The P Word

Paradigm: One that serves as a pattern or model. Paradigm Shift:a change of paradigm; frequently referring to a radical change.

I am weary of the overuse of the “P” word, so I am goingto discuss a “radically changing pattern or model” for ourindustry. I'm referring to the way we store acquired sounds and imagesand access them in postproduction.

JVC and Focus Enhancements' DR-DV5000 DV disk recorder (shown heremounted on JVC's GY-DV500U camcorder) was one of many disk-based cameraoptions offered at NAB.

The video production industry may not have been shaken by theintroduction of Sony's blue laser optical media drive or by Panasonic'ssolid state media announcements, but the new products certainlyproduced a great deal of buzz. They beg the question: Why are the twoleading VCR manufacturers offering replacement technologies?

One possible answer might be that there are far greater profits tobe made by selling recording media than most VCR products. In Sony'scase, it will replace videotape sales (where there is presently lots ofcompetition) with blue laser optical disc sales (where there ispresently very little competition). In Panasonic's case, it is thelargest solid state memory manufacturer in the world, and there istremendous profit potential in both solid state media sales and archivesales.

Add to this the interest demonstrated by the NAB crowds in JVC andFocus Enhancements' new DR-DV5000 DV disk recorder, Laird Telemedia'sCapDiv, FFV's Recon Ultra Compact DVR, and similar solutions —not to mention the previously announced Hitachi C-D1X DVD camcorder,the Ikegami Editcam camcorders, or all the new digital cinema and HDTVportable digital disk recording devices.

So with all these new storage solutions available, is videotapedead? Hardly. TrendWatch of Mill Valley, Calif., a company thatanalyzes the graphics, visual effects, and TV/broadcast markets,recently published the results of a study on use of analog video. ItsTrendWatch TV/Broadcast Fast Fact findings of May 14 state that“73% of all stations/networks reported their primary format forreceiving work from clients is analog video; 58% cited this as theirprimary format for sending work to clients.” The study noted that“it's also interesting that more cable stations use digital videoas their primary ‘internal’ format for daily production— 63% compared to 45% for broadcast stations.”

With so much analog video content, worrying about the conversionfrom digital tape to an alternative storage means may seem a bitpremature. On the other hand, it could also mean that the digital tapestage might possibly be skipped. And remember that technological shiftsare not instantaneous. Digital NLE technology took a decade or more tobe accepted, and there are still those who cut on film or in linearsuites today.

From the manufacturers' side, it is obvious that they would likecustomers to replace their VCRs with something new, which manufacturersjust happen to be selling. The manufacturers profit again by sellingthe media. But why is replacing videotape potentially so attractive tousers that it would inspire them to make new investments in this tighteconomic period? The answer (as is almost always the case) is economicbenefit. Moreover, the economic benefit is generally not a capitalexpense benefit, but an operational expense benefit.

In the April issue, I looked at the Sony professional optical discformat. In that column I emphasized the workflow benefits over thespecific technological benefits of the optical disc. Not only can userssave an archiving step by originating on a format that is archivableand space-efficient, but since it creates a simultaneous low-resolutionproxy, it saves another step when proxies are used for media assetmanagement information.

The debut of Sony's new blue laser optical media system generatedbuzz at NAB as one of the more dramatic examples of a move towardnon-tape options for video.

Such video proxies can be a major time-savings when searching forarchived clips. This proxy video also allows low-cost news storycreation in the field by making a sequence of clips using a laptop or aPDA. Then the metadata is sent to the camcorder and the edited sequenceis streamed from the camcorder (which acts as a video server) back tothe station via microwave, satellite, or the Internet. This saves thetime and expense of editing at the station and allows an“edited” story to air sooner.

This workflow offers several economic benefits — primarily byreducing operational steps (archiving the media and creating a libraryproxy), reducing the length of material transmitted to the station,and, in some cases, the elimination of the traditional editing step aswell.

In Panasonic's new solid state model, you again have instantfield-based editing by removing the solid state media cards andimmediately installing them into the PCMCIA slot in a low-cost laptopediting system. This saves the time-consuming ingest step. You willstill have the archiving and proxy steps if required — the costis generally too great to archive the solid state media, but you willhave a choice of archiving solutions.

The advantage of the solid state media is that it is reusable.Another benefit is that the mechanical transport mechanism is gone andthis should eliminate significant maintenance costs. A third benefit isthat this technology is both compatible with today's DVCPRO technologyand capable of DVCPRO 50 and DVCPRO HD storage requirements, so theformat is somewhat future-proof. Sony has said it plans to offer solidstate media at some future point when the price makes it practical.

Workflow benefits can also be found with the new JVC/FocusEnhancements DR-DV5000, last year's Sony DSR-DU1 DVCAM video disk unit,and the new portable production hard disk recorders. They can alsoeliminate the ingest process, allowing you to begin editing the momentyou connect the hard disk unit to the edit system.

Next, you might have extended record times. In some situations, thiseliminates the need for a second VCR to overlap the recording process.Third, these products may be able to allow the camera to createadditional metadata, such as a “good takes” list that cansignificantly speed up the editing process. Several offer “cacherecording,” the ability to have the camera constantly recordingand deleting, but saving the few seconds prior to your hitting therecord button. Many important images can be caught with thisfeature.

The traditional tape robotics solutions with media asset managementapplications driving them could be found in several locations on theNAB show floor. Last year, Asaca/Shibasoku demonstrated its DVL opticaldisc-based nearline solution. It uses DVD technology as acost-effective and space-saving solution for large-scale archiving.

At this year's NAB the solution was once again available, butAsaca's focus was on its Serial ATA (SATA) drives product calledFireFly. The system won one of the first NAB Awards for Innovation inMedia. The low-cost SATA drives offer a significant savings overtraditional hard disk archive solutions and, in the case of FireFly,the savings brings the unit's price close to that of tape-basedsolutions. FireFly offers up to 48TB of 400MBps non-robotic, randomaccess library storage.

Avid's Nearchive offers a disk archiving solution that integrateswith its editing apps and Unity storage system. It featureslicense-free, web-based search tools that are easy to use.

Another low-cost hard disk archive solution — more appropriatefor smaller-scale postproduction and broadcast facilities, and soon tobe Serial ATA-based — is the new Avid Nearchive. The greatestadvantages to this product are the integration with Avid editing andAvid Unity online storage solutions, and the license-free, web-basedsearch tools that make it easy and efficient to use. While the systemdoes not include proxy-based media, the fact that it includes bothintegrated media asset management and an intelligent transfer enginethat incorporate easily into an Avid facility make it more attractivethan many other nearline products.

Tape-based archiving products also stirred excitement. For theMac-based postproduction boutique, Sony was offering Rough Cut, an AITdatatape format kit. The kit includes an AIT-2 drive with an i.LINK(IEEE 1394) digital interface, Mezzo ES Generation 4 backup softwarefor Macs, 10 AIT media cartridges with a total capacity of up to 333GB,and all necessary cabling for installation. The product is compatiblewith Apple's Final Cut Pro, and with select video and audio editingsoftware from Avid, Adobe, Media 100, and DigiDesign.

You can store all data related to a project (audio, video, text,graphics, timelines, scripts, notes, billing, etc.) on one standardcassette so that everything is saved and easy to locate. The AIT-2format has a storage capacity of 36GB or 50GB native per compact 8mmtape cartridge, and a native data transfer rate of 6MBps. The Mezzo ESGeneration 4 software was specifically designed for editing applicationarchiving. The system also offers automated backup workflow.

At NAB, Sony displayed its blue laser optical media archivingsolution, which can presently store 23.3GB per disc. Sony hopes for a50GB capacity version by 2005, and a 100GB capacity version after that.Sony also showed a new SAIT-1 tape archiving format with a 500GB nativecapacity. It can store up to 1.3TB of compressed data, with sustaineddata transfer rates of up to 78MBps (30MBps native). It appears thatSony is offering a choice between tape and alternatives when it comesto archiving.

All of these archiving solutions offer the ability to store media,metadata, and other project-related files in a fast, cost-effectiveway. Also, the process is often automated or semi-automated so there islittle or no time lost archiving.

Furthermore, these solutions allow easy reacquisition of files forrepurposing or re-editing. Having this ability provides a tremendouscost savings. Formerly, it was often easier to re-shoot than findpreviously shot clips. It was also more practical to occasionally batchre-ingest files to the NLE from saved timeline metadata. It took toomuch time to archive the media after each project and then re-acquireit when needed. For older programming, this assumed that theproprietary media was still compatible with upgraded software.

With these new technologies, open standards, and trends displayed atNAB, we may be at the start of a new video workflow paradigm. It couldbe tapeless, but it will certainly be more cost-effective andstreamlined. More importantly, it could have an as-yet-to-be-seen (orunderstood) impact — perhaps as profound as the switch from filmto video in broadcasting or from linear to nonlinear in postproduction.The shift may take a decade, but those working today will need to knowabout it and adapt to it.

Bob Turner has edited video on nearly every piece of equipmentever made. He can be reached at bobturner@attbi.com.

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