by submitting a statement of capabilities.
If no supplier submits a statement of capabilities that meets
the requirements set out in the ACAN, on or before the closing
date stated in the ACAN, the contracting officer may then
proceed with the award to the pre-identified supplier.

2. Definition of requirement

The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) has a requirement for
the supply of a (1) Digital Color Grading and Finishing Solution
unit, including installation, in support of the NFB Digitization
Plan. The NFB Digitization Plan will improve current and future
accessibility of the NFB works in digital formats, store and
preserve the NFB's works on new media and restore works that
have deteriorated. 

Digital Vision's Nucoda Film Master Digital has been established
as the standard for the NFB's Digital Colour Grading. All the
data (images, sequences, metadata) that is forwarded to the
Nucoda from the digitization process of images prior to color
grading and, the data generated while grading images required
the implementation of specific workflows and the development of
automation applications.

As such, the equipment purchased and installed must have
interoperability with the other units already installed in the
NFB's facility, and it must integrate seamlessly into the NFB's
existing digital workflow (plug and play). The unit must have
the inherent capabilities of backward compatibility with the
existing Nucoda Film Master, and the unit must be totally
compatible with existing units in the digital workflow, such as
the NFB's Turbine & Phoenix.

To respect the high standards required by the NFB's operations,
the system must provide reliable, accurate and sophisticated
grading tools. The system must provide the following:

-      Flexible colour tools including Hue Curves, Colour
Balance, Colour Curves, Brightness Regions, Soft Clip (White and
Black), S-Gamma, RGB, HLS, Brightness and Contrast;
-      Unlimited layers of colour enhancements;
-      Adjustable soft-clipping parameters with precise control
of black and white clipping and reference points;
-      Separate control of shadows, midtones and highlights;
-      Multiple real time colour correction tools including
isolation; 
-      Advanced colour functions including hue curves and colour
picking;
-	Unlimited secondary colour correction layers each of which can
contain; Shapes, Keys and Mattes;
-	Incorporation of colour management of our choice to generate
accurate representation both for film print and video colour
space;
-	Printer light controls for colour correction and density;
-	Real-time down-convert from HD to SD including 3:2 insertion
using video interface card;
-	Real-time Pan and Scan, format conversion and blanking;
-	Unlimited output formats and deliverables from a single
timeline with spatial and colour space conversion; 
-	Render out of full resolution frames even when working with
Proxies;
-	Still and dynamic still store with compare tools, wipes and
pixel probe;
-	User definable grids, overlays, masks and blanking;
-	Calibrated monitoring and export through Colour Management
System;
-	Playback from non-DPX file formats (Cineon, TIFF, JPEG, SGI
and Softimage PIC);
-	Full SD, HD, Progressive and Interlaced Video, 2K data formats.

The system must support:
-	Feature rich multi-track timeline editing with drag, drop,
splice, overwrite, lift, extract, ripple, trim, slip and slide;
-	Segment editing;
-	Variable speed playback with jog and shuttle control;
-	Versioning of timeline and segments;
-	WAV (44.1 KHz/48 KHz 16 bit) or AIFF stereo audio reference
track.

3. Trade Agreement(s)
This procurement is subject to the following trade agreement:

Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT)

4. Justification for the Pre-Identified Supplier
To the knowledge of the NFB, Digital Vision is the only
manufacturer of a Digital Color Grading and Finishing Solution
unit that meets the mandatory requirements and can be integrated
seamlessly (plug and play) into the NFB's existing digital
workflow. Applied Electronics Limited is the only known Canadian
supplier of Digital Vision products in the Montreal, Quebec
Region.

5. Government Contracts Regulations Exception(s)
The following exception to the Government Contracts Regulations
is invoked for this procurement under subsection 6(d) - "only
one person is capable of performing the work.

6. Exclusions and/or Limited Tendering Reasons
The following exclusion(s) and/or limited tendering reasons are
invoked under the section of the trade agreement(s) specified:

Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT) - Article 506, paragraph 12(a)

7. Delivery
The equipment must be delivered as soon as possible.

8. Estimated cost of the proposed contract
The estimated value of the contract is $ 149,000.00 (GST/HST
extra).

9. Inquiries and submission of statements of capabilities
Inquiries and statements of capabilities are to be directed to:

Jenny Yee
Spécialiste d'approvisionnement / Supply Specialist 
800 rue de la Gauchetière ouest, local 7300, Montréal, Qc H5A 1L6
Téléphone/Telephone (514) 496-3870
Télécopieur/ Facsimile: (514) 496-3822
jenny.yee@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca


Delivery Date: Above-mentioned

You are hereby notified that the government intends to negotiate
with one firm only as identified above. Should you have any
questions concerning this requirement, contact the contracting
officer identified above.

An Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN) allows departments and
agencies to post a notice, for no less than fifteen (15)
calendar days, indicating to the supplier community that it
intends to award a good, service or construction contract to a
pre-identified contractor. If no other supplier submits, on or
before the closing date, a Statement of Capabilities that meets
the requirements set out in the ACAN, the contracting authority
may then proceed with the award.  However, should a Statement of
Capabilities be found to meet the requirements set out in the
ACAN, then the contracting authority will proceed to a full
tendering process.

Suppliers who consider themselves fully qualified and available
to provide the services/goods described herein, may submit a
statement of capabilities in writing to the contact person
identified in this Notice on or before the closing date of this
Notice. The statement of capabilities must clearly demonstrate
how the supplier meets the advertised requirements.

The PWGSC file number, the contracting officer's name and the
closing date of the ACAN must appear on the outside of the
envelope in block letters or, in the case of a facsimile
transmission, on the covering page.

The Crown retains the right to negotiate with suppliers on any
procurement.

Documents may be submitted in either official language of Canada.