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NAB 2007 Pick Hit Awards

May 1, 2007 12:00 PM

HD workflow from camera to screen.

At NAB 2007, new digital cinema cameras ruled the show floor. Like everything else in the digital world, these high-res powerhouses are getting smaller and more affordable. At the same time, I/O device manufacturers are making advances to accommodate new powerhouse cameras. We saw bandwidth increases across the board — 3Gbps transfer to support 4:4:4 HD video is fast becoming the standard. To complete the picture (literally), desktop software suites are continuing to simultaneously expand their reach (incorporating new, previously impossible on-the-desktop tasks) and tighten internal integration (so editors and graphics artists can accomplish more without leaving their favorite application environment).

And now, without further ado, we present the 14 new products that millimeter editors selected as Pick Hit award winners for NAB 2007.

Red Digital Cinema Red One camera

Perhaps it's up to Jim Jannard and his team at Red Digital Cinema to make grassroots innovation triumph within the digital media industry. After all, it was Jannard who famously started Oakley Sunglasses in his garage in 1975 with $300 and the idea of making something that worked and looked better than the competition's product. This year, the billionaire pulled off working models of the Red One digital cinema camera system, snagged Peter Jackson to do a promo epic, and created Beatles-like hysteria on the NAB show floor.

Holding the Mysterium Super 35-sized sensor, the light (only 9lbs.), sturdy, dramatically styled Red One body is the heart of this flexible, modular system. The company has gone out of its way to put its imprimatur on every aspect of its product offerings, which include custom lenses, codecs, and storage options. Such an ambitious product launch from a small startup is nothing short of audacious.

Red has already had to push back product availability dates more than once, but Contributing Editor D. W. Leitner notes that this last stage of production is the most difficult hurdle for any new camera company. (Indeed, at press time, Red announced a new engineering delay.) So let's hear it for the small guy who is trying to punch above his weight.

Vision Research Phantom HD and Phantom 65

Spun off in the early 1990s from a company that was among the pioneers of gear for high-speed film analysis, Vision Research International (VRI) still wasn't on many must-see lists until this year's show.

Sporting newly designed CMOS sensors capable of high-speed operation, the Wayne, N.J.-based company's Phantom HD and Phantom 65 are now on many a DP's shortlist. VRI, which benefits from an ongoing collaboration with the savvy team at Abel Cine Tech, built its sensor so that 35mm lenses can be used on the Phantom HD, giving it a familiar film-style depth of field as well as 11 stops of dynamic range with 14-bit color depth. The real draw will be slo-mo speeds of up to 1,000fps.

The Phantom 65 delivers an astonishing range of capabilities including a target image size that replicates the old film standard of 70mm (4096×1860 pixels) at 2.21:1 — numbers that many never expected to see in the digital realm. With speeds of up to 125fps and shutter-speed control down to 2 microseconds (that's 1/500,000 second), the Phantom 65 will have the commercial and visual effects production crews lining up.

Silicon Imaging SI-2K and SI-2K Mini

When they debuted the engineering prototype of their HD camera system at NAB 2006, the guys at Silicon Imaging garnered a reputation as just a bunch of geeky engineers trying to do something cool with a new generation of CMOS chips. After all, the camera was a just a bunch of breadboards with enough exposed wires and cables to raise concerns about an inadvertent fire.

The team from Troy, N.Y., got smart, and at this year's show, the company displayed the result: Its SI-2K has a sleek, modular design developed in congress with P+S Technik, known for its considerable hardware chops.

But an even more striking example of innovative thinking is the integration of Iridas SpeedGrade OnSet color-management technology with an integrated keyer. DPs will be able to import, create, and modify “looks” while on the set, even while capturing unaltered RAW files along with relevant metadata. More than 10 f/stops of dynamic range, integrated 802.11g wireless access, touchscreen interface, and up to four hours of continuous shooting on a 160GB notebook hard drive all show that there's plenty of homegrown originality to keep your eye on.

Sony F23

At Band Pro's annual press event this past December, Sony surprised many attendees with the debut of its F23, a sturdy 4:4:4, 1920x1080 addition to the CineAlta line. Some wondered why Sony hadn't come out earlier with such a high-end system suitable for standard Hollywood production styles. According to Burbank, Calif.-based Band Pro, Sony consulted top DPs on just what they wanted in a workhorse camera system. The facility, apparently, was impressed by Sony's application of this real-world feedback; Band Pro placed an order for 100 F23 cameras, helping ensure a stable launch for a product that faces an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Contributing Editor D. W. Leitner was also impressed with the camera at NAB. “Sony's amazing 3CCD F23 [is] reportedly capable of 12-plus stops of latitude, thanks to new prism technology and new IT CCDs with multi-element micro-lenses,” he says.

The F23 builds from the company's established HDC-F950 camera's design, but it hews to traditional (read: Panavision) camera layout — as with the placement for the SRW-1 HDCAM digital 4:4:4 recorder, which docks directly to the top or the tail of the new system. The camera body, too, will be familiar to production crews. It's compatible with a variety of film camera accessories, including bridge plates, matte boxes, and follow-focus gear.

With the F23, Sony has paid real attention to the travails of day-in, day-out production, which is evident in the hardened material now used on the B4-type lens mount.

Blackmagic Design Multibridge Eclipse

To millimeter readers, it will come as no real surprise, but we again need to acknowledge Grant Petty and his savvy team at Blackmagic Design for delivering an innovative product at a really reasonable price point.

This time, it's Multibridge Eclipse, a new editing system interface that bravely goes out in front of the pack with its 3Gbps SDI standard connections. That next-gen interface delivers twice the data rate of HD-SDI, allowing 4:4:4 video editing over a single BNC-type connection. For film work, you might instead want to use the 2K-via-SDI capability for realtime editing at a full 2048×1556 res.

As usual, there is more packed in: HDMI capture and playback; analog component, NTSC, PAL, and S-Video capture and playback; 16 channels of SDI audio; 12 channels of AES/EBU audio; four channels of analog XLR audio capture and playback — you get the idea. Blackmagic has done it again.

Easylook System Modula HD Cam

If you're involved in production, this NAB will go down as heralding the DIY approach. In many cases, small companies got the drop on others that have millions to spend on R&D.

It helps to be canny like Easylook System. The small German company took some innovative ASIC technology from the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft (the largest organization for applied research in Europe) and turned out an ultra-compact HD camera that delivers 24p/25p/30p/60p without the usual outboard processing box.

Flexibility is the word here. Easylook's Modula HD Cam employs a single 2/3in. CMOS chip to deliver 1080p and 720p output, while the 1080i/720i interlaced mode turns out frame rates up to 120fps. A built-in converter provides HD-SDI and SDI output for viewing, while a set of interchangeable lens mounts includes those for standard B4, C-mount, Nikon-style, and Arri PL mount 35mm and 16mm cine lenses.

InPhase Technologies Tapestry 300r and Maxell media

Holographic storage technology still sounds like magic. Use a modulated laser beam to cross another reference laser, record the resulting interference signal, and voilà, millions of different holograms — that's data pages to storage engineers — can be recorded in the same physical place without interfering with each other.

That's just part of the description of how the InPhase Technologies Tapestry 300r drive records up to 300GB on a single, CD-diameter Maxell disc. But that's enough to realize that we've entered a new era in storage technology, where photons vie against magnetized domains for top-dog status.

Sure, the InPhase drives and Maxell media have been demonstrated at previous shows. But now the products are delivering to real customers, who are turning to a holographic-based jukebox system that archives more than 6,000 hours of SD or some 1,560 hours of HD material in one library cabinet.

Panasonic AJ-HPX3000G

For many, the visual beauty of Panasonic's D-5 HD made it the turn-to format for compositing and for high-end deliverables. Now “near D-5” quality is what Panasonic claims its new 1920x1080 AJ-HPX3000 P2 HD camcorder delivers.

The shoulder-mount device produces full-raster, 10-bit 4:2:2 images via three 2.2-million-pixel CCDs, 14-bit A/D conversion circuitry, 12-pole matrix color correction function, and the latest AVC-Intra compression. Switchable modes make it flexible too, with 100Mbps for that near D-5 HD quality and 50Mbps for good HD quality while saving on bandwidth.

Canon DigiSuper lenses and Vinten Vector 950 Active tripod

Many professionals have wondered why the miraculous speed of autofocus technology on consumer gear couldn't be applied to their needs, especially when using a high-magnification HD lens at a fast-moving football game.

With its huge consumer camera market available to absorb R&D costs, ever-innovative Canon (not surprisingly) has done just that. The company is delivering an auto-focus solution for its highly regarded long-range zoom lenses, the DigiSuper 100AF and DigiSuper 86AF. While the term is a mouthful, Through-the-Lens Secondary Image Registration Phase Detection Method technology does the job.

But of course, moving a broadcast HD camera with a more-than-2ft. zoom lens fast and smoothly enough is itself a challenge, which is why we've made a tip of the hat to Vinten for its Vector 950 Active intelligent fluid head, which functions as part of a rig developed with Canon. The tripod and the lens stabilization system communicate, figuring out the difference between unwanted vibration and intentional camera moves by the operator.

Apple Final Cut Studio 2

Apple's suite deal got even better with the announcement of Final Cut Studio 2, which includes Final Cut Pro 6, Soundtrack Pro 2, Compressor 3, Motion 3, DVD Sudio Pro 3, and the knockout Color color-grading app.

Apple acquired Silicon Color last year, and this year, Final Cut Studio integrates Silicon's comprehensive Final Touch correction app as Color, a highly tweakable product that offers custom RGB and luma curves, secondary tools for isolating and tracking areas of an image, and customizable looks and effects. Final Cut Pro's new Open Format Timeline delivers a very useful feature formally found only in the priciest turnkey hardware: the ability of users to mix formats, resolutions, and even frame rates on the fly. SmoothCam, meanwhile, employs speedy motion tracking lifted from Shake to remove unwanted camera motion.

For some, the introduction of Apple's ProRes 422 codec will be the real draw, with its full-raster, 10-bit 4:2:2 HD resolution and SD-like file sizes. No longer worrying about throughput demands that were recently daunting, a studio can now put together a low-cost SAN, or an editor can work on a MacBook Pro in the field using the new ProRes codec.

AJA Video Io HD

The tight Apple-AJA relationship was the genesis of AJA Io HD, a compact, portable I/O box that encodes to the ProRes 422 codec in hardware. This means that Intel-based Macs (including laptops) can work with 10-bit 4:2:2 HD in realtime, connecting to Io HD with only a standard FireWire 800 port. It's flexible, too — it also includes HDMI I/O, support for 1080-line progressive segmented frames, and all the various conversion features of AJA's existing Kona lineup.

Sony BVM-L230

When we gave a Pick Hit award to NEC's pioneering LED-illumined LCD2180WG-LED monitor in 2005, we expected many more manufacturers to quickly follow this move away from fluorescent backlighting to light-emitting diode technology. After all, LED is inherently more stable and has a wider color gamut.

Well, it's two years later, and we are finally about to see the industry make the change. Sony goes out in front with its first LED-backlit broadcast LCD monitor, the reference-grade BVM-L230. As is the case with the industry-favorite CRT-based BVM line, the new monitor isn't cheap. But put the BVM-L230 in a critical color-grading suite, and users will benefit from the results of 40 new Sony patents. There's 12-bit processing; support for up to 2048×1080 24p for digital cinema applications; and Trimaster technology, which Sony claims produces a higher level of color accuracy and reproduction, including improved grayscale gradation.

Adobe Creative Suite 3

With the launch of its family of Creative Suite 3 products, Adobe has built its strongest integrated package yet for an increasingly competitive content-creation market. CS3 (actually six different packages, with Production Premium key to motion graphics and editing) is a complex offering, reflecting two years of development. It includes a slicker user interface, better integration among multiple products, and a product-line merger with former rival Macromedia. The suite now plays on Intel-based Macs, reflecting Adobe's first coherent strategy to address the Final Cut Pro suite. Oh, and don't forget the latest version of Flash and a Flash video codec that's well integrated across the suite as the frontline tool for Adobe's web and mobile device delivery push.

How to start describing the feature set? Photoshop CS3 Extended, for example, now includes additional features aimed at video production tasks such as video layering and 3D texture-map editing; After Effects offers a basic but simple-to-use Puppet Tool; and Soundbooth, which replaces the Swiss-army-knife complexity of Audition, provides a smarter, easier audio cleanup and editing capability.

Apple Final Cut Server

The second shoe dropped at Apple's NAB presentation with the introduction of Final Cut Server, which tightly integrates with the new Final Cut Studio 2. You can drag assets from Server to any of the Final Cut Studio apps, but you can also turn around and use Final Cut Server to organize the production, rough out sequences, and get a handle on media assets.

Final Cut Server brings metadata to the forefront (including XMP and XML data types), delivering Apple's vaunted ease of use to this necessary but often sidelined aspect of a production facility's workflow. Customizable templates help manage jobs as they progress from ingest through editing, while “watch-and-respond” bots can be configured to track assets, alerting editors and producers to the exact status of a project as it moves through the production pipeline with the aid of web-based review and approval tools.

© 2008 Penton Media, Inc.