• Blogs
• Forums
• Tradeshows
• Partners
• White Papers
• Events

NAB 2006 Pick Hit Awards

Jun 1, 2006 12:00 PM

Realtime Streamers and CPU Screamers

It has taken a long time to get here, but Adobe finally has a balanced set of applications for desktop artists on a budget.

Adobe Production Studio software

Illustrator, Photoshop, and After Effects are de facto standards, but it was critical that Adobe make the video and audio products into an integrated package. Production Studio is a very good first step, with a new interface that is consistent across AE, Premier, Audition, and Encore. The products share data and projects where applicable, making this the most widely used integrated video solution available.

Apple Boot Camp software

Pundits and fans have been writing about running Windows on a Mac or vice versa for years, but that didn't blunt Boot Camp's impact. This is more of a strategic coup than a technical achievement; some say they're already set to partition a drive on their Macs to run Boot Camp's Windows. Macheads running Windows is nowhere as significant as getting Windows users to try OS X on a Mactel machine. Apple hopes this will help continue the incredible momentum that the iPod built outside its loyal fan base: A bold gambit from a company that is consistently innovative.

Arri Arriflex 416 Super 16 camera

It's hard to believe an entirely new Super 16 camera family would be introduced at this late date, but in 2004, Arri, responding to a sustained spike in Super 16 rentals as well as dramatic improvements in Kodak color negative, decided to forge ahead with a replacement for its 31-year-old SR. Not surprisingly, the 416 is quieter, 25 percent lighter, and more ergonomic, with throated magazines and a film path that would be terribly familiar to any Aaton owner. (With Super 16s, Arri is often to Aaton what Microsoft is to Apple.) As with all things Arri, the build quality is superb, and the viewfinder, adapted from an Arri 235, is a thing of beauty. (Can't say the same for the mag doors, which detach in the changing bag.) Arri's 416 seeks to redefine state-of-the-art for the Super 16. Finally! Arri, what took you so long?

Arri Arrimax 18/12 light fixture

If you know how to use a classic 1,000W Lowel DP light, you're already familiar with Arri's new focusable, open-face Arrimax 18/12, “the most powerful HMI light on the planet” per Arri. Essentially a huge 12kW or 18kW HMI lamp in a parabolic reflector, this bad boy can flood the side of an entire skyscraper or focus into an intense eight-degree spot pattern. Arri says it's 50 percent brighter than a 12kW PAR. DP Brella not included. (That's a Lowel umbrella joke.)

Avid Interplay

While Avid has long reigned as the most widely deployed NLE system, it's no secret that a number of companies aggressively target that same postproduction space with capable, lower-cost products.

With Avid Interplay, the Tewksbury, Mass.-based company makes a canny move and changes the playing field, expanding beyond the edit suite to encompass the whole post and broadcast space with integrated asset management, workflow automation, and security control. By creating a shared-data and media ecosystem, Avid Interplay offers a new collaborative model that may end up as tomorrow's standard.

Boxx Technologies Apexx 8 workstation

Only a couple of weeks after the convention, legendary but struggling graphics workstation manufacturer SGI announced it was entering Chapter 11 bankruptcy. So who imagined it would be tiny, Austin, Texas-based Boxx Technologies taking the lead in high-resolution workstation development, debuting one of the most unique systems around, a 64-bit, 16-core screamer?

Employing eight dual-core Opteron processors that hook together via AMD's high-speed interconnect Hyper-Transport technology, the Boxx Apexx 8 combines that with fast I/O and up to 128GB of memory to offer one of today's best solutions for editing, color correction, graphics, and animation at 2K film resolution or more.

Cine-tal Cinemage Intelligent Display Server (IDS) system

IDS is a network systems approach to location monitoring and color management of uncompressed 4:4:4 HD from the likes of Grass Valley's Viper. In IDS, Cine-tal's rugged Cinemage 24in. LCD display (I/O choice of HD-SDI or DVI, with HD Dual Link support) becomes a LAN network appliance tied to an IDS image processor, which generates realtime waveform, vectorscope, gamut, and signal status data. IDS also employs active display profiling to manage the look of not only the Cinemage 24in. display, but also external monitors or projectors driven by its DVI output. In addition, a realtime 3D color look-up table (LUT) allows users to load and manipulate LUTs for color previsualization (from any incoming source) or location color grading.

Focus Enhancements FireStore FS-4 HD Portable Direct To Edit disk recorder

Focus Enhancements has been winning fans for its innovative line of FireStore Direct To Edit (DTE) drives, a flexible field recording and post technology that delivers the speed and economy of today's hard drives to a range of DV and HDV camcorders, all with the company's signature rugged, simple-to-use form factor.

While the company now develops a range of estimable products — including the new FS-100 DTE for Panasonic's AG-HVX200 — we award the FireStore FS-4 HD and FS4Pro HD drives. As the first portable recorders supporting native QuickTime HDV, they're a breakthrough for anyone working in Apple Final Cut Pro who doesn't want to deal with the tedious routine of capturing and converting footage.

Grass Valley Infinity camcorder

Thomson's Grass Valley division likes to describe its Infinity digital media camcorder as an IT-centric product; coming some two decades after Avid introduced its breakthrough computer-based systems for post, some might say that it's about time a major player moved image capture to an off-the-shelf, standards-based device.

That's what makes the Infinity such an innovative device for a selectable SD and HD camcorder that runs to 1080/720 HD at 50/60p. Flexibility is key: Users can encode video as DV25, MPEG-2, or the upcoming open-standard compression scheme, JPEG 2000 intraframe. Other open-standard features include USB, FireWire, and Gigabit Ethernet ports, and the camera records to off-the-shelf media REV PRO disks and CompactFlash RAM.

Kodak Look Manager System version 2.0

If you're shooting film, this is a must-have. Kodak's KLMS previsualization software (Mac and Windows) enables directors and cinematographers to predict on a laptop the effect of their choices of color negative, filters, exposures, processing tricks like skip bleach, or even print stocks on the basis of test shots made with digital still cameras. Choices in the field can also be reliably communicated to colorists in postproduction using KLMS. The redesigned KLMS interface in version 2.0 is friendly enough to invite students to use it as a learning tool.

Matrox Axio LE realtime HD/SD editing system

Matrox has listened to customers and introduced an à la carte version of Axio, its breakthrough Windows-based realtime HD/SD editing platform for Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0. Originally only bundled with an approved workstation, Matrox has slashed the price of this board-and-breakout box's “light” version of Axio to $4,500 while retaining most of its full functionality. You get multiple layers of realtime uncompressed HD and SD editing and effects, plus realtime native HDV and DVCPRO HD, and for SD, realtime native DV, DVCPRO, DV50, and MPEG-2 I-frame like Sony's IMX. Warning: Once you've tasted realtime HD editing and left rendering behind, you can't go back.

P+S Technik Skater Scope compact snorkel lens system

Following the success of its Pro35 and Mini35 Image Converters to adapt cine PL-mount lenses to B4 and DV/HDV camcorders, P+S Technik introduced Skater Scope, a uniquely compact and versatile snorkel system for B4, PL, or Panavision mount cameras. Shorter than other snorkel systems, its tilt element nevertheless rotates from minus to plus 105 degrees, and Skater Scope can continuously rotate the horizon 360 degrees. Adjustable back focus adds macro-like capabilities to non-macro lenses. Must be operated to be appreciated.

Panasonic AJ-HPC2000 P2 camcorder

Panasonic is sticking with full-size 2/3in. progressive-scan CCDs in its first shoulder-mount P2 ENG HD camcorder — no moving parts! Frame rates include 1080i, 720p, 480/60i and 576/50i. Five slots accommodate swappable P2 cards (at present 8GB each) for what Panasonic says is 40 minutes of continuous HD recording. I/O includes HD-SDI, USB 2.0, and IEEE 1394 for DVCPRO HD and AVC. Yes, that's AVC (Advanced Video Codec), a.k.a. H.264, a part of the MPEG-4 standard. Intriguingly for the HPC2000, Panasonic announced at NAB the option of efficient H.264 compression (championed by Apple), which will double the capacity of P2 cards. Panasonic has offered initial documentation for 50Mbps 4:2:0 AVC-Intra HD to SMPTE for standardization.

Quantum SDLT 600A tape drive

Is Quantum's SDLT 600A Tape Drive a provocative, potentially disruptive technology? Potentially, since the compact box eschews format-dependent SD and HD videotape in favor of MXF file-based 36MBps digital linear tape, the same stuff that's sold in the millions to corporate America for data storage.

The SDLT 600A supports all the standards needed in our increasingly IT-oriented post environment, including Gigabit Ethernet, FTP, and MXF for program and metadata exchange. Unlike with standard archive technology, NLE users have direct, timecode access to shots.

Sony XDCAM HD PDW-F330 and PDW-F350 camcorders

How can a CineAlta with 1080/24p and timelapse not impress you, especially when it comes in under $17K? With these compact but robust ENG-inspired HD camcorders, Sony has invented not one but two new camcorder categories:1/2in. 3-CCD and optical disc-based (blue-violet laser). The PDW-F330 ($16.8K) and PDW-F350 ($25.8K) record 1080i and 1080/24p at 18Mbps (variable), 25Mbps (constant, similar to HDV), and 35Mbps (variable) using long-GOP MPEG-2. Both also offer SD recording in DVCAM, both 480/60i and 576/50i. The F350 adds variable frame rates from 4fps to 60fps.

Tarari Encoder Accelerator card

If turning out HD video in realtime for streaming or other applications looks like something you want to try, you'll have to check out the Tarari Encoder Accelerator. Designed and developed specifically for encoding Windows Media Video (WMV), the Grand Prix 6000 Series card turns Microsoft's algorithms into silicon to deliver, for example, realtime HD streaming straight from an HD camera's line feed.

The acceleration technology also supports 2K and 4K digital cinema formats, yet it is transparent to any digital media apps — which means nothing needs to be modified to take advantage of realtime encoding.

Vision Research Phantom HD and Phantom 65 cameras

OK, let's chuck film cameras in favor of 4K digital cinematography cameras. One little problem: What replaces high-speed film cameras for slow motion? If anyone has the answer, it's Vision Research. Introduced at NAB, the company's Phantom HD (35mm-sized Bayer-filter CMOS) achieves 1000fps, and its Phantom 65 (65mm-sized Bayer-filter CMOS), 125fps. Both are progressive-scan with an exposure index about 600 ISO (no microlens!). Low 40W draw, too. They're pricey (more than $100K and $200K, respectively) and lack a viewfinder, but otherwise, they work great.

---

Millimeter's Pick Hit Judges

S.D. Katz, director/writer/producer, senior contributing editor, Millimeter

D.W. Leitner, director/DP, senior contributing editor, Millimeter

Dan Ochiva, section editor, new media/technology, Millimeter

© 2008 Penton Media, Inc.