Two Big Topics will be 3D and 4K but a Bigger Topic will be 401Ks Stated or unstated the number one topic at this year’s National Association of Broadcasters convention will be the weakened global economy. No company is completely unaffected and while 3D and 4K workflow will be hot topics and there will be the usual technology and business announcements the impact of limited available resources of both money and manpower will color everything. Here is the second part of our preview of technology highlights to expect at the show. Cine-tal will debut the latest addition to its award-winning Cinemage Intelligent Display System the Cinemage B Series which comes in three sizes 42 inch 23 inch and 19 inch. Featured in the 42 inch and 23 inch models is a wide color gamut 10-bit display capable of delivering colors in the DCI color gamuts. The Cinemage B Series also supports an enhanced user interface and modular control panel. Integrated into the Cinemage B series is the company’s cineSpace color management system. The cineSpace color management system provides precision in monitor calibration and color pre-visualization. Cinemage is the only monitoring system utilizing an optimized combination of 3D LUTs 1D LUTs and color matrices to provide the highest precision of monitor calibration display system emulation and color pre-visualization. Fujinon will introduce new PL Mount zoom lenses of which the first is the 18-85mm T2.0 (model number HK4.7x18F). It has an anticipated May delivery date. This lens will be shown on working cameras in Fujinon’s booth and in Sony’s booth. Three other zoom lenses in the PL series include: the 14.5-45mm T2.0 24-180mm T2.6 and 75-400mm T2.8 - T4.0 - with an anticipated delivery of December 2009. Fujinon’s PL Series was developed with an advanced optics design to maximize image capture capabilities of current and rapidly emerging 35mm motion picture film and digital cinematography cameras. Fujinon’s series of four zoom lenses provide unprecedented focal range choices from 14.5 to 400mm with fast T stop performance and exceptional optical quality. Uniform front barrel size (136mm) and gear placement with consistent color matched image quality in four focal ranges facilitate quick lens changes efficient production and creative expression. Matthews Studio Equipment will highlight the news that it has recently signed an exclusive distribution deal with California-based Intel-A-Jib. “We are excited to bring Intel-A-Jib a unique modular jib system that can go from zero to ten feet in two minutes without tools to our national and international clients ” says Robert Kulesh vice president sales and marketing for Matthews Studio Equipment. “The Intel-A-Jib is manufactured using the latest techniques processes and equipment resulting in the superior quality that Matthews equipment is known for.” Intel-A-Jib features an innovative V-Lock Connector which makes assembly and disassembly simple and fast without wires or cable. The one-piece X-Box Extrusion offers superior anti-deflection and anti-torsion properties resulting in a lightweight jib with a great load capacity and smooth operation. The Intel-A-Jib can accept virtually any camera package. Gefen will unveil its new AV Cinema Scaler Pro I and II both interface with all digital cinema projectors and integrate flawlessly with digital cinema audio systems. The scalers are designed to support digital cinema theaters which are adding pre-show advertising and other alternative content using audio/video sources such as DVDs PS3s Blu-ray players and computers. The Gefen AV Cinema Scaler Pro I and II both enable HDMI DVI VGA and component video inputs and both digital and analog audio inputs to be output in scalable DVI-I format with 7.1 analog audio. Both deliver 7.1 Dolby digital and Dolby pro logic audio that provide high quality sound. The difference between the two products is their audio support using the DB-25 7.1 AES delivering either analog or digital formats. On both products the video is output in DVI-I format with cinema quality image scaling accessed and controlled by the LCD display or front-panel selectors. RS-232 control allows for simple automation and control. Audio delay black barring audio isolation transformers and advanced mode scaling combine to make these scalers top quality performers. In many cases this audio capability will allow the theater operator to replace other audio processors that had traditionally been required ” says Robert Lemer director of business development for Gefen. “The units can either process the audio or they will act as a “pass through.” Both units also offer audio delay to ensure complete lip sync capability. Video can be up and down scaled in high definition resolutions to 2K OR 1080p full HD. With full HDCP-compliance both rack mountable scalers enable compatibility and performance with protected content. However non-HDCP compliant projectors can use the component video input to bypass this functionality and still perform at cinema quality levels. Doremi will showcase its latest contribution in 3D technology with the new GXH-3D product. The compact 3D encoder/decoder enables 2D equipment to work with 3D content. This is a useful and timely innovation with the increasing popularity of theatrical and home video 3D content. The GHX-3D is a simple economic way for post houses to expand their 3D capabilities with existing playback hardware. The GHX-3D encodes two separate left and right eye streams into a single 2D stream that can be recorded on a standard 2D tape machine or video server. Then the single encoded stream is fed into the GHX-3D which will generate a 3D stream to feed a variety of 3D display devices. The 3D stream is generated in several ways including two separate SDI links (left eye and right eye) one SDI HDMI or DVI stream using Side by Side Checkerboard and other standard 3D formats. Additionally in conjunction with Doremi’s Asset Manager software 3D content can be generated from image sequences to convert Doremi’s Nugget and V1-UHD hardware into 3D playback devices. The GHX-3D is designed for live events theme parks museums and other presentation venues. Neo 2 the latest version of Grass Valley’s Edius Neo video editing software promises improved performance a wider toolset and a full array of powerful Blu-ray high-definition disc production capabilities that independent video professionals and small production companies have requested during the past year. Edius Neo 2 shares the feature set and functionality of the proven Edius 5.1 software and can handle any type of SD or HD project with ease. It includes a fast flexible user interface real-time editing and conversion of different aspect ratios (4:3/16:9) and real-time editing and conversion of different frame rates (such as 60i 50i and 24p). The new Neo 2 software package also provides nonlinear editing features common to all Edius solutions such as multi-track mixed-format HD/SD editing chroma keying titling and DVD authoring. New options include the Grass Valley Firecoder Blu board for accelerated Blu-ray output support and the Grass Valley HDSpark PCI Express board that offers real-time HDMI-based video preview with separate audio output for high-quality monitoring. “Grass Valley is leveraging the power and flexibility of its Edius software tools and bringing them to a wide range of customers that need to complete all types of projects ” says Jeff Rosica senior vice president of Grass Valley. “Our goal is always to help those using video to achieve their goals in the most cost-effective way. The new Neo 2 editing package is a great example of the success of that strategy.” The new Grass Valley Edius Neo 2 software is available now for $199. Existing Neo customers can upgrade their software for $99 and can also upgrade to a full version of Edius for $599. Codex Digital will debut its Codex Transfer Station a complementary product to it Portable recorder. Codex designs and manufactures hard disk and solid-state workflow equipment. Products include high-resolution media recorders which capture at up to 4K uncompressed resolutions plus a range of media management stations to manage the entire workflow of a production from set into post. “Production and post have traditionally been separate artificial activities in need of a unified flow ” says company co-founder Paul Bamborough. “We bridge that gap making production and post seamless. New at NAB we’re showing a complete portable recording and dailies transfer system. These products allow you to record whatever you want compressed or uncompressed to rapidly turn that material into whatever files you want on a daily basis and deliver more conveniently than ever to whoever needs it in production or post.” Explaining further Bamborough says “When you record to film or to tape you’re faced with roadblocks rather than a workflow – processing copying recopying ingesting synching logging. These are all time-consuming costly steps. With Codex you get all the deliverables you want – like take-home copies effects and editorial finishing files complete metadata archive copies – all on-demand all faster than real-time and all for free. Our Portable and Transfer Station abolish the traditional delays and intermediate steps that hamstring productivity.” MTI Film will debut a new option for its award-winning Control Dailies solution. The company says the DA Head module for Control Dailies enables the faster-than-real-time power of Control Dailies to facilitate the processing of digitally acquired dailies from virtually any source. Control Dailies for Digital Acquisition supports Red One Panasonic P2 Panavision Genesis Viper FilmStream and Arri D-21 digital cinema cameras as well as media in DPX file format. Its new DA Head option for Control Dailies is available for delivery beginning in April. Control Dailies DA is available as a standalone system or the DA Head module can be integrated into an existing Control Dailies system. File-based cameras and scanners require powerful hardware and software processing to prepare raw recordings for editorial and finishing says MTI Film product manager David McClure. Our new DA Head option for Control Dailies is the answer providing fast high quality conversion to HD or SD from Red Code and other file formats directly to the Control Dailies SAN.” “Color correction is applied on the output and it's done in real-time with no time lost for rendering says McClure. The workflow can be configured to apply or not to apply color correction to individual output streams. You can create a high definition master tape for archival purposes while at the same time producing color corrected streams for editorial and dailies screening. CineForm will unveil renderless color correction tool First Light which will become part of its professional Neo and Prospect product families on both Windows and Mac. First Light uses CineForm’s Active Metadata architecture to add or adjust color information such as white balance saturation controls and even 3D LUTs as metadata “layers” on top of the base image without flattening or rendering the file. Carrying color adjustments as metadata preserves fidelity of the source images the company says while maintaining compatibility with all AVI and QuickTime applications on Windows and Mac. “CineForm is constantly working to eliminate pain points that plague the editorial workflow - anything that stands between the editor and the creative process ” says David Taylor CEO and co-founder of CineForm Inc. “First Light embodies the flexibility of our Active Metadata architecture applied to the color correction process. By eliminating image-degrading operations like rendering and replacing them with real-time color adjustments that intelligently protects original imagery we enable editors to experiment more freely and confidently with color to find the right mood and tone for a scene without disturbing image fidelity.” CineForm First Light will be available shortly as a public beta release within Neo HD/4K on Windows and Mac and Prospect HD/4K v4 on Windows. First Light will be included at no additional charge within CineForm products. DVS will highlight its flagship product the Clipster a digital intermediate tool that generates digital video packages by processing the preferred versions of video formats audio files and subtitles. The digital video packages function as digital master for all possible output formats. DCI Mastering for 3D projects will also be presented. The Foundry will showcase Nuke 5.2 the latest release of its compositing software featuring new pre-comp tools Python UI and metadata improvements plus support for 3D LUTs and OpenGL GLSL shaders Blackmagic cards and a Red R3D Redcode format-reader enabling full 32-bit floating point processing. The Foundry is also continuing development of Ocula its range of stereoscopic plug-ins with the release of new tools later in the year. Ocula is being used by Weta on James Cameron’s Avatar and by Digital Domain on Tron 2.0. Cinnafilm will unveil its new software suite Dark Energy and its GPU image-processing engine Pixel Strings in a suite in the Renaissance Hotel. Cinnafilm has partnered with Digital Film Central to develop de-grain de-noise and clean-up functions and will unveil these new capabilities as additions to Dark Energy. The software platform offers format conversion restoration optimization enhancement film simulation and retiming on a single workstation. Cinnafilm and DFC worked together to co-develop Dark Energy’s advanced restoration and optimization modules enabling grain reduction and noise reduction functionality for DI image quality and HD mastering. Iridas will present the latest versions of SpeedGrade MetaRender and FrameCycler. Sample Digital will introduce its new digital production workflow product D3. The focus of the Norwegian company T-VIPS will be its JPEG2000 video codec which is being used by major networks to do such things as transport live content transmit prime time programming and facilitate remote off-line editing of HD content. The company will be making the case that JPEG2000 achieves better performance than MPEG. The company claims to be the first to design launch and deploy JPEG2000-based video transport over IP and the company says they do so in a wide array of environments: studio-to-studio media exchange professional broadcast contribution in-house signal distribution and routing post-production and live event coverage. Counterpoint Systems will showcase the latest version of Media Maestro Suite its rights and royalty management solution for entertainment content. MediaMaestro provides content owners with tools they need to manage rights agreements and conduct royalty accounting across all distribution channels including web-based and mobile outlets. The system maximizes return on content by ensuring that it is fully utilized and exploited. At the same time it reduces overhead costs by automating royalty calculations reducing manual tasks and integrating with other business systems. It also provides the ability to track and analyze content revenues for better strategic decision-making. Today more than ever companies are seeking to gain maximum value from their creative assets says Counterpoint Systems CEO Amos Biegun. Media Maestro is the definitive solution providing a way for companies to manage complex rights agreements in an increasingly diversified media market. It frees accounting staffs from many time-consuming and unprofitable tasks and prevents revenue leakage by ensuring that fees are collected and payments made accurately completely and on a timely basis. Civolution will feature its latest advances in forensic tracking and identification technologies for pre-release digital cinema payTV online content delivery and our major developments in broadcast monitoring and Internet monetization solutions. Cinnafilm www.cinnafilm.com CineForm www.cineform.com Cine-tal www.cine-tal.com Civolution www.civolution.com Codex Digital www.codexdigital.com Counterpoint Systems www.counterp.com Digital Film Central www.digitalfilmcentral.com Digital Video Systems www.dvs.de Doremi www.doremilabs.com The Foundry www.thefoundry.co.uk Fujinon www.fujinonbroadcast.com Grass Valley www.grassvalley.com Iridas www.iridas.com MTI Film www.mtifilm.com Matthews Studio Equipment www.msegrip.com T-VIPS www.t-vips.com
