#NABShow is On, Anamorphics from Cooke partnership, Aaton’s Peneople, FSI Monitors, iOS tool for Phantom Cameras.

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Wow.
Life is heating up in the desert, the news is flowing on every front possible.

The First Day of the DP Conference had packed rooms for my presentations on 4K and HFR workflows, my thanks to DP Mark Weingartner and Geoff Boyle B.S.C. as well as Blair Paulsen for their last minute additions and help and to Marco Solorio for his Demo and Talk on the #BMCC
http://nab13.mapyourshow.com/5_0/sessions/sessiondetails.cfm?ScheduledSessionID=18A8C8

Cooke and Angénieux have a new partnership that is bringing the best in Prime Cine Lenses to the best in Cine Zooms, to create a new line of Anamorphic lenses, I have not seen them yet, but after talking to Les Zellan, I cannot wait to see them.http://www.cookeoptics.com/cooke.nsf/news/news.html

Flanders Scientific announced 5 New monitors include a massive 32″ Reference Monitor for Post Production, OnBoards and new OLED designs for Post and Production http://www.flandersscientific.com/index/

My Friends at Vision Research have released an iOS tool for the Phantom Camera, that covers Frame rates, data estimates and other cool tools http://www.visionresearch.com/blog/vision-launches-new-phantom-tools-app/

Mitch Gross from AbelCine shows off the new Aaton Penelope camera,that I got a peak at a couple of years ago. So this is the first of the new camera announcements. http://blog.abelcine.com/2013/04/04/penelope-delta-brings-aaton-design-to-digital-cinema/

NAB is here, Sony revises XAVC Codec, Monitoring Tech from Fujinon, and glass lots of glass.

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So as the big dance gets closer, more info is coming out, more secrets are being held back and the announcements fill my mail box.

Sony announces a change to the XAVC 4K codec  today, adding a both 4:2:0 8bit and HD4:2:2 8bit versions to the existing structure, but then buries the content of the press release on their website you can find most of it under a post by PeterC. http://community.sony.com/#  

It now brings 4K into the100Mbps range for TV workflows

  “4K imaging bandwidth can be reduced to under 100Mbps depending on GOP structure, frame rate, and color sampling.”    I am NOT sure I want to look at 4K running at 100Mbps.

 

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FujifilmUSA is going to be showing the first true LUT converter in their booth at NAB, built around Fuji’s  CCBox OnSet color correction tools and around the IS-100, The IS-Mini converter allows for direct inline color correction via 1D viewing LUT’s and full support for post production standard 3D LUT formats.  This is a really big deal for me, as I have been begging for a tool like this in the OnSet world for nearly 7years and have had to rely on BMD’s HDLink converters ever since Cine-tal stopped manufacturing hardware.

CCBox info here http://bit.ly/12cHSm       IS-Mini info here  http://bit.ly/17bdVH7

 

A rumble started this morning online that Angenieux and Cooke are teaming up for a big announcement that is coming next week. 

 

It’s a 4K NABShow, a new blog on Zacuto.com and other things

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So buckle up, it’s going to be a 4K ride this NAB, so be prepared for a barrage of 4K every where you go.

The Hollywood Reporter posted yesterday about Barco showing their 4K Projector designed specifically for Post Production use, but a small blurb in that article also noted that Sony has announced that it will shoot and produce some of it’s pilot’s for next season in 4K.
http://bit.ly/YEfklP

An award winning A.S.C. Cinematographer posted that Dobly might be showing a new reference monitor behind closed doors at the show. (no link I am not going to out him)

Convergent Design released info on their new Odyssey Monitor/Recorder. It’s a 1280×800,10bit, OLED panel that doubles as an HD/2k/4K recorder that will be able to do CanonRaw, ARRIRAW and 2K up to 60fps as well as DNX and ProRes. http://bit.ly/ZvZIQJ

Lastly for today, one of my new ventures for 2013 was to spread the tech word farther than I have been and to that I have started a new Tech Blog for my friends at Zacuto.com. I will have posts there every couple of weeks and once it gets going, I am hoping that the questions that come in from readers will allow me to help explain the some of the more popular issues and questions that filmmakers run into. Take a look at the first of will be many posts over the next few months. http://bit.ly/ZpKPvO

Other Show news
Mole Richardson is showing LED Fresnels at the show http://t.co/Jl6JtAllgJ

Be Prepared for the HEVC revolution. http://bit.ly/10PssW5

And FujiFilmUK posted this message after announcing that they were clearing out 2Million feet of stock http://www.filmstockclearance.com

For many years Fujifilm UK has been very proud and privileged to have supported the most talented filmmakers that Britain has produced. From the camera to the screen, from film school shorts to Oscar winning features, it has been an honour working with you all and may we wish you all the very best for the future. Long live film!

Farewell,
Fujifilm Motion Picture

More to come.

NAB 2013 updates Matrox, Panasonic, News from Litepanels

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More news from the street, it seems Matrox is announcing their Monarch HD Video Streaming products for release at NAB

While pricing and delivery are not yet announced, Monarch looks to be a standout for schools and houses of worship looking to stream content via RTSP or RTMP as H.264 direct from virtually any HDMI source.  http://bit.ly/ZZuPBV

Panasonic is also talking about a shoulder-mount AJ-PX5000G, the latest in 2/3in cameras that support both 720 with 1080 Recording up to 60fps and will be the first Panasonic camera to offer native support their AVC-Ultra codec and MicroP2 Cards.  http://bit.ly/YtuJVY

One last thing for today, My friends at Litepanels have donated an entire studio’s worth of lighting products to the Communications Studies program at Plattsburgh State University of New York. With almost 400 students in the media program, SUNY students will get a great look at some state of the art lighting tools. I know, I have been testing the INCA units that are to be released at NAB and I can not be happier with them. 

http://bit.ly/ZZxnzX

NAB 2013 is just around the corner,

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NAB 2013 

With the big show in the desert just a couple of weeks away, I thought I would offer some ideas and insights for anyone that will be joining us for what has become the largest conclave of media enthusiasts in the world.

With nearly 80,000 attendees, virtually all working in some field related to the creation and delivery of moving pictures, NAB is without a doubt, the place to be for the first 2 weeks of  April.

I will be offering insights and ideas about what I see on the floor as well as what is not at the show, as well as a full followup the week afterwards. 

What is coming?

Well, I know of at least 2 new camera’s to be shown (which means there will be 5-6) as well as established companies offering their adaptations of existing technologies. Even as I write this I see an email about new cameras to be shown by Hitachi ( and not one of the leaders on my list of camera companies) 

I expect to see some a couple of usable post tools, hopefully to simplify our lives, as well as a big leap as well as a major announcement from one of the 3 major NLE solutions at the show.

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Lighting too will be taking a huge leap this year, I was lucky enough to test some of the new @Litepanels Inca series fresnel lights for some Pre-NAB shoots and I have to say that it took me a couple of days to get used to a 2K fresnel that did not require gloves to handle! Even after being on for most of the day, the fans in the INCA keep the temperature of the light to less than a hot cup of coffee.

The last thing I will leave you with today, there is change ahead. I expect to see a couple of major Thunderbolt announcements, one that could possibly change the future course of the desktop NLE.  

Thats all for today, but there is much more to come. See you soon!