22 minute read
FIELD TEST
MORE MAGIC IN RESOLVE?
Veteran DaVinci Resolve user Nina Sargsyan recently had the opportunity to test the just-launched version 18. She shares her experience with BroadcastPro ME
I have been using DaVinci Resolve from Blackmagic Design for the last few years, and every time I try a new version, I come back with a feeling of satisfaction that Blackmagic has listened to user feedback and delivered – but does the newest iteration continue to meet that standard? Let’s find out.
There are some new upgrades within DaVinci Resolve 18 that surely elevate the software to a new level, making the workflow for editors, colourists and even audio engineers smooth and seamless. It has quite a few enhancements and upgrades to already existing features; overall, there is a performance upgrade, making the software run smoother with GPUs. The overall GPU acceleration allows brush strokes to be updated in real time, giving users speed in their workflow. Depending on your personal set-up, there is a smoother output in playback and overall software performance.
The one notable change is the renaming of Database. As DaVinci Resolve users know, when you open up the software, you have your Databases available to you. Blackmagic has renamed this Libraries, a more accurate description – a small change but a welcome one.
Blackmagic Cloud Along with the new enhancements, this release also comes with a powerful new feature: Blackmagic Cloud. This new collaboration tool is a major game changer. In the new world of remote and hybrid working, it makes it super seamless
and easy for people from all over the world to work together.
What’s so great is that this feature is free to sign up for, which means no subscription fees. Users create Project Libraries on the cloud, which can then be shared with others. There is so far no limit to the number of users that can join and work on a project.
To share a Project Library, there is a fee of $5 per library per month, but this is a one-time payment per library. So, for example, I make a library and share it with a teammate working in the UK. They pay $5 and download that project, and once we are both done with it, we close down that library so there’s no further fee to pay. It is important to note that there is no media within the cloud server, so users working together remotely on projects must have the media present within that project on all sides.
The collaboration goes one step further by allowing users to see who is on the project and what page they are on. The only lock on the timeline in collaboration mode is the Edit page; this is quite handy, as it prevents changes from happening to the other shared timelines, eliminating the risk of unwanted changes. But what is great is the fact that in one project I can be colour grading, while my teammate in the UK works on adding effects within the Fusion page, saving us both time through not having to do things individually. The chat feature makes fast communication easy, and when a change is made to a project, a small Refresh icon appears next to the collaborator’s name. I can then refresh, see the changes made and move on.
All in all, this new collaboration tool makes working within the software and projects so much faster. Add the free sign-up and the nominal fee of $5 per Project Library, and Blackmagic seems to have hit the nail on the head with this one.
Finer details Some of the finer details added to the Edit page, Colour page and Audio page have made the software and projects smoother and easier. To start with, the Edit page includes a huge upgrade to the Multicam feature. Previously, users had a limit of nine angles. As an editor for so many years, I know the ability to view multiple angles at once is very important, especially in complex projects. In this release, users have the ability to view 25 angles, making editing any complex multi-cam project smoother.
The addition of Power Bin is also a major life saver. I have always used the Power Grade tool on the Colour page, but now the Power Bin on the Edit page makes editing across multiple projects a breeze. It works just like any other bin on the page, except that I have access to whatever I put in the Power Bin on every other project of mine.
For example, I have a text layer that I have animated with fade in and fade out, and I like my text size, settings, etc. I then want to use the layer in another project, but don’t want to go through the hassle of replicating everything. I simply put that text layer into my Power Bin, open up the other project – and voila, there it is. Now I simply drag and drop it onto my timeline and move on.
When I edit in Adobe Premiere Pro, I typically have to keep juggling between projects to get certain settings. This ends up eating into a lot of time. For someone like me who edits a lot of interviews,
The upgrades in DaVinci Resolve 18 are aimed at giving end users a more seamless experience.
Nina Sargsyan is Creative Director and Video Editor at DBN Production in Dubai.
Depth Map uses AI to analyse a scene in 3D and creates depth with background, middle and foreground shown as a greyscale map (below).
the Power Bin is perfect, as I don’t have to keep going back and forth when I want to add names, etc to my timelines. I just drag and drop, saving a lot of time.
The Colour page has also gotten a few enhancements worth taking note of, especially when it comes to masking. One of the major updates takes advantage of the Neural Network introduced way back in version 16 of DaVinci Resolve. The new Object Mask in the Magic Mask panel is a game changer. This little tool gives users the ability to select an individual “I think Blackmagic has really thought about how its users – colourists, editors, audio engineers or even VFX artists – perceive their workflows”
object using the selector tool; the AI engine then calculates the similar-looking area and makes sure the selection is accurate. After that, you can use the handy forward/backward tracking button, then adjust the colours via your node tree – nothing else within the scene will be affected. This gives users the ability to be creative in so many ways and create interesting looks.
In a recent project, this came in handy. I wanted to make the colours of flowers pop out. Typically, I would select the Hue curve tool and enhance the colours within the flowers; however, this time I wanted to make sure nothing else in the background with slight blue in it would be affected. I simply used the Object Mask, selected the flower area, and was done. I was able to cleanly colour and enhance only the blue flowers.
Another addition, the Depth Map, is a crucial tool we didn’t know we needed until it emerged. Taking full advantage of the neural network AI, it analyses the scene in 3D and creates a depth map showing the background, middle and foreground in the form of a greyscale map – the foreground will be bright white, the middle will be off-white, almost grey, and the background will be dark grey and black. If I want to colour grade something more
intensely in the foreground, for example the sand in a beach scene, I apply the Depth Map, wait for it to be generated, then colour that foreground sand more intensely.
As you can see in the example, the beach sand is very saturated, and you can see that reflected in the depth map. Additionally, if I want to make the horizon more blurred, I can then choose to affect only the middle portion of the map, add a blur effect – and done. I have manipulated the scene with a few small steps.
This is a very powerful tool, as it gives users the ability to be more deliberate about their colour grading and saves quite a bit of time from no longer having to apply a window mask to that section, then grade it. The only caveat is that Depth Map is slightly more processor-intensive.
Surface Tracker brings a new world of possibility to the Colour page. Users can now easily add logos or graphics, and even cover up certain elements of a frame. The tracker works by analysing the depth within the scene, then creating a mesh with multiple tracker points. Using those, you can easily attach a logo to the side of a moving car, for example. This is a handy feature to have on the Colour page, as it saves you from switching to the Fusion page, or using other software applications such as Adobe After Effects to manually add a logo.
There are other small enhancements; for example, the Beauty effect now has an added Ultra Beauty option giving colourists more control over detail recovery, texture recovery and the strength of the beauty filter, with more room to finesse the effect. Previously, I
had issues where sometimes the models within my scenes looked far too pasty and I kept having to adjust back and forth to find the right balance. Now, however, it's easier for me to adjust the smaller details, creating a smoother finish to my look and grade.
Despill is another great addition. This tool makes cleaning up images faster and easier; working on the RGB colour scale, users can now remove any colour spill. When keying green/blue screens, the Keying panel prevously offered a despill section, but it wasn’t always that handy. With this tool, cleaning up the spillover of any colour is now super easy.
Another cool new feature is Fast Noise, a handy effect giving users the ability to create fractal noise effects, adding noise to a scene and even mimicking the movement of waves and heatwaves. Simply add the effect to your desired node and adjust the settings as required.
Every editor knows that audio can make or break an edit. Adding effects, music and even vocals is an essential part of bringing any scene to life. When working on multiple timelines, you come across some effects that can be used in multiple edits. Typically, we copy-and-paste them between timelines, or even re-add them into timelines and rework everything and the settings.
Now, however, Blackmagic has given us the ability to drag one audio timeline into another; this comes into your timeline as a precomposed file. When you decompose the file, all those effects are in your current timeline, with all its settings and placements. This is especially handy when working on projects that require similar audio; instead of getting lost in the world of copying, pasting and re-adding, just easily add in the timeline and continue with your work.
Overall, I think Blackmagic has really thought about how its users – colourists, editors, audio engineers or even VFX artists – perceive their workflows. Using that knowledge and insight, it has upgraded the software to make a tool that is truly all-in-one and a major contender in the world of production. PRO
The new Object Mask in the Magic Mask panel is a game changer, says Sargsyan.
MOVING TO IP AND CLOUD: CHALLENGES AND UPTAKE
IP technology and the move to the cloud remain hot topics for broadcasters and production houses. At the recent BroadcastPro Tech Summit, industry experts explored new opportunities, existing challenges and novel ways to address them. Nicolas Hans, Partner at Broadcast Solutions MEA, who moderated this panel, shares some of the key takeaways from the discussion
According to the annual Devoncroft Big Broadcast Survey released last April at NAB, IP and cloud are the top two areas of spending for broadcast and media organisations around the world. The adoption of IP technology and the move to the cloud, however, are two distinct trends.
Where IP technology, a decade ago, was about implementing file-based workflows, today it focuses on replacing baseband signal distribution with IP-based audio and video streams. It seeks to change SDI routers to Ethernet switches and replace proprietary equipment with IT servers. In a broadcast facility, this means trading HD-SDI cabling for SMPTE-2110 signals over fibre. In remote bureaus and production galleries, it is about swapping SDI over coax for NDI over Ethernet. When it comes to distribution and remote contribution, deployments replace dark fibre with MPLS data links, and replace point-to-point DVB satellite transmission systems with encoders that use the public internet.
The move to cloud is a different story. It’s about moving servers, storage, switches or even edit suites to third-party cloud service providers (CSPs). This ’lift and shift’ of on-premises infrastructure comes down to replacing capital expenditure with operating expenses: the acquisition of IT servers is replaced by the renting of computing power from CSPs or vendors.
Exploring the opportunity to move to cloud is even more relevant since the recent announcement that AWS is expanding its presence in the Middle East. After Azure and Oracle, Amazon is deploying three data centres across the UAE. This local presence will lead to lower latency, ideal for broadcast applications, and address the requirements for a sovereign cloud that many public broadcasters have.
To better investigate this move to IP and cloud, the BroadcastPro Tech Summit featured four media professionals from production companies and broadcasters. The panel explored the opportunities and challenges of adopting these new technologies.
Raad Haddadin, Senior Vice President of Technology with Arab Telemedia Group in Jordan, shared how his group has ambitious plans to launch a linear satellite channel and OTT platform. Peter Van Dam, CEO of AV Consulting, a production company which does extensive work in Saudi Arabia, described how the Kingdom is enabling remote productions by rolling out a nationwide IP infrastructure. Ali Husseini, Director of Broadcast Operations and Creative Services with Fadaat Media, detailed how SMPTE 2110 and cloud services allow
workflow reengineering at Al Araby’s new facilities in Doha; and Srinivas Kuppa, Head of Technology with Al Mashhad, a new digital platform recently announced by Tony Khalifa, explained the challenges of designing and implementing a new channel from scratch.
Established in London in 2014, Al Araby TV is consolidating operations in Doha and betting big on SMPTE-2110. “We are running a complex project,” explained Husseini. “We took advantage of our move to really explore the benefits of IP and the cloud. We all claim that we’re going 100% IP; unfortunately, it doesn’t exist. I can say that we are about 92% there. The infrastructure is still based on a hybrid model that combines an IP core with SDI gateways. Today, that’s probably the best you can do for news and sports channels.”
At Arab Telemedia Group, a regional production house operating for forty years, in-house IP infrastructure remains file-based, as detailed by Raad Haddadin. “We are already working with 2K and 4K, and we recently invested in a post-production system which gives us the ability to produce in 6K and can even take us up to 8K.”
IP is mainly opening new opportunities in terms of distribution: “We are using our thousands of hours of archived content to launch a new channel, which will mainly leverage all our library of TV shows. This free-to-air channel will also have a very strong presence on all OTT, TV and mobile platforms. We’ll explore various business models: VOD, SVOD and subscriptions.”
Designed as a digital-first platform, Al Mashhad adopted a hybrid architecture. “We never considered putting our core headquarters in the cloud,” explained Srinivas Kuppa. “We considered a full IP implementation; however, because of supply chain issues, we had to revisit our aspirations and adopt a hybrid approach.” The core of the channel relies on standard SDI infrastructure, while contribution and distribution leverage IP. Bureaus take advantage of NDI and SRT contributions.
As a live production house, AV Consulting witnessed first-hand how IP technology is enabling hybrid remote production in Saudi Arabia. “I was one of the drivers behind the new media network in Saudi,” explained Peter Van Dam. “This media network was the first phase of combining OB trucks on-site and on-location with remote production facilities. To do so, the infrastructure needs to be there. The first part that was put in place is an MPLS network between the main sports and entertainment venues of 10Gbps. The set-up is redundant with main and backup links and can scale up to 40Gbps. On top of that, we have 3Gbps internet connectivity in most venues. This combination is ideal for us to start focusing on cloud-based production.”
Cloud enables new workflows – if you can afford it The adoption of cloud technology greatly varies by industry, Haddadin explained. “It depends where you work as a CTO. When you’re working in a news environment, it’s different than when you are working in a post-
Peter Van Dam, CEO, AV Consulting LLC
Srinivas Kuppa, Head of Technology, Al Mashhad
production or entertainment environment. It depends on what your business requirements and budgets are. It also depends on the city or country you are working from: the internet is not stable in all countries. Eventually we will shift to the cloud.”
For live production, cloud brings flexibility, as Van Dam illustrated. “The Super Bowl was a production for the Saudi Sports Company (SSC) and was aired on MBC and across several OTT platforms. The production and commentating were completely done in the cloud. This gave us great scalability and flexibility. The footprint was very small. We had two technicians onsite and a small production team. We were on location five days prior to the event. We made fifteen- to twenty-minute contributions each day leading to the competition and ran a five-hour production on game day. We integrated local live feeds with remote commentary via the cloud, and it all worked fine.”
At Al Araby, Husseini took set up in the cloud. As for storage, at the end of the day you still need to have it on-premises, because when you are producing 2K, 4K – and right now we have 8K cameras – you can imagine the file sizes that you need to store. The cloud is too dependent on how stable the internet speed you have is, not to mention the cost of storage. When it comes to post-production, producing movies, TV shows and documentaries, storage-wise it’s not the best option for us.”
the drastic decision to move the channel’s archives to the cloud. “We started an initiative with one of the leading partners in the market to extract media from our archives, clean it, create fresh metadata based on our requirement, and upload the corresponding proxies to the cloud. So regardless of whether the content is in London or stored in Doha, the low-resolution proxy copy will be available on the cloud and remain accessible to everyone. We will use the linking stitching method between these low-res proxies and the highresolution files available on-premises.”
This move was motivated by logistics and the need to improve legacy workflows. “In my career, I did two types of digitisations and moved hundreds of hours of content across continents, and each time it was a painful and costly transition,” explained Husseini. “But the drive was the workflow. In a typical ENG operation, a correspondent shoots in the field, edits on his or her laptop, and uploads the package eventually using a file accelerator. Then a media manager downloads it, approves it and checks it into storage to make it available to other journalists.
“One of the tricky parts is when correspondents are looking for archived material. They usually leave black inserts in their package. They send it back to base. The archivist and the media manager will find a new, archived piece. They will put it in the headquarters and then it will be sent for playout and distribution. With this cloud platform, we want archives to be accessible to everyone. Content creators, contributors, correspondents … anyone who wants to access the media will have access to it. You create your rough cuts, your marks, your EDLs, and then the cloud platform will do the stitching and linking back to base.”
For post-production facilities the cloud remains too costly, according to Haddadin. “You can have some servers and some edit workstations Cloud and IP deployment: A Pandora’s box “One of the challenges when implementing IP and cloud in your operations is the unknown,”
explained Husseini. “We call it the Pandora’s box effect. When you are building from scratch, you explore every single product, every single workflow and map the right tools to each workflow. Many industry vendors will claim that they have the end-to-end solution, but none do. When you start digging deep inside these workflows, you start to discover issues. One of the challenges is that you need to know when to stop, because it can be endless and you can keep on going forever. So my advice is to focus on the foundation, focus on the infrastructure, make it scalable and future-proof, and release new workflows as distinct work packages in an agile way.”
To fight this effect, Srinivas Kuppa suggested, “Vendors should focus more on a solutioncentric approach rather than a product-centric approach. Why I say this is because different vendors have different types of expertise and have a variety of solutions. If their solutions do not interconnect with each other
Nicolas Hans, Partner, Broadcast Solutions Middle East and Africa, moderated the discussion.
on the cloud within the same data centres, the gaps will increase.”
Collaboration is key Asked what advice they would give to CTOs and technical teams transitioning to IP and cloud, panellists had different takes.
For Haddadin, bandwidth costs and data security are the priorities. “Make sure there is no interruption in service, and compare the cost of deployment in the cloud with the deployment of on-premises hardware. What’s more, check with cloud vendors to make sure that your data is fully secure. Because most of the time, they tell you that ‘our servers are secure’, but they never mention whether the data is secure. They tell you that ‘our system is stable, your servers are stable, everything is secure’, but what about the data itself?”
For Husseini, training is key. “I think that vendors need to invest more time into free open-source learning platforms – make these available, allow for tests and trials to help people familiarise themselves. They need to set up more conferences and more accreditations for technology and operational staff. Technology can be very advanced and proven, but if you don’t find the right people to operate it, why should you need it?”
For Van Dam, research and innovation are key. “Keep on trying, keep on testing, keep on checking. Don’t stay with one vendor, but look at the other ones. Look at possible combinations and work together with vendors. Don’t give up, and try to push yourself and the people around you. That’s the main thing. Keep everybody in the loop and keep everybody alert and challenge them. Let them try, let them fail. Let them try again. I believe the risk is decreasing with most of the platforms that we can use today. The real risk is that we are getting more channels, we are getting more OTT platforms. We need to create more content and people still want to have quality, and we can’t count on people building OBs and big galleries that we only use a few days each week and that will not serve anyone in the long run.”
For Kuppa, the road ahead is clear. “Cloud is coming. IP is coming. It is a migration, the path that we must adopt. Be ready for it. That’s my advice. Be ready. Be prepared with smart metadata and get ready for the future. It’s coming.”
