Archive for April 14th, 2008

After years of hearing about it, we’ve learned that we at least aught to be open to using metadata, even if we’re not too clear about what it is or where it fits in with our day-to-day work life.

At the show, a number of new and upgraded products are making us think we better get with the program.

GridIron Software’s GridIron Flow offers a pretty slick solution. Due to hit public beta in a few months, it still managed to win a Best of Show at Macworld 2008. It’s digital content management software for those working on graphic design, web, and video projects. The software (Mac and PC) tracks the design process by creating a graphic image file to represent the relationship between the software on a computer and the files that software creates. more

Continuing my quest for knowledge about the world of digital cinematography today, i hunted down Dalsa’s president, Rob Hummel. Rob’s a breath of fresh air in these discussions in the sense that he cheerfully concedes his own product(s) are not yet perfected, and that there are lots of valid opinions besides his own regarding the ongoing debates over 4k, form factor, sensor engineering, and so forth. At the same time, he’s breathing optimism right now about the coming year and Dalsa’s prospects for further infiltrating the feature film world at long last.

To sum it in a nutshell, Rob concedes he had to spend much of his first year and a half on the job reorganizing what was called Dalsa Digital Cinema. He says he simply folded the unit back into Dalsa Digital Imaging in order to eliminate scientific, political, and development barriers between the entertainment side of the company and the rest of Dalsa’s imaging business. more

My taxi from McCarran Airport makes a beeline down Paradise Road–a corridor of clutter and billboards hawking spent acts like Bill Bixby, Jamie Farr, and “comedian of the year” Rita Rudner–to the Las Vegas Convention Center and NAB 2008. It’s good to be back.

At LVCC I encounter the weekend calm before the storm. The show floor is being readied for the thick, swarming crowds that will arrive on cue Monday. True to form, incongruities are in place too. At the LVCC’s entrance sits parked a cube truck dressed as a giant tube TV with eight-foot rabbit ears. Ohhh-kay…

What catches my eye is the message displayed on the big mock screen. “What is the digital television (DTV) transition?”, it asks the unassuming passerby. more

At the National Association of Broadcasters Convention in April, MTI Film, a world leading developer of tools used in digital film restoration, digital film mastering and digital dailies processing, will begin offering delivery of its ground-breaking new dailies deliverables product CONVEY for CONTROL Dailies. CONVEY, with its Auto-DVD module, represents a major advance in the processing of digital dailies by automating the creation of file-based deliverables—resulting in significant time savings for busy post production operations. Read on at The Briefing Room

More 2008 NAB Show news from The Briefing Room

Now that NAB 2008 is well underway, I thought it was time to get a little perspective on the lay of the land as far as the digital cinematography landscape is concerned at NAB 2008. Is the hysteria over 4k, 3D, Red, F23, F35, and all those other developments more pitched, or less pitched, than a year ago? What are the trends to watch out for?

In search of my answers, I sat down and had a nice chat with Band Pro HD guru Mike Bravin a little while ago at the Band Pro booth in the South Hall. Bravin certainly has his ear to the ground where all things HD and beyond are concerned, as the shiny new F35 at the Band Pro booth illustrates. But, overall, his take was this: things are “settling in.” People are trying to “find components” far more than they are jumping on anyone’s bandwagon. more

At NAB, IDX (known primarily for their batteries) is showing a new wireless video transmission solution that operates over an unregulated slice of the digital spectrum. The camera can be up to 150ft. from the receiver. Last year the company showed a version of CamWave that used MPEG-2 compression and resulted in about a half-second of latency; this year, well, let’s let the video speak for itself. Here’s Tony O’Connor, director of R&D for IDX, explaining the system.

GridIron Software announced that GridIron Flow software is now undergoing beta testing with a select group of creative professionals and is being demonstrated this week on both Mac OS X and Windows at the NAB Show (booth SL6220) from April 14-17. Flow is a revolutionary new approach to workflow management for creative pros that dramatically simplifies the design process for print, web, film, and video projects. This award-winning software will be available later this summer and will be priced starting at US$349. Creative professionals interested in finding out more about Flow and participating in the beta program are encouraged to register at www.gridironsoftware.com. Read on at The Briefing Room

More 2008 NAB Show news from The Briefing Room

I chatted a short time ago with 3D pioneer Vince Pace after watching his Fusion 3D presentation of sports-related material in a meeting room in the North Hall, including clips from the recent 3D telecast to a theater in Dallas of a Dallas Mavericks NBA game–the first lengthy satellite broadcast of a 3D originated live event.

Pace took time out of his busy NAB schedule today to chat with me extensively about that project, about the current state of 3D acquisition and display, and where both stereoscopic camera and display systems are heading in the next few years, not to mention the business of 3D. Pace is calling himself an “evangelist” on this topic, and insists the technology hurdles are all well on their way to being solved on both ends of the 3D chain, and therefore, it’s now about creating business models that make sense. To do that, he insists content providers like his company need to create imagery of a good enough quality to wow the industry and consumers alike. And, oh yes, Vince is totally tripped out over the work he’s doing right now with James Cameron for his upcoming 3D epic, Avatar.

Listen to my conversation with Vince Pace

–MG

Digital Rapids is showcasing its complete range of market-leading solutions for media capture, encoding, transcoding, protection, streaming, delivery and playout at the NAB Show in booth SL8724. Digital Rapids solutions enable content and rights owners to effectively repurpose their content for new platforms, devices and distribution opportunities, from IPTV and VOD to mobile phones and the Web. Continuing to set new standards in quality, productivity, flexibility and workflow efficiency, Digital Rapids is featuring new enhancements to the solutions that helped earn the company two prestigious 2008 Frost & Sullivan Awards in the World Video Encoders and Transcoders market. Read on at The Briefing Room

More 2008 NAB Show news from The Briefing Room

Gepco International is setting a new standard for multi-channel video connectors with its introduction of the V-CON Connector System. Designed to withstand the harsh environments posed by outdoor broadcast, mobile production and staging applications, the V-CON system provides the bandwidth and electrical performance for multi-channel HD interconnects in a durable, all-weather design. The connector system will be on display at NAB 2008 (Booth C6918). Read on at The Briefing Room

More 2008 NAB Show news from The Briefing Room