Archive of the Video Editing Systems Category

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

Artbeats didn’t just bring three new collections to NAB–a gorgeous ultra slo-mo reel, new air-to-air (shot with Phantom) and energy aerials, and an Environmental Impact series.

The company also reinforced their intention to be a creative and technical resource for those using stock footage with an on-booth demo theater running continuous series of tutorials on topics including Steve Holmes on compositing fire effects in AE, DVD menus, lower third design, and using ProRes 422.

For those who aren’t at the show check out Artbeats free downloadable tutorials at artbeats.com.

Autodesk no longer has to get graphics support from one source and SDI support from others. With the integration of Nvidia’s Quadro FX 5600 SDI, new efficiencies open up in the workflow for Smoke 2009, Inferno 2009, Flame 2009, and Flint 2009, as well as the Backdraft Conform 2009 systems.

The Quadro 5600 SDI card (a graphics card and an uncompressed SDI daughter board) provides two channels (fill or key) of 8-, 10- or 12-bit uncompressed SDI in 2K, HD, and SD formats, analog and digital house synch and ancillary data, for support of virtual sets and other live compositing applications and direct connection to broadcast monitors, switchers, tape decks or SDI projectors.

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

Here’s a quickie. Sorenson Squeeze is one of my go to programs for encoding to multiple formats on both Mac and Windows computers. They’ve just launched version 5, which appears to have some useful improvements, like the ability to encode multiple files simultaneously.

There’s also VC-1 support, and the ability to create audience presets that can incorporate audio, video, filters and distribution, which should really help speed some workflow. As always, Sorenson offers a trial version, which you should definitely check out.

EditShare unveiled their new product line at the NAB 2008 Exhibition. Complete Collaboration introduces breakthrough turnkey solutions for managing and storing media from acquisition to archive. Complete Collaboration includes EditShare Flow, EditShare Storage Series, EditShare XStream Series and EditShare Ark. Visitors to the NAB 2008 Exhibition, held in Las Vegas, NV from April 14th through 17th, 2008, can view the new Complete Collaboration product line at booth SL9820. Read on at The Briefing Room

More 2008 NAB Show news from The Briefing Room

Red Giant Software is mostly known for its Magic Bullet product, but I’ve worked primarily with their InstantHD product, with increasing success. At the show, I met with Sean Safreed, co-founder and manager, to see the latest product and came away impressed.

Briefly, the product is a plug-in for Premiere Pro, After Effects and Final Cut Pro, that’s designed to scale low resolution source footage to higher resolutions, say when you need to incorporate DV footage into an HDV project. The first version didn’t work with interlaced footage, so didn’t fit my need at all. The second version, which I reviewed here, worked pretty well but the interface was too confusing. This release, called Instant HD Pro, which should be available this summer for $399, should improve both quality and usability. more

There was something of a Yogi Berra moment at the Hard Rock Cafe on Sunday when Avid’s new executive VP and then the new CEO took the stage to pledge that this time we’re going to get it right.

Oh no, I thought, not another set of promises about working well with others and thinking outside the box. Well, we got those promises again. And yes there were some snickers around the floor of Hard Rock’s music venue (Avid’s traditional space over their years at NAB) at inappropriate times from the hundreds in the audience of users along with a smattering of press.

After all, neither CEO Gary Greenfield nor Kirk Arnold, executive vp and gm of Avid Video, have any video industry experience. (Give Avid’s board credit though–both of these very recent hires have solid reps for turning around high tech companies.) more

For those Mental Ray users out there with questions about what will happen with the Mental Images line, I don’t have answers, yet. Officially, neither does Nvidia’s Dominck Spina. Yet. But as you can imagine, it’s sort of an embarrassment of rendering riches at Nvidia now; work is underway to design the best future for both Gelato and the Mental Images products. It seems inevitable that those futures will change, given Nvidia’s opportunity to deploy both. Since Nvidia acquired Mental Images in December, the focus, Spina says has been analyzing the very different roadmaps and build new roadmaps. Juxtapaosing IP, inevitably changes both roadmaps, especially since the two companies were pursuing very different rendering technologies. Complementary, Spina seems to think, but different enough to suggest there is a new best way to go forward for both Gelato and Mental Ray. Both…being the operative word.

Spina himself is only about a year into advancing Nvidia’s goals for GPU rendering for Gelato among other things. So the opportunity to put these two great graphics leaders together is I am sure a big job. Not only do the Mental Images IP, technology, and team have to be integrated with the Nvidia, but the Mental Images OEMs must also factor in the merge. As a reporter I wish I knew more.