Archive of the New Products Category

I call Thursday NAB’s “rump” day, a short, casual afternoon of thin crowds, when tired booth personnel slip away to visit competitors and otherwise view the show floor for themselves. It’s my favorite day.

For instance, I swung by RED’s tent and found no lines. I stepped immediately inside and like those before me, ogled the aluminum prototypes of the upcoming 5K Epic (the small boxy one) and 3K Scarlet (“3K for $3K”) rotating behind glass. more

Serendipity on the show floor makes for impromptu sessions. Tuesday I ran into cinematographer Bill Bennett in front of the Sony F35 parked on a dolly in front of Brand Pro’s booth. Not much to say about the F35–35 means its newly developed single CCD is the size of a Super 35mm film frame–except that it’s as impressively thought out as last year’s F23 on which it’s based, and like its double first cousin, Panavision’s Genesis, did once, it sets a new highwater mark in 4:4:4 RGB high-end digital cinematography cameras.

Well, for $250,000 without lens, it ought to. A lot to pay in weak dollars for tighter depth-of-field and better dynamic range than the F23, plus 1-50 fps variable speed in 4:4:4 (compared to F23’s 1-30). But you do get every pixel you pay for. This is a full-on 1920×1080 RGB image—no Bayer interpolation of phantom R and B pixels here, no sir. Leave that to lowly CMOS cameras like the REDs, Silicon Imaging 2Ks and Minis, and Arri D21s (at NAB upgraded from D20 with new 2K RAW data output mode). more

Monday’s dharma at NAB was about bigness and smallness, and I’m still thinking about it.

Yesterday Tim Robbins gave the keynote speech. Ever since FCC Chairman Newton Minow gave his famous “vast wasteland” speech at NAB in 1961, it seems NAB has played it safe. Past keynotes I’ve attended have featured Ronald Reagan (attacked on stage by an ice sculpture-wielding assailant, yards from where I was sitting), Barry Diller, Richard Parsons of Time-Warner, James Cameron and the like. Safe Republican choices, not likely to get former NAB CEO and good ol’ boy Eddie Fritts in any Washington hot water.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the Convention Center this year.

How Tim Robbins got invited to give the keynote is anyone’s guess. But there he was, on stage, facing a large morning audience of radio and TV broadcasters, cable owners and mixed-media types. more

Back from the show. I like taking a day or so after my last postings to look through everything I’ve collected, selecting some last items to include in a final wrapup. While that’s not a lot of time for deep reflection, I am at least far enough away from the hype of the moment to enable a bit of perspective.

At the NAB press office earlier this week I overheard an NAB official talk to the editor of one of the leading trade mags. He was asked about what he thought would be among the most exciting developments of the show. Instead, he begged off answering, stating that as far as he was concerned it was all just a rehash. He could find nothing new or interesting worth commenting on. more

After AJA turned heads last year with Io HD, it seemed IO had gotten new preeminence and respect. Now Matrox brings the MX02 into the mix, an elegant, portable tool kit of Mac IO for Mac and MacBook Pros. Native support for XDCAM, XDCAM HD, XDCAM EX, and P2. Not ProRes dependent (though it will support ProRes). Available in July at $1595.

Also of note at Matrox, the RT.X2 LE at $1095, so the cheapest realtime HD editing we’ve ever seen. Works with Adobe Premeiere Pro CS3 and CS3 Production Premium. Now available through dealers worldwide.

When a company with a product line as big and deep as Autodesk makes its NAB presentation, you’ll forgive them for thinking like an auto company and describing the updated apps as their 2009 product lineup.

Trevor Boyer has already posted notes about Autodesk’s Sunday press conference. While each of the major products announced have plenty of notable and usable improvements, I’ll vote for lower price points and ability to work with compressed media as the most significant moves that herald future trends. Smoke 2009’s $64,000 tab for a turnkey hardware/software finishing machine–storage included–is a great breakthrough. For the first time, (fiscal) hope is offered to those many mid-level shops which blanch when faced with six-figure offerings from Autodesk, Quantel, et.al. (At present, this was described as an introductory price available through July 21, 2008. It’s a little unclear what happens after that; maybe if enough new buyers are attracted, the price will hold.) more

Cinnafilm, an emerging force in the development of polished GPU parallel processing, unveiled the Cinnafilm HD1 real-time film look system, a major breakthrough in film look effects for HD digital video. The new solution is the result of over four years of dedicated research to harness graphics card parallel processing. Cinnafilm HD1 is intended for creative professionals who wish to easily and cost-effectively apply the look of film to nearly any digital video source, while maintaining the highest levels of production quality and visual integrity. Cinnafilm HD1 streamlines transfer and rendering processes to provide a solution that is fast, efficient, and affordable. Filmmakers can now quickly achieve a studio celluloid look at a digital video price. Read on at The Briefing Room

More 2008 NAB Show news from The Briefing Room

With the increasing use of capable high-end digital cameras, the ability to manipulate data as soon as possible looks to yield great benefits in speeding production as well as ensuring delivery of the directors vision. UK-based FilmLight made a move in this increasingly competitive space–Arri, da Vinci, and LaserPacific are just a few of the companies working on products and proposed solutions–with the introduction of Truelight On-Set at the show.

The company has made a name for itself as one as the leaders in color management technology in post. On-Set takes that capability to the earlier stages of a production, enabling the director and DP to set a look during the shoot that will serve as the foundation for color correction in post. more

While portable HDDs are turning up on HDV camcorders around the show floor, the promise of portable 4K field production came a bit closer with the pending release of Codex Portable from Codex Digital. Now on display in the Band Pro booth, the Portable (scheduled to deliver this June) is shown capturing 1080p, 4:4:4 data from a Sony F23 camera. The lightweight disk recorder– a pricier solid-state version will also be available at some point this year– is about the size of the toaster and records HD, 2K, and 4K from Sony, ARRI, Panavision, Panasonic, Thomson, and Dalsa cameras. more

In a place of honor at the Vinten booth, a slowly turning display holds one of Sachtler’s original tripods. Tripods are workaday devices that rarely get much attention. Here, it might be worthwhile to pause for a moment, just to consider what we’ve gained.

After all it was only in 1958 in Munich, Germany that cameraman Wendelin Sachtler–who also had turns as an inventor and actor–devised a dampened gyro system that helped add a professional gloss to location production. Up to this date there were few alternatives for camera head stabilization in the field. The heavy film cameras of the day employed massive geared heads requiring complex geared assemblies that need to mesh just so in order to work correctly. (Careful! Don’t strip the gears!) Meanwhile, lighter 16mm and 35mm cameras used freely moving heads or ones employing friction elements that offered a regular amount of resistance. That bit of resistance or drag made it easier to pull off a smooth pan or tilt, as it gave motion in any particular direction a countering force to move against. more