Archive for July, 2008

Award-winning Visual Effects and Character Animation Studio Adopts BodyPaint 3D into State-of-the-Art Production Pipeline to Meet Rising Demand for Realism and Complexity in 3D Paint and Textures.

MAXON, June 30, 2008 – MAXON Computer, a leading developer of professional 3D modeling, painting, animation and rendering solutions, today announced that Rhythm & Hues (R&H), one of Hollywood’s premier visual effects and animation powerhouses, turned to MAXON’s BodyPaint 3D, to address a myriad of complex texture painting challenges associated with the creation of central scenes and characters in the recently released Universal Pictures feature film, The Incredible Hulk (Hulk) – most notably, The Hulk’s distinctive muscle-popping green skin. more

Mixers from both Studer and Soundcraft appear at numerous events and broadcast facilities at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Digital consoles from both Harman companies have been chosen and purchased by local Chinese broadcasters as well as worldwide companies who are installing or providing facilities at the events. The increased attention to HD broadcasting and surround has been one of the reasons Studer consoles particularly have been bought by numerous Broadcasters for their games coverage. more

Twisted Murder takes top prize of $10,000

VICON, developer of Academy Award®-winning motion capture systems and part of the Oxford Metrics Group, today announced Twisted Murder as the winner of its international VICON Film Festival. The film was created by Paulo de Almada, an animation artist from Los Angeles, CA. He was awarded the cash prize of $10,000 after the judges voted unanimously in support of his outstanding entry. more

Faster-than-real-time HD-to-HD encoding on a single server plus many more new features now available in FlipFactory 6.1

Telestream today announced availability of version 6.1 software release for its flagship FlipFactory® transcoding workflow automation product line. Significant codec optimization in FlipFactory now makes it possible for users to achieve high definition (HD) encoding speeds that were previously only attainable using multiple servers. FlipFactory 6.1 delivers HD-to-HD transcoding speeds up to 15 percent faster than real-time on a single server for edit-to-broadcast workflows, including popular DNxHD and DVCPRO HD formats. The ability to achieve these speeds on a single server means substantially lower costs for users. more

For the First Time, World’s Number One Nonfiction Media Company Opens Up Music Library to General Production Community

LOS ANGELES (June 27, 2008) – Discovery Communications, the world’s number one non-fiction media company, and APM Music, the world’s largest provider of production music for use in film, television, radio, games and new media production, have expanded their 12 year relationship with the launch of Discovery Studios Tracks. This partnership makes original music cues from the Discovery family of channels, including Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet and Science Channel, available for the first time for licensing into third party productions. more

Front of House Engineer Jon Garber and monitor engineer Stuart Delk discuss how the Studer Vista 5SR Digital Console has made the Rascal Flatts “Still Feels Good” tour such a major success.

Click here to see the video!

IRVINE, Calif. — July 1, 2008 — Sonnet Technologies, a leader in providing local storage systems for professional users of Macintosh®, Windows®, and UNIX® systems in the film, video, and broadcast industries, today announced the 1TB version of its multiple-award-winning Fusion™ F2 portable two-drive RAID SATA storage system. The fastest storage solution of its kind, the enhanced Fusion F2 delivers remarkable performance with up to 134 MB/sec read and write sustained data transfer rates, and is bus-powered to enable its use when grid power is unavailable. The diminutive system consists of two 2.5-inch drives mounted side by side in a rugged aluminum enclosure just a bit larger than two stacked CD cases, features two eSATA data ports for maximum data throughput, and is designed for use with the Sonnet Tempo™ SATA ExpressCard/34 controller for the MacBook® Pro and Windows notebooks. more