Set to fly high? The long-awaited Media 100 Pegasus has arrived

Media 100 has announced the release of its new Media 100 844/X. Thisediting/compositing system features layered compositing performance onan affordable Windows-based desktop workstation. 844/X offers 30bit(10bit per component) image quality, and its GenesisEngine featuresfour realtime, uncompressed 10bit pairs of video and alpha streams withrealtime image processing power. The price is in the $60,000 to $75,000range, depending upon configuration, and it will be delivering atNAB.

Media 100 has designed the system for a group it likes to call“professional content designers.” These folks need a systemthat delivers quality, speed, and easy workflow at an affordable price.The Media 100 844/X was designed for short-form post work, which mayinclude commercials, program opens, and broadcast promotions. It mayalso mean movie trailers, corporate/industrial opens, andgra-phics/effects segments.

Because of difficulty with sharing metadata (EDL input only forversion 1, but Media 100 is working on AAF compatibility), this productmay be seen primarily in creative designers’ project studios orboutiques. It is for editors in need of compositing, and forgra-phics/effects compositors in need of editing.

844/X features a bold new software design, but with the look andfeel of industry-standard user interfaces. If you have used MediaComposer (or other systems with this user interface), you will find acomfortable learning curve for 844/X. Compositors working in AdobeAfter Effects will find the compositing operations very similar —in fact, many of the AE image blend tools are embedded.

Media 100 has integrated short-form editing tools and seriouscompositing features. Also, the uncompressed images are put in aQuickTime wrapper. This means that the Compaq Evo W8000 on which thesystem resides can contain Adobe After Effects or other Windows-basedapplications. And the QuickTime files can be exported from 844/X andimported into other software applications on the workstation. Users canalso import files into the 844/X from other QuickTime applications.

For each streaming pair you can apply: a DVE; color effect; colorcorrection; realtime motion alphakey; convolution effect; blend; orchromakey, lumakey, or alphakey. The system features an integratedvector-based matte tool and Inscriber CG.

Compositing performance

Many compositing systems today offer unlimited layers, but unlessyou can afford the outrageous rendering time, there are significantlimitations. 844/X clearly breaks this barrier and sets an impressivenew performance standard for compositing a large number of layers.There are important compositing features in addition to the realtimecapabilities. The rendering speed is amazing. I saw things completed inseconds that would have required an overnighter.

844/X has an intelligent rendering architecture that only re-renderswhat is required — even after changes are made to any track.Since four stream pairs work in realtime, the architecture incorporatesa feature called Visual Voicing that allows you to view any four videotracks in realtime, and you can view all the composite tracks in stillmode.

The Filter Stacks and Sync Grouping features will be important tocreative designers. Filter Stacks are all of the in-stream effects— in part or as a whole — that can be saved and reappliedto other clips. Sync Grouping is the ability to sync and view all thelayers of the video that are selectively synced together. There are noout-of-sync indicators for when you intentionally break sync betweentracks, but Sync Grouping prevents it from happening when you do notintend it to.

Plug-ins have become the leading tools for effects compositing. The844/X’s plug-in capabilities include ICEfx Adobe plug-ins andFinal Effects. More plug-in capabilities are set to come.

The GenesisEngine

The 844/X is driven by the GenesisEngine, a three-board set that hastaken $30 million and four years to develop. Media 100 calls this a“media supercomputer.” The set features true 10bitarchitecture throughout, greater than 240Mbps sustained bandwidth,realtime processing of up to six video stream/key pairs (four videoplus key, one graphics plus key, one over-the-top plus key — all10bit uncompres-sed), and a six-layer real-time video router andcombiner. There are seven custom Application Specific IntegratedCircuits (ASICs), the largest of which has about 3 milliontransistors.

The DVE uses bi-cubic interpolation for high-quality image effects.The internal signal processing is de-interlaced, progressive (60fps),uncompressed 10bit 4:4:4:4. The math operations are 31bit. With thisdedication to quality, it is important to note that Media 100 haslicensed and integrated in silicon Quan-tel’s Dynamic Roundingalgorithm to limit quality loss when outputting to 8bit recorders orsignal paths.

The GenesisEngine features realtime embedded operating systemsoftware, and VLAN and genlock integration. GenesisConnect, anover-the-top port, is available for future expansion. The architectureand division of tasks among the three boards indicate future featureexpansion and an eventual multiple-product family. There are twopatents involved — and five more pending.

In addition to the 1.7GHz dual-CPU Compaq W8000, the base systemturnkey includes: a Matrox G550 graphics card, the Media 100GenesisEngine with the 844/X software, a junction box, a Wacom 6x8tablet, and a 360GB disk array.

Not in version 1

At the moment, this product does not feature compressed videoediting. The GenesisEngine has MPEG decoders in each pipeline that arenot used in version 1, so I foresee compression support coming in thefuture. The product also has a 10Mpixel (3.5Kx3.5K) graphics bufferthat could offer realtime pan and scroll, but it presently is notturned on. The DVE is limited to 2D (position, scale, rotate, crop) andthere is no motion tracking or recursive/warp effects, although 3Dplug-ins are available.

The audio manipulation is rather basic at the moment. There is nosub-frame editing, and there are no tactile controllers other thankeyboard/mouse or pen and tablet. The GenesisEngine is designed toaccommodate six 4:4:4:4 real-time stream pairs, but presently onlyoffers four.

HD and 24fps editing are missing. I hope the lack of 24fpscapabilities does not hurt the product — especially consideringthe popularity of the HD 24fps tape formats and digital cinema. 844/Xalso lacks a feature that deals with 3:2 pulldown issues, althoughMedia 100 says this will be incorporated in a future release. Media 100does have an HD strategy for future versions, and this includes anup-rezzing option (perfectly adequate for many applications,considering it comes from a 10bit 4:4:4:4 signal) and an option forhardware-accelerated, resolution-independent rendering to uncompressedSMPTE-292 HD formats (or higher).

Although the computer features a gigabit Ethernet connection, AAFmetadata compatibility — though promised — does not yetexist for 844/X. Nor does the previous OMF interchange standard. MPEGand broadband output are planned options.

It is important to note that Media 100 plans to continue to sell,support, and develop the dual-stream Media 100i and iFinish editingsystems. It does not see the 844/X system as competing with eitherproduct. As long as there are buyers of new systems and upgrades, Media100 will continue to support the products. Version 8 of Media 100i wasintroduced at Macworld San Francisco.

How high will Pegasus fly?

Media 100, the first product, went from earning zero to $50 millionalmost overnight. It was the right product introduced at the righttime. Can lightning strike twice? I don’t know. It does appearthat Media 100 is riding the crest of a new era in postproduction, andit may have the right product at the right time once more.

A good group of products is entering this market, but 844/X mayoffer the best value when considering the four important issues for aneditor/compositor: speed/performance, image quality, workflow, andprice.

The product’s initial success will be determined, in part, bythe answers to two questions. The first question is: “Willboutiques with single workstation editing/compositing systems be thedesirable and successful business model?” I do not know. Ipersonally believe in the workgroup concept, and that editors do notmake the best compositors and compositors do not make the best editors.But there are too many exceptions to this for me not to question mybelief. Also, Media 100 has announced that it intends for this productto support AAF and is working to get that done, so eventually it willfit in both models.

The second question is: “Can a new creative product such asthis be ready for the work intended before version 3?” Thisdepends on the project, the strong need for realtime, multistreamcompositing, and concern about image quality. My guess is that thesethree issues are so important, and this product is so well-designed,that it will succeed and be a hit at NAB.