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NAB Edit

Mar 1, 2003 12:00 PM, By Bob Turner

NAB 2003 WILL FEATURE 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 this convention. The new trends include new low-cost high definition technologies, such as JVC's new HD format and Windows Media 9 HD editing capabilities. There will be new concerns expressed about efficient archiving and media asset management. New storage technologies will be offered and new workgroup solutions will be evangelized. Let's take a look at the highlights that you should add to your priority list of things to see.

Quantel will introduce its QEdit Pro mainstream editing/compositing/finishing system to NAB. This Windows-based technology, supplemented with a Quantel Hardware board, starts at $68,000 MSRP for a turnkey system. The product shares its interface and toolset with iQ and eQ. I expect Quantel will be featuring compatibility with Sony's CineAlta HDCAM SR 4:4:4 MPEG formats.

The closest competitor to QEdit Pro may be Media 100's 844/X. The product comes in a low-cost four-stream version and a top-of-the-line eight-stream version. The company has been offering excellent financing plans to assist you in this troubled economy. At NAB, it will present version 2, the “finishing release.” This release — available for both versions — 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. Media 100 will also be presenting a hot new option, XBLUR, a true Gaussian blur tool. An HDX option is a first-step down-res/up-res technology that enables affordable support for HD and SD applications.

Pinnacle Systems will introduce what is sure to be a popular addition to its Liquid family of products. Chrome ($25,000 MSRP) is a nonlinear editor/compositor that incorporates Pinnacle Systems' Targa hardware 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 by utilizing Liquid's InTime processing boards. Liquid Chrome also includes a TitleDeko character generator application, Commotion image editing and compositing software, Impression DVD authoring software, and the new Liquid CX color correction subsystem. It also features built-in Palladium support.

Chrome's siblings: the Liquid Purple DV-based desktop/laptop NLE software package (will new version 5 be seen in the Sony booth with the new professional optical disc DDRs?); the Liquid Silver MPEG NLE (with DV option) turnkey product; and the flagship Liquid Blue “everything in/anything out” NLE turnkey product. Liquid Blue supports any combination of DV, DVCAM, DVCPRO25/50, MPEG-2, MPEG IMX, Digital Betacam, and even uncompressed D1/D5 within a single timeline — and still offers realtime playback.

Also found in the Pinnacle Systems booth will be the latest OS X-compatible CinéWave boardsets. New free realtime effects and enhanced software codecs will be featured.

Leitch will be featuring another of the new multi-stream editor/compositor systems — its dpsVelocityQ postproduction system. The new 8.2 version of dpsVelocityQ 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.

It is always a mystery what Apple Computer will present at NAB. Undoubtedly, Final Cut Pro will be present with all the complimentary third-party FCP-compatible hardware (AJA Kona, BlackMagic, Aurora Systems, Digital Voodoo, CinéWave, etc.)

It is also likely that Apple's Final Cut Pro will be among the first NLEs to work with Panasonic's new higher-bandwidth FireWire technology available for certain new DVCPRO50 VCRs.

Apple will be demonstrating its latest Shake compositing software development efforts. In the past two years, Apple has been acquiring compositing and media-distribution software manufacturers. This would be the best time for the company to present the results of these acquisitions.

Of course Apple has introduced new platforms of both its professional laptop and desktop lines, plus major improvements to its server line. Will the latest version of Xserve along with the new XRAID be demonstrated as a SAN solution?

One of the hottest products at NAB this year is expected to be the JVC JY-HD10 single-chip HD camcorder. That product comes with the MPEG Edit Studio Pro 1.0 LE software package, which JVC boasts is “the industry's first MPEG-2 HD editing software package for digital hi-def images.” When in the booth, be sure to check out the SR-VD400US PRO HD D-VHS VCR and the new BR-DV6000U Advanced Professional DV VCR. After you examine JVC's new NLE software package, go to the KDDI Media Technologies booth and examine its MPEG Edit Studio Pro — a fast, nonlinear HDTV/SDTV MPEG-2 NLE software package that achieves nearly degradation-free, frame-accurate, fast IBP MPEG-2 editing. The product offers a jog/shuttle controller, a scene-indexing feature and software-based HDTV player.

This year Avid is being as secretive as Apple! It's already announced that Symphony will be displayed on a Macintosh platform. The Mac version is missing a few features available on the Windows platform, such as the DV/MPEG option, SDTI-CP option, Marquee 3D Titling, Transfer Manager, and Media Chunking. I hope that Avid will announce at NAB that it has qualified Apple's flat-panel monitors.

Avid|DS will continue to be the HD postproduction solution. The latest version of Unity and Unity LANshare will be popular products in their booth. You should expect to have MXF media files replace AVR files — hopefully with backward compatibility, as this intention was announced last year. Avid should announce that Avid Xpress DV will have MetaSync tracks for the creation of interactive video programming. Will Avid disappoint those shopping for 24fps editing capabilities on the Xpress DV? 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 VCR. I am pretty sure that Avid will have one of more systems — most likely the Xpress DV or NewsCutter interface — working 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. It will be found in other booths as well. You should also look for 1Beyond's new HD system. Unfortunately, the booth is in an as-yet-to-be-announced location. The new laptop is the best-performing laptop that I have seen and is offered with several NLE software packages.

Discreet has divided into two divisions. The high-end systems division will feature Flame 8, Flint 8, Smoke 5.2, and Fire 5.2, all emphasizing 2K and HD capabilities. The desktop software division will feature the Cleaner products, 3ds Max 5.1 and Combustion 2.1. Be sure to see Bluefish444's new Acetylene SD SDI video card work with Discreet's Combustion system — it provides realtime video playback with frame-buffer support for simultaneous realtime preview on YUV SD SDI broadcast and analog composite monitors. The prototype DMA (formerly Strata/Mezzo) technologies will be most likely be viewed by invitation only. The biggest news in the Discreet booth will be the formal unveiling of its new digital color-grading system based upon Colorfront technology, and the introduction of the new Windows-based Cleaner XL encoder product.

Capdiv Direct DV Recorder

Digital Fusion and DF+ products, as well as the new Monsters plug-ins, will be on display in Eyeon's booth. Digital Fusion's new features for version 4 include command-line scripting, a redesigned tracking tool with unlimited tracking points, a new grid-warping feature for advanced image deformation, both 8/16-bit integer and 32-bit floating-point color processing, new RAM caching for realtime playback, new transform functions, cluster rendering and macro tools, and advanced particle, paint, and color-correction subsystems. I expect that Eyeon may introduce a Linux version at NAB. DFLinux is currently in beta.

And as for the best-selling of all compositing software, Adobe will be demonstrating its previously announced 5.5 release of After Effects along with Premiere 6.5. Adobe Systems will be making a major new product announcement at NAB during the keynote address. Rumor has it that the company will also be discussing the AAF interchange standard and addressing its plans for AAF compatibility. I do not know if Adobe Systems will again be editing HD via the Microsoft Windows 9 media, as was demonstrated at last year's convention; nor have I been able to find out if the plug-in partners will be demonstrating in the Adobe booth this year.

Matrox Video Products Group will be featuring three postproduction solutions. The Matrox RT.X100 highlights realtime DV and MPEG-2 output, realtime three-way color correction, realtime chroma keying, realtime motion control, and Flex 3D-powered realtime effects.

The Matrox Parhelia/Adobe After Effects bundle will demonstrate video compositing productivity with its technology that supports dual displays plus TV output, a free plug-in for viewing projects on an NTSC or PAL video monitor, and the highest-quality analog, digital, and TV output for RGB and video.

Incite Editor 3.0 on a DigiSuite MAX will promote its advanced media-management tools, an integral audio workstation, and workgroup connectivity. Incite will be demonstrating a variety of products in various booths on the NAB floor. You should check out the Incite HD Editor. The company claims that it will have some exciting new products, but Incite will not have a booth, so you will need to hunt for them.

Canopus will unveil its new realtime nonlinear video editing software, Edius, and its new portable editing workstation, CWS-30. The Edius software was designed for DVRex RT Professional and DVStorm2 hardware. It offers multi-track editing, extensive transitions, voiceover recording to the timeline, three- and four-point editing, realtime output, and comprehensive media asset management tools.

ProMax might feature some interesting storage solutions for the various turnkey solutions it offers. The company may be demonstrating Apple's Xserve/XRAID solution as well as Avid, Premiere, Matrox, Pinnacle Systems, and Final Cut Pro turnkeys. ProMax is offering its 8th Annual Digital Video Café on Tuesday night, April 8 at the StarDust Hotel. Pre-registration is requested.

Laird Telemedia will be offering Mac G4 NLE Systems for Avid Xpress DV and Final Cut Pro in addition to its line of Windows-based DVora platforms. While in the booth, check out the LTM-ER2 two-source editing router, the FireCut 4×1 IEEE 1394 DV vertical interval switcher, and the hot new Capdiv Direct DV Recorder.

You will find BOXX Technologies platforms driving NewTek Video Toaster 2, Eyeon Software's Digital Fusion, and Sonic Foundry's Vegas software, in addition to In-Sync's Speed Razor HD 2 software.

Sonic Foundry will be demonstrating Vegas 4 and Vegas+DVD as well as two volumes of its Sonic Foundry Vision Series — libraries of textures and backdrops.Rumors abound about new features and products that will be announced at the show. In-Sync will also be found in the Panasonic booth with its Blade NLE software on a new Pana-sonic ToughBook laptop editor, complementing Panasonic's 24p cameras.

Panasonic will have a new laptop editor of its own — the AJ-DE10, an IEEE 1394-equipped, laptop-based news editing system. It also uses Panasonic's ToughBook. The software is derived from the newsBYTE news editing NLE. The system will offer optional USB-based jog pad and audio fader external controllers.

Sony will demonstrate version 6 of the Xpri NLE system. Of course it will support the new optical disc system also being announced, and MXF file transfer capability with eVTR. Xpri will also be found on a newer, more powerful computer platform, and will offer many improvements from drag-and-drop timeline editing to improved color correction and rotospline masking. There will be significant performance improvements, an integrated Commotion 4.1 compositing package, improved After Effects support, and distributed rendering to PCs via Gigabit Ethernet.

After AIST Medialab AG and AIST America floundered, AIST GmbH was founded in July 2002 with the purchased assets. That company will have the smallest booth at NAB this year. The purpose of the booth is to make appointments for private demonstrations of the Cinegy family, including the integrated Cinegy Post Extreme and the midrange Cinegy Extreme, in a private room off the show floor. In that private room, the company will demonstrate how the Cinegy integrated production solution tries to cover the complete production workflow and make it a closed loop — while being completely open to third-party integration. The idea is toevolve from nonlinear editing to “nonlinear production.” The product will also be demonstrated in the booth of BBC Technology, AIST's technology partner.

Edirol will be showing its popular set-top DV-7 nonlinear editor. The company will be introducing a USB-based, 10-input audio mixer for a nonlinear editor, and the V-Link, a four-channel video mixer that features a T-bar controller.

Ulead will demonstrate its recently announced MediaStudio Pro 7 and Video Studio 7. Also look for DVD Workshop now with AC-3 support and including an auto-run player on the DVD disc.

Accom will be sporting Affinity Dimension 8.3.3 software with a new keyframer, a redesigned media asset management scheme, more precise mouse control, and more efficient edit operations — plus improved audio and graphic file compatibility.

There will be many additional systems and surprises. The bulk of the excitement may surround newly introduced production formats, but you still need to incorporate those formats into the postproduction process. It should be a good show.

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