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MillimeterIBC and Hollywood
Sep 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Cynthia Wisehart
Like NAB, IBC's roots are firmly in broadcast, and broadcast remains prominent at the show. But, in keeping with a more multi-casted landscape and the broadening definition of content and content creation, IBC attracts feature film and postproduction exhibitors as well, including those who are part of the DI and digital mastering chain — Bluefish, Nucoda, Assimilate, FilmLight, Imagica, and Celco, among others. In addition, long-standing IBC attendees such as Da Vinci (with Resolve) and Cintel (with the now-shipping Ditto scanner) confirmed their post-oriented positions. IBC also attracted this century's new media companies from the encoding, streaming, and mobile sectors. Companies increasingly plan product announcements around IBC, beyond reiterating their NAB offerings. In fact, IBC 2005 almost saw the debut of one of the year's most important content creation products; the launch was postponed for a number of reasons, but not because of second thoughts about IBC.
Just a couple of examples of content creation product introductions: Maximum Throughput chose IBC to debut its Sledgehammer NLS, a simple but serious NAS shared storage system initially for Final Cut Pro users, supporting up to 30 concurrent users, mixed formats, and realtime access without digitizing. AJA brought Kona LH, a 10-bit capture card for Final Cut Studio, offering both HD and SE analog and digital I/O.
ECinema Systems used the show to further evangelize what it is calling “the industry's first reference-grade HD LCD monitor for HD and DI.” Clearly a production and postproduction monitor.
One of the biggest announcements at IBC was still in keeping with the broadcast legacy. However, Thomson Grass Valley positioned the new Infinity line on a decidedly un-broadcast platform of nonproprietary, IT-friendly media. Grass Valley would say the modern broadcaster — or multicaster — doesn't need proprietary media anymore and can benefit more from the advantages of mainstream IT. It positions Infinity with one foot in broadcast experience, culture, and values, but opens up the platform a much broader market that doesn't discriminate by delivery medium. The HD/SD multi-format camcorder accepts standard broadcast inputs, records to Iomega REV drives and CompactFlash solid state; it can connect to any number of outboard devices and/or networks via FireWire, USB, and Gigabit Ethernet. There is also going to be a compatible recorder/player (VTR replacement) and REV media drive.
At IBC, Microsoft announced that Thomson's Technicolor facility was implementing Microsoft's Connected Services Framework for its new media division — a localized application designed to test broader possibilities for the service-oriented management infrastructure throughout Technicolor. This new commission continues to cautiously grow the role Microsoft is occupying in Hollywood, a role that will be further explored at the new THX Best Practices Lab for Windows Media. For an exclusive report on the launch event, see page 38 of this issue.
