Here's something interesting. An app that gives you native MXF in all QuickTime applications including FCP. Calibrated Software's unique solution successfully joins the separate video and audio P2 MXF files so that Final Cut Pro sees them all as ONE file - complete with TimeCode and Reel Name. PullDown can also be removed or added for select frame rates. And you're not just limited to Final Cut Pro, you can also natively import files in Compressor, Motion and Sound Track Pro.
Not only that but they have also unveiled a DVCPROHD decoder for Windows. This is something our friends across the aisle have been requesting for a long time. Calibrated{Q} DVCProHD Decode is a multi-threaded DVCProHD QuickTime Codec(Decode Only) that enables you to view QuickTime DVCProHD Movies in QuickTime Player and other 3rd party applications that support QuickTime. Check out both at Calibrated:
http://www.calibratedsoftware.com/welcome.html
This question comes up a lot- how does one label a DVD-R? I would never use a print on inkjet disc- because they smear with just a droplet of moisture nor stick on labels because they peel and jam. Instead- I'd go for one of three technologies- depending on budget and how professional the labels need to look:
1. Sharpie. This is cheap as dirt and works like a charm for sending to replication houses and for internal backups. But not so much given to clients- looks decidely ghetto for that...
2. LightScribe- this is a type of DVD burner than works with special media and lets you burn a monochrome image directly onto the disc surface. Looks a lot more pro than Sharpie for clients and has no issues with peeling off.
3. Rimage Everest Thermal transfer printers. The only printer I would even consider. These are quite expensive but worth every penny. You can easily create a full color DVD with a printed surface that exceeds the image quality of most replicated discs but with zero risk of peeling, fading or smearing. This is the way to go if you want to do one-off discs that look as pro as can be.
If you're having any problems with Sony XDCAM EX footage the latest version of the XDCAM transfer software might be a big help. It has some new error correction built in that can recover corrupted material.
The PDZ-KP1 XDCAM Transfer Software is an import plug in for Final Cut Pro. XDCAM Transfer Version 2.5 supports the current XDCAM HD and SD optical products, the new PDW-U1 optical XDCAM drive, and the PMW-EX1 XDCAM EX camcorder which records on SxS flash cards.
Check it out:
https://serviceplus.us.sony.biz/sony-software.aspx?model=pdzkp1
I wrote two articles for the Final Cut Pro User's Group Supermeet at NAB. They appeared in the SuperMag magazine(which I named btw). Here's part two of the first article looking at an Apple network system that is being used at the Beijing Olympics this summer in China. For part one click here.
Simplemente chose to work with Gallery Software, a UK-based company that has been making QuickTime-compatible applications for over a decade. For the Beijing project, Simplemente selected Gallery’s SIENNA, a complete integration suite for connecting Final Cut Pro workstations to the traditional newsroom broadcast workflow. SIENNA was developed in response to the huge demand for Final Cut Pro integration from the world's leading news broadcasters. It brings compatibility to existing newsroom equipment for workflows based around native QuickTime and enables single media shared storage with Apple's Xsan.
“We’ve already started testing and training the complete solution with the operators from Televisa,” notes Reina. “Most of the editors came over from Pinnacle Vortex and they’re adjusting well. They like Final Cut Studio a lot. One of the greatest things is that you can be ingesting all those live streams and any of the workstations can access footage and start editing right away.”
“Now we have to put the complete solution together, test it and box it,” she continues. “Because it takes about two months to get a shipment of this size to China. It gets sent by boat along with all of the other cameras and support equipment that Televisa is sending. Then all of it has to go through the Chinese customs process. We’re also sending two people from Simplemente, Rune and one of our most brilliant young technicians, Saul Hernandez. This is in order to assure the best possible technical support for Televisa.”
Simplemente is still putting the final pieces of the puzzle together which includes the archiving system to backup all of those many hours of Olympics coverage. Hansen is looking into LTO-4 robotic tape libraries from Sun and Quantum to handle the load. Pausing from his work to consider the task ahead in China, Hansen observes, “more than just the complexity of this project, it's also extremely high profile. The risk obviously is very high. Thankfully we're seeing very high availability and performance from Final Cut and from SIENNA and we're also building in a lot of redundancy and backup workflows.”
“The most difficult part was getting all of the components that we required delivered on time together to test,” adds Reina. “Once we receive the gear, we know how to make it work. But there are always unknowns that you have to deal with and you never know until you have all of the equipment actually there and working together. She then adds with a smile, “ultimately we were able to solve every problem, at times like Jack Bauer on 24. The Simplemente motto is Adapt, Improvise and Overcome.”
Posted by: Noah Kadner on Apr 23, 2008 at 3:38:36 pm
I wrote two articles for the Final Cut Pro Supermeet at NAB this year. Here's part one of the first article looking at an Apple SAN network system that is being used at the Beijing Olympics this summer in China:
Last NAB, we visited Simplemente, a production/post-production house and Apple Authorized Training Center/Dealer based in Mexico City. They’ve been working hard alongside one of their biggest clients, Televisa, the world’s largest Latin American broadcaster. This year Simplemente embarked on its most ambitious project yet, a complete post-production solution for Televisa’s coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.
Televisa’s prior Olympic coverage consisted of lots of VTRs, tape-to-tape and non-linear editing stations and a lot of notebook paper. There was no one single system controlling everything. This year they were determined to modernize their methods. “We were approached to propose a system for the broadcast workflow,” says Rune Hansen, Simplemente’s Chief Technology Officer. “We would need to cover the entire workflow: from multi-channel ingest, low resolution browse/editing proxies, database with metadata, integration with Final Cut Pro for editorial, live playout to air and eventually integration with a tape library backup system.”
“Everything started with a call from Max Arteaga, Televisa’s VP of operations and Elias Rodriguez, director of technical operations,” says Simplemente’s CEO (and Final Cut Pro Tequila Supermeet donor) Monica Reina. “They asked us if Apple had something ready for sports coverage. They were very happy with the Xsan we delivered and they wanted to explore more solutions with us. So we started doing some research and got a lot of help from Apple’s Adam Green. It’s been challenging because Televisa wanted the first stage of the project to be ready by mid-January. We only had from the end of November to make it happen. It was pretty tricky to put all that together, especially right at the end of the year.”
The technical stats Simplemente had to contend with proved especially daunting. The solution needed to handle 22 simultaneous ingest channels of live footage and nearly 50 Final Cut Pro editing workstations, mixed between offline-quality proxy editing and online. The system would be required to ingest 12 hours each day across the 22 channels of incoming footage. The daily total would be more than 250 hours of footage multiplied by the 20 days of Olympics coverage.
“And that's only the amount of work ingested live,” notes Hansen. “There are also the productions in-house, like reports about the athletes, behind the scenes, etc. On the editing side, we’re using Final Cut Pro. But once the material leaves Final Cut, we have to deliver the finished packages to the studios and directly into the rundowns so the stories can go on air immediately. This needs to happen even while the event is still in progress and the footage is still being ingested. We're lucky enough that FCP works with QuickTime, which is pretty much the only true cross-platform media format that exists. So we can use a lot of other systems and everybody can read/write each other’s files.” Part two coming soon!
Posted by: Noah Kadner on Apr 22, 2008 at 12:00:43 pm
Here's something interesting. An app that gives you native MXF in all QuickTime applications including FCP. Calibrated Software's unique solution successfully joins the separate video and audio P2 MXF files so that Final Cut Pro sees them all as ONE file - complete with TimeCode and Reel Name. PullDown can also be removed or added for select frame rates. And you're not just limited to Final Cut Pro, you can also natively import files in Compressor, Motion and Sound Track Pro.
Not only that but they have also unveiled a DVCPROHD decoder for Windows. This is something our friends across the aisle have been requesting for a long time. Calibrated{Q} DVCProHD Decode is a multi-threaded DVCProHD QuickTime Codec(Decode Only) that enables you to view QuickTime DVCProHD Movies in QuickTime Player and other 3rd party applications that support QuickTime. Check out both at Calibrated:
If you're having any problems with Sony XDCAM EX footage the latest version of the XDCAM transfer software might be a big help. It has some new error correction built in that can recover corrupted material.
The PDZ-KP1 XDCAM Transfer Software is an import plug in for Final Cut Pro. XDCAM Transfer Version 2.5 supports the current XDCAM HD and SD optical products, the new PDW-U1 optical XDCAM drive, and the PMW-EX1 XDCAM EX camcorder which records on SxS flash cards.
Check it out:
https://serviceplus.us.sony.biz/sony-software.aspx?model=pdzkp1
I wrote two articles for the Final Cut Pro User's Group Supermeet at NAB. They appeared in the SuperMag magazine(which I named btw). Here's part two of the first article looking at an Apple network system that is being used at the Beijing Olympics this summer in China. 
I wrote two articles for the Final Cut Pro Supermeet at NAB this year. Here's part one of the first article looking at an Apple SAN network system that is being used at the Beijing Olympics this summer in China:
Last NAB, we visited Simplemente, a production/post-production house and Apple Authorized Training Center/Dealer based in Mexico City. They’ve been working hard alongside one of their biggest clients, Televisa, the world’s largest Latin American broadcaster. This year Simplemente embarked on its most ambitious project yet, a complete post-production solution for Televisa’s coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.
Televisa’s prior Olympic coverage consisted of lots of VTRs, tape-to-tape and non-linear editing stations and a lot of notebook paper. There was no one single system controlling everything. This year they were determined to modernize their methods. “We were approached to propose a system for the broadcast workflow,” says Rune Hansen, Simplemente’s Chief Technology Officer. “We would need to cover the entire workflow: from multi-channel ingest, low resolution browse/editing proxies, database with metadata, integration with Final Cut Pro for editorial, live playout to air and eventually integration with a tape library backup system.”
“Everything started with a call from Max Arteaga, Televisa’s VP of operations and Elias Rodriguez, director of technical operations,” says Simplemente’s CEO (and Final Cut Pro Tequila Supermeet donor) Monica Reina. “They asked us if Apple had something ready for sports coverage. They were very happy with the Xsan we delivered and they wanted to explore more solutions with us. So we started doing some research and got a lot of help from Apple’s Adam Green. It’s been challenging because Televisa wanted the first stage of the project to be ready by mid-January. We only had from the end of November to make it happen. It was pretty tricky to put all that together, especially right at the end of the year.”
The technical stats Simplemente had to contend with proved especially daunting. The solution needed to handle 22 simultaneous ingest channels of live footage and nearly 50 Final Cut Pro editing workstations, mixed between offline-quality proxy editing and online. The system would be required to ingest 12 hours each day across the 22 channels of incoming footage. The daily total would be more than 250 hours of footage multiplied by the 20 days of Olympics coverage.
“And that's only the amount of work ingested live,” notes Hansen. “There are also the productions in-house, like reports about the athletes, behind the scenes, etc. On the editing side, we’re using Final Cut Pro. But once the material leaves Final Cut, we have to deliver the finished packages to the studios and directly into the rundowns so the stories can go on air immediately. This needs to happen even while the event is still in progress and the footage is still being ingested. We're lucky enough that FCP works with QuickTime, which is pretty much the only true cross-platform media format that exists. So we can use a lot of other systems and everybody can read/write each other’s files.” Part two coming soon!
