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Apple:
SInce NAB 2011 the NLE market has been aflutter. Apple announced release of FCPX was heralded until the new version of the App hit the street and Apple, in my humble opinion, placed that product on the market about a year too early for the majority of users to understand or handle. < http://macw.us/A3zc7i >
Since than Apple has released 4 updates that end up covering a larger number of my complaints including the announcement for FCPX 10.04 that very quietly removed the "Beta" tag on output of true Broadcast Quality Monitoring. Aja, BMD and Matrox released final " broadcast" drivers within hours of the pre-NAB announcement.
Apple has responded to critics. The advancements in the app in less than a year have been impressive for a company that was immediately seen as not caring about it's NLE business. I understand that large numbers of people do not get FCPX, I can assure you the "kids" creeping up behind your business will use it, it has more metadata understanding,power and power under the hood than any mainstream NLE app I know of, hell the only other apps with this much power on the Pro side are customized application toolkits like NextLAB from Fotokem < http://bit.ly/ISciRP > or ColorFront < http://bit.ly/InsPgH > dallies tool sets.
Avid:
OK, Avid had a chance to really take back the market they had lost to Apple, but somehow they have managed to let that chance evaporate into thin air. Last year they had bought ProRes as codec into their infrastructure ( and a thank you goes to Arri for forcing the issue because of Alexa's rapid acceptance). Avid pretty much owns the commercial and episodic editing space, mainly due to a multi-user editing environment, efficient and effective media handling and an integrated shared network infrastructure that frankly could have taken back a good deal of their lost market share had they not squandered the chance, I saw very few installed versions of MC6,even at Avid's own booth this year, most of their display machine were touting Symphony as the new tool to have, now with a sub $1000 USD price point.
Avid rules in a couple of the spaces I work in, without question the vast majority ( over 80%) of the OnSet work I do goes for edit on Avid systems, whether that be on a Commercial Shoot or working on features and episodics. The have had infrastructure figured out for a while and that will keep them at the level they are at currently working. However since their tools are not targeted at entry level editing I see fewer and fewer students or small independent production companies going forward with Media Composer like they did with FCP.
Autodesk:
While the Smoke on the Mac 2013 < http://autode.sk/Ksrcgm > announcement was a bit of a surprise to many, it has been in the works for sometime, Autodesk is one of the few companies that can truly give Avid a run in the Multi-user editing environment, having already been one of the leaders of shared toolsets driven by their animation division's Maya, AutoCad and 3DStudioMax toolset.
Let's be honest here, Smoke has not been an app that was intuitive or friendly to the user. Other than a few coding geeks, most editors have no idea what a "Gateway" was, not that it was little more than a IP based entry point or location identified on your network. Smoke 2013 throws all of that server level UI controls back under the hood, thankfully. I have been a advocate for both Smoke 2011 and 2012, but the level of use that Autodesk has incorporated into Smoke 2013 is just phenomenal. You will now be able to Drag and Drop files from the desktop into a project, edit and finish in one timeline, much like Avid is messaging with Symphony.
The interesting sidebar here is that one of Apple's largest advocates for FCPX, @RadicalMedia's Evan Schechtman was the main presenter at Autodesk's Smoke 2013 announcement, touting the possibilities with XML interconnection between the 2 apps. Maybe there is far more going on here than any of us are thinking about. Maybe there will be something more between these 2 companies in the future.
Adobe:
This NAB, Adobe was hands down kicking ass all over the show floor, < http://adobe.ly/JPVvlq > with the CS6 Suite announced just before the show opened, Adobe revealed a radically new version of Premier Pro with a fully customizable interface, vastly improved AfterEffects and increased Photoshop's video editing functionality dramatically. So Premier Pro has moved into the position that FCP had about v5, groundbreaking, yet functionally designed for smaller facilities and indie filmmakers that are the vast majority of NLE users.
Premiers functionality update is nothing short of spectacular, with RAW file integration driven by the acquisition of DI industry leader Iridas, has brought nothing short of a miracle to PPro's ability to handle and playback the myriad of camera native formats. Look there is no other editor I know of that you can drop native R3D or ArriRaw files into a timeline and get anything truly close to realtime playback. Add to that the underpinnings that Speedgrade brings into the Adobe Toolset, I cannot wait to see what is next up, because right now Adobe has peaked everyone's interest by offering the community a fully functional NLE that is delivering and usable today. No waiting and minimal re-education necessary.
You can get a lot more info on Premier Pro's new features from my good friend Rich Harrington at his blog http://www.richardharringtonblog.com/files/category-adobe.php
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| | | | This has been one crazy show, I have counted more that 500 products that I have found interesting, inbetween working at the Aja booth and running / speaking at the Director of Photography Conference at Post Production World. I understand that some of my comments have been short but I will be filing a full report on technology and trends later this week. Unfortunately running on 4 hours of sleep a night do wear on your ability to communicate in a coherent fashion.
Cool things this time.
Promise Technologies has a 100M Optical Thunderbolt cable on display in their Booth,
Charlie Kendall of SPYDER Support Systems is showing a $400 mounting plate to allow you do shoot Green Screen footage at the highest possible rez by setting your camera on it's side! It works with ENG style camera all the way down to prosummer versions, any type baseplate, any mounting screw position.
3aility Technica is showing some great stuff this year, but I loved the cheeseplate "armor" for using an F3 in the TS rigs.
Not to be outdone Cameron Pace Group is also outside between buildings showing next gen versions of their "Shadow" rig technology but the Smart Slate they are showing is by far the most advanced that I have seen, as alll of this metadata is being caputured along with the images.
Lastly, because food is a big deal in Vegas (and for me) this was what we started dinner with last night - Iberico ham from Spain at Jaleo
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| | | | Wow
I hope people are following things here, there is way too much info to pass off in the few minutes I have to write.
Canon showed the C-500 and new EOS 1D c, with new PL and EF mount Zooms and Primes - I will have a seperate review of the C500 after the show.
Arri Announced that they are now writing Alexa files as 2K ProRes files incamera- 4:3 Sensor upgrades, new SDK and a bunch of accessories.
AJA- I am at the Aja booth so stop by, KiPro Quad- full 4K ProRes recorder with Thunderbolt pass thru, DNXHD to come later, ability to record and process 4K RAW formats. Shipping when the C-500 does. $3995USD.
KiPro Rack what everyone has been waiting for- 1 RU rack KiPro with Dual Drive Modules, redundant power supplies
Aja's T-Tap Thunderbolt I/O Ok, at $249 Aja has bought Thunderbolt monitoring to the masses. At 1/2 the size of the Aja's current converter line the TTap attached via TB and offers both HDMI ( 1.4a) and HDSDI monitoring in a buss powered connector
Fujinon announced the companion to the Cabio 19-90 PL Zoom, with a range of 83-300 PL Mount with Zoom controls for under $40K USD
The RED announcements include a 4K projector, 6K sensor upgrades and an I/O adaptor and much more.
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| | | | Well Gee.
So yesterday added even more surprises.
Adobe announces CS6 Suite with huge updates to Premier Pro and AE, adds New Apps in Prelude and Speedgrade http://bit.ly/HDejo0 I have to say after test driving the suite, I too am very impressed with what Adobe is doing. But the kicker to me is not the advanced integration or the ease of use or the ability to modify the user interface in PPro.
But in Speedgrade, When the purchace of Iridas was announced last September, this was what I had hoped for, and what I got is even better. See Irirdas' Speedgrade was always well thought of, but not widely used. The 3D alignment and the color correction capabilites were beyond reproach on for highend users, but the purchase of Iridas added something extra to the mix.
It brought RAW power, see while Adobe was working on RAW implementations, Iridas already had some of the best camera raw functionality around, and now all of that power, is nestled right underneath the CS6 Suite, there below your timeline, its truely Native support for raw camera formats, not just RED's R3D, but how about working in native ARRIRAW ( with presets included) from Alexa directly in PPro, and oh yeah, the app that made use of all of that power is now also part of the CS6 Suite of Tools. Speedgrade is here, maybe not for everyone, but certainly for this user, I am glad it is back.
The other big annoucenment of the day yesterday
Canon Announces the EOS C500
"The Cinema EOS C500/C500 PL digital cinematography cameras will not only support 4K-resolution video but also outputs this as a 10-bit uncompressed RAW data stream with no de-Bayering. The cameras offer the additional versatility of being able to output quad full-HD (3840 x 2160), 2K (2048 x 1080), full HD (1920 x 1080), and other imaging options"
http://bit.ly/ILeM57
So Adobe drops a bomb and Canon offers the nex Gen of the "C" class camera systems, that's not a bad start to the weekend is it.
I am offline until Sunday - See you in the desert
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| | | | This close to the show and things are still happening.
Apple released the 10.0.4 update for FCPX yesterday and I believe Matrox, BMD and Aja have all now released updated drivers also, Please make sure to update both the software and the hardware drivers at the same time, word is that there are a number of fixes that resolve many of the hardware related issues.
Avid has really been hyping Avid Motion Graphics and it will be a big part of the Avid Booth this NAB http://youtu.be/HBGCnqQ66bU,
Autodesk has also been pounding the street about the "big" changes that are happening with Autodesk regarding Smoke at this NAB, while time will tell, we only have a few more days to wait.
And while NAB is always about the hardware and software tools, let it be known that some people are actually working torwards making life better in Vegas. Gizmodo is reporting that a zip line is being planned to connect some of the casino's. I am hoping for one from the Marriott to the middle of the LVCC South Hall http://gizmodo.com/las-vegas/
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So Apple has released the FCPX 10.04 update in the App Store.
Fixes a bunch of issues with TB devices, Monitoring and a couple of real issues with Multicam Sync.
available from the App Store.
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| | | | Well, don't let the proximity to NAB keep you from the latest info.
It seems that my friends at Fujinon have finally taken the wraps off their latest endeavor with the release of the ZK4.7x19 19-90mm T2.9 Cabrio Compact Cinema Zoom. This PL mount with a 19-90 zoom range brings ENG style handling to PL mount cameras, with full coverage of the S35 sensor size, this lens will cover everthing up to and including Epic in 5K, Alexa in 4:3 anamorphic and even the Phantom Flex Sensor up to 2560 px and it include the motor and the ability to pass LDS/iData Lens Metadata to the camera system.
This is the First PL mount ENG style lens meant for everyone, shipping in July at an estimated $38K USD this will be a hot seller for those people in sports, eng and doc style camera setups to give shooters a wider range of control and zoom in a single affordable package.
Mitch Gross at AbelCine has one of the first looks http://blog.abelcine.com/2012/04/09/fujinons-new-19-90-t2-9-cabrio-35pl-zoo... | | | | |
| | | | So
Have you made your Plans to attend?
I firmly believe that this will be one of those NAB's where there are so many announcements that it will be hard to keep up, especially since we have already seen a huge number of preshow announcements like those from Nikon's D800, Canon's C-300 and new highspeed and large sensor cameras from both Sony FS700 and Vision Research's Miro M320s.
Lighting will also be going through some big changes too, LED tools are farther ahead of anything else in lighting right now and I expect to see at least one new LED lighting company at the show and at least 2-3 big LED product announcements.
I also expect to see some big 3D announcements too, the mainstream users are forcing that 3D become more user friendly, both from the camera side and from the Post side, where 3D still has monunental issues with the variety of codecs and compression schemes that people are using.
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| | | | Ok,
I am going to start off with the good stuff.
Adobe has released "sneak peak video" at the CS6 announcement that is obviously eminent on.fb.me/I29HF1 I am supprised that you have to log into facebook to see them, but information is where you find it now adays.
Post Mag is saying that Sonnett will be showing the "Rogue" DIT station bit.ly/HhdhKc
I quote the PR release
"The Rogue integrates Sonnet's Echo Express Pro Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis for PCIe Cards with a Red Rocket transcoding and playout card (or popular video I/O cards). These devices are connected to an enclosed 13-inch MacBook Pro platform, with full RAID storage provided by Sonnet's rugged and vibration-isolated Fusion F3 storage system. Also included is Sonnet's Echo ExpressCard Thunderbolt adapter to ingest files from SxS cards and readers for CompactFlash cards and Redmag 1.8-inch SSD "
Add to all of this that Google has showing the first concepts of their "augemented reality" glasses, http://reut.rs/I6HKJz , and me thinks that it will not be long before that product shows up on something like "keeping up with the kardashians", but hopefully it will make it to "big bang theory" first
its going to be a very interesting NAB Show This year.
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| | | | Ok,
So many new toys out already and it is still more than a week away from the Big Show.
Sony announced on April 1st that they were releasing the next gen NEX-FS700, with up to 120 fps for Highspeed / slomo acquisition at 1080p and a 4K size sensor with 3G HDSDI (so 444 or Dual Link workflows). http://engt.co/HH4FNp
Band Pro annouces a new EVF for Sony Cameras http://bit.ly/HbtvYA and a commitment to supporting Alexa, RED and other camera models in the future. For many of you, having the luxury of replacing your EVF is not an option, but to some of us, the ability to have higher rez or better refresh rates outweigh the cost and added weight.
Thunderbolt tools are arriving ElGato is now shipping a TB bus powered SSD module in 120 and 240G models. These are the first of the TB generation that support TB power and do not require an external power supply. http://bit.ly/H6auTM and now that Tektronics http://mwne.ws/H6aPWr has started shipping TB occilscopes and test gear, there should be many more TB solutions to come
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gary adcock
Join industry geek Gary Adcock as he explores the world and technology as it relates to Film and Video production. I am also a Glass artist, so I spend my free time creating art from silica and fire when I am not cooking.
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