What Lasergraphics does

Lasergraphics, Inc. is a privately held designer and manufacturer of precision motion picture film scanning systems, headquartered at 20 Ada, Irvine, California, where it has engineered film imaging technology continuously since its founding in 1981. Originally a maker of still-frame photo and slide film recording systems (with over 25,000 units sold into medical, military, and digital photography markets), the company pivoted in 1999 to the digital intermediate market with its award-winning Producer line and subsequently built three generations of film scanners — the flagship Director (up to 13.5K resolution, 2- and 3-flash HDR, IR dust/scratch detection, sequential RGB+IR color capture), the high-throughput ScanStation (up to 6.5K at 60 fps across 8mm–65/70mm IMAX), and the affordable Archivist (up to 5K at 30 fps for 8mm–17.5mm, renamed from ScanStation Personal in 2020). The underlying technology platform combines CMOS area-array sensors with custom LED integrating-sphere/cube illumination, proprietary 2D optical pin registration across up to eight perforations, sprocketless capstan servo film transport, optical soundtrack extraction, and integrated single-pass lossless JPEG 2000 (2024) and FFV1 (2025) encoding — all controlled by the CineDirector Windows host software.

The company serves a global, enterprise-skewed customer base spanning major motion picture studios (Warner Bros., IMAX, NBC Universal, CBS News Archives), national and cultural film archives (Library of Congress, BFI, UCLA Film & Television Archive, French National Archive/CNC, Cinémathèque suisse, Cineteca Nazionale, Filmoteca Española, NFSA Australia, NARA, Internet Archive), broadcasters and sports media (BBC, ABC, ESPN, NFL Films, NASCAR, Czech TV), post-production and restoration houses (Park Road Post Production, FotoKem, Deluxe Media, Criterion Collection, Blackhawk Films, Digital Orchard, Imagica, Kodak Film Lab London, R3Store Studios), universities (UCLA, Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkeley, NYU, University of Manitoba, University of Wisconsin-Madison), and government/defense/scientific institutions (NASA, NRO, DTRA, Sandia, Los Alamos National Laboratory). Its commercial model rests on one-time capital equipment sales (the Director was priced at $199K–$249K at its 2007 launch, with ScanStation and Archivist positioned at the high and low ends of the family and pricing today provided on a quote basis), extended warranty and service contracts, software-driven capability upgrades sold into the installed base (e.g., 2024 JPEG 2000 and 2025 FFV1 encoding), and a trade-up program that retains customer investment across the product family.

Distribution is consultative and engineer-led: structured product-specific contact forms on lasergraphics.com route qualified leads into a free scan-test engagement with the in-house sales and engineering team, supported by an authorized reseller and systems integrator network (e.g., Magic Hour in France for INA and Gaumont Pathé Archives), heavy trade-show presence at IBC and NAB (where every major product generation has been unveiled since 2006), and a sustained PR/earned-media engine in film, broadcast, and pro-AV trade press. The company is privately held, has not raised external capital, and operates with a small 11–50-employee footprint concentrated at its Irvine engineering and manufacturing facility.

Name

Lasergraphics

Legal name

Lasergraphics, Inc.

Website

https://lasergraphics.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1981

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Lasergraphics designs and manufactures precision motion picture film scanning systems (Director, ScanStation, Archivist) for film archives, restoration studios, broadcasters, universities, and government agencies globally, from its Irvine, California engineering and manufacturing headquarters.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Professional Film Scanning Equipment

NAICS

Optical Goods Retailers (45613), Photography Studios, Portrait (541921), Photographic Equipment and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers (423410)

SIC

Photographic Equipment & Supplies (3861), Optical Instruments & Lenses (3827)

akta.pro primary industry

Photo & Video Output Devices (Printers, Portable Photo Printers, Photo Frames) (CRACAPAL)

akta.pro secondary industries

Action Cameras & Adventure Imaging Retail (CRACAHAD), Consumer Drones for Imaging (Camera Drones) (CRACAPAD)

Keywords

• Motion picture film scanners
• Film archiving equipment
• Film digitization hardware
• Archival film restoration
• High-resolution film imaging

Headquarters

HQ city

Irvine

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Supply Chain, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Hardware Sales — Director / ScanStation / Archivist: Primary revenue stream from one-time sale of capital equipment film scanners. The Director was priced at $199,000 for 35mm and $249,000 for 35mm and 16mm at 2007 launch (below $200K/$250K at 2006 launch). Pricing is not publicly disclosed for current models; quotes are provided on request. Sales include a one-year parts and labor warranty with extended warranty available.
2. Extended Warranty and Service Contracts: Extended warranty contracts available beyond the included one-year parts-and-labor warranty, providing recurring service revenue tied to installed base.
3. Software Feature Upgrades and Encoding Capability Sales: Software-driven capability additions such as high-speed JPEG 2000 (2024) and high-speed FFV1 (2025) encoding, made available to existing customers to extend the life of installed hardware — represents upgrade / land-and-expand revenue on the installed base.
4. Trade-Up Program: Customer-facing trade-up program that allows owners of entry-level scanners (e.g., Archivist, ScanStation Personal) to upgrade to higher-end models (ScanStation, Director) while retaining a portion of their initial investment. Drives replacement-cycle revenue.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion4 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Lasergraphics designs and manufactures high-resolution motion picture film scanning systems for the archival, restoration, and post-production markets. Its flagship Director, ScanStation, and Archivist scanners combine proprietary 2D optical pin registration, sprocketless capstan film transport, sequential RGB+IR or Bayer-pattern CMOS sensors, LED integrating-sphere illumination, multi-flash HDR, and integrated JPEG 2000/FFV1 lossless encoding to digitize film gauges from 8mm through 65/70mm IMAX and VistaVision. The products are sold as capital equipment with accompanying CineDirector host software, extended warranty options, and a customer trade-up program.

Product overview

Lasergraphics offers a portfolio of three motion picture film scanning systems for archival, restoration, and post-production markets, sharing a common technology base including 2D optical pin registration, sprocketless capstan film transport, LED-based diffuse integrating-cube/sphere light sources, sequential or Bayer image sensing, HDR scanning, and integrated software (CineDirector). The portfolio is tiered by performance and price: the Director is the flagship offering up to 13.5K resolution and infrared dust/scratch reduction for the most demanding restoration work (e.g., Warner Bros., BFI, IMAX); the ScanStation is the high-throughput versatile scanner up to 60 fps supporting 8mm through 65/70mm IMAX; and the Archivist is the affordable scanner optimized for small archives supporting 8mm through 17.5mm. Across all three products, Lasergraphics layers shared capabilities such as JPEG 2000 and FFV1 lossless compression, KeyKode reading, optical soundtrack extraction, and intelligent noise reduction, while offering optional add-on features such as SoundView, dye fade correction, and Automatic Failed Splice Recovery.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Director: Flagship motion picture film scanning system offering up to 13.5K resolution with sequential RGB+Infrared color capture, infrared dust/scratch detection, and 2-flash and 3-flash HDR.
• ScanStation
• Archivist
• Producer

Products and services

• Director Lasergraphics' flagship motion picture film scanner, recognized as the industry leader for superior image quality. Offers up to 13.5K resolution, color sequential scanning (RGB+Infrared) for full color data at each pixel, 2- and 3-flash HDR, infrared dust/scratch detection and reduction, and supports 8mm through 65/70mm IMAX and VistaVision formats.
• ScanStation Lasergraphics' fastest and most versatile motion picture film scanner, with up to 6.5K resolution and scanning speeds up to 60 fps. Supports 8mm through 70mm IMAX, with workstation-centric design, built-in editing table with light boxes, and 2D optical pin-registration for shrunken/damaged film.
• Archivist Lasergraphics' most affordable motion picture film scanner, designed for small archives without exceeding budgetary requirements. Offers up to 5K resolution, scanning speeds up to 30 fps, 2-flash HDR, supports 8mm through 17.5mm, and includes sprocketless film transport, 2D optical pin-registration, and a magnetic soundtrack reader.
• CineDirector Scanning Software Trademarked host-software suite for the Director scanner family, pre-configured on Microsoft Windows, providing full transport and scanning control, aperture and shading correction, automatic or manual DMin calibration, self-calibrating intensity/focus/film base, RollView thumbnail preview with automatic clip/splice detection, KeyKode-based job management, multiple simultaneous output resolutions and data formats, and built-in color grading tools including dye fade correction.

Quantifiable outcome

• 13.5K scanning resolution on 65/70mm IMAX and VistaVision (Director) — highest published resolution in the industry
• +7 more outcomes

Named customers69 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles6 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration7 records

Feature11 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered flagship co-development partner, major validation / co-development partner, core integration partner in france, minor oem / technology partner, core technology integration and flagship customer / co-development partner.

• Digital Orchard Group and Kodak Film Lab Londonflagship co-development partnerStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 April 2025Digital Orchard Group and Kodak Film Lab London jointly unveiled a ground-breaking scanning upgrade to the Lasergraphics ScanStation, enhancing capabilities across all 65mm formats including 5-perf, 8-perf, and 15-perf IMAX. Announced April 14, 2025. This collaboration is significant because it extends ScanStation capabilities into the highest-end IMAX scanning market that previously required a Director.
• Czech Television (Czech TV)major validation / co-development partnerStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2014Czech TV conducted what is described as perhaps the most stringent pre-purchase film-scanner evaluation ever performed. Czech TV narrowed the field to four finalists (Lasergraphics Director, ARRI Arriscan XT, DFT Scanity HDR, Digital Vision GoldenEye), engaged independent third-party consultants (a DP and a National Film Awards archiving expert), and supervised factory-side testing of identical reels. The 4+ terabytes of test data were evaluated blind by an eight-person Czech TV team; the resulting report and test artifacts are publicly available. The Director was declared the winner on resolution, color rendition, noise, and aspect-ratio fidelity.
• Magic Hourcore integration partner in franceImplementation/ SI/ Consulting Partner · 1 March 2013Magic Hour is the French systems integrator commissioned to supply, install, and integrate the Lasergraphics Director 2K/4K scanner at both the Institut national de l'audiovisuel (INA) and Gaumont Pathé Archives, where it replaced an SD telecine machine as part of Gaumont's ambition to re-digitize its entire collection. Magic Hour functions as the local channel and integration partner for Lasergraphics in France.
• Globalstor Data Corporationminor oem / technology partnerOEM/ Whitelabel/ Licensing Partner · 1 September 2009Globalstor® Data Corporation supplied its ExtremeStor-DI high-performance RAID / SAN storage and video-server system to power demonstrations of the Lasergraphics Director motion picture film scanning system at IBC 2009. Globalstor functioned as an OEM storage provider whose products were tightly integrated with the Director workflow.
• HS-ART and DaVinci (restoration workstation vendors)core technology integrationTechnology or IntegrationLasergraphics cooperates with leading restoration workstation vendors (HS-ART, DaVinci Resolve, and others) to deliver seamless single-workstation workflows. The Director can send image files directly into the workstation's attached storage at full scanning speed, eliminating the SAN and lowering total system cost. DaVinci Resolve is one of four restoration systems certified compatible with Lasergraphics defect mattes.
• Diamant Film (DustBuster), MTI Film (DRS), The Pixel Farm (PFClean)core technology integrationTechnology or IntegrationDPX files containing the defect mattes generated by Lasergraphics scanners (Director) have been certified compatible with Diamant Film DustBuster, MTI Film DRS, The Pixel Farm PFClean, and DaVinci Resolve — the leading restoration tools in the film-preservation market.
• Kodak (Kodak Film Lab London)flagship co-development partnerStrategic or Co-development PartnerKodak publicly endorses and uses the Lasergraphics 65mm ScanStation in its own film lab and partnered with Digital Orchard on the 65mm IMAX (5/8/15-perf) upgrade. Antonio Rasura, Director of Motion Picture Labs & Services at Kodak, has publicly discussed the 65mm workflow including Kodak's use of the ScanStation.
• Warner Bros. Motion Picture Imagingflagship customer / co-development partnerStrategic or Co-development PartnerWarner Bros. selected the Director for its most demanding film-scanning requirements after an extensive selection process (2012). Warner Bros. Motion Picture Imaging has since restored Casablanca, The Wizard of Oz, Raging Bull, and many other titles on the Director, and announced at NAB 2025 that it had scanned 20 films in 8K resolution (including the 65mm classic My Fair Lady) using the Director 13K.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights7 records

Direct peers

• Blackmagic Design (Cintel): Blackmagic Design's Cintel film scanner is a direct competitor offering reel-time scanning for film-to-digital workflows. It targets a similar archive and post-production customer base but at a lower price point than Lasergraphics' Director, competing primarily for budget-conscious archives and DaVinci Resolve-centric facilities.
• Digital Vision (now part of ASSIMILATE): Digital Vision's GoldenEye scanner was the fourth finalist in Czech TV's independent tender evaluation, directly comparing against the Director. Although Digital Vision has been absorbed into ASSIMILATE, the GoldenEye product competes (or competed) head-to-head in the high-end motion-picture film-scanning market.
• DFT (Digital Film Technology): DFT's Scanity HDR is a high-end film scanner explicitly named in Czech TV's blind comparison against the Director. It is a direct competitor in the premium HDR archival scanning segment, with comparable resolution and 2-flash HDR capability that Lasergraphics positions itself above via 3-flash HDR.
• ARRI: ARRI is the most established motion-picture film scanner competitor with the ARRISCAN and ARRISCAN XT lines. Czech TV's independent evaluation directly benchmarked the Director against the ARRISCAN XT on resolution, color rendition, noise, and aspect-ratio fidelity, making ARRI the closest direct competitor in the high-end archival/restoration segment.

Others

• HS-ART: HS-ART is a leading restoration workstation vendor that Lasergraphics explicitly cooperates with to deliver single-workstation workflows. It is an enabling/ecosystem player in the same archive and post-production value chain rather than a scanner competitor.
• MTI Film: MTI's DRS Nova is the dominant digital restoration system used downstream of film scanning, and Lasergraphics defect mattes are certified compatible with MTI DRS. MTI is therefore a tightly coupled ecosystem partner — overlapping customers (studios, archives) make it a partial adjacency rather than a direct scanner competitor.
• FilmLight: FilmLight's Baselight is the dominant color grading and finishing platform for high-end restoration and theatrical mastering, frequently paired with Lasergraphics Director scans. It is a complementary ecosystem player in the same restoration value chain.
• Kodak: Kodak manufactures motion-picture film and uses the Lasergraphics 65mm ScanStation in its own film lab, while partnering with Digital Orchard on the 65mm IMAX upgrade. Kodak is a strategic partner and shared customer base rather than a direct scanner competitor.
• The Pixel Farm: The Pixel Farm's PFClean is one of the four restoration tools with certified Lasergraphics defect-matte compatibility. It is an adjacent ecosystem participant serving the same restoration customers rather than a film-scanner competitor.
• Diamant Film: Diamant's Film DustBuster+ restoration software has certified compatibility with Lasergraphics-generated defect mattes. It serves the same archival and restoration customer base and is therefore a complementary ecosystem player rather than a hardware competitor.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Lasergraphics