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NAB 2002

Jun 1, 2002 12:00 PM, Dan Ochiva, D. W. Leitner, and Bob Turner

Web-Expanded Version

This article has been expanded for publication on the Web.

Cameras
by D.W. Leitner
While Thomson won the “wow” factor with its Viper 24p HD camera, innovative designs were found at every booth along the way.

Ikegami put its newly developed 2/3-inch, one-megapixel CCDs in its new HDK-720/720p (studio/portable), a native 720/60p HD camera system. The design includes direct output from the CCDs, new power-saving ASICs, and up to 30-bits of internal processing that add even more control over factors such as gamma correction.

In addition to 720p, the camera also supports 480p and 480i by combining with the CCU (it has a down-converter/up-converter inside). Ikegami says a high-frequency correction circuit (that operates along with RET) substantially improves ease of focusing for the camera operator.

JVC smashed price/performance barriers two years ago with its GY-DV500, an ENG-style camcorder with a full complement of professional features for under $6000.

At his year’s NAB, they did it again with the newest addition to their Professional DV line (i.e., MiniDV enhanced with resettable drop-frame timecode and locked audio), the GY-DV300 MiniDV Streamcorder, the only $3500 camcorder with dual XLR mic inputs, true SMPTE bars with PLuGE black reference, and user controls for pedestal, detail, horizontal enhancement, vertical enhancement, vertical resolution, auto knee, and black stretch/compress. Plus a choice of two gamma curves—a capability borrowed from JVC's CineLine of Digital Cinema camcorders.

That would be distinction enough, but the diminutive GY-DV300—it's a handheld—achieves another breakthrough: with the help of a thin, modular KA-DV300U network adaptor attached to its underside and a special PCMCIA card connected by wire or wireless LAN to a PC with an Internet connection, the GY-DV300 transforms itself into a simultaneous MPEG-4 server featuring its own IP address. The KA-DV300U ($1300), which is basically a microprocessor running LINUX, also extends control of the GY-DV300 to remote browsers.

In the late 1920s, 24 fps was standardized for film projection, but seems to have caught fire in the digital video world of the early 21st century. No better example at NAB than Panasonic’s booth, where the popular 720p AJ-HDC27 Varicam HD Cinema camera, introduced at last year’s NAB, was joined by two prototypes, the standard-def AJ-SDX900 DVCPRO Cinema camera and the much anticipated 24p MiniDV camcorder, the AG-DVX100 24P DV Cinema camera. (Can someone at Panasonic please do something about name bloat?)

The first is an attempt at a universal SD camcorder, switchable among 4:3, 16:9, 24p, 30p, 60i, 25 Mbps DVCPRO, and 50 Mbps DVCPRO50. It features native 16:9 CCDs, 520,000 pixels each, 66 minutes recording time in DVCPRO, 33 minutes in DVCPRO50, and four audio channels. $35,000, available early 2003.

The second, the MiniDV AG-DVX100--now, don’t confuse the name with the classic Sony VX-1000, though it’s a hand-held in the mold of the VX-1000--created quite a buzz as the first camcorder to bring both true progressive scanning and 24 fps to the MiniDV format. Sharp disappointment ensued, therefore, when it arose that the two AG-DVX100s on display were nonfunctional dummies.

Panasonic says the AG-DVX100 will sell in September for $3,500, which will buy a camcorder with newly developed 1/3-inch 410,000-pixel progressive-scan CCDs that capture either conventional 60i or 24p (in 480-line only). No provision yet for a 576-line version (4:3 CCD only). In addition, no provision for internal 16:9 conversion at the time of this reviewer’s last inquiry.

The problem is that the very folks who would embrace this technology off-the-bat—those wishing to transfer their low-budget documentaries or features to film—are the very ones who would need 16:9 formatting and who would prefer 576 lines over 480 (who wouldn’t?). What’s more, Panasonic says the AG-DVX100 always records and outputs 29.97 fps regardless of 60i or 24p mode.

The trick is that when the AG-DVX100 is in 24 fps mode (actually, 23.98), a redundant frame is added to every 4 outputted or recorded frames to make up the difference. It appears; however, this isn’t happening in the conventional 3:2 field cadence typical of film transfers to NTSC, but is something novel Panasonic is introducing along with the camcorder, which would, of course, have to be removed later for true 24 fps editing.

Enter Apple Computer and a surprise joint Panasonic/Apple announcement that Apple’s 24 fps Cinema Tools, also introduced at NAB, would be providing a unique editing solution in the coming months. Talk about timing and synergy.

If marketing hyperbole can be overlooked, Sony ’s controversial idea-man Larry Thorpe hit one out of the park this year. Not because another new technology was born, but because an existing technology was thoughtfully repurposed based on the maverick practices of indie filmmakers.

That’s right, an innovation for indie filmmakers—not corporate, not wildlife, not even George Lucas! This could be considered a nod, perhaps, to the leading role independent owner/operators and filmmakers have played in adopting HDCAM while the broadcasting industry drags its feet.

At NAB, Sony introduced a new IMX MPEG-2 camcorder, the MSW-900P (the “P” is for “PAL”) to the American market. The first-ever introduction of PAL broadcast equipment into the United States is a gesture of support to the many low-budget filmmakers who’ve discovered the advantages of 100 additional scan lines, wider luminance bandwidth, and 25 fps in the transfer of their feature films to 35mm, i.e., sharper, smoother 35mm images with fewer jaggies and motion artifacts.

In fact, there’s hardly a film festival today that doesn’t feature at least one of these PAL-to-35mm transfers. But PAL is 50-fields interlaced; what Sony’s MSW-900P brings for the first time is true progressive scanning. A poor man’s 24p, if you will, with full 4:2:2 at 50 Mbs, 16:9 megapixel CCDs, and a new digital signal processing large scale integrated chip (DSP LSI) that is essentially Digital Betacam in a bottle. (16:9 CCDs made the economical DVCAM DSR-500 a cause for celebration among indie filmmakers; however, DSR-500 and older DVW-series Digital Betacams use 16:9 CCDs with only 520,000 pixels.)

Consider that 625-line digital video (576 active lines) enjoys a 20% increase in line count over 525-line (480 active lines). Likewise, 720p HD (720 active lines) enjoys a 25% increase over 576 active lines. So, in terms of progressive line count alone—ignoring disparities in signal processing, color subsampling, horizontal detail, and compression—625-line is to 525-line what 720 is to 625.

Join this incremental but real advantage to the fact that the MSW-900P’s camera is a Digital Betacam at a cut-rate $40,000 and its draw to low-budget film production is obvious (It readily switches back to interlace scanning for conventional video or TV production.)

Keep in mind that in the art of cinematography, sharpness isn’t everything: DPs frequently add nets or diffusion in front of and/or behind their lenses. How might a 720p image with slight diffusion compare to 576p without diffusion?

There are those who object mightily to equating video camcorders to film formats, this reviewer included. At Sony’s NAB stand it was there for all to see: “Digital 16” on a sign above the DVCAM PAL DSR-500WSP. “Digital Super 16” and “Transfer to 35mm Film Rivals S16 Blow-up to 35mm” above the MSW-900P.

Well, perhaps. As with Bill Clinton, it boils down to what the meaning of “is” is. What exactly does “rivals” mean? What it nakedly implies is parity. Anyone who has shot S-16 for years (this reviewer has) and blown up S-16 to 35mm for years (this reviewer has) knows this is specious. S-16 is in a different league. Clearly, Sony has 16mm in its crosshairs. Indeed, recent blow-ups of MSW-900P footage to 35mm via Arri-Laser Recorder at New York’s Du Art Film Laboratory—formerly ground zero for S-16—have yielded striking results.

It was only a matter of time. Well into the era of CGI, someone had to finally smash to bits (pun intended) those enduring legacies of 1950s broadcast technology: chrominance, luminance, gamma, clipping, and legal color values.

At the first-ever NAB Digital Cinema Summit, Thomson Multimedia's David Bancroft introduced his new product to the many cinematographers in attendance by listing what it lacked: aperture correction aka enhancement or detail, gain, gamma, knee, color matrix, and white balance—in a phrase, video processing. Also color subsampling, encoding, quantization, and compression.

The only settings left to concern the cinematographer are framing, focusing, optical filters, shutter angle, and exposure (300-400 ASA), for which a light meter was recommended.

From the audience one could feel the love. Within hours, cinematography bulletin boards across the Internet were buzzing. Indeed, the Viper is a confluence of innovations, the sum value of which will be explored in coming months as production models appear.

While Sony and Panasonic were perfecting IT and FIT CCDs, Thomson was pursuing an alternative CCD architecture called Frame-Transfer, which happens to require a spinning mechanical shutter like a film camera.

Unlike IT and FIT CCDs, Thomson's F-T CCDs divide each square pixel site into four subpixels, not square but shaped like horizontal stripes, stacked vertically. When all four subpixels are sampled as one, the Viper outputs the expected 1080 x 1920 square pixels. But when six subpixels are combined, they form, in effect, one tall pixel, and the Viper outputs a native 720-line image.

When three subpixels are combined to create 1440 lines of short, squat pixels, the Viper extracts 1080 lines from the center to create a Cinemascope-like widescreen image with a 2.37:1 aspect ratio, making slow, expensive, cumbersome anamorphic lenses unnecessary.

Viper outputs two disparate HD image streams. The first component is 24p via HD-SDI, adjusted for color, brightness, and contrast. In the case of a conventional HD camera, this would be the finished result. For Viper; however, it's intended for monitoring, much like a film camera's video assist.

The second stream is what qualifies Viper as the first “datacamera”: uncompressed RGB signals, digitized directly from the CCDs with 12-bit A/Ds, converted to 10-bit Cineon data files (.dpx) using logarithmic calculations. That's it. Then output via dual HD-SDI links to. … Ah, there's the rub. No tape format can record this data or its sheer volume.

So, Thomson loaned one of its three Vipers to the only outfit on the NAB show floor who could output the data, Directors Friend, those adventuresome jungen from Cologne who last December supplied the direct-to-disk backpack of hard drives to famed director Alexander Sokurov to shoot his 90-minute HD opus on 300 years of Russian history, Russian Ark, in one unbroken take. Directors Friend showcased its df-cineFS system connected to a Viper via dual HD-SDI cables. The df-cineFS is a portable capture-and-control desk (picture a black Korg keyboard on an X-stand) featuring a 17-inch 16:9 TFT LCD picture monitor (1280 x 768 SXGA) and dual 6.3-inch LCD scopes for camera signal analysis and multichannel audio levels. Its main purpose is to monitor uncompressed 10-bit RGB data flowing into battery-operated hard-disk units called HDreels, each with a maximum capacity of 576 GB for 48 minutes storage at 24p. Viper is not married to Directors Friend; any storage device with dual link HD-SDI per proposed SMPTE 372m will do the job.

With upcoming metadata standards in place, a system like Directors Friend will enable a DP in the field to previsualize and predetermine creative decisions regarding color, brightness, and contrast by applying them to Viper's HD output as a proxy. Untouched are the raw 10-bit RGB images committed to disk and unmodified from initial CCD capture. Later in post, with the full dynamic range of the raw RGB signals at hand, the DP's choices, preserved as metadata, are restored. Or, given a change of mind, replaced by different decisions. This follows time-tested procedures in which film is exposed, then later timed (color graded) at the lab. This systems allows the workflow to follow Hollywood standards, yet brings the instantaneity and flexibility of video to location work. The best of both worlds.

Lenses
by D.W. Leitner
While it’s not a flashy subject, lens design lies at the heart of production for both film and video. While it’s a technology that can change slowly, the NAB attendees saw a relative deluge of introductions, with new HD lenses from the two major manufacturers, Canon and Fujinon, joined by the fabled German manufacturer Zeiss, which makes its first foray into the video end of things.

Canon introduced an all-new HD-EC (High Definition-Electronic Cinematography) line of cine-style lenses. Unlike its previous HD lens series (which are now pegged for HD ENG/EFP work), the HD-EC series has been designed from the ground up with new glass, as well as improved barrel rotation and markings that should make camera operators from the film world feel more at home.

The HD-EC series consists of zoom lenses (the HJ21x7.5B KLL-SC and the HJ11X4.7B KLL-SC) and the HD-EC primes (FJ5, FJ9, FJ14, FJ24, and FJ35), all of which share a uniform design concept including a consistent “Canon look,” color temperature, and minimized focus breathing.

Canon’s HD-EC HJ21x7.5B KLL-SC utilizes its new Power Optical System featuring the X-Element, Hi-UD (High Index, Ultra Low Dispersion) glass and fluorite. The company says the lens has up to three times less focus breathing than any other comparable lens. It’s maximum relative aperture of T2.1 is faster than before, and is said to be the best in the electronic cinematography field.

Fujinon showed its Cine Style lens line (all designed specifically for Digital Cinema applications) with a wide angle zoom, two new large barrel prime lenses, and two large barrel zoom lenses.

Fujinon heralds the lenses enhanced speed and image quality along with their film-style lens markings and operation. Four of the five new lenses have a large barrel diameter, enhancing focus-pulling chores.

The company claims the HA13x4.5B is the widest angle Cine Style zoom lens on the market. With a 4.5mm focal length at its widest end, the HA13x4.5B provides a 93.6-degree horizontal field of view. The lens offers focus rotation up to 280 degrees, making focusing easier and more exact. The lens is stable, too: Fujinon promises little focus “breathing.”

The new HAeF5-F (T1.7) and HAeF8-F (T1.5) prime lenses feature a larger barrel diameter than previous prime lenses designed for digital cinema production, according to the company. The zooms feature 280-degree focus rotation, 160 degrees of zoom rotation, and reduced focus breathing.

The Zeiss DigiPrimes leave nothing to be desired. A solid working range: 5mm (T 1.9), 7mm (T 1.6), 10mm (T 1.6), 14mm (T 1.6), 20mm (T 1.6), and 40mm (T 1.6). Optimal performance at widest aperture. Identical diameters, lengths, and gearing.

Generous, easily read chartreuse scales on both sides, with almost 300-degree rotation. Thursday afternoon, in the waning minutes of NAB's floor show, I found Sony's Larry Thorpe, uncharacteristically speechless, in Band Pro's booth transfixed before an HD plasma screen, drinking in his first glimpse of the DigiPrimes in their glory. Dockside scenes in richly variegated mid-winter pastels near the famed Maine Photographic Workshop and rivers of blinding halogen headlamps racing up dark German streets at night towards the camera, free of glare, flair, and reflections. These are indeed perfection in a B4 mount.

All deserve kudos for their contributions. Once again Zeiss has admirably raised the bar. Now, if someone could lower the bill. $115,000 a set.

Editing
by Bob Turner
One of Avid’s most exciting new products, Avid|DS HD Editor features a Media Composer-like editorial UI, works in HD and SD, offers the same Avid|DS metadata compatibility with other products (Avid and non-Avid), and has the most common finishing tools. It also offers a more Media Composer-like 3D DVE but does not have the effects tree or most sophisticated compositing tools. There’s a new, lower price, too: $85,000.

Many in our industry prefer Mac platforms, but want the advanced editing tools, media asset management, and metadata, such as the Xpress DV, that you can find on an Avid system. Avid says that after June, filmmakers will not need to choose when Avid XpressDV on the Mac starts shipping.

Fairlight, after acquiring the Lightworks assets, introduced the next generation product, Lightworks Touch. This new NLE continues to offer the cherished Lightworks jog/shuttle controller and the operations that are free of pull-down menus or distracting UI clutter. Lightworks Touch comes with an array of new features including real-time chromakeying, realtime color correction and realtime 2D DVE effects. It also offers plug-in support for Inscriber Title Motion, Boris CG, Discreet combustion, Ultimatte, Hollywood FX, and eyeon Digital Fusion. The company claims that this is “a robust, intuitive, nonlinear editing system that puts the editor at the center of the creative process,” and frankly, I agree, especially when off-lining 24p projects. The system now offers multiple storage and networking solutions. The best feature may be your choice of three ways to own a system. In addition to buying or leasing, the third purchase option allows qualified buyers to “pay-by-project.” See www.lwks.com for details.

5D began shipping Version 2 of their Cyborg software and it is clear that major improvements were made by listening to customers. There were many operational and workflow enhancements. The most important may be the new 3D compositing environment and new Timeline module, which put 5D Cyborg at the vanguard of the next generation of compositing/visual effects systems. Version 4.0 of Interactive Effects’ Piranha HD software (for SGI and Linux platforms) offers amazing capabilities. It includes Piranha HD paint, compositing, and editing/finishing. If you do not require the cost and HD sophistication, the company also continues to offer the low-cost Amazon paint and FX compositing product.

Laird Telemedia was showing three versions of Dvora, a turnkey, work-out-of-the-box system running Avid’s Xpress DV version 3.0 software. A solid easy-to-operate platform with software, it’s ideal for directors and filmmakers wanting Avid’s bulletproof metadata management, making this a very attractive new product.

Chrome Imaging, from Matrix, is a Windows-based product that integrates many high-end features (interactive Flowgraph GUI, integrated paint module, motion tracking, 3D integration, and a Primatte Chromakey). The company was also promoting their hot new 3D particle system featuring realistic, natural FX.

Clearly one of the biggest new postproduction product introductions, Media 100’s turnkey 844/X features four real-time uncompressed 4:4:4:4 video streams and some very sophisticated compositing features with a familiar Media Composer-like user interface and compositing tools that compositors would find very easy to adapt to. This product, designed for short-form work, offers impressive power for its low $60,000 turnkey price tag.

The iQ has been a success for Quantel. It is most popular for major studios. Designed as a long-form finishing system, it offers superb performance when working in 2k Digital Cinema or HDTV formats. But the Average postproduction facility in the United States works primarily in SD resolutions with rare needs for HD resolutions. Quantel introduced eQ for this market segment. The system offers all the edit/finishing tools of iQ, and excellent realtime capabilities when working in standard definition uncompressed video. It features the same resolution co-existence feature (any video format stored natively, mixed with other formats on the timeline, and output in any desired format). It works with HDTV resolutions with very fast rendering, and 2k film resolutions as well, but slower than the iQ. The SMRP is $175,000 including storage.

Quantel is unique in that it also offers a Windows-based software package, Qeffects, with the very same tools and capabilities for $12,000. This is a radical marketing concept. Offer the exact same features in a family of products – no reduced feature set – but sell the different models based solely on performance. Every product is AAF-compliant (better compatibility with offline editors manufactured by competitors) and offers workgroup and networking features.

Other Products
by Dan Ochiva
Ten years ago, Discreet rolled out its signature product—its Flame turnkey visual effects system. Discreet estimates that Flame was an essential product behind some 95% of the Academy Award nominated films for Best Visual Effects since 1996. A pretty good run for the first decade.

At NAB 2002, the company presented a complete rethinking of its entire product line. The Discreet Media Architecture is the basis of a fully interactive, non-linear digital production environment. The first example application, code-named Strata, offers an immersing visual effects framework. Not just another stand-alone program, Strata is part of a new production environment, relying on a first-of-its-kind asset server, Mezzo (also a code name). Be sure to read July’s Siggraph preview for more on this unique initiative.

Discreet also announced the latest versions of Inferno (5), Flame, and Flint (the latter two in Version 8). The main story here is enhanced feature sets, such as mixed resolution support, extended editing capabilities, and support for background rendering on Linux.

Apple knows it has a winner in Final Cut Pro (Version 3 just piles on more reasons to adopt the straightforward editing program).

OfflineRT, an offline format that seems designed for editing on the road with a PowerBook. While not the best resolution for every editing job, the format enables you to hold up to five times as much footage compared to DV. That works out to over 40 minutes of video per gigabyte of hard drive space. Connecting via Firewire, editors can transcode DV footage to OfflineRT on the fly (that’s more than 24 hours on a standard PowerBook’s internal hard drive). Other FCP 3 features include an advanced set of color correction tools (including primary and secondary color correctors), range checking, zebra-stripe overlays, and waveform and vectorscope monitors.

Pinnacle Systems introduced its Liquid editing family--Pinnacle Liquid Blue, Pinnacle Liquid Silver, Pinnacle Liquid Purple, and Pinnacle Liquid Field. This is Pinnacle’s relaunch of the highly-regarded FASTstudio product line, which Pinnacle acquired in September 2001. The Pinnacle Liquid line-up is aimed at networked broadcast production. That includes support for the full range of industry standard codecs, which help integrate with DV and MPEG based tape formats. Liquid includes media management features as well as primary and secondary color correction, dynamic slow motion, and 2D and 3D DVEs.

Pinnacle Systems prices its CinéWave Classic as a new low-cost uncompressed video system created for Final Cut Pro users. It prices nearly 30-percent less than a CinéWave editing system. The Classic includes one of several available CinéWave I/O breakout boxes, which include a 10-bit SDI Pro Digital breakout box, and the CinéAcquire application and plug-module. The new CinéAcquire, a video capture and device control product for CinéWave, can be used as a standalone application or work directly from within graphics apps such as Pinnacle's Commotion Pro and Adobe After Effects.

Interface Media Group Senior Editor Bill Davis says that both CinéAcquire and the complete CinéWave Classic system reduce the steps it takes to get video from tape to a compositing program. “In the past we had to interrupt a full edit system and an editor just to pass clips to a graphics artist. Now anyone can grab video as needed.”

Matrox positions its DigiSuite family as the most complete platform for DCC. The Dorval, Quebec-based company’s Flex 3D architecture powers a huge number of realtime 3D effects. Meanwhile, bundled software includes Adobe Premiere, Inscriber CG, Ligos LSX MPEG, Sonic Solutions DVDit! SE, and Sonic Solutions ReelDVD (other software combos are available).

DigiSuite MAX, now in version 7.0, includes realtime effects layering over video and graphics, realtime blur, 2D and 3D DVE, slow motion, keying, and YUV color correction. Output includes your choice of native-DV, DV50, MPEG-2 I-frame 50 Mbps, or M-JPEG, with input including DV over 1394, analog component, Y/C, and composite. SDI and AES/EBU are optional via an add-on module. Other features include realtime MPEG-2 encoding for DVD authoring, accelerated MPEG-1 encoding for multimedia and Video CD authoring, and MediaExport for hardware-assisted batch web video encoding.

Trend Watch
by D.W. Leitner
Panasonic and Apple Add Firewire to DVCPRO VTRs On April 4, 2002, Apple announced its purchase of Zayante, a key developer and manufacturer of Firewire technology, founded in 1996 by defectors from Apple including Apple's chief Firewire architect. Three days later at NAB, in a joint announcement with Panasonic, Apple announced a collaboration to add Firewire to upcoming Panasonic DVCPRO50 and DVCPRO HD VTRs, making them the first decks to support 4:2:2 ITU-601 at 50 Mbs and HD at 100 Mbs over Firewire. At least that will be the case in about a year, when Panasonic expects to bring this new feature to market. Older DVCPRO devices imposed a non-standard proprietary Panasonic DV protocol. (Later DVRPRO VTRs did offer compatibility with standard “Blue Book” Firewire as a selectable option.)

Sony 50 MBs Blu-Ray Disc Concept Camcorder, Shown Behind Closed Doors Talk about a disruptive technology! As early as next year, Blu-ray could supplant DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW. Blu-ray will be recordable consumer media in a 12cm disc, but it boasts a blue laser of 405 nanometers in wavelength, finer than the 650 nm red lasers used by CDs and DVDs. This translates into smaller spot sizes, pits, and tracks and greater data density. Basic specs have been set by a Big Nine of manufacturers including Hitachi, LG, Matsushita (Panasonic), Pioneer, Phillips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, and Thomson.

A single-sided Blu-ray Disc will store 27 GB (compared to DVD's 4.7 GB) and use MPEG-2 for 13 hours of SD video or 2 hours of HD. Panasonic has proposed a dual layer disc to increase capacity to 50 GB. You've heard of Moore's Law? This is Moore's Law at warp speed.

IT Goes Production
by D.W. Leitner
Nowhere was IT's footprint bigger than in Sony’s vast booth. (“IT” is New Economy lingo for “Information Technology,” favored by folks who call corporate activity “the Enterprise” as if it were a spaceship.)

At last year's NAB, Sony Broadcast proclaimed the melding of television with narrowcasting, Webcasting, and datacasting, rechristening what it sells “Anycast.” This year's permutations included “IP-casting” (Internet Protocol) and “AV/IT.”

Today's heirs of “AV/IT Convergence,” as it was called then, include the latest Sony MiniDV and Digital-8 camcorders, all of which feature USB 1.1 (12 Mbps) and transform themselves into MPEG-1 streaming Webcams when used with special USB drivers and third-party PC video conferencing software.

An example at NAB was the new DVCAM DSR-PDX10, which was also Bluetooth-enabled to wirelessly send and receive email messages and browse webpages on its LCD display, downloadable, of course, to a Memory Stick. (Don't toss your laptop just yet: Real, QuickTime, WindowsMedia, and Flash aren't supported.)

If this is what Sony is achieving in the consumer realm, it should come as no surprise that Sony's pro products are being IT-enabled. In launching Anycast a year ago, Sony announced a one-year goal of embedding an IP address (URL) in every Sony product, consumer and professional, and they have well nigh succeeded.

Introduced at NAB was a plug-in card with an IP address for Sony's existing family of MPEG IMX VTRs. Using Gigabit Ethernet, the card connects any IMX VTR, anywhere in the world, to any other similarly equipped IMX VTR or server, anywhere in the world. This enables transfers of low-res proxies of video clips and the clips themselves over any suitable IP network.

Moreover, any so-equipped IMX eVTR can remote control any other eVTR, anywhere in the world. File transfers are watched over by Sony's DeviceMonitor software running on a PC, using Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).

Sony also introduced a $5,000 DVCAM hard-disk recorder, DSR-DR1000, with built-in Gigabit Ethernet and SNMP control. The necessary meta-data foundation for Sony's eVTR scenario is MXF (Material eXchange Format), at present undergoing scrutiny by SMPTE. So key is this element that Sony has been joined by Avid, Cisco, and Quantel in facilitating its adoption as a standard, which should come soon.

MXF will enable laptops to query remote servers or VTRs and request thumbnails, logs, dates, timecodes, and production notes in addition to video downloads. Work is underway to map MXF's descriptive metadata (date, camera, reel, take, notes, etc.) into the Advanced Authoring Format, so that AAF's toolkit can read and write MXF files directly.

AAF, if you're not aware, is the Holy Grail of digital nonlinear editing and postproduction: a standardized, cross-platform “super-EDL” that will reliably import/export all data from all effects, picture, and audio tracks, consigning OMFI and crude CMX-era EDLs to the scrap heap.

In sum, to paraphrase Neil Armstrong, Sony's IMX eVTR may be a little step for Sony, but it's a big step for all broadcast. Indeed, a great leap into a brave new world of IP-networked production and postproduction from which there's no turning back.

DDRs & Storage
by Dan Ochiva
Getting more storage always seems to be near the top of most to-do lists at NAB. That need comes as more elaborate graphics production, complex editing jobs, and moves into streaming media all call for added gigabytes.

But hard disk prices continue to drop precipitously, even while speedier interfaces such as Ultra160 SCSI hit the market. (Late in May, Seagate Technology announced that it has demonstrated Ultra320 SCSI technology, which is pegged to deliver a 320 MBs data transfer rate).

DDRs look to follow a similar path, adding greater capabilities while lowering the sticker price. The DDR’s considerable value-added electronics mean they won’t follow the hard drive markets nose-diving prices anytime soon.

Accom’s WSD/HDX Multi-Definition Disk Recorder with Key Channel Option succeeds the company’s well-regarded WSD/HD high-definition disk recorder. Flexibility is key, as it’s designed to handle a variety of live-to-air, postproduction, and streaming applications.

It’s the Menlo Park, Calif.-based company’s first complete plug-and-play multi-definition recording system with an integrated disk array. The WSD/HDX uses Ultra 160 SCSI drives configured for a standard record capacity of 22 minutes of uncompressed 1080 60i high-definition video (that’s about 88 minutes of standard definition video).

The WSD/HDX now features a physical control panel for hands-on response; many major operations can now be driven without using a mouse. There’s an option for simultaneous record or play of video, key, and audio in a single operation under a unified clip identity. An additional option allows users to record LTC timecode with material and choose whether to preserve timecode discontinuities or replace them with internally generated timecode.

Developed for post, Avica’s MotionStore DDR converts uncompressed digital media as well as captures/plays motion or still images as high definition digital data. File gateway conversions include JPEG, SGI RGB, raw YUV, SMPTE, and DPX.

During post on Ice Age, the MotionStore helped convert image data and compile individual frames into full-motion clips. Avica’s mastering hardware and software were also used to encode and package the Digital Cinema Distribution Master.

The MotionStore was used at Lucasfilm’s Skywalker Sound during the final mix of the latest Star Wars episode to provide playback of high definition images while interlocked with a multi-channel audio recorder.

Lucasfilm also used the Avica StillStore to examine, at a pixel-by-pixel level, the output of the Sony CineAlta, to provide image quality analysis on the set and on location. The StillStore is unique, says Avica, since it can zoom up to 256 times resolution, even while it maintains accurate pixel-level representation of the original captured image.

Working together with Industrial Light + Magic, Avica provided a suite of encoding hardware, software, and content packaging tools to manage the process of creating final digital distribution masters, encrypted for secure delivery via satellite and DVD. The Avica DataStore was used to encode, secure, and package the digital movie data in formats for worldwide distribution in nine languages, including both dubbed and subtitled versions.

At the show, Avica also announced the release of its new Multiplex Solution Digital Cinema Servers based on the FilmStore product line.

The Avica Multiplex FilmStore system includes a central storage and management system, the A2900, along with any number of lower cost Avica A550 Cache Servers. Content, loaded into the central storage system over network connections (VPN, broadband, or satellite) or by DVD, is then sent out to the Cache Servers over a secure, local Gigabit network for storage and play out.

With the PFC500 RAID system, Grass Valley emphasizes availability. The PFC500, says the company, can stay online even if a disk drive, power supply, controller, or fan fails—and be serviced without going offline. Its modular architecture makes it easily expandable, to add channels, more storage space, or move to high-definition production.

Using a Fibre Channel link to a Profile XP, the PFC500 employs ten FC drives per frame (either 36 GB or 73 GB), with the RAID-3 arrays configured as 4 data/1 parity. Fitting in a 3.5 RU low-profile chassis, the RAID array offers an optional redundant hot swappable power supply, optional redundant hot swappable RAID controller, auto fail-over with second controller, redundant fans for cooling, and optional hot stand-by drives. The drives, power supply, RAID controller, and fans are all replaceable while the system is in service.

First, SANs caught everyone’s attention, offering a method to tightly manage massive amounts of storage on a high-speed network. Recently, NAS (Network Attached Storage) products have gained the buzz with their uncomplicated delivery of massive amounts of storage in a heterogeneous OS environment.

Now, one company claims it offers the first combination NAS/SAN device specifically designed for rich media content. Huge Systems, out of Marina del Rey, Calif., introduced HugeMediaLibrary, an interesting all-in-one storage and server unit approach to shared media access over traditional TCP/IP networks such as Ethernet (10BaseT), Fast Ethernet (100BaseT), and Gigabit Ethernet.

The HugeMediaLibrary comes either as a single RAID-3 controller model with up to five 160 GB removable disks or a dual-controller version containing up to ten 160 GB drives for a total of up to 1200 GB.

What’s the thinking here? Users don't need to choose between the benefits of Ethernet and Fibre Channel, since the HugeMediaLibrary includes both in one shared storage subsystem. The integrated 2 GB Fibre Channel ports enable integration into existing Fibre Channel networks, while the integrated Gigabit Ethernet ports include native file sharing capabilities and broad cross-platform compatibility.

Previously, according to the company, shared network storage’s biggest drawback has been speed. The new storage system includes hardware TCP/IP acceleration using Alacritech's 1000x1 Single-Port Server and Storage Accelerator, claimed as the industry's first Integrated Storage Network Interface Card (IS-NIC). The card enables simultaneous acceleration of both IP storage and standard Ethernet traffic.

Leitch Technology announced it would offer 181 GB drives for the VR445 self-contained broadcast server. The two-channel server, which fits in a 7-inch (4RU), 65-pound frame, is said to provide an entirely new entry-level price point for budget-conscious customers who want to move to using a server. With the introduction of 181 GB drives, the VR445 now offers 543 GB of RAID-3 storage. That’s more than 70 hours of programming content using a video data rate of 8 Mbs.

The VR445, expandable to four channels, can be optionally configured to allow for Gigabit Ethernet FTP content transfer. The VR445 operates in MPEG-2 4:2:2 and 4:2:0, DVCAM, DVCPRO, and DVCPRO50 environments. DVCAM and DVCPRO files can be transferred into the VR445 at four times normal speed via SDTI.

At the show, Leitch also announced the availability of 2 Gbs Fibre Channel architecture and VRMediaNet media management. Along with the 181 GB drives, the introductions help increase the capacity of a server system built on a single Fibre Channel loop from 44 broadcast channels and 730 GB of storage, to over 100 channels and 18 TB of storage. Scalability is further increased by the introduction of VRMediaNet, which allows multiple server systems to appear as a single, virtual system under the control of a client/server media management application.

Less expensive storage used to mean buying or building your own JBOD (Just a Bunch of Disks) device. But the combination of remarkable improvements in hard disk density (and attendant price drops) along with less expensive RAID technology makes storage a buyers’ market.

Medéa has been among the price/performance leaders in RAID storage over the last few years. In debuting the new VideoRaid RTS disk arrays, the Calabasas, Calif.-based company proclaimed it the industry's lowest cost redundant disk array.

“VideoRaid RTS provides data protection and top notch performance for (DCC) applications, while it prices as low as $7/GB – significantly less than what other vendors charge for unprotected just-a-bunch-of-disk (JBOD) products,” says Roger Mabon, vice president of channel marketing at Medéa.

Built around a compact five-drive desktop tower, the Medéa RTS disk arrays sport capacities of 160 GB, 320 GB and 640 GB. The Ultra160 SCSI interface is said to offer a sustained data transfer rate of up to 100 MBs.

The RTS uses the company’s Multi-Stream Technology, basically a caching algorithm that enables the arrays to support playback of complicated NLE time-lines with up to two real-time uncompressed video streams.

At the show, QuVIS introduced a new QuBit model, the QuBit 601, with uncompressed SD recording. For the QuBit ST and EL models, QuVIS added SD recording and postproduction specific features.

The QuBit 601, a 10-bit uncompressed NTSC/PAL recorder/player, includes eight channels of digital audio. QuVIS claims the QuBit 601 is unique its ability to be expanded into a full-featured multi-format HD system-the equivalent of the current QuBit ST—“a feature no other devices offer.”

Fully configured, QuBit 601 can record/play approximately 2 hours of uncompressed 10-bit standard definition content. The optional Resolution Enhancement Package, transforms QuBit 601 into the Topeka, Kan.-based company’s flagship product, QuBit ST, by adding higher frame rates and larger image sizes, including HD. QuVIS also incorporated this 10-bit capability into the QuBit ST and QuBit EL units, which benefit by becoming both 12-bit compressed and 10-bit uncompressed recorder/players within the same architecture. Users can choose to go with any file structure or disk formatting setup they want, says the company.

Doremi Labs’ V1-UHD offers HD recording and playback in what—for my money—is one of the most attractive case designs going. The compact DDR records and plays uncompressed HDTV 720p, 1080i, and 1080p (24 and sf) at 8- or 10-bit resolution. The base version of the V1-UHD is available with a reasonable entry price, and offers 7, 14, or 39 minutes of 10-bit recording in its compact 3U chassis. With an external video storage unit, recording time can be expanded to several hours.

News
by Dan Ochiva
News production, one of the few growing sectors in the video trade, benefits with non-stop product intros and upgrades. Grass Valley added the Grass Valley NewsBrowse desktop browsing system to its Digital Newsroom Production Solution. Working with lower-resolution MPEG-1 files, the PC-based software allows rough, cuts-only edits.

NewsBrowse generates an EDL to send to a Profile XP Media Platform system for final conformation and play to air, or to the more comprehensive NewsEdit system for further editing.

GVG also announced the laptop-based NewsEdit LT nonlinear edit system for fieldwork and the NewsShare real-time, shared-storage system.

Grass Valley’s Digital News Production Solution got an upgrade to Version 4.0, offering a range of new features for NewsEdit system users. The NLE portion gains voice disguise, blur and mosaic effects for use in investigative reports, external control support, and a Media Object Server (MOS) script interface that enables users to link a script to a video while editing.

The new software release also includes a 2D digital video effects option with a wide range of video and audio effects. Its blur and mosaic effects, says the company, enable editors to cover up images they may need to disguised for legal or source-protection reasons.

For those who still like the feel and workflow of tape-style editing, the external control support option controls timeline and source VTRs using basic transport functions such as play, stop, rewind, fast forward, jog, and shuttle.

MOS integration in the new release enables an editor to query a script from the Profile XP Media Platform, display the script, and edit the video according to parameters of the script.

Leitch, pushing further into media management for its line of networked servers, introduced VRMediaNet. The Client/Server system (built on a Microsoft Windows 2000 server) allows you to integrate the databases of multiple server systems. The idea is to provide information about and management of media at one or more broadcast facilities.

All data about any connected Leitch VR server system comes via a single-user interface that can be run from any networked client workstation. VRMediaNet provides full metadata management, and it can be expanded to include wire services, script writing, story management, tracking of media usage, and broadcast rights.

Leitch also announced the introduction of InstantOnline-II for its line of VR400 series broadcast video servers. The product links the online server system and the proxy-editing environment for its news system.

Pinnacle Systems presented its long-range strategy for networked media based on the company's new Palladium Architecture. Palladium is an open foundation for sharing storage and media files.

Collaboration is the key word. Pinnacle envisions the single media file standard to enable pulling together broadcast and production environments where simultaneous ingest, editing, browsing, and on-air play out functions interact across a high-speed network. Third-party products and industry formats such as MXF will also be able to be able to integrate with the system.

Pinnacle has already shipped the Palladium Architecture as part of its MediaStream 900 series video servers. Palladium is currently being ported to Pinnacle Systems' Vortex Networked News editing systems, with availability scheduled for summer 2002. Over time, other Pinnacle Systems professional editing and broadcast products will have the option of connecting via Palladium to share media assets.

Streaming
by Dan Ochiva
Streaming media offerings, while trailing off after the dotcom bust, still saw important product announcements. The market should see growth: streaming, moving beyond generic applications on the Web, has caught on in business and education, with other groups including post facilities now offering the technology to their clients. The imminent release of MPEG-4 could further boost streaming media use.

Anystream, which provides software for automating the production and distribution of streaming media, extended its Agility software package to include fully integrated indexing, logging, synchronized rich media presentation, and media management capabilities.

“Rather than buying and integrating multiple expensive software products, content producers in corporate communications, broadcast or production services can tap Agility to automate every stage of streaming content production,” says Geoff Allen, president and CEO of Anystream.

Nonlinear video editing manufacturer Canopus improves MPEG encoding for its DVStorm users via StormEncoder 1.02. The hardware allows capturing video directly to MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 files in realtime through the DVStorm’s analog and DV inputs. The idea here is to go to MPEG formats directly rather than capturing as DV and then outputting to MPEG-1 or MPEG-2.

Ontario-based Digital Rapids debuted StreamStation, a streaming media encoding and batch encoding workstation. StreamStation combines a dual Xeon processor IBM IntelliStation and Digital Rapids dual channel Stream video capture and processing hardware. The product includes the ability to up resolution video to near HD resolutions (1024x768), preview all changes in realtime, and individually control the encoding process on a stream-by-stream basis.

Boston’s DMOD (Digital Media On Demand) announced a new release of the DMOD WorkSpace tool—a technology designed for secure digital media collaboration and distribution. Company officials say that version 2.0 adds new business rules for copy protecting any type of digital media, seamless integration with the QuickTime player, and new delivery options allowing digital content creators to share media over any network, including the Internet or existing FTP, VPN, Instant Messaging, or email systems.

IBM showcased many of its digital media software solutions through its Digital Media Factory, which integrates IBM technology with partner tools for encoding, indexing, organizing, storing, viewing, and distributing video content.

One of those partner technologies is Ancept’s Media Server 2.7. Ancept showed off the new server at the show—a tool designed to extend the capabilities of its initial Media Server. The new version targets the broadcast industry specifically, and includes functions such as keyframe extraction, vertical interval information, and a conforming engine to create and transfer EDLs destined for non-linear edit suites.

Leitch Technology released version 1.1 of the dpsNetStreamer expandable multiple Web stream video/audio encoder. The new version adds features including an automated scheduler for streaming functions and the ability to pre-record footage for later insertion into a live Web stream, complete with batch capture.

Pinnacle Systems’ EasyEncode SF, a software option for its StreamFactory broadband encoder product, helps streamline Web media production and workflow by batch encoding and automatically publishing multiple bit-rate streams to the Web.

Pinnacle says the software, along with a direct connection to a VTR via RS-422, enables StreamFactory or StreamFactory X2 to become a real-time batch encoder for projects such as converting tape libraries into browse-able streaming media for on-demand viewing from the desktop.

Switchers
by Dan Ochiva
Compact yet powerful switchers became a hit at the show, especially for those planning to upgrade their telecine suites. Van operators, live show mixers, and other mobile users, also faced with limited space, turned up at the booths.

The VTB-1D, a 10-bit SDI switcher from Brick House Video, comes as a portable stand-alone or rack-mounted unit with separate remote panel and integrates auto/manual dissolve and wipe, 4x4 SDI input/output, analog composite program output for monitoring, embedded audio switching, an internal test generator, and 525/625 switching.

With a rack-mounted processor unit and a control panel only a little over 17x11 inches, Sony’s compact DFS-700A has great proportions, even while it offers 700 pre-programmed effects and real-time 3D capabilities. Sporting full component digital processing, the switcher operates in 16:9 and 4:3 modes, a full function chromakey with each digital effects channel (a second channel of effects is optional), and a standard DSK with dedicated key source input.

The DFS-700A comes with eight inputs (four SDI and four analog component), with optional inputs of an additional SDI, analog component, analog composite, and Y/C.

Snell & Wilcox debuted its HD108 Switcher, one of three switcher products acquired from its purchase of PSP Digital. The HD108 packs a lot of features inside its 19-inch rack mount, such as eight directly accessible inputs from a full program preset row, two keyers with chromakeying, a single YUV color corrector, and 4:2:2 framestore. Internal 10-bit I/O processing supports all current high-definition standards. The addition of the SD108 mainframe enables switching in both the SD and HD domains.

Compositing
by Dan Ochiva
Ultimatte’s Ultimatte HD, its third generation realtime HD matte compositing system, works with all Digital HD and Digital Cinema 24p/psf image standards. Since the patented technologies employed are available in hardware for real-time applications (as well as plug-in software for Adobe, Avid, and Discreet programs), users can pre-visualize the finished composite on set during production, enabling creative decisions to proceed sans guesswork, according to Ultimatte’s Reid Baker, director of business development.

Camera Option
by Dan Ochiva
Panasonic debuted a new option for its AJ-HDC27 Varicam HD Cinema Camera that allows it to deliver cinema-style gamma performance and also increase its variable-frame-rate capabilities. What the option provides is extended gamma control, one tool to enable high-definition video to more closely approximate the dynamic range of film.

The option also provides a wider range of variable frame rates (from 4 to 60 fps with the ability to change the frame rate in single-frame increments) to overcrank and undercrank the Varicam to achieve fast- or slow-motion effects.

Workstations
by Dan Ochiva
The merger of Compaq and HP had just begun at show time; a complete strategy for combining the two workstation product lines is yet to be determined. However, two product areas that look sure to continue are Linux and a take-no-prisioners attitude towards workstation pricing.

Compaq presented its workstation Linux certification summary, a chart that lists specific workstation/processor combos that were guaranteed to run with versions of Red Hat and SuSE, the leading Linux flavors. (For the truly committed Penguin followers, Compaq even offers a port of Linux to its popular iPAQ handheld PDA.)

HP offered proof of its Linux chops, presenting the results of its work to help build Linux drivers with graphics card leaders 3Dlabs, NVidia, and ATI. HP also offered its entry-level x1100, a specifically Linux workstation with a pre-tested version of Red Hat 7.1, a Pentium 4 combined with the latest 266 MHz DDR memory, and a choice of graphics cards.

The DreamWorks partnership; however, was the point-of-pride announcement. HP had worked behind the scenes ever since an April 2000 road trip to DreamWorks revealed a studio ready to move to Linux, if they only had help with the hardware. In part to prove it was serious about Linux, HP committed to DreamWorks’ requirements, which included dual-display capability, color-calibration support, and Wacom tablet support.

Announced only a few months before the show, IBM made much of its Digital Media Factory (DMF), an open-technology framework comprised of IBM’s e-business infrastructure to manage, store, protect, and distribute digital video, audio, and images. The hardcore creation part of DMF—IntelliStation workstations, storage, and servers—is Linux based. A full-up system includes media and database management, a commerce capability (i.e., sell it over the Internet), and 24/7 from Big Blue’s famed services offerings.

SGI introduced Fuel, a new workstation line that leverages the architecture of its high-end SGI 3000 product. Quoted as delivering 30% more performance at a 57% lower price tag than the base Octane2, Fuel features a new generation of MIPS processors (500MHz and 600MHz), and from the 3000 line, high bandwidth architecture, increased memory, and increased cache. Throw in the VPro graphics card—capable of 48-bit RGBA—and take it home for a list price around $11,500.

SGI also introduced Visual Area Networking, an initiative addressing what the company sees as a growing problem in computing: while graphics and moving image processing power grows, poor interconnections and the lack of an overall control structure creates difficulties and security dilemmas for working interactively with dispersed systems. The VAN consists of a central, hub supercomputer to which all computers connect via an IP network, aided by SGI’s OpenGL|Visualizer software which orchestrates the collaboration.

I/O Cards
by Dan Ochiva
Aja’s Kona realtime HD card is the first uncompressed 10-bit YUV, dual-stream HD QuickTime card built from the ground up for OS X.

The Kona card features read like a wish list: realtime effects; realtime offline JPEG captured directly from HD-SDI to Firewire disk; WYSIWYG video output of the Macintosh desktop to a video monitor or LCD for true preview of HD color-space and artifacts when using Photoshop, After Effects, Combustion, etc.; native OS X six-channel, 24-bit, 48kHz AES/EBU audio with hardware sample-rate conversion for each input for seamless mixing of asynchronous or mismatched sample rates without pops or clicks; and provision for simple firmware updates of new features as time goes by. $11,000, available soon, and running flawlessly at Kona’s stand.

South Melbourne, Australia-based Bluefish444 might not be familiar yet to card buyers, but its partnership with Digital Voodoo should give you a clue as to what business it’s in. Instead of Macs, though, Bluefish444 handles only the PC I/O cards.

At the show, Bluefish444 launched an entire range of 10-bit SD and HD uncompressed SDI I/O and output only PCI cards for Windows. Its Wildblue AV, for example, features SD-SDI SMPTE 259M capture and output, with six channels of AES/EBU digital audio. The card also supports QuickTime for cross platform and cross application compatibility.

Lower cost cards are now turning up. Digital Voodoo's HD Fury is its latest HD PCI card for the Mac. Features include a single HD SDI I/O, genlock, and SD SDI down conversion. The card supports dual stream HD as well as eight channels of AES/EBU digital audio at 24bit/96 kHz.

Compound SD, meanwhile, is Digital Voodoo's latest SDI I/O digital and analog “videographics engine.” A multiple format PCI card for the Macintosh, Compound SD supports 10-bit uncompressed SDI input and output as well as component RGB, YUV, Y/C, and composite (NTSC and PAL) video. In addition, Compound SD has built in support for multiple layers of video or video and graphics as well eight channels of AES/EBU digital audio. The company claims that Compound SD is the first multiple format 10-bit I/O card for the Macintosh user.

For more on computers, graphics and I/O cards, DDRs, networking, and storage, be sure to catch next month’s pre-Siggraph issue.

Continue the discussion on “Crosstalk” the Millimeter Forum.
© 2009 Penton Media, Inc.