Here’s a report on the NAB show I attended last week in Las Vegas. For those of you who see my reports each year, welcome to this new format – it’s the first time I’m posting the report on my blog site. For the uninitiated to this convention, please read the following introductory paragraph. I previously distributed a pdf version of my report using e-mail. The blog format is more efficient, allows for easier distribution and reading on a wider variety of devices, including tablets and smartphones – and allows comments from my readers. I hope you enjoy this new format – and of course please look around while here on the site – there are a number of other articles that you might find interesting.
Intro to NAB
The National Association of Broadcasters is a trade group that advocates on behalf of the nation’s radio and television broadcasters. According to their mission statement: NAB advances the interests of their members in federal government, industry and public affairs; improves the quality and profitability of broadcasting; and encourages content and technology innovation. Each April a large convention is held (for decades now it’s been held exclusively in Las Vegas) where scientific papers are presented on new technology, as well as most of the vendors that serve this sector demonstrate their products and services on the convention floor.
It’s changed considerably over the years – originally the focus was almost exclusively radio and tv broadcast, now it has expanded to cover many aspects of production and post-production, with big software companies making a presence in addition to manufacturers of tv transmission towers… While Sony (professional video cameras) and Grass Valley (high end professional broadcast electronics) still have large booths, now we also have Adobe, Microsoft and AutoDesk. This show is a bit like CES (Consumer Electronic Show) – but for professionals. This is where the latest, coolest, and most up-to-date technology is found each year for this industry.
Comments and Reviews
This year I visited over 80 vendors on the convention floor, and had detailed discussions with probably 25 of those. It was a very busy 4 days… The list was specifically targeted towards my interests, and the needs of my current employer (Technicolor) – this is not a general review. All information presented here is current as of April 24, 2012 – but as always is subject to change without notice – many of the items discussed are not yet released and may undergo change.
Here is the abbreviated list of vendors that I visited: (detailed comments on a selection of this list follows)
Audio-Technica U.S., Inc. Panasonic System Communications Company GoPro Canon USA Inc. Leader Instruments Corp. ARRI Inc. Glue Tools Dashwood Cinema Solutions
Doremi Labs, Inc. DK – Technologies Leica Summilux-C Lenses Forecast Consoles, Inc. Sony Electronics Inc. FIMS/AMWA/EBU Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA)
Tektronix Inc. Evertz Snell DNF CONTROLS Miranda Technologies Inc. Ensemble Designs Venera Technologies VidCheck EEG Enterprises, Inc Dolby Laboratories
Lynx Technik AG Digimetrics – DCA Wohler Technologies, Inc. Front Porch Digital Blackmagic Design Telestream, Inc. Ultimatte Corporation Adobe Systems
Adrienne Electronics Corp. PixelTools Corp. Red Digital Cinema Signiant Da-Lite Screen Company LLC Digital Rapids DVS Digital Video Systems
CEITON technologies Inc. Planar Systems, Inc. Interra Systems Huawei Eizo Nanao Technologies Inc. G-Technology by Hitachi Ultrium LTO NetApp Photo Research Inc.
Cinegy GmbH Epson America, Inc. Createasphere Harmonic Inc. ATEME Sorenson Media Manzanita Systems SoftNI Corporation Envivio Inc Verimatrix
Rovi MOG Technologies AmberFin Verizon Digital Media Services Wowza Media Systems Elemental Technologies Elecard Discretix, Inc. Panasonic System Communications Company
3D @ Home Consortium 3ality Technica USC Digital Repository
In addition to the technical commentary, I have added a few pictures to help tell the story – hope you find all this informative and enjoyable!
On final approach to Las Vegas airport (from my hotel room)
It all started with my flight into Las Vegas from Burbank – very early Monday morning: looking forward to four days of technology, networking, meetings – and the inevitable leg-numbing walking of almost 3.2 million sq ft of convention halls, meeting rooms. etc.
Las Vegas: convention center in the middle
Zoomed in view of LVCC (Las Vegas Convention Center) - not a bad shot for 200mm lens from almost 1000 meters...
The bulk of all the exhibits were located in the four main halls, with a number of smaller venues (typically for pre-release announcements) located in meeting rooms and local hotel suites.
Vegas from hotel window (with unintended efx shot in the sky - had iPhone up against the window, caught reflection!)
The Wynn provided an easily accessible hotel location – and a good venue for these photographs!
Wynn golf course - just as many deals here as on convention floor...
Ok, now onto the show… {please note: to save me inserting hundreds of special characters – which is a pain in a web-based blog editor – please recognize that all trade names, company names, etc. etc. are © or ® or TM as appropriate…}
Also, while as a disclaimer I will note that I am currently employed by Technicolor, and we use a number of the products and services listed here, I have in every case attempted to be as objective as possible in my comments and evaluations. I have no commercial or other relationship with any of the vendors (other than knowing many of them well, I have been coming to NAB and pestering them for a rather long time…) so all comments are mine and mine alone. Good, bad or indifferent – blame me if I get something wrong or you disagree – that’s the beauty of this format (blog with comments at the end) – my readers can talk back!
Adobe Systems link – the tactical news was the introduction of Creative Suite 6, with a number of new features:
- Photoshop CS6
- Mercury real-time graphics engine
- 3D performance enhancements
- 3D controls for artwork
- enhanced integration of vector layers with raster-based Photoshop
- better blur effects
- new crop tool
- better 3D shadows and reflections
- more video tools
- multi-taksing: background saving while working, even on TB sized files
- workspace migration
- better video compositing
- Illustrator CS6
- full, native 64bit support
- new image trace
- stroke gradients
- inline editing in panels
- faster Gaussian Blurs
- improvements in color, transform, type, workspaces, etc.
- InDesign
- create PDF forms inside ID
- better localization for non-Arabic documents (particularly for Farsi, Hindi, Punjabi, Hebrew, etc.)
- better font management
- grayscale preview with real pre-press WYSIWYG
- Premiere
- workflow improvements
- warp stabilizer to help hand-held camera shots
- better color corrector
- native DSLR camera support to enhance new single-chip cameras used for video
- and many more, including rolling shutter correction, etc.
- not to mention Lightroom4, Muse, Acrobat, FlashPro, Dreamweaver, Edge, Muse, Fireworks, After Effects, Audition, SpeedGrade, Prelude, Encore, Bridge, Media Encoder, Proto, Ideas, Debut, Collage, Kuler and more…
In spite of that, the real news is not the enhancements to the full range of Adobe apps, but a tectonic shift in how the app suite will be priced and released… this is a bellweather shift in the industry for application pricing and licensing.. the shift to a true SaaS model for consumer applications – in a subscription model.
For 20+ years, Adobe, along with Microsoft and others has followed the time-honored practice of relatively high-priced applications, very rigorous activation and restrictive licensing models, etc. etc. For instance, a full seat of Adobe Master Collection is over $2,500 retail, and the upgrades run about $500 per year at least. With significant updates occurring each year now, this is an amortized cost of over $1,500 per year, per seat. The new subscription model, at $50/mo, means a drop to about $600 per year for the same functionality!
This is all an acknowledgement by the software industry at large that the model has changed: we are now buying apps at $1-$5 each for iPhone, iPad, etc. – and getting good value and excellent productivity – and wondering why we are paying 100x and up for the same functionality (or less!) on a PC or Mac… the ‘golden goose’ needs an upgrade.. she will still produce eggs, but not as many, not as fat…
Adrienne Electronics link
The AEC-uBOX-2 is a neat little hardware device that takes in LTC (LinearTimeCode) from a camera and turns this into machine control TC (RS-422). This allows pro-sumer and other ‘non-broadcast’ cameras and streaming content sources to feed a video capture card as if the NLE (NonLinearEditor – such as FinalCut) was seeing a high-end tape deck. This allows capture of time code associated with content to ease many editorial functions.
AMWA (Advanced Media Workflow Association) link
This group (previously known as AAF – Advanced Authoring Format) is one of the industry’s important bits of glue that helps make things ‘interoperable’ – the word that is more often than not uttered as a curse in our industry.. as it’s as elusive as the pot of gold at the end of the rainbox… and we are missing the leprechauns to help us find it..
Led by the pied piper of Application Specifications – Brad Gilmer – this group has almost single-handedly pushed, prodded, poked and otherwise heckled many in our industry to conform to such things as AS02, AS03, etc. – which allow the over-faceted MXF specification to actually function as intended: provide an interoperable wrapper for content essence that carries technical and descriptive metadata.
Amberfin link
The makers of the iCR – one of the best ingest devices on the market, have added even more functionality. The new things at the show: UQC (Unified Quality Control – combination of autoQC with operator tools allowing for combination QC for highest efficiency workflows for QC) and Multi-Transcode (which allows up to 8 nodes of transcoding on a single multi-core machine).
ARRI link
The ARRI ALEXA camera is in reality an ever expandable image capture and processing device – with continual hardware and software upgrades that help ameliorate its stratospheric price… v7 will add speed and quality to the de-Bayer algorithms to further enhance both regular and high-speed images; offer ProRes2K; LCC (LowContrastCurve); etc. The next release, v8, will add DNxHD 444; ProRes2K in high speed; vertical image mirroring (for Steadicam shots); post triggering (for nature photographers – allows ‘negative’ reaction time); and auto card-spanning for continuous shooting across flip/flop memory cards to not lose shots even when card capacity reached.
ARRI + Leica - match made in heaven...
Angenieux link
The Optimo series of cinema camera lenses by Angenieux are of the the highest quality. In particular, they have the DP 3D package – a pair of precisely matched lenses for ease of image capture using stereo camera rigs. The tracking, focus and optical parameters are matched at the factory for virtually indistinguishable results on each camera.
Oh Angie... (Angenieux lens)
ATEME link
The KFE transcoder – the product I am familiar with – continues to move forward, along with other efforts within the larger ATEME family. One interesting foray is a combined project with Orange Labs, France Télévisions, GlobeCast, TeamCast, Technicolor and Doremi, as well as the Télécom ParisTech and INSA-IETR University labs – to reduce the bandwidth necessary for UHDTV – or in real world-speak: how the heck to ever get 4K to the home… currently, the bandwidth for 4K delivery is 6Gb/s uncompressed, or about 1000x higher than a typical home connection… even for modern technology, this will be a hard nut to crack..
On other fronts, ATEME has partnered with DTS to offer DTS Neural Surround into the transcoding/encoding workflow. The cool thing about DTS’ Neural Sound technology its upmix capability. It can simulate 7.1 from 5.1, or 5.1 from stereo. I have personally listened to this technology on a number of feature film clips – comparing with originally recorded soundtracks (for instance, comparing actual 7.1 with the simulated 7.1) – and it works. Really, really well. The sound stage stays intact, even on car chases and other fast movements (that often show up as annoying phase changes if not done very carefully). This will allow better delivery of packages suited to home theatre and other environments with demanding users.
The Titan and Kyrion encoders have improved speed, capabilities, etc. as well.
Blackmagic Design link
HyperDeck has added ProRes encoding capability; DesktopVideo will support AdobeCS6 when released; and the new Blackmagic Cinema Camera. The camera is a bit of a surprising move for a company that has never moved this far upstream in capture before: to date they have a well-earned reputation for video capture cards, but now they have moved to actual image capture. The camera accepts EF lenses, has a 2.5K resolution, built-in SSD drive for storage, 13 stop dynamic range, DNG (RAW) files, as well as option to capture in ProRes or DNxHD. And it’s under $3,000 – (no lens!) – it will be interesting to see how this fits in the capture ecosystem…
Canon link
Ok, I admit, this was one of the first booths I headed for: the chance to get some hands on time with the new Canon EOS-1D C DSLR camera… the Cinema version of the recent EOS1 system. It records full 4K video (4096×2160), has their log-gamma as well as the Technicolor CineStyle plugin, for the best color grading. 18 megapixels at 4:2:2MJPEG 4K isn’t bad for a ‘little’ DSLR camera… and of course not new, but their glass is some of the best in the business.. Canon also introduced a number of new video zoom lenses for broadcast TV cameras, as well as true Cinema cameras (EOS C500) – 4K uncompressed (RAW) output – for external recording onto that trailer of hard drives you need for that data rate… <grin>
Their relatively new (introduced at CES in January) PixmaPro-1 12 ink printer is awesome for medium format fine-art printing, and for those with Pentagon type budgets, the PROGRAF iPF9100 is incomparable: 2400dpi native; 60″ wide roll paper (yes, 5 feet wide by up to 60 feet long…); and ok – it is $16,000 (not including monthly ink costs, which probably approach that of a small house payment…)
new Canon EOS1
when you're getting ready to drop a $1,000,000 or more on cameras and lenses, you have to see what is what.. so vendors build full scale operating evaluation stages for buyers to try out hardware...
one of Canon's four lens evaluation stages...
model had about 20 huge video lenses trained on her - she's looking at this guy with a little iPhone camera wondering what the heck he's doing...
An awesome lens: 200mm @ F2.0 - at 15 ft the depth of field is less than 1 inch! The image is knife-sharp.
MonsterGlass. If you really need to reach out and touch someone, here's the 400mm F2.8 Canon - tack sharp, but it will set you back about $35,000
the Canon iPF9100 printer: 5 ft wide print size, 12 ink, beautiful color
Ceiton Technologies link
Ceiton provided German engineering focused on sophisticated workflow tools to aid firms in automating their production planning and control. As we know, file-based workflows can become horrendously complex, and the mapping of these workflows onto humans, accounting systems and other business processes has been absolutely littered with failures, blood and red ink. Sony DADC, Warner, Raytheon, AT&T, GDMX, A+E and others have found their solution to actually work. While I personally have not worked for a company yet that employs their solution, I have been following them for the last 5 years, and like their technology.
They have a modular system, so you can use just the pieces you need. If you are not a workflow expert, they offer consulting services to help you. If you are familiar, and have access to in-house developers, they provide API definitions for full integration.
Cinnafilm link
Dark Energy, Tachyon… sounds like science fiction – well it is almost… These two products are powerful and fascinating tools to de-noise, restore, add ‘film look’, and otherwise perform just about any texture management function needed to content (Dark Energy); and if you need multiple outputs (in different frame rates) from a single input – faster than a speeding neutrino, then look to (Tachyon). An impressive and powerful set of applications, each one available in several formats – check their site. Also need to mention that seldom do I get as detailed, concise, eloquent and factual explanation of some complex technology as Ernie Sanchez provided (COO, Cinnafilm) – trade shows are notoriously hard on schedules, and I felt like I had a Vulcan mind-meld of info in the time I had available. Also thanks to Mark Pinkle of MPro Systems for the intro.
Dashwood Cinema Solutions link
This company makes one of my two favorite 3D plug-ins for stereoscopic post-production (the other being CineForm). They have two primary tools I like (Stereo3D CAT and Stereo3D Toolbox) – the first is a rather unique stereoscopic analysis and calibration software. It lets you align your 3D rig using your Mac laptop with high precision, and during a shoot allows constant checking of parameters (disparity, parallax, etc.) so you don’t end up with expensive fixes after you have torn down your scene. Once in the edit session, the 3D Toolbox plugs in to either Final Cut or After Effects, giving you powerful tools to work with your stereoscopic captures. You can manipulate convergence, depth planes, set depth-mapped subtitles, etc. etc.
Digimetrics link
This company provides, among other products, the Aurora automated QC tool for file-based content. With the speed required of file-based workflows today, human QC of large numbers of files is completely impractical. The Aurora system is one answer to this challenge. With a wide range of test capability, this software can inspect many codecs, containers, captions, and other facets to ensure that the file meets the desired parameters. In addition to basic conformity tests, this application can perform quality checks on both video and audio content. This can detect ‘pixelation’ and other compression artifacts; loss of audio and audio level checks (CALM); find ‘tape hits’ (RF dropouts on VTRs), and even run the so-called Harding analyzer tests (to meet FCC specs for photo-sensitive epilepsy).
Digital Rapids link
Digital Rapids has long been one of the flagship applications for industrial-strength transcoding and encoding of content. They are continuing this tradition with enhancements to both their Stream and Kayak lines: some of the new features include: UltraViolet support (CFF files); Dolby Digital Plus; DTS-HD and DTS Express; and the highly flexible multi-format capabilities of the new Kayak/TranscodeManager platform. Essentially, the GUI on the Kayak/TM system lets you design a process – which is then turned into an automated workflow! I believe the namesake for this product (Kayak), aside from being a palindrome, is supposed to convey the ‘unsinkable’, ‘flexible’ and ‘adaptable’ characteristics of this little boat type.
There are only a few enterprise-class encoding/transcoding solutions in the marketplace today – DR is one of them. I’ve personally used this platform for over 8 years now, and find it a solid and useful toolset.
Dolby Laboratories link
For a company that built its entire reputation on audio, it’s been quite a jump of faith for Dolby to significantly enter the visual space. They now have several products in the video sector: a 3D display system for theaters; a 3D compression technology to transmit 2 full-sized images (not the usual anamorphically squeezed ‘frame compatible’ method) to the home; a precision Reference Monitor (that is simply the most accurate color monitor available today) – and now at the show they introduced a new 3D display that is auto-stereoscopic (does not require glasses).
The Dolby 3D display is based on an earlier Philips product that uses (as do all current auto-stereoscopic displays intended for home use) a lenticular film, that in conjunction with a properly prepared image on the underlying LCD panel, attempts to project a number of ‘views’ – each one offering slightly different information to each eye, thereby creating the disparity that allows the human eye-brain system to be fooled into thinking that it is seeing depth. The problem with most other such systems is the limited number of ‘views’ means that that the user’s eye position in relation to the screen is critical: step a few inches to one side or the other from the ‘sweet spot’ and the 3D effect disappears, or worse, appears fuzzy and distorted.
This device uses 28 views, the most I have seen so far (others have used between 9 and 11). However, in my opinion, the 3D effect is quite muted… it’s nothing as powerful as what you get today with a high quality active or passive display (that does require glasses). I think it’s an admirable showing – and speaks to the great attraction for a 3D display that can dispense with glasses (the stand was packed the entire show!) – but this technology needs considerable work still. If anyone can eventually pull this off, Dolby is a likely contender – I have huge respect for their image processing team.
DVS link
This company is known for the Clipster – a high end machine that for a while was just about the only hardware that could reliably and quickly work with digital cinema files at 4K resolution. Even though now there are other contenders, this device (and it’s siblings: Venice, Pronto, etc.) are still the reference standard for high resolution digital file-based workflows. The Clipster has ingest capabilities tailored to HDCAM-SR tape, camera RAW footage directly from RED, ARRI, Sony etc. It can also accept Panasonic AVC-Ultra, Sony SR, Apple ProRes422/444 and Avid DNxHD formats. One of its strengths is its speed, as it utilizes purpose-built hardware for encoding.
Eizo link
Eizo is a provider of high quality LCD monitors that are recognized as some of the most accurate displays for critical color evaluation. They have a long history of use not only in post-production, but across many industries: print, advertising, medical, air traffic control and other industrial applications. The ColorEdge family is my monitor of choice – I have been using the CG243W for the last 3 years. For the NAB show, a few new things were brought to the floor: a 3D LUT (LookUpTable) that provides the most accurate color rendition possible, including all broadcast and digital cinema color spaces – so that the exact color can be evaluated across multiple potential display systems. This device also supports DCI 2K resolution (2048×1080) for theatrical preview. In addition, they showed emulation software for mobile devices. This is very cool: you measure the mobile device (while it is displaying a specialized test pattern), then the table of results is copied into the setup of the Eizo monitor, and then you can see exactly what your video or still will look like on an iPad, Android or other device.
Ok, we’ve had a fair tour so far – and here all that’s moving are your eyeballs… I walked about 6 miles to gather this same info <grin> that’s one of the big downsides of NAB – and why ‘shortest path planning’ using the little “MyNAB” app on the iPhone proved invaluable (but not perfect – there were the inevitable meetings that always seemed to be at the other end of the universe when I had only 10 minutes to get there). This year, it was hot as well – 30C (86F) most days. Inside is air-conditioned, but standing in the cab lines could cause dehydration and melting…
trade shows always have two things in common: lower back pain and low battery life..
The absolute best thing about a short time-out at NAB: a bench to sit down!
Now that we are rested… on with some more booths…
Elecard link
This company, located (really!) in Siberia (in the city of Tomsk) brings us precision software decoding and other tools for working with compressed files. They make a large range of consumer and professional products – from SDKs (SoftwareDevelopmentKits) to simple video players to sophisticated analysis tools. I use StreamEye Studio (for professional video analysis), Converter Studio Pro (for transcoding), and Elecard Player (for playback of MPEG-2 and H.264 files). All the current versions were shown in their booth. Their tools are inexpensive for what they offer so make a good addition to anyone’s toolset.
Elemental Technologies link
Elemental is a relatively new arrival on the transcoding scene, only founded in 2006 and really just in the last few years have they matured to the point where their products have traction in the industry. Their niche is powerful however – they make use of massively scaled GPUs to offload the processing of video transcoding from the normal CPU-intensive task queue. They have also made smaller stand-alone servers that are well suited to live streaming. With nVidia as their main GPU partner, they have formed a solid and capable range of systems. While they are not as flexible as systems such as Digital Rapids, Rhozet or Telestream – they do offer speed and lower cost per stream in many cases. They are a good resource to check if you have highly predictable output requirements, and your inputs are well defined and ‘normal’.
Front Porch Digital link
Front Porch makes, among other things, the DIVA storage system along with the SAMMA ingest system. These are high volume, enterprise class products that allow the ingest and storage of thousands to millions of files. The SAMMA robot is a fully automated tape encoding system that automatically loads videotape into a stack of tape decks, encodes while performing real-time QC during the ingest, then passes the encoded files to the DIVA head end for storage management. In addition they have launched (at NAB time) a service called LYNXlocal – basically a cloud storage connection appliance. It essentially provides a seamless and simple connection to Front Porch LYNX cloud service – at a smaller scale that a full DIVA system (which has had LYNX support built in since version 6.5)
Both Omneon and Rhozet are now part of Harmonic – whose principle product line is hardware-based encoding/transcoding for the broadcast and real-time distribution sector. Omneon is a high end vendor of storage that is specific to the broadcast and post-production industry, while Rhozet, with their Carbon and WFS transcoding lines, serves file-based workflows across a wide variety of clients.
I have personal experience with all of these companies, and in particular have worked with Omneon and Rhozet as they are extensively used in a number of our facilities.
The Omneon MediaGrid is a powerful and capable ‘smart storage’ system. It has capabilities that extend beyond just storing content – it can actually integrate directly with applications (such as FinalCut), perform transcoding, create browse proxies, manage metadata, perform automatic file migration and even host CDN (ContentDistributionNetworks). It was one of very, very few systems that passed rigorous scalability and capacity testing at our Digital Media Center. One of the tests was simultaneously supporting HD editing (read and write) from 20 FinalCut stations at the same time. That’s a LOT of bandwidth. And our tolerance was zero. As in no lost frames. None. At NAB Omneon announced their selection by NBC for support in the Olympic Games in London this summer, along with Carbon transcoding.
Rhozet, which came on the scene with the Carbon Coder and Carbon Server (transcoding engine and transcode manager platform) has been a staple of large scale transcoding for some time now. Originally (and still) their claim to fame was a lost cost per seat while maintaining the flexibility and capability that are demanded of many file-based workflows. In the last few years, the ecosystem has changed: Carbon Coder is now known as ProMedia Carbon, and the WFS (WorkFlowSystem) has replaced the Carbon Server. WFS is highly amenable to workflow automation, and basically designed to ingest, transcode, transfer files, manage storage, notify people or machines, and many other tasks. The WFS can be interfaced by humans, scripts, API calls – and I suppose one of these days by direct neural connections…
WFS integrates with actual ProMedia Carbon nodes for the actual transcoding, and can also directly integrate with the QCS (QualityControlSystem) of Rhozet for live QC during the workflow, and with Microsoft Enterprise SQL Database for reporting and statistical analysis.
INGRI;DAHL link
This is the only virtual booth I visited 🙂 But Kine and Einy have a great small company that makes really hip 3D glasses. Since (see my earlier review on Dolby and other auto-stereoscopic displays) we are going to be needing 3D glasses for some time yet – why not have ones that are comfortable, stylish and stand out – in a good way? Yes, they are ‘passive’ – so they won’t work with active home 3D tv’s like Panasonic, Samsung, etc. – but they do work with any passive display (Vizio, RealD, JVC, etc.) – and most importantly – at the theatre! Yes, you get ‘free’ glasses at the movies.. but consider this: if you’ve read this far, you’ve seen a 3D movie in a theatre -with glasses that fit well and are comfortable, right…?? And… one of the biggest challenges we have today is the low light level on the screen. This is a combination of half the light being lost (since only 50% at most reaches each eye, with the alternate polarization), poor screen reflectance, etc. Although it’s not a huge difference, these glasses have greater transmittance than the average super-cheap movie-theatre glasses – therefore the picture is a little bit brighter.
And they offer a set of clip-on 3D glasses – for those of us (like myself) who wear glasses to see the screen in the first place – wearing a second pair over the top is a total drag. Not only uncomfortable – I look even more odd than normal… Check them out. The cost of a couple of tickets will buy you the glasses, and then you are set.
Interra Systems link
Interra makes the Baton automated QC analyzer. This is a highly scalable and comprehensive digital file checker. With the rate of file manufacture these days, there aren’t enough eyeballs or time left on the planet to adequately QC that many files. Nor would it be affordable. With a template-driven process, and a very granular set of checks, it’s now possible for the Baton tool to grind through files very quickly and determine if they are made to spec. Some of the new features announced at NAB include: wider format support (DTS audio, MKV container, etc.); more quality checks (film grain amount, audio track layout, etc.); closed caption support; verification efficiency improvements; audio loudness analysis and correction (CALM); new verification reports and high availability clustering.
Manzanita Systems link
Manzanita is the gold standard for MPEG-2 multiplexing, demultiplexing and file analysis. Period. Everyone else, in my professional opinion, is measured against this yardstick. Yes, there are cheaper solutions. Yes, there are more integrated solutions. But the bottom line is if you want the tightest and most foolproof wrapper for your content (as long as it’s MPEG-2 Program Stream or Transport Stream – and now they’ve just added MP4) – well you know where to go. They are a relatively small company in Southern California – with a global reach in terms of clients and reputation. The CableLabs standard is what most VOD (VideoOnDemand) is built upon, and with their muxing software (and concomitant analyzer), Manzanita-wrapped content plays on just about any set top box in existence – no mean feat.
New things: CrossCheck – a fast and lower cost alternative to the full-blown Transport Stream Analyzer; MP4 multiplexer; Adaptive Transport Stream Mux (for mobile and “TV Everywhere” apps); integration of DTS audio into Manzanita apps; and a peek at a highly useful tool (prototype at the show, not a full product yet): a transport stream ‘stitcher/editor’ – basically allows ad insertion/replacement without re-encoding the original elementary streams. Now that has some interesting applications. If you have a thorny MPEG-2 problem, and no amount of head-scratching is helping, then ask Greg Vines at Manzanita – he’s one of our resident wizards of this format – I can’t remember an issue he has not been able to shed some light on. But buy something from them, even the really inexpensive (but useful and powerful) MPEG-ID tool for your desktop – no one’s time is free… 🙂
MOG Solutions / MOG Technologies link
MOG is a Portugal-based firm (MethodsObjectsGadgets). So now, in addition to world class sailors, great port, we have excellent quality MXF from this country of light and history. I’ve worked with them extensively in the past, and they make a small but powerful set of SDKs and applications for processing the MXF wrapper format. The core is based on the Component Suite from MOG Solutions – a set of SDKs that allow wrapping, unwrapping, editing and viewing of MXF containers. This underlying code is integrated into a number of well known platforms which allows the growing ubiquitous reach of this standards-based enabling technology.
As a new arm, MOG Technologies was formed to offer some new products that are differentiated from the core code provided by the parent MOG Solutions. They have introduced the mxfSPEEDRAIL to offer SD-HD/SDI ingest, file-based ingest, digital delivery and real time playback. The recorder handles multiple resolutions and multiple formats: SD or HD, any normal frame rate, natively encodes to QuickTime, Avid, MXF, AVCIntra, DNxHD, DVCProHD, XDCAM/HD, ProRes. Many other features. Also accepts files in any of those formats.
Panasonic link
Panasonic offers a wide array of professional video products, from cameras, monitors, memory cards, mixers & switchers, etc. Probably one of the more interesting products is the 3D camcorder: AG-3DP1. This is ‘bigger brother’ of the original AG-3DA1. The newer model has slightly better pixel count, main difference is better recording format: true AVC-Intra instead of AVCHD, and 10bit 4:2:2 instead of 8bit 4:2:0 It’s almost twice as expensive, but still very cheap for a full 3D rig ($35k). This camera has numerous limitations, but IF you understand how to shoot 3D, and you don’t break the rules… (biggest issue with this camera is you can’t get close to your subject, since interaxillary distance is fixed) you can make some nice stereo footage at a bargain price.
With such a wide range of products, it’s impossible cover everything here. Check this link for all their NAB announcements if you have a particular item of interest.
Photo Research link
This is one of the best vendors of precision spectrometers. This is a must have device for precision optical measurements of color monitors. While calibration probes and software can calibrate individual monitors of the same type, only a purely optical spectrometer can correlate readings and match devices (or rather give you the information to accomplish this) across different technologies and brands – such as matching (to the best degree possible) CCLF LCD to LED LCD to Plasma. If you are serious about color, you have to have one of these. My preference is the PR-655.
RED Digital Cinema link
Well.. now we have arrived at one of the most popular booths at the show. The lines waiting to get in to the REDray projector went around the booth.. sometimes twice.. As has often been the case in the past, RED has not done incremental – they just blow the doors off… 4K playback in 3D by real lasers in a small box that doesn’t cost the budget of a small African country?? and a home version as well (ok, still 4K but 2D). And of course they still make an awesome set of cameras… the Epic is well, epic?? Of course, with almost obscene resolution and frame rates, copious data rates have forced allowed RED to vertically integrate.. you now have RED ROCKET so you can transcode in real time (what ARE you going to do with 2 x 5K streams of RED RAW data squirting out of your 3D rig… you did remember to bring your house trailer of hard disks, correct?? Anyway, just go their site and drool, or if you have backing and the chops, start getting your kit together…
RED camera
RED 3D (in 3ality rig)
RED skirt/bag
couldn’t resist…
rovi – MainConcept link
Now owned by rovi, MainConcept has been one of the earliest, and most robust, providers of software codecs and other development tools for the compression industry. Founded in 1993, when MPEG-1 was still barely more than a dream, this company has provided codecs ‘under the hood’ for a large majority of compressed video products throughout this industry. Currently they have a product line that encompasses video, audio, muxing, 3D, transcoding, streaming, GPU acceleration and other technologies as SDKs – and applications/plug-ins for transcoding, decoding, conversion and codec enhancements for popular NLE platforms.
I personally use their Reference Engine professional transcoding platform (does just about everything, including Digital Cinema at up to 4K resolution), the codec plug in for Adobe Premiere and various decoder packs. The plug-in for Adobe will advance (to support CS6) by the time the new version of Premiere releases…
Schneider Optics link
A great many years ago, when such wonderful (and now a bit archaic) technologies such as 4×5 sheet film was the epitome of “maximum megapixels” [actually, the word pixel wasn’t even invented yet!] the best way to get that huge negative filled up with tack-sharp light was a Schneider “Super Angulon” lens. I still remember the brilliance of my first few shots after getting one of those lenses for my view camera. (And BTW, there is not a digital camera out there, even today, that can approach the resolution of an 4×5 negative on Ilford Delta100 stock… when I scan those I am pulling in 320 megapixels, which, even in grayscale (16bit) is about 500MB per frame.. almost sounds like RED data rates <grin>. At the show, Dwight Lindsey was kind enough to share a detailed explanation of their really awesome little adaptive lenses for the iPhone camera: they have a fisheye, a wide angle, and are just about to release a telephoto. These high quality optics certainly add capability to what’s already a cool little camera. (for more info on the iPhone camera, look elsewhere on my blog – I write about this consistently)
Signiant link
Signiant is one of the major players in enhanced file transfer. They have a range of products dedicated to highly secure file movements over global networks. They offer a combination of high speed (much better utilization that TCP) as well as security strong enough to pass muster with the security/IT divisions of every major studio. They offer highly capable workflow engines – it’s not just a souped-up FTP box… Management, scheduling, prioritization, least-cost routing – all the bits that a serious networking tool should possess.
With the ability to transfer over the internet, or direct point-to-point, there is real flexibility. An endpoint can be as simple as a browser (yet still totally secure), or a dedicated enterprise server with 10Gb fiber connectivity. This toolset can be an enabler for CDNs, and automatically redirect content formats as required to fulfill anything from set top boxes to mobile devices.
Snell link
Formerly Snell & Wilcox, since the merger with ProBel the combined firm is now just Snell. A long time front-runner in broadcast hardware, and a recognized world leader in television conversion products, Snell has continued to adapt to the new world order – which still BTW uses a LOT of baseband video! The conversion to pure IP is a ways off yet… and for real day-to-day production, SDI video is often king. The combined company now offers a wide range of products in such categories as control & monitoring; routing; modular infrastructure; conversion & restoration; production & master control switching; and automation/media-management. Too many things to go into detail – but do check out Momentum – announced at NAB: their new unified platform for managing complex workflows across multiple screens.
SoftNI link
Subtitling/closed captions. Done well. Their products handle basically the full range of world broadcast, cable, satellite, OTT, etc. distribution where there is a need to add subtitles or closed captions. The capabilities extend to theatrical, screening rooms, editorial, contribution, DVD, etc. etc. The software handles virtually all non-Arabic languages as well (African, Asian, European, Middle Eastern).
Sony link
With probably the largest booth at NAB, Sony just boggles the mind with the breadth and depth of their offerings. Even though the consumer side of their house is a bit wilted at the moment, the professional video business is solid and a major part of so many broadcasters, post-production and other entities that it’s sort of like part of everyone’s DNA. There’s always a bit of Sony somewhere… HDCAM-SR? DigiBeta? XDCAM? and so on.. Here’s just a minuscule fraction of what they were showing: compare the PMWTD300 3D camcorder to the Panasonic discussed earlier. Very similar. It’s basically a 3D XDCAM/HD. And they are getting their toes in the water with UHD (UltraHighDefinition) with their 4K ‘stitch’ display technology. Had to laugh though: the spec sheet reads like a fashion magazine: “Price upon Request” – in other words, just like buying haute couture from Dior, if you have to ask, you can’t afford it…
8K x 2K display! (2 x 4K displays stitched together...)
one of the displays above... the small red box is detailed below
close-up of red outline area above.. I focused as close as I could get with the iPhone - about 2" from the screen - you can just barely see the pixels. This is one sharp image!
Tektronix link
Tektronix has been a long standing provider of high end test equipment, with their scopes, waveform monitors and other tools being seen in just about every engineering shop, master control and OB van I’ve ever seen… but now, as with most of the rest of our industry, software tools and file-based workflows demand new toolsets. Their Cerify platform was the first really capable automated QC analysis platform, and it is still capable today. At the show, we saw upcoming improvements for v7 – the addition of audio loudness measurement and correction (in conjunction with Dolby technology), as well as other format and speed enhancements.
Telestream link
The company that brought us FlipFactory – aka the universal transcoding machine – has spread its wings a lot lately. While FF is still with us, the new Vantage distributed workflow system is like a tinkertoy set for grownups who need to make flexible, adaptable and reliable workflows quickly. With the addition of Anystream to the Telestream fold, there are now additional enterprise products, and Telestream’s own lineup has expanded as well to encompass Pipeline, Flip4Mac, Episode, etc. etc. A few of the NAB announcements included Vantage v4.0 (CALM act compliance, new acceleration technology, better video quality); Vantage HE Server (parallel transcoding for multiscreen delivery); and enhanced operations in Europe with the opening of a German branch.
Verizon Digital Media Services link
VDMS is a big solution to a big problem. The internet, as wonderful as it is, handles small packets really, really well. Little bits of emails, even rather big spreadsheet attachments, zip around our globe in large numbers, with the reliability and fabric of many interconnected routers that make the ‘net what it is. But this very ‘fabric of redundancy’ is not so wonderful for video.. which is a data format that needs really fast, smooth pipes, with as few stops as possible. It’s not the size of the highway (those are big enough), but rather those toll stations every 5 miles that cause the traffic jams…
So… what do you do? If you own some of the largest private bandwidth on the planet, that is NOT the internet.. then you consider providing an OTT solution for the internet itself… This has the potential to be a game-changer, as video delivery – through a true unicast system – can be offloaded from the internet (not completely of course, but enough to make a big difference) and turned into a utility service.. well, kind of like what a phone company used to be… before landlines started disappearing, analog phones checked into museums, and pretty much everyone’s talking bits…
This could be one of our largest digital supply chains. Let’s see what happens…
VidCheck link
There are several cool things in Bristol, UK (apart from the weather) – the British Concorde first flew from Filton (suburb of Bristol) in April of 1969 (a bit after the French version – yes, this was the forerunner of AirBus – the original distributed supply chain… and hmmm…. seems like, as usual, the Brits and the French are still arguing…) – in more recent years this area has become a hub of high-tech, and some smart engineers who cut their teeth on other automated QC tools started up VidCheck. In my view, this is a “2nd generation” toolset, and brings some very interesting capabilities to the table.
This was one of the first to be as capable in fixing errors in a file as in just finding them… It handles a very wide array of formats (both containers and codecs – it’s one of the few that processes ProRes). Another unique aspect of this toolset is the “VidApps” – which are plug-ins for common NLEs – QC/fix now becomes part and parcel of the editorial workflow. Particularly with audio, this simplifies and speeds up corrections. NAB announcements included: the new “VidFixer” app – which is designed from the ground up to integrate into workflow automation systems as well. In addition, the VidChecker software is now part of the new Amberfin UQC (UnifiedQualityControl) platform – providing the same detailed and rapid analysis, but integrated into the Amberfin platform.
Wowza link
We can never seem to get away from multiple formats. First we had NTSC and PAL, then VHS and Beta, then different types of HD, etc. etc. etc. Now we have tablets, smartphones, laptops, Dick Tracy video wristwatches, etc. – all of which want to display video – but in a universal format? No such luck… Silverlight, HLS, HTML5, WideVine, Flash, TS, …… enter Wowza, who essentially is a ‘transmuxer’ (instead of a transcoder) – since usually the elementary streams are ok, it’s the wrappers that are incompatible. So basically the Wowza server skins a potato and re-wraps it in a banana skin – so that what was a Flash file can now play on an iPad… of course there’s a bit more to it… but check it out – it just might save you some migraines…
and wow – you’ve stuck through till the end – congratulations for your perseverance! Here’s a bit of my trip back as well, in pictures…
Sort of like life: Easy / Hard
There’s always several ways to do a workflow…
end of the day - SHOES OFF!!
Convention is ending – and believe me it takes its toll on feet, legs, backs…
Sunset on Encore
Wynn reflected in Encore
the Starship Enterprise has landed...
Walking back from a meeting at the Palazzo…
heading back to hotel...
convention over: now 100,000 people all want to leave airport at the same time - no seats. nowhere...
your roll-on also makes a good seat...
finally, Southwest flight #470 is ready for take-off...
please put your legs in the upright and locked position to prepare for take-off...
It took almost as long to get luggage in Burbank as it did to fly from Vegas... waiting... waiting...
still waiting for luggage...
The Return
someone else we know and love came back from Vegas on our plane...
homeward bound...
That’s it! See you next year just after NAB in this same space. Thanks for reading.
