Archive of the Hardware Category

Booth # SL5624
Digital Rapids is bringing our complete range of media transformation and workflow technologies and solutions to the 2012 NAB Show, in booth number SL5624 (Lower South Hall).

Digital Rapids connects content to opportunity, providing innovative solutions, technology and expertise that enable media organizations and professionals to bring live and on-demand video to wider audiences more efficiently, more effectively and more profitably. more

Unit Carries on Established Live-Link TraditionLas Vegas, NV – Studio Technologies, a world-leading manufacturer of dependable, individualized solutions for broadcast applications, is pleased to introduce the new Live-Link Jr. Remote Camera Interface System at the 2012 NAB Show (Booth C3747). Carrying on the successful tradition set by the original Live-Link system, Live-Link Jr. offers a generous feature set coupled with excellent audio quality and a compact form factor optimized for ENG and uplink vehicle applications. Providing everything needed for a single-camera live event, Live-Link Jr. delivers performance flexibility, ease of use and support for high-quality on-air (program), talent cue (IFB) and intercom audio. more

Oslo, Norway, February 28, 2012 — Morten Lindberg is well-known in the audiophile community as head of 2L (Lindberg Lyd), a recording label based in Oslo, Norway that has been exporting its premium classical and folk recordings from Scandinavia for over a decade. Lindberg, who insists on extremely high quality production values throughout the entire recording, manufacturing and packaging processes, uses the Antelope Audio Zodiac Gold to ‘proof’ the carefully recorded 352.8 kHz/24-bit stereo master files before they are ever duplicated or distributed to the company’s discriminating international customers.

2L has garnered no less than 12 GRAMMY Award nominations over the last six years — seven of them in categories including “Best Engineered Album” and “Best Surround Sound Album.” These releases, which feature Norwegian composers and musicians, are recorded in spacious concert halls, cathedrals and churches throughout Scandinavia. One of the greatest challenges is to ensure that performances are reproduced in the living room of the listener as accurately as possible, therefore, 2L is always exploring the best mediums, file formats and technologies available: including Antelope Audio’s Zodiac Gold DAC.

The Zodiac Gold is a D/A converter, pre-amp and headphone amp engineered to deliver pristine audio with keenly articulated pitch and a spectacular soundstage. The unique sound of Zodiac DACs is based on Antelope’s Oven Controlled Oscillator and 64-bit clocking technology used by the world’s top audio engineers.

“Working daily with the finest European AD and DA converters on venue recording, our standard is set to the extreme,” says Lindberg. “I was hardly prepared for the overwhelming moment when I found that the sonic qualities of the Zodiac Gold immediately recalled my memory of the recording sessions.” The Zodiac Gold, which is now a key component in Lindberg’s monitoring chain, is also convenient to use on-location. “With the USB, I am able to use the Zodiac Gold in true plug-and-play fashion with my MacBook Pro. This makes it perfectly suited for portable playback in workshop environments.”

“More than 50% of our total revenue as a label now comes out of Hi-Res FLAC file distribution, with international partners like Hdtracks.com, Highresaudio.com and e-ONKYO,” Lindberg continues. “The Zodiac Gold is a perfect match for domestic customers searching for the best sonic values in computer playback of these super-high resolutions.”

While still a relatively young recording label from a classical music perspective, 2L’s accomplishments are very impressive nonetheless. When 2L began its own studio operations 15 years ago, its core business was contracting recordings out to other labels such as EMI/Virgin, Naxos, Linn and Philips and others. Since 2001, there have been well over 50 recordings issued by 2L and among the highlights for 2012 will be a landmark release of TrondheimSolistene – SOUVENIR, which is being released in two parts and will appear on both vinyl and Pure Audio Blu-ray.

While nothing can replicate the exact sensory experience of listening to a recording session in-person, the Zodiac Gold DAC can help listeners come just a little bit closer: “There is no method available today to reproduce the exact perception of attending a live performance,” concludes Lindberg. “As recording engineers and producers we need to do exactly the same as any good musician; interpret the music and the composer’s intentions and adapt to the media where we perform.” For 2L, the Zodiac Gold continues to perform.

Culver City, Calif.— Beginning next month, Sony Pictures will host workshops on digital workflows supporting Sony’s new F65 CineAlta™ digital motion picture camera. The workshops, which will be conducted at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California, are designed to educate qualified directors, cinematographers and other film industry professionals.

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MELBOURNE, FL/DENVER, February 28, 2012 — Harris Corporation (NYSE:HRS), an international communications and information technology company, has raised the bar in multi-display technology for live production, outside broadcast (OB) and other video/audio processing needs by introducing HView™ SX Pro — the broadcast industry’s most scalable, highest-density multi-display management system.

The HView SX Pro extends Harris’ HView multiviewer range, delivering a compact new signal processing and monitoring option for control room environments. Its advanced design is smaller, sharper and smarter than competitive solutions — reducing space, power and complexity while offering superior picture quality and intelligent, flexible control options. Its high-density design accommodates more sources and outputs in fewer rack units to reduce system and installation costs.

Harris customers can use the HView SX Pro as a standalone solution or integrated within Harris® Platinum™ routers. Harris pioneered the tighter integration of routing systems with multiviewers, audio processing (mux/demux), frame synchronization and advanced input/output options in a single frame to simplify deployments, reduce space and lower operating costs.

The HView SX Pro offers low-latency processing and enhances image quality through Harris MicroFine scaling technology. Versatile, built-in control features maximize display options, from single-surface video wall configurations to multi-unit or multi-room systems. These and other advanced options push HView SX Pro beyond the traditional multiviewer function to a true multi-display management solution.

“Live broadcast and production environments have become increasingly complex as the number of signal sources increase, increasing the need to simplify monitoring processes across facilities,” said Harris Morris, president, Harris Broadcast Communications. “Harris has made significant strides in multi-display processing that help to minimize costs for our customers without compromise to quality and innovation.”

The Harris SX Pro will debut at CABSAT 2012, taking place February 28 to March 1 at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre (Stand S3-A21, Sheikh Saeed Hall), and will follow in North America at the 2012 NAB Show, taking place April 16-19 at the Las Vegas Convention Center (Booth N2502).

In broadcast communications, Harris offers products, systems and services that provide interoperable workflow solutions for broadcast, cable, satellite and out-of-home networks. The Harris ONE™ solution brings together highly integrated and cost-effective products that enable advanced media workflows for emerging content delivery business models.

About Harris Corporation
Harris is an international communications and information technology company serving government and commercial markets in more than 150 countries. Headquartered in Melbourne, Florida, the company has approximately $6 billion of annual revenue and about 17,000 employees — including nearly 7,000 engineers and scientists. Harris is dedicated to developing best-in-class assured communications® products, systems, and services. Additional information about Harris Corporation is available at www.harris.com.
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Company Overview

AETA AUDIO SYSTEMS is a leading international developer of portable sound recording units, mixers and advanced audio codecs, optimized for any kind of media and transmission infrastructure. “Made by AETA” is a synonym for high quality and rapid return on investment. With its strong commitment to innovation, the company has an outstanding history of industry firsts. AETA is a co-founder of the Audio-Over-IP experts group, which includes the leading manufacturers worldwide and targets inter-operation standards for IP transmission meeting EBU recommendations. For further information on AETA AUDIO SYSTEMS, its products and its national and international customers, please go to www.aeta-audio.com. AETA is based at Le Plessis Robinson, Paris. more

SAFETY HARBOR, FLORIDA – FEBRUARY 2012: Metric Halo is pleased to officially certify two Thunderbolt adapters for use with their line of FireWire based audio interfaces. According to Allen Rowand of Metric Halo, “We’ve tested the Thunderbolt-to-FireWire adapter in the Apple® 27-inch Thunderbolt Display and the Sonnet Technologies™ Echo 34 adapter combined with their FireWire 800 Pro ExpressCard – both systems provide performance identical to native FireWire ports. Since the display has a Thunderbolt pass-through it’s possible to use both adapters at the same time, allowing the user to create two separate FireWire busses. With two busses the user can connect up to six of our interfaces, or use one for up to three interfaces and the other for hard drives.”

Rowand said the company looks forward to incorporating Thunderbolt into their products. “We’re in discussions with Intel to gain access to Thunderbolt more

Ambient Recording’s Custom 7-Series Housing (SD-UW) Allows Audio Gear to Operate Underwater

KRALENDIJK, BONAIRE, FEBRUARY 23, 2012 — When German company Ambient Recording developed a special recording system for the first ever commercial documentary to feature underwater surround sound, it cast Sound Devices’ 788T multi-track digital audio recorder in the starring role. Creating a specific underwater housing (SD-UW) for the recorder, Ambient Recording used it to capture the ocean’s unique noises.

Recorded offshore from the Caribbean island of Bonaire in November 2011, the documentary is titled The Cannon Crackers of the Pistol Shrimp. As one of the loudest animals on the planet, pistol shrimp live in colonies of up to 16,000 and snap their claws so fast together the water around them vaporizes. They also create bubbles, which implode with a loud cracking sound. The cracking noises, along with vibrant imagery of the shrimp, form the basis of this groundbreaking film.

“The underwater world is not a silent one,” says Timo Klinge, marketing manager, Ambient Recording. “Coral reefs are filled with millions of sounds just like a jungle or a summer meadow. We knew we wanted to use Sound Devices recorders when we created our complete surround underwater rig because they are extremely compact, very rugged and have excellent sound. We created the underwater housing in order for the 788T to operate efficiently underwater.”

The Ambient Recording housing, designed for all Sound Devices & Series recorders, is made out of hard anodized seawater-resistant aluminum, which is then PTFE-coated, giving it the highest possible durability and stability. The top is made out of 4-cm thick Plexiglas to offer a perfect sight on all meters and displays for all Sound Devices 7 Series recorders. Power, record, stop and volume functions can be controlled through the housing. The housing is waterproof up to 100m and weighs 10kg, including the recorder, but beneath the water its buoyancy is just slightly negative, which can be adjusted by additional buoyancy bodies depending on what you attach to it.

In addition to the two Sound Devices 788T recorders, Ambient Sound used a Sonar Surround RS5 underwater surround rig attached to the Sound Devices underwater 7 Series housing with four Sonar Surround DS30 directivity spheres, each equipped with an Ambient TC4042 hydrophone. Three Ambient TC 4013S hydrophones were attached to one of the camera housings and one Ambient TC4032 hydrophone was used to record far-off sounds.

Sound Devices high-resolution 7-Series family of digital audio recorders is the highest performance, most compact production recorders available. The two-track (702, 702T, 722), four-track (744T), and eight-track (788T) units record and play audio files with either 16- or 24-bit depth at all professional sampling rates, up to 192 kHz (up to 96 kHz on the 788T). Multiple storage mediums, analog/digital I/O, and high-speed computer connectivity make all 7-Series recorders stand out as world-class products.

“Selecting Sound Devices 7 series as the recorders to design our underwater housing around was definitely the right choice,” adds Klinge. “We have tested the rig over and over and Sound Devices’ gear has consistently exceeded our expectations.”

Sound Devices, LLC designs and manufactures portable audio mixers, digital recorders and related audio equipment for feature film, episodic television, documentary, news-gathering, and acoustical test and measurement applications. The thirteen-year-old company designs and manufactures from its Reedsburg, Wisconsin, headquarters with additional offices in Madison, WI, and Highland Park, IL. For more information, visit the Sound Devices website www.sounddevices.com.

ST. LOUIS, Missouri – Production Consultants, a 25-year leader in audio post, with experience in video production, live sound and recording, among other environments, is deploying Fairlight consoles to meet its production needs. Founded by veteran producer/engineer and St. Louis Audio Engineering Society Chairman Bill Schulenburg in 1986, the company relies on Fairlight’s Xynergi and XE6 Side Car Consoles to keep clients on the leading edge of video and audio success.

Production Consultants often collaborates on projects with World Wide Wadio, a group of Hollywood writers, directors and producers who produce radio commercials, campaigns and audio tracks for internet, TV, film and CD’s, ranging anywhere from local radio and television campaigns to international corporate projects.

Schulenburg notes “We use the console daily on projects of all sizes. Xynergi’s complete system integration means we don’t have to worry about any project, file type, set of resources, delivery option, or any other limitation that may come up. With everything built in, I work with great confidence every step of the way. The ability to maintain flexible workflow allows me to say yes to any project we’re presented.”

Recently, the company has worked with legendary St. Louis, Missouri based Anheuser-Busch brewery, to showcase its more than 14 decades of beer making. Produced by Wildstone Media, the project included an in-depth brewery tour providing inside access to the most popular beer brands. Production Consultants utilized Fairlight’s Xynergi console, alongside three XE6 Side Cars, adding tactile mixing controls to the hardware platform for the ultimate audio experience.

Schulenburg adds, “The console is extremely easy to manage. The Fairlight method allows me more creative freedom than other systems, as I can relate to the console very well.” He says the way you interact with your equipment says a lot about you as an individual, and he believes the Fairlight consoles seem expressly designed for the work that he does, remarking, “Fairlight doesn’t just sell consoles, they solve problems and help make my job more effective and efficient.”

For Schulenburg, the Xynergi is far beyond just a console – he compared it to a musical instrument: “The audio quality is superb. It encourages you to use your ears, and rewards you for doing so. Instead of just seeing a waveform, you actually hear all its nuances, which is very rewarding. The seamless transition into working on a Fairlight system from either analog or digital techniques just seems right.”

Many aspects of the console help to overcome technical challenges. “The file handling is extremely flexible and allows us to work on many kinds of projects without worry. The drag-and-drop import capability while editing helps to connect audio and video together to improve workflow speed and ease of use.”

“Fairlight systems are made for people who need to get lots of work done without procedural issues,” stated Schulenburg. “The function you need is always right under your fingers when you need it,” enhancing intuitive operation and ability to keep projects moving forward.

“I still think of a mix as a performance, and Fairlight continues to allow me to do that unlike any computer-only DAW. They have provided the advantages of the visual point-and-click method of working without giving up having your hands on the controls and your ears on the sound. Xynergi provides so many more tools that facilitate critical listening and make creative work on projects easier and more satisfying” Schulenburg added.

The support that Schulenburg and the rest of the Production Consultants team continue to receive from Fairlight is beyond expectations he said, “They support us in ways that you do not get from other companies. They understand my business and the service I need to provide to my clients. I have been very happy with the installation and everything that Fairlight and the Xynergi/XE6 consoles allow me to do.”

For more information on Production Consultants, please visit: http://www.productionconsultants.com/

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About FairlightUS:
FairlightUS is headquartered in New Jersey USA and is the exclusive distributor for Fairlight products in the North American market. Fairlight has been at the forefront of digital audio development since its inception in 1975. Fairlight designs and manufactures media creation tools including digital audio recording, editing and mixing systems for standard and high definition audio post, broadcast and music production applications. www.fairlightus.com

About Fairlight:
Headquartered in Sydney, Australia Fairlight designs and manufactures media production systems powered by the company’s groundbreaking CC-1 FPGA digital processing engine. The Fairlight product range includes EVO, Xynergi and the new PyxisG2, all of which feature in the world’s leading broadcasters, commercial post facilities, music studios and film production studios. Fairlight has a rich tradition of innovation and development and is at the forefront of green computing technology.

– Archion EditStor ES Grows to 80 TBs as Essential Element for Critical Real-time Encoding & Final Cut Workflows –

Burbank, CA (February 21, 2012) – Acclaimed for its three decades of post-production excellence, Modern VideoFilm continues to push the technology envelope at its state-of-the-art facilities by expanding its Archion Technologies EditStor ES™ shared storage system to 80 Terabytes (TB). Modern VideoFilm is using the EditStor ES in its Video On Demand (VOD) ingest operations facility.

Known for setting the highest standards in the industry, in the early 1980s, Modern VideoFilm set a worldwide standard by establishing the first dedicated quality control department in a post-production facility. The facility also became quickly recognized as a technology leader, a position it continues to extend through its trend-setting iTunes and digital intermediate work as well as with its Digital Distribution workflows.

“Since our founding nearly 30 years ago, we have focused on providing the best quality, service and environment for our wide range of film and television work, from Avatar and I, Robot to Desperate Housewives and Modern Family, to name just a few,” said Bill Watt, Executive Vice President of Operations at Modern VideoFilm. “As part of that commitment, we evaluate the essential parts of our workflow, such as shared storage technology, very carefully. Archion’s EditStor ES outperformed competitive solutions, offered more features and required a significantly smaller investment in time and money.”

The EditStor ES had been simply and quickly integrated as a key component in its VOD workflows, with Digital Rapid Stream and Apple Final Cut workstations encoding real-time to the EditStor ES, noted Ray Shantz, Vice President of Engineering at Modern VideoFilm.

“The EditStor ES has been such a success that we added additional capacity without hesitation,” said Shantz. “Not only were we amazed to learn how economical the expansion chassis was, but we were delighted to learn how efficiently it scaled. Knowing that it can scale up to 720TB was another major factor in our decision.”

“We are very proud to continue our association with Modern VideoFilm, which is truly one of the world-class facilities in the industry, and that they see our products as the choice for storage and digital workflows,” said Mark Bianchi, Archion’s Chief Executive Officer. “We believe our more than 75 years of combined firsthand post-production experience gives us a unique understanding and insight into the daily challenges that these types of facilities face. We put that knowledge and experience to work every day when we’re designing, manufacturing and supporting Archion products.”

Making Media Sharing Easy and Affordable
EditStor ES makes media sharing easy and affordable for creative professionals that work with Final Cut Studio®, Avid Media Composer®, Adobe CS5®, Sony Vegas® and other popular media creation tools. EditStor ES easily facilitates the flow, conversion and management of media within the production workflow by offering the richest media management feature set available — and at a price that is very affordable, less than half the cost of competitive solutions.

EditStor ES is loaded with rich media management tools, such as volume expansion, which enables users to create shared volumes of any size and expand volumes on the fly. Volume expansion is all managed through a web-based administrator interface that doesn’t affect workflow. Another innovative feature, project sharing, extends to projects that use the most popular editing tools. Avid project sharing, for example, will be transparent to the Avid Media Composer system and doesn’t affect the Avid workflow. Project sharing for Final Cut Studio and Adobe will also be available.

The rich media management feature set of EditStor ES has all of the automation tools of an enterprise storage server, including storage pools, volume replication and snapshot, data replication and volume manager as well as support for tape back systems and virtual tape volumes created in the system. To deliver maximum connectivity to the workstations that drive workflow, EditStor ES supports user and group management, user security and access as well as industry standard IT protocols.

EditStor ES comes standard with hardware RAID protection and four ports of 1 GigE, which can either be directly connected to four clients or to a standard Ethernet switch. These four ports provide up to 400 Megabytes (MB)/second bandwidth, and the addition of an optional second four-port GigE card or a single 10Gb Ethernet card significantly increases bandwidth up to 800 MB/second and 1000 MB/second, respectively.

With these throughput figures, EditStor ES easily supports compressed workflows, including DNxHD, ProRes and QuickTime protocols, and can be configured to support uncompressed SD or HD workflows. The complete data sheet on EditStor ES can be downloaded here.

About Modern VideoFilm
Modern VideoFilm offers television and feature film post-production services (including editorial, telecine, digital intermediate, digital dailies and visual effects); digital content services (including encoding, transcoding, QC and content delivery); tape duplication and vault security services. The company also provides equipment rental services. Modern VideoFilm just completed construction of a new 96,000 sq. ft. location in Burbank and a 22,000 sq. ft. location in Santa Monica, CA. In the last half of 2011, it also completed the installation of a disaster recovery site in Arizona. Incorporated in 1979, Modern VideoFilm is based in Burbank, CA. www.mvfinc.com

About Archion
Archion Technologies, based in Burbank, CA, is a leading provider of intelligent networked storage solutions specifically designed for post production and graphic professionals. Founded by a team of post production, technology and entertainment industry professionals in 1999, Archion set out to create a new standard of data protection and performance for those creating video, audio and graphical content. Since then, Archion’s high-performance storage technology has been critical to the success of hundreds of TV and feature film projects and is prominently used in Avid, Apple, Adobe, Autodesk and Pro Tools environments. www.archion.com

Contact:
Randy Savicky
Strategy+Communications
(203) 226-6156
randy@strategypluscommunications.com