# Competitive Research — Pomfort Livegrade 7 & Silverstack Lab
Research date: 2026-07-10
Purpose: Feature audit of the two Pomfort products Forge is positioned against (on-set live grading ≈ Livegrade; DIT/offload/dailies ≈ Silverstack Lab) to check coverage against `docs/plans/001-implementation-plan.md` and surface gaps/ideas.
- In-camera grading (hybrid: interactive CDL/sat live, look metadata uploaded) for: all ARRI CAP-capable bodies (SXT/SXT W, LF, Mini, Mini LF, Amira, Alexa 65), Sony VENICE 2, and **all DSMC3 RED cameras** (new in 7.2, CDL over Ethernet).
- Metadata-over-Ethernet readout from ARRI and RED DSMC3 independent of the image path — i.e. a slot can have a different metadata source than its image source.
- Full ACES 2.0 support: IDTs (Apple/ARRI/Blackmagic/Canon/Panasonic/RED Log3G10/Sony/ACESproxy/reverse-709), ODTs (709/2020/DCDM/P3/sRGB/ACESproxy/HDR ST2084+HLG), custom IDT/LMT via CLF import, multi-version ACES management (v0.2 through 2.0) downloadable in-app.
- Node linking: gang arbitrary subsets of slots/nodes (not all-or-nothing), with absolute or relative (offset) multi-grade adjustment.
- Dual HDR/SDR pipeline: tag individual nodes to a pipeline, per-output/per-device pipeline switch, SDR-on-HDR-monitor post LUT.
- Output-colorspace auto-detection + round-trip comment embedded in exported LUTs.
### Signal routing / slots (this is Livegrade's core abstraction, no equivalent yet in Forge's plan)
- Up to 8 input slots (50 with "I/O Pack" module), up to 3 outputs (6 with "Outputs and Streaming" module), 4 library slots, composite slots (PIP/side-by-side/2x2/3x2/3x3 layouts), stages (group slots into independent units for multi-unit shoots).
- Per-slot signal range (full/legal) and RGB↔YCbCr matrix (709/2020) override.
- Private mode (freeze a device's look independent of slot's live edits).
- Automation manager: trigger routing changes or run a script on an event (e.g. output receiving live signal).
### Shot library / metadata / recording
- Group (multi-cam, TC-synced) and single recordings, arm/un-arm per slot, rehearsal-mode prefixing, auto-record from HANC record-flag or RecRun TC.
- Markers with type/rating/note, smart groups (hierarchical auto-outline by metadata), global + per-camera metadata panels, auto-populated camera metadata via ANC over SDI.
- Filters pipeline independent from grade: crop, metadata overlay burn-in, ARRI FLLIT/ASC-FDL frame lines, tally, image overlay, flip, transform, fit-to-canvas, anamorphic desqueeze, LUT filter — addable/reorderable per slot or output.
### Export / interchange
- Look export split into CDL vs non-CDL components; AMF 2.0 (incl. custom IDT/CLF/ODT); Pomfort Look + "Look Archive" (with media) for cross-system exchange; CDL (.cdl) import/export.
- ShotHub cloud upload of looks+metadata specifically for **Look Matching in Silverstack** — this is the cross-product bridge Forge should note (a DIT grades live in Livegrade, dailies operator's Silverstack auto-matches/reapplies the same look at ingest).
### Hardware control surfaces
- Tangent (Element/Ripple/Wave/Wave2) via "Tangent Mapper" custom mapping — almost the whole app is controllable.
- Elgato Stream Deck plugin with prebuilt profiles.
- Generic class-compliant MIDI with custom button/encoder mapping.
### Extension modules (paid add-ons, i.e. Pomfort's own upsell segmentation)
Multi-Playback & Audio (variable-speed playback, in/out ranges, audio record/monitor), Outputs & Streaming (6 outputs, local companion-app streaming for iOS/iPadOS/visionOS, internet streaming via Ci Media Cloud/RePro/Flow Capture/Teradek/Sohonet), Key and Mix (chroma keyer + blur + composite slots), I/O Pack (50 inputs), LED Processing and Control.
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## 2. Silverstack Lab (DIT data management + dailies)
- Separate copy vs. verify jobs (verify can run later/async) — Forge's plan doesn't yet call this out as a distinct scheduling concern; currently implied as one pass.
- Source verification (re-read the camera card itself to confirm read integrity, not just the copy).
- LTFS/LTO tape backup destination.
- ARRIRAW/HDE on-the-fly compression via Codex Device Manager passthrough.
- Cloud upload as a workflow step: AWS S3 (+ custom S3-compatible endpoints), Ci Media Cloud, frame.io v3 proxy upload, Webgate proxy upload.
- Duplicate-clip detection at ingest; ingest-time metadata (shoot day, unit) applied card-wide before registration; register-without-copy option; auto-apply look at ingest.
- Users chain offload → verify → transcode → metadata-export → cloud-upload → report into one **workflow**, saved as presets, auto-selected by source/card type.
- Scheduler does **interleaved/parallel execution**, resolves cross-task dependencies automatically, and lets the user cap concurrency **per drive** (not just globally) to avoid saturating a slow destination.
- This is materially more sophisticated than a simple job queue — it's closer to a small DAG scheduler with per-resource (drive) throttling. Forge's plan has `ForgeOffload`/`ForgeProxy` as separate, fairly flat pipelines (Phase 7/8) with no shared scheduler or drive-level concurrency control.
### Clip library / metadata
- Chain-of-custody history per asset (every backup location it has lived at).
- 100+ built-in metadata fields, custom fields/labels, smart folders (saved complex searches), media bins mapped 1:1 to camera/sound cards, auto file-sequence/split-clip detection & treat-as-one-clip (DPX-style and camera split files).
- Dynamic per-frame metadata (lens/iris/focus/zoom) extraction, exportable to CSV or burned into transcodes.
- Optional ShotHub sync so multiple Silverstack seats share one live project (and a "ShotID" per-clip shareable link).
- False Color and **EL Zone** exposure-assist LUTs for LogC4/LogC3/S-Log3/RedLog3G10/BRAW/V-Log, custom user LUTs allowed.
- SDI out (AJA/Blackmagic families) up to 4K with rotation for vertical shoots; native scopes + optional "Scopebox" ScopeLink interface.
- Anamorphic desqueeze, flip/rotate, frame lines, all as live per-clip processing (separate from "the grade").
### Color & look
- Same node model family as Livegrade (CDL/LUT/1D LUT/RGB+HSL curves/HHS/LMT+CLF), ASC-CDL interaction types (CDL/SOP, simplified, LGG, printer lights).
- **RAW development** in-app for ARRIRAW/ARRICORE, Blackmagic RAW, Canon CRM, DJI Cinema DNG, Nikon N-RAW/R3D NE, ProRes RAW, REDCODE RAW, Sony X-OCN — i.e. Silverstack Lab does raw debayer/dev itself, not just LUT-slap on proxies.
- Look matching: auto-pulls look from clip metadata (i.e. what was pushed live via Livegrade) and reapplies at ingest — the explicit product bridge mentioned above.
- Player grid compare (up to 12 clips) + wipe view.
- Decode-once/encode-to-many for multi-format output; combined-clip transcode (stitch multiple source clips into one output); auto-pause transcode during interactive playback so QC stays responsive.
- Destination codecs: MXF/QuickTime DNxHD/DNxHR, ProRes 4444/422, H.264/H.265 (QuickTime and MP4), custom bitrate/profile/keyframe interval for H.264/265.
- AAF export for Avid; NLE metadata companion files.
- Burn-ins: TC, clip name, custom text/wildcards, watermark, frame lines — same burn-in engine idea as their playback filters.
### Audio
- BWF auto-detection, auto-assembly of split audio tracks into clips, **LTC extraction from embedded audio track** (recovers timecode without external TC reader), automatic TC-based A/V sync with manual slip/re-sync and audible frame-stepping.
- Still export with burn-ins + EXIF/IPTC/TIFF tagging, exportable in parallel presets.
- ZEISS xD lens metadata (via Ambient MasterLockit Plus) — dynamic shading/distortion review in player, export to `.zlcf`.
### Scripting
- Built-in Lua scripting: auto-run on job completion or on ingest, access to job params + clip metadata, can trigger external processes and mutate library metadata. Scripts stored app-wide or per-project, with sample scripts included.
### Format coverage (breadth, not depth — for scoping which cameras Forge needs to at least read)
ARRIRAW/ARRICORE/Codex HDE, Blackmagic RAW (incl. PYXIS/URSA Cine/Fujifilm/Panasonic licensees), Nikon N-RAW/R3D NE, Canon XF-AVC/Cinema RAW Light/uncompressed RAW, CinemaDNG (BMCC/Bolex/Ikonoskop/IndieCam/DJI), Kinefinity KRW, Panasonic V-RAW/DNG RAW, Phantom Cine, ProRes (mov and mxf variants across ARRI/Sony/RED/Panasonic), REDCODE RAW (full RED lineup), Sony RAW/X-OCN (F5/F55/F65/Venice/Venice 2/Burano), Sony XAVC/XAVC-H/S/HS, generic DPX/TIFF/JPEG sequences.
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## 3. Cross-cutting takeaways vs. `docs/plans/001-implementation-plan.md`
1.**Slot/routing abstraction is Livegrade's real architecture, not just "camera driver."** Forge's plan has `CameraDriver` per camera but no first-class notion of input/output/library "slots," multi-view grids, or per-slot filter chains independent of the grade stack. Worth a deliberate decision on whether Forge needs this generality or can stay simpler (single active camera + preview).
2.**Checksum algorithm set is wider than planned.** Silverstack supports 6 algorithms (XXH64/MD5/SHA1/C4ID/XXH3/XXH128); Forge Task 7.1 only scopes xxHash64 + MD5. C4ID in particular is an industry (EBU-ish/entertainment-specific) content hash worth a scoping decision.
3.**Separate copy/verify scheduling** and **per-drive concurrency caps** are explicit Silverstack Lab features; Forge's `ForgeOffload` plan (Phase 7) currently reads as a single sequential job type without a shared multi-drive scheduler. This is probably the single biggest architectural gap if Forge wants "Lab"-tier parity rather than a simpler offload tool.
4.**RAW development is done in Silverstack Lab itself** (debayer ARRIRAW/REDCODE/BRAW/etc. for playback, still export, and transcoding) — Forge's plan doesn't currently include a RAW decode path; ProRes/DPX/PNG proxies (`ForgeVideo`, Task 5.2) sidestep this. Confirm whether Forge intends to support native RAW ingest or only mezzanine/proxy formats.
5.**Look-matching bridge between the live-grade tool and the DIT/dailies tool** is the core value prop tying Pomfort's two products together (grade live on set → same look auto-applied at ingest for dailies). Forge's plan already shares `ForgeGrade` between the on-set and (implied) library/export paths, which is the right shape — worth explicitly designing the "apply grade snapshot at ingest by clip-name/metadata match" flow as a named feature rather than leaving it implicit.
6.**Third-party interchange breadth** (QTAKE/MovieSlate/Drylab/ZoeLog import; Resolve/Avid/Scratch/Premiere/Drylab/COPRA export) is much wider than Forge's current CDL/CCC/CUBE/ALE/CSV/EDL export scope (Phase 3). Not all of this is necessarily worth matching, but ALE-with-color-metadata (the DaVinci/Avid pattern) and FCP7 XML are the two most commonly requested by editorial in practice.
7.**Hardware control surfaces**: both products support Tangent panels; Forge's plan already has `ForgePanel`/TIPC (Phase 5). Neither Stream Deck nor MIDI are in Forge's plan — low-cost, high-visibility additions if a "cheap panel" option is wanted (Stream Deck especially, since DITs already own them).
8.**Extension-module segmentation** (Livegrade's paid add-ons: multi-playback/audio, extra outputs/streaming, keyer, I/O pack, LED control) signals which features Pomfort considers "advanced/niche" vs. core — useful as a prioritization signal if Forge needs to sequence beyond Phase 8: LED wall control and internet streaming are clearly bottom-of-backlog; multi-output/composite views and chroma key are closer to core DIT-cart use.
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*Compiled by Claude via web research on pomfort.com/kb.pomfort.com, cross-referenced against the current Forge implementation plan.*
