NZVNJune2013 by Grant Cummuskey

JUNE 2013

NAB 2013 - Las Vegas - Part Two Last month, I led with the theme of 4K. Naturally, there were other products and services that weren’t 4K or even needed to be but, nevertheless, were good improvements in technology in their field. I didn’t notice any real “break -through” products but a number that were smaller, faster and cheaper than before. For example, in the “smaller” category, the WEVI and Marshall video transmission systems were highlights; for “faster”, there were the Fusion io and HP’s Z820 while for “cheaper”, Avid MC, helicopters and Atomos recorders were all surprises. In the “I’m not so sure” category, the Adobe Creative Cloud model has yet to convince me that it’s better for me; the plethora of cheap LED lights can’t all be as good as they claim and the increasing buyout by some managed fund companies of small, highly technical manufacturers – sacrifice good technology for immediate profits? We need to keep a watch on good brands going bad because of the new owners’ business model. I think I’m right in commenting that advances in many areas have narrowed the technology spectrum. It’s getting harder and harder to make useful improvements at the “top end” while the bottom is getting pushed up to meet it. A good example is the mobile phone camera. There are segments being broadcast that were shot on mobiles; the GoPro sized camera is being used more and more in combination with high end camera material, and what constitutes a “broadcast” editing programme is no longer a question anyone asks. So, how do you know what’s good? Reading it here is a start; then there’s web research and, most valuable of all, there’s the relationship you have with a supplier that you have shared for a long time and has served you well. I know some people play the game of going around the dealers and saying “X offered me this price, what’s yours?” and good luck to them I say. I prefer to know that I’m being offered a fair price that has an expectation of good service behind it should something go wrong. Maintaining a successful business is finding a good balance between cost and benefit. Anyway, enough of my business model, read on and increase your knowledge of what’s now available to us all. Ed. See if you can guess what the photos are of. Answers on page 3.

Vol 192

Adobe for DVT We’re at Adobe with Dave Helmly and Stuart Barnaby for DVT. Ed: Dave, look, I’ve just got working with Premiere 6 and now you’ve launched 7. I mean, come one, what can I do? Dave: Well you can join the Cloud right. So right Grant if you join the Cloud revolution … Ed:

The Cloud or the Crowd?

Dave: The crowd is going to the Cloud, so if you join the Cloud revolution, you’ll never be out of date again. Imagine, you can pay a small amount each month and never be out of date. There’s a train leaving Adobe every month and on that train are updates that will just start to download. There will be movies to tell you what those updates are and new camera support, new plug in support, maybe transitions, maybe major upgrades. As a Cloud member, you are never out of date … and it’s a lot less expensive than just buying the programme outright. Now if you want to pay us a lot of money upfront, I’m sure there’s a way we can work that out. Ed: Is this a good thing for you Stuart, as a reseller in New Zealand? Stuart: Yes absolutely, we’ve got more and more people taking on the Cloud option because it gives them flexibility in a broader range of applications that they can use. You don’t have to be an expert in all of them – certainly we video guys have a very strong focus on the video world, but using InDesign and Illustrator and some of the other apps that we may not necessarily use, to be able to have them at your disposal and to be able to use them as you need to, it’s increasingly become an option that more and more people are embracing. Ed: But how does this allow you to keep in contact with your customers? Stuart: Oh we’re in constant contact with our customers, because we give them advice around their solutions, production workflows, the best methods of working between the applications – all that sort of stuff. There’s a lot of work that we do as a reseller and of course we’re involved in doing their renewals for their subscription to the Creative Cloud as well. So there’s lots of touch points that we have with our customers. Ed: So a customer can still do this through you rather than go on the Adobe website? Stuart: Absolutely. We’re a member of the VIP programme and can roll out the Creative Cloud for all of our customers. Dave: One of the things Grant, you bring up a very good point with Stuart. We actually have a new

David from Adobe.

concept called Cloud Teams. These guys are going to be all about selling teams. So if you go into a corporation, they may not want their individual users downloading these updates. That can be fully controlled by them back in IT to decide how these updates could apply or not apply; as a customer might bring in new employees, or employees leave, they can start to take those users down or add them. Complete control. In our reseller network, our systems integrators are a valued part of that to actually give that to the customer and make it easy. So there’s all sorts of different options. A lot of people get confused by the individual option, like maybe I’m a student and I’m paying US$19, kind of an individual licence for everything, or US$29 or US$49 in a different user. But that’s kind of a one off; that’s like I’m just by myself doing my thing, but when you start moving into work groups and things, it’s a whole different deal and that’s where we need the “smarts”, if you will, of a reseller. There’s all sorts of programmes for them and I think customers are going to count on your knowledge. These guys are the trusted advisers, they’re working hand in hand with Adobe. Adobe is big on partners.

Go to www.finnzed.co.nz and follow the link to NZVN for more news. The top pic shows six GoPros mounted in a 3D printed holder. The images can be stitched together to provide a spherical point of view. The lower picture is not an IUD for a blue whale, but a TV transmitter - just don’t ask me for any tech details. Page 3

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Adobe is really the first one to go to the Cloud in this way. You know we’ll see people like Microsoft going into the Cloud, but some people have told me they’re not exactly excited about the next font that comes out right. So maybe subscription works for some models and some people looking at this, but when I show them what can happen with new plug in support … there’s a new camera coming out all the time. We just saw some new ones, that awesome little PC, Personal Cinema from Blackmagic – I’m a big fan of looking at that. I have 15 of those lenses by the way. Ed: So in other words we don’t have to wait for the next release to get the codec support for a new camera? Dave: Now that’s a great example. A lot of people don’t realise this and maybe your readers would like to know – there are government restrictions that we cannot upgrade the product unless we can reach like 80% of the market with that notification that this has

been updated. So there’s all sorts of restrictions and trade restrictions that now prevent us from doing that, because we have, as I said, a train that leaves every month with features on it; and a lot of people want to know how often do I have to touch the Cloud to verify my licence? Well let me tell you, I think you’ll be touching the Cloud a lot just checking on updates. Ed: Hang on, what if you don’t like the updates that you come up with? Dave: Well then you don’t have to upgrade them. You’ll have your choice of whether or not you want to upgrade or not. Ed:

But can you go back?

Dave: You can go back, absolutely. You can actually go back a version, so wouldn’t it be great if you started with us in CS6 and you want to go back from the current version and because of a compatibility issue you’ll have that access. That’s very powerful and I don’t think there’s anybody else doing this. Also with products like Encore, a lot of people are asking about Encore … you know you’ll have full access to Encore CS6. Now we feel that Encore is a very mature robust DVD and Blu-ray authoring system, right – not a whole lot more I think we can do for that now …

Ed:

You could make it a bit easier to use?

Dave: Oh I love Encore – I dunno, some users might say that there’s lots of training videos but you know it uses Photoshop and things. You bring up a valuable point Grant, if it’s not easy to use then you’ve maybe suffered through how to use it, because it is a scripting type programme. We’re not changing that on you either, so the tool’s going to stay the same. So long as you have access to it, and there’s compatibility to the existing versions, I think we’ve done our homework. Ed: Okay, now let’s look at what is new in CS7 in terms of Premiere especially? Dave: Right, so we should do a retake, it’s not called CS7. Ed:

Aaaah okay.

Dave: We just call it the new version. Just so you guys know there’s a new marketing campaign which is coming out – the next version … Ed:

So the next version of Premiere?

Dave: Okay so we’ve been working on lots of things Grant. First of all we’ve had people who have been very frustrated ( and I don’t blame them ) with our relinking. Relinking has never been a pretty thing in Premiere Pro – I think you guys would agree? After Effects has actually done a fairly decent job. I’m going to come in here and unlink these files. This is really cool … I’m going to make these offline. So that’s typically what you would see. Now all you have to do in the new model, I could click on a folder or an individual file; I’ll click on the folder where all the files were and say link that media. As you’ll see here, you get a whole new dialogue box, linked by a file name – you can turn it on or off because you might have changed the file name, extensions, tape, start, align, relink others automatically. My favourite is to use the media browser to link and locate those files. So I’m going to hit that; that brings up the media browser, I got display exact names and look I can Hover Scrub over that; if the name doesn’t match I can make sure that’s the clip I want. Once I click “okay” it instantly brings everything back online. So it’s a very intelligent link programme. I think a lot of people will really dig that thing. The new timeline … if you look at some of this timeline that’s here, you’ll see that it’s got audio waveform, so now you’ve never seen that before. That’s because I have this ability now to hit my scroll wheel here to make these go up or down. I can also right mouse click and go to “customise” and I can decide what buttons, where these menu meters live or audio meters live, and have much more control. Once I design this the way that I want it, I can come up here and I can decide to save that as a preset. So that I think is going to be really, really powerful. Let’s say that I’m using a clip a couple of times in the video and I want to know where am I duplicating frames … am I seeing the same frames? Actually an end user came up with the idea. We can just come over here and say “show me the duplicate frame markers.” Those frames right there and right there are the same frames, so if I come over here and I start to pull some of this out, you’ll notice now I have more of the same frames repeated and that will go all throughout the

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project, they’ll start to change colours. Ed: And this is a little purple line on the lower part of the clip? Dave: Yes – a red line, green, it will start to cycle through about 10 or so different colours. That’s really cool. We’ve had a lot of people who want to know “I’ve come in and I’ve taken a razor blade to a clip and I’m moving some clips around and I want to know what clips are actually still joined together, because these clips are still joined. I made a cut, I didn’t mean to make a cut, it’s a half hour later I can’t undo.” I can go into the wrench up here and show through edit. Now you see these little bowties down here? That tells me that’s the same clip. I can right mouse click, join through edit and it heals those back together, which is pretty cool. So there’s like 200 little things like that in the new version, which is pretty neat. So let me show you some of the real nice ones that I think will make a difference to more complex projects. If I bring up a timeline, you guys know that green means “nested” typically in this, so what if I don’t want the nest, I want all the individual clips that come from that sequence. If I happen to grab a sequence and bring it over ... look at my audio as I brought this nested sequence in. It’s starting to overwrite in some places. I don’t want it to do that, so check this out. I can now drag a sequence, replace a sequence up here in the source monitor and I can drag into that if it’s one clip. So right now, there’s a button here that says “bring that in as a nest,” because I’m going to show you two ways to do this. I’m just going to take the video only and drag it here, because I don’t need the audio, or I can just take the audio. So what about if I want to bring all the clips in – look at this, I flick this button here, it’s going to break that apart into separate clips for me and allow me to take maybe just the video from that now it’s all the individual clips from the timeline. A lot of people have been asking for that. Another one is – look at that, you see feather now. I can see that that’s feathered out; you see the little purple badge right here? Ed:

Yes, that’s an effect that you add to the clip.

Dave: That’s an effect and there’s a new FX badge that’s an effects badge. What effect has been applied? I don’t know. What happens if I put an effect like maybe a three-way colour corrector and I drag this on here … how will I know what effect is on there? Now all you have to do while you’re deep in your timeline is right mouse click – oh there’s a crop with a feather, there’s a three-way colour corrector … oh look at that, I can pick three presets and be able to maybe change that. Another thing I can do that’s brand new is I can copy that and look at this … Ed: Oh, finally. Dave: Paste Attributes – we’ve brought this back. Ed: Paste Attributes … Dave: Remember from Premiere, not Premiere Pro version 5, 6 and 6.5 from like eight years ago. But we’ve added the ability to say I just want crop and no three-way … Ed: I have to ask, why would you take it out?

Dave: It just kept falling off the list, because there was 9,000 things we had to do with Premiere Pro to get it right. We can’t do it all, you would have been waiting so much … you guys expect a new version almost every year. Ed: But we expect things that we’ve used and loved to stay there? Dave: I do agree, and sometimes it’s hard, they fall off the list. Sometimes we try to prioritise, but you’re absolutely right, we should have had that one a long, long time ago, I don’t argue with that at all. Over here I wanted to show you guys that edged feather … for audio. We now have a radar sweep which will give you those government required audio levels and you can sort of sweep that, so now it’s built into both Premiere and Audition. Loudness, like loudness meter, but we call it the radar. So that’s in there. We also have looks I think are really important. There’s a lot of people who want to start seeing our new integration with SpeedGrade which also has a lot of changes in it. it’s got a lot of Premiere looks to it now – Media Browser and other things. But what if I want to be able to apply an effect for like a LUT or a look, it could be from another colouring grading programme, maybe Photoshop. I can come over here and I can type the word “LUT” or “look”, you’ll notice there’s a brand new lumatory effect. I can drag these in here and it’s going to ask me to select a look or a LUT which is pretty cool. I’m going to undo that, and what if I don’t know how to create those, but I want the advantage of that engine. Check this out, right over here you’ve got a whole library of LUTs based on some very well known Bleach Bypass; I can just sort of drag these in and have those effects. Users can just start to use that and I think this is going to be huge. Ed: I guess that’s an easy thing to sell this on, every month you can have new templates, new effects added to the package that’s there? Dave: I think this is a clear example of where we’re trying to go with a product, to make it easier for people to use. NZVN

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Dynamic Drive Pool for DVT For DVT, we are at Dynamic Drive Pool (DDP) an Ethernet based SAN. Ed: Stuart, we’ve never been here before, well I haven’t – what does this do for you? Stuart: DDP is a cost effective high performance Storage Area Network that allows for easy connectivity via either gigabit Ethernet or 10 gig Ethernet to workstations. The really key advantage is that all of the workstations are seeing the same hard drive at the same time. On top of that, DDP is a very simple and flexible way of doing a SAN because it’s just using ordinary Ethernet connectivity – either gigE or 10 gigE. You can effectively aggregate multiple connections if you want higher performance and there’s no licencing with each client that you add onto the system as well. So it’s very easy to expand your capability and either raise capacity or with the number of clients that you want to have connected to the system. Ed: So from what I understand, the hardware part of it everybody does, a lot of people do the hardware, it’s just a whole lot of drives packed in a bay and then a lot of wires connecting that to your editing platform or your network, but DDP’s secret is in the technology and the ease of adjusting or constructing that technology? Stuart: So a lot of other SAN systems that are available are very complex. You have to have metadata controllers which are separate servers that have to manage the multiple clients to make sure that they’re not writing over each other’s files and you know these systems that are quite complex in terms of the physical connectivity – you have to have one computer network to manage the metadata controllers, another network to manage fibre channel connected storage and fibre channel switchers and it can get very complex, but also very expensive. The DDP system is simply a chassis full of discs that you plug the power to and then you can take an individual connection out of the back of it to each of your client machines. So very, very simple topology to set up and of course the administration side of the system is extremely simple and easy to use as well. We are joined by Elvin Jasarevic from Dynamic Drive Pool. Ed: Elvin, is there anything more you can add to that – I mean he’s pretty clued up isn’t he? Elvin: Yes, Stuart has quite a lot of experience with a SAN storage system, so coming to our system is a much easier path as he explained. With a typical SAN system, you have two networks … one is Ethernet, one is fibre channel.

Elvin from DDP.

With our IP SAN system, there’s only one network for the performance in let’s say broadcast or postproduction. With the low res, we can use only one gigabit Ethernet but, for example, some facility working with a high definition uncompressed 10 bit would use a 10 gigabit Ethernet or fibre channel. Thanks to our technology which we called MCS (Multiple Connections per Session), we can bond two Ethernet cables and we can get an access speed of 200 megabits per second, which means you don’t have to use those expensive cards and expensive fibre optic cables. It’s basically a one stop shop. You want to connect like a low res, high res, even like a 2K or even 4K, you can plug into our system and as Stuart mentioned earlier PC, Mac, Linux, they all can share the same volume at the same time with our read and write access. Ed:

Is it easy to expand. Is it scalable?

Elvin: Yes it’s fully scalable. On the back of every system we have a Fast connector so we can add like a JBOD which means it’s just a bunch of discs without any server, which is obviously much easier and simpler and cheaper, most economical. You just have to plug it in with a Fast cable and new volumes will pop up and it takes like 2-3 minutes to be offline in order to have a new storage. Ed: So if a customer has somebody else’s system, can they add yours to their network and everybody will play nicely together? Elvin: Yes of course. For example, there are lots of customers who have an Xsan or a Bright system or something like that. You could plug in our DDP and have a simultaneous access to the current Xsan storage and DDP so you don’t have to throw away, if I can say, all Xsan system and so on; you can simply use DDP. For example, in the postproduction or broadcast we know that most of the users use Avid Media Composer or Symphony, so what you could do if you have, let’s say, Isis 5000 or Isis 7000 which are very good systems, but you know we consider that we are a little bit better and more cost effective … you could save the project on for example Isis system, but keep your media on DDP so two of them they can live together. So we are in the replacement market for those kinds of storage as well as beginning new customers every day. Stuart: One of the other major features of the DDP system is that it will do project sharing and bin locking

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for Media Composer and the way in which it does that is completely seamless to the user, there’s no third party application or other application you have to go in to set that up. You just literally open Media Composer on one of the client machines, create a new project, create the bins and import your footage. Somebody on another client machine can then open the same project at the same time, they can open the same bins, access the same media, and it does bin locking as well so that each user can have their own bins that they’ve got read and write access to it and it will lock the bins that you’ve created on one machine on the other machine, so that they can’t mess with your material, but they can still share your media and files.

So it works exactly the same as an Avid Isis 5000 or Isis 7000 system. Ed:

But at a more affordable price?

Stuart: At a more affordable price yes – no client connection fees, you can set up as many machines on it as you want, so it’s great. Elvin: Also there’s another benefit. If you have an Isis client, Isis storage, and if you mix for example PC and Mac, the system will slow down. We are always completely independent, so you can mix and match Mac, Windows OS, XP, Linux and there’s no slow down in the system. So unlimited client licences, unlimited no decision on operating system, no slowing down of the system. NZVN

Tape Lovers Corner Between scheduled stand meetings, I paused with Patrick Johnston from AheadTeK. Ed: Patrick, I was very intrigued by your sign that says “Not quite tapeless – think AheadTeK.” I guess there’s a lot of tape out there and you’re providing a solution for people who have machines that have worn heads and the manufacturers have long since stopped supplying parts? Patrick: Well that’s corPatrick points out that they can repair D1/D2 heads. rect Grant. Our company started in 1972, named CMC back then, with our have the tape in what they call a “pancake” before original product which was rebuilding Ampex quad they’ve loaded it onto cassette. So now our customers heads for the AVR series machines. Since that time are all the tape manufacturers like Fujifilm, Maxell, TDK, we’ve gone through building just about every broadcast Sony, Imation. format heads required. Right now, we’re doing a lot of Ed: Okay, there’s one area here that caught my eye U-matic, a lot of one inch still; actually we anticipate as one of the products that you potentially help people the U-matic and one inch will increase over the next few with, and that’s D1? years and there’s even a resurgence in BetacamSP. In Patrick: Yes that’s right Grant. We’ve got about the last five years, we’ve reverse engineered whatever 130 employees and we have head engineers who are the demand is. We’re a head manufacturing company, involved in video, audio, all sorts of different products, we make heads for the disc drive industry but we also and when there’s a demand for something, then we can make a recording head that is used as a tool in the apply our resources to it. To be honest, there really manufacturing process of data storage tape, like LTO. isn’t demand for D1 right now; I would say D2 is Ed: So, if you’ve got an old LTO machine and you’ve something we get a little bit more enquiries on, but we got those old LTO tapes that you didn’t get around to can definitely look at D1. migrating, there’s a chance that they could get a new Ed: There might be a job for you in the years to head and still play them? come? Patrick: No actually we don’t make the read / write Patrick: We also import and export, resell other head; these data storage formats use what’s called the components that are in video tape recorders – key Amplitude Based Server System. Their tape speed is components like circuit boards and motors and rather fast and so positioning and speed control is Pentrollers and even front panels – anything that might essential. We make a head that actually writes the break or wear out, we supply. We have over 4,000 server pattern onto the tape. On LTO for example, Sony parts in stock and maybe close to 2,000 Panasonic there’s five server bands going from one edge of the parts. tape to the other, the data recorded in between these server bands. So the recording head that we make Ed: It could be the place to go. www.aheadtek.com NZVN again writes that servo pattern onto the tape when they Page 8

HP and Matrox for DVT Stuart and I visited the HP booth and got new T-shirts. Ed: Stuart, PCs are not dead? Stuart: not …

PCs are not dead, definitely

Ed: I know you’re a Mac man, but …? Stuart: We’ve been selling HP workstations for a considerable period of time now and one of the latest incarnations is the HP Z1 which is an all in one solution, very similar to an iMac. The computer is built into the display device, it opens up very easily for adding extra componentry. And then of course our staples which are really the Z420 and Z820 now, which are the performance workstation part of the market. So if you’re building a compositing, grading, editing system, visual effects system, 3D animation system, and you want a premium quality product where you can really push the bounds on the performance, then these systems are for you. Obviously the Z420 offers you a cost effective single xeon processor workstation which we can tune up and get really amazing performance out of. But of course, if you want the ultimate machine, today you can’t beat the Z820 where you can get 16 cores of processing power, huge memory footprints; we can even put things in there like Fusion IO cards that give you extremely high performance, video IO and a range of graphics and GPUs to really fuel the performance of the machine. In fact including for Adobe for example, we can do what they call the Maximus option, which is where we marry one of the Quadro 6000 cards to a Tesla card which is like a further GPU performance card and you can really get the ultimate performance out of these machines. Ed: So all the talk of HP selling up the business about a year ago seems to have come to nothing – they’re continuing to support the PC market? Stuart: The CEO who made that announcement is no longer there! Ed: It’s easy to crash and burn in the fast lane, NZVN Stuart. Remember that. At the Matrox booth we are with Chris Barr. Ed: Chris you’ve been let loose to tell us the latest from Matrox?

Stuart from DVT.

Chris: Great for the guys that are doing small corporate events, but you could go as far as broadcast if you wanted to. There are obviously other solutions for the higher end, but if you’re looking for a cost effective solution for streaming, then the Matrox Monarch HD is the solution. Ed:

Easy to programme?

Chris: Easy to use … yes, it’s got a very simple interface – I can quickly show you. So with the actual user interface you have a chance to choose your resolution, whether you’re going to be using SD or HD and as you can see here, you can also enter in your IP addresses to where you want to stream to. That’s sort of pretty much it, so basically connect your camera up, choose your resolution, and you can also do remote recording as well. So along with streaming you can do an ISO record and they’ve got a very easy to use interface on screen, but you can also use the buttons on the front of the unit to stream, just do an ISO record or do both at the same time. Ed: Does it tell you whether the bandwidth of the Telco is capable of taking what you’re trying to send to it? Chris: You just use an IP bandwidth tester, they’re online, and so you can test what your bandwidth is for your location. I’ve got it on my iPhone – “there’s an app for that”. NZVN

Chris: Yes Matrox have got two major products that they’ve announced. One is the 4K Mojito which is a … Ed:

I thought a Mojito was a drink?

Chris: Well definitely a drink too, but Matrox have also called their product Mojito. You’re able to do 4K editing from this particular product. It’s a four 3G port video I/O card. On top of that, they’ve also released a new streaming product called the Monarch HD. Now this is a portable solution and very turnkey. It’s just a matter of plugging your source in via HDMI and then selecting your bitrate and then also putting in your streaming server URL. It’s a very small compact solution and there’s plenty of opportunities in the New Zealand market to put that in. Ed:

Chris from DVT.

Sort of a TV streaming station in a box? Page 10

Matthews for PLS Now one of the highlights of any NAB or IBC is to visit Matthews – stands, cranes, clamps, grip equipment – everything you need but it’s not that that brings me here, it’s Linda Swope. Ed:

Hello Linda.

Linda: Welcome Grant, so good to see you as always. You want to take a walk around and I can say a couple of words about some of our new stuff? Ed:

Love to.

Linda: Alright, let’s go over here to the Intel-A-Jib Lite. We introduced the jib last year and what we’ve added this year is a new under sling mount. What this does is it allows you to mount the camera underneath the jib so you get a 360 shot without the jib in the way. You could still mount it on the top, but this was highly sought after. So it’s the new Under Sling Mount for the Intel-A-Jib Lite. Ed: Wow. And the good thing is that you can mount a remote head on it of course? Linda: Yes you can definitely mount a remote head on it. Ed:

But it’s not as easy as it looks?

Linda: No, to be a jib operator is not an easy thing, because you’re controlling the jib and you’re controlling the camera and you’re controlling the focus. Ed:

Yes, I’ve decided I’m not a jib controller.

Linda:

Neither am I.

Ed: But Linda there’s a lot of jibs at this show aren’t there. Every man and his dog’s got a jib, so why are your ones so good?

Linda with her preferred mode of transport.

Linda: Ours are so good because they’re extruded out of this x-box section. It’s so strong that, when you’re doing your camera moves, when you stop, the inertia of the camera does not keep going, because this is so stable. There are some – there’s actually a couple out there that kind of look like this with the holes in the beam. Not the same, not the same. There’s some that are better, but they’re much more expensive. They do a lot more fancy things. Ed: That’s it, it’s all about that coming to a stop and I know the weak part can be either the jib or the tripod? Linda: Ed:

Exactly.

So you’ve really got to match the two?

Linda: Yes and it’s not for the lightweight version, it’s only the 100mm bowl tripod. Ed:

There’s a nice little trolley here?

Linda: Ed:

The Matthews Slider is what it’s called.

But I thought that big one was a slider?

Linda: Totally different. We have the DC Slider; this is a whole different animal. This is a very basic slider. One carriage will hold 175 pounds. It comes in three different stick sizes – 29, 35 and 45 inch, but we can make custom sizes in increments of 5 inches, up to 12 feet. You could put more than one carriage on one slider for A and B camera shots. Ed: So you can actually fit two cameras on this for A and B shots?

The under sling mount on the Intel-A-Jib.

Linda: Yes, you can fit two carriages on one slider to get A and B camera shots. You can mount it on any Mitchell tripod – it’s got a Mitchell plate, but the cool thing about it is, you can use a lot of different Matthews accessories to mount it on a baby stand or on turtle bases on the ground, or runway stands on the ground. Page 12

Ed: So this is really a heavy duty item, it’s not for your average wedding videographer? Linda: No and this is all it does, it slides back and forth. This one does the vertical … Ed: The DC Slider, that does everything? Linda: thing. Ed:

The DC Slider does every-

And in fact it’s now doing more?

Linda: The DC Slider will not hold as much weight as this. Our heavy duty DC Slider will hold about a 70 pound camera package. This is 175 per carriage, so you can get two carriages on this. It’s pretty awesome. Ed: But you’ve also improved the DC Slider? Linda: Oh yes – the DC Slider. We have the standard version and now we have the heavy duty version, so it just depends ... if you’re doing DSLR movements, you’re going to go with the lightweight because you don’t need the heavier one. If you’re going to fully load it, then you’ve got to go with the HD version. Ed: And it’s not only that, now you’ve got some controllability? Linda: Yes, with the HD Slider you can do horizontal moves, you can do vertical moves, you can do jib moves, you can take it off of the sticks and do a table top move. There are four different options with both the heavy duty slider and the regular DC slider. Ed:

But it’s now motion controlled as well?

Linda: Motion control is an option for both of them, yes. Ed: I guess that’s only motion control along the slider, it’s not for the tilt? Linda: No, in every configuration, like the one behind you. Ed: Now I guess, where the big difference comes in with the jib and a slider, is that, with the jib, you’re at a fixed distance, you can rotate and you can tilt, but you can’t get that slide. With the slider, you can move backwards and forwards but you keep it locked off on a particular angle and you don’t rotate it. I guess that’s the big difference. So your controllability is the movement along the slider and you can speed that up, slow it down and it’s all programmable? Linda:

Exactly.

Ed: So you can repeat a move again and again and it’s all controlled from a laptop? Linda: Ed:

So on the rail on the slider …?

Linda: Ed:

Uh-huh.

The HD Slider in action.

There’s not another one out there that runs on those instruments. Ed:

Wow.

Linda:

It’s a wireless system …

Ed: Okay, so that gives you tilt … right, so rather than just having a fixed position for your camera on the slider, you can now remotely control both the movements along the slider, but also the pan and tilt on the camera? Linda: Yes and it’s all programmable. software comes with the package.

The

We’re not quite sure about the price of the package yet, because it is that new; we’re doing 10 test units for a select test market to people who understand the technology and are able to work with it to get feedback … maybe you should do this, maybe you should do that improvement and kind of dial it in that way. That head will hold about 12 pounds, so it’s not a big heavy camera, but it’s pretty cool software. Ed: Ideal for the Canon 500s that you’ve got on there? Linda: Yes, and as we go forward, there’ll be more on this. Right now it’s in its infancy, but we’re pretty excited about it. Ed: So Linda over the years, I’ve seen Matthews change from just a collection of poles, very industrial design poles, to now offering really high tech equipment? Linda: You know, we still do our bread and butter grip equipment. I always will do grip equipment. But we’ve just kind of moved into newer technology and getting a little closer to the camera with some of our stuff. Believe me, we’re not going to go crazy and be the next I don’t know who – but just to diversify our line a little bit, get into different markets.

Yes we have the Matthews Makalu head …

That sounds very Hawaiian?

Linda: The inventor named it after a mountain in Indonesia I think. It’s very, very new, it’s a remote head that’s run strictly on your iPad or your iPhone, which is very cool.

We keep changing and adding and that’s how we keep growing. Ed:

Getting cleverer?

Linda:

Page 14

Yes.

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Also on the Matthews stand we have Alex Amyot. Ed: Alex, you’ve just won an award? Alex: Well it’s me for Matthews. So it’s my design, a swivelling camera platform and positioning platform. Ed:

And you called it the Lazy Suzy?

Alex: Yes, after the Lazy Susan table accessory. This product has been out for about a year now and it’s the first time it’s actually shown at a show … and we won an award for best design. Ed: Run me through why someone would need something like this? Alex: Well this actually enables you to work in really confined areas, like inside a car for example. It’s very difficult to precisely position the camera on a dolly. With this device, instead of moving your dolly tracks and your dolly and your camera, this enables you to just move the camera but keep the support in the same spot. Ed: Okay, so you can set up a dolly track and then you look through the viewfinder and you say it’s not quite where I want it, and rather than reposition everything …? Alex: Three inches over and you do it in seconds instead of like in 15 minutes. Ed: And this is really heavy duty? Alex: Yes it will support a camera package up to 75 pounds and it is virtually maintenance free, because it’s made out of aluminium, stainless steel and plastic. No lubrication whatsoever. Ed: Is this made within the Matthews factory? Alex: It’s actually built in Canada for NZVN Matthews.

Alex and Linda.

Page 15

Cineo Lights for PLS We are now at Cineo for PLS and we have Nick Shapley. Ed: Nick, you’ve met Chris, you’re impressed and now you’re supplying him with product, or have you been doing that for a while? Nick: We have been supplying PLS for a while but under different brand names. Cineo is a new company, it’s been going for about two months and originally True Colour HS was part of PRG; it’s now been brought away from PRG, so there are two products in the range. There’s the True Colour HS line and then there’s the LS product, which is the baby Nick is very happy with his Cineo lights. version which is being launched here for the first Nick: Oh totally, yes. There’s no colour shift time. The HS is about a 400 Watt draw, it has the when you dim down, that’s one of the great things output of 2 kiloWatt of tungsten light and you simply about the product as well. You’ve got a 160 degree change the phosphor panels in the front to give you the beam angle going from top to bottom and a 160 beam different colour temperature. So you can go anywhere angle going from left to right. So this one’s running at from 27, 32, 43, 56 and 65. about 40% power at the moment. The units are Ed: Is this a major cost saving? DMXable and you can daisy chain the power supplies Nick: It’s a major cost saving but the wonderful together, so if you want to run up to eight power thing about it is that you’ve got incredibly accurate supplies from one local socket in someone’s office or colour temperature. something like that, you can do that without any The actual phosphors are being excited by ultra-blue problems at all. LEDs that are being driven at 460 nanometres and And now there’s the baby version which is the LS. This you’re getting up to 98 CRI on the output of the one’s drawing about 150 Watts and has the output of products. approximately a 1 kiloWatt tungsten unit. Ed: So even though, at this show, there are LED lights for Africa, you’ve pretty well put yourself in the Rolls Royce end of the market?

Ed: So it’s the true colour that you get out of the Cineo product which really differentiates it from the competition? Nick: Completely, yes. The whole remote phosphor idea is very new technology and the joy of it is that the LEDs are exciting the phosphor, but they are about an inch and a half away from the actual LEDs themselves, so the great thing is that these panels at the front here don’t get hot, and so you have no change in colour temperature over the life of the product. LEDs, over many years, will begin to reduce in terms of output, but the colour temperature will remain static forever – that’s one of the great benefits of the product. The other option, by the way, on this product is there’s also a chroma and digital green panel … so for people who are lighting green screens, there’s a green panel as well which you can put in the front, which then gives you a very, very bright green light source for those chroma and digital green moments. Ed: Nick:

Some of the remote phosphor range.

And these are standard square panels? They’re standard square panels, yes. NZVN

Page 16

IDX for Panavision For Panavision, we are at the IDX stand and we have Cathy Fercano. Ed: Cathy, WEVI is obviously one of the big products for IDX and has been for a number of years. It’s been very popular and you continue to improve it. What have you got for us at this NAB? Cathy: Well we have two different versions. We have an upgrade to the CW5 and we now have a really cool little system called the CW1. I’ll show you the CW7 first – CW7, not 5. The CW7 profile looks like the CW5, however the receiver on the CW7 now also has a channel selector, which means that you can do your own multitask groupings using maybe four transmitters and however many receivers to each transmitter. Instead of having to send it in for a firmware update that you used to have to do to make this grouping work, you can now do it yourself by the turn of a dial.

Cathy from IDX.

This system also operates on what’s called Dynamic Frequency Selection. IDX has the FCC approval to use this Dynamic Frequency Selection and what that is, is that this system runs on the 5.2-5.7 Gigahertz frequency range. Within that frequency range, there are five channels that are dynamic frequency. They are

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system. Again, it’s an HDMI type, you can use a converter to go HD-SDI or SD-SDI; zero compression, zero latency even if you convert it; the distance, 330 feet. This is an unbelievable little system. It also operates on the Dynamic Frequency Selection, so you’re not going to have all this interference with the channels that it picks. Another great thing is there are no buttons to push. Once you provide power, this system is on. So it’s even more user-friendly than the CW7 or the 5 were, and those were pretty darn easy. Different types of power options for this … if you happen to have a camera that has USB that provides power, as many of the Sony’s do, then it’s great, you’re just going to connect directly into the camera and pull the power from there. If not, there are a couple of other options. You can either use a backup cell phone battery or we make adapters. This adapter allows you to mount the transmitter, then there’s an angled adapter that you’d make the connections to. This comes with a shoe mount adapter. Right now, we’re using the batteries that we make for JVC which are going to run the transmitter for about 9-10 hours. Same thing for the receiver. The receiver does come with an AC adapter, so if it’s going to go into a switcher or a monitor that’s not going to be mobile, then you could just use the AC adapter that it comes with. You can use up to four of these systems within the same area. Ed: The WEVI CW7 plus IDX battery.

Ed: Are you still saying these are only for monitoring purposes, or are you now admitting that in fact you can use this for recording quality footage? Cathy: Well you can, it has worked its way into many different genres of the industry. You know, initially made for reference monitoring, it’s just kind of grown from there, yes. Ed:

And now for the smaller person?

Cathy: Yes, so we have the CW1. It’s an HDMI type system; the transmitter is just a little larger than a USB stick; the receiver is smaller than a deck of cards – very, very light, I mean just ounces is the weight of this

I guess each one comes with its own frequency?

Cathy: No, it has five frequencies that it’s going to pick from with the Dynamic Selection. Each one will lock in. If you had an absolute perfect environment, you could use five systems, but we say it’s always nice to leave one channel open. Ed: So if you’ve got such a powerful package in such a small amount, why would you go for the 7? Cathy: Well because the 7 gives you other options. You can use one transmitter to multiple receivers or multiple transmitters with multiple receivers all within the same environment. It really depends what you’re doing. We see the multicast grouping like with the 7, those are more for like films, large scale productions … Ed:

Is there any difference in the picture quality?

Cathy:

No. The CW1 is unbelievable. Ed: So whatever resolution you put in at the HDMI connection, you get out at the other end? Cathy: Exactly. What you put in is exactly what comes out. And the basic system itself, transmitter, receiver, AC adapter and some cables is going to run you just under US$1200. You cannot beat it; people are raving about it. A two year warranty, there’s no repairs; if there’s a manufacturer’s defect for any reason, you just contact us, send back both pieces and we send you a brand new unit. Ed:

You can’t get better than that?

Cathy: No you can’t, you really can’t. We have lots of different accessories – we have a travel case that will hold the entire kit; you can get everything, the power, the adapters, the travel case, the wireless receiver and transmitter for US$2200.

The WEVI CW1 combo. Page 18

Ed:

It sounds like a bargain?

Cathy:

It is.

Ed: And not to be left behind in the IDX range, batteries which we see on the backs of many broadcast cameras in crowd shots, obviously popular worldwide … you’ve got a new DUO battery? Cathy: Yes sir, we have two new Endura DUOs. We have a DUO-150 which is a 146 Watt hour battery. We’ve integrated two D-Taps and a USB port, which makes it really handy for powering other equipment, charging your iPad, your cell phone, whatever may come. We have also now put an angle to our LED readout, so instead of having to go to the side of the camera to see it, you can see it from the front of the camera which makes it a bit more convenient. The DUO-95 is a 91 Watt battery; again two D-Taps, a USB port, both batteries are safe for carry on, so there’s no issues there and we think these are going to be a really big hit with the industry.

The IDX battery range

Ed: And a good addition to the DUO range? Cathy: Yes, absolutely.

NZVN

Sachtler for Panavision For Sachtler, we’ve got Greg Hamlin to tell us about the Sachtler Ace L. Ed:

This looks like a very elegant little tripod?

Greg: Absolutely. It’s our new Ace L, the payload is up to 13.2 pounds; designed for ease of use, lightweight and ergonomic; delivers best in class performance with a drag system and the Sachtler engineering delivers balance, accuracy and control. Ed:

And it’s an advance on an earlier model?

Greg: It is, yes. We’re looking at a price point of about US$1100 and it kinda steps up from the Manfrotto and gives us “way to” for the DSLR folks. Ed: You’ve got a DSLR on at the moment, but with that sort of payload, you could actually take a small video camera? Greg: You could, it will take up to 13.2 pounds, so even an EX1 or something like that you could go with. Ed: Okay, and this comes with a base spreader and a nice carry bag? Greg:

That is correct, yes, all is included.

Ed: What are the features that make different from any competition out there?

Greg: You’ve got the drag here for accuracy and then the centre fluid control … it’s Sachtler so you know it’s good, it’s going to last. Ed: It’s got that name on it hasn’t it? That’s something that’s probably worth a dollar or two? Greg: That’s correct, absolutely, and for field use it’s going to be good.

Greg from Sachtler.

Ed: And a small thing, but one that looks very nice, there’s a nice rubber grip on the pan handle?

Greg: panning.

Page 20

Yes, for control, for easiness in use of NZVN

Tiffen Filters for Panavision For Panavision we are at Tiffen Filters with Carey Duffy from London Filter Co. Ed: Carey, we’re just watching a demo on the screen here of a Pro-Mist filter. Tell the readers what they should be seeing? Carey: This demo just shows in a test environment, the basic principles of diffusion filters, which are optical softness, contrast or contrast reduction … the optical softness will show how much fine detail is removed; anything from the material in the top to skin tone and hair. And then we have a practical lighting shot which then shows the halation that the filter may introduce to a light source. Our artist in the film brings a hard specular light to show how a moving light or a direct light may be affected, as opposed to the softer light which is constant and fixed position. Ed: So is this reducing the clarity of a high definition picture? Carey: All diffusion filters reduce to some extent the clarity. “Clarity” is a global word, yes. There are different portions of clarity we relate to in diffusion – (1) is resolution, (2) is contrast. Contrast can be changed. We actually design specific contrast filters, or through diffusion filters through the scattering of light into shadow area; and then halation which is more of an aesthetical clarity within the image where a light flumes. Ed: So the purpose of this is obviously not to make the picture look sharper, but to make it look better? Carey: Yes, aesthetically better. Which diffusion any DP would want to choose is his aesthetical choice and we’re increasing our manufacture and design of diffusion filters, because cinematographers have had one of their great tools reduced in their choice to produce their image. By that I mean film stock. So today, you pick up a digital camera and if it’s the same digital camera, or manufactured by the same manufacturer and you pick it up in London, Hong Kong, Sydney or LA, it’s the same. The glass, especially for Panavision, is a big difference and obviously anamorphics make a difference, but some of that difference in just straight transmission through glass can be dulled out in post. Diffusion on the other hand, yes you can add sharpness back into images, integrate it; it’s very difficult to change a halation or a flume on light that’s been spread in post … so diffusers have really – not come into their own, but are really defining how cinematographers produce their look in the camera, a lot more than just saying oh I use a ProMist or I use a black Pro-Mist and I don’t need to know about other diffusers. Well you do, because they’re one of the few tools you’ve got left. Ed: So if I summarise that, it’s to say if you were using film stock, you had a whole variety of film stock

Carey for Tiffen filters.

to give different looks. Nowadays you can’t get that look so much with a camera, but you can by adding diffusion filters? Carey: Yes, in different ways, shapes, forms or manner. Ektachrome in hard contrasty slow ASAs, bright vibrant colours … well we can do it with filters, but a lot of that gets done in post now. You know that terminology “fix it in post”? When you fix it in post, you shot it broken – post is more to do with advancing the image, not redefining the image. You know what you want the image to be defined before you get there. And if you do ( which you should do really as part of the job ) diffusers and obviously filters and NDs and polarisers you use, because they are physics and controlling the eye through the physics … this is just another way of putting a stamp onto your image and getting your look across. A lot of the times now production chooses the camera. You may want to shoot ALEXA, but you’re told to shoot on a RED or a Sony, because they got a better deal on that and even on the glass with the lenses. You know it’s hard for a DP to own every type of lens; it’s easier, although it’s expensive, to own filters and a lot of them, they give you that power. Ed: So that’s Filter Philosophy 101 – now, new product? Carey: We’ve been working on few. A few years ago, we didn’t have a black Glimmerglass. We did have a regular Glimmerglass but I thought it wouldn’t work on its own, so I asked them to combine it with a digital Diffusion/FX, which is an optical softener, so it’s a sort of dirty diffuser and optical softener. Some people have been looking at in the States recently and really like it and so I said if they really like it, like we used to have Black Pro-Mist and White ProMist ( the same filter family but different ) let’s do a Glimmerglass diffusion effect, and a lot of DPs have been saying it gives them a very nice filmic look on HD. That’s one, so we’ve got a family of filters within that range … a Black Glimmerglass Diffusion/FX and a Glimmerglass Diffusion/FX and then we’ve been working

Page 21

Ed: And I guess for camera ops who are using your filters, that it’s a case of regularly visiting the website to see the chat and see what’s going on, see what new products are coming out and what solutions are being offered? Carey: Yes of course, and they can do that through Tiffen or else by going through London Filter. In fact we’ve got our Vimeo channel on London Filter at <thelondonfiltercompany.com> Again, we’ve got this thing about 4K. Some people are using 4K because they’ve got double the screen space to reframe the image. Well that’s interesting, because it’s a different way of using 4K. Then we’ve got at the show now, a lot of anamorphics coming out, and anamorphic’s a great glass, it’s a really organic way of watching stuff and the filters will work slightly differently with anamorphic, the densities and choice, for some DOPs than they will for aspherical. So we’re talking to manufacturers if there are opportunities like with the ALEXA, where you now can put your filters at the back instead of in the front; we’re designing triple and quadruple stacked single filters so that you have less glass in the front, so less internal reflection, so taking IRND in a diffuser or IRND diffuser and a polariser. So we’re trying to really home in on what more individual customers want, because one look, ie Pro-Mist doesn’t fit everything. You’ve got to have lots of different looks. Ed: That’s it, and that’s how a DOP sells himself, is the look that he or she creates? Carey: with 4K sensors and the resolution with that, because 4K … well, it’s quite interesting the way 4K is used. If you use 4K, you’ve got a lot of information and you’ve got a lot of clarity and that clarity isn’t always beautiful. Some of that clarity is amazing and it gives fantastic images, clean crisp, sharp, vibrant. But there’s “A Lister” talent out there who wants bright, crisp, vibrant whether they turn up in the morning or in the afternoon or the evening or whenever they turn up, so they’ve got to be looked after. So we’ve been designing a filter with Steve Poster, the president of the Local 600 here in the US, and president of ICG and it’s a combination of a couple of our diffusers to give a really glamorous rich expensive look. Ed:

It’s like putting lipstick on a pig?

Carey: Yes … there’s a lovely story that a DP told me that he used to use a double fog on a lot of his footage he shot on film. The production company didn’t use him once and then they called him back in … they said we called you back because you make it look so expensive – and he just used a double fog. It’s a lovely story about how a filter can evoke the way that a product or something should look and feel; a really simple thing to use rather than hours in post. So we’ve been designing this filter with Steve Poster and we’re showing it here and a few people have shot tests and really like it, and again we’ll do a black version, because we’ll have to do a dirty version, or a dirtier diffused version. That’s because it keeps things sharp upfront, but gives this lovely glow, different to other stuff that we’ve produced. And that’s what it is, like you said, no film stock, you’ve got sensors now. Lenses within reason can be dulled out with their colour specs, and so it’s about being able to craft your image, and all of the crafting of images is now just down to the glass – lenses and the filters. And so we’ve just got to make a wider range for more people to be able to play with. Page 22

Exactly.

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Sony at NAB2013 PART 2 – with Nick Buchner Ed:

And in the smaller camera area?

Nick: We’re showing a new wireless adapter for our XDCAM camcorders – that covers our PMW-200 and PMW-150 handheld models as well as shoulder-mount XDCAM camcorders. The CBK-WA100 is a wireless adapter that fits the side of the camera and allows a 3G or 4G modem / dongle from whichever network provider you choose, to be inserted. This then allows store and forward capabilities where full resolution content can be taken from the camera’s memory and transmitted back to a base through the 3G or 4G phone network. It’s not designed for live pictures. Alternatively, it allows a nearby production assistant or producer to view live proxy vision coming out of the camera with timecode, so they can make notes, annotations, record which are the good takes, etc. The wireless adapter has its own storage via a removable Micro SD card, which will also store proxy resolution content that can then be sent via 3G/4G, for situations where only offline material needs to be sent back to the base. Ed:

Nick with an XDCAM disc. “The next best thing to tape” Ed says.

And this camera?

Nick: The latest member of the XDCAM family that we’ve released at this year’s NAB is the PMW-400. This is a camcorder that replaces the PMW-350 2/3” three CMOS camera. It has a lot in common with the 350, with a very similar front end, although it’s been updated so the sensor block and digital signal processing are latest technology. Its capabilities are also similar to the 350, with the significant addition of 50Mbps recording. While the 350 offered just the XDCAM EX 35Mbps HD codec, the PMW-400 adds XDCAM HD422 50Mbps capability and a future option to use the new XAVC codec. This camera has also been designed with the wireless adapter that we just spoke about in mind, so there’s a nice neat space and mounting point on the side of the camera. Just as the 350 has been a very well regarded camera, very keenly priced, this will be very similarly priced, available without a lens or with a Fujinon 16x zoom.

Ed:

And it’s XDCAM and uses SxS cards?

Nick: That’s right. We used to separate XDCAM EX and XDCAM – we’ve broken down that division now, with cameras like the PMW-100, 150 and 200 all offering the 35Mbps codec that we knew as XDCAM EX, as well as now supporting XDCAM HD422 50Mbps. Recording this codec to SxS cards was first introduced with the PMW-500 shoulder-mount camera, which joined the PMW-700 and PMW-F800, which record to Professional Disc. Ed: Is there likely to be any further development in disc recording? Nick: The most recent disc-based camera that we’ve released is the PDW-680, which essentially marries a 2/3” three chip CMOS front end like the 350, to an optical disc recorder. Optical disc is extremely well entrenched globally, and particularly in Australia and New Zealand. Ed: I was talking to somebody from a large facility in Sydney and he said that over the years they’ve used thousands of XDCAM discs and they’ve had one failure? Nick: Optical disc is very reliable, it’s robust – the discs themselves can be dropped, get wet, get full of mud, crud and crap or whatever … and be cleaned out and continue to be used. Robustness is just one of the advantages of the format, but it’s also compact and relatively inexpensive, allowing productions to easily store their original camera material. Camera operators can also just hand over their discs rather than anyone having to spend time transferring from cards. Ed: Obviously some workflows are best suited to disc, while others are best covered by card-based recording. I personally like tape! Anyway, good comparison, but now we’re looking at

Page 24

monitors and the Rio Carnival is here on a fantastic 56” OLED prototype? Nick: Yes, we’re showing a prototype that has certainly created a lot of “oooohs” and “aaaahs”. This is a 56” 4K OLED monitor showing some 4K content taken at the Rio Carnival, which just proves that the Brazilians must lock all their ugly people away! Beside the 56”, we also have a 30” 4K OLED monitor. Whilst we’re already selling the PVM-X300, which is a 30” 4K LCD monitor, this prototype shows the possibilities of 4K OLED. I think you’ll agree on either score they’re quite stunning. The 30” OLED is showing Dig which we screened in Auckland in March. Not quite the Rio Carnival, but still a great demonstration of true blacks, dynamic range and resolution. Ed: I think OLED is really now accepted as being another gold standard, that everything else should be measured to? Nick: We’d like to hope so – our PVM and BVM series OLED monitors have been out for a year or two and been really well accepted in broadcast and post-production. Here at NAB we are showing the new A series, which is an upgraded version. So now it’s the BVM-E, BVM-F and PVM A series – a major difference is the use of new panels with improved viewing angle, which I think is demonstrated quite well here with an old and new monitor mounted together on a revolving stand. Ed: Wow, yes. I can see this at about 170 degrees. So you can actually upgrade your monitor …? Nick: Existing monitors can’t be upgraded; this is a new series of the BVME, BVM-F and PVM series, so for example a PVM-2541A. As well as new panels with wider viewing angles, there are some updated features such as onscreen vectorscope and focus assist, plus improved waveform and audio metering. We’ll transition to these over the next few months. Ed:

In the Sony pro audio section?

Nick: We’re not showing a lot of brand new product here, but we’ve got a number of great products

4K workflows from the editors.

that haven’t been sold in Australia and New Zealand previously. Now with the change in frequency blocks for wireless users in both countries, we hope to be selling from around June … Ed:

Oh, you know which ones they are then do you?

Nick: The products I’m referring to fall within the newly proposed blocks and outside any prohibited areas. Ed: So they’ve actually Australia have they?

had

the

4G auction

Nick: We know what frequency range will be permissible under the new licence provisions and that will be very, very similar in New Zealand, give or take a few MHz. So the very popular UWP wireless mic kits that we’ve been selling for some time will be phased out in the current 800 MHz version and we will have new versions within the 520-694MHz range. That will allow us to offer some kits we’ve never sold before, for example the UWP-V6 kit which consists not only of a receiver and a body pack transmitter with lapel mic, but also a plug-on transmitter, which can be connected to a dynamic microphone or a shotgun or whatever. That hasn’t been available in Australia or New Zealand up until now. As well as these being sold in price-effective kits, we will also now sell the body pack, handheld mic and plugon transmitters as separate items. There’s been quite a lot of demand for that from people who want a second mic, a spare mic, or they’ve bought a body pack kit and want a hand mic as well, or just a plug-on. Away from the UWP series, our high-end DWX digital wireless mic systems which have been on sale in Europe and America for some time now, again due to regulatory issues haven’t been sold in New Zealand and Australia, and we’re working very hard to see those introduced in the next few months. The imperative in New Zealand is not quite as tight as it is in Australia where we have to theoretically switch off at the end of this year, with another year’s grace period. In New Zealand, I understand your general user licence runs for several more years, but we’re hoping we’ll be able to offer the DWX models very shortly. The beauty of these, apart from them being digital and hence fantastic audio

Page 26

quality, is the versatility – with XDCAM, they go straight into the slot on the back of the camera, two channels, no extra cables needed, full control of the receiver and transmitter through the XDCAM camcorder’s menu. You can even monitor things like battery state on the transmitter and control the gain setting on the transmitter remotely from the camera. Of course as a former sound recordist, I think giving a cameraman control of anything audio is probably a bit dangerous, but that’s the way of the world with single operator crews these days! The DWX series also has body packs, hand mics and plug-on transmitters, plus the slot-in receiver for XDCAM camcorders. But we also have an adapter that will attach it to any other camera plus a really neat little adapter designed for sound recordists, which allows that slot-in receiver to be used in a sound bag alongside whatever recorder or mixer they might be using, with both analogue and digital outputs. This way, the one receiver can be used in a number of different ways. Ed: That’s very sensible and all running off a standard Sony battery? Nick: The sound recordist’s adapter – DWA-F01 – runs off an L series rechargeable Sony battery. Ed:

Okay, moving on to Ultra HD home theatre?

Nick: Unusual for NAB is that we’re showing some consumer product. As part of the whole 4K story, we’ve talked a lot about capturing in 4K, but here we’re showing two new consumer television sets that will be on sale from around July in New Zealand. 65” and 55” 4K consumer sets with stunning picture quality, as Grant is seeing here. Price was announced here as US$4,999 and US$6,999, which is a really great step forward for 4K. We do already have a flagship 84” 4K television, but that’s around US$25,000. To drive the consumer strategy, we’re also showing a 4K server that will be offered here in the US at around US$700. It’ll

Archive on optical disc for security.

Nick: Our Optical Disc Archive system continues to evolve. Just to recap, this is a new system that we launched last year which uses cartridges of optical discs – essentially XDCAM discs. The cartridges are available in varying sizes; I’m holding a 600GB one here, but we have up to 1.5TB. Very robust, with much faster access time than a competing LTO tape system. Ed:

So in terms of a cost-effective solution?

Nick: One of the key things to remember if you’re comparing this to LTO is, with every second generation of LTO you need to migrate because there’s no backward compatibility beyond the previous two generations. So you really need to factor in your future costs, both in time and in tape, plus the fact that the drives need to be maintained, etc. With Optical Disc Archive, what you’ve got on disc stays there and as we’ve seen with CD, DVD and Blu-ray, optical disc formats’ backward compatibility has never been a problem. Ed: I’m sure for a smaller facility, this is an ideal archive. Not only can you use it as a deep archive, but you can use it as an online, very quick access archive? The player is in the Perspex box.

come loaded with ten remastered 4K classic movies and there will be a download service opening up later in the year that allows download of further content. These are all examples, alongside our 4K home cinema projector, of ways that we can deliver 4K at home, certainly during the period when it’s not yet available through terrestrial, cable or satellite broadcast. Ed: And my favourite little corner – I love optical disc storage and Nick, it’s got even better since last year?

Nick: We start with a relatively small desktop drive that is exactly perfectly usable for a relatively small facility, but you can scale that right up to something like a PetaSite which is our deep archive solution. Up until now we’ve offered PetaSite as an LTO solution, but moving ahead this will become an Optical Disc Archive solution. Here we’re showing an example where we have a certain number of bins and a certain number of drives within a PetaSite frame and this can be expanded with further bins, up to massive storage capacity. NZVN

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Teradek for A2Z Now we are at Teradek with Nicol Verheem and David and Alain from A2Z. Ed: Nicol, we’re talking about the Bond and other devices for transmission of live video feeds. You have quite a range here? Nicol: Yes, we’ve got a pretty big family of devices. Everything is typically camera mount devices. I guess the cornerstone of our product line is the Cube family of H264 encoders. That’s sort of where it all started and that’s still a key ingredient of all of our systems. We also now have camera back encoders – that’s called the Brik family and then we have cellular bonding solutions and that’s David and Alain with Nicol from Teradek. called the Bond family. So for NAB 2013, we added several new family members to could be just a normal Cube or a Cube and a Bond both of those families. On the Bond side, we have Bond system; and we also have a new family of rack mount 2 and Bond Pro which is camera backed. Both of these encoders and rack mount bonding solutions. were updated to add a sixth modem so now you can So Core makes it very simple. Core is running in the use six different modems in a 3G network, but if you’re Cloud which means the encoder can contact it, the in a 4G network you can probably get by with as little decoder can contact it, both of those now being as two. Generally, you actually have enough bandwidth outbound connections, which allow you to leave your from a single good 4G connection, but you don’t have encoder on a private network like that, that’s what you reliability, because the modem might drop out and then get from a cellular connection, but also your decoder. you’re going to be off air for 30 seconds or a minute. You don’t have to open up any Firewall ports or So the more modems you have, the better chance you anything like that on the decoder side, or put your have of staying “on air” because they don’t tend to fail decoder on the public IP address because, from that together. You can do full HD broadcast quality video private IP address, the decoder can actually reach the very easily, very, very compact – it’s the size of a deck Cloud based service and then tunnel through from the of cards, two of them stacked on top of each other. We encoder. updated the mechanical design as well to better secure Ed: Is this what you’re showing here on the live demo the modems that attach to the Bond, so that these at the show? brackets can accommodate any size of the USB dongles Nicol: Yes. We’re showing the power of the which you can easily slide in and out; you just loosen Internet and why the second screen is so important. To one screw, you adjust the bracket and then you tighten give you an idea of the reach, NAB has about 80,000 it again. Quite a novel little design. We also added a attendees every year right? battery into the Bond unit itself. The Cube has always had a built-in battery, but the Bond didn’t. Now we So let’s assume 100% of them go to Sony’s booth, added a built-in battery into Bond 2 as well, which will which I think is the biggest booth here. Sony, over four allow you to do camera shots and go to air without any days, will get 80,000 visitors. In one day we had battery, without losing that connection. 106,000 unique visitors to our website for this live show. Our booth is probably 5% of the size of Sony’s, Ed: Can you also have a tap from the camera’s but it just shows you, if you use the Internet you reach battery? more people. Live is extremely important, that Nicol: Absolutely. So you can take external immediacy of live content is extremely important, but power in 6 to 28 Volts, it’s quite a nice range so you can using the Internet and not just broadcast just blows the use an Anton Bauer battery, you can use a little 5D size of the number of people you can reach out of the battery to power it. The little 5D will look like a raisin if water. you use five modems, it will just suck it dry, but it Ed: And David this is a very elegant solution for should work. The software was also updated across the distribution of live video? range. We added a lot of features requested by our David: From a portability perspective, in the field broadcast customers, for example IFB now allow us to which is where our applications have been for camera to send audio back to the field from the headphone output field monitor for production, the Cube product has been that’s on the bonding unit. We also have remote superb because you can get two products for the Cube. encoder control; we have fleet management – we have You can either have HDMI if you’ve got a small DSLR rig a new product called Core which manages a fleet of or a smaller camera with HDMI output or indeed HDencoders. It doesn’t have to be bonding encoders, it Page 28

Ed:

So this has been used already in New Zealand?

David: We’ve recently used the Cube product for Next Top Model where the directors needed to see pictures. We didn’t actually record those feeds, because the Bolt wasn’t out then, but certainly on the Cubes, brilliant monitoring feed. Ed: I guess that the real value in New Zealand is going to be when we’ve got two 4G networks? Alain: Yes. Currently Vodafone is the only carrier that has a 4G LTE network available and they haven’t covered a lot of the country yet, but we’re hoping to see that improve by the end of the year. I think with two Vodem Sticks with LTE SIM cards, you should be able to connect with the Cube and Bond system. Ed: So in fact you don’t need two providers, you just need one provider but two sticks? Alain: Yes, I mean it’s best to have 2 or 3 or 4 providers – Sky have a system that uses up 9 or 10 SIM cards at the same time, so that you can cover a larger range of the coverage in New Zealand, which means if one carrier drops signal, it will auto-switch to another carrier. But if you have two Vodafone or two Telecom or even three of each in your system, then that should give you the best reliability. Ed: So this, I guess, for a roving News person, is the ideal system within New Zealand, that you just can be a one man person and fire stuff back to head office from anywhere you happen to be?

SDI and get a wireless feed through to your monitor so you can have directors monitoring what’s going on without having to breathe down the camera operators neck. Alain: The Cube system also allows you to transmit your images to an iPad which is an inexpensive monitor and most people have them these days. The picture quality looks okay, it’s not for pulling focus, it will be slightly delayed because of the processing power in the iPad, but the images are still enough for the director or the staff on-set to see what’s going on. Ed: But with these new developments you should be able to transmit live video for recording, not just monitoring? Alain: Yes, that’s using the Bolt product which we are going to go over with Nicol here. Nicol: The Bond cellular system that I just described, that’s typically used in broadcast applications so you go to air with the feed over the multiple cellular links; the Bolt is commonly used in cinema where you can have the recorder now removed from the camera, but you will still record an incredibly high fidelity video. It’s just as good as running HD-SDI cable. The recorder actually thinks it’s on the camera because we send all the metadata, the record flags, the timecode, the file name, the clip name, all of these things – we send that over that wireless SDI link as well. It’s also very popular in a live production environment where you have a video switcher with multiple wired cameras and wireless cameras, and now you need those cameras to be very accurately sync’d. The Bolt system is a zero delay system; it’s not compressed video, so you can switch from the wireless feed to the wired feed and everything is still going to be in sync.

Alain: Yes, in theory it should stop the need for an ENG truck and an ENG link between the field and the base station which costs thousands of dollars to use per minute. We’re hoping a broadcaster is going to pick up on this product, but for freelance cameramen who are wanting to get pictures quickly back to the station, I think the Teradek Brik in particular, being a V-mount system, bolts on the back of the shoulder camera with a battery on the back of it – I think that’s going to be a great solution. Ed:

So hopefully no more Skype interviews?

Alain:

Definitely not.

Nicol: Our product line is designed to fit in between the low end that would use a Skype transmit and the high end that would use a satellite transmitter right. So it’s addressing a market – and it’s quite a big market and it’s been fairly poorly served so far … Ed: Well I guess it’s an emerging market that people don’t know too much about and until they try it, they’re not going to find out all the ways they can use it? Nicol: Exactly, so if you think in terms of … let’s use cinema as an analogy. You know, film cameras are kind of dead, the digital cameras and the high end like the ALEXAs or the F65s or the EPICs – great cameras, but there’s so much great content coming from 5Ds now, 5D Mark III’s right or C300s or even GoPro’s. So all of these guys need wireless links right? The same thing is true for News. There are thousands of cameras out there that don’t have live connectivity. If you cannot cover the News from anywhere all the time, you’re not really covering News and no-one can afford to have a satellite truck everywhere all the time. So we’re addressing those cameras that are not connected.

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NZVN

Canon Cameras for A2Z We are at Canon with David Epstein and Alain Bach from A2Z. Ed: Now David, what Canon things do you want to talk about for A2Z? David: We have some exciting new developments on the Canon front, including many new lenses which we will discuss shortly, and a new camera which comes in two variants called the XA20 and XA25. Canon have made leaps and bounds in their camera line-up and recently released the EOS 1DC camera which has got the industry all of a flurry. We’re going to start with their Cinema lens line-up. Alain: Canon's Cinema highend zooms, compact zooms and primes expand the reach of Alain would love to sell you this Canon combo. filmmakers into 4K and 3D productions. In the new Canon Cinema prime line-up, David: And added to the range are two new there is going to be a total of six lenses – one hasn’t cameras called the XA-20 and XA-25. This is a fantastic been officially released yet, but Canon has confirmed little camera because it not only shoots 1920x1080 full that it is on its way. In the series so far is a 14mm HD, but it also has XLR audio inputs and it has a very T3.1, a 24mm T1.5, soon to be a 35mm, a 50mm T1.3, clever dual codec. What that means for people is that an 85mm T1.3 and then the 135mm T2.2. These prime they can record in two different codecs on SDHC cards lenses offer consistent form factors and marking and so it’s almost like recording a proxy on one card optimised for motion picture production. You will and full bandwidth on the other. Coupled with that, it’s appreciate the compact and consistent lens design. got an HD-SDI output which is tremendous if you want Your audience will love the results from the 11-blade to send a really good broadcast feed to an external aperture diaphragms, fast t-stops and proven Canon recorder or to a monitor or to a switcher and it also lens elements. Each lens will be available to purchase records at 35 megabit a second, not 25 megabit a on its own or in a discounted package including all six second which all its competitors do. Last but not least with a hard case. The Canon Cinema prime lenses offer on this camera, it also has a 20 times Canon optical brilliant 4K image quality in a lightweight and compact lens, which is a marvellous lens on such a small design. camera, so quite an exciting new product from Canon. Ed: And what sort of mount are these? Alain: Currently at the Canon stand, on the dolly next to us here is a Canon C500 in 4K studio production Alain: Currently the prime lenses will only be configuration. manufactured with a Canon EF mount. This also means that they can be used on the Canon DSLR range. Ed: And there are of course zoom lenses available in the cinema range from Canon? Alain: Yes, Canon New Zealand have a demo model of the high-end zoom lenses, CN-E14.5-60mm T2.6L ( currently at A2Z ) for wide angle capability and the CN-E30-300mm T2.95 -3.7L for world-class zoom and telephoto focal length. These lenses are available in both Canon EF mount and the industry standard PL mount. And finally we have the Cinema Compact Zooms. These lightweight lenses offer Canon’s legendary, proprietary optics in form factors that enable more flexible, less intrusive shooting. The CN-E15.5-47mm T2.8 L delivers a wide to medium range of focal lengths. The CN-E30-105mm T2.8 L covers wide to modest telephoto shots. Again both are available in Canon EF mount and the industry standard PL mount.

The Canon XA-25. Page 30

Ed: And I can also see a gorgeous blonde in a very tight red dress. Alain: Yes, she’s doing a great job at being “the talent.” So on the back of the C500 here we have Canon’s endorsed recorder if you like. It’s currently the only off-board recorder that can support the entire array of frame rates this camera can offer. It’s called Onboard S Recorder and is manufactured by the company Codex Digital. It takes the 4K outputs of the C500 and produces what is called Canon RAW. Canon RAW can be used in two different modes – as a full 4K, which is 4096 pixels by 2160 pixels, full RAW mode at a maximum frame rate of 60 frames per second. It can also record 4K HALF RAW which is 4096 pixels by 1080 pixels ( reducing the vertical resolution by half ) to reach a maximum frame rate of 120 frames per second. No other camera is capable of this in this price range. The recorder uses Codex made 512 gigabyte ( 2 x 256 gigabyte SSD in RAID 0 ) cartridges. Ed: I understand that this is pretty much the Rolls Royce of the recorders? Alain: It is one of the top brands, yes. It’s been around for quite a long time now. They’ve put all the features in and they’ve made it considerably smaller than the older models. It’s produced in England. Ed: But it is at a high price point? Alain: Correct, around US$15,000. Ed:

Ed: Now I know at the recent show in Auckland, there was a mention of Canon moving into digital display, and to do that they have to have some pretty high spec monitors. There’s been a bit more development in that David? David: There has, they have a prototype here at the show. The 4K monitor from Canon is here, so we’ll go and see that now. Ed: Oh can’t you talk about it here, because there’s now a lovely brunette with a blue dress on – also very tight? David:

Behave yourself Grant.

Ed: Work, work, work! So Canon has got a 4K reference display here Alain? Alain: Yes, this is their prototype model. They have it on display here being fed by a C500. It’s a 30 inch display using LCD technology which produces true 4K images – that’s 4096 x 2160 pixels. They have given no indication of release price or functionality, but they have told us it’s on its way and from what we can see here, the image looks good. Ed: And they deliberately have a very dimly lit scene to show off both the exposure range of the camera and the clarity of the reference monitor? Alain: Correct, you can see here that the blacks and highlights look wonderful.

Is that value for money?

Ed:

Alain: If you want to get the maximum you can out of your new C500, which cost you NZ$36,000-odd, this currently is the only recorder that can give you everything the camera is capable of – and it’s a proven recorder.

Back into the cameras, the EOS 1DC?

Alain: The EOS 1DC is Canon’s latest DSLR. It is in fact a 1DX with 4K video capable recording on board. This means that it is capable of producing an image like the Canon C500 Cinema Camera, obviously with reduced functionality and limitations, but we think that it’s going to be a great production product in the New Zealand market and the lenses we mentioned before are more than happy on the front of that sensor. The 1DC can capture three different types of video – one being full 4K 4096 x 2160. I can also crop the sensor down to Super 35 and this is very important for Canon’s new Cinema zoom lenses, because they will not fit over the sensor of a full frame camera like the 5D and 1DX. Why you’d use the Super 35 mode is so that you can match the camera with a C100, 300 or 500 if you’re using an A and a B camera on a shoot. David: And one of the most exciting features of all the Canon range is that Canon have just topped 80 million lenses for manufacture and so there’s a vast range of choice for anyone with one of these cameras. NZVN

Codex Digital for A2Z We are at Codex Digital Limited with Sarah Priestnall and Alain from A2Z. Ed: Codex Digital – high end on-board, off-board recorders? Sarah: Yes, we do a variety of things. We do an on-board recorder that works with various cameras like the ARRI ALEXA, the Canon C500 and we also have inbuilt ARRIRAW recording inside the ALEXA now as well. But with the Canon, it’s an external recorder, it

records 4K Canon RAW at up to 120 frames per second, so with one recorder, one capture drive; and we also have our workflow products that enable you then to take the files into our vault or our transfer stations, archive them to tape, copy them to hard drives, make deliverables, so we can make Avid files, ProRes files, DPX files. So it’s really a whole workflow from camera through to post. Ed: There’s quite a few off-board recorders out there, what makes this one better than the others?

Page 32

Sarah: Our recorders have been used on hundreds of feature films now. We take great pride in making sure that the discs we use do not fail; we never lose any frames … Ed: So these are hard discs? Sarah: They are solid state discs. For the type of projects that we work on, especially the really high-end features, we can’t afford to have any lost frames, so we use close to military spec drives, really high end high performance stuff, so our equipment doesn’t fail. Ed: And inputs – you’re taking in HD-SDI? Sarah: With ARRIRAW it’s T-Link which is ARRI’s proprietary format that comes in over 3 gig HD-SDI; Canon RAW same thing, 3 gig HD-SDI or we can record HD as well over the HD-SDI. Ed: So each recorder has all of those connections or do you buy a recorder for …? Sarah: No each recorder has all of those, because it all comes over the HD-SDI whether it’s Canon RAW, ARRIRAW or HD. Ed: And it has its own battery power? Sarah: It can be powered from the camera or separately. Ed: There’s a lovely big knob on the side there with a blue ring around it. What does that do? Sarah: That will tell you when you’re in record; it goes red when you’re in record and orange when you’re ready and then blue obviously for standby. Ed: But does the knob turn? Sarah: Yes the knob does turn. It’s also how you input all your settings into the recorder, so you can set your role name, your clip name … Ed: It activates the menu? Sarah: fact. Ed:

It is very handy yes.

And everything else is touch?

Sarah: Ed:

It’s a multipurpose knob in

That’s very handy.

Sarah: Ed:

Yes exactly.

Yes.

Sarah: It’s not waterproof, no, although one of these was used in a base jumping sequence for a movie called After Earth – they literally jumped off the top of a mountain with it, with a C500 strapped to a helmet and the Codex recorder in a backpack. Base jumped off a mountain in the Swiss Alps, filming all the way down. Ed: But he didn’t land in the water? Sarah: He didn’t land in the water fortunately, no. He almost hit a rock, but didn’t land in the water.

It looks quite robust?

Sarah: Yes it has to be robust. They go out in some pretty extreme conditions and get treated quite roughly sometimes. Ed:

Sarah with the Codex in a shoulder rig.

But it’s not waterproof?

Ed: Good product? Alain: I believe it’s one of the best in the industry, yes. Ed: One of the best? Alain:

Yes Grant, one of the best.

Ed: Sarah this maybe might expensive product, but in fact?

look

Sarah: Well with other products … we’re the only recorder where you only need one recorder and one drive to capture all the formats and go up to 4K at 120 frames per second. There’s another recorder that’s slightly cheaper, but you end up needing two of them to record 60 frames per second and above. So you need two recorders, two drives and therefore it’s no longer cheaper. Ed: Because high frame rate is the cream on the 4K cake? Sarah: Yes – I mean a lot of people are using this for high frame rate recording and it looks really good at 120 frames per second 4K, so it’s being used a lot. Ed: The knob on the right is ringed with a blue light. Page 34

Do you like that analogy?

Sarah: fantastic.

The cream on the cake – yes, it’s NZVN

Canon Lenses We have Larry Thorpe from Canon and we’re talking about cinema lenses. Ed: Larry, there’s really nothing new in the barrel lenses, but in the cinema lenses, Canon has been working overtime? Larry: Right, we have two what we call “top end” zoom lenses. One is a wide, a 14.5mm to 60; and then we have another one that’s a 30 to 300. These have been designed to be beyond 4K performance – beyond 4K – so extremely high performance. We make them available in either PL mount which is the international standard for cinematography, or the Canon EF mount for folks who have got lots of our EF lenses, and may want to mingle them with these. We offer them both. We have kits that allow you to change the mount; it has to be done at a Canon service centre, but the mount could be changed from PL to EF. Rental houses will probably want to do that. So this is the 14.5. Ed: Okay, a slightly shorter one?

Larry from Canon.

Larry: These are two what we call compact zooms. They are what we call “full 4K performance”. This is a 15 to 47. These have been designed to support steadicam and handheld use, so we’ve made them compact and lightweight. Ed: They’re a lot shorter, a lot less glass in them? Larry: Exactly, but still very high performance. Ed: Now tell me – I guess the big problem with these, and this one goes down to 15 by the look of it … Larry: 15.5 to 47, yes. Ed: 15?

That’s the hard part isn’t it, it’s that low end, that

Larry: The wide angle is where you’ve got to watch … when you’re in 4K, you’ve got to watch your chromatic aberrations and you’ve got to watch your geometric distortion at wide angle. That’s where we put a lot of effort in to control those parameters. Ed: Because your focal distance at that point is really, really critical? Larry: Exactly and you’ve got very shallow depth of field; you’ve got to be awfully careful. Now here’s the one I told you about, the 30 to 300. That’s again beyond 4K performance. This is just a magnificent lens. The beauty about this is we were able to make this lens quite lightweight. If you’re familiar with the Angénieux 24 to 290, a very famous lens in cinematography – that’s twice the weight of this. This is a beautiful, absolutely gorgeous lens. Ed: Now just give us a brief overview as to why a cinema lens is different from a traditional barrel lens? Larry: Cinematographers love to focus and zoom with their hands and they want the focus to have as wide a rotation as possible. So these have 300 degrees rotation for focus. Ed: Whereas a videographer would go nuts? Larry: Exactly. And that’s to allow them to do rack focusing, beautiful subtle rack focusing from one subject to the other. It’s very, very important to them. The zooms have about 160 degrees rotation. The aperture blades in here we make 11 blades and we try

to get a lovely circular theme because the cinematographers talk about “bouquet” – in other words a light in the distance that’s defocused, they want that to be soft and round, and you only get that if you’ve got multiple apertures. And those multiple apertures also control stray light, the way light bounces around, that’s part of the art of controlling stray light. Ed: And I guess that’s an expense thing? Larry: It is an expense thing, yes. Ed: So a barrel lens would have how many leaves? Larry: Usually eight – 6 to 8. Ed: And is the mount different? Larry: These are Super 35mm PL mount which is the accepted global standard for cinematography film cameras or digital cameras. Ed: And it’s important to have those different mounts so that people don’t get the idea they can swap them around? Larry: Well yes, but it is more the fact that that mount was developed many years ago and is considered an extremely rugged stable mount and that’s where it’s all about. There’s another of our primes, the 14mm, that’s the widest one we make, 14mm. And again that has that total rotation of 300 degrees on the focus. Ed: But one would think that a prime lens was easy to make because you don’t need any moving parts … but you do actually need moving parts don’t you? Larry: You do need moving parts, oh yeah, there’s elements moving in there when you’re focusing. But again the prime is where people have the highest expectations. They want the best possible performance from the primes and, as you go wider angle, you’re struggling with all those aberrations and geometric distortions and the trick is to try and control those and keep them to a minimum while you get the highest MTF through the lens and get that high resolution. Ed: With today’s cinema cameras, any little aberration, any little mistake is spotted immediately and there goes your reputation? Larry: Exactly, that’s why we have to make these specs very, very tight indeed. NZVN

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Avid Pro Tools for Protel We are at Avid and we are looking at Pro Tools version 11 with Robert Miller and Glenn from Protel. Ed: Now Robert, to me this was the exciting part of the Avid press conference – Pro Tools? Robert: Well I wasn’t at the press conference, but I can tell you here on the show floor that everyone’s been very, very excited about the Pro Tools 11 application now being a 64 bit application, giving it much improved performance, multiprocessor support is now fully threaded, being able to take advantage of all of the RAM which is loaded into your computer, which enables us to have larger sessions, more virtual instruments … previously anybody who is using compositional virtual instruments, Pro Tools could choke prior to this because of the 4 gigabyte file limit in terms of how much RAM we were able to address. So along with those features, and now being able to do a faster than real time bounce from Pro Tools 11 … Ed:

Can you just explain “bounce” to a video person?

Robert: So to “bounce” a disc is basically rendering something and when Pro Tools would do this, it would do it in real time. So if you had a 20 minute film reel, it would take 20 minutes for it to record this. We’ve got a couple of examples here we’re showing on the main stage – a very large session with like four 7.1 stems and it’s happening at six times real time. This is going to be a tremendous time saver. We’ve done a lot of work to make sure that they’re sonically the same, whether you do this in real time or whether you’re doing it in faster than real time. The other thing is that we’ve taken the video engine from Media Composer and put it into Pro Tools. So essentially now, any type of media that a Media Composer can play in terms of multiple codecs, multiple frame rates, multiple tracks – we can open it up as an AAF, it’s exported as an AAF with both the audio and the video and, if we’re on

Robert from Avid.

shared storage, this really improves our workflow immensely. Some of the things that we can’t do … we can’t ingest into this video engine if we wanted to record video, we can’t do that; and any type of third party plug in, say a Boris or Sapphire type of effect would have to be rendered like a smart render, so once it’s put into the media we can then open it up and we have really very near sample accurate synchronisation between audio and video in Pro Tools. Some other really good enhancements are the ability of doing some quick key short cuts and the advanced metering. We’ve built into Pro Tools HD about 12 different international standards for metering – RMS, VU, DIN, BBC, Nordic, along with true PPM which is really our System 5. Not “true” PPM, peaked PPM; and then there’s the sample peak which is the default for Pro Tools 11. Also gain reduction metering is happening alongside of the fader as well on Pro Tools HD. So a lot of really cool stuff, but I think the biggest thing that people are going to see is the tremendous increase in performance … processors have been 64 bit and operating systems have been 64 bit for some time, Pro Tools is finally there. Ed: And there’s been an improvement in the appearance on screen. Robert: On the Mac we’re now supporting full graphics capabilities, which means, when you zoom in and you really want to blow something, you’re going to have a much better graphical user interface. So the whole look of it has gotten better. Ed: Now Glenn, you must be excited about this too? Glenn: I’m actually really excited, particularly with the Media Composer engine being there in the background. There’s still uses for using Video Satellite, but obviously this feature set and being able to open those video codecs inside Pro Tools 11 is going to be really, really beneficial for many of our customers. The roundtrip workflow from Media Composer 7 ( video post ) to Pro Tools 11 ( audio post ) has never been better. NZVN

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Datavideo for Protel We are at Datavideo with Glenn Miers from Protel, and Jack Lin from Datavideo, who tells us the latest. Ed: Jack, this stand seems to be getting bigger and better every year, and I’m very impressed by this little truck you’ve got here. Is it all Datavideo product inside that truck? Jack: Most of it is, yes. The computers and cameras aren’t, but all of the switchers, monitors and converters are Datavideo products. This is the same truck from last years’ NAB but with improvements inside to the installation and layout. Ed: It’s really just showing that the Datavideo products cover a wide range of uses? Jack: Correct. We have a broad range of vision switching solutions for all levels of live production; however our focus in this market is to provide products for small to medium studios and production environments. Ed: Because I mean live production – there’s a lot going on and I guess more and more of it? Jack: Exactly, and especially web TV is now growing more and more popular. The budgets available for this type of delivery are not huge, so it’s the right fit for Datavideo products. In some cases the customer also needs an OB van to get to locations and do their broadcasts, so we offer products ideally suited to small OB situations. Ed: Now in terms of specific products – anything particularly new? Jack: Yes, actually. This year we have a product we are calling the MCU, which stands Multi-Camera Control Unit. Typically a CCU ( camera control unit ) will control only one camera, so what sets the Datavideo MCU apart from others is that it can control four cameras from the one unit. There is the desktop MCU-100 and the rack-mount version MC-200. Ed:

Is this all Ethernet controlled?

Jack: Yes, it uses Ethernet cabling for run lengths up to 100 metres. Currently the system works with Panasonic cameras including the AG-HPX255, AG-HPX370, AG-HPX500 and AG-HPX600. We are expecting to announce compatibility with a selection of Sony cameras at IBC in September. The system will require a different camera adapter to convert from the Ethernet connection to the camera remote port that Sony uses. One of the usual requirements for these camera control systems is a waveform and vectorscope so you can match your cameras in the studio or OB truck. This can be expensive to set up. With our MCU systems and our VSM products you can match your cameras easily at a fraction of the cost of traditional systems. It means even small productions can now get the best possible image quality from the camera.

Jack in the OB van.

Jack: This new portable production studio was launched at BVE in January. It is the HS-2800 Mobile Studio. It is a compact, lightweight system based around the SE-2800 switcher. It includes an integrated 17″ monitor and the ITC-100 Intercom/Tally System. The ITC-100 comes with 4 belt packs, headsets, and tally lights, so enough equipment for up to 4 camera operators. You can also upgrade the HS-2800 and add an additional four SDI ports, to a total of 12 inputs, plus add an additional four users to the intercom system. Of course the system supports both HD and SD signals. Ed: I remember a few years ago that this was a rather large box and now it’s a suitcase and it’s obviously upgraded immensely? Jack: This is very true. We still have the rack case mobile studios called the MS series, for installation into an OB truck for example, but the portable solutions such as the HS-2800 provide the full range of features from a small box weighing around 9 kilograms. The production switcher that is included in these systems can be purchased as a stand-alone switcher also. This allows the customer to integrate it into their own environment.

Ed: And if you combine all of that with a cart and add … well a few other things, you get a mobile production unit? Page 38

encoded video over Wi-Fi as a local access point, as well as transmitting to the receiver as a bridge. Ed: It certainly seems quite versatile. Glenn, are these shipping now? Glenn: They are coming soon, Grant. Customers would be best to give us a call to discuss their requirements and we can ensure they get the right unit for their needs. Jack: Now, the next product I want to show you is the Datavideo DAC-60. The DAC-60 is an SD and HD 3G-SDI to VGA Scaler and Converter. It converts video signals into VGA signals for display on devices such as projectors and monitors. It features a loop-through input that passes the SDI input signal downstream without changing it. This allows you to feed the same video signals to both VGA and SDI based equipment. Inside the OB van - lots of Datavideo product.

Ed: So here we have, back in the little box category … oh it looks like my DAC10. It’s still working, but you’ve changed the colour, you’ve gone to grey? Jack: Well, we did change the colours on a number of products to make it easier to read the text on the connector points, but this is actually a new live streaming server called the Datavideo NVS-20. It is a broadcast-quality H.264 HD video streaming server that provides live programme production and broadcast encoding for the internet. All you need to do is provide video to one of the inputs and the NVS-20 will output compressed video to your network through the Ethernet port. It accepts HD/SD-SDI, HDMI, and composite inputs, plus analogue audio input also.

The unit auto detects the input format and scales it to the user selected VGA output format, which is indicated by the six LEDs on the front. With the included software you can set the built-in processing amp to adjust Contrast, Hue and Saturation of the VGA signal. The SDI loop-through signal is unaffected by the proc amp settings. Ed:

A very versatile box?

Jack: We also have a new rack-mount kit coming later this year called the RMK-2. It allows you to install up to eight converters in the single 2U rack unit. It also comes with a power distribution bus, so you can power

Ed: Are there adjustments that you can make to the stream – and they’re just on a touch panel on the front? Jack: The front panel control is just to select the input source. All streaming settings are done using the network interface. Ed: So basically it comes up on your computer and you can make those adjustments to the software? Jack: Exactly. It comes with software so you can do the adjustments and settings. The bitrate of the H.264 stream can go up to 6Mbps, so it is capable of 1920x1080 at 30 frames per second. The other product that works with the NVS-20 is the new Wi-Fi bridging unit, the NVW-100. This allows you to connect the NVS -20 to it using an Ethernet cable, and then use 5.8GHz Wi-Fi to transmit to the NVW-100 receiver which can be up to 300 meters away. The receiver can then connect to your computer for streaming to the web, or to an H.264 decoder for output to a monitor, for example. This will be great for when your camera or video source is not near a network port. If you connect external antennas you can get even greater distances, a kilometre is achievable with standard external ones. Ed:

A kilometre?

Jack: The 5.8GHz band allows for greater transmission range, sure, but you do need a larger antenna than the standard ones to go over the 300 metre range. Also new is the NVW-200, which is the big brother to the NVW-100. It allows for distances up to 500 metres with the standard aerials, but with external directional antennas it can transmit up to 10 kilometres! Additionally, the NVW-200 can share the

all the converters from the one power outlet. It makes installation into an OB or studio situation a lot easier. Ed: Wow. Okay, I’ve still got a DAC-10, but we’re now up to the DAC-90? Jack:

The DAC-10 was a video format converter.

The DAC-90 is an audio de-embedder. It has dual SDI inputs which allows you to split out four channels of audio from each of the inputs. Or you can set it to de-embed eight channels from one of the inputs. You can switch between either input using the front push button. Ed: So it becomes a very versatile distribution device for audio? Jack:

Exactly.

Ed: And of course more information on the entire Datavideo range is available from the friendly folk at NZVN Protel.

Page 39

Kata News I started my first interview on Day One in Vegas with Bellina Israel from Manfrotto. It’s Bellina’s birthday today, so we’re going to be exceptionally nice to her, as always. Ed: Bellina, I guess the big news started at the Sony Press Event – there they unveiled a Kata bag. What was that all about? Bellina: Well I think the American distributors chose our backpack to carry their new flyaway kit. They chose the new Pro-V video backpack which allows you to store your camera with matte box, many, many accessories, in a tiny little compact carry solution, with a comfortable ergonomic harness, quick front access, very modular access to your accessories from the outside through the four access points that are also the pocket that nicely snuggles around your camera and will fit according to the size of your camera. So if you’ve got a big camera it will fit less accessories and if you’ve got a smaller camera you can stuff in quite a lot of other stuff with you. Ed:

Like elastic underpants?

Bellina: fronts.

Yes, exactly … but not Y-

Ed: The exciting thing Sony made out was that this is a travelling backpack for a single News reporter. They can fit the camera, the audio gear, his linking system – everything into that, and he’s off on the road, even probably on a motorcycle. When he’s there, he can set up and transmit back to the station all from one 610 backpack.

Bellina, not looking a day older, resting on the Pro-V backpack.

Bellina: Yes – and the nice thing about it really, as you said, it takes everything you need in a very small package relatively, even your laptop, and we have a fantastic picnic mat, or we call it “the work in the field mat” which rolls up to a very small ball, but when you take it out, open it up in the field, you can spread out all your gear and set up a working station, no matter where you are, without compromising the gear. Ed: And it’s obvious that it’s a Kata, because it’s yellow inside? Bellina: Yes and not to forget it is the latest most protective backpack out there, so two more extra added benefits for the outgoing single man band. Ed: And it’s those wonderful little parachute harness tags on the zips that I wish I’d had on my backpack, because I just broke another one of my tabs on my carrybag for NAB, but my mistake, it’s not a Kata. Bellina: The main thing about the parachute zipper pullers is that, even if you’re not falling out of a plane and need to pull them to release the parachute, they give you very fast access to the main compartment. Even if your hands are a bit cold or you’re wearing gloves, it’s very easy to manoeuvre the zippers and get into your gear very, very fast so that you don’t miss that shot.

Ed: And what might seem to be a simple thing is that they’re coloured and there are different ones for different pockets? Bellina: Yes that’s colour coding so you remember if you’ve put your filter in the one with the white zipper puller, or the red zipper puller. You don’t have to open all four to find out exactly where your stuff is … you do have to have a good memory though and remember to match the colour to your accessory. Ed: Now the 610 is not the only one you’ve got; there’s a smaller brother to that? Bellina: Yes, we have the 410, which is actually two -thirds of the 610 … Ed:

Is that more for the photographic people?

Bellina: No, no these days all our camera ranges you start very small and you go up to medium and large. So we like to cover everything in 2-3 models, giving you the Russian Doll effect. You can always go one bigger if you need more accessories, or if you’ve kitted up your small camcorder with all the new-fangled bits and pieces. Ed: Now I must say, you have a much smaller stand this year – there’s much less product on it. Is this because you’re making less product, or what’s the story there?

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Bellina: Well with Kata we’ve streamlined our video line into a very select offering of SKUs, giving the shoulder case option, the backpack option, the rain cover option and the shoulder strap option, which is the basic. We cover more or less 80% with a very slim line. It enables our dealers to have all of our products on display in their shops, where before we had about three times the amount of SKUs. Ed: And you also photographic market?

cover

the

Bellina: Yes. There we have a very big range going from small little point and shoot cameras all the way up to obviously DSLRs in their normal photographic setup or video setup with rigs etc. Ed: Where can you go to from here? I mean what are the possible improvements that people have asked for that you’re still working on? Bellina: Well I think Kata’s next two steps are to really specialise for niche users – if it’s the outdoors photographers, videographers, and create very, very specific working solutions for them in the environment that they’re working in. Ed:

What, custom made?

Bellina: Not custom made, but small collections of dedicated professional … Ed:

Like the Bellina collection?

Bellina: Exactly … I’m very small, very compact and very professional. NZVN

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AmberFin for Quinto AmberFin is a high quality software based solution for digitising/ingesting, transcoding, quality control, standards conversion and replay of file base video. Four-time Emmy-award winning technology, AmberFin iCR, plays a key role in turning the content that owners have into the content their customers want. As an open standards, future proof platform that digitises and transforms new and archived content, AmberFin iCR delivers the best quality pictures at smaller file sizes across multiple delivery platforms, including the Internet, VoD, TV, mobile and other small screen devices. We are at AmberFin with Adrian Smith from AmberFin and Pete Fullerton for Quinto. Ed: Adrian, just give us a background as to the name of the company, where it came from? Adrian: AmberFin is a software company that spun out of Snell & Wilcox about 4-5 years ago. We’ve been independent ever since. When we came out as a separate company we were essentially the software division of Snell; came out as a separate company with years of heritage and algorithms and patent technology. We turned that technology into a file based product for doing standards conversion and transcoding and ingest. Since then it’s developed, the customer base has grown and we’ve introduced our unified QC. Now essentially, we’re an ingest, QC and transcode software company. Our main focus is in the higher end of content owners and broadcasters and media companies – so the top tier, the people who own content or want to distribute content primarily. So what this means for the New Zealand market which, to be fair, has been slightly behind in file based technology – they haven’t adopted the filed based world as quickly as say the US has. Ed: I think we’re a bit more wary of the Cloud if your product is highly Cloud based? Adrian: No, we’re not interested. To be honest, the Cloud is just another term; for us it’s just storage and PCs, that’s all it means to us. So if a customer says we want to work perhaps transcoding in the Cloud, that’s fine. They’ll swap all the work on their transcode … Ed:

Or if they have their own servers?

Adrian: For us, if you think about what is a Cloud, it’s more of a buzz word, it’s remote storage. That’s all it is. But in the TV industry we’ve been working for years and years on remote storage and different network locations. That’s all it means to us. So transcoding the Cloud, I think the Cloud really came more from the consumer or space or trying to be pushed by big IT and storage companies, but for the video world we’ve done that for the last 10-15 years anyway. But we’re not going to focus on the word “Cloud”; we’re very focused on taking the files that you

Adrian and Pete.

have and turning them into the files that you need and being able to implement the processes such as QC, inserting captions, extracting certain metadata into files. What that actually means in the real world, for people say in New Zealand, is people like TVNZ are now doing file delivery. They’re taking commercials on file; they’re receiving programmes on file. So people have to generate those files. For instance, if you take one of the post houses like Images in Auckland; before they would deliver everything on a Sony tape or XDCAM or something like that and they would deliver those around the facilities. They might be able to create files, but the persons might not be able to receive the files. Now it’s opened up and bandwidth has become cheaper and more accessible and there’s mechanisms to do it, so people are actually saying “let’s do file creation, let’s do file delivery.” Commercials are easier because the smaller the file size the quicker it is to deliver. Some programming material is still too big to transfer over pipes; you might as well send a disc from one side of town to the other. The market has changed; it’s got to that point where you can’t ignore file transfer anymore and you have to use something to do it. Pete: This is a tool that allows you to ingest, it’s a tool that allows you to transcode, it’s a tool that allows you to check quality control (QC), play back and review your file based video footage. A small boutique post house might have a single version of AmberFin running on a single PC. A TV station might have multiple versions of AmberFin running on multiple machines across several servers. Ed: If we look at the specific example of a post house in New Zealand that creates content, that needs to deliver it perhaps within New Zealand, perhaps overseas and perhaps in a format that is not what they’ve created, that’s the sort of solution that you can provide? Adrian: We have a tool that will help with that, so for instance if you’ve done your production and you’ve done your edit in Final Cut, you’ve worked in ProRes all through that, then you might not be able to deliver ProRes to your customer. So our software will then do

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it. In this case, when you’re dealing with the top end material, you’ve got to keep it as pristine as you can? Adrian: That’s right and there’s three tools available. You can download from <sourceforge.net> some free transcoding tools and free standards conversion tools, but the truth is they’re crap. So if you’ve got crappy picture quality, you don’t pay any money for it; but if you want good picture quality and you want to remap your audio and maintain the quality of that content, then you need to pay for those tools. That’s simply where we are. Pete: If you’re delivering to a broadcaster, either locally or internationally, then you want to deliver the best quality that you can. You’ve worked hard on this project, you’ve gone into the edit, you’ve used the best tools that you can there; why let it down at the end. Poor transcoding could actually cause problems in the broadcast chain. Of course AmberFin is not just for transcoding, there’s also play back and QC. If you are getting file based deliverables and you want to be able to play them back – you can use AmberFin to see what you actually have. With tape or disc based delivery you know what the pictures should look like – with cheap or free file base players you can never be sure they are not masking issues with your footage. Ed: But unlike tape decks, it’s scalable, so you can start off with one particular feature and add features as the need arises or budgets permit? Adrian: Yes you can scale the product, you can add on extra modules, they’re just software modules or nodes, and grow it as your business grows. the transcoding between ProRes for instance, you might have to go to IMX or XDCAM. You may also have to change the frame rate depending on where you’re delivering to. Now our technology is from the best file based tool for doing standards conversion within the file. Before that was previously done via SDI using more expensive hardware, but we’re able to do that in the file domain through frame rate conversion. That’s some of the technology that came from Snell in the old days, all of the patent algorithms we have for doing that. So that’s something else that other people don’t do and that’s something that post houses definitely do, is change frame rates and create different file formats. Ed: I know from experience when transcoding was hardware based. It could cost a small amount or a lot depending on the equipment and you really noticed the difference between the two. I guess it’s the same with the software, that within many editing programmes, there’s transcode ability but you’re not getting a lot for

Ed: Now in terms of ease of application within a facility, this is just one PC that you can dedicate or take space in to operate this programme, but is it friendly, does it talk to other programmes? Adrian: Yes, we’ve got several methods of control. We have an API so that any other software tools can control us. Because we’re a video engine doing transcoding etc, it needs a MAM to talk to us and to send us commands. So a MAM system which controls all the assets could send transcode jobs to us etc. We’ve got that level of integration. We also have something called a Metadata Layout Editor; so with every file that we create, we can store an XML file with it. Now that XML file can contain custom metadata that could then be put back into any other in-house system and read. That means that, as a file transfers or comes into your facility, you can automatically put that data into your current business system – whether it’s Production Asset Management, or a transmission system, or a traffic system, or just a Media Asset

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Management system. On that metadata side, there’s also something that’s relevant for the post industry in New Zealand. The UK is now standardised on a format called DPP ( Digital Production Partnership.) What that is, is a set codec which is AV Central an MXF file which also has a set metadata scheme run. So 32 or such fields of metadata being shared between all the facilities in the UK, all the production houses and broadcasters. As New Zealand probably follows the UK in some practices with files, something that may be adopted in New Zealand in the post side, is the DPP standard of formats, which is the interoperable file sharing format for files in postproduction and transmission. Pete: And QC as well. AmberFin integrates with all the major software QC tools and provides a simple graphical user interface (GUI) which makes it easy to follow and annotate automated QC error reports against actual content on a frame-by-frame basis. Typically QC was traditionally an engineering function, but now we can bring it into an operational role and make it simple. Now Veronique is going to tell us a little bit about something special that AmberFin is doing for the community Veronique: Something we have been doing for the last couple of years is to help educate the industry about some of the major difficulties that broadcasters and postproduction professionals may encounter. Things like what is MXF or what do I do with metadata, and this is a free resource that’s available online and it combines a variety of things. It combines free training videos, 2 minute shorts that discuss a particular industry topic. It includes white papers, there is a blog

and it’s completely non-vendor specific. So you will never hear our product names uttered in any of the information that we’re putting together. It truly is informational and educational. http://blog.amberfin.com/blog is the AmberFin Academy. For more information please contact Pete Fullerton Quinto Communications (NZ) Ltd Phone +64 9 486 1204 Email pete@quinto.co.

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site

for

the

NZVN

New Owners at Gencom The news is that Gencom will continue as Gencom but with a new owner, Broadcast ONE and CEO Darren Kirsop-Frearson. The previous owner, or one of them, the principal we all know and love, Ray Sanders, is going to hang around a bit more but with a new role. Ray: Yes, I’m going to be here working with the team and providing whatever input I can along the way. So you haven’t seen the last of me yet. Ed: So does that mean it’s pretty much “business as usual” for the people who have been customers of Gencom in the past? Ray: Absolutely. Obviously, Darren is the new CEO, so that’s not my position anymore. Instead, I’ll be working in the business development field and some other areas. But all of our key people – sales people, engineers and so on, are in place, and it’s business as usual. We will be keeping the brand and all the other attributes that people know and trust Gencom for. Ed: So Darren, if Gencom is going to continue pretty much as it is, why would you buy it? Darren: It’s a natural expansion for our Broadcast ONE business. Broadcast ONE has been around for about 3½ years as Broadcast ONE, but about eight years prior to that as the Bridge Networks Australia. We’re very much an RF systems integration company, so it was a natural expansion for us to acquire Gencom. Ed: So for those of us not in the transmission area, what do you mean by “RF”? Darren: We build transmission systems – so we build towers, antennas, combine them as transmitters, microwave links, satellite dishes, that sort of stuff. Ed: So you’re in competition to Harris? Darren: No, we represent Harris, we are Harris’ biggest agent in Southeast Asia. Ed: No guided missile systems? Darren: No, remember that Harris is now no longer associated with that “Harris” – that was Harris Broadcast, HB as they call it now, so they’re nothing to do with Harris Defence anymore – that all split away last year. Ed: But as systems integrators, you’re not just going to sell people Harris, you’re providing solutions that fit the customer? Darren: Correct. We were looking at how to expand our business. Broadcast ONE is in Australia, and we have offices in Manila in the Philippines, so it was a natural expansion for our business to look at where else we could grow. Using our existing customer base and the knowledge of the industry that we’re already well established in, it made sense to look for something different. That was the opportunity that came up with Gencom. Ed: But Gencom’s been in Southeast Asia for quite a number of years, so have they been competition to you in the past? Darren: No, because Gencom has been concentrating on systems integrations in the studio – that’s what Gencom’s known for, whereas we have been concentrating on building RF. So if you look at the Philippines and Vietnam for instance, a couple of examples recently where Broadcast ONE has built towers and transmitter systems … Ed: So this really does expand your portfolio? Darren: It does, exactly. So the two companies fit together perfectly, but as you touched on before, they

Darren and Ray.

still have their own brands and their own identity and we’re not “merging” the companies, we’re just working together as a group and compliment each other’s expertise. Ed: Is your move in response to some of the larger equipment manufacturers expanding their influence in taking on systems integration where they didn’t before? Darren: I think the manufacturers are becoming more reliant on what companies like Gencom and Broadcast ONE have to offer. Ed: How does this new arrangement fit with the supply of the traditional hardware products that Gencom has sold – such as Cartoni, Anton/Bauer, JVC, because they have the agency within New Zealand, but only within New Zealand for some of them? Ray: Actually all three of those we do in Australia as well, and Cartoni we do in Asia too. Ed: So is this an area of expansion, because …? Darren: Again I don’t think it’s one of those things that will change in the short term at least, because the business units, Gencom New Zealand, Gencom Australia and the Singapore business, all have their own agencies. Some are shared and some are not and some of that’s historical, so we don’t plan to come in and try and make a sweeping change to all that. That will remain the status quo. Ed: So we’re not going to see a new logo, a new name change? Darren: Not at all. It’s pretty much “business as usual”. We’ve felt it’s very important to keep Ray very much part of the business, to be the face of the Gencom business. Ray is very much going to be around, you’ll still see him at trade shows and interacting with customers and manufacturers alike, so Ray’s here to stay. Ed: I guess this takes a bit of pressure off you Ray? Ray: Look, it’s certainly a change that I’m trying to get my head around. It takes time to assimilate it, but I think it’s good for everyone. Darren’s got lots of great skills he can bring to the business, and going forward, I think that will be important for an entrepreneurial approach to where Gencom goes in the future. The transmission end of the business is an area that Gencom has never been in. We have traditionally done everything in broadcasting up to doing the compression head end and some of the linking and so on, and that’s the point at which Broadcast ONE takes over. That’s their core business, so the two together can provide a truly end to end solution.

Page 48

Ross openGear for Gencom We are at Ross for Gencom and talking to Brad Plant about openGear. Ed: Brad, you asked me if I’m familiar with openGear and I am. You’ve got something that’s related to that to tell me? Brad: Yes. DashBoard is our control system for openGear. When we launched openGear six years ago, this was our first platform that actually had a computerised configuration system. Before openGear, a lot of terminal equipment had card-edge controls, so you’d be down on the rack on your hands and knees toggling switches on the front of a card. Along came DashBoard and now you could configure all these cards from your office desk, from a PC, which made things very easy to do. Ed: Or even a tablet? Brad Brad: Some tablets, yes. It’s Java based, it will run on a Mac, Linux, or a Windows machine, and here at the show, we’ve got it running on a Windows surface, Microsoft’s small tablet, so it’s very easy to use, very easy to configure … but this year DashBoard has really jumped leaps and bounds in what we can do. What you’re looking at here is a basic configuration of an openGear card. So I’ve got a TreeView on my left, I can see my frames; I can expand, I can see my cards, I can bring up a configuration window. Great for engineering status monitoring, and basic configuration. DashBoard 6 which we’re launching this year, has a new feature called “PanelBuilder.” What this allows me to do is take elements from the different cards and build a custom GUI. I can do graphical navigation; I can bring in drawings and drop elements across a map or a flow diagram … Ed: Each card must have its own proprietary software that’s been designed to run it, so are you actually sharing software amongst the cards?

Brad: Well openGear is an open hardware platform, so there’s over 50 manufacturers in the industry that are openGear partners. They get the protocol and when they develop the card, they put the GUI inside the card. It’s a pretty simple XML format. So when DashBoard reaches out and talks to the card, the card says give me a tab called “Config” and give me a dropdown called “Output” or “Format” with an array of options and report the value back to me.

controls DashBoard which controls open Gear.

Brad: So let’s pretend we’ve got a GUI open from slot 6, the QSP-8229. Let’s pretend that’s a Ross card. Slot 18, this other card, UDA – let’s pretend that’s a Blackmagic card. They’ve each got different parameters that show up, that come from within each of the cards, into the control system. What PanelBuilder allows me to do is select certain preferences from those cards and just put them on a custom GUI. So if I have a frame synchroniser from Ross Video that has video processing controls and video timing controls, I may want to make a custom GUI that only brings the video processing controls in for an operator because I don’t want them touching the horizontal and vertical timing adjustments. Now I can create a custom GUI that brings in those controls from multiple cards. So here’s an example of our master control. Ed: But you’re not allowing cross-control of GUIs from one card to control another card? Brad: No, one card cannot control another … DashBoard controls everything. So if I look at our

Ed: But are you saying that somebody else’s card can use somebody else’s GUI? Brad: That’s right. DashBoard and openGear is common across these 50 manufacturers, so with one openGear frame you can plug in a Ross Video openGear card, a Blackmagic card, a Cobalt card, a Wohler, EEG – the list goes on and on. Ed: Okay I was just on a slightly wrong track there – we’re talking about building up a set of preferences for a particular card and using the information that’s in there? Page 49

master control – and this is a quite intensive GUI, I’ve got lots of different options, lots of buttons, it’s designed to run mainly on a touchscreen and if I have four of these cards, I would have to bring up four different GUIs and tab between them. What PanelBuilder allows me to do, is to create a custom GUI like you see here, where I’ve brought certain elements in from four different cards, and they’re all accessible from one GUI now. Now these are all Ross cards, but these could be parameters from a Ross card; these could be parameters from a Blackmagic card; and these could be parameters from a Cobalt card … and I’ve customised a GUI from my particular workflow, my application, instead of having to tab between all these different cards. Not only does this work with 50 different openGear manufacturers, it works with all the other products that work within DashBoard. So Ross has integrated all of our products – XPression Graphics – I’m able as a user to create a button and tie it into an XPression Graphics system. So not only can I control a switcher right here ( which is an openGear card ), I can also control our XPression Graphics system, which would normally be an entirely different GUI, but now I can pull certain elements into a custom GUI I’ve created. I can create a button to recall robotic camera shots or control a cross point on a Carbonite switcher. Ed: You’d need a degree to run this surely? Brad: You don’t need a PhD in computer science. Ed: This is very much a Windows …? Brad: It’s Java based – it will run on a Mac, Linux or Windows machine. Now once I’ve got my two windows side by side, I hit Control G to bring them into Edit mode – and you’ll see the screen changes colour, Control G on the other side. Now I can pick and drag components over. I can choose to include a parameter name or not. So I’m going to bring in two audio controls – my left and right audio – let’s say I’m doing a stereo broadcast. Now I can give them a label and call it “Channel One” to identify it. Now I might want to bring in a keyer button – maybe I’m making a quick panel to bring in one keyer and to monitor audio and if the audio disappears, an operator can quickly bring a key on air. Ed: Okay, so once you’ve built all this up, you just save it as a template with a certain name and then can you share this with other people?

that feedback, because the limit is really that of your imagination and we want to get feedback from our users and share this with each other, and how people intend to use it, because really each installation is going to be slightly different and tailored to their exact production. Ed: And that’s it, if you’ve got a rough template, you can do those little fine tweaks yourself? Brad: Exactly. Anybody within five minutes can sit down and they’re now running a production with a very advanced production and graphics system, but NZVN with a learning curve of a couple of minutes.

Ross Robotics for Gencom With Ross Robotics we’ve got Miguel Declerck. Ed: Miguel, you have a very cool looking robotic system here – tell us about it? Miguel: Ross has two families of robotic systems. We have the classical robotic systems on a pedestal, a free rolling pedestal, which are the CamBot family and we have the Furio family. The Furio family is a system on a track, on rails. Now one of the advantages of a system on a track is that you can do very smooth “on air” travellings, on air movements, which gives you much more dynamic News broadcasts for example. The origin of this system is more from entertainment and let’s say 10 years ago, we built the Furio system mainly for music shows or entertainment, some talk shows and very quickly people were interested to have these kind of systems in the Newsroom. One with the most interesting setup is the BBC W1 studios in London. Ed: I’m sure that with a system on tracks, that it must be cheaper for a start than a purely floor based robotic system, but also you don’t have to have such a perfectly flat clean smooth floor?

Brad: You can. If there’s other people in the facility that are using the same equipment, you can export it and bring it into a new DashBoard client. DashBoard is a free software download from our, or any openGear partner’s website, so you can have as many client stations as you like. You can share these files between them if you’re using the same equipment or create redundant control stations, at the cost of a simple PC. Ed: Now just for an example, say somebody in the States developed the perfect little … their own GUI for this, is there any way of them sharing that with other DashBoard communities around the world. Is this something that Ross encourages? Brad: It is, and that’s what our community is, especially for graphics, graphic creation, and we plan to encourage that. The one thing is that each one of these, because they’re customised to the exact equipment that you have in workflow, you would really need the exact same equipment that they’re using. Templates can be shared for sure and we launched this as Beta right now. There’s still some refining going on to it, but the reason we wanted to launch it is to get Page 50

Miguel and Robot.

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Miguel: Exactly, that’s the point. It’s mainly the fact that you don’t need a perfectly flat floor … even with a perfectly flat floor a pedestal system will be able to move off air to certain positions and then go on air and do some panning, tilting, zooming, but you will not use a pedestal system to move on air around the floor.

Ross Carbonite for Gencom Spencer Preece tells us the developments with Ross Carbonite. Ed: Spencer, Carbonite – this has been around for years and continues to develop? Spencer: Yes that’s true, it was released at NAB 2011 and we’ve shifted over 1200 units worldwide, so it’s been an absolutely fabulous success. Now we’ve released a new Carbonite this year and the whole concept is very, very different. We’ve actually put Carbonite in a router, so if you can imagine you’ve got a 144x144 router, we’ve actually combined that with the Carbonite frame and panel, so that gives you the flexibility to route in a number of sources into the Carbonite; but also you can imagine the situation where a customer is looking for a separate router, a switcher, a glue – what we’re doing is combining all that into one and giving you an amazing tight integration. So saving you the time in wiring in your truck, it’s very, very powerful. This has never been done before. Ed: What if somebody’s just bought a Carbonite before this – are they able to upgrade it? Spencer: Not currently, no. What we are introducing is a different concept. So a lot of our current customers who have bought Carbonite have had an existing router, or bought a router …

That’s only really possible in a smooth way with a rail system. And indeed with a rail system, your floor can be anything as long as it’s rigid – you know like a concrete floor. Ed: So are you building the whole package, or are you taking parts from other manufacturers here? Miguel: We build everything in-house. Everything for both the Furio and the CamBots is built in-house; the software is developed in-house.

Ed: So they bought the Carbonite for a reason to fit in with their workflow. What you’re introducing now is something that for a new customer it puts a whole lot of products together in one? Spencer: Ed:

Spencer: Ed:

Correct.

So you’re not upsetting previous purchasers? I hope not.

Because that would be a bad thing?

Spencer:

It would, that’s for sure.

Ed: And the rails look particularly sturdy. They look like extruded aluminium? Miguel: That’s right. We buy extruded aluminium and then cut it out in pieces so we can make any length or any radius or curvature that a customer wants. Typically in new studios, the set designer defines how the track should look. Ed: And are they small sections of track that you can clip together and change the direction, all that sort of thing – like a model railway? Miguel: Yes exactly – it’s like Lego or Meccano. It’s like you have typically 2 metre lengths of track, so even if it’s straight or circle, it’s typically about 2 metres and you connect them together with a special connection, so you have a very smooth travelling. Ed:

And it’s all connected by cables?

Miguel: Yes, it’s all connected by cables. Now what is very important to mention, is that everything is IP based, it’s Internet based, so this means that controlling the system, but also getting feedback for virtual studios or augmented reality for tracking output … Ed: You can repeat particularly well?

those

moves

that

worked

Miguel: Absolutely, you can repeat the moves over time. You can programme a complex movement even several minutes long; you can record that, you can programme them with key frames that you drop on a timeline, a bit like a nonlinear video editor and then NZVN execute those moves. That’s what it’s all about. Page 52

Spencer from Ross with Carbonite.

NZVN

Anton/Bauer for Gencom We have Sherry Fragomeni, Brand Marketing Manager from Anton/Bauer. Ed: Sherry, Anton/Bauer is obviously well known for making batteries, but you’ve branched out a little bit. As part of the Vitec Group, you’ve been able to share some technology and you’ve come up with something new? Sherry: We partnered with our sister company, Integrated Microwave Technologies (IMT) and developed the Gold Spectrum™ Wireless Series, an RF wireless kit that utilises the 5.8 GHz frequency band, without the need for an FCC license. It Sherry is very happy to be photographed on the Anton/Bauer stand. transmits a signal up to a half a mile which is quite a in HD, high-resolution at 1200 NITs and it’s anti-glare, bit further than competitive products – they’re usually so you can use it in the sun, perfect for ENG and about 250 feet. It’s also MPEG4 and MPEG2 auto outdoor broadcast use. It’s also handheld and very detectable; for a lot of systems, it’s either one or the lightweight. It can receive up to 12 different cameras, other, this does both. A lot of people are happy so directors in ENG or OB settings are completely because it will work with their current equipment. mobile with it and can walk around as needed. Ed: Is this for recording video or just monitoring? Sherry: Oh it’s for capturing live event coverage, so it can be used in ENG applications, outdoor broadcast scenarios and even in some production work. Ed: So really the signal then has to be 100% all the time otherwise you’re going to go back to cable. You must be very confident that it’s going to work at the distance you claim? Sherry: We’re very confident. As a matter of fact, we just had someone use it on a production, The Incredible Mr. Goodwin, a TV show in England where a magician was performing a stunt live. He was hanging from the London Eye on a burning rope and the camera crew was inside one of the cages. Obviously, they can’t use tethered cables so they used our RF system and successfully got the shots they were looking for. It was the first time they used our system and they were very pleased with the result. Ed:

And obviously it clips onto the Anton/Bauer plate?

Sherry: Yes. It securely mounts to the back of the camera using the Anton/Bauer Gold Mount and each of the components can be used with any of our batteries. Ed:

So it’s a complete system from Anton/Bauer?

Sherry: Absolutely, yes and it comes in a great Pelican case with a Manfrotto arm to mount your receiver. Ed: Do you have your own monitor or are you using someone else’s? Sherry: We do have a monitor, the AB Direct VU. It’s not part of the kit but you can buy it separately and it’s a combination receiver and monitor. The screen is

Ed: And they can switch the camera view that they’re getting from the front panel? Sherry: Absolutely. Like I said, it’s great for sports events. As a matter of fact, the New York Yankees are using it for their pre-season, too. Ed: So you could say that this receiver can be used to connect to a monitor; you can connect the same receiver to a recorder so you only need one, you can record and view at the same time, or you could have two receivers, one for viewing, one for recording? Sherry: There is one HD SDI output from the receiver so if you wanted to route this to a monitor and a recorder you would need to loop the feed from one to the other as if you were using a camera with an external recorder. The AB Direct VU would allow you to monitor the feed and then send the output to an external recorder via the HD SDI output on the unit. Ed: So this is obviously not a videographer’s type kit, this is something for a serious broadcaster? Sherry: Yes, for now, that’s where we are, the reason being that it’s long distance, half a mile, and the fact that it auto detects MPEG4 and MPEG2. It’s not so much because of the signal, it’s because of the compression – that’s the newer technology. It is going to be more expensive, but hopefully over time, as technology advances, the pricing will come down. Ed:

Well it’s Stage One?

Sherry:

Page 53

Absolutely.

NZVN

Dolby for Syntec For Syntec we are at Dolby and we start with Montfort de Lattre. Ed: Now we’re here today to talk about loudness because this is something that is obviously very big all around the world. In Australia-New Zealand, we don’t have a CALM Act like they do in the States, but there’s general agreement amongst the broadcasters to stick to a standard of loudness and Dolby has the technology to help in this area? Montfort: We have the knowhow, we have the experience. We have been one of the first companies who provided broadcast tools to enable loudness measurement, way in advance of the CALM Act. We made our first broadcast loudness meter nearly seven years ago, the LM100, and now with the CALM Act happily we have been able to propagate our technologies as we normally do in our partnered product, like Lyner, Krustige, Junger, Vola in regards monitoring. So you will find now Dobly Loudness Technologies in most of the partnered products as we have for encoder-decoders currently. We’re going to start with two new products. The first one is the DP600 which is used in the US and in Europe for loudness correction and estimation in file based content. It’s a three rack unit that allow you to ingest your content in most of the formats available in the broadcast world – MXF, JXS, HDCAM and so on, to ingest with the video, will demux the audio from the

Montfort from Dolby.

video, take the audio and measure it. Depending on the selection of what you’re trying to do, either we can directly correct it to a certain level to ensure loudness is maintained across a constant, or we can provide the specific level. If it’s a “dog”, we can quarantine and give you a way to be able to check your content or correct it. One of the powerful things also about DP600 is that you can automate your workflow. A lot of customers are content aggregators who receive promo content from a

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wide variety of partners. The problem is that most of them have different specs. They have to provide all the content to a certain loudness to their customer broadcaster. Ed: I’m sure there are many aggregators around who take in content from a wide variety of sources in both Australia and New Zealand and have to put that together into a play-out arrangement. I guess also that the audio levels as well as video levels, all sorts of things are all different and having the whole process automated must be a big help to them rather than having to listen to everything that comes in? Montfort: To give you an idea of how helpful it is, one of our customers with three of our units, last year ran 200 million content promo ads, short-term content let us be honest. So when I say automated, you need to define what do you want to do. DP600 is a powerful tool, complex to use but powerful. Like I said, the main feature is loudness correction, but we also support transcoding, encoding and decoding from all Dolby formats, Dolby E, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital … Ed: One would expect that from a Dolby product? Montfort: Yes, exactly as you mention, and we also provide down mix and up mix technologies to allow you to get 5.1 content from your archives to your content. When you find your content, you fix it, ingest it, process it, output it to a shared folder. The only thing that you will have to do is to load the new content in the shared folder; the rest is automated. Ed: Now what happens to that original file – what say you don’t like the result of a particular file conversion, is the original file still there so you can go back to it? Montfort: Of course. You can delete, you can quarantine or you can have it stored. It’s your own choice. There is one interesting thing about loudness that in this tool is different. It is depending if you’re working with Dolby content, with metadata, or AC content and MPEG 2 layer 2 audio. In the case of Dolby content, what we do is we decode the audio, estimate the loudness and update the dial norm metadata value. But we don’t decode and re-encode the same content. If you go through AC and MPEG 2 layer 2, there will be no choice, it will have to decode the content and fix them, correct the content and fix them, and then reencode it. So the idea of using Dolby Digital allows you to ensure that you don’t degrade your audio quality for going through encode, decode cycles.

Ed: So is this something that you would have incorporated with a tool like Audition from Adobe, or is this a standalone product? Gary: Well let me give you an idea. It’s a standalone but once, for instance, the workflow might be work in Pro Tools, do your mix, finish your mix, finish your theatrical mix, then finish your home theatre mix which might be a little bit different, take that audio, feed it to our encoder, it encodes the audio, all the codecs necessary and then it goes to authoring. Typically, the professional authoring solutions are Sony’s Blu-print and Dolby’s Scenarist. Those are the two top notch ones that can do all the features for Bluray, “all the features” being all different languages, and all the down mix scenarios like going from 5.1 to two channel, all of that. So every possible feature is available as far as audio is concerned out of our software, and there’s a multitude of applications here. There’s two versions of an encoder – there’s an encoder that’s a standalone that works on one computer; there’s an encoder that works with a server, so you have a file server and a client, multiple clients can be a multitude

Now to continue the story we have Gary Epstein from Dolby Laboratories. Ed: Now Gary you’re the software man and you know all about Dolby Media Producer? Gary: I do. Ed: I don’t know anything, so start from scratch. Gary: Okay, the Dolby Media Producer software applications are designed to work on a Mac and they take audio after they are produced and mixed and meant for home exhibition and process them into lossless audio and into lossy audio which is to meet the Blu-ray specification, for inclusion on a Blu-ray disc. It also does standard DVD, but the focus is more on higher quality disc formats like Blu-ray.

Gary from Dolby. Page 55

of clients, can be a dozen or more, there’s no real limit on that. Then there’s the professional decoder that listens to your work after you’re done with it, in sync with picture. There is a tool set to allow you to modify an encoded audio file if you want to make some changes without re-encoding; there’s a data rate estimator for the project manager, to be able to take the audio before you’ve done any encoding work with it, and get an accurate estimation of how much space it will take up on the disc and what the peak and the average data rates are, so that you can plan on how many languages you can put on there, whether there’s a director’s commentary, how much you have to compress the picture, all of those additional features; could you put a game on there. So, with your variable bit rate audio, like Dolby True HD, what it will take accurately, you can plan accordingly and tell your customer ( who you’re working for ), “yes”, I can take six languages, “yes”, I can take that game, I can fit it all on here, because I know how much my audio data is going to take up and I know that I don’t have to compress my video too much to accommodate all of those other things. So aside from all of that, then there is the quality and conformance tool; traditionally, once you’ve done an encode, you use our decoder, you’ll listen to the highest quality one which will be the lossless audio. This will automatically compare the lossy, the Dolby Digital and the lossless and make sure one is an accurate representation of the other, so you don’t have to sit down there for two hours and listen to both versions. You can spend your two hours listening to one version; the other one it will guarantee is the same quality and an accurate representation of the

other. So that’s a very important tool. Then there’s also what we call a branch point movie player. What that does is it allows you to … you know what “branching” is in Blu-ray? Ed: No. Gary: It’s a feature that allows you to jump around segments and the easiest way to comprehend it is let’s say you’ve got a movie that’s got some risqué scenes or some language you don’t like, you can say in the menu play the child’s version of this and it will jump over certain sections or replace them with alternate language and alternate picture. So that’s what branching is. Ed: I think we see that on the airline version of movies? Gary: You see an alternate edited version of that, yes. So this will allow you to emulate what those branch points sound like. What does it sound like when I jump from place to place? Have I chosen the right point, or am I cutting a word in half? Does it make sense? So we have that tool as well. All of this stuff is in the suite. What we’re showing here today is a release that we’re going to be doing at the end of June and probably most of the features that we’re showing will be included, but we’re not guaranteeing all these features; they’re in alpha or beta state right now. We’re showing them to our customers and we’ll see what we actually deliver, but more than likely most of the things will be there. We’re getting good feedback from our customers, because we build these tools for our customers; we don’t build them for us. We want to NZVN know what our customers find useful.

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K-Tek for Sound Techniques At the K-Tek booth, we have Stephen Buckland and Brenda Parker.

Ed:

And it comes in one colour?

Brenda: It does come in black – but we are going to have different colours for the different tensions of coil. So the lighter tension coil will be in grey; the higher tension ones will be in black. Also, the clip has rubber around it and that really holds the microphone in, so you’re not going to lose the microphone; and it also does help with some of the isolation as well. Ed: And this whole design came from customer feedback? Brenda: We listened to our customers. They gave us a list of what they wanted in the ultimate shock mount and we checked everything off the list and I think the Nautilus Suspension Mount covers all of it. Ed: Oh. Right, but K-Tek is not all about microphone suspension mounts – poles is really where K-Tek started and they are the strengths. We’ve got a kit here? Brenda: Well, we first introduced the new Boompole Kit Bag at the beginning of this year. It’s a triangular shaped zipper bag that has like a hard shell on it. It’s absolutely gorgeous, you can fit a boompole, a microphone shock mount, windscreen; you can fit headphones. You can buy this bag by itself or you can buy it as a kit. So you get our most popular boompole in either carbon fibre or aluminium, with one of our beautiful new Nautilus Suspension Mounts, a windscreen – all within the new BLT-35 case at one fixed price. So you just need to get the microphone and you’re good to go. Ed:

Is that a good thing Stephen?

Stephen: How easy is that as an affordable solution for all your sound equipment? Brenda doing exercises with the Nautilis mic mount.

Ed: Now Brenda, we’re going to start not with a pole, but with a little curly thing? Brenda: Well this little curly thing happens to be the K-Tek Nautilus Suspension Microphone Mount. It is absolutely gorgeous because not only is it attractive, but it isolates your microphone from any handling noise because we have these special coils that hold the microphone on an incredibly tough base. It’s incredibly lightweight, you can drop it on the ground and it’s not going to break … Ed:

Can you stand on it?

Brenda: Ed:

You can stand on it – do you want to see?

( Brenda stands on it ) Wow.

Brenda: The coil is so great you can actually like stretch them from one end to the other … yes, I know, it looks horrible but it didn’t break did it? Ed: No, and it didn’t deform. I guess there’s a balance here between having it too stiff and having it flexible enough so that it does absorb those vibrations? Brenda: Absolutely, and also every microphone is handled differently. We have more than one tension coil; you can get coils that are a little thicker, that will be a tighter tension; ones that have a looser tension. Also, one of the most valuable things about this mount is that it’s adjustable based on your microphone length. So you just snap it on this T-bar and you can move the coils together and you can use it for a short shotgun microphone, or you can separate them and use it for a longer microphone. That way you don’t have to have multiple mounts if you have multiple microphones. Page 58

Stephen has a case of … boom poles.

Ed: S o for those people who already have the poles and the bits and pieces, they can just get the bag? Stephen: T h e y can just get the bag, that’s right. The only thing they need to consider is how long the pole is in its collapsed form, so it will fit in the case. Ed: And I guess with the developments in carbon fibre, etc, it might be time to get a new pole anyway? Stephen: It is always a good time to look at getting another pole, because one pole doesn’t necessarily fit NZVN all situations.

Beachtek for Sound Techniques We are at Beachtek and it’s called “the Quiet Connection.” To tell us what they have is Harry Kaufmann. Ed: Now as far as I am concerned, this is a new product for NZ Video News Readers through Sound Techniques, but Harry you’ve been in business for 16 years I believe? Harry: Yes, we started making adapters for camcorders to allow you to hook up professional microphones to any consumer type camera – you get a much higher quality sound. Ed: In those days of course – well camcorders, consumer ones generally had just a phono and/or minijack inputs and all your professional audio equipment was three pin XLR or Canon connectors, so I guess you also had that connector conversion, but also in the processing? Harry: That’s correct, so we allowed the user to buy a consumer camcorder that had the same kind of features as the pro cameras do, except for the audio capabilities, so the inexpensive adapters would give you the same capabilities as a much more expensive pro camera. Ed: And now, of course, with the DSLR craze, you’ve got a new market?

Stephen and Harry. Page 59

headphone monitoring feature all built-in. So that’s our most popular adapter. Ed:

How many inputs on that?

Harry: All the adapters we have are two input devices, because all the DSLR cameras can record two channels at a time and so we have a wide variety of adapters and very simple passive devices to fully featured active models. We even have a special adapter for the Blackmagic cinema camera as well. Ed: So really as a new model comes out, you create a version that will accept those inputs? Harry: Yes, we have the basic DSLR pro adapter which actually does work on virtually any DSLR camera that has a mic jack. What’s unique about the Blackmagic camera is that it has quarter inch balanced inputs and we made a unique adapter just for that camera. Harry: Yes, most of our market now has shifted to DSLR cameras, which have the same kind of problems that the consumer camcorders had, whereas they only have mini plug inputs and we make the interface with the XLRs to allow you to use professional mics on a DSLR camera. Ed: But you go beyond that – I see quite a range here. You offer a small one and up to some quite sophisticated looking boxes? Harry: Yes, we have very simple passive adapters that are ideal for hooking up a wireless microphone or a mixing board, to a fully featured DXA-SLR Pro which has low noise preamps, view meters, limiters and a

Ed:

And Stephen?

Stephen: Well what Beachtek has always done is allowed you to control the individual audio channel levels recording to a camera that only has an 1/8” minijack mic input. Ed: Are there any other uses for it – for a soundie for example? Stephen: Well it makes it very helpful if you’re obliged to be on a shoot with, say, a Canon 5D or that type of camera – it makes it much easier for you to plug your gear in. Ed: There are still going to be limitations aren’t there, with a DSLR?

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Stephen: Yes, the limitations are going to be the quality of recording that the DSLR allows you. But some of the things that Beachtek adapters have done over time, is override the automatic gain control, which has since been abandoned in most cameras. It gives you some metering – some of the versions give you metering, so the camera operator or the sound operator can see what the levels of audio actually are. One of the issues of plugging into the mic input on a prosumer camera has been that, if it’s a mic input, it’s powered and if the connector moves, you get a scratchiness which the Beachtek adapter overcomes, because of the electronics inside it. It allows you to phantom power microphones, which gives you a lot more versatility as to what microphones you can use, so you don’t have to have a battery powered mic or only a dynamic mic. That’s probably my short list I think of things it helps do. We’ve been selling Beachtek adapters since we were in our original premises in New North Road, which is 10 years or more. Ed: Now it’s just become more important with the number of DSLRs out there? Stephen: Well it has become important, but there have always been people who would buy a camera probably for cost, and then wonder why the audio quality is not so good but, if they do some research, or they come and see us, we will say “well, this is the best way to improve the audio quality.” Even the basic model of Beachtek adapter, the MCC-2, which is a new

model, allows you to plug a wireless mic, it’s got a connector for a wireless receiver on one side and you can plug, say, a Sennheiser MKE 400 into the other side and you’ve immediately got a rig with two microphones into your camera and that maximises the portability and ease of use. The audio quality is only going to be as good as the weakest link in the chain, but the weakest link in the chain will not be the connection between the mic and NZVN the camera.

SUPER HI-VISION comes to NAB I’ve written about 8K from IBC a couple of times and now the Americans get a taste of an 8K demonstration. In case you missed the earlier NAB stories, 4K was the buzz at NAB this year. Now 4K is demonstrably four times the resolution of high definition while 8K is four times the resolution of 4K. Even though the marketing people try to suggest you could use it for home, business or educational purposes, obviously the real value in this is going to be in training facilities and movie theatres. Some of the footage they showed here demonstrated the value in Art History education where the video images of a piece of work by Raphael were shown in incredible detail that you’d have difficulty seeing on any other television system. So there’s definitely value in that, possibly even in the

medical training field. But the one demonstration that caused the most “oooos” and “aaaahs” was footage from the 2011 final launch of the space shuttle. They shot this from three different angles and not only were the pictures stunning, but the sound also. The 22.2 surround sound made you really feel the rumble as that magnificent machine soared into space. The amount of detail was such that even from a wide shot you could see the little cone of burning gas coming out of the rockets of the space shuttle itself. Quite incredible. The following is a resolution comparison chart. Standard definition

720 x 576 pixels

High definition

1920 x 1080 pixels

4096 x 2160 pixels

21x

7680 x 4320 pixels

80x

The carnival piece was from this February in Rio and compared to the footage I saw last year from the Sony F65, there was even more resolution. The 4K from the Sony was brilliant … this was super brilliant in terms of its resolution, colour and sound coming from the carnival. I don’t think we’re going to see it broadcast anytime soon, although they do talk about a hybrid 8K system which sends out a compressed 8K signal. I just don’t think the delivery mechanism’s there, but in terms of specialist uses, it’s got to come. It’s just that good. Ed Page 61

NZVN

Spectrum news update The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has released a discussion paper UHF Radiomicrophones: Opportunities for future use on the licensing of radio microphones once the ‘700 MHz’ block of frequencies has been auctioned off and analogue television switched off at the end of 2013 throughout New Zealand. Submissions are invited by 25 June 2013. The document can be found here http:// www.rsm.govt.nz/cms/policy-and-planning/consultation/uhf-radiomicophones-opportunities -for-future-use The General User Licence (GUL) for radio microphones operating between 703 MHz and 806 MHz expires in March 2015 and is unlikely to be renewed in any form since it will be used for 4G mobile services. Small areas of spectrum at either end of this block may remain usable for low powered devices. What’s left for use of the remaining spectrum between 518 MHz and 698 MHz remains uncertain. In Auckland for example there is 80 MHz of non-contiguous spectrum left vacant at the moment however if Sky Network Television takes up its full entitlement to digital spectrum there may be only 16 MHz left free for radio microphones to use. Sky doesn’t have to declare its intentions until November 2013. Each radio microphone needs about 1 MHz of space to function. To reduce the diminishing spectrum, a bill before Parliament grants Maori Television the management rights to 16 MHz of spectrum from 606 – 622 MHz and use of this block is supposed to cease as soon as the legislation passes. Wireless Users NZ updates its frequency allocation table as time allows on the website www.wunz.co.nz and will make a submission to the discussion document. However the onus is on you, the users, to read the discussion document, make your own submission, and try to understand how the radio environment will work from the end of 2013. Talk to your supplier and attend forthcoming Q&A sessions such as at the Pro Audio Showcase, Ellerslie Racecourse, Weds July 31st Thurs Aug 1st, 2013. Stephen Buckland Chair Wireless Users NZ

The Winning Post, Ellerslie Events Centre, July 30 - August 1 • Ellerslie Racecourse

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