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From NABlog 2007

From The Briefing Room: 2007 NAB Newslink

Springtime for the broadcast and professional video worlds means only one thing: Another trip to Las Vegas to check out the manufacturers' latest technological (and marketing) marvels. From April 14 to 19, more than 100,000 attendees and exhibitors will gather at the sprawling Las Vegas Convention Center to take the industry's pulse, make connections, and maybe head home with their latest great idea.

In the following pages, our team of writers sketches the industry's significant trends as we head into NAB 2007, and along the way we preview the new gear that you won't want to miss. That means cameras, graphics software, NLEs, encoding suites, storage, and everything that slips somewhere in between those categories. What follows, of course, is what we know so far. As this issue went to press, we were still hearing new product news every day — and that will continue up to April 16, when the show floor opens. For that reason, you'll also want to stay current with our website's 2007 NAB Newslink, part of our ongoing Briefing Room, updated daily. Click here to visit.

The Panasonic AG-HPX500 is a shoulder-mounted P2 camcorder with four card slots.

By D.W. Leitner

There's the Gregorian solar calendar, the Chinese, Hebrew, and Islamic lunar calendars; then there's the NAB calendar, a product of a different orbit altogether. Yep, it's that time again. Time to ask what new cameras April has in store for us.

First, let's recap what NAB's last calendar year has wrought. I don't mean 1/2in. 3CCD Sony XDCAM HD camcorders — which actually materialized, in contrast to those that haven't yet (more below). I mean broad signs of where our world is heading.

For me, two harbingers stood out most: the “film look” of Mel Gibson's Apocalypto, shot with Panavision's Genesis digital camera system, and Fox News Channel's use in October of live on-air video shot with Palm Treo 700w smartphones, broadcast during breaking stories about the Amish school shooting and New York plane crash of Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle.

Neither Genesis nor Treo is a video camera per se — and I can't imagine any two greater extremes in camera technology — yet these served to bracket the breadth of innovation roiling our field. Put another way, consumer-prosumer-broadcast distinctions are deader than ever. Costly or Costco, bits will flow and buckets will fill up. The only remaining question seems to be: What combo of lens, sensor, DSP, and compression?

The beautiful thing is, this can be a bean-counting exercise (What HD camcorder can our station afford?), or, increasingly, an artistic choice (What look do we want for our indie feature?). Or it can be both. You have only to attend a bellwether event such as January's Sundance Film Festival to appreciate the full spectrum of technology in play these days — road-tested on tight budgets, I might add.

I mention Sundance because camera manufacturers recognize that risk-taking indie filmmakers have become the true early adopters. Manufacturers en route to NAB now make a small side trip to Park City, Utah, to preview their very latest gear in the laid-back, festive atmosphere of Sundance. One afternoon during Sundance 2006, for instance, I played to my heart's content with an Arriflex D-20 and set of Carl Zeiss Ultra Primes — no NAB crush to share them with! — and then on another day with a Sony XDCAM HD with B4-mount adapter and new Canon HD primes.

At this year's Sundance, I played with the new Arriflex 416 Super 16 camera; Panavision's incredible new Hylén effects device, which mounts behind the lens of a Genesis and enables something akin to aerial image photography in realtime; and JVC's new 720/24p GY-HD200 with HZ-CA13U PL-mount adapter. JVC National Marketing Manager Craig Yanagi had mounted a 16mm T 1.3 Carl Zeiss Super Speed (vintage, but a great 16mm film lens) to the PL-mount adapter, and further tricked out the HD200 with a lightweight rod system, dual handgrips, and geared focus knob. My skepticism at building out an HDV camcorder to resemble a cinema camera melted away as I walked around “filming” with it. The balance was perfect, and the Super Speed looked fabulous despite JVC's relay optics. (Again, these items are headed to NAB, and I got a running jump on them.)

Think I'm over-emphasizing the groundbreaking role that indies play? Did you happen to enjoy those two charming “no-budget” 30-second Doritos spots that aired during the Super Bowl? The ones shot with a JVC GY-HD100 and a Panasonic AG-HVX200? The first one cost five bags of Doritos plus one HDV tape, the second recycled a pair of 8GB P2 cards. (No consumables.) Young indies, folks.

If conventional notions surrounding cameras and costs have frayed somewhat since NAB 2006, the next 12 months starting April will cause further raveling. Take, for instance, the HD200 that Yanagi previewed at Sundance. JVC's new 200-series 720p24 camcorders look identical to their predecessors, the GY-HD100 and GY-HD110, yet under the hood they've been hot-rodded. JVC has given them a wider-band analog front end (before A/D), new 14-bit DSP (upgraded from 12-bit), and a more efficient MPEG-2 encoder.

Sony will debut the HDC-1400, a dual-format studio camera.

Both the “economy model” HD200 ($8,000 sans lens) and the GY-HD250 with added HD-SDI and genlock ($10,000 sans lens) can now output 50p and 60p to disk via FireWire, written as either HDV-native M2T files or (by NAB) as QuickTime MOV files. With 24p as basic frame rate, they enable 60p overcranking for slo-mo — a capability until recently limited mostly to Varicams and HVX200s. What's more, an HD250 with HD-SDI can now output uncompressed 50p or 60p. For indie filmmakers, there's even a new gamma for film-out to 35mm.

As it happened, last year at JVC's booth, the HD200, HD250, and PL-mount adapter were displayed as prototypes, which fits a mounting trend at NAB: public showcasing of mock-ups that won't materialize as production cameras for a year or more. (Balsacam, anyone?) A glaring example is Grass Valley's tapeless Infinity camcorder, announced fall 2005 at IBC. A handful of working units appeared at NAB 2006 — Then, nothing. What happened? Concerns over size and power consumption were partly to blame.

However, there's a happy outcome: Delays opened the door to the inclusion of a new 2/3in., 2.4-megapixel (full 1920×1080) 3-CMOS sensor block, which Grass Valley says contributes wider dynamic range, lower power consumption, and a better signal-to-noise ratio. A working preproduction version of the new Infinity will be at NAB (still tagged at $26K), along with an intriguing Rev Pro removable hard disk module that can attach to the rear of other manufacturers' camcorders.

Likewise, for several years, Panasonic has touted a complete — yet somewhat vaporous — line of high-definition P2 camcorders. This year, it finally started delivering the goods. In November, the company announced its first shoulder-mounted HD P2 camcorder, the AJ-HPX2000 ($27,000), a 2/3in. 3CCD (1280×720, progressive) DVCPRO HD camcorder with five P2 card slots. At NAB, Panasonic will unveil a second shoulder-mounted P2 camcorder, the AG-HPX500 (four slots), meant as a low-cost ($14,000) full-size complement to the compact HVX200.

The HPX500 adds HD-SDI, genlock, and 50i/25p frame rates to a feature set that otherwise matches that of the HVX200. The 2/3in. CCDs in the HPX500 are a version of the progressive 520,000-pixel CCDs found in the standard-def SDX900. (Spatial offset is used to achieve HD resolution.) In selected Fujinon and Canon zooms, Chromatic Aberration Compensation automatically counteracts any color fringing.

P2 partisans can look forward to two big leaps at NAB: the availability in May of 16GB P2 cards (double the capacity of current 8GB cards) and the advent of Panasonic's new AVC-I intraframe MPEG-4 compression, which will double P2 capacity yet again. Note that AVC-I will first be available in the HPX2000 via an optional board. Also, P2 camcorders sold before May may require a driver update (via SD card) to use 16GB cards. (If I knew the projected price of the 16GB card, or the AVC-I board for that matter, I'd tell you.).

At NAB, Sony will showcase the Handycam-style 3-CMOS HVR-V1U, which captures 24p (as 1080i) to MiniDV and/or an attachable HVR-DR60 hard disk recorder, and the breakthrough 3CCD F23, a new CineAlta flagship that looks more Panaflex than HDCAM. The F23 can capture 1920×1080 4:4:4 RGB to a portable SRW-1 HDCAM SR recorder attached behind or on top of the camera like a 35mm film magazine.

On the XDCAM front, Sony will demonstrate a working prototype of a 2/3in. XDCAM HD camcorder that will eventually join its existing line of 1/2in. 3CCD XDCAM HD camcorders (which are fast gaining ENG street cred as worthy heirs to Betacam). Don't miss Sony's new color viewfinder, HDVF-C35W, containing a largish 3.5in. LCD screen. It fits 2/3in. CineAlta and HDCAMs but not, sadly, current 1/2in. XDCAM HD units (you're stuck with awful B&W standard-def viewfinders.)

Versatility is the catchword this year for 2/3in. 3CCD studio cameras. Hitachi will debut five new SK- and DK-series studio and field cameras with a choice of 1080i or 720p sensors. The 1080i sensor models can output 1080 lines at 24p, 25p, and 30p using a new cross-converter. Sony, too, is introducing a dual-format HD studio camera, the HDC-1400. In Panasonic's new AK-HC3500, native 1080i CCDs are spatially offset to achieve 1100 horizontal lines with less aliasing. Notable are a 38-bit DSP and gamma correction that varies in realtime to match image contrast.

What about the littlest HD cameras? I don't mean mobile phones (at least not this year), but rather the flood of tiny consumer HDV and AVCHD camcorders from Sony, Canon, Panasonic, JVC, and even Hitachi, which will be felt (if not seen) at NAB.

At NAB, Maxell is showing Professional Disc optical media for Sony XDCAM HD systems. Maxell says the discs employ a high-precision polycarbonate plastic cartridge designed to protect against dust, scratches, and fingerprints. At 23.3GB per disc, Maxell''s new re-writable Professional Disc media provides up to 122 minutes of record/playback time in the HD format (MPEG HD LP mode), more than 65 minutes in the HD format (MPEG HD HQ mode), approximately 45 minutes at 50Mbps in the SD format (MPEG IMX), and up to 85 minutes in the SD format (DVCAM). The disc''s transfer rate is 72Mbps with one optical head and 144Mbps with two optical heads.

At January's CES, Sony introduced four single-chip, 1080i Palmcorders that use the same ClearVid CMOS technology and uncompressed mini-HDMI output as the professional V1. Two of them encode AVCHD (MPEG-4 H.264) to 3in. DVDs, and the other two record HDV to MiniDV. Of the latter, the HDR-HC7 ($1,400) has generated interest among pros. It's cheaper than a $3,100 Sony HVR-A1U, so which crash cam would you sacrifice first? All four incorporate the new international xvYCC color standard with an extended gamut 1.8X the size of sRGB color space. (Where does that leave Rec. 709?)

Panasonic, on the ball, has professionalized its tiny 1080i AVCHD camcorder already. At NAB, Panasonic will introduce “the world's smallest professional 3CCD high-definition camcorder,” the 1.1lb. AG-HSC1U. The size and shape of a can of Red Bull, it has no moving parts. A high-speed 4GB SD card captures 41 minutes of AVCHD (high-quality mode), and in the field, an auxiliary 40GB hard drive SD card reader stores up to 10 4GB SD cards at once. Camcorder and card reader are bundled at $2,100. There's also an uncompressed HDMI output.

Joining Canon's latest 3CCD XH G1 and XH A1 Handycam-sized HDV camcorders — both superb, by the way — is the HV20 ($1,100), a single-CMOS HDV Palmcorder that will arrive just in time for NAB. The Canon-manufactured progressive CMOS sensor is full-res, 1920×1080, and it captures genuine 24p. (Remember that what's recorded as HDV is 1440×1080 interlaced. What the HDMI port outputs is anyone's guess.)

JVC's 3CCD Everio GZ-HD7 goes a step further. Employing variable-bit-rate MPEG-2 (up to 30Mbps), the GZ-HD7 incorporates a 1.8in. 60GB hard disk to capture up to five hours of true interlaced 1920×1080 (not 1440×1080). JVC has already indicated future support of 60p. Lastly there's Hitachi, readying a consumer Blu-ray camcorder.

At the loftier altitudes of digital cinema, it's no secret that Dalsa has been designing a compact version of its 4K Origin, the 500lb. gorilla of digital cinematography. And if scrappy upstart Red Digital Cinema comes through as promised on its delivery of low-cost 4K cameras, massive side bets will be won and lost. But it's a sure thing that no booth at NAB will be more stampeded.

Meanwhile, Silicon Imaging will demonstrate its latest SI-2K Digital Cinema camera (single 2/3in. Altasens CMOS, 1920×1080) along with its cigarette pack-sized SI-2K Mini head. (The Mini's PL mount is nearly as big as the Mini itself.) They and CineForm will share a booth to promote Silicon Imaging's bundling of CineForm's Prospect 2K software for realtime editing of compressed RAW files.

Also sharing a booth will be Abel Cine Tech and Vision Research, having announced their strategic partnership in February. Abel will provide sales, rental, and tech support for Vision's single-CMOS, high-speed Phantom HD camera (1,000fps) and Phantom 65, a unique 4K camera that achieves 120fps using a CMOS sensor the size of a 65mm motion picture film frame.

Speaking of film, if you think it's dead, Arri's sleek new Arriflex 416 Super 16 camera will have you scratching your head at what they know that you don't. (The first run of 416s is already sold out — go figure.) And die-hard fans (like me) of 2-perf Techniscope (Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns) will rejoice at the graceful stage entrance made by Aaton's much-anticipated 2-perf 35mm Penelope — if she shows.

As you can see, it's not just Sundance early adopters and those thrilled by the reckless pace of change in camera technology. The calendar year that begins with NAB 2007 threatens to fling us all into a new orbit.

By Jan Ozer

What should you expect to see in the realm of nonlinear editors at NAB? As you probably know, Apple and Avid hold their announcements for the actual show, while the normally loquacious Adobe chose to stay mum as well (though it will divulge some fun announcements on March 27).

Let's start the NLE story with a quick recap of trends leading into the show. One of the biggest trends will be HD editing workflow and high-def DVD production at any level below Hollywood film, which has been sewn up by Sonic Solutions for some time. Sonic was also first in the Blu-ray authoring market with its most recent update to DVDit.

One compelling question is whether there will be an HD DVD workflow at all, because there are no HD DVD recorders and only one brand of player. Only two authoring products support HD DVD — Avid Pinnacle Studio and Apple DVD Studio Pro — and at this point, both record only to legacy DVD-R drives. Without the quick introduction of recorders and more player options, HD DVD could be dead on arrival before announcement — at least in our little sandbox. And believe me, in comparison to the consumer market the HD DVD consortium is chasing, the corporate/event market is a sandbox.

In contrast, there are at least three Blu-ray recorders and multiple players, which makes it the recordable format to beat in 2007. Companies with their own authoring solution (Apple, Adobe, and Sony) will need a Blu-ray story at NAB 2007, while others will likely partner up — such as Avid did with Sonic Solutions.

Another trend is the sudden appearance of processors with multiple cores in 2006, and of course, multiple-processor workstations. Most Windows vendors such as HP, Dell, and even Gateway now offer quad-core workstations. However, Apple, the price leader in dual-core systems, hasn't announced a quad-core system yet. (Its Mac Pro is marketed as quad core, but is actually a dual-processor system with dual cores in each.) I'd be very surprised if we didn't see one at the show.

Of course, the truth is that most NLEs just don't run all that efficiently on multi-processor systems. The legacy software was designed before multiple-processor systems were prevalent. No doubt all vendors at NAB will be running on the latest multiple-processor hardware; it will be interesting to see if any vendors announce software upgrades that actually take advantage of it.

Now that Windows Vista is finally shipping, it will be interesting to see how vendors respond. Adobe, for example, has already released patches for its consumer programs, Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements, but states on its website that “Adobe is already preparing to release the next versions of its professional creative products, including Photoshop, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Flash, and After Effects, in the spring and summer 2007 and does not plan to issue updates to current versions of those products for Windows Vista compatibility.”

I don't mean to pick on Adobe; it's just that many companies, including Avid, haven't announced their plans yet, so it's tough to be specific. Sure, you'll be able to buy computers with XP for the foreseeable future, but ultimately, Vista will win out, so the sooner an NLE vendor announces its support, the sooner the inevitable bugs will get worked out. So, if your vendor hasn't announced Vista compatibility by NAB, it's a fair question to ask at the show.

Here's what we know about the individual NLE vendors: As you may recall, Adobe announced a Macintosh version of Production Studio in early January. Audition was replaced by Soundbooth, which focuses primarily on video-related audio production, including noise removal and narration. In late 2006, Adobe purchased Serious Magic, a company that offered several video production tools. Most relevant are DV Rack (see digitalcontentproducer.com/fieldprod/revfeat/adobe_dv_rack for a review) — which provides several useful capture functions, including a waveform monitor and a digital disk recorder — and Ultra — a chromakey application that's far superior to the native tools of either Premiere Proor After Effects. Adobe hasn't announced a distribution strategy for any Serious Magic products yet, and their availability will certainly be one of my key questions at the show (unless, of course, we get an answer in the interim).

2007 is the year Apple ceases being a computer company, according to Steve Jobs' now famous Macworld keynote address, but you probably won't be able to tell by its usual Texas-sized booth at NAB. Besides the quad-core/Blu-ray questions posed up front, another dangling question is the status of the Mac OS X update 10.5 Leopard, which is scheduled for shipment in spring 2007, according to Apple's website.

At last November's DV Expo, Avid showed Media Composer running on Intel-based Macs and Studio Toolkit, which offers Blu-ray authoring via its version of Sonic's DVDit. Otherwise, we haven't a clue about what Avid will show at NAB.

Media 100 will demonstrate version 11.6 of the Media 100 product family (Media 100 HD suite, Media 100 HDe, Media 100 SDe, Media 100 Producer Suite, and Media 100 Producer) running on the Intel-based Macs. The company will also debut software-only versions of Producer and Producer Suite that are cross-compatible with hardware-based versions, so producers can edit using laptops in the field, then offload projects to hardware-based systems for final production.

Thomson Grass Valley announced Edius SP SDI, which combines the Edius Broadcast NLE version 4.0 with a PCI Express-based SD-SDI card, with a breakout box available for analog audio and component video I/O and RS-422 VTR control. Price for a turnkey package including an HP workstation is $12,999.

If you're looking for royalty-free music for your edited productions, it might be a good time to check out SmartSound Software, which recently announced that it would offer Quicktracks for Adobe Premiere software for free. This includes 10 customizable royalty-free music scores. SmartSound also temporarily reduced the price of all professional-quality (44.1kHz) music libraries to $49.95 — a 50-percent savings.

One intriguing NAB newcomer in that arena is Ireland's Abaltat, which will feature Muse — claimed as the world's first video-driven soundtrack composer that reportedly uses artificial intelligence and a combination of picture windows, timelines, and keyframes to compose music. Not really sure what all that means, but it sounds neat. Abaltat Band, which is also new, provides a suite of bands of various genres such as R&B or atmospheric. All music is dynamically generated and completely customizable. Another new product is Abaltat Beat, which analyzes an edit decision list to find best-fit beats per minute that you can program into Muse.

In the much-anticipated release of Adobe Photoshop CS3, you can expect features such as smart filters and a quick-selection tool.

By Franklin McMahon

They might seem like disparate topics, but webcasting software and graphics software are starting to develop points of intersection. After an explosive year for podcasting, this year a big trend will be broadcasting directly from the desktop — complete with greenscreen, titles, and graphics production. With the latest programs, all this can be recorded in realtime and output directly to the Web in various formats (such as Flash), as well as encoded for download as video podcasts.

Adobe is aware of this trend and recently acquired Serious Magic, as writer Jan Ozer mentioned previously. It will be interesting to see when and how Adobe branding reaches Serious Magic's products, and perhaps we'll see tie-ins with Adobe's video production suite. Details were not available at press time, but Serious Magic has a lot of tools that Adobe might plunder: the low-end VlogIt! (see digitalcontentproducer.com/workflow/serious_magic_vlog for a review), which quickly gets video onto your blog; the midrange Visual Communicator 2, which offers broadcast-like graphical themes and supers for DV and HDV production; and the professional Ultra 2 suite, which provides dazzling virtual sets and greenscreens.

In addition, Adobe's own Captivate has finally been updated to a version 2 — it also has various options to produce screencasts for the Web. (Screencasts are digital recordings of computer screen output.) Two pivotal features of Captivate are its support for text entry and the interactivity with the final presentations. It also outputs to various flavors of Flash.

Vara Software is a fast-growing company that produces two levels of web broadcast software. Videocue Pro provides a smooth teleprompter and graphics for web-video creation. The higher-end Wirecast 3 can incorporate multiple camera mixes, GPU-accelerated chromakey, H.264 export, and realtime mixing of graphics, bumps, and movies. Many podcasters have been using Vara's software to produce full-blown web shows in current video formats.

Several companies are creating advanced solutions that use graphics technology to optimize video that's intended for web delivery. CloseVU introduces the aptly named CloseVU Producer, software designed to compress fast-action video, such as sporting events, and bring them down to resolutions and frame rates appropriate for the Web, iPods, and other mobile devices while retaining the original sharpness and quality. The software includes intelligent zoom options so the producer can track and highlight the most important elements of SD and HD clips. The software crops around these elements in the resulting web/mobile/iPod video. It's sort of like directing a second time — with pans, zooms, and close-ups designed for the current generation of small screens.

The genre of graphics software stretches from compositing and painting to color work and touchups. Touching all of these areas is the news of the imminent (spring) release of Adobe Photoshop CS3. In December, Adobe took a bold step and offered the beta software as a free download. This savvy move has allowed much more comprehensive beta testing by getting new features into more users' hands and generating more in-depth feedback and discussion. The new features are quite tasty in this new version of Photoshop, and they include smart filters for non-destructive effects, improved tools to modify selections, a new quick-selection tool that instinctively snaps to the outline of what you are trying select, a more robust vanishing-point option with multiple planes, and a new and improved RAW import with additional control features.

A great complement to CS3 — and a great graphics tool you may have missed — is Adobe's Kuler. Kuler is a new online tool for choosing color schemes as well as for hue mixing and experimenting. Ever imagined a social network based around color? Adobe Labs has, and you can get into the mix at kuler.adobe.com.

The just-released Adobe Photoshop Lightroom will certainly make it easier for creators to manage and categorize large disks of images. Made for photos but built to handle just about any type of graphic file, the tool includes many options for adjusting and altering images, and it really excels when you have a large library of graphics that you need to rein in.

Professional motion video graphics production continues to be dominated by a handful of programs, most notably Autodesk Combustion 4 and Adobe After Effects 7. Combustion's interconnections with its sister products — such as 3ds Max, Discreet Flame, Fire, and Smoke — keep it scalable to the high end. Its paint tools have been overhauled with new b-spline paint options and new customized brushes. After Effects 7 has a completely redesigned interface that scales nicely to larger monitors. It will soon be scaling to a lot of Apple Cinema Displays, because Adobe recently announced that the new version of its video suite will be available on the Mac. After Effects 7 on the Mac will now be accompanied by Premiere, Soundbooth, and Encore DVD for a potent design powerhouse on Apple systems.

The prominent motion graphics plug-ins continue to get updates. GenArts' Sapphire plug-in set includes textures, lighting, and grain effects for image processing. The latest versions will be demonstrated at the show. Red Giant Software's new Magic Bullet Colorista (see p. 35 for a review) provides realtime image and color processing via GPU acceleration.

Boris FX has several surprises in store for NAB, including a new Boris Red 4.1 Mac Universal Binary plug-in for Apple Final Cut Pro. This features a newly redesigned interface and full support for the latest OpenGL cards available for the Apple Mac Pro models. Boris Blue 1.5 has also expanded support for more Nvidia cards, has new plug-in support for Avid AVX and OpenGL plug-ins, and now includes new and innovative deformers.

Artbeats lauches new collections of HD motion-graphic stock footage, with themes ranging from lightning storms and burning houses to time-lapse flowers and landscapes. Many of these new collections are also available in standard definition.

Wondertouch has announced new Pro Emitter libraries in time for NAB. The three new libraries work with the company's very popular particeIllusion 3.0, and include a total of 90 professional emitters. The new packages represent some of the most amazing and dynamic emitters the company has ever produced.

Noise Industries has a new program called FxFactory 1.5 for Apple Final Cut Studio, which provides visual effects that rely on the GPU acceleration of today's fast video cards on the Apple platform. There's support for PowerPC and Intel processors, as well as 16- and 32-bit floating-point processors. YUV is supported, and the company is also offering new FxPacks, which allow even more creative options: Graphic artists and other non-developers get a user-friendly graphical interface in which they can create additional effects for the FxFactory package, according to the company.

Imagineer Systems Motor is a visual effects program with high-end rotoscoping features. Producing mattes is now easier with Motor's planar tracking, point tracking, and extensive spline toolset. The program is compatible with many other programs in the same vein, such as After Effects and Apple Shake. The company claims the program makes rotoscopoing, graphics, visual effects, and compositing easier and quicker than ever.

Indeed, graphic tools across the board are getting easier to use and more powerful. It's always great to see traditional paint and imaging programs constantly raise the bar and include features that appeal to motion graphics artists, with power to match. But the real market to watch is the Web. Power tools for producing graphically sophisticated content for the Web will make desktop broadcast more attractive for both producers and viewers.

The networkable SuperLoader 3A autoloader accommodates up to 4.8TB of removable networked storage in a 2RU chassis.

By Dan Ochiva

Storage technology continues as one of the best bets for your postproduction dollar. The price of the underlying technology continues to drop while innovative software makes each piece of gear do more than ever before.

Canny product targeting also takes a turn. Archion Synergy HD, for instance, takes aim at Avid's storage offerings. “Synergy HD is certified with all versions of Unity from 3.x through 4.2.x, without requiring costly software and hardware replacements,” says Reuben Lima, Archion's COO. The product's hardware RAID protection eliminates the need for wasteful mirroring of storage for protection, Lima says.

Synergy HD employs a SATA II to Fibre Channel RAID storage unit designed for networked digital video systems, and it is currently certified for Avid Unity 3.0 to 4.2, Media Manager, Interplay, Adrenaline HD, Xpress Pro HD, Symphony Nitris, Meridien, Symphony, and Nitris DS. The rackmountable chassis holds up to 8TB, and includes two ports of 2Gbps FC.

With its ExpressSAS RAID adapters, Atto Technology takes Mac users to one of the latest storage standards — serial-attached SCSI or SAS. The adapter cards are claimed as the industry's first and only products with a low-profile form factor that fits standard-length PCI Express slots. This is handy when you're faced with the densely populated insides of Apple's Xserve system.

Atto also spots the ExpressSAS as the only low-profile line of adapters offering user-selectable port configuration options. This allows you to select the optimal mix of internal and external SAS connections on an as-needed basis.

Ciprico designed its scalable RAID storage MediaVault 4440 for desktop or portable digital media apps using four removable vPods (video pods), and it's a doozy. Each vPod is a considerable RAID storage unit by itself because it contains a 4Gbps Fibre Channel controller and 10 2.5in. SATA disk drives. Put those together and you get four channels and 40 drives, which allows you to deliver a combined data transfer rate of more than 1GBps, with a total capacity of up to 6.4TB. Each vPod is designed to function as a self-contained RAID unit, which can be used remotely when inserted into another 4440 enclosure. The benefit will be evident to users who need to be able to transport content securely, compactly, and easily while they're traveling for location shooting, remote editing, or postproduction.

Mobile editing is also on deck at EditShare, which makes some cost-effective cross-platform storage systems. EditShare Field offers Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, Avid, and Canopus project sharing from within a portable, rugged case. Features include 3TB RAID 5 storage; support for SD, DV, HDV, and DN×HD; a redundant OS drive; redundant laptop-style external power supplies; an internal battery UPS; and support for an unlimited number of users.

We've talked already about Sony's new HVR-DR60 dockable recorder and Thompson Grass Valley's Rev Pro on-camera storage solutions, but it's not just camera manufacturers playing that game. Fast Forward Video (FFV), for example, incorporates the Grass Valley Rev Pro digital media drive in one of its own new products. The XSX DVR is a dockable digital recording solution for existing analog cameras. The recorder mounts to the back of almost any analog camera and includes a built-in A/D conversion device so the analog signal can be recorded on to the Rev Pro hard drive-based media.

FFV's Omega deck digital video recorder now adds HD recording capability. The new Omega HD can record either SD or HD video with JPEG2000 compression at up to 300Mbps. The recorder allows users to simultaneously record, play, and store multiple SD and HD video files, and create video clips, loops, and playlists using the front panel for many applications, including graphics and key fill, spot insertion, and sports/instant replay. The new FFV Xi series debuts a multi-use digital video recorder in either single- or dual-channel models. It uses fixed or removable SATA hard drives, optional SDI, QuickTime support, full variable-speed playback control, and USB 2.0 ports.

Focus Enhancements FireStore FS-100 Direct To Edit (DTE) recorder, which directly connects to Panasonic P2 camcorders, has become a popular long-form recording solution. Now, the version 3.0 firmware upgrade adds native DVCPRO HD 720-line 24p, 25p, and 30p recording capabilities — more than doubling the FS-100 record time. In addition, version 3.0 adds native QuickTime DVCPRO 50 and DVCPRO HD recording capabilities, which allows for direct import of clips into Apple Final Cut Pro.

Quantum adds an autoloader to its tape-based MXF-aware pro video A series backup drives. The networkable SuperLoader 3A autoloader holds up to 16 tape cartridges, providing up to 4.8TB of removable networked storage in a 2RU chassis. Each 300GB cartridge can hold more than six hours of 100Mbps HD content. Even though it's a tape backup, users can easily navigate the file directories from any browser. Because it's MXF-aware, you get videotape-like access to subclips by timecode.

Studio Network Solutions (SNS) will show the shipping version of its Postmap search and management software. Designed for postproduction workgroups, the software quickly locates folders and files stored locally, remotely, offline, or online, according to the company. Users improve post workflow by creating and attaching enhanced metadata to describe and classify specific files and folders to reduce search times, share production notes, and organize customized files. Designed for both Mac and Windows, SNS developed Postmap to fill the void between simple OS-native search tools and highly complex digital asset management applications.

By Jan Ozer

Without question, IP-based delivery is now a critical part of any video distribution strategy, and there will be plenty of encoding tools in Las Vegas to support the many types of video streaming and download. Digital Rapids will exhibit a complete range of encoding tools for IPTV, VOD, web streaming, mobile video, and on-demand video, with both hardware-based realtime encoding solutions and enterprise-level distributed media encoding for high-volume, multiple-format workflows.

Grass Valley will showcase the latest version of its batch-encoding tool ProCoder, which was formerly under the Canopus banner. ProCoder adds new acquisition formats and outputs for mobile video (including the Apple iPod), and improved support for multi-CPU and multiple-core PCs. The new version also features inverse telecine, which restores film-based video assets back to the original progressive film frame rates.

Rhozet will demonstrate new versions of batch encoder Carbon Coder and network encoding-management tool Carbon Server, with support for new input formats such as Panasonic P2, Sony XDCAM, and Avid MediaStream. Also new are AC3 or Dolby Digital encoding and a technology that enables Carbon Coder to splice compressed streams together for advertising insertion and similar applications. This last feature will be demonstrated with a Quantel sQ server.

Sorenson Media will exhibit in the Avid Pavilion, showing off its SqueezeHD Xcel 2.0 compression accelerator, with realtime MPEG-2 encoding and accelerated H.264/AVC encoding. The accelerator ships with Sorenson's popular batch-encoding tool, Squeeze, which includes multiple format support, watch folders, and command-line control.

In a related technology, Norway's Vizrt will show a new version of Viz Multi-Platform Suite (MPS), which helps broadcasters deliver realtime graphics and video content to web browsers and mobile devices. Viz MPS maintains separate graphic and video streams throughout transmission, compositing them together and rendering 3D graphics locally on the viewer's platform. This enables customization for each delivery platform and, according to the company, the highest possible resolution and quality. Video producers should take note of the technology as they ponder their own future delivery methods.

On the facility level, the new NiagaraSCX Pro from ViewCast offers the unique ability to monitor web video encoding over an IP network or through the Internet. Rather than have all the source files (which can be huge) on your hard drive and importing them into an encoding program, you can login to wherever the files are and control all the conversion to MPEG-4/H.264 and other formats remotely.

By Jan Ozer

As HD and HDV camcorders grow ever smaller, there''s a need for lighter, more portable, and more affordable tripods to support this class of camera. Manfrotto will show two new products at the show. The 501HDV video head is the next-gen version of the 501, which features enhanced ergonomics and a fixed counterbalance spring for smoother tilt movements. The head, retailing for under $200, supports loads up to 13.2lbs. Manfrotto will also show the 561B fluid monopod, which comes with a modified 701RC2 video head, weighs about 4.5lbs. and can support 8.8lbs. to a maximum height of just under 80in. The product will ship in March, 2007, for about $220, street. While you''re in the Bogen booth, check out the latest innovations from Gitzo, which includes a new leg locking system and advanced center column for its carbon fiber tripods.

Sachtler will exhibit a range of fluid heads in its Speedbalance line that can handle from 2.2lbs. to 35lbs. Each head offers either 10- or 12-step counterbalance controls. If you need to move with your camera, ask about Sachtler''s Artemis DV Pro stabilizer, which features exchangeable gas-spring cartridges, and tension and arm-angle adjustments. As you would expect, the unit is compatible with Sachtler fluid heads, so you can quickly change from tripod to Artemis.

If you''re looking for portable camera support systems, stop by 16x9 Inc.''s booth to see the new TurtleX, from Swedish manufacturer EasyRig, which uses a hip belt and overhead support arm to suspend the camcorder at eye level. With the TurtleX you support all weight with your hips rather than your arms and shoulders. You can even use the nine pockets in the carrying bag for camera-related supplies like tape cartridges, spare batteries, and lights. If you work with larger cameras in studio configurations, check out Vinten''s booth to see the new Vector 90 and 950 fluid heads. The Vector 90 can handle massive payloads up to 198lbs., while the high-end 950 supports a maximum payload of 264lbs. You can also add rotary optical incremental encoders to control pan and tilt position and motion, with the ability to transmit positional information into a virtual set generator.

OConnor Engineering will show its new 120EX extended capacity fluid head, which adjusts the range of forward and backward tilt depending upon the payload. At 120lbs., for example, the unit delivers a full +/- 90-degrees forward and backward, while at 240lbs., the range is reduced to 60 degrees in both directions.

IDX's Elite line of batteries, designed for broadcast and professional video applications, makes its NAB debut in 2007. Elite is a 142Wh, high-capacity lithium-ion V-Mount battery system that features IDX''s new power cartridge, a twin design that effectively doubles its continuous shooting capability, according to IDX. The company claims that this enables continuous operation for up to 5.4 hours (at 26W).

One other noteworthy camera-related product is Panasonic''s new BT-LH80W SD/HD LCD monitor for studio and field applications, which features a 7.9in. 15:9 screen. The unit can serve as an electronic viewfinder for Panasonic HD camcorders, or accept component HD/SD from other camcorders. Features include a built-in waveform monitor, a red peaking signal to assist HD camera focus, and an available pixel-by-pixel view that zooms into the image.

By Dan Ochiva

NAB has always been good for turning up new gear that might solve production problems. Take the latest displays featuring the new HDMI interconnects, for example. HDMI is threatening to become the de facto standard for monitor connections, and most small-format HD camcorders introduced in the last six months feature an HDMI out, which allows shooters to work with an uncompressed signal. That''s only the case, however, if you have the right type of converter hardware.

Blackmagic Design''s DeckLink HD Studio, introduced at January''s Macworld, does just that. The capture and playback card usefully supports both HDMI and analog component video. (The company''s Intensity card–a Digital Content Producer Vanguard Award winner in 2006–works solely as an HDMI capture/playback card.)

DeckLink HD Studio allows capture from HDMI-enabled cameras or decks, as well as analog decks and set-top boxes. HDMI playback and analog playback allows connection to a wide range of video monitors, large-screen televisions, and video projectors. HD Studio features include 10-bit capture and playback, and 14-bit digital-to-analog conversion.

HD is on Broadcast Pix''s plate too. Its new HD-SD I/O board is the third such input/output board for the Slate switcher/all-in-one production unit, joining an SD-SDI digital board and an analog board. The new board supports HD-SDI in 1080i or 720p, as well as SD-SDI, and provides four inputs and one output, each of which can be HD or SD.

Broadcast Pix says the new HD board takes advantage of unique EDTV architecture to create an HD production with very good picture quality. (EDTV, or enhanced-digital television, has twice the data rate of DTV, because EDTV is progressive 480p). Here''s how the company figures it: Unlike external HD converters added to a conventional standard-definition SDI switcher, which compresses an HD signal all the way to DTV, the new Broadcast Pix HD board needs to only convert to EDTV, where all switcher motion processing occurs at 10-bit precision.

Flexibility is the word at Dayang. The company's new RedBridge series plug-in cards (there are 10 in all) enable video signal interfacing with the latest generation of PCs. RedBridge 100, for example, has a CVBS/S-Video I/O stereo analog audio I/O, microphone input, and stereo headphone output. RedBridge 2100K incorporates a CVBS input, SDI input, CVBS output plus key channel, SDI output plus one SDI key channel, an independent CVBS output for preview, independent SDI output for preview, four SDI embedded audio inputs and outputs, genlock input, and loopthrough output.

For continuing NAB news, see blog.digitalcontentproducer.com/briefingroom/category/2007-nab-newslink and tune into our annual NABlog at blog.digitalcontentproducer.com/nab with live updates from the show April 15 to 19.