High Resolution Systems is now shipping UDC Pro ECS-Raptor, a UDC Pro Embedded Control Server designed for permanent AV installs. Raptor will be showcased in High Resolution Systems’ booth at InfoComm13, June 8-14 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando booth # 4089.

Raptor teams up with the company’s popular UDC software to offer a cost-effective, stable hardware/software solution for long-term installations in a wide range of environments. A custom Linux embedded server, Raptor significantly lowers costs to users over full-blown Windows servers and comes with a free version of UDC software so customers can build their workflow configuration with UDC software, load it onto Raptor, test and run their UDC configuration.

“We expect most customers will pay for an upgrade to UDC Pro software, which allows them to send all their commands from UDC software to their Windows computer before loading onto Raptor,” notes Drew Taylor at HRS Control.

Raptor supports the same user interfaces as UDC software: iPad touch control with the HRS Control Pro iOS app available in Apple’s App Store; the HRS Control Pro app for any Windows tablet; in-wall mount touchscreen and button solutions; Android tablets; and web servers. Any device with a browser can act as a controller.

Raptor comes with an Ethernet connection to the device network plus two USB ports for accessories and button control panels. It occupies 1RU in height and one-half of a rack in width and ships with an optional rack shelf for space-saving rack mounting.

Raptor’s first installation saw one system dedicated to an executive briefing room, which needed extensive device control, and a second unit filling the needs of the rest of the facility. “Even with two Raptors, this was still a very cost-effective solution for the integrator,” Taylor reports.

About High Resolution Systems
High Resolution Systems, a member of the Society of Broadcast Engineers is a company with a strong systems engineering and applications background. Its founders have decades of experience in the audiovisual rental and staging industry, broadcast applications, A/V installations and system design. This combined experience allows them to provide the highest possible quality solutions to its customers in the most efficient manner. For more information, visit www.hrscontrol.com.

A Complete Media Prep and Delivery Application for Filmmakers; 

BulletProof Bridges the Gap Between the Camera and the Editor 

Portland, OR (May 21, 2013) – Red Giant today announced that BulletProof is now available as a free public beta and can be downloaded by visiting www.redgiant.com. BulletProof is a complete media prep and delivery solution for footage that simplifies the tedious tasks facing filmmakers every day on set. Bridging the gap between camera and editor, BulletProof combines all backup, organization, color and delivery tasks while handling footage from multiple cameras and media cards. Whether shooting with a Canon DSLR, Nikon DSLR or GoPro sports cam, filmmakers, videographers and data wranglers can now quickly and easily transform their capture into edit-ready footage.

During the public beta program, Red Giant will continue aggressive product development, adding features, new camera support and gathering customer feedback to further enhance the application.

To demonstrate the impact of BulletProof on a film set, award-winning director, Seth Worley released his newest short film, Spy Vs. Guy, as well as a behind-the-scenes video that highlights the BulletProof workflow. Spy Vs. Guy and the making-of films can be seen here: http://www.redgiant.com/news/featured/films/.

Philip Bloom, a world-renown director, DP and digital cinematographer, has been evaluating BulletProof as part of his workflow. “Post work is the biggest pain in my arse! I love to edit, it’s creative, but the rest I despise – the ingest, transcoding, syncing, logging. Nothing out of my work I loathe the most,” said Philip Bloom. “ If an application came along that could lessen the pain, I would be a happy man. Guess what, it has! BulletProof could well be exactly what I needed. After some initial use, the time it can save me is becoming clear. It’s also going to get better and better. In today’s modern times, time is money. And while I may have run out of time, Bulletproof can stop me from running out of money!”

“Since the release of the DSLR camera and the rise of file-based video capture, the need for a better media prep solution has become obvious – as our team has discovered from our own film projects. Tapping into what we’ve learned over the last decade of building tools for filmmakers, like Magic Bullet, we designed and built BulletProof, which we believe is the most affordable, complete solution that bridges the gap between the camera and the editor,” said Andrew Little, president and co-founder of Red Giant. “And the feedback since the announcement is telling; the feature set is really resonating with filmmaker needs. Moving forward, we are collecting customer feedback and aggressively adding the features, camera support and workflow capabilities they’re looking for to further enhance the product.”

The BulletProof Workflow

The BulletProof workflow is presented in a series of five views, arranged in a left-to-right flow that mirrors what filmmakers do on set every day.

• Import: Offloading clips from media cards and drives is quick and safe in Import. BulletProof doesn’t alter data while copying and backing up, so the integrity of your footage is always maintained.

• Organize: Set up shots before they reach the editing platform. In Organize, you can see thumbnails of the entire story, and check if the clips match the creative vision. Filmmakers organize their footage in a way that makes sense to them, using folders playlists, and metadata like keywords and star ratings.

• Review: Review gives filmmakers the power to check quality and story. Examine and scrub individual clips, and set In/Out points and markers as you narrow down the shots. Review mode ensures footage from different cameras will ultimately match. Filmmakers can set up a rough cut and get a feel for the edit—before sending it to the editor.

• Refine: Jumpstart the color grade with a first pass of color. Refine provides professional color tools like Colorista color wheels and LUTs that let you unify and fix colors on the spot to avoid reshoots later. All color and metadata are applied non-destructively, so original clips are always safe and untouched.

• Export: The Export view is designed for fast delivery of masters, proxies and dailies, without the usual tedium of transcoding. Options like Burn In, Frame Rate and Resolution make it simple to export in a single time-saving pass.

A list of camera and codec/format support for BulletProof v1.0 is available here www.redgiant.com. Additional camera support will be added as free updates for BulletProof customers, and will be announced as they are released.

Pricing and Availability

The final v1.0 of BulletProof will be available this summer and will be priced at $199.00 USD.

BulletProof v1.0 will be available for Mac OS first. A Windows version is in development and will follow the Mac OS release.

To download the free beta, or for more information on BulletProof please visit www.redgiant.com/bulletproof.

The Red Pledge

Red Pledge is Red Giant’s commitment to customer happiness, with no purchasing hassles. Learn about the Red Pledge guarantee at www.redgiantsoftware.com/redpledge/.

About Red Giant 

At Red Giant, we make tools, films, and training to enrich the community of filmmakers. Through making our own award-winning films, we create new tools to fill our needs. Then we make those tools available for everyone else. Red Giant develops tools that make the filmmaking process faster, more secure, more accurate and just more fun. We help filmmakers create the perfect look that matches their story. For more than 10 years, we have built software for motion design, photography, visual effects and color correction that is used for everything from major motion pictures to worldwide television programming to web production.  To learn more, and to join the Red Giant community, please visit us at www.redgiant.com. You can also join us on Facebook (RedGiantSoftware), follow us on Twitter (@RedGiantNews), watch our films (www.redgiant.com/films) and get free content at Redgiantpeople.com.

World’s first battery-powered multichannel live production streaming system gives internet broadcasters true portability

At Streaming Media East in booth 320, Matrox and 1 Beyond today demonstrated the industry’s first battery-powered multichannel live production streaming system, the 1 Beyond StreamMachine DC. Featuring the Matrox VS4™ quad HD capture and ISO recording card and Telestream® Wirecast® software, the unit is completely DC-powered including full control by an Apple® iPad®, an Android® tablet or a DC powered touch screen.

1 Beyond StreamMachine DC—battery-powered multichannel live production streaming system

“With StreamMachine DC, internet broadcasting is no longer dependent on wired network connections or even AC power,” said Terry Cullen, CEO and founder at 1 Beyond. “Operators have full creative freedom to stream programs from anywhere 3G or 4G coverage is available using a standard WiFi hotspot cell phone connection. What’s exciting is that creative business people will now invent broadcast applications we’ve never even thought of!”

Key features of StreamMachine DC
• Fully functional Telestream Wirecast software “TV station in a box” operations including live switching, transitions, PIP, pre-recorded video playback, and graphics overlay
• Connect up to four professional SDI or HDMI sources and two USB cameras
• Matrox ISO camera recording tool records up to four inputs using the high-quality Matrox MPEG 2 I-Frame codec at up to 300Mb/s as well as DV, DVCPRO®, DVCPRO50 and DVCPRO HD® QuickTime files for use with popular editing apps from Adobe®, Apple and Avid®
• Simultaneous broadcast stream recording with Telestream Wirecast for archiving or VOD
• Up to 6 hours of operation with a single 1 Beyond IntelliBatt, Anton Bauer compatible, battery with LCD readout of “percent used” and “hours to go”
• Can also be powered by any DC source from 10 to 30 volts through a 4-pin industry standard XLR connector. An AC power brick is included for AC use with instant battery backup
• Instant power switching from battery to external (or vice versa) in case of low power or loss of power. This also allows for a battery change giving unlimited streaming time
• Streaming can be done from anywhere 3G or 4G coverage is available using a standard WiFi hotspot cell phone connection. Cell phone power can be provided by a powered USB.
• Full control of StreamMachine DC provided by an Apple iPad, an Android tablet or a 10.4” DC-powered touch screen
• Keyboard and mouse can be used with any of the readout/control devices

About 1 Beyond
1 Beyond designs and manufactures purpose-built professional video systems for all aspects of the workflow from production through post, streaming, media asset management and archiving as well as SAN storage. Our reputation is for innovation, ruggedness and high reliability at a fraction of the cost of traditional high-end systems. Our value leadership is built on constant technical innovation including 16 years of video-industry firsts. For more information, visit www.1beyond.com.

About Matrox Video
Matrox Video is a technology and market leader in the field of HD and SD digital video hardware and software for accelerated H.264 encoding, realtime editing, audio/video input/output, streaming, A/V signal conversion, capture/playout servers, channel-in-a box systems and CGs. Matrox’s Emmy award-winning technology powers a full range of multi-screen content creation and delivery platforms used by broadcasters, telcos, cable operators, post-production facilities, videographers and A/V professionals worldwide. Founded in 1976, Matrox is a privately held company headquartered in Montreal, Canada. For more information, visit www.matrox.com/video.

Vaddio today launched the EasyUSB PRO MIC I/O Interface, designed to integrate any professional microphone with Vaddio’s EasyUSB audio solutions. The PRO MIC I/O Interface incorporates Vaddio’s unique SmartMIC technology into the device, providing distributed multi-channel acoustical echo cancellation and automatic microphone mixing. Additional DSP/Digital Signal Processing technologies include noise reduction, microphone gating, equalization, filtering and AGC for automatically calibrating to the live requirements of the room.

The PRO MIC I/O comes equipped with four independent echo cancellation microphone inputs and one discreet output for interfacing to the Vaddio EasyUSB Mixer/Amp. The system can be expanded to support eight microphones by adding an additional PRO MIC I/O.

“When we launched our EasyUSB MicPODs we heard from a lot of our integrators that while they loved them, they also wanted to have the capability of adding any professional microphone to their system designs,” explained CEO, Rob Sheeley. “So we are responding to their requests with the launch of the PRO MIC I/O. We believe that this is a game changer for consultants and integrators because they can now integrate the world’s best microphones into their Vaddio USB solutions. The audio quality of Microsoft Lync, Cisco WebEx and Skype audio calls will be amazing and with our state of the art DSP signal processing, they sound crystal clear and echo free.”

With Vaddio’s SmartMIC technology, there’s no more complex programming or time-consuming setups. No more having to relearn the room every time a change occurs.

“Plug in the microphone of your choice, adjust the input gain and let the PRO MIC I/O do the rest,” says Sheeley. “Once again Vaddio has given you The Art Of Easy.”

###
About Vaddio:
Vaddio is the leading manufacturer of specialty PTZ cameras and camera control systems used in the audiovisual, videoconference and broadcast industries. Your customers demand cutting-edge technology that’s simple to use. You want equipment that’s easy to install and reliable to operate. Vaddio serves integrators and operators alike – with broadcast-quality PTZ cameras and control systems that deliver the performance you need with the convenience you demand. More information can be found on the Vaddio website, www.vaddio.com or at (800) 572.2011.

Pat McConnell New VP of Sales, Ed Capp Named Global Sales Director

REEDSBURG, WI, MAY 21, 2013 — Sound Devices, experts in audio and video products for field production, is pleased to announce two internal promotions. As the company continues to evolve in the professional audio and video markets, it has named Pat McConnell Vice President of Sales and Ed Capp Global Sales Director.

At a time when the level of technical expertise required for successful sales is paramount, the pair has demonstrated leadership in the specialized audio and video production markets. In their new roles, Pat and Ed will oversee the Sound Devices sales team to further promote the company’s entire range of products globally, while continuing to strengthen the Sound Devices reseller and distributor network.

Pat, who joined the company last year, brings his deep experience in audio, systems sales, and sales management to the company. He also continues on with the tradition of single-syllable first names for Sound Devices officers. Ed, a 10-year veteran of the Sound Devices sales team, has been instrumental in significantly expanding the reach of Sound Devices throughout the world. Ed has developed Sound Devices strength in Asia as well as the important Southern California markets.

“Ed and Pat are a great sales team and together they manage Sound Devices presence throughout the world,” says Matt Anderson, President of Sound Devices. “As the Sound Devices product lines become more and more technical, it is critical that our sales team is led by knowledgeable individuals who are immersed in the changing audio and video technology landscape. We are very excited to continue to grow our sales force and look forward to both Ed and Pat’s future contributions to the company.”

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

THOUSAND OAKS, California, May 21, 2013 – Memorial Day barbecues herald warmer weather and bring families together to enjoy the best backyards in the neighborhood. Don’t sacrifice the sun for the sake of the big game on TV or family photo slideshows—a SunBriteTV all-weather television brings outdoor entertainment to your patio.

“A SunBriteTV is as much a social device as it is a television,” said Tom Dixon, VP of Marketing, SunBriteTV. “Families want to show off their backyard during the summer and a SunBriteTV becomes an immediate conversation-starter. Being able to simultaneously watch your favorite sport and lounge under the sun is like getting the best of both worlds.”

As a new outdoor haven for the kids by day and family home theater under the stars by summer night, a SunBriteTV continues to impress long after the big party. What’s more, the Signature Series comes with a family-friendly price tag: $1,495 for a 32” $2,795 (46”), $3,995 (55”) and $6,995 (65”).

All SunBriteTV models withstand temperatures from -24°F to 122°F and completely resist rain, humidity, salt corrosion, dust, and insects. Anti-glare screens are specially designed to deliver bright high-definition images in any outdoor climate, any time of day or night.

Every SunBriteTV includes a two-year warranty, a weatherproof remote, and 20 watt built-in speakers.
Optional accessories include a variety of wall-, ceiling- or pole-mount installation solutions, dust covers and FM Radio.

For more information on SunBriteTV please visit www.sunbritetv.com.

About SunBriteTV
SunBriteTV’s all-weather televisions have been time-tested in home installations, outdoor sports arena, restaurant and hotel patios and even on military vehicles participating in field operations. All models are available through SunBriteTV’s network of Authorized Dealers. To inquire about becoming an Authorized Dealer, contact SunBriteTV at 866.357.8688, or visit the Dealer Inquiry page at www.sunbritetv.com.

May 21, 2013 — Passfield, United Kingdom and Hong Kong: Digital Rapids will be showcasing the company’s newest media transformation and workflow solutions at two major international industry events in June — the ANGA COM Exhibition and Congress, June 4-6 in Cologne, Germany, and Broadcast Asia, June 18-21 in Singapore. At each of these events, visitors can experience first-hand how Digital Rapids’ innovative solutions, technologies and expertise enable media enterprises to bring live and on-demand video to wider audiences more efficiently, more effectively and more profitably. more…

XL Video is supplying nearly 400 square metres of LED screen, plus 72 x VersaTUBE LED battens and crew to Blink TV for the UK and European legs of One Direction’s ‘Take Me Home’ world tour!

This sees the UK’s favourite chart-topping, multi-platinum selling and award winning band reach dizzying new heights of popularity, presence and profile!
The Pixled F-12 and F-30 screen has been specified by the tour’s production designer Paul Normandale, who’s worked with XL on many previous occasions including Coldplay’s 2012 ‘Mylo Xyloto’ tour, when he first used the then just launched F-12 surface.
“It was faultless,” he comments, adding, “It’s always a pleasure dealing with Phil Mercer and XL – everything is very smooth and easy!”
Phil Mercer (Project managing for XL) says, “I really enjoy our on-going relationship with One Direction and with the tour’s Production Director Steve Levitt and Production Manager Karen Ringland of Production North. Apart from that, it’s great to see the band keep breaking records!”
XL initially worked on One Direction’s first full production tour last year. With over 11 million Twitter followers, 15 million Facebook fans, 1.5 billion YouTube views to date, two hit albums and numerous number one singles, One Direction’s short and stratospheric career is über impressive by any standards!
The vast upstage LED wall on this one is built from 205 panels of Pixled F-30 totalling a striking 189 square metres!
The stage area is 84 ft wide and so Normandale needed a large surface at the back to emphasise the show’s epic proportions.
Downstage of the back screen are a series of 11 skyscrapers – each one different in size – made up from a total of 499 x F-12 tiles – 180 square metres in total.
The towers are both single and double sided, with some flown at right-angles forming Normandale’s eye-catching cityscape design. A number of them move up and down on a Kinesys automation system to provide stage entrance / exits for the band (Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson).
XL devised some ingenious custom metalwork and packaging for the video-towers making them highly efficient to rig, fly for the show and be transported. They pack down into extra-wide dollies for expedient packing in the truck.
This streamlining was necessary due to the very tight get-in schedules which have to accommodate a myriad of matinee shows in addition to the evening ones, so everything has to be rigged and ready-to-rock in superfast time!
The F-12 towers will be shipped to all territories on the tour itinerary.
Playback content for the LED was produced by Canadian video and animation studio Geodezik, and is fed to the LED surfaces via a bespoke media server system supplied and run by Tom Levitt.
The towers and back screen also receive camera IMAG footage which is directed by Luke Levitt.
To funky-up the underside of the flying bridge that flies in and transports the band from the main to the B stage, XL has supplied the 72 HD VersaTUBE LED battens.
XL’s crew of three – Patrick Vansteelant, Philip Leech and Conor Canwell – work alongside six others making up the full touring video department.
One’s Direction’s Artistic Director is Beth Honan. Dave Lee is the Lighting Director on tour, Mike Shepherd is the Lighting Crew Chief and lighting equipment for the UK and European sections is being supplied by Lite Alternative.
The tour continues in Europe, then visits the US and Australia. It’s currently scheduled to finish in Tokyo in November.

Making its InfoComm debut, the A/V Binloop HD from Alcorn McBride is the ultimate 8-channel, frame-accurate synchronized audio and video player. The A/V Binloop HD, which provides up to 8 channels of Full HD 1080p or 2 channels of UltraHD 4K along with 16 tracks of 16 bit audio, will be on hand in Alcorn McBride booth 2504 at InfoComm13, June 8-14 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando.

Offering reliability in a compact form factor, the A/V Binloop HD is a high performing solid-state player characteristic of Alcorn McBride engineering. It contains no spinning drives, just simple removable solid-state media that store hours of HD content. It is designed for video walls, museum exhibits, military simulation systems, 4D Theaters and digital signage applications, and is capable of displaying synchronized content across 16.6 megapixels.

Each channel plays back MPEG2 or h.264 video at bitrates up to 40Mbps and resolutions up to FullHD 1080p (1920 x 1080) as well as 16-bit stereo or surround sound audio. These channels can be easily synchronized to provide up to 2 channels of UltraHD 4K (3840 x 2160) playback, or even atypical arrangements such as a video wall banner (15360 x 1080). Content can be managed remotely via Ethernet. The A/V Binloop HD also features SMPTE timecode capability and genlock input.

Unlike most commercial video devices it provides a Full HD 1080p video source to each screen. This eliminates the loss of quality due to stretching, which is often seen in traditional videowall controllers and makes it scalable to much higher resolutions.

About Alcorn McBride:
Founded in 1986, Alcorn McBride is the leading manufacturer of show control, audio and video equipment for the themed entertainment industry, and a rapidly growing provider of audio and video systems for retail environments and transportation applications. Staffed by some of the industry’s best engineers and backed by outstanding customer support, the company has demonstrated great agility in bringing new designs to market. A hallmark of Alcorn McBride products is their durable, zero maintenance design. The company’s products provide consistent, reliable operation for audio and video playback applications worldwide. For more information, visit www.alcorn.com.

 Rampant Design Keeps Pace with Aggressive Release Schedule, Launching Four New Quicktime-Based Drag-and-Drop Elements for Real Time Effects, Transitions 

and Animated Mattes  

Orlando, FL (May 21, 2013) – Rampant Design Tools (www.rampantdesigntools.com) today announced it keeping pace with an aggressive product release schedule first revealed at NAB 2013. With this announcement, Rampant Design Tools is launching four new complete libraries of Quicktime-based drag-and-drop elements for real time effects, transitions and animated mattes.

Additionally, in celebration of its 4th year in business, Rampant is continuing its month long celebration in May – The Rampant Birthday Bash.  As part of this celebration, Rampant Design Tools is releasing new products all month and offering deep discounted bundles of up to 80% off regular price. For more information, please visit: http://rampantdesigntools.com/rampant-birthday-bash/

Rampant Design Tools offers a unique, time-saving approach for budget- and time-crunched editors who need to quickly add quality VFX or design elements to their projects. Rampant Design Tools solutions are compatible with all editing platforms and compositing applications that are able to read Quicktime files, including Adobe Creative Suite (After Effects and Premiere), Sony Vegas, Media 100, Apple Motion, NUKE, Apple Final Cut Pro, FCP X and Avid Media Composer. They are also designed to complement filmmakers and VFX artists existing workflows and integrate well with pipelines comprised of industry-leading VFX and color correction solutions.

New Elements from Rampant Design

The Rampant Design Tools team is keeping to its commitment to customers to develop new libraries of products dedicated to simplifying their workflows, and saving them considerable time and money on their projects. New products from Rampant include:

Hard Light Overlays: http://rampantdesigntools.com/product/hard-light-overlays/

120 1080P HD (1920×1080) royalty-free Quicktime Movies of light elements for video. Rampant Hard Light Overlays™ instantly add vibrance and texture to your video. These elements allow you to effortlessly take your video up a notch. Great for editors, compositors, and motion graphics artists.

Style Mattes 4: http://rampantdesigntools.com/product/style-mattes-4/

90 Drag and Drop animated Mattes for video. Modern and stylized elements that will instantly change the look of your video.

Style Mattes 5: http://rampantdesigntools.com/product/style-mattes-5/

90 Easy to use animated mattes for editors. Drop them in your timeline to instantly change the look and feel of your video.

MatteFX: http://rampantdesigntools.com/product/mattefx/

165 High Definition Animated Texture and Radial Elements for your video.  Instantly add texture to your motion graphics.

Pricing and Availability

All of Rampant Design Tools newly launched solutions are available immediately and are priced at $99.00 USD each. For more information or to purchase any of Rampant Design Tools solutions, please visit www.rampantdesigntools.com.

About Rampant Design

Rampant was founded by Visual Effects Artist Sean Mullen. With over 60 credits in feature film and television, Sean has shot and created VFX elements for network shows, feature films, private hollywood libraries and has created content for many of the major stock companies His work has touched such acclaimed Hollywood and television productions as Charmed, Ally McBeal, NCIS, Felicity, Nip/Tuck, Idle Hands, Lake Placid and Any Given Sunday.

Sean was inspired by his editor friends to create the first Rampant Design Tools – elements for his friends to mix and match and drop on their timelines that would instantly add a unique look / flavor to their videos. This inspiration essentially gave birth to many of the product lines you see at Rampant today. For more information, please visit www.rampantdesigntools.com.