Archive of the Workflow 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.

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.

More news on the ongoing struggle to bring enterprise IT storage into our world. Eric Newbauer, VP at Studio Network Solutions describes the company’s adventures working with IBM and EMC to bring Mac connectivity to the big storage boys including LSI, EMC, IBM, Hitachi, HP, and Sun. “They have certain features within their storage arrays that can’t be taken advantage of without our driver,” Newbauer is saying. That’s a diplomatic understatement of the technical and cultural challenges involved in bringing IT and content creation together.

The SNS’ approach takes the form of Ellipse Enterprise, and I’ll describe it just the way they do: An enterprise-class, high-availability 4-Gbps fibre channel host bus adapter for Mac OSX. Can be PCIe or PCI-X. Single-, dual-, or quad-port, claiming up to 800 MB/s per part in full duplex mode. Supports Intel-based Macs and PowerPC Macs in case you were wondering

A key competitive feature is failover support for all controllers in enterprise arrays.

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.

In my quest to identify buying momentum for Blu-ray recorders, I spoke with Alison Traxler from Primera Technology. Primera offers a range of CD/DVD/Blu-ray recorders, from the inexpensive Bravo SE (20 disc capacity, $900 street with DVD-R/$2900 street with a $500 rebate till the end of May for Blu-ray) to rack mounted, multi-burner units that are much more costly.

Primera offers Mac and Windows clients with all units and has network software for $500 that allows unlimited number of Mac and Windows clients to send record/print jobs to any of their burners.

After three days at the show, Alison reported that “people are super excited that our Blu-ray solutions work with Macs; we’re the only company shipping a Mac solution in that price range.” She also commented “we’re also seeing a lot of interest from event and wedding videographers who are producing small numbers of discs for clients willing to pay for HD quality.” more

FOR-A Corporation, a leading manufacturer of video and audio systems for the broadcast and professional video industries, will introduce expanded input/output options for its VPS series of digital switchers, including the VPS-700 GINGA and the all-new VPS-715 GINGA 1.5 M/E switcher at NAB 2008 in Las Vegas from April 14-17, 2008 (Booth #SU5220). 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

The quality of the H.264 video produced by Ateme is near legendary, and now Anytream will make the encoder availble in its encoding product line. It’s a good deal for both companies, since it will give Ateme some mindshare in the US and improve the quality of the H.264 video produced by Anystream.

Over the past few years, Ateme has evolved their focus from licensing software to buidling their own branded hardware and software encoding products, primarily sold to telcos and broadcasters overseas. Now they’re coming to the US, targeting the same types of clients. Good to see that they’re still doing some licensing software deals.