Products

This version for Silicon Graphics workstations (including the Octane V8) expands capabilities in the areas of universal mastering for film and HD, workflow, EDL conforming, effects, and performance. Graphics additions include wire and rig removal, quad filter texturing, a transfer mode effect with 2D Boolean operations, and several new artistic blur effects. The software supports threaded asynchronous writes, improved buffering speed, and increased memory efficiency for large edit lists or deep composites. The Tree mode provides a secondary interface for editing effects parameters and layer settings for complex composites and edit projects. EDL Import allows for full conforming of Spirit Telecine DPX files. Features include 3:2 removal and retiming of EDLs, stitching of transitions, and the ability to search a directory tree for content, as well as fully active handles based on extra scanned frames. Price: Not available. (Santa Monica, CA; 310-998-8364; www.ifx.com)

This preconfigured, integrated streaming system comes in industry-standard, rackmounted configurations (1U, 2U, or 4U), or as a portable system targeted for remote webcasting of live events. The system utilizes Osprey-220 professional analog A/V capture cards that enable CD-quality audio and professional analog capture of video and audio signals for streaming media applications. The system is compatible with most consumer and professional A/V input devices, including cameras, VCRs, and VTRs. The system comes equipped with either RealProducer Plus V8 or (when configured with the Osprey-500 card) Windows Media Encoder V7 streaming encoder applications. Price: Not available. (Dallas; 972-488-7200; www.viewcast.com)

Designed for use with Poser 4, this toolset adds new features, functional enhancements, and third-party application integration plug-ins and enables web developers, animators, and graphics professionals to create 3D character content for the Web, print, film, and video. Users can host complete Poser 4 scene files, including animated 3D characters, via the included plug-ins for Lightwave and 3D Studio Max. Web designers can add animated character content created in Poser to websites and other interactive projects by exporting to the Viewpoint Media Player for 3D and Macromedia Flash for 2D. Additional functionality includes 2D motion blur, multiple camera view panes, animated material parameters, compressed content and library files, and Python scripting support. Price: $149. (Santa Cruz, CA; 831-462-8901; www.curiouslabs.com)

Running on Windows 95, 98, or NT, this software works faster than real time to analyze standard-definition MPEG video. High-definition video analysis also is available. The product uses a single-ended picture-quality measure system called Picture Appraisal Rating (PAR) to monitor artifacts produced by MPEG compression systems. Project Planner allows producers to define minimum quality and maximum bit rates to make sure their programs are received in the quality they've defined. The software is available in basic, advanced, and expert versions. Price: Not available. (Santa Clara, CA; 408-260-1000; www.snellwilcox.com)

This new zoom lens for field broadcast and production applications has the longest focal range available in its class, according to the company. In addition to its focal range of 40×11, the lens features high-resolution optics, a wide variety of zoom modes and focus servo controls, iris priority that stops the zoom range when the lens starts to ramp, and an anti-breathing mode to keep a constant field of view when focusing. Price: $48,800. (Totowa, NJ; 973-812-3858; www.angenieux.com)

This version features a new video editor and integration with the Virage Video Logger. Users can produce content in a single environment using a set of integrated text, audio, and visual content editing tools. The final product can be scheduled and automatically delivered — streamed or published — over multiple media, including the Internet, wireless devices, interactive TV, and radio. Price: Not available. (New York; 212-825-3322; www.dalet.com)

Intended for corporate communications departments, the television and entertainment industries, and Internet service providers, this software simultaneously transcodes source video into multiple streaming formats and bit rates, and sends it to FTP servers, web servers, caching networks, and individual mailboxes in the format each destination requires. High-quality video, created in any source format, is automatically recoded by the software and delivered to servers for distribution anywhere with an Internet connection. The scalable software runs on a Windows NT or Windows 2000 server. Base price: $19,500 per server. (Nevada City, CA; 530-470-1300; www.telestream.net)

Outfitted with balanced inputs and variable input sensitivity, this two-channel, DC-powered A/D converter is suited for portable use with a range of mic preamps and mixing consoles and delivers 24-bit/96kHz performance. Measuring 8×5×1.75 inches, the unit features front-panel controls governing input sensitivity, sample rate, and seven word-length reduction settings, which enhance 16-bit compatibility. Independent post-conversion digital meters are capable of being viewed in nine increments per channel. With a switch adjacent to these meters, the user can select a 1dB meter scale, allowing individual channel peaks to be identified. With a dynamic range of 120dB, this product has sampling rates of 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, and 96kHz. Both single- and dual-cable operation are offered for 88.2kHz or 96kHz operation. Price: $1,795. (Denver; 877-324-4463; www.sonicsense.com)

By ViewCast.com

Osprey-210/220: These PC capture products support RealNetworks RealVideo 8, as well as Windows Media 7 capture and encoding. They support AVI capture, which enables them to be used in conjunction with such editing applications as Adobe Premiere, Sonic Foundry Vegas Video, Ulead MediaStudio Pro, Terran Media Cleaner Pro, and MGI VideoWave III. The 210 is an analog capture card with a BNC connector and an S-Video connector, unbalanced stereo audio inputs, and an audio loop-back feature for monitoring the captured source. The 220 adds a breakout box and balanced-stereo audio inputs via XLR connectors for pro-quality stereo audio inputs. Price: Not available. (Dallas; 972-488-7200; www.viewcast.com)

By Dazzle Multimedia

DV.now: This product family comes with the full version of Adobe Premiere 5.1 for nonlinear editing, Ligos' LSX-MPEG plug-in to convert (transcode) DV video to the MPEG-2 video format, and Sonic Solutions' DVDit LE for DVD authoring. Videos can be recorded to a CD or DVD or output to the Web. This product line also includes FAST.forward capture, editing, and playback software. DV.now AV ($599) offers all of the features of DV.now ($399), plus the ability to edit digital and analog clips simultaneously. (Fremont, CA; 510-360-2300; www.dazzle.com)

By auto.des.sys

form.Z 3.8: As a precursor to the 4.0 release scheduled for later this year, this release adds parametric capabilities as general-purpose features. Smoothly parametric objects, in addition to the faceted and Nurbs types, are available for many types of objects, such as the primitives, the revolved objects, the helixes, the sweeps, and so on. The Boolean and trim/split operations can be applied to parametric objects, and produce objects that preserve their parametric nature and controls. Advanced rounding and blending applied to parametric surfaces and objects also is available. Advanced methods are provided for smoothly subdividing and meshing surfaces to transform low-resolution cages or approximate models to smoothly detailed models. Price: Not available. (Columbus, OH; 614-488-8838; www.formz.com)

By ASACA

TeraCart: This digital virtual storage library can be configured with one to 192 DVD-RAM drives and up to 11,600 double-sided 9.4GB DVD-RAM discs to provide capacities ranging from 2.3TB to more than 109TB. Library configurations range from 230 hours to more than 10,800 hours of MPEG-2 video. The product incorporates rugged robotics, including dual picking for speed and redundancy. It is compatible with video servers, such as Microsoft's NetShow Theater, QuickTime, QuickVideo, iTV, and others. Starting price: $30,000. (Golden, CO; 303-278-1111; www.asaca.com)

By Disc

DV Series: These DVD-RAM and CD-ROM storage libraries are available in 100-, 300-, 400-, and 600-disc capacities and feature integrated read-only, write-once, and rewriteable storage. The DVD-RAM drive is a Hitachi GF2050 with a data transfer rate of 1.38MB/s write and 2.8MB/s read and an access time of 210ms. The CD-ROM drive is a Plextor PX-R 412 with a data transfer rate of 2.1MB/s to 4.8MB/s read and an access time of 85ms. These products use the Pack System for online and offline data management. Each pack holds 15 pieces of media and can be exchanged while the system is fully operating. Price: Not available. (Milpitas, CA; 408-934-7000; www.disc-storage.com)

By Storage Concepts

FireBlock: With a storage capacity starting a 240GB, this new RAID device is almost small enough to fit into the palm of your hand (5×6×8 inches), according to the company. Equipped with MSTTM (multistreaming technology), this product is capable of handling multiple streams of data running simultaneously through a single port at a combined transfer rate of 80MB/s to 85MB/s. It is compatible with all host bus adapters. Price: $5,995. (Tustin, CA; 949-852-8511; www.storageconcepts.com)

By SGI

Kasena MediaBase: This platform for multiformat streaming, content management, and content transfer is now available for Linux OS-based servers. It supports such streaming formats as MPEG-1, MPEG-2, RealVideo, RealAudio, QuickTime, and MP3. The product is a scalable media server designed to deliver innovative web-based content. It is ideal for customers with applications in corporate training, distance learning, online media archival, and immersive audio and video web content, according to the company. Price: $11,000 for a 100-stream license. (Mountain View, CA; 650-960-1980; www.sgi.com)

By Pinnacle Systems

StreamFactory: This product converts a single video and audio input in real time into four independently resized RealNetworks and/or Microsoft Windows Media Internet streams. It is designed specifically for Internet broadcasters who prefer a compact, rackmount configuration with broadcast-quality inputs. The system accepts a variety of professional video and audio formats, including SDI, composite, Y/C, and YUV, as well as embedded and external AES/EBU digital audio and unbalanced and balanced XLR analog stereo audio. A CD writer and removable 20GB hard disk are included for archiving webcasts. Price: $9,999. (Mountain View, CA; 650-526-1600; www.pinnaclesys.com)

By Leitch

TrueCircuit: This patent-pending technology involves conditioning real-time traffic before it is transmitted on the medium, automatically and instantaneously setting up and tearing down protected virtual channels within an IP network or Ethernet LAN. For facilities with a single IP network, the PG1 Gigabit Ethernet Gateway delivers high-bandwidth isochronous and asynchronous data to a TrueCircuit Gigabit network. It supports uncompressed Serial Digital components, three AES/EBU audio channels, one 10/100Base-TX port, one RS-232 port, and a single composite interface. The PG1 gateway interfaces to multimode fiber-optic or CAT5-capable Ethernet devices. Price: Not available. (Chesapeake, VA; 800-231-9673; www.leitch.com)

By Pictron

Media Gateway Suite: This product uses intelligent video analysis technology to automatically encode Real, Microsoft, and QuickTime formats from multiple stream rates into multiple bit rates, in real time. Users can index, catalog, and summarize video content resulting in streaming media that is searchable on the Web. The media analysis module provides face, object, and video OCR text recognition. Image features, such as color, shape, and texture are pulled from keyframe images to index the visual content. Video scene changes are automatically detected and representative keyframes are extracted, summarizing the video content into a storyboard format. Price: Not available. (San Jose, CA; 408-777-8111; www.pictron.com)

By Minera Networks

IP Television Lab: This product includes all the key components required by network operators to evaluate interactive television services prior to full commercial deployment. It features a small IP Television Headend connected via a broadband network to set-top boxes. The headend includes an application server running iTVManager subscriber management software, two VNP-200 MPEG-2 video encoders and a video server, all connected through a 100Base-T Ethernet switch. The system can be configured with either an SGI Origin series server or an nCube video server and two set-top boxes, from either Pace or Motorola, connected to the headend via the Ethernet switch. Price: Not available. (Santa Clara, CA; 408-567-9400; www.minervanetworks.com)

By MediaSite

Publisher 4.1: This version offers real-time speech recognition technology, which can be used to add speech information to video or to synchronize close-captioned data with audio tracks. Users can encode to more multiple streaming formats simultaneously, including combinations of RealVideo, Windows Media, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and AVI. This version also includes automation interfaces for developers who want to expand on the product's automated features. Price: Not available. (San Jose, CA; 412-288-9910; www.mediasite.com)