MARCH 2014
NZVN Issue #200 Yes, it’s here, issue #200 and I wonder if anyone really thought we’d make it. Just like we did for issue #100, this is an opportunity for my trusty but ageing assistant to put her tuppence worth into the mix.
Vol 200
but in fact there were some high def cameras but a fair bit of standard def stuff such as monitors with tape on them showing where the crop occurs … there’s your 16x9 frame and not your 4x3. The adoption of high def was certainly a lot slower than the manufacturers would
Miss Hellfinger: Yes, you’ve made it to 200 issues – did you think this was possible when you got to 100? Ed: Well yes I did. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, both from our readers and by the advertising support from our industry suppliers. I think however, that 300 might be a bit of a peak too far. I’ll be 70 by then, your Barbie head-pho nes will probably be no more and I won’t be able to get tape I’m sure. But we’ll give it a good go. Miss Hellfinger: What’s been the biggest technology change in the industry since issue 100? Ed: Probably there’s actually been three that I’d mention. Ed takes a selfie to include Miss Hellfinger. The first one would be high definition. Now we think high definition is the norm but have hoped. It’s also not been well understood, nine years ago, we had standard definition in 4x3. therefore possibly not well explained, because each However, the adoption has been rather slow and there’s manufacturer has its own version and its own barrow to been many instances when I’ve gone into studios push, so confusion out there as to what really is high thinking “oh, this must be a full high definition studio”, def but does it really matter? To know that at least one
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game changer. What’s been happening in the last number of years has been the increasing power of the computer, but the reducing cost of all the components. So it seems as though every year you get a faster computer at a slightly cheaper cost, and I think this will continue.
“Breaking Wind” “Physics teacher goes over to the dark side and starts monthly magazine for professionals using video. Set in a southern part of the city of Auckland.
But the third one, and one that sort of dragged me kicking and screaming into this year, has been the web. Certainly production wise, a lot in our industry are doing web material. It’s not going onto a disc, it’s not going broadcast, it’s straight to the web and that really has been a major change in the industry. But again, it’s understanding what’s required and doing it properly.
Main character spends much time overseas at large gatherings. Likes to be photographed with women, prefers blondes and is not concerned about being PC. Eats out especially if other party is paying. Particularly fond of dumplings or seafood.
For my part, in my productions, I really don’t do web stuff unless I have to, and then I ask the client “well, what have you seen that you like?” and so I give them that as well as something at higher res just to see if that works better for them. There’s a lot of bad web stuff out there, people using the wrong compression and also shooting it the wrong way and probably using the wrong technology to make it.
Resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.” Congratulations from Sound Techniques to Grant, Louise, Copybook for 200 issues of New Zealand Video News
It shouldn’t be that difficult. of our major broadcasters still has standard def in its workflow for certain parts of its programming, is … well it’s interesting. The second big one is actually the improvements in computer capability and at lower cost. In those early days, the computer as a nonlinear editing machine made huge inroads into the industry and it really was a
Miss Hellfinger: ... and? Ed: ... and it’s this interview workflow. If we take an NAB situation, when I’ve had to corner someone, lately Stuart Barnaby but in the old days it was David Colthorpe, and beg them to take the interview tapes back to New Zealand with them, because they normally went straight home while I went off to Europe for a bit of a holiday, as you do. Their job was to get tapes to Louise in as quick a time as possible, so then she could start going through and transcribing them. Well this was rather a nightmare for her, because everything depended on getting up to ten hours’ worth of recorded interviews done. The audio quality wasn’t great, there was always a lot of background noise to mix in with the various accents, so eventually we’ve gone digital. It’s only been in the last year that we’ve actually got a very good digital package with an Olympus digital recorder and transcribing technology and the use of Google Drive. So what I’m able to do now, at the end of a day at the show, whether it be in Sydney, in Vegas, at IBC or even just down the road, is that I can upload the files to Google Drive, send Louise an email and she can download them and transcribe them immediately. When I go back to the newsroom the next morning, there are the first couple of stories ready for me to do my changes to and send to the authors. So for NZ Video News this has been a huge, huge benefit, not only in the speed of getting things done, but also (and I’m sure Louise would agree) in the technical quality of the voice recording. Is that true? Miss Hellfinger: Yes. The clarity of the sound is markedly improved and the background noise, while
“It’s all lies – this really was free.”
Go www.finnzed.co.nz and follow the link to NZVN for more news. P14 Quinto Pete shoots straight. P20 In the shade of the wind wand. P26 Remote phosphor LED lighting. Page 3
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television sets with a potential Dolby feature which will decode the signal and make it much sharper and clearer. That of course is predicated on broadcast continuing in a major form and not being overcome totally by the net.
Gencom Congratulates New Zealand Video News on 200th Issue “The magazine has come a long way since the black and white photocopied adverts were faxed ready for printing. Gencom has been supporting this publiccation for over 20 years and sees value in the articles and information that it passes to the local industry.
Miss Hellfinger: What was the technology that went nowhere in the last 100 issues? Ed: Well that’s an easy one – I think even you could answer that … Miss Hellfinger: ( after much prompting and prodding from Ed ) 3D?
As a truly dedicated NZ magazine it has given us the opportunity to share our partners’ product updates and product technology through the extensive interviews carried out at the international trade shows that many are unable to attend. Grant has worked on these tirelessly and with such enthusiasm.
Ed: 3D, or we should say “stereo video” was where the smart money stayed away from, that’s true. 3D for anything other than high frame rate cinema, done carefully and competently with big budgets is a dead dog. However, I have to put my hand up and say that having seen The Hobbit in high frame rate 3D, I thought “wow, that is clever, that is very good use of the technology,” it was well done.
Well done Grant and your support team behind the scene.”
I have seen some very poor examples of 3D done on inadequate cameras and done badly - that’s headache material.
Nicki Brierton
still there, is definitely muted. However, I had to listen to the snide comments you got about the fact that you hadn’t adapted to modern technology. What’s even worse is that you blamed me! Ed: Well fair enough. Yes, I would come to the end of a tape you see and I would hear it clunk and stop and I would say oops, sorry, just hang on a moment, I have to change tapes. And of course you’re at the cutting edge of technology here in these halls, with some very expensive equipment and here’s Muggins with a little tape recorder, so I would get some funny looks, but it was all explained when I said “well, I’m sorry, but it’s my PA … she’s sort of old and doddery and I’ve tried digital in the past but she doesn’t understand it, so I had to go back to tape, and you know it keeps her happy, and isn’t that important?” And they’d all nod and agree and they’d be happy. So there you are … but by the photograph in her leotards, she’s not old and doddery is she? Miss Hellfinger: What about the next 100 – have you got any predictions?
Miss Hellfinger: What about hot products over the time? Ed: Well I’m a bit coloured by what I’ve seen recently, but I would say a lot of the lighting product, and that’s not just LED, but in the fluorescent and the incandescent options as well. There is a lot more control and easier operation now. If you think back to the old days, you had Blondes and Redheads and some massive studio lights that were very large, heavy, not a lot of control, and very hot. In the camera range, I think Sony video cameras – I can’t think of a bad one, they just get better and cheaper and the Canon cameras have really shaken up the market for cinema style and we can expect more to come from them, I’m certain. Miss Hellfinger: Any love / hate situations? Ed: Many people say that they hate Vegas and they hate NAB but, like me, they seem to keep going back. I think this year is going to be my 20th visit to NAB. I don’t think I’ll get any medal or a plaque to
Ed: I think computers are going to get even faster and cheaper and there’s going to be faster data speeds on the internet. That’s going to be a big change; that’s going to help the production on the web improve, certainly in the technical quality. We are now beginning to see the increase in the number of video / cinema cameras coming out with single large sensors. I am sensing (excuse the pun) that this is going to become more the norm; that 3 chip cameras are not going to be made for much longer. Another prediction – 4K will be the new standard. I think that’s a given. It has the value of increased resolution in future productions but also, it offers a sensible way of post zooming video material, so that you can easily crop in a high def level picture and it’s not going to suffer. My last prediction is improved compression in broadcast. I’ve seen a number of these, including Page 4
“Thank you for the support of the video, broadcast and motion picture industry over the past 200 issues. It has taken much encouragement, interest and urgent reminders to enable us to continue to support NZ Video News! All the best to continue to be the only local regular publication for our industry.” Tim Timlin Panavision New Zealand.
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commemorate the occasion but every visit is an experience. When you leave, you think “thank goodness it’s another year over”, but getting closer to it, the hype, just sheer over the top of Vegas and the NAB show is hard to beat. I’d say for any of us in this industry, if you’re making a bucket list, No 1 should be go to an NAB show, because you will never see anything like it anywhere else in the world. It’s just totally worth it, not only for the technology experience, but also the Vegas experience. If you want to go further afield, of course there’s IBC and I think, in the last six years that we’ve added IBC to the circuit, you do see some different things. European companies especially look upon IBC as their launching pad and NAB is secondary, which is as it should be, because they really are different markets, America and Europe. IBC is a much more cultured show, Amsterdam is a more cultured city – it’s a lot more expensive however, but there are entertainments there that add to the show experience. Miss Hellfinger: What really annoys you? Ed: Well those who know me know that lots of things make me grumpy ( not looking directly at Miss Hellfinger – after all I do want her to type this up ) but that’s age related I’m sure. In the technology area, I think it’s the continued lack of understanding of progressive versus interlace and when they should be used and how they should be used. The
“Congratulations NZ Video News for reaching such a milestone! Canon has enjoyed working with you and looks forward to many more issues to come, bringing industry professionals your ‘interlaced’ commentary and ‘progressive’ content!” All the best mate. The Canon Team
second one is using cinema cameras to make video … and I don’t blame any manufacturer here, I have had long discussions with a number of manufacturers and they have the same view as I do. They make the camera, they tell the people what it’s for, but people think “oh, I can use this for something else”, and it’s actually a disservice to those manufacturers and to those fine products because then these ill-users turn round and blame the camera, they blame the technology; they don’t blame themselves as the ones who don’t actually understand how the cameras are supposed to be used and in what situations they’re supposed to be used. There are video cameras, there are cinema cameras, and there’s very little crossover between the two and how they should be used. Miss Hellfinger: What about NZVN on the web? Why did you do that? Page 6
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Ed: It’s only been since 2011 that we started putting NZ Video News on the web, thanks to Wayne Farran from Syntec, now Sennheiser in Australia, who suggested to me that we could put NZVN on the web as a PDF at no cost and that’s how it began. Once I was shown by my younger son – a computer engineer – how this worked, we were able to upload an issue and there it is in all its glory. The benefit of this is that everyone can read it.
Now, you can get the newspaper as a printed version, or you can go on the web and you can read it at your leisure in full colour – and it’s still at no cost. Well it’s our lovely advertisers who make the whole thing possible. It’s through them that I’m able to do the print version and because the process is really quite simple of just uploading a combined PDF to the web and not doing anything to it other than what was done for the print, it’s really not a major issue.
The question often put to me in those early years was “how can you do this for nothing?”
It takes me probably half an hour to upload it to the web – as long as either Google of Issuu hasn’t changed
Here’s David Colthorpe. We conspired to show David pointing on as many occasions as possible, but here I attempted to trick him into pointing at a young lady’s bottom – then she moved! Page 8
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their protocols. That happened recently when I followed the instructions my son had given me, expecting it just to go straight there, but unfortunately there had been some changes and things went wrong. Luckily my son is only a phone call away and was able to help me get it sorted. So we continue to provide both services. I suppose the extra benefit of the web one is that when you go to a page and you see a link, even though it was put up there as a PDF, you can actually click on that link, and it will take you to the website that was in that advertiser’s advertisement or within the story. So
Well what a milestone this is for you and the magazine Grant. Congratulations on your wonderful achievement. Our industry has seen many changes over the years and the New Zealand Video News, through its adver-tising and articles, has done an excellent job at providing us all with a local voice. Well done and keep up the great work. Stuart Barnaby – DVT PS thanks for the stuff you chose not to publish about me!
Page 10
that’s a real benefit. And the number of hits that we’re getting for the newspaper has gone from under 50 per issue in that first year, to a peak of over 900 for one of our recent issues, but currently tracking around the 600 mark. It’s nearly up to the level of the printed newspaper and I’m sure this year we will exceed it, so it’s got to be of benefit to the advertisers and expanding the readership to have it on the web. Any suggestions you might have that could improve that without adding extra work for myself or Miss Hellfinger, please let us know, but we don’t want to increase the cost. No cost is always a good number.
" Happy 200 Grant, you don't look a day under 150! Seriously though, thanks for all your work over the years, NZVN is a great avenue for us to promote our products and educate the readers and customers. Keep up the good work. Chris McKenzie Team at PLS "
Miss Hellfinger: Over the years ( you look upon it as visits to NAB; I look upon it as visits to the physiotherapist ) I have formed many “sight unseen”
“The team at Now Sound Ltd would like to congratulate you on your 200th publication of NZ Video News. It has been a pleasure working with you over the years as both an advertiser and content contributor for our Shure broadcast products we proudly represent in New Zealand. We wish you all the best with the future of NZ Video News.” Many thanks, Now Sound Proud distributors of Shure, QSC, Cloud and Wekawire in New Zealand
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friendships with some of the folk you regularly interview – some of them talk to me, some of them sympathise with me, others simply seem perplexed. I have my favourites. Anyone who spoke clearly, not too fast, and made reasonable sense automatically qualified. Overseas presenters like Nigel Gardiner, Noel Oakes, Cindy Zuelsdorf, Linda Swope, or the local lads, Ray Sanders, Ken Brooke, Stephen Buckland, Chris McKenzie and, of course, Stuart Barnaby – even though he’s almost never on time as far as getting his stories back before the deadline! Going even further back, there were great moments in clarity with the likes of Rick Haywood, Geoff Head, and not forgetting David Colthorpe.
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Ed:
You miss him do you? “First of all: Congratulations! What we need in this industry is commitment, continuity and dedication … you have definitely had the long breath and good quality reporting of technology news over the years – please keep going!”
Miss Hellfinger: I do miss David even though I think he was terrified the one and only time he was on tape delivery duty having to venture into our low socioeconomic suburb in his Mercedes convertible. Ed:
What did you do to him?
Miss Hellfinger: I didn’t do anything. Ed:
Well what did you offer him?
Miss Hellfinger: No, no, it wasn’t like that at all … from memory, some likely lads in hoodies went by muttering about taking the wheels off his car and he couldn’t wait to get out of there. Ed: Do you ever feel sorry for the people I interview Louise? Miss Hellfinger: Only David Colthorpe. You used to wind him up mercilessly until he would give up and talk to me. No, your interview style is pretty good. You don’t talk over people … I think that’s the worst problem, trying to sort out two voices in my ears at the same time – I get a bit tetchy. But in all fairness, I have to say that I have found you good to work for. I have even been known to tell people that you are a good boss, usually after I have received my Christmas bonus. Ed:
Oh she’s loyal isn’t she people?
Miss Hellfinger: You pay me!
Stefan Sedlmeier Managing Director, ARRI Australia Pty Ltd
Ed: Well it is chequebook journalism after all Louise. I suppose you see the photos of these gentlemen, but it’s more their voices that do things for you isn’t it? Miss Hellfinger: Ummm – sometimes the voices sound really nice, but unfortunately the pictures do not live up to expectation. Ed: Oh look I’ve had that comment too. People think I’m actually a nice person when they hear me. Miss Hellfinger: Oh okay … yeah well, I could put them right. Ed: Give me back my recorder, that’s the last time I’m interviewing you … haven’t you heard that “less is more?” I think you should definitely stick to transcribing. NZVN
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Quinto Pete Shoots Straight We are at the offices of Quinto Communications in Takapuna, Auckland with Pete Fullerton. I wanted to talk to Pete off the NAB show floor to investigate the wide choices customers have in choosing products and where they get them from. I know Pete’s been in the job now for just on a year so I was keen to catch up with what Quinto has on offer for New Zealand customers. Ed: Quinto’s been in New Zealand and Australia for a long time and has built a strong reputation in the industry hasn’t it Pete? Pete: Quinto was originally started in Australia in 1969 and expanded into New Zealand in the late 80’s – so there’s a lot of years’ worth of broadcast experience from a well-established company. Ed: And the good thing is that the business is really seamless between the two countries – there’s nothing major that Australia has that New Zealand doesn’t, and vice versa, so you’re pretty much working together to supply products and technical services? Pete: One of the things that is really good about modern times and where we are right now, is that there is no big gap between Australia and New Zealand when it comes to communication. That means that we can rely on the expertise in Australia to help us out with products here and that they can come back to us and ask us about projects that we’ve done. So we share between our offices a lot. Ed: Now getting onto the product range, some of the ones that we’ve covered at NAB in the past we’ll talk about shortly, the products that Quinto has exclusively, but in the products that every man and his dog sells, we have AJA and Blackmagic, and Blackmagic is the one that intrigues me the most. You can buy it anywhere, you can buy it on the web, you can buy it from almost any supplier and it’s all the same price. Why do you have it in your range when you have exclusivity with similar products from Evertz? Pete: Why do we sell Blackmagic? Yes, there’s lots of different places that you can go to for Blackmagic. People will choose a particular supplier because they need other products as well – for example, we’re the distributors for Autocue, and Marshall monitors. So they might come to us to get a variety of items from one place. Or they might have a particular job that’s quite tricky that they need our engineering expertise on. They may just prefer our service – the way we backup our products that we sell. It’s hard to get that sort of service over the internet. Ed: Something I’ve raised before is that often, you can get things cheaper on the web, but in this case you get it pretty much for the same price wherever you go, but the value in getting it from the local supplier is that warranty and that backup? Pete: Yes, and we do need to put value on having somebody locally; we do need to put value on going into a company and asking somebody’s advice and the value of that advice. There are people who will approach companies like Quinto, get a whole lot of advice on how to do their project and then wander off and buy directly from the internet. Ultimately that does a huge disservice to the industry because people can’t
afford to keep giving away their expertise for no reward at all. When you buy something from somebody locally, you get the backup and support from that person, so if the device doesn’t work, or if it doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do, you can go back to that person and say “hey, why is this doing what it’s doing?” Ed: Because there’s no Consumer Guarantees Act for professional product, so if you get it off the web then you have to go back to that web supplier and hopefully some months down the track you might get a replacement? Pete: Well I don’t doubt that dealing with a company like Blackmagic, you will get support. It does mean that you’re in the queue with every other web purchaser … whereas, if you buy it from us, we take on that responsibility. If we have to keep hitting up Blackmagic, then we will. If we have to keep sending them daily emails, then we will. We recently had a good product that Blackmagic sell, but in the particular installation, it was not operating up to its full potential. We swapped it out with our demo unit until Blackmagic could provide a software upgrade for the unit, to make the unit work properly again. Ed: Yes, I’ve actually had that issue with an Intensity Pro card that took some time for the Adobe and Blackmagic software to catch up with each other. But you have another solution don’t you, because one of the products that Quinto sells exclusively is Evertz and there is a bit of crossover in the range of Blackmagic and Evertz isn’t there Pete? Pete: Evertz are one of a number of high product ranges we distribute exclusively in New Zealand ( see our website for more info.) We are very proud to be able to offer solutions in a number of price ranges. It may be that you can’t afford an Evertz or a Snell solution, in which case a Blackmagic or AJA solution might be suitable. What we try and do is go over with our customer what it is that they want to achieve. We’re a solutions based company – so we will always try to come up with the best combination of equipment that gets the end result and still fits in with your budget. There are times when you need a low budget solution and we’re really good at that … coming up with a low budget option and saying “okay, well no, this is not
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Pete: Well there’s lots of times when gear comes out and somebody says oh it does this function, you know it’s brilliant. And you look at it and you go but nobody ever does that, nobody ever uses that function, nobody will ever do that in the industry. So there are times, certainly, when people say I want this bit of gear because it does this and you can say well actually do you really want to do that, because when you look at your workflow, you’ll never use that functionality, it will cost you so much money. Ed:
It’s like digital zoom isn’t it?
Pete: Yes … digital zoom. Okay, that’s a classic example. If you’re talking to somebody who’s making drama, then the digital zoom is something that they would never use. But if you’re talking to somebody who does live streaming News and they suddenly find themselves standing at a police barrier and they want to get the shots and they can’t get close enough, then some digital zoom may enable them to stay safe but still get images that nobody else can. Ed: Now Pete, you don’t have a showroom, you’re a traveller and you’re actually keen to go and visit facilities to see what they’ve got and advise them on the right bit of gear that might be required to improve what they’re doing? Pete: The best part about sales is seeing people; and the best part about being in broadcast sales is being able to go out and have a look at other people’s setups and see what they do. That’s the exciting part of the job. Just a small part of the Quinto offer.
going to do 100% of what you want, but it’ll cover 80% to 90% of what you want and still be affordable for your price range”. Then we can talk about how to get to 100% from there. Ed: So that’s it, you’re able to give your customers a choice and if they’re a heavy user you would suggest the Evertz; if they’re a light user or on a limited budget, you have the Blackmagic option – or AJA? Pete: Or AJA, and we also have Snell as well. We represent over 27 different manufacturers, so we have a number of options and a number of things we can put together. We just recently had a case where a customer approached us and said that they were interested in a particular item but, when we started asking questions about how they were going to use it and what they wanted to achieve, it became quite clear to us that that item would not work as they wanted it to. It wouldn’t do that job. So we were able to come back and say “hey, that’s not going to do it, but this item over here will do exactly what you want it to do and it’s going to be at a good price as well.” Ed: And really, to back that up, you’re not just a salesman, you have an engineering background? Pete: Yes, I started off in transmission with BCL which is now Kordia back in 1994, so this year marks my 20th year since I started working in the broadcast industry in New Zealand. I am a broadcast engineer by trade and having spent years doing engineering work, I have a good solid background, but also I’m good with the … what’s the best way to phrase this … Ed: Don’t blow too many trumpets Pete. Pete: No, it’s also I like to spend time learning what my customers do and how they do it. Ed: And because you’re an engineer, you understand it rather than sort of smiling and nodding “yeah, that looks great!”
Sitting in an office all day in front of a PC is not exciting – seriously. As an example, I recently went out to a church and we got onto discussing their system. They had a timing issue and the person who was in charge didn’t have a lot of experience and that’s fine, experience comes in time. We’ve all started off brand new and not knowing a lot, and sometimes I don’t think I know a lot … but, getting back to the point, this particular person was having timing issues and I said “well, have you got a signal generator?” And they said “yes, but it’s not connected up.” So I put it in the chain and fixed a problem for them that they didn’t originally consult us on. It didn’t cost them any money because we used their original gear. Now ideally I’d love to have sold them something … Ed: Oh but you will Pete, you will. Pete: Eventually I’ll sell them something. Ed: That’s it, that’s what customer service is all about. You don’t sell it today, you sell it for the rest of your life. Pete: Well we’re in it for the long haul, and Quinto has always been in it for the long haul. We’re here not just to make a cheap buck today, but to help our customers achieve and make quality products. Ed: And talking of quality products, it must be nice to hear the word “Autocue” every time anyone talks about a prompter? Pete: Yes. for prompting …
Autocue’s become the default name
Ed: And with good reason too? Pete: Well yes, they’ve been doing it for many, many years. It’s interesting if you go to their website, you can see all the old advertisements for the black and white films and the like. But Autocue are more than just big camera prompters – they also do iPad and iPhone prompters, conference prompters and lighting. Ed: And I’m sure we’ll see some new whizz-bang ones at NAB this year … I know in the past I was amazed
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that they managed to have an iPad prompter up and running within two days of the iPad being released. That was pretty cool, they were the only ones there with it. They also have some other gear. Pete: We can talk about lighting. Autocue do LED lighting, they also do soft lighting. They have a couple of nice little tripods including a sub-$1,000 tripod for people who are using DSLRs to shoot with. They have a number of other little nifty things. Ed: And again, customers can go to the Quinto website, get the links they need to have a look and see what’s available? Pete: Yes … but we are solutions based sales, so the ideal situation for us is for somebody to approach us and say hey this is the problem that I’ve got, or this is what I’m trying to achieve, what can I throw in the mix, or what do I need to get from A to C? That’s what we specialise in, knowing our gear and knowing what our gear can and can’t do. Ed: And I guess that brings us onto the Marshall monitors, because I know I’ve asked various questions of the Marshall people at NAB as to what their developments are going to be, and they’re a pretty conservative lot. Marshall is a good seller for you, yes? Obviously, people appreciate the quality, the reliability? Pete: Marshall is a big name and they’ve been around for a good while. They make reliable, dependable, quality monitors. Marshall has a huge variety of monitors, so you can pick and mix, depending on what you need at the time. If you need just a low cost SDI 17 inch, there’s some really good options there; or if you need a high quality quad split monitor, a grade one monitor, there’s lots of options with Marshall. Ed: I know at the last show I was intrigued by their video transmitter. Pete: Oh the little HDMI unit – plugs into the HDMI of your camera. I’ve sold the 7 inch monitor that it goes with, but as yet we haven’t really pushed that. I think perhaps the next advert in the NZ Video News needs to feature that particular monitor. The monitor, the receiver, the transmitter … it’s quite a neat little package. It’s battery operated, so it’s just a matter of plugging it straight into the HDMI output of your camera and then you’ve got a wireless monitor. Ed: And there’s no problem with the digital bands that are available in New Zealand now? Pete: They operate in the 5.23Ghz range – so they are safe to use in New Zealand. Ed: Speaking of band interference? Pete: Yes, here’s a really good example of why you should go through a local distributor and somebody with experience or a background in transmission like myself. When I was working as a bench engineer, I had a company approach me because one of their wireless mics wasn’t working. It had never worked since they first bought it and when I did a little bit of investigation, I found out it was actually broadcasting on TV One’s analogue audio channel, and the reason that it wouldn’t work is because they were being splattered by TV One’s audio channel. Now if the powers that be had found out they were broadcasting on that channel, there could have been a heavy, heavy fine for them. So not only did they buy a piece of equipment that was no good and wouldn’t work in New Zealand, but they were also up for a potentially heavy fine. When you come to us and you buy something from us, we’ve already done the research to make sure that it will work in this country … Ed: And you’ll pay the fine? Pete: And it’s legal – otherwise we do pay the fine, that’s exactly right! But you import something
Pete’s on the road Allen.
yourself, then you are responsible for that item and there can be heavy fines for importing and using the wrong type of equipment. So that is a good example of why a company like Quinto is important to deal with. We do keep an eye out for where the government is going, and what the government is going to do in regard to spectrum, so we can say hey this is the better piece of gear and stay away from these bits of gear until there’s certainty. Ed: But one of the things I noted looking at your list here of 27 products Quinto has, there are no cameras there Pete. I know you’ve had a good history with cameras – I think I’ve got a photo somewhere of you at Rocket behind a camera, and then of course there were those Panasonic days. We might actually reprint the Rocket picture; it’s a bit of a classic! Pete: Oh that was an horrific photo – I just remember you being very bossy … “no, stand there!” Ed: Bossy? Moi? Pete: “No, stand there, you’re not standing in the right place, I want you here.” I’m sure many readers know the interview experience you provide. Anyway, Blackmagic make some very nice cameras, their 4K camera has just been released. They have two, 2K cine cameras and the pocket cine camera, which is a micro four-thirds camera, is a beautiful little camera. The big news is that we’ve just taken on JVC in New Zealand and Australia so there will be the full range of JVC cameras as well. So yes, for a while, especially when I was with Panasonic, it was all about the acquisition, but now I’ve got this big product range which is acquisition, production, postproduction and broadcast – the whole flow through. The only things that we don’t do are your actual broadcast transmitters. Ed: But for anything else, come and see Pete. Pete:
Page 18
Everything else, yes come and see me.
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In the Shade of the Wind Wand On a recent visit to New Plymouth, I made a date with Edward Aish from “Capture You” and “Pro-Vision.” Not everyone has two jobs at the same time but it is a busy town fuelled by the petrochemical industry, farming and more. Ed: Edward, you reckon you started doing this video business at the age of 16? Edward: Yes, I’ve always been a bit of an entrepreneur. I had a little business of print and graphic design when I was quite young. I used to do the mailer for the local supermarkets and that kind of thing – my dad had an offset press. When I was about 16 the opportunity came up for some video work. There was a company based in New Plymouth that was doing composite commercials around the country which meant that they went to an area and they would get, say, the Horowhenua Rugby Club onboard and they’d get 10 different businesses and I subcontracted to them for a couple of years. Things happened and that idea went under and I ended up being owed a bit of money and left in a bit of a hole … Ed:
Oh it does happen in this industry doesn’t it?
Edward: It does … but I got alongside TVNZ, they had some reps in the area who saw me. It was obviously pretty early in the digital video days and they saw that I had the ability to produce changeable commercials at a price that really hadn’t been seen in New Zealand – you know it used to be $10 grand for a TV commercial, where we could come in and do a commercial for a shoe shop or a furniture store that could be changed for a lot less money.
Edward with part of his camera selection.
under pressure and I jumped onto 10 and I’ve never looked back, I actually quite like it.
So we got quite a bit of work with those sorts of modular commercials coming through.
Ed:
Ed:
Ed:
What were you shooting with in those days?
Edward: I actually didn’t have my own camera. I got alongside some other people like Keith Finnerty who is local here, and I’d get him to do the recording or I’d hire his camera off of him – and I don’t even remember what it was back then. Ed: So you were more in the producer side of it than the business side? Edward: Yes I was, and as well, quite a few of my commercials were graphic based. Ed:
What do you mainly do now – commercials?
Edward: Yes. Probably about 80-90% of what we do is TV commercials – that’s “Pro-Vision.” The rest is sort of a mixture of promotional films, corporate videos, weddings. Obviously with the move to online, we’re doing a lot more online promotional presentations and that kind of thing.
And that’s “X”?
Edward:
X, yes.
And that does everything you need it to do?
Edward: Yes it does really. I use a bit of After Effects and some other graphical based bits and pieces, a bit of Motion, but there is the odd time I need to use After Effects for stuff as well. Ed: And then output – how do you choose the output? One of the issues that a lot of people have is with the bandwidth in New Zealand. How do you decide what you’re going to put it out as? Edward: Well, it’s pretty easy for me output wise, because a lot of our work is TV commercials which go out digitally to an MPEG2 which is then uploaded – I use Dubsat or eBUS kind of thing to deliver it to stations. Until recently, they didn’t even broadcast the commercials in high definition, so that now we’re outputting high def, but it’s not exactly pushing the boundaries of data rates etc.
Ed: Just take me through your workflow there, how you’re doing that?
Ed: Okay, that’s the broadcast stuff, but what about your web stuff?
Edward: I shoot on a 5D Mark III as my main camera. I’ve also got a GH3 and some other bits and pieces that I use.
Edward: Okay the web stuff … I normally go out to an MPEG4 or … most of my stuff is just output and put up on YouTube or Vimeo …
Ed:
Ed:
What’s a GH3?
Edward: A Panasonic GH3 … and then I use a Mac with Final Cut Pro – I moved to 10, sort of held off for quite a while. I did the 48 Hour Film Competition two years ago and decided that I’d use that as a test to see how it went
So you use their codec?
Edward:
Yes, I use their codec.
Ed: Any particular one, or do you vary? Depending on the client and what their server is capable of, do you provide that format? Do you check with them first, or how do you do it?
Page 20
Edward: It depends. If the client is only going to be running it on a small window embedded on the front of their website or something like that, it will vary depending on what they’re after. Ed: But how many clients do you find know what they want? Edward: Very few. A lot of them are happy with whatever you put out – to a point – as long as it looks good at their end. They normally just leave it up to us to make sure it looks good at the end of the day. Ed: That to me has been the big issue – that you’d love to put your programme out at the highest possible resolution but you’re limited by what your client can actually show? Edward: Absolutely, but with Vimeo, the quality of a video stream off there is much better although, and I don’t know if it’s just an issue here, but the streaming rate at high definition is a lot slower than YouTube, so it’s kind of like “hey, sure it looks better, but if it’s not going to play smoothly, what’s the point?” Ed:
Are you putting anything out on disc these days?
Edward: digitally.
Very
little.
It’s
almost
all
delivered
I do some wedding work and we still create DVDs or Blu -rays or a USB stick is sort of the way to go now and they’ll stick it in the side of their TV. That can obviously be a bit of a challenge making sure that you get the compression and data rates right so it will work on most TVs, but other than that, no it’s all files. Ed: Well you mentioned the word “challenge” and one of the challenges that I picked up in the years of travelling around the country is that, if you’re outside Auckland, or to a certain extent Christchurch or Wellington, you’re a bit far away from the suppliers. What’s your take on that? Edward: It can be an issue, especially if you’re wanting to look at new technologies and get some hands on with them, but I travel round quite a bit with my work.
Edward:
Absolutely, I’ve even waited a lot longer.
On my 5D Mark III, I was shooting at a wedding, which I don’t do many of, but the band had a green laser that should have been pointed across the ceiling and it happened to be pointing at the dance floor and I sort of noticed it too late and had big burnt marks all across my sensor. I sent it into Canon, it had to be an insurance repair and I think it took about five weeks to come back, which is a bit ridiculous. With my particular setup, I wanted to be part of the Canon repair service for professionals but you had to have two 5D Mark III or better bodies and I had a 7D and a 5D and you had to have so many L-series lenses that were purchased from New Zealand companies to qualify for that and they would have sent me a body to replace it. I didn’t qualify for that sadly – even though I’ve got all the gear, but one of my L-series lenses I think I bought offshore you see. Ed: And that’s it, the downside of internet shopping, but most of your gear you have bought from local suppliers? Edward: Yes most of it I do, especially the bodies and that kind of thing, just purely for the support, knowing I can take it back into a store or at least get it back to Canon New Zealand and they will look after it for me. Ed: But it must be quite a conundrum for you really – you’re here in New Plymouth and Auckland’s way up there and that’s a long supply line – then you’ve got all those overseas suppliers on the net. Sometimes the difference must look not so much, that the overseas option looks quite attractive? Edward: Absolutely, especially when the price can be quite disconcerting as to how much cheaper it is to buy it in from overseas, and the turnaround of getting stuff in from overseas can almost be as quick as getting something down from Auckland. There are times, with some equipment, that it’s just the price – the risk outweighs the price in New Zealand and
I’m based here but our TV commercials take us all over the place, so if I want to look at something, I’ll make sure I head up to Auckland, or find some other work I have to do and head in that direction. There’s so much information, whether it’s your product review, stuff you can find online now, which is quite detailed. Ed:
Or in certain publications?
Edward: Exactly, of course, yes – fantastic little newsletter that comes out. Ed: Oh thank you, I’m glad you mentioned it. So how do you get your support – do you need support, or do you work it all out yourself? Edward: I work it out a lot myself. There are obviously times when equipment fails which makes it harder, you have to pack it up and send it off. Ed: So have you had situations there when something’s gone wrong and you’ve had to send it off and wait a week for it to come back?
Edward’s slider rig. Page 22
I do buy it in, but a lot of the time, if something goes wrong, being able to get it sorted over here and looked after, it is worth the extra money I think. Ed: Now I see here on the table you’ve brought along a little Blackmagic camera, but it’s not yours, you’ve borrowed it for a bit of a test. What do you plan to do with it? Edward: I’ll just have a play and see what it’s like I suppose. It’s the Blackmagic pocket cinema camera. Ed:
Is it not just a toy to make you feel better?
Edward: Probably at this stage, in my mind it’s a “feel good” toy, but I think it’s got potential to work in with my workflow. I don’t think, personally, as a pocket camera, it necessarily has a lot of use, but rigged up with some lenses and extra accessories I think it could be a good tool. Ed: It always puzzles me that some people buy a tiny little camera and then add all these bits onto it with a rig and it ends up being quite a big camera. Well, you could have bought a big camera with everything in it in the first place? Edward: Absolutely, I think that is part of the issue with something like this and the form factor … yeah, I’ll have to try, probably with the right lens it could be just about pocketable and useable, I don’t know. The sound in it is terrible, the batteries don’t last so yes, it’s probably a bit of a toy. Ed: But then, you know, if you use it the right way, you’ll get good images out of it? Edward: The bit of a play I have had with it, I definitely think it has its own look, which is quite different from the DSLR sort of look out there and, with a few accessories attached to it and the right lens, you get some impressive images. Ed: It’s one of the things that I do try to point out to the readers – one camera can’t do everything; you choose a camera to do a particular job and it does that well, but don’t expect it to do everything?
Behind the wedding scene.
Edward: That’s right – I do a bit of photography as well, I’ve sort of had a history of that and the 5D Mark III is fantastic for me. When I do weddings, I try not to do both video and photography in one because I know one or the other will suffer, but I do do some wedding photography and, not having to have the investment in a whole other camera is fantastic. I think the 5D Mark III is probably a better stills camera than it is a video camera, but it still does take really nice pictures as well. Ed: You’re not tempted to go to a 1D C or a C300? Edward: Oh absolutely – there’s a little thing called budget! I think eventually, I’ll probably step up to something like that. But the pictures I get out of what I have now satisfy my customers and I’m happy with them, so it’s a hard thing to justify the extra spend when I’m supplying my customers’ needs at the moment. Ed: So you actually treat what you do as a business? Edward: Ed:
Definitely.
That’s quite refreshing.
Edward: Although there are parts of it that become a bit more of a … Ed: it?
Small but powerful in the right hands.
Page 24
Sometimes you just have to buy
Edward: Absolutely – justify it later, that’s what I was doing just there you NZVN see.
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Remote Phosphor LED Lighting As promised in our February issue, we are back at PLS in Auckland for a show of yet more clever lighting technology. From the other end of the world, we have Jelle Moerman from Brother, Brother and Sons. Ed: So obviously, the company started with two brothers? Jelle: No, not at all actually. We are all brothers together, meaning all people in the lighting industry; we’re all colleagues working together on a fantastic project. This is BB&S – Brother, Brother and Sons. So we have value strengths we do together and we did before together.
Jelle holding a phosphor panel.
Ed: And this is a Danish accent we’re hearing? Jelle: This is a Belgian accent, because I am actually Belgian but the company is Danish, based in Copenhagen. Ed: Lovely country Belgium, I must say. I’ve visited a number of times and I particularly like the Trappist beer. Jelle: Thank you. We even have two here if you want to taste them. Ed: Oh no, I’d better not – work to be done coherently. Now, there are a number of products that you’ve got, but the one that has excited Chris McKenzie and the team at PLS is this Area 48 Soft. Tell us what you’ve done with your panel? Jelle: We have made a clever light. In the past, everyone made white LEDs by putting a phosphor coating on a blue LED and then it becomes white. What we have done is we have made a unit with remote phosphor panels and those flat panels are energised by the blue LEDs to emit a white light. Ed: Now the benefit of this is, I guess, that you’re not putting individual phosphor layers onto individual LEDs, so if one fails you’ve got a problem. This is a much more elegant solution? Jelle: It’s a much more precise solution, meaning that we know exactly what our panel can do; we know exactly the light output that our blue LEDs will make and therefore we will get a fantastic exact white light. So we have a CRI of 96 for a cold white one, and we have a CRI of 97 plus for a warm white one. We’re actually near to perfection in lighting. Even though that CRI doesn’t say a lot because it’s measuring on 8 peaks, we are more on a “black body” curve, meaning that we try to be exactly on it so that every colour of skin tone reacts really well on it. If you have normal daylight outside, you have a CRI of 100. Ed: So for other manufacturers of LED panels like this to have a range of lighting colour, they have to have different LEDs with different phosphor coatings?
Jelle:
Exactly.
Ed: So they can’t light up all of the LEDs in their array at once? Jelle: No exactly. So we have two things – in regard to our LEDs, we don’t really see them as a light source, but more as an energy source and the phosphor plate is actually the one which is receiving the energy and changing that into visible light. Ed: So you can change your phosphor panel and I guess the sky’s the limit – you could develop a whole range of different colour phosphor panels? Jelle: For the moment, we have five shades of white that we can do – 2700, 3200, 4300, 5600 and 6500 and then we have a chroma blue and a chroma green. So we have actually seven different panels available. The chroma blue is the simplest because the light is blue to begin with and the chroma green is so good, you can even direct it onto a white background if necessary. Now, why don’t we choose to have variable light which some other panels can do? The reason is that we want to have an exact spot on a black body curve as I said before. Second of all, if you make a panel with several light sources, with several colours, if you look at the shades from close or from back, you will see several shades on your hand. So you will not have an even coloured surface. Here, because of the technology we are using, we have only one light source, so even though we have 48 LEDs – this model is called Area 48 because 48 is the number of LEDs we are using – we have that panel taking on the energy of the LEDs without being the source. This gives us a really nice source of light. Something to be mindful of is that with cameras of 4K resolution, you need even light otherwise you can see dots of the individual LEDs projected on your image. Ed: Tell me, I’m sure you’ve done tests on competitors’ product – is there any spill from those individual LEDs with their phosphor coatings, to the more on page 29
Page 26
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others, because even though the other ones are not lit up, surely there’s going to be some of the light passing through the sides of those LEDs and exciting that phosphor and giving you a bit of a contamination? Jelle: It’s possible that that happens and they lit up a little bit, but you have different reactions of phosphor. Ed: So this is a one panel size – have you got bigger ones? Jelle: We have a bigger one which is four units which we blocked together to give one big light. We come up to about a 6K soft light with those ones. That’s what’s coming up. Some other points are that our panels are mains or battery powered. They draw 140W on full so you need beefy batteries. You can have reflective barn doors to increase light output and there are no fans. There is software inside the unit which lowers the output if the internal heat gets too much. There is a strobe effect which is time and duration adjustable and, as a safety feature, the unit will not operate unless there is a phosphor panel in place. Looking directly into blue LEDs will damage your eyes. Ed: Okay, now I guess the big question is, with this super high technology, and obviously this is leading edge, does it come with a leading edge price? Jelle: No, the price is quite okay. We looked at other lights in the market – of course, we have no comparable lights, but we think for value with what it can do – you’re looking at a kit which is two panels, a power supply, the unit itself of course, a bag, you’re looking at a NZ$4,000 price tag for everything. Ed: So it’s in the ballpark for that top end need? Jelle: It is, but again, a lot of customers now use lights which they have only a limited use for, meaning as a spot or as a small light source. Here, with all its accessories, with one light, you can do a lot of things together. I’m not saying that we can do everything, but we can provide solutions where we only need two lights instead of four or five of the other ones. We are about three times the output of our competitors, like Litepanel 1x1, we have three times that output; even in one coloured light, we are over three times stronger so that means that we don’t need to put a lot of lights to have a nice result on camera. Another advantage is that we are completely flicker-free. We did tests on 20,000 frames a second shoots and we are completely flicker-free, meaning that as well as for phantom cameras, for even high speeds like 240 … Ed: And CMOS sensors with their rolling shutters? Jelle: Yes exactly. We can do anything we want because we have no flicker. So even still cameras which are taking a picture, they don’t need synchronising because they can just shoot the photo and see the image as it is on site.
Chris: Yes, that’s right. We’ve been talking to BB&S for probably over three years and about a lot of other products they make as well. As Jelle said, they are very innovative in what they’re doing and they’ve gone out on their own after many years of making products for other people. Ed: But it’s not “flaky” innovative is it … this looks like very robust technology? Chris: Yes, absolutely and it’s not something we’ve leapt at and gone “oh new, new, new, must have.” We’ve talked to them, we’ve worked with them and looked at the situation. They’ve been making retrofit LED systems for studio Fresnels and ARRI ST1s and for some of the DeSisti Leonardo fixtures they have LED replacements, take your tungsten bulb out, throw it in the bin and put the LED system in. Unfortunately there’s not a lot of those units around, the appeal of those is for TV studios, and I must say, our initial approach with BB&S was to do it for the Quartz Colour equipment that we knew was in New Zealand. They are now moving into their own products and so they’re doing less of the retrofit and more of the new innovative kit. Some of the things that Jelle’s told me that are coming down the track are very exciting. Their concept of battery powering is a winner because most of the guys out in the field have fallen in love with being able to run everything on batteries. So, if we could deliver them a good lighting solution that they can battery power as well, then it’s a good step. You know, the film guys and the tele guys are quite happy to have mains power there, they want mains power, they don’t want to mess around with battery, and so it will run that as well. Ed: Does this have a model number? Chris: It’s called Area 48 and it is related to Area 51, but it’s also related to the fact that it has 48 LEDs in it. But, yes, a lot of their products, they’re having a little Scandanavian yoke. Ed: And the good thing is they’re available now – this isn’t a future product, it’s shipping? Chris: Absolutely it’s shipping. Jelle was saying to me they’ve got 200 sitting in the shop that they want to move. Angela and I have been talking about the hire concept, because we know full well that people get to try them out in hire, so we’re looking at 2 or 4 units
Ed: And it’s dimmable and remote controllable? Jelle: Remote controllable and dimmable, so we have an onboard dimmer and we have also a DMX console which we can just dim it. So what does Chris McKenzie think of the Area 48 Soft? Ed: Chris, this really does look exciting and there’s already one chap this evening who said he wants to hire one and he’s taking it on Monday?
Trust me, it’s very even light. Page 29
Chris: Well we were at TV3 this afternoon and I’m going to take a couple of blue ones up there and replace their News chromakey area, because currently they’ve got 6 kiloWatts of tungsten light doing a blue screen and I can do it with probably three 120 Watt units. One of the other things that’s come out of our conversations is that the Danish government – if you want EURO100,000 worth of equipment and you can prove an energy saving component, they will arrange a .6% loan for you, even in a foreign country, because of the concept of saving energy. So any big studios out there that want to spend a big wedge of money, we’ve got a finance deal for you.
Some of the evening’s attendees.
pretty swiftly. The thing that really appeals to me is the green screen capability because although it’s a $4,000 unit, you can put one up and you can light a 3 metre by 3 metre green screen and that’s easy. Talking to some of our resellers today, they are very keen about that concept as well. Ed: Maybe some broadcasters could replace their TV panels?
Ed:
And it’s a good company to deal with?
Chris:
Yes, they’re great.
The Danes have got a good sense of humour and we like a good sense of humour, we like a chuckle, their beer’s okay and the connection with Jelle of course, we’ve got access to the best beer in the world out of Belgium ... and Area 48 Soft at PLS. NZVN
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PRODUCTION | POST | VISUAL EFFECTS
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