• Blogs
• Forums
• Tradeshows
• Partners
• White Papers
• Podcast Show Notes
• Events

NAB 2003

Mar 1, 2003 12:00 PM, Trevor Boyer, Michael Goldman, S. D. Katz, D. W. Leitner, Dan Ochiva, Jon Silberg, Bob Turner

Sidebars
Top Facilities Consider DI routes

A Watershed Year for the Industry

With another NAB confab at hand, it's always tempting to try to sum up the state of the industry. Some think, there are plenty of reasons to be glum. The economy is still in a slump; many small and mid-size operations struggle to stay afloat. A trip to Las Vegas for the industry's annual schmooze-and-new-products fest might be downright depressing.

“We expect 2003 to continue to be a difficult year [for the production and post industries],” says Jim Whittington, founding partner at TrendWatch, a Mill Valley, Calif.-based media industry research firm. Whittington sees a positive sign in the current rebounding of TV ad revenues. However, he doesn't foresee a sustained upturn in production dollars until 2004. By then, a media market plumped with increased spending for the presidential campaign will grow with the anticipated upturn in the general economy.

But technological innovation runs on its own clock. NAB 2003 promises much more than the usual version upgrades. Products for sale — and not just in the “whisper” suites — will employ the latest breakthroughs in imaging, recording, storage, and distribution.

Sony, for example, will debut the first camcorders and studio decks to employ the new “Blu-ray” optical disc recording technology. While the optical media looks just like a typical 5in. rewritable DVD disc — albeit encased in a protective cartridge — the incorporated Blu-ray laser delivers a finer focusing beam, one that writes much more data on a disc than today's common red lasers. Storage capacity varies according to the codec in use, but each disc holds some 17GB of video, about 90 minutes of DVCAM material or 45 minutes of MPEG IMX material recorded at 50Mbps.

Some of the most striking new product introductions, however, will happen at the highest end of imaging capture, with new cameras capable of HD resolutions and beyond coming from Sony, JVC, and newcomer Dalsa.

“As I put together this pre-NAB camera review, I began to realize how significant a watershed this year at NAB is stacking up to be, and how it all comes to a head with the discussion of cameras,” says D.W. Leitner, Millimeter contributing editor. “I realized that the changes transforming electronic cameras and their imagers are driving, as never before, all that's changing around us — bandwidths, Gigabit Ethernet, myriad storage solutions, NLEs, Blu-ray, large-capacity connectivity, wireless, enhanced MPEG-4, metadata, and proxies over IP networks.”

So here's our take on NAB 2003. Is this the show that will change the industry for years to come? Stay tuned to Millimeter to find out.

From April 6-10, be sure to check out our exclusive reports from the NAB 2003 show floor at www.millimeter.com. For a further in-depth report and analysis, read Millimeter's June NAB wrap-up.

Cameras: Startling Innovations Everywhere

NAB 2003 is shaping up as a watershed in digital motion imaging technology, at times verging on science fiction. Until now, all video including digital has been based on color signal architecture introduced in 1953 by NTSC broadcasting. The introduction of the Thomson Viper FilmStream camera at last year's NAB severed this link to the past, substituting uncompressed RGB signals saved as 10-bit Cineon data files (DPX) for luminance and chrominance, and hard-disk recording for tape.

This year's campaign to invent digital cinema will be joined on a new front: the three-CCD optical block, the cornerstone of solid-state broadcast video cameras since the late ‘80s, will be challenged on both consumer and professional Hollywood flanks by single-chip designs. The number of 16:9, progressive-scan cameras will expand too, with growing support of 24fps.

For starters, NAB 2003 will likely be remembered as the year of Dalsa. No less a star in the firmament of film-camera design than Denny Clairmont of Clairmont Cameras is implicated. What's Dalsa, you ask?

Dalsa Corp. is a publicly traded Canadian manufacturer of high-performance semiconductor and image-sensor technology that was approached by NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corp.) in the late ‘90s to develop advanced sensors for digital cinema. Last year, prior to NAB, Dalsa took the step of acquiring Philips' broadcast CCD Division in Eindhoven, Netherlands. At NAB 2003, Dalsa will unveil a working prototype of what will certainly be remembered as the first-ever true digital cinematography camera.

The specs say it all: a single 35mm-film-sized sensor with large light-sensitive pixels in a 4K × 2K array four times the resolution of HD, frame rates from “0 to 60” fps, a huge 14-bit dynamic range per color, a standard PL mount for conventional 35mm motion picture lenses, and an optical viewfinder. That's right, no prism behind the lens.

Fundamental questions are raised. Assuming an 8-megapixel CCD, is it IT, FIT, Frame-Transfer? How is so much data shunted off the sensor at 60fps? Heat problems? Mechanical shutter or not? Is the Bayer color filtration primary (RGB) or complementary (CMY)? How is light diverted to the optical viewfinder?

And not least: availability, practicality, cost? Can this be a commercial product? For whom? With an almost 1Gbps output, can even a rack of the latest 160GB drives keep up? There is, of course, no tape-based format capable of capturing this throughput.

Last year, when Cologne-based Director's Friend debuted its hard-disk system for uncompressed RGB file recording alongside the Viper FilmStream camera, there was little else with which to record the Viper's output. This year a new company, Baytech Inc., will introduce a compact, battery-powered, $20,000 DRAM-based recording device, CineRAM Pack, for capturing uncompressed HD as DPX files directly from HD cameras (i.e., not Dalsa). It's small enough to mount on the camera itself, claims Baytech's founder, John Krooss, an industry veteran with experience in uncompressed HD storage (he founded Viewgraphics, maker of HDStore). Stay tuned.

Sony's preemptive strike: In an expansion “for large-screen applications” of its 24p CineAlta family, Sony will premiere HDCAM SR, its first “4:4:4” HD format, and first to use scalable MPEG-4 studio profile for “mild compression” in recording. To launch the format, Sony will introduce both portable and studio HDCAM SR recorders and also introduce an HDC-F950 portable HD camera with dual HD-SDI channels for full uncompressed 4:4:4 RGB output.

Sony's HDCAM SR battery-powered SRW-1 field recorder and SRW-5000 studio recorder are designed to capture either RGB 4:4:4 or component 4:2:2 HD at data rates of approximately 440Mbps without pre-filtering or sub-sampling. Bit depth is 10, with 12 channels of 24-bit audio. Both provide dynamic tracking playback, pre-read, edit confidence, and record monitoring, plus record/play of 720p and standard HDCAM. The compact SRW-1 uses only the small cassette, providing 50 minutes of recording at 24p.

Besides every practical HD frame rate — 23.98p, 24p, 25p, 29.97p, 50i, 59.94i — Sony's new HDC-F950 camera can boast a laundry list of desirable innovations. A new “under-cranking” feature will enable slower frame rates from 1fps to 24fps. Sony's optional new HDVF-C30W high-resolution LCD color viewfinder (about $10,000 — ouch!) with its 2.7in. display will introduce a unique digital zoom mode that enlarges the image for critical focusing, as well as a built-in grayscale display to facilitate exposure and lighting decisions. And for the first time, a PC program written by Sony (sorry, Windows only) will enable camera operators to graphically alter the HDC-F950's gamma curves from a laptop; up to five custom gamma curves can be downloaded to one of Sony's Memory Sticks for transfer to the camera.

JVC, like Dalsa, will also introduce a single-chip HD camcorder at NAB, and it's no less a paradigm shifter. JVC's JY-HD10U is the first-ever prosumer HD camcorder, and it's for real. (In Japan it's a consumer camcorder known as the GR-HD1.) But what at first glance resembles a Sony PD-150 in size, appearance (two XLR connectors growing from the handle), and price couldn't be more different on the inside, where a single 1.18-megapixel (1.14 million effective pixels), 1/3in. progressive-scan CCD (Bayer filtering for color) gleams openly, not glued to any thick glass prism.

Moreover, this is one of those new-fangled megapixel CCDs similar to those found in the Sony DVCAM DSR-PDX10 and many late-model high-quality pro/consumer camcorders. As area-array sensors go, these CCDs are shape-shifters. To the eye, each has a fixed 4:3 shape, yet the manufacturer can claim it's a native 16:9 CCD because that megapixel chip is considered to have a surfeit of pixels given the needs of DV video. Want 16:9? Just read out a 16:9 area on the chip (and call it a 16:9 chip). Want a higher-density still photo? Just read out the entire area of the chip.

This leads to some interesting math. The JY-HD10U records HD as 720/30p (only) and standard definition as 480/60p and 480i, all on the same standard MiniDV tape, by the way. Oddly, however, JVC calls these modes HD, SD, and DV. According to JVC, while 840K of the CCD's pixels are used in the HD mode, only 460K are used in the SD mode and 340K in the DV mode. Which corresponds to different sized areas on the CCD. Which creates different horizontal angle-of-view specs for the same 10X optical zoom. Which creates different depths of field at identical focal lengths. At 1,120K pixels, only the stills mode makes full use of the CCD.

Another novelty: Instead of DV compression, the JY-HD10U uses MPEG-2 (lots of it) to achieve a 19Mbps bitstream (same as ATSC) to permit IEEE 1394 output. Amazingly, the JY-HD10U can upconvert or downconvert any of its recorded formats to 1080i, 720/30p, 480/60p, and 480i, which is available at its component analog outputs.

How to edit highly compressed MPEG-2 (not a lot of I-frames)? With the introduction of the JY-HD10U, JVC will provide nonlinear editing software called MPEG Edit Studio Pro 1.0 LE (Windows only). JVC says it's frame-accurate and that MPEG-2 NLE programs from other providers should work just as well.

What about timecode? Audio? In HD mode, the JY-HD10U records a single 16-bit stereo audio channel in MPEG-1 Layer 2; in SD mode, two 16-bit stereo channels; and in DV mode, four 12-bit stereo channels. Can 16-bit be recorded in DV? Who knows? Save all of your burning questions for the NAB show floor.

Panasonic’s AJ-SDX900: a DVCPRO jack-of-all-trades.

Over in Panasonic's corner, production models of two much-anticipated camcorders previewed last year as prototypes will make their actual NAB debuts. And, as in the case of JVC, it's a small handheld camera that has attracted the outsized attention: the AG-DVX100, the first prosumer MiniDV camcorder to offer 24p/30p/60i and selectable gamma curves. Since its release last fall, the DVX100 has become a runaway hit with professionals and indie filmmakers alike and has inspired an active market in third-party accessories. Speculation about impending improvements notwithstanding (much grumbling about loss of gain and autofocus in progressive mode and lack of native 16:9), at NAB Panasonic will introduce an economical little brother called AG-DVC80 ($3,295), a DV Proline series camcorder intended for straightforward 480i newsgathering.

The second former prototype, Panasonic's versatile AJ-SDX900, will attract attention as a DVCPRO jack-of-all-trades, switchable between 4:2:2 DVCPRO50 and 4:1:1 25Mbps DVCPRO, native 16:9 and 4:3, and frame rates of 480/24p, 480/30p, and 480i. The AJ-SDX900 incorporates new 2/3in. 520K-pixel IT CCDs with progressive scanning and 12-bit A/D signal processing for extensive control of color and grayscale, including a 12-axis color-correction matrix that permits adjustment of specific colors without affecting overall color tone. Full gain is a whopping 48dB, and a new “time-accumulate” super gain can add up to +20dB at 6fps for shooting in virtually no light. All of this comes in a light, affordable, 24p package, a combination that stands an excellent chance of finding quick favor among low-budget indie filmmakers.

Thomson's Viper FilmStream, the first uncompressed 4:4:4 RGB HD camera on the market, debuted at NAB 2002. The Viper will sport a number of improvements in firmware (the algorithms encoded into silicon) and software.

“We learned quite a few things in the testing we did in the latter half of 2002,” says Jeff Rosica, vice president of worldwide strategic marketing and technology at Thomson. “The picture quality will be even more impressive.”

Expect to see a number of third-party storage solutions for the camera in the Thomson booth, says Rosica.

Along with refinements to Viper, Thomson will showcase its renamed Grass Valley line of HD cameras, notably its flagship WorldCam, essentially an enhanced LDK 6000 MK II (like the Viper), which can capture HD in multiple formats and frame rates, including 23.98fps, 24fps, and 25fps at 720p and 1080i, with built-in frame-rate conversions for monitoring and recording, including internal 3:2 pull-down conversion.

Ikegami will show the production version of its ½-pound Lilliputian HDL-20 1080i HD camera, hardly larger than its C-mount and constructed around a special Ikegami optical block combining two 2.2-megapixel 2/3in. IT CCDs to produce a horizontal resolution of 1,000 TV lines. Also look for Ikegami's new AIT (Advanced Interline Transfer) 520K CCDs with their telltale imperceptibly low level of smear (-135dB) in both the new HL-60W camera and new HL-DV7AW DVCAM camcorder.

Chunkier and heavier but equally groundbreaking is JVC's and Rockwell Scientific's as-yet-unnamed 3-CMOS HD box camera, which will debut at NAB as the world's first professional video CMOS device. Inside are three, 2/3in. Rockwell Scientific ProCamHD CMOS sensors with 1936×1086 pixels. Like all CMOS chips, the 12-bit A/D conversion is on-chip. The low 200mW power consumption, 20% that of comparable CCDs, is also a typical CMOS advantage. The camera accepts standard B4 mount lenses and outputs 1080i via dual HD-SDI outputs.

Onboard camcorder recording is being reinvented too, which will strongly affect camcorder size and design in coming years. Upcoming Blu-ray disc recording — 27GB per side utilizing new blue laser technology and standardized for the consumer HD market by nine key Japanese, Korean, and European manufacturers — is no secret. Philips, Matsushita, Sharp, JVC, and Sony are particularly active in this area, but at this year's NAB it is Sony that will announce two as-yet-unnamed 2/3in. CCD camcorders (due fall 2003) that incorporate a stunning development: professional high-density, blue-laser (405nm) disc recording of standard definition video. Utilizing a proprietary professional Sony disc format, of course.

Nevertheless, tape cassettes, spinning head drums, and delicate threading paths are all swept away by a DVD-sized rewriteable disc in a protective cartridge that, at least in the case of camcorder #1, records 90 minutes of DVCAM at 25Mbps. This camcorder, per Sony, will offer optional 24p in addition to standard 29.97 interlace scanning.

In yet another Sony first, optical disc camcorder #2 is codec-switchable between DVCAM and MPEG IMX, Sony's I-frame-only MPEG-2. Furthermore, select MPEG IMX, and you face an intriguing if unfamiliar additional choice: compression at 30Mbps, 40Mbps, or 50Mbps, for maximum recordings of 75, 55, or 45 minutes.

There's more. Taking a page from the pace-setting MSW-900 MPEG IMX camcorder introduced last year, both disc camcorders will feature Sony's superb 2/3in. EX HAD CCDs (economical IT chip technology like Ikegami's, with no vertical smear), 12-bit analog-to-digital converters, and retroloop/time-lapse recording using built-in cache memory. Plus features novel to Sony broadcast camcorders: a flip-out 2.5in. LCD monitor, an IEEE 1394 i.LINK port, and an optional PC-card adapter for Gigabit Ethernet or wireless LAN connection.

And get this: Sony's optical disc technology not only captures digital video and concomitant metadata, but also low-res (332 × 240 pixels) MPEG-4 proxy images of the same video, which can be output 30 times faster than real time. That's five minutes of video in 10 seconds.

Why? Sony, along with Cisco, Quantel, Avid, the Pro-MPEG Forum, EBU, and SMPTE, has developed a new open standard, the Material eXchange Format (MXF), for exchanging digital video files and metadata over IP-based networks. Remember that built-in Ethernet port? Sony will also announce three blue laser record decks that, like the disc camcorders, feature Ethernet for MXF file exchange of DV or MPEG-2. It's those tiny proxy image files that make it possible to stream low-res, frame-accurate, realtime facsimiles of full video over IP networks for previewing, offline editing, or remote scene selection. Sure beats FedEx.

JVC, similarly, will demonstrate disk-based camcorder recording from a low-cost perspective. (Note the “k” in disk, which signifies magnetic media, compared to the “c” used by convention in the spelling of optical disc media. I hope languages other than English can avoid this marketing silliness. For us, it's too late.) To enter this realm, JVC has teamed with Focus Enhancements, the company that created Direct-to-Edit (DTE) hard disk recording several years ago with its portable FireStore IEEE 1394 recorder, which encouraged direct-to-disk output from MiniDV camcorders and eliminated the capture step if connected directly to a nonlinear editor.

JVC will introduce a Focus Enhancements IEEE 1394 modular DTE hard disk recording system under the name DR-DV5000. It mounts between a JVC Professional DV camcorder like the GY-DV5000 and its battery and occupies a 52-pin connector at the rear of the camcorder. Designed around standard 2.5in. compact hard disks, the DR-DV5000 can record more than six hours of edit-ready clips on an 80GB hard drive formatted for Windows or Mac OS X. Available NLE file formats include raw DV, AVI Type 1, AVI Type 2, Matrox AVI, Canopus AVI, Avid DV OMF, and QuickTime files for Premiere, Final Cut Pro, and iMovie. As a nonlinear, non-tape device, the DR-DV5000 also confers new capabilities like retroloop and time-lapse recording. The DR-DV5000 list price will be about $1,700, but uniquely, JVC will make available the Firewire hard drive enclosure for the user-removable 2.5in. drives so that you can roll your own.

This year will also take shape as the dawn of practicable wireless, and we're not talking Wi-Fi. Link Research, a U.K. firm, will introduce its second-generation standard-definition wireless camra system, the LinkXP2, whose compact, low-power transmitter fits on the back of most cameras employing common interfaces. The LinkXP2 system transmits MPEG-2 and employs diversity reception to ensure a robust signal with an end-to-end delay between camera and receiver of 40 milliseconds, slightly less than one frame.

Sony will also introduce a new wireless camera system that transmits 12Mbps MPEG-2 at 2.4GHz up to 2,000ft. using OFDM and error-correction. Sony's WLL-CA50 transmitter clips to the back of Digital Betacam, Beta SX, and MPEG IMX camcorders. Its WLL-RX50 receiver, which offers a secure encryption key to decode transmissions, can be located up to 160ft. from its antenna.

On the film side, expect Arri to showcase its well-received new Arricam system — a modular, digitally controlled, wholly 21st-century ARRI/Moviecam hybrid that has revived 35mm motion picture camera sales (Clairmont Camera placed an initial order for 20 last summer).

Arri will use NAB to formally debut a new sideline: accessories for video and HD cameras, including lightweight and full bridge plates for support rods; clip-on and full production matte boxes for 4"×4", 4"×5.65", and 6"×6" filters, complete with adapter rings for Zeiss, Angenieux, Canon, and Fujinon lenses; and both lightweight and production follow-focus systems.

Aaton will have a booth this year to showcase the new Aaton 35-3P, a 3-perf pulldown version of its bantam 35mm camera reportedly four times quieter than the standard 4-perf model. Use of 3-perf 35mm is intended to cut production rawstock costs by 25%, which for budget-conscious producers fits hand-in-glove with last November's introduction by Kodak of its next-generation Vision2 5218 (500T), a high-tech color negative sensitized to yield two electrons instead of one for each photon of light, thereby multiplying sharpness and sensitivity. Greater sensitivity to light can translate into lower lighting levels, which can mean smaller instruments, lower power requirements, and fewer generators, tie-ins, trucks, and perhaps Teamsters.

So film continues to raise the bar, if not the barstool. I'll drink to that. Then again, at this year's amazing NAB, I'll drink to everything.
— D.W.L.

Lenses: Digital Cinematography Prevails

Last NAB saw the introduction by Carl Zeiss and Band Pro of the Zeiss DigiPrime series of B4 mount lenses optimized for high performance at maximum aperture. These HD/standard-def “superspeeds” were designed with the needs of cinematographers in mind, namely uniform barrel length, diameter, and gearing for easy engagement of follow-focus systems. The original set — 5mm (T1.9), 7mm (T1.6), 10mm (T1.6), 14mm (T1.6), 20mm (T1.6), and 40mm (T1.6) — has universally drawn raves and prompted calls for expansion of the series, particularly on the long end. At NAB, Zeiss and Band Pro will introduce a new DigiPrime — 28mm (T1.6) — and announce an upcoming DigiPrime 70mm (T1.6). Notably the 70mm, which Zeiss says will focus 13in. from the image plane, will be able fill a frame with a 2in. wide object. In other words, it's almost a macro.

Fujinon also shines in the area of cine-style primes. It will showcase its new set of Super Cine Style lenses, redesigned to match each other in length, diameter, and T 1.5 aperture — 5mm (it's the exception: longer and T 1.7), 8mm, 12mm, 16mm, 20mm, 34mm, 40mm, and 54mm. Fujinon will also introduce two new Super Cine Style zooms, the HAe5×6-F (6mm-30mm) T 1.8, and HAe12×9.5-F (9.5mm-114mm) T 1.6. Both have a wide-diameter, cine-style barrel with 280-degree focus rotation and dual scales with large luminous engravings, and at 10.4lbs. and 22lbs., both require support rods. In the area of smaller ENG-style HD zooms, Fujinon will debut two: a super wide-angle HA13×4.5BERM/BERD (4.5mm-58.5mm) and the HA22×7.8BERM/BERD (7.8mm-171.6mm).

Thales Angénieux will feature its cine-style Optimo 12×9.7 HD zoom (9.7mm-116mm), an early digital cinematography favorite that flies off the shelf at rental houses like Clairmont Camera and New York's LVR. Like the Optimo 24mm-290mm for 35mm, from which it was adapted (introduced at NAB 2001), it weighs more than 24lbs. yet boasts a maximum aperture of T 1.6 and superior image quality.

Thales Angénieux will also showcase its new B4-mount Extreme Tele Zoom 40×15 (15mm-600mm) for HD, an internal focus design with maximum aperture of f/2.7-5.4 across its zoom range (30mm-1200mm with 2x extender). At a mere 8lbs., it offers microprocessor-assisted focus and zoom controls, including AIF (assisted internal focus), an iris-priority mode to restrict zooming when lens ramping occurs, a 2x extender iris compensation mode, an anti-breathing mode to maintain constant field-of-view while focusing, and an auto-cruise mode that when engaged automatically continues zooming at the existing zoom rate.

Canon Digi Super 100xs.

Canon will show cine-style HD zooms, including the wide-angle HJ11×4.7B KLL-SC (4.7mm-53mm) and HJ21×7.5B KLL-SC (7.5mm-158mm). Due to excellent performance yet remarkably light weight (3.5lbs. and 5.3lbs.), these are also catching on at rental houses. Like other cine-style zooms, they feature a large-diameter front barrel; long 270-degree focus rotation; and large, luminous dual markings.

Don't miss Canon's new box-style HD zoom boasting the world's first triple-digit zoom factor, the Digi Super 100xs, which debuted last fall at IBC in Amsterdam. Its astonishing 9.3mm-930mm focal length range (18.6mm-1860mm with 2x extender) benefits from Canon's Image Stabilizer technology. Images get quite shaky at 1860mm! Maximum aperture is f/1.7.

ZGC Inc. will demonstrate the new P+S Technik PRO35 Digital Image Converter, a 6in. adapter that permits use of any Arri PL-mounted prime lens on any 2/3in. camcorder. Like its little brother, the Mini35 Digital Adapter used with the Canon XL-1, the PRO35 uses a moving ground glass on which the 35mm film lens focuses. Because of this, the PRO35 Digital Image Converter offers the same depth of field, focal length, and angle of view as 35mm film.

Other big news from ZGC: Cooke Optics, among the earliest names in video lens and prism design dating back to the 1950s, will introduce its first Series 4 zoom for digital cinema, the 8mm-46mm T 1.7. This 13.2lbs. lens features a 326-degree focus rotation with close focus 13in. from front of lens and a novel cam-driven back focus. The zoom will be available this summer.

Century Optics will present a new full line of bayonet-mount lens adapters for Panasonic's AG-DVX100 MiniDV 24p camcorder, including a fisheye adapter, .6x wide-angle adapter, zoom-through .7x wide-angle adapter, 1.6x teleconverter, and a set of +2 and +3.5 apochromatic close-up diopters (not bayonet-mount).
— D.W.L.

3D Animation and Compositing

The high-end 3D animation applications all shipped major new versions of their software in 2002, so NAB 2003 news largely features incremental announcements.

Just-bef ore-NAB announcements include: the free version of Softimage's flagship nonlinear production environment, XSI EXP 3.0. This product takes up Alias Maya's lead of making software easier to learn with a program of six new tutorials. Maya 4.5 for OS X is also fairly new and finally brings parity to the PC and Mac versions of the software. Scenes and projects are completely compatible and can be shared between platforms.

Discreet's 3ds max 5.0 launched in October, but the latest version of Character Studio shipped in January, adding many asked-for features, such as Quaternion rotations with f-curve control and a nonlinear animation mixer.

Kaydara's Motion Builder has been making news with its successful FXB file format. This mocap editing software has grown into a full-blown animation sequencer. Like many other software developers recognizing the importance of training, Kaydara now offers MotionBuilder Video Training Magazine. An introductory tape, available at Kaydara.com and 3D Buzz.com, is the first in a series of tapes covering all aspects of the product.

LightWave 3D version 7.5 has a list of rendering features to check out, including caustics, High Dynamic Range Images (HDRI) and Digital Confusion (as in the “Circle of Confusion,” an aspect of scattered/unfocused light rays), and a simulated depth-of-field effect. On the animation side, the Motion Mixer is a powerful nonlinear animation editor used to trim, move, extend, and scale animations.
— S.D.K.

Peeling Back the Layers

Desktop compositing at NAB will most likely see small announcements from the usual desktop suspects, Adobe (After Effects), Eyeon Software (Digital Fusion), Pinnacle (Commotion), and Discreet (Combustion).

Any really big news or significant version releases will be later in the year. However, Digital Fusion's version 4, its most recent release in October 2002, is new enough that NAB will be a good time to kick the tires.

Most of the gossip and news center around corporate changes. Shake was purchased by Apple last year, and Nuke is the first product of its kind to be developed by a name FX house, Digital Domain.

In October, Los Angeles-based Digital Domain officially launched D2, a software division to market Nuke, its inhouse proprietary compositing software. Similar to Shake, this 16-bit, node-based application is aimed at Shake's high-end audience. With Apple now behind Shake, DD may be thinking that it's now or never to chase down this small sliver of the professional FX market.

In a category of its own is Film Gimp software. The 16-bit, open-source compositing app was used on Harry Potter, Scooby Doo, and Stuart Little. Film Gimp is the motion version of the original Gimp, a Photoshop-style image editor that began as a student project in the mid-'90s. The software built a solid following of professional users who have continued to support and develop the product over the years. The price of this Linux-based (and now available for OS X and Windows) open-source software comes at the unbeatable price of absolutely nothing — it's free. (While there will be no Film Gimp booth at NAB, Las Vegas will probably see the largest gathering of Gimp users this side of Siggraph.)

NAB: The Source for Open Source
— from NAB promotional material

Dalsa made its Cinema Sensor the same size as a 35mm frame.

Open source continues to be a sideline attraction in the post industry; its long-term effect is hard to predict. Pipeline programmers at the major FX facilities that have moved parts of their infrastructure from SGI's Irix to Linux largely drive this phenomenon. I expect this trend will produce products that filter down to the consumer level eventually.

Two open source items of interest to compositors are ILM's OpenEXR extended range file format and Kaydara's FBX 3D exchange format. OpenEXR, formerly a proprietary in-house format used at ILM, has been made available to the open source community. This 16-bit, floating-point file format has a wide dynamic range and is compatible with Nvidia's new GeForce FX and Quadro FX 3D graphics cards. The lossless compression used by OpenEXR can achieve 2:1 ratios for scanned film images. AE, Combustion, and Discreet's high-end compositing products now provide mixed 2D and 3D compositing environments. This sparked a desire for better sharing of 3D data between Maya, Softimage, 3ds, LightWave, and the compositing app. Discreet tried to do this with 3ds Max and Pinnacle with Combustion's Rich Pixel Format. However, neither company embraced the idea of having a file “handshake” with a direct competitor like Adobe After Effects.

Hacks were created in an attempt to solve this problem. But it took a third party like Kaydara to come up with the most powerful 3D interchange file format to date. Kaydara's FBX supports NURBS, polys, keyframe, mocap animation, shapes/morph targets, materials, textures, lights, cameras, and hierarchical info. The needs of character animation received particular attention. So far, most of the major 3D apps are supporting FBX, with Digital Fusion announcing support in January. Kaydara will be at NAB with MotionBuilder 4 for OS X and further information on FBX.
— S.D.K.

Desktop HD

The most exciting new announcement for indie filmmakers going to NAB might be the new JVC GR-HD1 HDTV camcorder. The JVC uses a 1 1/3in. megapixel CCD to record MiniDV tape. The result is an image considerably improved (resolution-wise) over MiniDV faves such as the Sony PD150 and the Canon XL-1. While the verdict is still out until a hands-on test, it is likely that a 35mm transfer from the GR-HD1 camera will approach Super 16mm quality. Unfortunately, there is no PAL or 24p version; this means downconverting from 30p, which is a definite drawback for the indie crowd.

Still, this breaks the HD price barrier in a way that puts pressure on Sony and Panasonic to deliver more for less to their indie customers. The Panasonic AG-DVX100 24p MiniDV now seems a bit behind the times, since the first limitation potential distributors see when they evaluate a possible DV-based film project is the deliverable resolution, not the frame rate.

On the opposite end of the HD production chain, AJA Video Systems' Kona-HD card offers a much-awaited alternative to the popular HD CineWave system from Pinnacle. Kona-HD supports most HDTV formats, including 1080i50/59.94/60 with 23.97/24 operation for film projects. The card works with the Apple Xserve server, as well as the latest Ultra-3 SCSI hard disks. In February, Aja announced realtime 10-bit color correction for its DeckLink SD I/O card. This is an industry first and it's a free update downloadable from the Aja website.
— S.D.k.

To HD and Beyond ଎

Viewsonic will be showing a higher-than-HD resolution LCD screen. Its VP2290b, a nine-megapixel widescreen monitor (22.2in. in diameter), is big enough to evaluate images from Thomson's Viper camera or any image up to 3840×2400 pixels. This is the monitor you want if you are a digital matte painter.

The Aja Kona and Pinnacle CineWave use OS X on Apple G4s to power their I/O cards. But Boxx Technologies of Texas has focused on the needs of the high-end post and FX industries with a line of PC workstations. The CineBoxx, a Windows 2000-based combination workstation and DDR, can play uncompressed 32-bit digital film resolution sequences. This combo of workstation and high-speed disk array is ideal for viewing digital dailies without going to film.

For those who want to view their dailies in HD but do not demand uncompressed images, a lower-priced alternative comes from JVC. An extremely affordable three-unit system consists of an MPEG encoder, JVC's D-VHS play/record deck, and a digital monitor. Considering the low cost of the components and the lack of competition, this is a way to show dailies at 1280x720 at any digital boutique. At less than $1,500 per D-VHS deck, any producer, director, or cinematographer can look at the previous day's shooting at the same resolution the material will be projected.

That's the short wrap-up of what's known to be showing up at NAB 2003. Despite a lethargic economy and difficult times for many sectors of our industry, the box office continues to set records and entertainment products continue to show healthy growth, all of which means that production technology will still move along at a brisk pace.
— S.D.k.

Telecines, Virtual and Otherwise

Digital Intermediate, or DI, a term Eastman Kodak invented several years ago to describe scanning film into 2K or 4K digital files for output back to film, is an idea whose time has come. But the methodology is not in practice, or practical, beyond Hollywood and major European filmmaking centers. This is due to two stubborn impediments: technology and cost. Nevertheless, the promise of DI drives telecine/scanner technology forward, and we will see significant progress on this front at NAB this year.

Thomson will at last demonstrate the 4K scanner module for its CCD-based Spirit DataCine. Formerly called Spirit 2, the no-show at last year's NAB has been renamed the Grass Valley Spirit 4K. (Grass Valley is Thomson's new brand for broadcast and film-production product lines.) The Spirit 4K scans film frames to 2K files in real time and to 4K files at 6fps to 8fps. Like previous Spirit designs (the original debuted in 1996), it features an optical imaging path by Eastman Kodak, although this time the linear-array CCDs are custom made and a cheaper conventional xenon projector lamp is substituted. The chassis is about all that remains the same.

Image processing is 16-bit, up from 14-bit. Built-in 4K processing will include shading correction, RGB primary color correction, and aperture correction, with optional plug-ins for secondary color correction and a 4K version of Scream grain reduction. Another plug-in allows digital oversampling of images at 4K for output at 2K.

Cintel, which absorbed the wreckage of ITK last September, will present a host of upgrades for the Millennium telecine, including new software and gates for 16mm, 35mm, and 65/70mm. (Cintel has said it intends to continue development of the Millennium.) Cintel will also introduce GRACE, a grain-reduction system for its C-Reality and DSX film scanners. GRACE, a film format independent, uses 14-bit image processing and is programmable. CRT-based Millennium, C-Reality, and DSX have previously demonstrated 4K scanning capability.

Worth keeping an eye on is Sony's Vialta FVS-1000 telecine, the only area-array telecine (it uses a 3-CCD camera block as imager), now in its second generation. At last year's NAB, Sony demonstrated realtime 2K output to 10-bit log DPX files and a redesigned lamphouse containing innovative LED illumination, rated more than 10 times longer in expected life than xenon sources.

In the realm of scanner-only, non-telecine devices, Imagica Corp. will display its Imager XE, a 2K/4K scanner renowned for its role in the DI process of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and gaining a foothold in top post facilities. Imager XE is tri-linear array, 16mm/35mm scanner with pin registration, 14-bit capture, 16-bit internal process, 4 seconds per frame rate for 2K scanning, and 8 seconds per frame for 4K. At last year's NAB, Imagica demonstrated Imager XE in tandem with its Galette color management system, which for preview purposes provides accurate simulation of color and contrast at each step of the DI process, from scanning to 35mm projection.

Last year, FilmLight parked its Northlight 35mm/65mm scanner at ITK's booth. (FilmLight had entered into an agreement with ITK to build and market Northlight.) This year FilmLight will be found at its own booth, where it will show the latest version of Northlight, notable for the layout of its horizontal flatbed, 8K tri-linear array sensors, and pin registration with fast spooling. The product offers 8K over-sampling of every format from 2-perf 35mm to 15-perf 65mm. Typical scan rates are 2.6 seconds per frame for 2K 35mm, and 4.7 seconds per frame for 4K 35mm. Maximum output resolution for 65mm is 8K, and for 35mm, it is 6K. 4K/2K are also available.

Like Imagica Corp., FilmLight will demonstrate a proprietary hardware/software color management and preview system, Truelight, which can match visual characteristics of any film stock with regard to processing, printing, electronic display, and simulated projection. Truelight color management includes monitor calibration and software plug-ins for popular compositing and rendering programs.

To better manage color from the telecine side, Eastman Kodak will introduce its new Kodak Telecine Calibration System, TCS. The purpose of TCS is to systematize the calibration of telecines so that color negative is transferred in a more predictable manner. According to Kodak, use of TCS induces the telecine to reproduce a low-contrast tonal scale to better capture the full gamut of shadow and highlight detail on the negative. TCS comprises a test filmstrip for 16mm and 35mm, and a hardware-based image processor that applies look-up tables to the images in realtime. Programming of the image processor with look-up tables is by smart card.

Along similar lines, the virtual telecine concept of transferring film as flat digital data to disk-based storage for color, aperture, and gamma correction at a later date in an environment far less costly than a telecine suite is showing up everywhere at NAB. Taken to its logical extreme, this approach spells the end of reliance on costly dedicated color- correction systems in the course of film-to-tape transfer, potentially transforming an industry.

But no matter how clear the writing on the wall, a radical paradigm shift like this one won't occur overnight. Advances in technology are one thing, but if history is any indication, change that eliminates jobs or threatens what was once a lucrative film-to-tape business based on big-ticket systems will be met with little enthusiasm on the facilities side. At NAB, companies synonymous with dedicated color- correction systems will introduce their latest realtime products for video and data — and also hedge their bets.

DaVinci will return with its latest version of 2K Plus for SD, HD, and 2K, which debuted last year at NAB, and a more cost-effective 2K Plus DATA for data-only processing. Among improvements, 2K Plus brings true gamma curve adjustment, including knee functions and an increased saturation range for low-saturation images.

But daVinci is taking no chances. It has teamed up with Snell & Wilcox to demonstrate a realtime virtual telecine system, the Piccaso LD, which combines daVinci's 2K multi-standard color-correction technology with Snell & Wilcox's pan, scan, resizing, and format conversion technology for SD, HD, and 2K. In practice, da Vinci's 2K provides the user interface for Snell & Wilcox's Piccaso workstation, which is both server and realtime resizing engine.

Pandora Pogle Evolution.

Pandora will demonstrate a working version of its Pogle Evolution control panel for the latest versions of its modular Pandora Pixi color-correction system and MegaDef color processor (essentially, several Pixis linked together). With the addition of Pandora's new Moore MegaOne processor card, the resolution-independent MegaDef now provides primary and secondary color processing at 14-bit depth, up to 8K.

But Pandora isn't taking any chances either. At last September's IBC, Pandora and Quantel announced joint development of FreeFlow, a high speed 2.5Gbps fiber link that networks a Pogle controller; Pixi color correction engine; and Quantel's iQ, the PC-based nonlinear editing/finishing system for SD, HD, and 2K files that incorporates Henry and Paintbox effects and compositing for pan and scan, tracking, color correction, and titling. iQ permits digital video and 2K files to be freely mixed in a timeline on a shot-by-shot basis, a feature Quantel calls resolution co-existence.

Add a RAID hard disk system for storage, and the result is an integrated digital color-correction and finishing suite on a PC that provides instantaneous, realtime, nonlinear processing of 2K imagery. Ditto for Quantel's second PC-based nonlinear system, eQ, identical to iQ but limited in editing/finishing to 16-bit uncompressed RGB or YUV in SD and HD only. As an alternative to Pandora, both iQ and eQ also offer a trackball-driven Quantel color-correction subsystem called QColor, which provides primary and secondary color correction as well as keyframeable pan and scan.

Not to be left out of the DI fray, Discreet, while not calling its products “virtual telecine,” will also unveil much of the same thing. Its new Inferno 5, Flame 8, and Flint 8 effects and compositing programs are now resolution-independent on a shot-by-shot basis, from 480i up to 6K DPX files. This is also the case with Discreet's new color-correction system to be unveiled at NAB, based on Colorfront's Colossus. (Colorfront is the Budapest-based company behind 5D's Colossus film color-correction and finishing system for 2K DPX files, which landed in the spotlight after its use in Lord of the Rings. After 5D unexpectedly collapsed in October, Colorfront sought another partner and in January entered into an exclusive alliance with Discreet.)

Discreet has designed this new generation of its products to integrate seamlessly with its Colossus-based color-correction system, including Smoke 5.2 and Fire 5.2 editing/finishing systems, to form a unified DI environment equally adept at handling the data from a film scanner or a digital cinematography camera.

Not to forget the original virtual telecine: Thomson Grass Valley will introduce its Specter FilmStream Virtual DataCine, the latest version of the Specter storage and server system introduced by what was then Philips at NAB ‘99. Similar to systems described above, the Specter can capture multi-format material, combine it into a common timeline, then play it out in whatever delivery format is required — ideal for the Spirit DataCine, Spirit 4K, or Viper FilmStream camera, which produce a variety of SD, HD, and data outputs. Based on an SGI Origin 300 server, Specter FS provides realtime playback and format conversion of images up to 10-bit RGB, 1920×1080, and 30fps. Standard are dual HD-SDI inputs and outputs, with optional dual SD-SDI or data I/O.

Joining (literally) the Spirit 4K and Specter FS at NAB will be Grass Valley's new high-speed Gigabyte System Network (GSN) interface. Transfer speeds of greater than 500MBps are achieved between the Spirit 4K (which features the GSN interface) and the Specter FS, including transfer of 2K data in realtime and 4K data at 6fps to 8fps (compare to the prior state-of-art High Speed Data Link, HDSL, which obtained 300MBps for near-realtime transfer of 2K). The GSN interface is intended to dramatically cut data transfer times to and from the Spirit 4K.
— D. W. L.

Editing

Igazed into the ol' crystal ball and saw that this is a not-to-be-missed NAB! There are new formats; new connectivity technology; new workflows; new storage solutions; and most importantly, new products. I expect more than 500 nonlinear editors and compositors at a time when many are consolidating or avoiding expensive technology exhibitions. There is much too much to cover in a short segment like this, so I will focus on the products of greatest interest to Millimeter readers.

Quantel iQ.

Quantel will be demonstrating the full generationQ range of products, including the NAB introduction of QEdit Pro, a mainstream NLE postproduction system. The price starts at $68,000. The product shares the same interface and toolset as iQ and eQ. iQ will be featuring realtime 2K image editing, and eQ will be promoting its resolution coexistent and high-definition capabilities. Graphics and workgroup news editing product lines will also be featured in Quantel's booth.

At the high end, Discreet will have a full booth featuring Flame 8, Flint 8, Smoke 5.2, and Fire 5.2 — all emphasizing 2K and HD capabilities. Cleaner XL, 3ds max 5.1, and Combustion 2.1 will be promoted as low-cost solutions. Be sure to see Bluefish444's new Acetylene SD-SDI video card work with Discreet's Combustion system. It provides high-end broadcast, realtime video playback with frame-buffer support for simultaneous realtime preview on YUV SD-SDI broadcast and analog composite monitors. It is unknown whether the promised Strata/Mezzo technologies will be visible again in the prototype or hidden for those with appointments.

The biggest news at the booth will be the formal unveiling of Discreet's new digital color grading system based upon Colorfront technology that was formerly marketed as Colossus by 5D.

SpeedSix (the former 5D staff that purchased the plug-in assets and intellectual property of 5D's plug-ins and the former company's bankruptcy sale) will be presenting the Monsters suite of image processing and visual effects plug-ins in the Discreet and Eyeon Software booths. Very soon, SpeedSix will be offering its entire catalogue to Avid DS and Digital Fusion customers. It will also be offering a new suite of plug-ins called Raptors.

Avid Technology is being as tight-lipped as Apple normally is. It has already announced that Symphony will be displayed on a Macintosh platform, but it is keeping fairly quiet about the missing features that are only available on a Windows platform. These features include its DV/MPEG option, SDTI-CP option, Marquee 3D Titling, Transfer Manager, and Media Chunking. But Avid says it is the most powerful Mac-based system it has ever offered. I hope Avid will qualify Apple's or another manufacturer's flat panel monitors by then.

Avid will most likely be pushing Avid|DS as its HD postproduction solution — with its lower-priced Avid|DS HD Editor and flagship Avid|DS HD with the background render station.

You should expect an announcement (promised last year) to have MXF media files replace AVR files — hopefully with backward compatibility. I expect Avid Xpress DV will have an undetermined number of Metasync tracks for the creation of interactive video programming. I will be disappointed but not surprised if there are no 24fps editing capabilities offered on Xpress DV.

However, I would be quite surprised if I did not see Xpress DV working with the new, higher-bandwidth FireWire port and interfacing with Panasonic's new DVCPRO50 VCRs. I wonder if it will make use of the 2X transfer capabilities of Panasonic's AJ-DX225, or interface with Sony's new IMX-based Optical Disc VCR replacements.

Be sure to look for 1Beyond's new dual P4 hyper-threading 3GHz laptop in the Avid booth, as well as other locations. Also look for its new HD system, in an as-yet-to-be-announced location. The new laptop offers the best performance that I have seen and is offered with several NLE software packages.

What will be at the Apple booth is always a mystery. Obviously, Final Cut Pro will be highly promoted with all the third-party FCP-compatible hardware manufacturers (AJA, Kona, Blackmagic, Aurora Video Systems, Digital Voodoo, Pinnacle Systems, CineWave, etc.). Aurora Video Systems will be demonstrating its IgniterX line of video capture and editing cards introduced last month. Blackmagic DeckLink is not only fully compatible with Final Cut Pro, but will work with Shake as well as Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop, Discreet Combustion, Discreet Cleaner, and DVD Studio Pro. Blackmagic will be introducing DeckLink 2 at NAB. It is likely that Final Cut Pro will be among the first NLEs to work with Panasonic's new higher-bandwidth FireWire technology found optionally with certain new DVCPRO50 VCRs.

Hopefully, Apple will be demonstrating what it has been up to with the development of its Shake compositing product. In the past two years, Apple has been acquiring compositing and media distribution software manufacturers. These will be on display. This would be the best time for the company to present the rationale for these acquisitions.

Of course, Apple has introduced new platforms in its professional laptop and desktop lines, plus major improvements to its server line. Will the Xserver be demonstrated as a SAN solution? We will have to wait and see.

Sony will be demonstrating version 6 of its Xpri system. It will be sporting a new workstation, featuring a dual Intel P4 3GHz CPU and 2GB Fibre Channel. There are many new enhancements, including improved realtime primary and secondary color-correction tools, roto-spline masking, eight-point motion tracking within the Effect Editor interface, integrated Commotion 4.1 compositing software, multi-layer timeline export to After Effects, audio plug-in support, SD offline for HD projects, and a new drag-and-drop edit alternative to keyboard/three-point editing.

Xpri now supports a variety of new formats from the Sony Optical Disk products (including Instant Browse & Preview, high-speed transfer of proxy material, and online conforming of IMX material), and MXF file transfer capability with e-VTR and other MXF-capable devices to IMX 30Mbps and IMX 40Mbps MPEG-2 compression and support for the OMF interchange standard. The system supports distributed rendering.

Pinnacle Systems has become a major player in the NLE market with its Liquid family of products, filling the void left by Discreet Edit's demise. A new member of the family will join the Purple, Silver, and flagship Blue products at this year's NAB. Chrome ($25,000 MSRP) is a nonlinear editor/compositor that incorporates TARGA technology into the company's Liquid editing and effects application. The product works with uncompressed, MPEG-2 4:2:2, and DV25 codecs, and features realtime 3D DVE capability, four realtime video streams, and unlimited layering using Liquid's InTime processing boards. Liquid Chrome also includes a TitleDeko character generator, Commotion image editing and compositing software, Impression DVD authoring software, and the new Liquid CX color-correction subsystem. Chrome also features built-in Palladium support.

Also in the Pinnacle Systems booth will be the latest OS X-compatible CineWave board sets. New free realtime effects and enhanced software codecs will be featured.

Media 100 will be presenting its 844/X family. Three recently announced technologies will be highlighted: the XBLUR Gaussian blur option; the HDX option, a first-step expansion of the GenesisEngine media processor that enables affordable support for HD and SD applications in a single 844/X system; and the new version update, the “Finishing Release,” which features new color-correction tools, spline-based matte and rotoscope tools, OMF support, a new keyframe curve editor, expanded audio tools, 24fps editing with 3:2 pulldown tools, and improved media asset management.

Nucoda Data Conform allows users to conform 2K 10-bit media files over the network for previsualizing on a standard computer monitor or data projector. It includes comprehensive timeline editing capabilities and FilmLight's Truelight color cube technology. Nucoda claims it is the world's first PC-based 10-bit full resolution previsualizing tool for film. Data Conform can save time and money for anyone working with film, from the creation of dailies to first edits and previz of special effects. If you perform an AAF-based conform over the network, you can immediately view 2K 10-bit playback without any need to import scans onto local storage.

Leitch will be featuring its dpsVelocityQ postproduction system, as well as the dpsVelocity two-stream product and the dpsReality platform (both SD and HD versions). The new dpsVelocityQ 8.2 includes a new interface style, more than 100 editing refinements, enhanced integration with Leitch VR servers, and support of new options for advanced professional audio tools and OMF/AAF interoperability. The broadcast section of the Leitch booth will feature workgroup applications including BrowseCutter II, Instant Online II (an auto-conform finishing system), and the company's NewsFLASH news editors.

Eyeon Software's Digital Fusion and DF+ products will be found in both the Leitch booth and in the Eyeon booth. Now that the product has Monsters plug-ins, many are taking a new look at it and seeing it as a major player in the graphics/effects composite arena. I expect that Eyeon may introduce a Linux version at NAB. DFLinux is presently in beta.

Accom will be offering Affinity Dimension 8.3.3 software with a bevy of performance enhancements, including improved workflow operations, more efficient keystroke operations, redesigned media asset management, improved precision and workflow operations when using the mouse for editing, a much-improved keyframer, and a new improved tutorial. Also featured are improved audio and graphic file compatibility.

The Axial 3000 online edit controller will also be in the booth. (It may be the last high-end linear editing controller remaining.)

Lightworks will be demonstrating version 1.1 of its software Touch, one of the top 24fps editors for filmmakers. There have been more than 80 sold since its introduction last year. New features include realtime titling, realtime field and frame-based Varispeeds, the ability to flatten edits into single AVI files with embedded audio, and support for the importation of broadcast WAV files.

AIST will be demonstrating Cinegy in a private suite with an appointment book at its booth — the smallest on the show floor. Over the summer there was a management buy-out, and the new company AIST GmbH now owns the intellectual property of the now-defunct AIST Medialab AG. AIST also will be demonstrating its Extreme 6 software, which has been named Cinegy Extreme. Cinegy is the collaborative postproduction software the BBC has selected for its programming postproduction. BBC Technology will also have a booth explaining its new media asset management platform and post solutions for programming and news.

BOXX Technologies will introduce its new CineBoxx, a turnkey 2K film and HD sequential image review system. The product features a nonlinear editor, an ingest system for sequential image export, and a digital data recorder. Its XXTreme suite of products is designed for end-to-end production workflow, including capture, creation, rendering, editing, storage, review, and playback of HD, SD, and 3D data.

The editing software with CineBoxx is In-Sync Speed Razor HD 2. In-Sync will also have its Blade-2 product on a Toughbook in the Panasonic booth working with the Varicam format. In-Sync was one of the first NLE software manufacturers to work with this format.

Speaking of working with the Panasonic Varicam format, Interactive Effects (IFX) claims Piranha HD is the first compositor software to do so. It will be debuting a new version of the software. IFX will highlight its film/HD color-correction and conforming tools, and the new 720p editing system for Panasonic's varispeed camera. Currently, Piranha is the only system to support varispeed capture and record, as well as the extended headroom color space available on the camera.

Chrome Imaging will be found in both the Thomson and Incite booths, demonstrating its compositing product and its new media asset management solution.

DVS will show a realtime postproduction workstation for HD and 2K work that runs under Linux and Windows. This product will be offered in addition to DVS' traditional product line of workstations and board sets. The company will also describe its development efforts on its on-set digital film capture system. DVS also announced that it will service and support Director's Friend products, now that Director's Friend has announced that it will concentrate on the rental and service of digital film systems.

Linux will have more visibility than in any previous year, and if you only look at one Linux-based postproduction platform, Linux Media Arts may have the one. Rumor has it that LMA will be introducing a new digital cinema product, but even if it does not, its OpenCube HD technology, the Cinterra HD workstation, and Cinelerra HD editing system are solutions you should know about.

KDDI Media Technologies will be displaying MPEG Edit Studio Pro, the HD/SD MPEG NLE software OEM'd by JVC for editing the new HD format.

There will be more exciting announcements and many more products on display. New production formats may produce the loudest buzz at this show, but the technology needed to make programming from these formats will still be among the most important priorities to spend time analyzing.
— B.T.

Storage

As hard drive prices continue to fall, storage for production and post delivers some of the best bargains you'll find on the NAB floor. With the storage market's continuing fast growth, new players are jumping in to claim their share.

Plan to check out Apple's new Xserve RAID, for example. “Aggressively priced” at just over $4 per gigabyte, the Xserve delivers great throughput, according to the company. The 3 RU rack storage system stores up to 2.5TB, moves data at up to 400MBs, and begins at a reasonable $5,999 for a basic system.

Claimed as an industry first, Apple says the Xserve RAID provides RAID level 5 throughput to support “affordable realtime HD 1080i video editing.”

Accom stays competitive too with the new WSD/HDi, its lowest-cost uncompressed HDTV recording solution ever. This DDR's feature set makes it easy to integrate in post. The Import/Export utility, for example, allows the WSD/HDi to directly interface with a network of graphics-rendering computers and film printers without concern for proprietary file formats. The WSD/HDi works with a mix of Windows, Irix, and Mac OS X operating systems.

Avica will show software upgrades for its Digital Cinema Mastering System. The DCMS packages various Avica hardware and software tools for postproduction, encoding, and packaging of digital cinema content. The system features include realtime encoding at rates ranging from 60MBps to 80MBps, QC tools, encryption and DRM security through key management, content packaging, and duplication for distribution via satellite, broadband, or physical media.

When it introduced its DiMeda line of networked RAID storage, Ciprico touted the devices for combining SAN performance with NAS ease of use. At the show, Ciprico debuts the latest addition to the line, the DiMeda 3600. It features a Fibre Channel back end, Gigabit Ethernet transport, and heterogeneous file sharing. The RAID talks to multiple application clients running Windows, Macintosh, or Unix operating systems.

DataDirect Networks' Silicon Storage Appliance (S2A) family offers more than just storage. As storage controllers, the products provide servers, workstation clusters, and standalone computers with scalable, high-bandwidth access to shared data, even in a heterogeneous OS environment.

The S2A8000 offers eight full duplex FC-2 Fibre Channel host connections, 20 Fibre Channel drive loops to storage, built-in hardware RAID, full redundancy, an internal bandwidth of 7.2GBps, up to 10GB of cache, and up to 130TB of storage.

Over the years, Medéa has gained a name as a reputable, low-cost storage supplier. Take Medéa's VideoRaid RT3 as an example. This new five-drive desktop disk array features the latest in high-speed SCSI interfaces, Ultra320. This helps the system deliver a sustained transfer rate of more than 140MBs. A single VideoRaid RT3 will support 8-bit 1080/60i and 10-bit 1080/24p editing.

Medéa will also roll out VideoRaid FCR2/FCRX2, a new range of 2GBps Fibre Channel disk arrays with sustained data transfer rates in excess of 250MBs.

Studio Network Solutions (SNS) aims its SAN storage products at audio and video post. SNS will introduce SANmp, a multi-platform software program that allows workstations with different operating systems to concurrently access information over a SAN. For example, SANmp users can upgrade to the latest OS or add Windows workstations to a Mac environment without relying on any additional software or hardware to solve potential hang-ups.

Thomson Grass Valley's Profile XP PVS3000 offers simultaneous and independent SD and HD operation, playback of back-to-back SD and HD clips on the same dedicated timeline, and built-in decoders and encoders. According to Marc Valentin, vice president of Thomson Broadcast and Media Solutions, the ability of the PVS3000 Profile XP media platform to serve HD and SD on the same timeline in the same box will appreciatively reduce costs for Profile users who are currently making the transition to HD.

Another key improvement to Thomson Grass Valley's storage and networking strategy? The new Cohera storage architecture supports both storage area network (SAN) and network attached storage (NAS) topologies.
— D.O.

Digital Intermediate

As more feature film clients seek out digital intermediate (DI) services for their film finishing needs, a greater number of companies are entering the fray to offer such services. The process of digitizing whole feature films, digitally grading and manipulating them, and recording the result out to film for theatrical distribution is still very much the exception rather than the rule in the film world. The number of facilities that regularly do this work is still quite small. But at NAB 2003 the entrepreneur interested in offering this service will find that a lot of manufacturers are getting serious about the business.

In addition to new and upgraded tools for I/O and color grading, manufacturers are also looking to step in with products that can help DI facilities handle the formidable task of managing the massive amounts of data associated with a digitized feature film rezzed at 2K or even 4K. With different film formats and file formats, mixed resolutions, and a conglomeration of gear running any number of operating systems, the would-be manager of a DI facility has quite a lot of questions.

Creatives, for their part, are attracted to DI over traditional photochemical technology in great part because of the extreme control it gives them over the look of a final film print. Colorists, directors, and cinematographers have the power to make color and density decisions more minute than the difference of a single printer point. But, unless all the hardware and software communicates perfectly, all that creativity can go out the window. This poses a lot of questions. Many buyers hope some of the answers are on the show floor.

Part One: SCANNING

As long as 35mm film remains the leading image capture medium — in terms of dynamic range, resolution, and color gamut — it will likely continue to be the image acquisition choice for most major motion pictures. Unfortunately, digitizing the enormous amount of information stored on each film frame can be a slow process.

Many high-end scanners used for DI still leave some information behind, and many in the creative community have been clamoring for scans that at least come closer to capturing everything on the frame. Once the Holy Grail, 2K 10-bit log scans now seem less stunning compared with 4K scans (with even greater color depth) that are becoming more practical. Scanner manufacturers are offering 4K and higher 14-bit-linear options. The question is: Do clients want to pay more and wait longer?

Thomson Broadcast and Media Solutions will be showing its Spirit 4K DataCine film scanner. Like the 2K Spirit, whose speed helped usher in the possibility of DI in the late 1990s, Thomson hopes this machine will help take it to a new level. The new DataCine will perform 2K scans in realtime and 4K scans at 6fps to 8fps. The unit contains a realtime scaling engine that converts 4K scans to 2K images — a process that could offer better 2K scans, though at a slower rate, that would result in pure 2K scanning. By scanning in a true RGB space, this machine will capture a wider color gamut than its predecessor. In addition to 35mm film, the machine can support Super 8, 16mm, and 70mm film.

Steve Chapman of British scanner manufacturer FilmLight, maker of the Northlight scanner which will be present in FilmLight's booth, also believes DI has a promising long-term future. “If handled correctly,” he says, “it allows the best of both worlds — the creative benefits of the digital process without sacrificing the benefits of film or having to embrace the difficult issues inherent in a fully digital production.”

The Northlight scanner, which is considerably slower than the DataCine, is often used at facilities for high-end effects and large format scans, but Chapman says he would like to see it become a component in the DI chain. The scanner's 8K trilinear CCD array allows scanning of 35mm film frames at 4.7 seconds in 2K, and 2.6 seconds in 4K. “We want to stress that the technology we are offering is not adapted from the video market — a telecine/datacine would be a typical example of such a device — but is brought from our experience working for years in digital film effects where digital images have to sit next to camera original material when projected onto a big screen.

“We believe that this should be the starting point for a DI system. It should be able to reproduce camera original negative on its ‘0' setting if you like, with full range and without any of the electronic signature that is evident in many transfers today.”

Cintel, which acquired the assets of telecine manufacturer ITK last September, will unveil new improvements to its DSX and Millennium scanners — each of which can pull scans at resolutions up to 4K off 35mm neg.

Peter R. Swinson, with Cintel market development, touts the CRT-, rather than CCD-based method. “Our system,” he says, “is resolution independent. We are relying purely on the sharpness of the scanning CRT to find the sharpness of the image. If, for example, we were to make a CRT that's twice as sharp, you can replace just the CRT and take advantage of the greater resolution. On the CCD scanners such as the Spirit and Sony's Vialta, the maximum resolution is fixed. If you want to change, you've got to change the whole front end of the device.”

Part 2: Color Grading

Once the film images are digitized, the coloring begins. High-end color correctors capable of working in 2K in realtime have been on the market for a while. Companies like daVinci and Pandora have staked out that market with the 2K Plus and Pixi systems respectively.

The big news this NAB is Discreet's entrance into this field with the company's new (and yet unnamed at press time) color-correction system. Based on technology from Budapest-based Colorfront, the creators of Fire and Inferno will now offer a standalone color corrector designed to be used in DI creation. The turnkey system will work at up to 2K resolution in realtime and higher through proxies. It is Discreet's first product of this kind and it represents a new turn for a company not known for offering anything but software.

Colorfront is hardly new to the business. Discreet already provides some Colorfront plug-ins for some of its editing and compositing software. Colorfront technology was also the basis of chief colorist Peter Doyle's setup at New Zealand-based The Film Unit, where all the DI work for Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was done. The guts of Colorfront's high-end system were sold as the 5D Colossus. But when 5D went bankrupt last year, Discreet, seeing the DI business growing, decided to develop this new product.

The DI world is a hybrid of what were once the separate domains of film and video, and people still tend to speak and even think differently about images. Colorfront's technology allows either type of user to interface with the product comfortably. In some cases, DI colorists are used to working with video and have a limited knowledge of the photochemical world. Likewise, there are people coming from traditional timing who are new to the emerging digital world.

“There is a new breed working in this arena,” says Maurice Patel, Discreet systems product marketing manager. “There are people who are somewhere between a colorist and lab timer. You're seeing people come from both sides of those fields to do digital grading for films. Our product is designed to feel equally comfortable for each.”

DaVinci unveiled its 2K Plus console more than a year ago and will be demonstrating it on the floor of this NAB. In addition, the company will be introducing a piece of third-party software designed to help cinematographers and directors communicate their color concepts to a colorist. Using basic color-correction tools, the system, designed to run on a standard home computer, will allow the user to perform some very basic color correction offline.

DPs, especially those shooting for telecine, often take digital photos or even scan Polaroids and use systems like Adobe Photoshop to rough out a look to guide the colorist. This tool will speak the same language as the 2K Plus and the color decisions can be imported directly. It is not a substitute for the work the colorist does, daVinci marketing vice president Matthew Straeb is quick to point out. “We're just talking primaries and printer lights. It doesn't have power windows or anything like that. Its purpose is primarily to communicate ideas so the colorist can incorporate them into his or her vision.”

Pandora, whose Pixi consoles have found their way into many DI facilities throughout the world, will officially launch its Evolution panel. The panel, which will be incorporated into new units and can be swapped on existing ones, is designed primarily with improved ergonomics in mind. The panel appeared in prototype at IBC and will be part of the demos at the Pandora booth and with partners like Thomson, Cintel, and Quantel.

The control panel of Quantel’s QColor.

Speaking of Quantel, that company will be demonstrating QColor in its booth. The system, introduced late last year, works in conjunction with its iQ. QColor is not being touted as a replacement for the high-end color correctors — the hardware/software product doesn't offer anything like the elaborate tools that accompany those. It could, however, be used to do a first pass, which could later be tweaked by the more expensive gear, or a facility might offer it as a lower-cost, more limited color-correction option.

QColor was used late last year at Rome's Cinecitta Digital facility to create a digital cinema master of Roberto Benigni's Pinocchio. The film release was timed traditionally at Technicolor, Rome, and QColor was used primarily to apply the color decisions made there to a digital master.

Part 3: Screening

Though some facilities are using HD monitors in their DI color grading suites, there are many who suggest that this method leaves something to be desired.

“You can't adjust colors you can't see,” declares Harry Mathias, director of digital cinema America for Barco Digital Cinema. When working with files of 2K or larger and utilizing RGB color information, an HD signal — no matter how it's calibrated — leaves something to be desired, says Mathias. “This is one reason why just about every post house in L.A. has a digital projector and many are adding their second and third.”

Barco, in addition to Christie and Digital Projection, manufactures a digital cinema projector based on the Texas Instruments DLP (Digital Light Processing) 1280×1024 resolution imaging device. Each projector company manufactures its own unit around the chip, which has become a favorite for those experimenting with digital projection for theaters. Rumor has it that a higher-rez version of the chip may be shown as early as NAB or ShoWest, though not necessarily as part of any new products.

Many facilities have chosen either Barco or Christie projectors to put images on a screen as colorists work in a DI environment. Barco will be showing its new Cine Premiere DP30 on the floor. This new, smaller version of its DP50 utilizes the same DLP technology but costs about 35% less and has a smaller footprint. Designed specifically for smaller venues, the DP30, which can illuminate up to a 33ft. screen up to 12ft. lamberts, uses less power and illumination than its big brother, which is designed to work in larger venues.

The DP30, says Mathias, consists of “the same software and accessories, the same color gamut, contrast, and resolution in a smaller package. This projector might not be best for theaters, but it is perfect for post. The major advantage is if a facility is adding a color timing room and they can't put a standard projection booth in there because maybe there's an equipment room or an editing suite behind it. This projector can go inside the room. It's quiet and it doesn't need to be vented to the outside the way the DP50 does.”

Meanwhile, Christie will be showing its CP series of DLP projectors, scheduled to ship later this year. “When I talk about digital intermediate,” says Craig Sholder, senior director of business development, “I see the same type of infrastructure being for digital cinema. The same systems that are being used to master films in a digital environment for film-out can also be used to master in a digital environment and distributed digitally to theaters. We see our projectors playing a role in all of this.”

Part 4: Throughput

Many manufacturers are offering additional hardware and software designed specifically to help deal with the enormous amounts of data involved in DI creation. SGI is touting its CXFS file format as part of an overall system of controlling and tracking data through facilities. “A lot of companies find they spend more time moving data than working on it,” says Jim Farney, media marketing manager for SGI.

SGI's scaleable file system and pooled architecture are designed to simplify some of these issues. “If you pull data and put it into a shared file system, the impediment to making everything work can be that different pieces of equipment aren't talking to each other.”

The system, which supports SGI Irix, Windows NT/2000, and Sun Solaris operating systems, is designed around the idea of storing data on a SAN, and using an SGI Origin server as the brains of the facility. By using the CXFS file format, Farney explains, data and images can be moved around in realtime without the issues that can arise when workstations are not compatible. SGI will be at the show offering a prepackaged solution including servers, a Fibre Channel switch, and the CXFS software.

Cintel will be showing off its GRACE grain removal plug-in for its C-Reality and DSX film scanners.

Though not new at the show, Quantel will be touting the DI applications of its iQ. Designed as a central hub for images of all sizes and formats, the iQ can bring in material from many sources, instantly convert format and aspect ratio, and allow realtime manipulation.

“We think of iQ as not just a piece of equipment,” says Steve Owen. “It is a ‘pipeline.’ You can bring in any type of images you can think of — SD, HD, 2K — manipulate them and output the result in any format you want.”

Pandora and Quantel will offer Freeflow, a 2.5GB optical interface that joins a Pixi color corrector to an iQ. It will allow the user to load and transport up to 14-bit linear files. Since most file formats used today are 10-bit (Cineon, DPX), this function may not have much practical application presently. But, says Ralph Chaloub, vice president of sales and marketing for Pandora, it may be a good investment as client demand for better images continues. “Some scanners can provide 14-bit linear files, and we think this will be a request for the DI market in the future,” he says.

DaVinci will offer its own formatter that allows various versions — HD, 2K, etc. — to be output once color correction is done. It can also be used for panning and scanning, and other adjustments that can be required when outputting to many different formats.

The Specter Virtual DataCine is Thomson's finishing box. Though not new to the show, it is an essential component in Thomson's DI arsenal. It allows users to seamlessly import, combine, conform, and finish material shot on film or with a digital camera or generated by another postproduction system. It also integrates with a realtime downstream primary and secondary color-correction system.

“I think you're going to see incremental growth in the DI business,” says Steve Russell, marketing manager for postproduction products. “People are only now getting their arms around the issues involved, and it's becoming more achievable to wider audiences. Before, it was limited to very specialized facilities that had inhouse experts who could figure out all the engineering. Now some of that knowledge is spreading out because manufacturers are solving a lot of the problems in the workflow.”

Part 5: Film Out

After the images are scanned off the film to some form of storage, sent bouncing around the facility, color graded, and sent to some other form of storage, the augmented images must get back to film for theatrical distribution. It goes without saying that nothing that comes before this stage is of too much importance if this is not done well. While film recorders in just the past few years have gained a tremendous amount of speed, the process is still a slow one.

The Arri Arrilaser 35 has found a great deal of acceptance among facilities doing DI and clients have been known to ask for it by name.

“Our product was released 3 1/2 years ago and has become an industry standard for DI,” says product manager Richard Antley. “I'd say this is particularly due to its image quality and speed. You can make perfectly beautiful images with some CRTs but not with the same technical standards.”

Arri will be offering an upgrade at the show called the Arrilaser High Speed Package, which knocks recording times down to 2.2 seconds per frame in 2K and 3.7 seconds per frame in 4K. The package will be standard issue with newly manufactured systems and available as an upgrade for Arrilasers already in place.

But laser technology is not the only game in town. CRT scanners, such as those offered by Celco and Laser Graphics, are present in a great many facilities, sometimes alongside the laser recorders.

Celco will introduce new software and hardware updates to its Fury recorder, unveiled at the last NAB. The Fury outputs 1fps or 60 minutes of 2K 35mm film per day and supports a variety of formats resolutions, ranging from 16mm to IMAX.

Lasergraphics Producer CRT film recorder.

Lasergraphics, manufacturer of the Producer CRT recorder, will bring out its big brother, Producer 2, at NAB. While Producer has a price tag around $120,000, Producer 2 will run $295,000. This is still less, says vice president of marketing and sales Steve Klenk, than the Arrilaser's half-million-dollar price point. Producer 2 outputs 2K frames at about 4fps. Klenk promises that by IBC, it will be capable of higher resolutions. Klenk suggests that the output of his company's CRT-based recorders can compare favorably with that of laser-based recorders. “It's really more of a taste thing,” he says. “We provide a less stark look, more of a classic ‘film look.’”
— J.S.

DVDs and Streaming

Streaming video, once the stuff of IPO dreams, has not gone away. In fact, it's now in more venues than ever, making the leap from personal computers to wireless devices.

Telestream recognizes the promise of MPEG-4 as a video format suitable for delivery over IP. The highly scalable compression standard figures prominently in the company's flagship FlipFactory transcoding automation software in the form of the PacketVideo MPEG-4 encoder. Telestream is truly thinking small here, focusing on getting that MPEG-4 video to wireless devices such as mobile phones and PDAs. PacketVideo technology has already found its way into offerings from leading operators and handset manufacturers.

Discreet also widens options for delivery to mobile devices with its recent updates to Cleaner. Last fall the company shipped Cleaner 6 for the Mac, which debuted support for MPEG-4 and Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) via QuickTime 6. Next, the downloadable 6.01 update introduced support for the Kinoma 1.5 exporter that allows video playback on PDAs based on Palm OS 5. Also new for version 6 of the multi-purpose encoding and delivery solution is two-pass variable bit-rate MPEG-2 encoding for DVD authoring, which analyzes the video sequence entirely in the first pass to compute the parameter settings for the second.

Anystream will show Agility 3.0, the latest version of its encoding/transcoding automation software that debuted at IBC. The broadcast-to-web software automates even more popular input and output steps and introduces asset management functions like video indexing and thumbnail extraction. Agility 3.0 expands its supported broadcast formats, adding MPEG-2 4:2:2 encoding up to 50Mbps I-frame, plus SeaChange and Sony IMX formats. Anystream, with current prominent customers like CNN and BskyB, will use $11 million in recently secured venture capital funding to help expand marketshare for Agility.

DVD production technologies continue to trickle down from the high end of the market, with consumer software continuing to adopt features that not long ago were available from only the most expensive DVD suites. Still, this NAB promises further cheaper and better solutions for professional houses' DVD needs.

Sonic Solutions will be showing a new member of its flagship Scenarist line, which includes Scenarist Professional, a Hollywood-standard tool for DVD authoring. Scenarist Studio, which debuted at January's New York DV Expo, offers the ability to create DVD-9 titles — single-sided, dual-layered discs that hold up four hours of video and audio. The feature set of Scenarist Studio ($7,999) also includes subtitle stream support, the ability to work with up to three video angles, and what Sonic describes as the highest degree of DVD player compatibility available.

The DVD format is hailed for its superior audio capabilities, but producers authoring their titles to DVD don't always take full advantage of surround sound. Now even prosumer-oriented applications are opening themselves up to Hollywood audio power. Last month, Ulead announced that its $199 DVD Workshop app is shipping with AC-3 (Dolby Digital) support. Users can now import 5.1 AC-3 audio files, and also create Stereo AC-3 files within DVD Workshop.

Appliance DVD burners are becoming a popular choice for producers who need to deliver DVDs with more frequency than a one-off DVD-R drive will allow. At NAB, Primera is showing enhancements to its Bravo DVD Publisher, an automated duplication and printing system that burns DVD-Rs and CD-Rs. Bravo, with a robotic mechanism that transfer discs to its Pioneer recorder, ships with an integrated printer that prints labels in color at up to 2400dpi resolution. Recording speeds have increased to 4X for DVDs and 16X for CDs. Support for OS X is also new for Bravo ($2,495).

Speaking of Pioneer, late last year the company announced the fifth generation of its combination DVD-R/RW and CD-R/RW drive. The DVR-A05, famous as the SuperDrive in Macintosh computers, will be shown at NAB, and is cheaper and more powerful than ever. Two years ago at the show, this drive was heralded as a breakthrough product because of its sub-$1,000 pricing. Today, just $299 will get you record rates of 4X for DVD-R and 2X for DVD-RW, not to mention Sonic's MyDVD 4.0 and Pinnacle's InstantWrite drag-and-drop file storage software. Pioneer also will introduce a new industrial video recorder at NAB, but no details were available at press time.
— T.B.

Film Restoration

For studios and other rights owners, there's money to be made in re-releasing classic films, TV series, or prepping films for DVD release. There's a lot of footage out there to work on too: The UN agency Unesco has estimated some 2.2 billion meters of quick-to-decay nitrate-type film still reside in archives worldwide.

DaVinci expanded its product line beyond color correctors with its Revival film restoration product. The software runs either as a solo app on an SGI, or in concert with Discreet products. The software provides automatic processing and interactive tools for the removal of dirt, blotches, dropout, and noise. Automatic background rendering utilizes local CPUs, and optionally, a Linux-based render farm.

DaVinci also has devised a software control module for Teranex's StarFilm, a realtime noise reducer for film-originated material. The module provides an interface in the telecine edit suite to allow daVinci's 2K color corrector to manage StarFilm's process of dirt and gain reduction.

Expect upgrades to Mathematical Technologies' IntelliDeck digital restoration (DRS) software, which runs on Intel and SGI workstations. The resolution-independent product (data, HD, and SD) employs an array of software modules for image-processing correction, including automatic dirt concealment, noise and grain reduction, aperture correction, cadence repair, and audio pitch correction.

Snell & Wilcox adds some twists to its Archangel Ph.C. The device provides realtime restoration of a variety of film and video problems, including providing noise reduction in areas of high movement via the product's Phase Correlation motion estimation technology. Other features include a customized toolset for archive retrieval, including motion-compensated recursive and transversal filtering to reduce broadband noise and film grain.

The porting of Grass Valley's Shout restoration tool to the Linux OS should provide a more cost-effective solution for removing dirt, scratches, and other frame defects.
— D.O.

Converters

Snell & Wilcox began work on its DEFT (digital electronic film transfer) technology way back in 1989. DEFT eased creation of film-originated television programs; it corrected the major 3:2 pulldown problems that developed when filmed dramas were edited on 525-line NTSC videotape and then converted to 625-line PAL. The British company won an Emmy in 1994 for its innovation.

DEFTplus upgrades the company's Alchemist Ph.C and Alchemist Platinum standard converters, which first incorporated the technology. S&W states that DEFTplus offers seamless conversion of SD material to 24p, and allows you to integrate SD and HD material within the same program. The device also reorders TV field sequence so that the new PAL fields are produced only from the original film fields for a very clean result.

Snell & Wilcox will also introduce the Ukon universal format conversion platform and the cost-efficient UpCaster. Ukon delivers SD and HD I/O, while providing up-conversion, down-conversion, and cross-conversion. Other features include aspect ratio conversion with tilt, pan and zoom, time-code conversion with frame mapping, comprehensive audio handling, and 3:2 cadence detection and repair. S&W says the compact UpCaster will allow U.S. broadcasters to get high quality DTV pictures on the air at a lower cost than currently possible.

Teranex Volare 210, an upconverter priced at less than $20,000, includes the company's proprietary PixelMotion advanced noise reduction. Features include 3:2 cadence detection and scene change detection algorithms. The Volare also sports analog and digital interfaces and dual hot-swappable power supplies.

The YEM SCR-1080i scan converter converts the DVI output of an active display area to HD SDI at a full 1920x1080 resolution. That includes anything on the PC display, including graphics, images, and characters. The output of PCs equipped with a DVI graphics board directly maps into the HD SDI 1080i signal, which in turn genlocks to master sync.
— D.O.

---

Sidebar

Top Facilities Consider DI routes

Digital mastering suite at Post Logic.

With more postproduction facilities around the world developing business plans built around high-resolution, digital intermediate mastering services every year, it's no surprise that technology experts from such facilities are eagerly hunting flexible, cost-effective pieces to plug into these pipelines. Of primary interest to virtually every facility that spoke with Millimeter heading into NAB was Quantel's continually evolving, resolution-coexistent iQ architecture, and the various tools users might be able to plug into that architecture.

“We invested in the iQ last fall, and now we are particularly interested in support equipment for that area,” says Merle Sharp, director of engineering at Post Logic, Hollywood. “Simply adding more I/O workstations for the iQ is something we need to do. The notion of multiple workstations for the same iQ is a good idea, and cost effective.”

Cinesite Hollywood is interested in Quantel iQ developments, and finding improved color correction tools in general. Senior colorist Marc Wielage says film scanners are “another primary area for us this year.” In particular, Wielage, like many others, is interested in Thomson Grass Valley's Spirit 4K scanner.

Stefan Sonnenfeld, president/managing director of Company 3, Santa Monica, is also curious about the scanner. “We are always looking for high-resolutions scans which are faster, but no more costly, than they are now,” says Sonnenfeld. “To use Spirit 4K as a scanner would definitely speed things up.”

Sonnenfeld uses Quantel iQ technology in combination with daVinci color correctors, but he's concerned about the lack of standards for viewing such imagery in post environments. “They have to address this issue, because the images are so large when doing realtime color correction at the highest resolutions possible that our industry needs a standard approach to viewing this material. Right now, specific shops are coming up with their own tables and things, but we need it all uniform.”

Ron Burdett, president of Sunset Digital of Glendale, says he'll be asking manufacturers about developing more accurate color look-up tables at NAB. “We've been talking to Quantel and Da Vinci, among others in the past year, about accurate look-up tables, and I'll be curious to see what people have done in this area,” says Burdett. “Obviously, this also means that we will be looking at buying more digital projectors.”

“Right now, data means 2K, and that's practical,” says Burdett. “But it's clear that the studios want us working at 4K, and so flexible tools that can let us go that high while maintaining our current level of work at 2K will be very important.

“Right now, like many people, I think Quantel's iQ represents the great hope for this approach — a practical, real-world solution at 2K with unlimited inputs that can be upgraded and work with a variety of color-correction tools. I'm also interested in their new sizing engine, which will let us take a 2K digital intermediate and convert it in realtime to a high-def cropped version.”
— M.G.

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