NAB 2008 Update

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BlogLive @ NAB Show 2008

At the 2008 NAB Show, Microboards Technology will debut the Blu-safe, a small Blu-ray Disc jukebox for online and offline archiving.

Welcome to the pre-NAB roundup, where I'll relay what I know about the products that video-editing and related companies will demonstrate at the 2008 NAB Show. I'll present the companies in politically correct alphabetical order with booth numbers to aid the NAB power walkers among you.

You probably know that Adobe (SL3220) incorporated P2 MXF import/export support into Premiere Pro in late 2007, along with MXF editing in After Effects. If not, read all about it. At the show, Adobe will debut what Sony HD producers have been yearning for: similar support for XDCAM EX and XDCAM HD. Both updates will be available for free to CS3 owners on the first day of the show. Given the hardware requirements, Adobe can't promise it will demonstrate these functions at its booth, but the company mentioned that Sony and Panasonic should have the software up and running in their respective booths.

Adobe will also announce an initiative called “CinemaDNG” for a new, open file format for digital cinema video data, which is based upon Adobe's open file format for RAW still images. The new file format targets the problems created by multiple camera vendors shipping their own proprietary RAW formats, which include downstream incompatibilities during production and archiving. Adobe will announce several founding partners at the show, and the company says it hopes to pull together a working group to help formulate the standard.

AJA Video Systems (SL1413) will show its Io HD, Kona, Xena, and converter product lines, including the recently released Io HD video ingest-and-output device that enables 10-bit hardware-based Apple ProRes 422 realtime upconversion, crossconversion, and downconversion. (See a review of the AJA Io HD.)

Just for the sake of completeness — as you've probably already heard — neither Apple nor Avid will have a booth at the show. Representatives should be there, so you can contact either company to set up appointments.

Autodesk (SL1420) will demonstrate the latest features of its advanced solutions products — including Lustre, Smoke, Flame, Inferno, and Flint — and software products Toxik, 3ds Max, Maya, MotionBuilder, and Mudbox.

Digieffects (SL02128D) will demonstrate its recently released plug-in suite Damage, which simulates a wide variety of digital and analog defects in your video projects. These include Blockade, which makes your clips look highly compressed; Artifact, which simulates lost DCT blocks and frame dropping; Interference, which creates the look of interlaced video fields with noise, colorization, and offset; and Skew, which adds analog/broadcast problems such as noise, image shearing, and ghosts.

EditShare (SL9820) will unveil the Complete Collaboration product line, which includes enhancements to the ingest and server functions and a new backup system called “EditShare Ark.” Upgrades to Flow Ingest include the ability to simultaneously capture Apple ProRes 422 and MXF formats, as well as a low-res proxy format. No transcoding is required; files are immediately available right after capture. EditShare Ark provides integrated solutions for backups, mirroring, and archiving.

Matrox (SL320) will show the PCIe version of Axio LE — a realtime editing platform for Adobe CS3 Production Premium. The product includes multilayer realtime editing of both HD and SD video, graphics, and effects; native MXF file support for Panasonic P2, Sony XDCAM, and Sony XDCAM HD; 24fps editing in HD and SD with pulldown, reverse pulldown, and Panasonic Varicam support; realtime downscaling from HD to SD; and accelerated export to DVD, Flash Video, and Adobe Clip Notes.

Maxell (C8428) will introduce the new Field Archive Media removable hard-disk solution based upon the relatively new Information Versatile Disk for Removable Storage (iVDR) technology. iVDR uses cartridges built from standard hard drives to quickly and securely transfer and archive very large files, which should appeal to all producers shooting to solid-state devices, such as the P2, or even hard-disk-based camcorders.

Media 100 (SL8720) has had a frenetic year. In July, Media 100 announced version 12, which added support for most relevant progressive formats and more comprehensive compositing and effects integration with the Boris FX product line. At NAB, Media 100 will announce version 12.5, which includes XDCAM and HDV compatibility and support for multichannel audio inputs.

Microboards Technology (SL7706) will show the Blu-safe, a small Blu-ray Disc jukebox for online and offline archiving; a new Flash duplicator product; and the company's line of Blu-ray/DVD/CD disc printers and DVD and CD recorder/printers.

NewTek (SL8614) should have plenty of new toys to show at NAB, including TriCaster Pro FX. TriCaster Pro FX has live virtual sets, integrated CG, and storage for up to 20 hours of video. Also look for VT[5], which can switch and stream up to 24 cameras in realtime and includes the virtual set technology first seen with TriCaster Studio. NewTek also recently rolled out SpeedEdit 1.5, which added variable bit-rate and multiple bit-rate output support for WMV files, enhanced VST plug-in support, and general performance enhancements. The company also announced LightWave v9.5.

Visual-effects developer Noise Industries (SL2128H) will showcase updated versions of its plug-ins for Apple Final Cut Studio/Express and Avid AVX, as well as several third-party releases.

Now that the HD DVD vs. Blu-ray format war has been decided, you can expect to see more high-def activity in the automated disc-burning and -printing market. For example, Primera Technologies (SL6823) will demonstrate its newly announced line of disc publishers, which can burn and print up to 100 CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray Discs per batch. The company's systems start at $2,995.

Red Giant Software (SL2128A) will show demos of three products: Primatte Keyer v4, Instant HD Pro, and Radium Glow. Version 4 of greenscreen tool Primatte Keyer Pro now works with Apple Final Cut Pro (as well as Avid AVX and Adobe After Effects), and it features a new auto setup for one-click chroma keying. Instant HD Pro scales SD footage to HD, using motion analysis and other algorithms to maximize quality. Now optimized for multicore computers, the new version can deliver about 1fps on fast computers. Radium Glow is a new package of four plug-ins that includes: Glow EZ, Glow with advanced controls and masking, Glow Edge, and Glow Depth. All four plug-ins work with After Effects (7 and CS3), Premiere Pro (2 and CS3), Final Cut Pro 6, Motion 3, and Avid AVX 2 systems.

Disc-duplication vendor Rimage (SL8728) will demonstrate its line of Blu-ray Disc-capable recording and printing solutions, as well as a new 600dpi thermal disc printer. Rimage will also preview its new Mac DiscFlow application, which allows networked Mac clients to burn and print DVDs and CDs on a networked Rimage digital publishing system.

Sony Creative Software (SL12413) will demonstrate Vegas Pro 8, which includes multicamera support for up to 32 sources; 32-bit floating-point processing; and enhanced AVCHD support, including the ability to produce Blu-ray Discs directly from the Vegas timeline — although without menus and title. Sony also added 35 interactive training tutorials for getting new users up to speed and the ProType Titler for creating animated titles, lower thirds, and credits. Although Sony added 44 new themes to DVD Architect 4.5, the program was not updated for Blu-ray support, so you can't author Blu-ray Discs with menus. No word on when Sony will ship the 64-bit version of Vegas it previewed at NAB last year.

At the show, 3ware (SU5105) will demonstrate Sidecar, an external desktop SATA II RAID solution that offers up to 3TB of storage and write-and-read speeds up to 200Mbps via PCI Express connectivity. Independent filmmaker Thor Wixom will be in the booth shooting with a Red Digital Cinema Red One camera and processing the clips through the 3ware Sidecar. If you're dying for a look at the Red One in action, there might be a shorter line in the 3ware booth than in the Red booth.

Film and video professionals looking to supplement their music libraries should stop by SmartSound Software (SL7712). The company will be showing Sonicfire Pro 5, which is scheduled to ship in June. The two big new features include a “sensory” searching feature — which will help identify the most appropriate music options — and advanced timing controls that simplify matching events in the score to key points in the video.

Check out
blog.digitalcontentproducer.com/nab
for up-to-the minute NAB news, announcements, and audio podcasts coming live from the show floor April 14-17.