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NAB 2006

Jun 1, 2006 12:00 PM, By S. D. Katz, D. W. Leitner, Dan Ochiva, and Jan Ozer

Bitcasting Arrives

Navigation
Introduction
Cameras and Other Driving Forces
Forays in Editing
3D Coming at You

Cameras and Other Driving Forces

By D.W. Leitner

I divide the massive NAB show into four areas of critical interest, namely cameras, displays, desktop editing, and post. In the latter category I lump telecines, scanners, and film recorders, as well as color correction, color management, CGI, storage, and sundry finishing systems that have come to be known, aptly or not, as DI.

Don't get me wrong. I'm a lighting cameraman who loves lighting (the SMPTE Journal once published my article on the history of lighting), lenses (I once ran a lens testing facility), and even the sweet science of audio (I once mixed a feature). At NAB, I stood transfixed under Litepanel's LP-1×1 LED instrument and was awed by Arri's Arrimax 18/12 HMI, 50 percent brighter than a 12kW PAR, which resembles a colossal Lowel DP light. At the opposite scale, because it can hide behind a button, Ricsonix's Pin-Mic tickled my fancy, together with its ultra-compact digital wireless “Little Buddy” body pack transmitter that dangles beneath it under clothing.

It's just that some technologies at NAB are driving forces, central to future technical choices we will someday have to make from preproduction onward. Cameras, for one, are tied to recording mediums and production workflows; displays are the actual canvases we'll be filling; desktop editing platforms will continue to facilitate the latest digital transformations of our industry; and post is where all roads must lead.

I'll cover these categories in reverse order, ending with cameras at NAB.

In post, the envelope to push is 4K, and Cintel showed a production version of its low-cost 4K diTTo desktop scanner for 35mm film, featuring a 3K area array CCD camera, RGB LED illumination with diffusing chamber to soften dirt and scratches (techniques pioneered in Sony's defunct Vialta), pin registration, and a new dirt/scratch concealment option (D/SCO) that Cintel says is “magical,” but whose abracadabra may have more to do with secondary infrared imaging. Compact, economical, and fast (oversampled 2K at 4fps) is the true magic here.

Quantel showcased its new Pablo nonlinear 4K color correction system for DI (already pressed into work at an impressive number of facilities), while over at FilmLight, Baselight 8's realtime 4K color grading and power windows were demonstrated with clips of 4K scenes shot with Dalsa's Origin and projected in stunning 4K from a Sony 4K SXRD projector. It doesn't get better than this, kids.

While interest in 4K production seemed resurgent at NAB — cost-prohibitive as ever, but clearly the darling at NAB's weekend Digital Cinema Summit — back on Earth, the leading edge of practical digital cinema production remains uncompressed 1920×1080 HD in full-bandwidth 10-bit 4:4:4 RGB. A comprehensive set of workflow solutions for 4:4:4 RGB field production was literally encapsulated at Creative Bridge's Mobile Digital Lab and Theater (MDLT), a 36ft. mobile trailer parked across Paradise Road (symbolism?) from the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Co-presented with Plus8 Digital, the MDLT trailer showcased the integration of data-centric technologies for previz, capture, and viewing of dailies in 4:4:4 HD. Highlighted were S.two's DFR (digital field recorder) with removable D.MAG disk magazines (MDLT equally supports Sony's CineAlta SR format), Gamma & Density's 3cP for on-set color correction (MDLT equally supports Kodak's superb Look Management System version 2.0 and Iridas's SpeedGrade), and — to knit it all together — Assimilate's Scratch data management software to oversee realtime assembly, editing, playback, conforming, effects, color correction, and mastering. One-stop shopping, anyone?

Each year at NAB, I watch the line between low-cost desktop editing and post blur further. At the desktop end, Apple with Final Cut Studio and Adobe with Adobe Production Studio (Premiere Pro 2.0 is Final Cut Pro for Windows) have dynamically linked timeline editing with motion graphics (Motion and After Effects, respectively) and soundtrack design. An informal demo of Maya on an Apple iMac with Intel Core Duo processors rendering in near-realtime composites with live-action plates from Narnia made a big impression. Avid, for its part, lowered its barrier to entry with the debut of a software-only Media Composer for less than $5,000 (Mac and PC, with dongle) — unthinkable a few years ago.

There were two breakthroughs in low-cost realtime HD editing that caught my eye, both from Matrox. Matrox introduced an economy version of Axio, its Windows-based realtime HD/SD editing platform for Adobe Premiere 2.0. The $4,500 board-and-breakout box kit (workstation not included) gets you multiple layers of realtime editing and effects in uncompressed HD and SD, HDV, DVCPRO HD, DV, DVCPRO 50, and Sony's IMX I-frame MPEG-2.

If, instead, you're cutting HDV in Final Cut Pro and dreading the interminable output render, Matrox's compact MXO DVI adapter box is your ticket to realtime output. MXO accepts the DVI signal ordinarily sent directly to an Apple Cinema display and converts it on the fly to HD-SDI with either embedded audio, analog HD with unbalanced audio, or standard definition. The DVI signal is also displayed as usual on your Apple Cinema display — worth every penny of its $995 retail price.

At NAB, the most impressive pixel-for-pixel 1920×1080 LCD displays — those closest to reference grade monitors — were the 24in. Cinemáge by Cine-tal with a built-in OmniTek waveform monitor and vectorscope, the frontNiche HD Pro 23in. with fast-motion interpolation from the BBC's R&D department (there's also an economy DVI-only model), and eCinema's 23in. DCM23. For less than $5,000, Panasonic debuted a 26in. LCD monitor, the BT-LH2600W. Like frontNiche, it boasts high-speed response for no blurring, and like Cine-tal, a built-in waveform monitor and split-screen function for scene comparison and color matching. With a slim profile and light weight, each of these terrific products is equally suited to edit bay, field, or post. I only wish they could become prevalent overnight.

Previously, I mentioned the Digital Cinema Summit, the two-day weekend conference that precedes the NAB floor show. Panels addressed advances in projection and display technology, D-Cinema cameras, color management tools, and progress in implementing DCI theatrical spec's and roll out of digital projection into actual theaters. DP Daryn Okada, ASC, showed comparisons he'd shot for Disney using Grass Valley's Viper FilmStream, Sony's F950, Arri's D-20, Panavision's Genesis, Dalsa's Origin, and a Panaflex with Eastman 5218 color negative. Projected on a Sony 4K SXRD, the results were hard to characterize by a simple thumbs up or down. All, in fact, looked spectacular. To my eyes, perhaps, Dalsa looked a hair more spectacular.

But what set this Summit apart from previous editions was the surprising emphasis on 3D. James Cameron in his day-two keynote, “Near and Far Horizons in Digital 3D,” argued that digital cinema technology makes 3D capture and display “ridiculously easy.” He and others — including Vince Pace, whose custom handheld 3D rig for Cameron features two Sony F950s with motorized convergence — were persuasive, but so too were 3D clips screened for the audience, particularly from the extraordinary Polar Express. And get used to the term “dimensionalization,” a new process from Real D that converts conventional 2D films to convincing 3D — newly dimensionalized 3D clips from the original 1997 Star Wars must be seen to be believed — which will convert 20 minutes of this summer's Superman Returns to IMAX 3D.

Even more spectacular (let's raise the ante) was NHK's demonstration over in North Hall of ultra high-definition TV. Would you believe a 7680×4320 — that's 4320 scan lines — at 60p, with 16 times the pixel count of conventional HD? How about 22.2-channel sound? Sitting maybe three-screen heights from a large theater-sized screen, I witnessed a wide shot of a Knicks game made from the nosebleed section of Madison Square Garden. I could see the players' faces clearly, and as reported in my NAB blog, every time the crowd at the Garden cheered, I thought applause was coming from the packed NHK screening room. However, nobody around me was clapping. It was spooky.

The experimental NHK camera (by Olympus) was a beast, with 16 HD-SDI links into a bank of drives and an optical block with four Micron CMOS sensors that happen to be 16mm × 9mm (how convenient). Hardly larger than a conventional 2/3in. chip and nowhere the 35mm size of sensors in Origin, D-20, or Genesis, you might call it a 3/4in. chip.

Why four sensors? One devoted to the red channel, one to blue, and two to green — diagonally offset, I'm guessing — to obtain 50 percent greater spatial resolution. Such “pixel shifting” is common in broadcast cameras, especially HDV camcorders. Why CMOS? Micron marketing manager Caleb Williams told me that CMOS is the only technology that can achieve such results at full 60p. Although clipped highlight detail made it appear that the paltry 10-bit A/D left something to be desired.

What about cameras for the rest of us at NAB? Starting with film cameras, Arri produced a genuine surprise with its new Super 16 camera, the 416. Improving upon its 30-year-old SR design, the 416 is quieter, 25 percent lighter, and more ergonomic. (Throated magazines, film path, and integral video tap will be familiar to any Aaton owner.) Build quality is superb, and the viewfinder, adapted from an Arri 235, sets a new standard for brightness and sharpness in a 16mm camera.

Aaton meanwhile updated its Super 16 flagship to XTRprod2, adding twin batteries, progressive-scan video tap, and built-in rod support. Aaton also previewed a prototype of Penelope, a compact switchable 2-, 3-, and 4-perf “quiet, quiet, quiet” sync-sound 35mm camera, a complete redesign that also incorporates twin batteries.

On the HDV front, JVC, buoyed by the world sales of 12,000 HD100s, announced new HD200 and HD250 models, both with a full 60p frame rate. (Maximum for HD100 is 720p/30.) In anticipation of JVC's upcoming PL-mount adapter for use with film lenses, the HD200 ($8,000) adds a function to flip the upside-down image created by this adapter. The HD250 further adds HD-SDI out (like Canon's XL-H1) with embedded audio (unlike XL-H1), timecode synching, and genlock ($9,000, identical to XL-H1).

With the debut of the XDCAM HD PDW-F330 and PDW-F350, Sony created two new categories in HD camcorders: 1/2in. 3-CCD and optical disc (blue-violet laser). The PDW-F330 ($16,800) and PDW-F350 ($25,800) record 1080i and 1080p/24 at 18Mbps (variable), 25Mbps (constant, like HDV), and 35Mbps (variable), using long-GOP MPEG-2. Both record SD in DVCAM, either 480/60i or 576/50i. The F350 adds variable frame rates from 4fps-60fps. How can you not be impressed by a CineAlta with 1080p/24 and time-lapse for under $17,000, even if they're meant for ENG?

Panasonic announced two upcoming breakthroughs to its line of 2/3in. 3-CCD HD camcorders:

1. The first full-size P2 camcorder, the AJ-HPC2000. With progressive scan CCDs and no moving parts — five slots hold swappable P2 cards for what Panasonic says is 40 minutes of continuous HD — the HPC2000 ($25,000) will capture common HD and SD frame rates at 14 bits in DVCPRO and DVCPRO HD, as well as in an intraframe version of AVC (advanced video codec), aka H.264. This will double the duration of the HPC2000's P2 cards.

2. The tape-based AJ-HDX900, which Panasonic says will be an upconversion to HD of the popular SDX900. The AJ-HDX900 adds 1080i/60, 1080p/24, and 720p frame rates along with superb 14-bit A/D and DSP. I say it's a Varicam stripped of variable frame rates. A Varicam costs $66,000, while the HDX900 arrives in July at $26,500 (viewfinder extra). What would motivate such a nosedive?

The Infinity is Grass Valley's (GV) answer to the 21st century tapeless HD camcorder. Less than $25,000, the 14-bit Infinity makes an intriguing case for inexpensive off-the-shelf IT storage, with two slots for consumer-grade compact Flash memory and an internal bay for Iomega's removable REV 35MB hard disk cartridge ($60). GV and Iomega have co-developed a professional version, REV PRO ($70), with improved caching for dual-stream recording and playback. If CF and REV are not to your liking, Infinity provides SDI, HD-SDI, FireWire, three USB 2.0 ports, and Gigabit Ethernet. There are also multiple codecs to choose from: DV (for DVCAM and DVCPRO), long-GOP and I-frame MPEG-2, and intraframe JPEG2000 with MXF. May the best tapeless camcorder win!

Lastly, NAB saw several more hats tossed in the ring of independently manufactured digital cinematography cameras. What they share in common is a single-CMOS sensor with Bayer color filter, PL-mount lenses, capture to non-video RAW files (no encoding), claims to the legacy of film, projected prices circa $20,000, and unavailability despite hype. They include promised products from Kinetta (skipped NAB this year), Red (vapor so far), Silicon Imaging (it actually worked), and Colorspace (who are these guys?).

Meanwhile, F950s and Vipers with SRW-1 and S.two recorders are shooting features, Arri D-20s are in the field too, Dalsa readies its next-generation design, Vision Research (military telemetry) joins the fold with their 1000fps CMOS Phantom HD camera, and Sony sneak-peeks its upcoming RGB 4:4:4 2/3in. camera that resembles a Panaflex, only with 4:4:4 1080p speeds from 1fps-30fps, up to 60fps in 4:2:2. Faint D-Cinema rumblings are also emanating from Panasonic.

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© 2009 Penton Media, Inc.