Tag Archives: NABShow

Link

NAB 2015 first look.

So we are about 4 weeks out from NAB 2014 and already the web is buzzing about new products that have surfaced prior to the big show. Once again CES has set the bar pretty high, I expect to see even more 4K | QHD content as the creators are finally starting to catch up to the hype from the Consumer TV groups.

Arri's Alexa Mini

Arri’s Alexa Mini

Arri announces the Alexa Mini, at BVE, this is a smaller, light weight (at 5lb) fully capable camera to fill in those Steadicam, Drone, and other times when a smaller lighter camera is necessary. Acquisition specs match those of the current Alexa models.  0.75-120fps ProRes2k, up to 30p in 2160, Arri Raw, DnxHD, with both 16×9 and 4×3 rasters available on the Alev4 Sensor

BlackMagicDesign Released the latest Intensity Pro4K, a PCIe based capture and playback card geared at emerging filmmakers and prosumers  that includes not only 1080 60p functionality but also has the ability to handle 2160px QHD at up to 30p for just $199.00 USD.

Add to that the latest update to BMD’s big dog, DaVinci Resolve 11,  and recent release of a Free version of professional compositor FUSION (a Windows only release).  I am waiting to see what the team at BlackMagicDesign has in store for us on the Show Floor once the doors open on Monday.

FCPX

FCPX was used as the main NLE for the Feature Film “Focus”

 

Apple has been touting FCPX with the release of “Focus” with Will Smith and Margot Robbie. Back to showing that their software is fully capable of being able to handle the needs of feature production, I look to see some things happening in the background at NAB to talk more about this.

Other companies are also showing some of their newest NAB2015 gear and software already.

Rampantdesigntools.com and their newly released 4K Effects and 5K Lighting Effects that allow users drag and drop simplicity for use within your productions.

The newest JVC 4K camera supports MFT lenses and is under $4,000 USD

The newest JVC 4K camera supports MFT lenses

JVC is already shipping their sub $4000.00  GYLS300U camera with full 4K recording utilizing a Micro 4/3 mount.

 

I will also state that there will be way too many “cloud” discussions and even more companies trying to push their hyper- specific version of the sharing platform on us.  Only a couple of the really big players understand the cloud and how it needs to be handled when working with really big data.

 

More to come. The announcements are only now starting to roll in.

 

 

 

New for NAB 2014 LaCie’s Little Big Disc 2

Posted on by

So it has been awhile since I posted here, been busy working on 3 projects, one of which included one of the new “social media clauses” so it has kept me rather limited.I will post my thoughts on some of the new gear that is already shipping prior to NAB so that people can check them out at the show.

First up, LaCie’s Little Big Disc 2

I use storage from a number of manufacturers and never have I ever opened a hard drive box and recieved this level of performance with the ease and simplicity of the LBD2. LaCie has delivered the fastest single device I have ever used with my laptop.  Equipped with Intel’s Thunderbolt 2 Technology, this 1TB  sleek black box, elegantly styled and compact for it’s 1.4 pound weight, offers users the single most powerful drive I have ever used.

The Thunderbolt 2 interface in conjunction with the raided dual SSD drives inside offer users up to an astonishing 1.3 Gigabytes of data throughput per second, easily making LaCie’s LBD2 the fastest single drive publicly available. While listed price at around $1300 USD for a 1 TB volume might be cringeworthy to some, when you have the need for speed this is the drive to have.

This shows the raw speed of LaCie's Little Big Disk 2, here showing performance  over 1 GB per second when paired  with a 2nd Gen Retina MacBook Pro with Intel's Thunderbolt 2 technology.

This shows the raw speed of LaCie’s Little Big Disk 2, here showing performance  over 1 GB per second when paired  with a 2nd Gen Retina MacBook Pro with Intel’s Thunderbolt 2 technology.

The cost vs. performance is nothing short of astronomical, because we are talking about moving Gigabytes per second with this beast. That performance, equal if not better at times than the internal flash memory found in Apple’s New Mac Pro, and is unheard of outside of a incredibly small number of Post facilities or in the massive server farms that allow ITunes, Amazon and Google to spit out information to you in realtime on the web.

However for desktop users, this is a first, when built my first 1GBps array for a client in 2007, at that time it required 2 computers just to control the 72 spinning disks and cost nearly $500,000 in time and materials when finished.

I can now walk into a store and buy nearly the same throughput off the shelf and have ready to work on in mere minutes after I am out the door.

LaCie’s Little Big Disk 2 has become my main carry around work volume, I recently used it during an extended trip, where it allowed me to cut 4K ProRes 4444 content on my laptop, well away from my office, without having to work with the associated hassles of the offline / online workflow that location editing of that much content would normally require.

There is plenty more to come. Stay Tuned.

 

A New Version of FCPX, Mavericks and the New MacPro

Posted on by

So, I wonder how many of you remembered that FCPX turned 2 years old on June 21st.

Yup, That’s right 2 years with a number of updates and the soon to be arriving “NewMacPro” people are wondering when the updates will happen, even though  Apple has confirmed that there is an official update to FCPX arriving at approximately the same time as the new desktop. Phil said it on stage, Apple focus on it in their PR messaging but now people are taking pictures of MacPro Screens on Apple.com and spreading them across social media.

Even Apple.com is telling us there will be a new version of FCPX this year.

Even Apple.com is telling us there will be a new version of FCPX this year.

Metadata is the new black
I am guessing most of these people did not watch the WWDC Keynote, or more specifically, the part where Craig Federighi showed the same Metadata Tagging like FCPX has had for almost 2 years at the FINDER level of OSX Mavericks. I think it is funny how that same type of info tagging was belittled and berated when FCPX  first came out 2 yrs. ago in June 2011?

Yet Apple’s engineers sought to bring it full bore into the mainstream of OSX directly, wisely so I might add, so that now the power that I referred to in the first releases of FCPX have moved forward to the point that we will be using that power invisibly while you are working. Isn’t this what we all want, instead of blindly looking around the plethora of available drives with failed searches because we have all turned off journaling for external drives.

What does this mean? 

We all watched as Apple took nothing short of a “ass-whoppin” in the media and on the internet about the changes to FCP when FCPX came to market. It took Apple months to add back some really basic functionality like outputting split audio tracks or using professional level monitoring and output for the Pro User. My Macworld.com review of FCPX was one of the more civil diatribes, while my comments on CreativeCow.net were something else altogether.

Move forward 2 years and that same Phil Schiller is talking live onstage talking at WWDC about a new MacPro and in the same breath is talking about FCPX being updated. The Metadata tagging originally featured in FCPX,  is shown in a fully operational manner at the Finder Level in demonstrations of the next generation of the OSX.

I think that this means Apple may have something else in mind, for I see a workstation that functionally remembers where all my content is, keeps track of all of my projects, media and the assorted files that traverse my desk as a working pro. No more lost images or captions, client logo’s stay organized on the server and available instantly, content pre-identified by the associated metadata. { I wonder will Adobe meta-tags from Photoshop and Lightroom might be seen by OSX at some point }

Hmmm.

NAB Day 2, HP Shows Thunderbolt Laptops, BMCC versions, PL Lens Extenders, Dinner

Posted on by

The second day of the show is over, after 5 days I am officially tired and there are still 3 more days of show, Info is still pouring out into the desert. 

Big news for me is that HP is publicly showing the SpectreXT laptop that is equipped with Thunderbolt, HP is not the biggest PC MFG to embrace the media rich pipeline that Thunderbolt enables.  http://cnet.co/Yas5BF

Image

Spectre Thunderbolt Laptop in the HP Booth

Black Magic Design offers 2 new versions of the BMCC Camera The Pocket Cinema  (URL) Camera $1000 features a magnesium alloy chassis, 13 stops of dynamic range, Super 16 sensor size, high quality Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) and lossless compressed CinemaDNG RAW recording, as well as interchangeable optics with an active Micro Four Thirds lens mount, all packed into an incredibly tiny size.http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/press/pressdetails?releaseID=38108

AND  Blackmagic Production Camera 4K: $3995 (URL) The Production Camera 4K is a new high resolution 4K digital film camera with an innovative large Super 35 size sensor with professional global shutter, combined with precision EF mount optics and high quality Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) file recording.

The 4K model that has more than a few RedScarlet Users whining online.http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?97945-Scarlet-owners-and-their-reactions-this-week

ARRI and AbelCine both are showing PL lens Extenders.

Mathew Dulcos posted Arri 1.4x & 2x tele-extenders, perfect for Alura zooms. http://duclos.tv/nab  http://fb.me/1pRg1qP5s

@abelcine 2X PL Doubler. It fits ALL the @FujifilmOptical Cabrio zooms! $5800 pic.twitter.com/Adtt7JTjUb

Lastly, My day ended last night after a meeting of the minds with ArtAdams (PVC and DVinfo.net), Bob Monaghan(GlueTools), Dave Stump A.S.C (Knowledge Geek),  AJA’s Steve  Barsky, and of course DP’s Christian Seel and Kevan Barsky.

 

NAB 2013 updates Matrox, Panasonic, News from Litepanels

Posted on by

 

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