New 3D BULLET RIG shown with Panasonic HPX250 cameras. The most affordable, modular 3D beam-splitter made. Adustable IO (3.5″), convergence (0-2 deg), XYZ axis, camera elevation and mirror angle (44 to 46 deg) for perfect image alignment. Fits easily on Steadicam, handheld mode (shoulder mount incl), EasyRig, jib and any tripod. Weighs just 15 lbs. Accomodates Red Epic, Scarlet, Sony EX3, F3, Canon XF305, XF105, 5D, Si-2K, & many other cameras. Visit www.3DFilmFactory.com

3D Film Factory Introduces the All-New, Handheld 3D Rig Designed to Capture Incredible, Accurate Stereoscopic Images on the Move

Hollywood, CA – 3D Film Factory, the leader in professional, affordable 3D camera rigs, introduces the world’s lightest, most affordable, hand-held 3D rig – the 3D Bullet Rig. Ready to “Load & Shoot”, this versatile 3D system is literally unshakable for handheld, Steadicam, Easyrig, or tripod filming.

Priced at a fraction of other professional 3D rigs (under $5K), this compact beam-splitter rig is the perfect solution for location, reality, or action 3D filmmaking. It’s features actually surpass that of other more expensive rigs. For more information on the 3D Bullet Rig visit www(dot)3DFilmFactory(dot)com

“The 3D Bullet Rig is going to take 3D production to a whole new level. I love this rig. It’s incredibly light, rock steady and most of all – it’s really easy to shoot with from your shoulder, or tripod. This rig is a 3D filmmakers dream, very versatile“, said the company’s veteran stereographer Keith Driver. “Most 3D rigs are bulky, expensive and worst of all – tripod bound. They require a crew to operate. We’ve shot 3D projects in Africa, the Middle East, Hollywood soundstages, you name it we’ve done it in 3D. And we realized we needed a more mobile 3D rig. A 3D rig you could just pick up and shoot with. This is the 3D Bullet Rig.”

The 3D Bullet Rig makes handheld 3D filming effortless and smooth by transferring the weight to your waist and shoulder. Each 3D rig includes a spring-loaded suspension rod, comfortable weight displacement belt and adjustable, padded shoulder mount. The result is hours of mobile, handheld 3D filming capability. In addition, the rig features detachable rubber hand grips for easy manoeuvring and a standard tripod mounting plate (¼-20 and ?-16 holes).

Weighing approx. 13 lbs. (5.8 kgs.) the Bullet Rig accommodates the Red Epic, Canon DSLR 5D, 7D, XF105
XF305, XH-G1, Sony F3, EX3’s, HDCP1, X5U, Z1U, Panasonic AF100, HPX250 and many other professional HD cameras.

The rig also features custom camera mounts that easily lock and load cameras into place using a standard quick-release plate from Bogen/Manfrotto. The horizontal camera mount offers IO (inter-ocular) adjustability from 0” – 3.5” (0 – 89 mm) and simple convergence movement from 0°-3°. Both functions are easily controlled using smooth, accurate finger knobs, with calibration markings. The vertical camera mount adjusts for perfect stereoscopic picture alignment by elevating and performing full x-y-z rotation (yaw, roll, tilt).

The light-weight, mirror box housing is constructed using space-age foam core plastic that’s durable, corrosion-free and substantially cooler than a metal matte box. This ensures your beam-splitter glass with its expensive coatings will stay cool on hot days. The rig itself is hand-milled employing a nearly indestructible aluminium alloy frame.

Perfect for traveling light, the entire 3D Bullet Rig is ingenuously designed to set-up and break down in a matter of minutes, packing into a small, water-tight pelican case.

As a bonus, the horizontal rail easily detaches, along with the camera mounts, transforming into a side-by-side rig 3D for wide and landscape stereography.

Our opti-prime, 50/50 beam-splitter glass is optimized to meet the demands of 3D filmmaking. See specs. Within the matte box, a simple adjustment tool allows stereographers to fine tune the glass angle from between 43° to 47°.

The outcome is simply the world’s most affordable, professional handheld 3D rig.

It should be noted that using our simple Lanc system camera operators can now synch start/stop, focus, alignment, lens shift and many other vital functions thru both cameras or individually.

The 3D Film Factory offers a complete line of 3D beam-splitter rigs intended for HD camcorders, as well as larger ENG and broadcast style camera. In addition, we offer several inexpensive side-by-side rigs and real-time 3D viewing solutions. To learn more about 3D camera rigs, 3D viewing systems, 3D production services, or 3D training workshops visit – www.3DFilmFactory.com

About the 3D Film Factory
Established in 2008 by award-winning filmmakers and veteran stereographers, the 3D Film Factory has been the worldwide leader in professional, affordable 3D camera rigs and real-time 3D monitoring solutions. In addition we provide a host of 3D production services worldwide including, stereographers ‘for hire’, 3D camera rig rental, 3D viewing systems, and 3D post, as well as intensive 3D training workshops. Former clients include ESPN, NASA, Disney, HD Cinema, Pinewood Studios and Discovery. For more information visit www.3DFilmFactory.com

DFT Digital Film Technology, provider of high-end film and digital post production solutions that preserve, manage, and deliver your pictures, announces that Spice Shop, Bangkok, Thailand, is the first commercial post facility in Southeast Asia to install a SCANITY film scanner.

In addition to providing a full range of post production services for the local and international television and cinema commercial markets, Spice Shop has recently unveiled it’s newly renovated facility which enhances its service offerings to support feature film post production including on-set and post grading, 3D DCI mastering, as well as archive & restoration work. more

Hollywood Studios Jump on New Technology

OOBAXS (pronounced Out of Band Access), the console access authority for data centers and broadcasting today announced that it is bringing High Definition (HD) KVM DVI Draco matrix switches capable of mixing both CATx and fiber optic connections between source and target to the US market. The switches are manufactured by IHSE Germany, a leading developer and innovator in high speed, high definition DVI and KVM/Video extension and switching solutions.

OOBAXS, one of Hollywood’s leading technology integrators will provide installations, support and guidance on deployments at numerous post-production facilities. “The Draco series is the fastest core switching product on the market,” said Alan Frank, technology strategist and founder of OOBAXS. “IHSE’s willingness to be a responsive partner with their end-users has led to the evolution of a product that is changing the way movies are made.”

The Draco offers DVI video extenders over CATx or Fiber for “mission critical” server and computer access, as well as, fiber optic HD-KVM matrix switches. The Draco, featuring ZERO blocking, high speed switching, HD DVI to 1920×1200, and four HID, has already made its impact on Hollywood studios.

Working with OOBAXS to design and deploy a solution using Draco, Shapeshifter Post was the first post-production facility in Hollywood to embrace the high speed technology. “We had been researching KVM Matrix switching/extension options for many months, and needed a robust solution that could support all our input devices without issue, including our Avid Symphony, DS, and Media Composer, as well as De Vinci Resolve, and Final Cut Pro workstations,” said Russo Anastasio, president of Shapeshifter Post. “We knew that by installing the IHSE Draco, we would increase our productivity, but didn’t realize the extent of that increase would be such a game changer!”

“Post-production tasks can be time consuming and draining on resources and typically depend on individual hardware and locations,” added Alan Frank. “An editor may have traditionally worked in one bay for picture editing, but then would need to move to a new location to add in special effects or color-time. With the Draco, an entire production house worth of resources becomes accessible at any single end-point.”

OOBAXS (pronounced Out of Band Access) provides anywhere, anytime console access to broadcast facilities and data centers. The company has a long track record integrating access solutions to help data center managers gain access to any appliance or piece of equipment in their network. OOBAXS.COM has been instrumental in bringing the latest technologies to data centers helping them improve anytime access, image/video quality, productivity, access speed, and a more flexible infrastructure. OOBAXS has brought modern data center tools and techniques into the broadcast world. The result is a client list that includes the world largest movie, recording, radio and television studios as well as Fortune 100 company data-centers. As video, speed and visual interfaces continue to improve; OOBAXS will remain a leading resource for CIOs, CTOs, and broadcast engineers.

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November 29, 2011 — Markham, Ontario: Digital Rapids today announced the release of version 3.7 of the Digital Rapids Stream software for the company’s StreamZ, StreamZHD and Flux encoding and live streaming solutions. New features in Stream 3.7 include expanded format support including encoding to the Panasonic AVC-Intra format; 64-bit operating system support; cue point insertion for live streaming with Adobe(r) Flash(r) technologies; and enhanced H.264 and MPEG-2 encoding. These new capabilities join numerous additions in the previously-unannounced version 3.6 upgrade released in August, including Dolby(r) Digital AC-3 audio pass-through and updates to Civolution NexGuard forensic watermarking support. more

November 24, 2011 — Markham, Ontario: Digital Rapids announced today that the StreamZ Live ABR adaptive streaming encoder has been honored with the 2011 Streaming Media Readers’ Choice Award in the Over-the-Top (OTT) Video Solution category. The award was presented during the Streaming Media West conference and exhibition in Los Angeles. more

Innovative new purchasing channel offers even more third-party workflow tools with special reduced-pricing offer

ASSIMILATE (www.assimilateinc.com), the leading provider of powerful post-production tools for digital workflows, has announced “Cyber Monday”, a 24-hour sales event on 28th November 2011 at its online Store (http://store.assimilateinc.com), when significant price reductions will be offered across a range of ASSIMILATE and third-party products.

Coinciding with “Cyber Monday”, ASSIMILATE has expanded the Store with the addition of Drastic Technologies’ MediaReactor plug-in for ASSIMILATE, and MediaNXS video capture and playback software. The MediaReactor plug-in allows SCRATCH and SCRATCH Lab artists to read nearly 100 media formats and file types with no out-of-application transcoding, saving time and streamlining workflows. MediaNXS combines advanced capture and playback functionality with media import and export. MediaNXS offers wide file format support, video monitoring tools and timeline editing. Free trial versions of each product will also be available on the Store.

The ASSIMILATE Store is a unique online marketplace where artists can discover, trial and purchase ASSIMILATE’s popular SCRATCH Lab workflow tool for production and VFX dailies. Also available is a growing range of third-party software and hardware accessories that boost the performance of SCRATCH and SCRATCH Lab across many areas of professional content creation – including DI color grading, 3D stereo, VFX, on-location and post-production workflows, subtitling and image-restoration. These now include products from 3ality Technica, Drastic Technologies, GenArts, RE:Vision Effects, 4K Co. Ltd, HS-Art, Calibrated Software and Tangent. ASSIMILATE-branded merchandise is also available.

The “Cyber Monday” promotion, on Monday 28th November, offers at least 15% price reductions on most products at the ASSIMILATE Store. Customers can purchase SCRATCH Lab at a discount in the ASSIMILATE Store by obtaining a coupon code from their local reseller, a list of whom can be found at www.assimilateinc.com/partners/resellers. Reseller coupons are available immediately, but can only be redeemed for the discount on “Cyber Monday”. Once a customer enters the code into the online order form, the discount is automatically applied to their order.

“The ASSIMILATE Store is quickly becoming the go-to place to explore the SCRATCH ecosystem,” said Steve Bannerman, VP of marketing at ASSIMILATE. “We’re excited to add MediaReactor and MediaNXS from Drastic Technologies to the growing list of third-party products available on the Store. These new powerful workflow tools, combined with our “Cyber Monday” sales event, give artists a unique opportunity to significantly extend the capabilities of their SCRATCH and SCRATCH Lab systems at even more attractive prices.”
 
New additions to the ASSIMILATE Store:

Drastic Technologies – MediaReactor: SCRATCH and SCRATCH Lab already support the most commonly used file formats. The MediaReactor Windows/MAC OSX plug-in for ASSIMILATE reads nearly 100 file formats, writes the most important file formats and dramatically extends the capabilities of SCRATCH and SCRATCH Lab in production and post-production pipelines. With no out-of-application transcoding step, MediaReactor saves time and streamlines the vast majority of workflows. For the complete list of supported formats, codecs and metadata visit: http://store.assimilateinc.com/products.php?product=MediaReactor-Workstation-for-ASSIMILATE.
 
Drastic Technologies – MediaNXS: professional video capture and playback software with a range of file types, codecs and video tools. MediaNXS provides HD-SDI/2K/4K capture and playback for SCRATCH and SCRATCH Lab, and includes import/export, waveform/vectorscope, and clip list/timeline/EDL features. With MediaNXS users can create the files they need in the formats best-suited to their workflow, and use SCRATCH or SCRATCH Lab to trim, convert and conform them before outputting to tape. More information on MediaNXS can be found at: http://store.assimilateinc.com/products.php?product=MediaNXS.

James Brooks, development/OEM support, Drastic Technologies, commented: “All production begins with acquisition. Drastic MediaReactor and MediaNXS offer digital artists unmatched flexibility in media capture and translation. We’re delighted to deliver our superior price/performance to SCRATCH artists via the ASSIMILATE Store. It truly is a one-of-a-kind outlet that offers an excellent way for artists to discover and explore products like ours and then buy whenever they’re ready.”

ASSIMILATE is the premier provider of digital workflow and post-production tools, that have proven essential to the successful creation of thousands of studio and independent features, television shows, music videos and corporate video productions. The company’s SCRATCH products, running on Windows and Mac OSX, are the heartbeat of today’s most demanding digital post-production and dailies workflows for 2D and stereo 3D productions. They equip Directors, DPs and Artists with the state-of-the-art, intuitive, data-centric solutions they need to meet the continual challenges of increased creativity and productivity amid ever-shrinking budgets. ASSIMILATE’s SCRATCH data-centric DI system, is the most comprehensive, end-to-end cinema and broadcast imaging tool for playback, conform, editing, color grading, compositing and finishing of RED and other digital workflows. SCRATCH Lab delivers a comprehensive toolset for the review, versioning, color correction, conform and output of on-set or VFX dailies. ASSIMILATE, a privately held company, with headquarters in Santa Clara, California, USA, offices in London, UK, Groningen, NL and Beijing City, CN markets its products worldwide via a global reseller network. To learn more please visit www.assimilateinc.com.

Drastic Technologies is a leading-edge developer of digital video solutions for the broadcast, sports playback, production, graphics and scientific communities. Drastic products include standalone software, SDKs, and digital disk recorders for clip control, VTR emulation, external device control, digital media playback and file conversion. Visit www.drastictech.com for more information.

November 16, 2011 — Markham, Ontario: Digital Rapids announced today that the company has joined Akamai’s NetAlliance Solution Partner Program. Akamai has expanded its partner program to encompass the digital media ecosystem through the NetAlliance Solution Partner Program, with Digital Rapids joining as one of the new expansion’s inaugural members.

“We’ve worked closely with Akamai on projects from live streaming of high-profile events to large-scale, multi-screen initiatives for some of the world’s largest media and entertainment enterprises, and we’re pleased to be further strengthening our relationship through the NetAlliance Solution Partner Program,” said Brick Eksten, President of Digital Rapids Corporation. “We look forward to continuing our success with Akamai as our customers tackle new opportunities and new challenges in the rapidly expanding media landscape.” more

Hollywood, CA – 3D Film Factory, the leader in professional, affordable 3D camera rigs, introduces the world’s lightest, most affordable, hand-held 3D rig – the 3D Bullet Rig. Ready to “Load & Shoot”, this versatile 3D system is literally unshakable for handheld, Steadicam, Easyrig, or tripod filming.

Priced at a fraction of other professional 3D rigs (under $5K), this compact beam-splitter rig is the perfect solution for location, reality, or action 3D filmmaking. It’s features actually surpass that of other more expensive rigs. For more information on the 3D Bullet Rig visit www(dot)3DFilmFactory(dot)com

“The 3D Bullet Rig is going to take 3D production to a whole new level. I love this rig. It’s incredibly light, rock steady and most of all – it’s really easy to shoot with from your shoulder, or tripod. This rig is a 3D filmmakers dream, very versatile“, said the company’s veteran stereographer Keith Driver. “Most 3D rigs are bulky, expensive and worst of all – tripod bound. They require a crew to operate. We’ve shot 3D projects in Africa, the Middle East, Hollywood soundstages, you name it we’ve done it in 3D. And we realized we needed a more mobile 3D rig. A 3D rig you could just pick up and shoot with. This is the 3D Bullet Rig.”

The 3D Bullet Rig makes handheld 3D filming effortless and smooth by transferring the weight to your waist and shoulder. Each 3D rig includes a spring-loaded suspension rod, comfortable weight displacement belt and adjustable, padded shoulder mount. The result is hours of mobile, handheld 3D filming capability. In addition, the rig features detachable rubber hand grips for easy manoeuvring and a standard tripod mounting plate (¼-20 and ?-16 holes).

Weighing approx. 13 lbs. (5.8 kgs.) the Bullet Rig accommodates the Red Epic, Canon DSLR 5D, 7D, XF105
XF305, XH-G1, Sony F3, EX3’s, HDCP1, X5U, Z1U, Panasonic AF100, HPX250 and many other professional HD cameras.

The rig also features custom camera mounts that easily lock and load cameras into place using a standard quick-release plate from Bogen/Manfrotto. The horizontal camera mount offers IO (inter-ocular) adjustability from 0” – 3.5” (0 – 89 mm) and simple convergence movement from 0°-3°. Both functions are easily controlled using smooth, accurate finger knobs, with calibration markings. The vertical camera mount adjusts for perfect stereoscopic picture alignment by elevating and performing full x-y-z rotation (yaw, roll, tilt).

The light-weight, mirror box housing is constructed using space-age foam core plastic that’s durable, corrosion-free and substantially cooler than a metal matte box. This ensures your beam-splitter glass with its expensive coatings will stay cool on hot days. The rig itself is hand-milled employing a nearly indestructible aluminium alloy frame.

Perfect for traveling light, the entire 3D Bullet Rig is ingenuously designed to set-up and break down in a matter of minutes, packing into a small, water-tight pelican case.

As a bonus, the horizontal rail easily detaches, along with the camera mounts, transforming into a side-by-side rig 3D for wide and landscape stereography.

Our opti-prime, 50/50 beam-splitter glass is optimized to meet the demands of 3D filmmaking. See specs. Within the matte box, a simple adjustment tool allows stereographers to fine tune the glass angle from between 43° to 47°.

The outcome is simply the world’s most affordable, professional handheld 3D rig.

It should be noted that using our simple Lanc system camera operators can now synch start/stop, focus, alignment, lens shift and many other vital functions thru both cameras or individually.

The 3D Film Factory offers a complete line of 3D beam-splitter rigs intended for HD camcorders, as well as larger ENG and broadcast style camera. In addition, we offer several inexpensive side-by-side rigs and real-time 3D viewing solutions. To learn more about 3D camera rigs, 3D viewing systems, 3D production services, or 3D training workshops visit – www.3DFilmFactory.com

About the 3D Film Factory
Established in 2008 by award-winning filmmakers and veteran stereographers, the 3D Film Factory has been the worldwide leader in professional, affordable 3D camera rigs and real-time 3D monitoring solutions. In addition we provide a host of 3D production services worldwide including, stereographers ‘for hire’, 3D camera rig rental, 3D viewing systems, and 3D post, as well as intensive 3D training workshops. Former clients include ESPN, NASA, Disney, HD Cinema, Pinewood Studios and Discovery. For more information visit www.3DFilmFactory.com

November 9, 2011 — Markham, Ontario: Digital Rapids announced today that Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. is using a large-scale deployment of Digital Rapids’ StreamZHD multi-format encoding systems and the Digital Rapids Transcode Manager automated transcoding software to transform live feeds and on-demand content for delivery to multiple viewing platforms in support of Turner’s multi-screen video offerings and the pay television industry’s “TV Everywhere” initiatives.

An array of StreamZHD encoders are used by Turner’s Network Operations group for ingest and encoding of live sources, while a distributed, multi-node Digital Rapids Transcode Manager deployment transcodes high volumes of mezzanine source files into a wide range of output formats for VOD and viewing on devices from PCs to mobile phones and tablets.

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