Archive of the Display/Presentation Category

Ensemble Designs is here with 28 products, celebrating 20 years and good health, says Ensemble’s founder David Wood, (who is also a DSLR fan like so many on the show floor). For NAB, Ensemble brought five new 3G products in their BrightEye line and nine 3G products in their Avenue line, from an electrical to optical convertor to automatic gain control for audio and sync changeover. Avenue also gets new conversion, protection and TSG tools and two new ASI/310M convertors. more

AmberFin iCR Software is an end to end system that ingests a range of video formats, pre-processes and encodes the video, performs quality control and then delivers the files in the necessary formats to a range of delivery options. The feature set is so broad that it would take weeks to understand and assess the individual features, so I focused my time with the company in several key areas.

In terms of ingest, the system is one of the few that can input footage and convert it to Avid DNxHD and QuickTime format for Final Cut Pro, getting editors up and running as quickly as possible. The system can also start processing and encoding during ingest, which obviously shortens overall processing time. In addition, AmberFin uses industry standard capture hardware and storage, so users aren’t locked into buying expensive proprietary systems like some of their competitors. more

Maya artist Bryan Thombs is walking the floor for his day job at Picture Mill. Specifically he’s looking for stereo 3D technology (he’s come to the right place). Hollywood-based Picture Mill is moving into stereo 3D title sequences, prologues and epilogues, and trailers to expand on their existing work in the same vein in 2D for clients including Paramount, Disney, Universal, Spyglass, Red Wagon, Nickelodeon and the BBC.

Bryan also made the titles for the Reel Impressions showcases that have been running all week in the Central Hall Content Theater. These showcases feature the Cinematography, Graphics, and Visual Effects work from millimeter’s Reel-Exchange members and NAB attendees.

See the Picture Mill reel here.

Reel-Exchange Community Manager Craig Erpelding talked with Jon Robbins of Rhozet about transcoding at NAB 2009.

Maybe it’s because he’s Canadian, but Dave Ross, CEO of Ottawa-based Ross Video, appears entirely immune from recession fear or NAB shrinkage concerns. In fact, his company’s busy booth (SU1807) is chock full of new product, expansion beyond the company’s core live broadcast production switchers, acquisition announcements, news of the hiring of additional sales staff, and, according to Ross, good profit estimates. He jokes that the company, started decades ago by his father, Canadian broadcast veteran John Ross, is “an overnight success after 35 years.”

But, more seriously, he suggests Ross has strategically tried to “grow ourselves out of the Recession,” and counsels that companies need to build “recession products before a recession hits—make a range of products, so that people will need something out of that range in both good times and lean times.” more

Focus Enhancements sells an assortment of products in multiple markets, so it’s always a fun visit at NAB. The coolest item this year was an upgrade of the company’s popular FS-5 DTE recorder, which includes the ability to create MPEG-4 proxy files after recording for preview on the FS-5’s color LCD. MPEG-4 is a good choice, since you can obviously play the clips on a computer, upload them to a video sharing site or display them on most mobile devices.

Also new is the ability to wirelessly log clip metadata using any WiFi capable device like an iPod. You can even link multiple FS-5 units together and add the same metadata to all units simultaneously. FS-5 version 2.0 should ship in May and will be free to all customers who purchased the FS-5 between February 2009 and June 30, 2009. Otherwise, the upgrade will cost $39. more

From Mix’s Kevin Becka

Avid’s big NAB 2009 news has to do with identity and structure. The parent company will now share its new audio/video centric logo with Digidesign, Pinnacle Systems, M-Audio, and Sibelius. Continue reading at MixBlog.

More coverage from MixBlog

Judging from the presentation of its new Entero rear-projection videowall product, Christie (booth SL7219) has moved LED techology onto a whole new application field. The company is billing Entero as the world’s first LED-based (SXGA+ and WUXGA resolutions) wall display system, geared toward control rooms, in particular. Christie officials told me their advances in solid state LED technology have allowed, at last, this form of illumination to be bright enough to work nicely for a video wall application. The bright, colorful display at their booth appears to back up the claim.

And because it does work, the company has essentially produced a wall display that does without lamps, filters, or even color wheels, relying only on red/green/blue LED’s firing in sequence, and is extremely low maintenance for up to 50,000 hours of punishing use. The company suggests this could be a big deal for facilities that need to run video and data almost 24-7, like command and control centers, particularly in these difficult economic times. more

At the JVC booth at NAB 2009 we stopped by to get a look at the JVC HM700 and HM100 camcorders, as well as its new 4K concept camera and monitor. Check it out.

Press Release

The Christie LW650, one of the brightest WXGA, single-lamp 3LCD projectors on the market, will be introduced at NAB at Christie’s booth, #SL7912. The new projector’s native WXGA (1366 x 800) resolution provides a wide screen format image for full-screen compatibility with the latest laptops and monitors. Read on at The Briefing Room

More 2009 NAB Show news from The Briefing Room