From Mix‘s Kevin Becka
Dolby Pulse is the newest solution from Dolby for online, mobile, and broadcast markets. It lets broadcasters deliver stereo and 5.1-channel audio at the lowest bandwidth rates while maintaining high audio quality. Continue reading at MixBlog.

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Reel-Exchange Community Manager Craig Erpelding talked with Bruno Sargeant of Autodesk about the possibilities Flare creates for studios at NAB 2009.

Press Release

Alioscopy USA, a 3D visualization technology provider, has announced its involvement with Autodesk at the 2009 National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) conference at the Las Vegas Convention Center (April 20-23,, 2009). Located at the Autodesk booth (South Hall, Booth SL 2120), Alioscopy is demonstrating finished auto-stereoscopic 3D content playing on its LCD display. Attendees can see firsthand how artists and technical directors (TDs) can use Autodesk 3ds Max software (with planned future support for Autodesk Maya and Autodesk Softimage software) and Autodesk Toxik software to help create and composite auto-stereoscopic 3D animated content for playback on Alioscopy LCD displays. Read on at The Briefing Room

More 2009 NAB Show news from The Briefing Room

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Few people have more NAB experience than Band Pro Film and Digital Chief Technology Officer Michael Bravin—he’s been attending NAB for over 30 years. During that time, Bravin has witnessed, and participated in, the rise of an entire new industry—the digital cinematography industry that Band Pro specializes in. As he did in 2008, Bravin sat down again this week with me at the Band Pro NAB booth to discuss the state of digital cinematography in 2009, and its role at NAB this year, particularly in light of the current economic downturn and reduced NAB attendance. Bravin has interesting thoughts about what new trends and opportunities will emerge from these conditions that industry-watchers should consider.

Press Release

Sonnet Technologies announced the Fusion RX1600RAID, a high-performance, high-capacity, direct-attached 3U rackmount storage system that provides data throughput speeds suitable for work with uncompressed HD video up to 2K resolution. Fusion RX1600RAID is designed to provide high reliability in demanding editing and content creation environments. With its drives formatted as a RAID 5 set, this 16-drive system delivers data transfer speeds up to 1,000MBps read and 750MBps write. An integrated SAS expander facilitates fast, easy expansion of the Sonnet system, enabling the user to connect additional 16-drive enclosures. Read on at The Briefing Room

More 2009 NAB Show news from The Briefing Room

One of the most significant issues that makes me uncomfortable with tapeless workflows is the lack of backup for my source videos. Though I seldom have to recapture my DV or HDV video once I’m finished with a project, sometimes I do, and there’s a comfort factor to knowing that the tape is there. Sure, I should dutifully back up every SD or P2 card during capture, but I should also watch what I eat and do more yoga, and you know what happened to those two resolutions.

Well, Primera Technology has gone a long way towards quieting my fears with a tapeless video production workflow created by integrating Imagine Products‘ ShotPut Pro with their line of CD/DVD/Blu-ray recorder/printers. When you install ShotPut Pro, you can designate up to three archive locations, which can include the Primera printer. more…

Press Release

Class on Demand, a provider of professional educational products for creative markets, announced it will release a new self-paced training title on the industry-leading GenArts Sapphire for Adobe After Effects and Apple Final Cut Pro. Recognized by top studios and postproduction houses for its image quality, organic look, speed and intuitive controls, GenArts Sapphire provides more than 200 state-of-the-art image processing and synthesis effects plug-ins. It has been used to create some of the most exciting visual effects in countless blockbuster and Oscar-nominated films. The new training title will be hosted by GenArts’ Todd Prives and will guide After Effects and Final Cut users all the way from basic Sapphire features through advanced tips and tricks as they actually build a broadcast quality spot. Included with the title will be complete project files for both After Effects and Final Cut Pro. Read on at The Briefing Room

More 2009 NAB Show news from The Briefing Room

According to my tests, MainConcept has the highest quality H.264 codec, with a number of well heeled licensees, like Adobe, Rhozet, and Sorenson. So it was pretty natural that I would chat with the Germany-based company about their plans for H.264 SVC, for Scalable Video Coding. What’s that, you ask?

Let’s start with the problem. As a streaming producer, you want to customize your streams for the connection speed and playback capabilities of your viewer, as well as changing line conditions. There are a number of proprietary technologies for doing this, including Multiple Bit Rate video (MBR) and Smooth Streaming from Microsoft, Dynamic Streaming from Adobe and Adaptive Streaming from Move Networks. H.264 Scalable Video Coding is an extension of the H.264 standard that does the same thing, but is a couple of years behind in development and deployment. You can read all about it here. more…

At least, I hadn’t. Broadcast International sells the patented CodecSys encoding program that utilizes multiple H.264 codecs to compress video more efficiently than a single H.264 codec could (at least that’s their claim). Why multiple codecs?

According to the company, they’ve fine tuned different H.264 codecs for different types of footage; high motion, low motion, pans to the left, tilts downward, and so on. During encoding, the company analyzes the footage, applies the codecs as necessary and then produces a single standard H.264 encoded file that should be compatible with any H.264 player. more…

Press Release

Harmonic unveiled the latest enhancements to its Rhozet Carbon Coder universal media transcoding solution. New capabilities include a dramatic performance increase in H.264 transcoding, improved output quality, improved support for Avid-based workflows and support for Microsoft Smooth Streaming. At the 2009 NAB Show, booth #SL9728, Rhozet will demonstrate these enhancements and also preview an automated quality control solution which fits into the Carbon Server workflow and minimizes the manual review of input and output files. Read on at The Briefing Room

More 2009 NAB Show news from The Briefing Room