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MillimeterThe 2004 Vanguards
Dec 1, 2004 12:00 PM, By Trevor Boyer
Sixteen award winners in "the year of compressed HD."
At the end of every year, Video Systems editors and contributors pick the products that have done the most to advance video technology and put that technology in the hands of video professionals.
One of our Vanguard Awards judges labeled 2004 “the year of compressed HD.” That qualifier — “compressed” — does nothing to downplay the advances that manufacturers of professional video products brought to the market this year. Rather, it speaks to the video community's eagerness to embrace HD production and postproduction finally and completely, after years of hearing that “HD is coming.” HD really is here — in the form of a 1080i (HDV) camcorder that retails for around $3,700 — with new versions of software NLEs that can handle multiple streams of HD on the desktop.
Democratization of HD production reached new heights in 2004 thanks in large part to this year's list of Vanguard Award winners. Other winning products embody the industry mantra of “faster, cheaper, better”; others applied digital technology to video production and post in unique ways. Our congratulations to each of the 16 Vanguard Award winners, and many thanks go out to our judges.
Sony HDR-FX1
The first HDV camcorder it is not, but the HDR-FX1 is the first with three chips (1/3in.), the first to offer 1080 lines, and the first with the Sony name. The consumer camcorder's CCD elements are arranged in a 960×1080 matrix, with double-wide pixels to create a 16:9 image aspect ratio that is equivalent to a standard 1920×1080 HD frame. The Sony HDV format's MPEG-1 Layer 2, long-GOP encoding allows video and audio to be limited to 25Mbps so that it can record to standard DV tape. The result is by far the most economical 1080i solution ever, at only about $3,700. In November, Sony announced a pro version, the HVR-Z1U, which will be released early next year.
Ikegami Editcam3
The Editcam3 and the Panasonic AJ-SPX800 win Vanguards because they are early adopters of a very forward-looking recording medium: solid-state storage. With no moving parts, no noise, and no lengthy digitization process, removable solid-state memory will only gain traction as storage prices continue to drop and capacity increases. The Ikegami Editcam was introduced in 1995 as an early tapeless camcorder and recently gained new RamPak solid-state recording, which succeeds the hard drive-based FieldPak. RamPak's 16GB of storage allows the Editcam 3 to capture more than one hour of DV25 footage.
Panasonic AJ-SPX800
Like the Editcam3, the AJ-SPX800 is a harbinger of things to come. This “camputer” records to Panasonic's P2 solid-state SD memory cards in DVCPRO and DVPRO50 formats. The MXF file format ensures IT compatibility for file transfer. The camcorder's three 2/3in. CCDs are switchable between 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios. With 4GB card media, the five P2 slots provide up to 80 minutes of 25Mbps recording. There's also USB 2.0 and FireWire data transfer. The camera has already found a home in real-world ENG applications, like at New York's local cable channel NY1 News.
LitePanels
Like the camcorders on this list, LitePanels LED lights represent a paradigm shift for shooters. DV shooters dealing with the 5:1 compression of that format can especially benefit from good lighting — but a powerful, affordable, on-camera fill light solution has been nonexistent. Enter LitePanels. They're based on light-emitting diodes, which means low heat and low power consumption, and generate a color-correct (5600 degrees Kelvin), intensely bright, controllable beam to fill facial shadows and maintain the integrity of dark areas in DV.
Panasonic AJ-HD1200A
This affordable HD deck is the first to allow a 100Mbps data transfer over IEEE 1394, which means DVCPRO HD footage can move straight to your desktop over FireWire. That allows software-only NLEs like Apple Final Cut Pro HD and Pinnacle Liquid HD to handle HD footage. The AJ-HD1200A is a compact 1/2RU wide and also plays DVCPRO50, DVCPRO, DVCAM, and DV tapes.
Apple Final Cut Pro HD
Apple's free software upgrade allows video editors to play back up to four streams of HD video, with capture and output over FireWire — no hardware cards or capture boards required. The product relies on the Panasonic HD1200A VTR (see above) for help with that technical feat, but Apple deserves credit for its development and marketing efforts, which have proved to a generation of video editors that editing HD can be as simple as editing DV.
Serious Magic DV Rack
DV Rack is the rare software application meant to improve the quality of video production, not postproduction. Based on hardware metaphors such as waveforms and vectorscopes, DV Rack's nine modules allow the quality-conscious DV shooter to monitor the integrity of video and audio as it's captured, via a FireWire cable that connects the camera to the software's host laptop. A virtual engineering cart in a $500 software package. See our review in next month's issue.
Apple Motion
Today's video editor is often expected to provide new services, such as audio and graphics, that were once other people's problems. Thankfully, Apple had video editors in mind when it released Motion, a powerful program that allows easy creation of 3D characters, graphic effects, particle effects, and procedural animations. Drag-and-drop operation and realtime interactivity allow for creative experimentation, and Motion's large library of templates and filters is a head start for difficult jobs.
EditShare
Collaborative editing, whether based on a shared server environment or SAN technology, used to be the domain of larger shops with larger budgets. Now, with EditShare, networked media file storage is within the reach of smaller production facilities. EditShare allows editors to share files among eight to 10 Avid, Premiere, and Final Cut Pro workstations handling DV-resolution video. Systems start at only $13,000 for 2TB of storage and a 3.06GHz Xeon server with 2GB RAM.
Blackmagic Design HDLink
Just getting HD material to the desktop is not enough — it also needs to make it to the monitor, and full-fledged HD monitors are not always going to be available. HDLink translates HD SDI so it can be displayed on any DVI-D-based LCD computer display with 1920×1200 resolution, such as Apple's Cinema HD or Sony's SDM-P232W/B. It comes with software color look-up tables, RGB gamma tables that are adjustable via the USB 2.0 connection to your host computer. Color precision is 10-bit in HD and SD, and up to 12-bit RGB or YUV in dual-link 4:4:4 modes.
Sorenson Squeeze 4
This popular compression suite now offers HD encoding for a variety of formats, including MPEG-2, MPEG-4, QuickTime, and Real Media — with Windows Media 9 HD compression in Windows versions. With compression, the focus is on getting the best quality out of the fewest bits, and Sorenson's AVC Pro codec (H.264) now delivers 70 percent the data rate of MPEG-4 for better distribution over low bandwidths.
Cakewalk Sonar 4
Pro Tools remains the digital audio workstation (DAW) of choice for most audio post studios, but host-based recording and mixing platforms are gaining traction as processors get speedier and software improves. Cakewalk's Sonar 4 introduces many new features that make it a viable alternative to the hardware-based Pro Tools — there's the Freeze function that optimizes system resources and conserves CPU power, as well as new 5.1 surround editing options.
Assimilate Scratch
This product introduces a realtime 2K digital intermediate (DI) workflow to the desktop. Once the realm of high-priced edit suites, DI finishing is now available to smaller shops. The workstation and software combo's features include multi-resolution review and playback, assemble/edit, conform, primary color grading, visual effects, and final mastering.
JVC DLA-HD2K
In the display world there has been a wide chasm between XGA projectors and digital cinema projectors. What about the venue that wants to display native HD material for a reasonable price? With a resolution of 1920×1080, the DLA-HD2K is the first portable projector with native HD resolution. The 13.2lb. projector uses JVC's D-ILA version of LCoS to deliver uncompromising video detail with effectively no visible pixel grid or screen-door effect.
Canon Realis SX50
In recent years projectors have been getting smaller, brighter, and cheaper, but Canon's Realis SX50 points to a new trend: making high resolutions more affordable. It used to be that anything above XGA resolution would run in the five-digit range. The SX50, Canon's first LCoS projector, features a native SXGA+ (1400×1050) resolution for only $3,999. Oh, and it's bright (2500 ANSI lumens) and small (8.6lbs.), too.
Electrosonic HD FrEND
The HD FrEND is a networked HD player that brings playout control out of the equipment room. As the first HD player appliance, it's directly attachable to most displays. The HD FrEND supports SD resolutions as well as HD resolutions of 1920×1080i, 1280×720p, and 720×576/480p, and bandwidth capacity is a big 30Mbps. Since it's networked, the appliance is completely controllable over IP for remote management of digital signage and other video-based networks.
Judges
The following Video Systems editors and contributing editors sat on the Vanguard Awards judging panel:
Barry Braverman, cameraman
Gary Eskow, recording producer/audio professional
David Leitner, independent filmmaker
Tom Patrick McAuliffe, camera and sound professional
Frank McMahon, media artist/educator
Steve Mullen, digital video consultant/Ph.D.
Dan Ochiva, technical editor
Pete Putman, projection consultant
Bob Turner, video editor
feedback
To comment on this article, email the Video Systems editorial staff at vsfeedback@primediabusiness.com.
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For past Vanguard winners or to download the 2003 Vanguard Award logo, visit videosystems.com.
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