September 11 NZVN

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SEPTEMBER 2011

Vol 173

Fresh Blood at Gencom Two new faces have appeared recently at Gencom so we thought we had better intro-duce them to you. Ed: Now Ray, you’ve made a big decision in your life – to take it more easy, which is probably something a lot of us who know you … we’re really happy about. So how have you reduced your workload? Ray: Well actually this is not the prime motivation. It’s not about me taking it easy, and I wish to refute that assumption. It’s about me freeing up some bandwidth to do more and other things that need to be done, and so it doesn’t mean I’m backing off or taking it easy, I’m just redeploying myself onto other stuff that has been getting away from me, so that’s really what it’s about. So I just wish to refute that. Ed:

OK, so how are you freeing up your “bandwidth”?

Ray: Well I’d like to introduce David Barnard who’s our new Chief Operating Officer. David’s role is to assist me to do the other things that I need to be doing. I’ll be focusing on business development – the offshore business in particular – and also marketing and strategy, while David will be doing a lot of the background work to support the whole organisation – stuff that I used to do, probably not very well.

David and Ray.

Ed: Oh no, that’s not possible. Now David, people can’t tell from this interview, but you have an accent that we don’t hear around here much? David: I do, I’m from California, fresh off the boat so to speak, but very excited to be here. I’ve got about 20 years of background in the film and television industry and I’m looking forward to coming to New Zealand and putting that experience to work in a new challenge. Ed: What did you know about Gencom before you got off the boat? David: I actually knew quite a bit about them. Fortunately, I had the privilege of working with Ray and

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Ed. NZVN on the web. Go to <https://sites.google.com/site/nzvideonews> for more news. P11 “X” marks the end. P16 The ghost of SMPTE past. P26 Canon in Perpetua. P35 How the Aussies do it #2

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Nicki and everyone five years ago when I was in business school at UCLA Anderson. We did a six month field study with the company, helping them craft their strategy. It was a real treat for me to come down here, get to know some of the people and learn a lot about the company. We’ve all stayed in good contact since then, so when this opportunity came up, I knew it was a great chance for me to work with a great group of people. Ed: Have you brought any family with you, or are you looking?

Ed: Well Ray it looks as though at least he’s got a sense of humour? Ray: Absolutely – we wouldn’t have employed him if he didn’t have a sense of humour. Someone else joining the team with a smile on his face is Peter Fullerton. Ed: Peter, I’ve been looking through some old issues of NZ Video News from way, way back, and there I found a photograph of you at Rocket Rentals. What were you doing for Rocket?

David: Looking for a family? I wasn’t told this was that kind of magazine! As of yesterday, I’ve brought three dogs down with me, which proved to be the biggest challenge of all, but now that’s over with and my wife will be joining me next month. Ed: So the dogs first – I’m glad you’ve got your priorities right. David: Well they require less furniture … no, no, she’s finishing up some business things of her own and I’m very much looking forward to her joining me next month. Ed: Are you looking forward to embracing the lifestyle of Auckland? David: Oh absolutely. We’ve already gone out and got sheep! Sorry, I couldn’t help that. Ed: We’d better not say anything more about your wife at this point had we? David: Ed:

You can edit this, right?

No, no, I can’t.

David: Yes, absolutely, I love New Zealand, I love the people and the beautiful country around here, and I’m hoping that I might get some time out from all this work to enjoy it. I’m already enjoying it as a matter of fact, especially with the great weather now. Ed: So, in terms of your previous experience, what do you plan to bring from California to the market here in New Zealand? David: I think one of the really valuable things that I bring is a lot of experience with more IT and software focused solutions for video service providers and broadcasters. I’ve had a lot of experience in that area, and looking at where the market for internet powered television and file based workflows is headed. I think that one of the things I can contribute here is to help drive some additional growth in that area with this company, and help craft its strategy to address the very rapidly changing television industry.

Peter: I worked for Rocket for about 3-3½ years when I came back from the UK, as their technician in their Auckland branch, looking after repairs and maintaining gear. Ed: UK?

Were you looking after TV stuff before that in the

Peter: In the UK, I worked for a company that designed, manufactured and installed air traffic communication systems – both for the domestic UK market and for overseas as well. Before I went to the UK I was with TVNZ OB and before that, BCL (now Kordia). I’ve been in the New Zealand TV industry since 1994.

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more on page 6

Ed:

That’s the technical side – from Rocket you …?

Peter: From Rocket I left the broadcast industry; I still did some OB work part-time in the weekends, but I went to a small scientific test and measurement company and ended up testing autoclaves, walk-in refrigerators and large warehouses for humidity and temperature. Ed: So a bit of everything – and then Panasonic? Peter: Yes, after deciding that the outside world wasn’t really for me and that I liked the broadcast industry a lot better, I started with Panasonic as the Product Sales Manager for their Broadcast products. And that’s what I have been doing for the last six years. Ed: Okay, so you’ve had a background that’s given you a grounding in box products – the cameras and the associated products – but now, coming to Gencom, you’ve got an even broader view I imagine, and a bigger range of products yet again? Peter: Yes, Gencom has a huge range of solutions for the broadcast industry and that’s something that I’m really excited about, learning about the new products and the challenges that that brings along with it; but also the ability to offer a wider range of options to customers. Panasonic are primarily in the acquisition business – monitors and cameras – whereas Gencom are in acquisition, production, postproduction and deliverables. Ed: One of the key areas that Gencom is involved in ( and you’re going to dabble in this a little bit ) is the integration side, but I imagine that in some of your work at Panasonic, you were involved in integration projects?

Peter: Yes. The type of sales that we do in this industry or at this level, are solution based sales. It’s about listening to the customers’ wants, figuring out what their needs are and producing something that meets those needs and is going to continue to meet those needs for the period of time that they require. Sometimes when a customer comes to you and says “I want this” it may not be the best product for their application. We are always happy to provide exactly what the customer wants; we’re also here to listen to what the customer has to say, and make suggestions for better ways to achieve the same result. This is based on extensive product knowledge and is working with the customer. So it’s solution based sales and, if that’s a single box unit, say a battery or a Fujinon lens, then that’s fine; but if that’s also an entire postproduction chain, or if that’s an entire television chain, then we can do that also. Ed: And I guess that’s a big difference, because at Panasonic, if somebody came along looking for a camera, it would be a Panasonic camera, end of story; whereas if they come to you as a Gencom person, I would imagine you’d suggest they look at JVC at the start, but if that wasn’t really the best solution for the customer, you would suggest something else? Peter: Yes, as I said, it’s about listening to the customer and deciding what the best option or solution is to meet the customer’s needs or wants at that time. If you want that person to be happy and to keep coming back, you listen to them. That’s why Gencom has such a good reputation in the industry, because they match up what the customer’s needs are to the right equipment to keep the customer happy. And

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“X” marks the End! We are sitting here in very comfortable sofas in DVT’s showroom and I was expecting Stuart to be a little bit sort of despondent and unhappy because ... well, Final Cut Pro has gone “X”. Ed: Now the “X” stands for “not much use anymore” is that right Stuart? Stuart: Yes Grant, some people are calling it “X Final Cut Pro” rather than Final Cut Pro X. It’s an interesting move from Apple’s perspective to have brought out what they consider to be an upgrade from their previous professional product, Final Cut Pro 7, and yet remove most of the professional functions that much of the professional community have relied on for many years. Ed: This isn’t a case of Apple coming out and saying “we are moving out of professional production” but it’s a case of looking at the specifications of this new product and saying “this is not a professional product?”

Stuart has a choice for you.

Stuart: I think by releasing the product and looking at the feature sets, Apple have given the professional community a pretty clear indication that they are no longer interested in focusing on the workflows that the community’s been using for the last few years. They’ve basically taken the product and made it a prosumer product. For what it is, it’s a competent, capable editing application, but it just lacks the video IO that we need to be able to really see the images that we’ve got on professional monitors; the lack of XML workflows that people have come to rely on to be able to get the material in and out of other systems is gone … Ed: Yes, I’ve seen a huge list on the Web of things that it doesn’t have and not many things that it does have, but it must have a use … they must have some clever reason for going this way. Is it a change in direction? Stuart: I think to really understand where Apple are going with Final Cut Pro X, you’ve got to look at what they’ve been doing with a lot of their other professional products. And, of course, one of the great things with Apple 5-6 years ago, was that they were working strongly with the creative community to build products and platforms that we could all use. So they brought out things like the Xserve server platform, the Xserve RAID storage platform, the Xsan storage area networks that you could tie together with their professional editing application, Final Cut Pro, and put together proper workflows and work group solutions for doing high end, long form, complex editing. What we’ve seen from Apple over the last few years is a defocus on that. Obviously their consumer business has grown exponentially – you know the success of the iPhone, the iPad and their Notebook range of computers, the MacBook Air and MacBook Pros, has been absolutely stunning, and so, at the same time, I guess they’ve been defocusing on that original creative community that they setup these products for. So we’ve seen the discontinuation of the Xserve RAID, the discontinuation of the Xserve and currently now we’re seeing them stepping sideways, away from professional editing applications as well. Ed: So this is really a move up for iMovie and it fits in nicely with their iPads and their laptops that the

prosumer has got this link from the cameras in the Smartphones directly to these products? Stuart: Absolutely. Apple has the ability to put a lot of work into creating a new version of Final Cut Studio for ( depending on what statistics you listen to ) maybe two million customers of Final Cut Studio who would all happily embrace and support a $500 upgrade. However, coming out with a $400 version of Final Cut Pro X that they can market to every customer that they’ve got with MacBook Airs, MacBook Pros, iMacs the lot, is a much, much bigger market for Apple, and as they’re focusing on delivering products through their App Store and driving products directly to the consumer market, that’s their clear focus. They’re really not interested in providing higher end niche products to niche markets any more – that’s not their focus. Ed: Oh dear, so where’s that going to leave you … I mean you’ve lost one of the major editing platforms that you used to know, love and supply to millions? Has this left you in the lurch? Stuart: Not at all, as always we are here to help our customers. It’s an interesting step for Apple, when they’re looking at their profit and loss statement and looking at how much money they make out of iPhones, iPads, MacBook Airs, MacBook Pros, iMacs and then they look at this little noisy stuff they’ve got down in the corner, which is their professional apps. So stepping away from that to allow them to completely focus on consumer-based products makes some sense, but to a certain extent, having Final Cut Pro leave the professional market-space allows a reasonable amount of simplicity in terms of the decision making processes that digital content creation professionals now need to make, and both Adobe and Avid are still strongly rooted in this community. They have both built wonderful products over the last decade and stand ready to fill the breach. So anyone doing short form work, corporate product training, educational videos could possibly consider using Adobe Premiere for those types of productions. Of course, it’s got wonderful integration with After Effects for doing something a bit more fruity and also with Photoshop for doing graphics. However if you’re doing any type of long form work, then really the only application that you would consider is Avid Media Composer, because of its strong reputation and

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capabilities both on the Mac and the PC platform to do long form editing work. Ed:

And it’s compatibility?

Stuart: Yes exactly – it’s got well established workflows, great integration with a huge range of other products, full support for all current video formats and, of course, because Avid are focused on it, will continue to have full support for all upcoming video formats that may come out in the future. Ed: That’s very good for Avid, and now you are supplying Avid? Stuart: Yes we are now Avid resellers and we have a good understanding of Avid Media Composer and the workflows that surround it. We have sold a range of Sony products over the years that all integrate with Avid Media Composer and we’ve done a lot of technical support around this. So we’ll certainly be talking to most of our customers about migrating across from Final Cut to Avid workflows over the next 6-12 months, so that they put themselves on a professional platform that they can move forward with. Ed: But is there some incentive for them to actually make a purchase decision sooner rather than later? Stuart: Yes absolutely – both Adobe and Avid have grasped the opportunity to take existing Final Cut users and … Ed:

... are putting the knife in the dying Apple?

Stuart: Pretty much. It’s a great opportunity for both Avid and Adobe. Avid have got a 60% off deal for Avid Media Composer and Adobe have got a 50% off deal for Adobe CS5.5 Production Premium if you already own a licence of Apple Final Cut Studio. We’ve got so many customers of course who have all of the products, it’s very typical. Nobody’s running Avid Media Composer without a copy of Adobe After Effects and Abobe Photoshop – that’s a standard workflow; and if they’ve got Apple Final Cut Studio as well, the ability to move and add Avid Media Composer and add Adobe CS5.5 Production Premium to that is really good. So anyone with an Apple Final Cut Studio licence is in a great position to be able to expand their software products for very little money and that’s something that we’re going to be spending the next 6-8 weeks doing – getting that message across to our customers and making sure that they’re all able to take full advantage of that. Ed: But it’s one thing to sell the product … we know that you’ve been involved with Adobe and the products there for a long time, and certainly you’ve built up the support and you offer the training and the help with Adobe, but Avid? What are you offering there for people who want to migrate to Avid? Stuart: We’re have a training programme that we’ll be implementing over the next few months to enable our Final Cut customers ( and Adobe customers should they wish to ) to get up to speed with Media Composer. We are working with Andy Day to provide local one on one and classroom training for Avid Media Composer at DVT. Andy is a certified Adobe trainer and will be certified to do Avid training for us as well. This will enable us to run training courses specifically for customers who are switching across to Media Composer to get them up to speed. Also the online resources from Avid are extremely good. They’ve got a huge range of “Getting Started” tutorials that you can watch through and that’s really the modern way for training now – online based training; whether you want something basic that’s free off the Avid website, or

something more advanced from people like fxphd, there’s plenty of online resources available to get up to speed quite quickly as well. Ed: And Adobe have got the Lynda training that offer one month free with every new licence? Stuart: Yes, there’s a huge amount of Adobe resources in the same regard, so everything from entry level stuff from tv.adobe.com through to lynda.com total training, and again onto fxphd. If you’re really interested in high end motion graphics with After Effects, then the fxphd courses are worth their weight in gold. They’re fantastic. And of course then there is one on one and classroom based training available from Andy here at DVT. So whatever your training needs are, we have you covered. Ed: And what about the Apple hardware – I mean, if somebody’s gone and got themselves the latest Apple platform, then can either Adobe Premiere or Media Composer work on that platform? Stuart: Yes absolutely. Adobe obviously works with all of the Matrox, AJA, Blackmagic IO devices – you know there’s some really exciting stuff happening with Apple with their new Thunderbolt IO coming up. We’ll expect to see products released in the next month that will allow the new iMacs and MacBook Pros to take full advantage of those with all the Adobe products. Avid are actively supporting other third party IO devices, they already support Matrox MX02 Mini and the AJA Io Express, so the cost of getting professional IO out of Media Composer is as cost effective as any other product now. Ed: And talking of hardware, the latest hardware is capable of running Autodesk Smoke? Stuart: Yes. Many people, who are looking at the full postproduction capabilities that they require, need not only editing or motion graphics, but they need grading, finishing, visual effects, the whole range of other requirements and Autodesk Smoke is the high end finishing product that provides those capabilities. An iMac will run everything from the Adobe Master Collection all the way through to Avid Media Composer and Autodesk Smoke all on the same machine. It provides you with a very integrated high performance, very productive, and extremely creative platform to run those key applications. Ed: Are you going to have a big show shortly to explain all of this to the wider Auckland public? Stuart: Yes, we’re running an event here at DVT. This is a not to be missed event to get the scoop on everything Adobe, Apple, Avid and Autodesk. Ed:

What else will you be covering?

Stuart: There’s also some wonderful changes to hardware platforms that have come along – you know the performance that we’re getting out of these new Core i7 iMacs with Thunderbolt drives is truly stunning; the MacBook Pros work just as well as the iMacs and it really gives people a great opportunity to get a lot more productivity into their workflows ( and for very little money as well ) by taking advantage of these new cross -grade deals, taking advantage of these new low cost, high performance workstations that they can get into. So we certainly want to get that message across to our customers in the next few weeks. Ed:

Oh, have you got a date yet?

Stuart: Sure do, mark the 22nd September in your calendar for the most exciting and informative event of NZVN the year!

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The ghost of SMPTE past I’ve never been bothered to go because NAB shows all the new toys and, well, it is Vegas! But as you will read, that attitude might need to change. We are at Gencom with Ray Sanders for a debriefing, because Gencom was ( and probably has always been ) at SMPTE in Sydney. Ed: Now as far as trade shows go Ray, this is a pretty small affair isn’t it? Ray: Well for us it’s not; for us it’s one of the most significant ones that we exhibit at, because it serves Australia and New Zealand, it’s only every two years, so it requires a major effort to properly address it. For us, it’s as big as Broadcast Asia. Ed: So what do you do there – I’ve never been – tell me about your stand? Ray: Well firstly I think you should attend because it’s directly in your sphere of operation. Ed: Nobody’s invited me! Ray: You’re always welcome … we’d never turn you away if you turned up. We’d even give you a free pen.

Ed: I guess it’s also important for the people who you represent, to actually meet some of your customers and get an idea of what they actually do with the product that they’re buying from you? Ray: Absolutely, yes. The customers come usually focused on a few key things that they’re interested in, but we hope to also capture their imagination with some other things that they might not have realised that we do, or that they haven’t seen before – particularly those who haven’t been to NAB and the bigger shows. Ed: How do you get on with products that you might represent very well in New Zealand, but in fact you don’t have the agency for in Australia, and vice versa? Ray: At SMPTE, we focus on the manufacturers we represent in Australia. In many cases they are the same manufacturers in New Zealand; there’s very few that we do in Australia that we don’t do in New Zealand. So it works pretty well for us. Ed: Any major announcements for Gencom as a result of meetings and activity at SMPTE? Ray: Not in terms of projects that I can talk about at the moment …

Just what one needs at the end of a tough show — champagne!

We exhibit with many of our manufacturers that we represent, particularly in the Australian market, and so we provide a platform essentially for communication and demonstration and so on, and I think we had around 14 different manufacturers there this year with us on the booth, and probably 20-something people between our own staff and those groups on the booth.

Ed: But you seldom talk about the future projects Ray; you do tend to keep things very close to your chest?

Ed: So I guess that’s really a key point isn’t it … it’s not actually the display that you have on the booth, but it gives a chance for your customers to actually talk to a person from one of the companies that you represent?

Ed:

Ray: Yes. They get to demonstrate equipment, but obviously they can’t always have everything they make there, but there will be some key elements. More and more of it is software these days, so that’s a bit easier to demonstrate; but we also make sure that we’ve got meeting tables so that we can sit down and discuss people’s requirements and issues – it’s a liaison point for manufacturers, customers and ourselves.

Ray: I could talk about projects that are completed or well underway and so on, but I can’t talk about projects that we haven’t achieved, or that we’re bidding obviously. But it was good for you?

Ray: The show – absolutely. It was good for us; we showed a lot of people product that they hadn’t seen before; we had some new manufacturers on the booth, people like BMS who make wireless camera systems and people with new software; we had OpenMedia newsroom systems there, we had B4M systems, we had a number of manufacturers there, some of whom have never been to a SMPTE with Gencom before, so from that standpoint it was great. Ed: And it was valuable having Nicki on the stand there with you?

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Ray: As always, yes. Nicki ensures that all the customer liaison is happening, and keeps everyone focused, so that’s always good. Ed: So you were there handing out the champagne were you Nicki? Nicki: Well, yes, at the end of the show I was ... actually SMPTE is a far more relaxed show as well – I’m comparing this to Broadcast Asia where generally the meetings are all very formal, but the Australian and New Zealand customers tend to wander in and just go up to the manufacturers and it’s all very relaxed. It’s a great show – it really is great, you do need to come in 2013. Ed: I’ll take that as an invitation! But it’s not just a trade show about champagne and showing new products is it Ray? There’s some paperwork that goes along with it? Ray: Yes. The prime motivation for SMPTE is actually a conference organised by the SMPTE organisation and as such, it’s to impart knowledge through the whole organisation, or through the industry, and the conference that is attached to the trade show is most important. There are a lot of key papers delivered there from manufacturers and other industry people. Ed:

So any papers presented by your suppliers?

Ray: Yes, a couple of our suppliers delivered papers and they always get a great reception. The papers are not a sales pitch, they’re a technology update and as such, there’s some great debate. For example, two of our manufacturers who delivered papers – one was TVips who make equipment for delivering video over IP in a contribution format. It’s very high quality video delivered over IP in a JPEG2000 format. T-Vips is already in use quite a lot in Australia and it gives other people an opportunity to see what the updates are on that. Another company which delivered was Linear Acoustic that make equipment for multi-channel audio processing and loudness control. Its President, Tim Carroll, was there and Tim is a world renowned expert in the area of loudness control and encoding and so on. He was associated with Dolby before he was associated with Linear Acoustic. He was well received there, because he’s very, very knowledgeable in that space. Ed: Don’t tell me there’s actually been a standard put up for loudness has there? Ray: There are various ongoing standards for loudness I suppose. There are a number of initiatives evolving, but it’s happening very quickly in the US because there’s now regulation about loudness in broadcasting there. Ed:

But no sign of it in Australia or New Zealand yet?

Ray: No, not as such, but I think the day will come.

Other SMPTE attendees were David Epstein and Bonnie Parker from A2Z. Ed: David, you’re an old hand, you’ve been there numerous times, what excited you? David: It’s always good to catch up with all our principals and this year we were able to see some new products by some new suppliers. Exciting things that were happening were the Blackmagic products – they have a video mixer called ATEM Switchers that is all computer based, so someone wanting to switch video now can actually do it from a computer. Another product by Blackmagic was the SmartView Duo, two side-by-side 7” LCD monitors that are rack mountable and cost you somewhere in the region of $NZ995; and it was very good to see the release of the new HyperDeck Shuttle which is a solid state uncompressed recording unit to record data raw off a camera. So three very exciting products from Blackmagic.

NZVN

David: We did indeed. The show was not as big as it used to be; Sony, by their own admission, had had a reduced stand and had some of their product on the Lemac and VideoCraft stand, so that was a bit unusual to go to other Australian dealers and demonstrate products on their stands by the suggestion of Sony. However, due to the tsunami only half the products were available and half the budget for SMPTE this year. Ed: Okay, what about some of the products that you represent solely, such as the Miller tripods – anything new there? more on page 22

Ed: These were shown at NAB, but in fact they’ve released them at SMPTE so there’s a bit of a lag there? David: Absolutely, and to see them as working products really does help promote the product here in New Zealand. Ed: What about the show itself – you must have met some of your own customers there?

David and Bonnie. Page 18

David: The Compass 12 is a new product that’s been released in the marketplace to offer a cost effective tripod for the ever reducing cost of cameras. So the new Compass 12 comes with three positions of drag for both pan and tilt and four positions of counterbalancing – available immediately, and substantially reduced in cost either with telescopic carbon fibre or aluminium sticks, or the traditional style of two-stage alloy tripod. Another distributorship that we picked up at SMPTE was the Genus matte box and shoulder mount rigs. These have been developed in the UK, so designed by English engineers, but now manufactured in our favourite little destination up north, that being China. We’ve just landed our first shipment of matte boxes, shoulder mount rigs, follow focus units and a new product called “Nun’s Knickers” which is the interface between a matte box and any size camera lens on the market, so if you haven’t got the right reduction ring, a set of Nun’s Knickers is that interface to enable you to use your matte box with multiple lenses and not have light coming in from the back side of the matte box. Ed: So why do you have to go to SMPTE to show these products to your customers? I mean, surely you’ve got a showroom here, you’ve got everything on display, they could come here and see them, and have a personal demo in the offices of A2Z – why do you have to go to Australia? David: As a dealer, we need to be continually updating with “hot off the press” products. We need to be communicating with the dealer principals, and also have training for new product on the spot, for example, the Blackmagic product in Australia and the various TriCaster products in Australia – they’ve got the experts onsite and unless we go and get trained up and have the meetings with these principals, it’s very hard to learn every product from scratch here in New Zealand. Ed: But in terms of your customers that buy from you, you obviously did some demos while you were in Australia?

haven’t yet made it to New Zealand – all the steadicams set up really well, the rigs – rigs like the CobraCrane which we’ve got in stock that we’re just about to set up.

David: Yes … it’s such a cost advantage to go over to Australia for many clients, and they just can’t afford the time off to go to one of the other shows – i.e NAB – that’s a big cost factor and it does take a week out of your livelihood, whereas for Sydney, you can nip over in three hours and do the show effectively in two days if pressed to do so.

Ed: So it sort of gave you a greater overview of the whole business that you’re in?

Ed: And somebody who went for two days was Bonnie who will now tell us something about her first time impressions? Bonnie: It was nice to go over there and meet all our suppliers, put a face to a name, after emailing people for years and then not actually meeting them. That was great. We also got to see a lot of the products that we had on back order, obviously hadn’t reached New Zealand yet, like the Teradek Cube for instance, which is a wireless H.264 transmitter to enable video to be passed from Point A to Point B without any cables. It can also transmit to an iPad and an iPhone over Wi-Fi networks, which is pretty amazing and pretty cool to see in action over in Australia. Ed: But what were your feelings … I mean you walked into the show floor the first day, and you saw all these people and all these stands – what did you feel? Bonnie: It was just really exciting to see all this technology and a lot of the products which the guys had seen at NAB which I now got to see at SMPTE that

Bonnie: Yes, to see everyone using the products that we sell and putting them to different uses than what we sell them for as well. Ed: And did you talk to some of the people and get them to explain things to you? Bonnie: All day, every day. I went over there (a) to meet customers and show them products; (b) to meet our suppliers and put a name to a face, learn more about the products that David and the guys here couldn’t necessarily explain to me without the product itself; and (c) to socialise. Ed: So you had a good time, there was a good party or two? Bonnie: That’s not the right question to ask me, that would be a Sharon question – I’m a Nana! It was very nice to go out to the official SMPTE dinner with Fujifilm. One of the high points was the “gustation meal” at the Sydney Exhibition Centre with 12 different meals and 12 different wines to match every meal which Fujifilm New Zealand invited us to. It was amazing! Ed:

And are you planning to go again?

Bonnie: Ed:

Page 22

I’ll go in two years’ time if Rex will let me.

I guess I’ll see you there then.

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Canon in Perpetua No, they don’t go on forever, it’s just that we are at Rieger’s and we are interviewing Rob Harradine from Perpetua Productions as to how he’s using his Canon camera. Ed:

Rob, you have a favourite Canon camera?

Rob: I do – it’s the XF300. Ed: And what made you choose that out of all the cameras that are available at that price bracket and capability? Rob: Well, I needed to upgrade anyway, but I was getting more demand for stuff being in full HD. A lot of the footage I take for the corporate world will never be viewed in full HD; it will be compressed for on-line viewing, but my clients like to future proof the work in case they need some of it again repurposed for other projects. Also, I record a lot of plays and shows and they’re quite demanding on the camera because it’s a lot of variable lighting … we don’t set these up, they’re shows that are actually happening, they run for like an hour or two and we record them on the fly. So the lighting situation is quite demanding and I didn’t feel that my cameras gave me great low light. So I wanted a camera that was better in low light and was full HD. I’d done a fair bit of research online and talking to different camera stores etc, and other people who were recording … it sounds pretty lame, but the real decision maker for me was that the BBC went and bought a couple of hundred for documentary making. That was the thing for me – I thought “if it’s good enough for the BBC”, I’m sure what they’re making will be more demanding in terms of broadcast quality than what I’m making. So I’d been thinking about the camera anyway, they’d bought a couple of hundred of them, I’ll get one. I got the 300 instead of the 305, just because of the price difference. Although the 305 has additional offerings, a lot of those are for broadcast and they’re for live work and I don’t really do it often enough, and I figured for the difference in the cost, if I need that functionality, I’ll just hire a camera as and when, and I’ll use this as my regular camera. Ed: Okay, so prior to this you were recording in HDV, so what’s the format that this records in that you find is a better format? Rob: Well the great thing is, I’ve still got HDV cameras and the Canon still records in HDV if I want. So I can still do several camera shoots using my original cameras. I haven’t had to ditch cameras, but this can then become my main camera. It will record in 1920 1080p and it records at 50 megabits a second. You can see the difference when you’re watching it at full resolution and I guess I believe I can see a difference even when I’ve compressed the files, because I think they start with better colour, they start as a much better representation of the light that I’m recording and again, because I record a lot of plays, I record a lot of skin tones in artificial light. I think the Sony V1P struggled with those colours and I’ve had to do a lot of tweaking of that camera to get reasonable skin tones, whereas with the Canon, I’ll record in manual, but I’ve not tweaked the colour settings at all. The colour settings that it comes with are the colour settings that I record in and I think the representations of “like for like” in terms of what I’m recording, look the same when it’s finished. I just do

Rob with his Canon.

some colour tweaking in postproduction as opposed to tweaking with the camera. Ed: Now I’m intrigued about the codec capability of this camera – you say it has a number of codecs? Rob: Yes. This is set up at 50 megabit a second, that’s full 1080 ( this is actually 1080i ) but you can change those settings in the menu to record at 1080p or other frame rates. So you can record at 25p or 50i and then the bit rate resolution you can change, so here you can see you can record at 50 megabits a second that’s 1280x720 and then all the way down to 25 megabits a second in 1440x1080 which is the same as the HDV. Ed: That’s an odd codec – 50 megabit per second? Canon supplies a plug-in for NLEs do they? Rob: Yes, so I add that on Final Cut Studio, Final Cut 7 … you can download the plug-in for it. The camera comes with a disc with the plug-ins on it as well, so it’s pretty seamless. It comes with a utility that you can use to offload files onto your hard drive, but you can just log and transfer straight into Final Cut, so you don’t really need the utility that it comes with unless you want to store the raw MPEG2 files somewhere, because of course, when you import them into Final Cut as a log and transfer, it changes them into movie files, so it actually imports them into a format that’s readable by Final Cut, because it doesn’t read the raw MPEG2 files. Ed: Okay, but as you say, when you’re doing a corporate that is long form and you know it’s going to go up to the Web, you will record that at a much lower format. Is the lowest available the HDV? Rob: Yes, so I’ve just set that up to be the lowest bit rate in the smallest file type, so that’s that 1440x1080 which is the same as the HDV. With 32 Gig memory

Page 26

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cards, you can get 153 minutes per card, so when I’m out on an all-day shoot which I do on a reasonably regular basis, where you’ve got to go around and see a lot of the clients, customers doing a testimonial video, it’s a lot of footage in a day and a lot of wasted footage but you still need that time. Also, at that point, I don’t have to take out a laptop and another hard drive to keep offloading all the files. Ed: So is it using proprietary cards or are they standard cards?

before, I was using the Sony V1P and I think it’s a bit more forgiving, as in the definition’s not there, so the edges are always a little bit soft; whereas on this Canon, you can really define the edges as you can see, using graphs to give you more precision than you can tell with the naked eye, to get you that “spot on” definition. So that’s one of the things I would use on pretty much every shoot. If I’m shooting something that’s static, like a person to camera that’s three metres away, always.

Rob: It’s a SanDisk Extreme CF card. You can buy the same sized cards with the same capacity for a few hundred dollars less, but they don’t have the same transfer rate as the SanDisk Extreme. The card says that it transfers at way more than 50 megabits a second anyway, but I just wanted to be sure. With the Extremes, you can write to them thousands of times without any hassles apparently. Now I’ve had the camera for a year and use it very regularly … I was one of those guys who worried about going from tape based to file format, I was like “is this going to be painful” and after I’d had the camera for a week, I was then “why has this taken me so long, this is insane.” I’m now uploading an hour of footage in ten minutes and I never get a break, I never get like timecode breaks which I used to get … every fifth tape I’d get a timecode break, and some of the stuff I record, there’s no going back. I record like a live play and if I’m using this particular camera for the sound feed and I’m taking the sound feed from the desk into one camera and I get a timecode break, it’s a major, major deal, because then I have to take the open mic on the other camera that’s recording the sound in the theatre and try to rework that sound to sound like the mixing desk. It’s a major deal. So going to file based was very smooth and one of those transitions where you think “I should have done this a couple of years back” – mind you, a couple of years back that $400 card would have been about four grand, so maybe that’s why I didn’t bother.

And there’s quite a few things in terms of the functionality that have shifted to the outside of the camera. I’m often changing mics, I’m often going from having a camera mic’d up with a shotgun mic, or trailing cables to other mics that need phantom power, or then switching to a tie clip mic, and I can just switch between line, phantom power on the built-in mic with a flick of a button. It’s just one of those time saving things, particularly when you’re out with a client who’s coming out with you for the day and they don’t want to stand around while I set shots up for two hours.

Ed: So what other features of this particular Canon camera have endeared it to you?

Ed: So you actually let the camera do all that sort of work for you, because it knows best?

Rob: Well I guess there’s some features that come with the camera that are new to me as a user of the camera, that I don’t think I really needed previously. One of the features that I would use on an “every shot” basis is that which enables you to get perfect focus. I find it necessary on this camera because it’s full HD; you can see the tiniest bit of detail, so if you’re a tiny bit out in the focal range, you can see it. When I was recording

Rob: Yes. The only thing I’ve found with this camera is … it’s funny because I’ve read a few reviews that say it’s great because it’s got a full auto option, but I find it really bad on full auto. It may be because I record in some quite demanding lighting situations as in often I don’t have lights, I’ll often go out and shoot what’s happening in the street or what’s happening in a theatre without adding light to the shot. So I don’t know if

Ed:

And the battery life’s pretty good?

Rob: Yes – I have the standard battery that comes with the camera. If the battery says it’s got 30 minutes left, it’s got 30 minutes left. I think you get about 250 minutes off just a standard battery, so it’s pretty good. Ed: And in terms of mixing with your other HDV cameras on a multi-camera shoot, it’s pretty seamless? Rob: Yes, I’ve spent a bit of time setting the cameras up to give me the closest look to get them the same in terms of colour. The Sony comes with a number of presets that you can plug preset shots into, so I’ve set all of those up so they will match. With the Canon, I just turn up and turn it on and I don’t really change the settings apart from the gain or the shutter speed – as in I’m not tweaking all the colours and I’m not tweaking the knee point or I’m not tweaking the black stretch, which I found I was doing all the time with the Sony.

Page 28

that’s kind of making it a bit more demanding on the camera, but when I put it in full auto, it seems to not quite know whether it should be changing the shutter speed or changing the gain or changing the iris, and so you end up with quite an inconsistency in shots, and you’ll end up with some shots that look really dirty because it’s shifted the gain up to 12dB; and then some shots it will flick the shutter speed right down and you just kind of end up with a mess. I never use it – ever – whatever I’m recording, I manually set the camera up. All of the settings that I might change on a regular basis, are right here on the body of the camera – the shutter speed, the gain, the white balance, the iris – you know, they’re all there right in front of your hands, which means, when I’m recording, I can change them on the fly without having to dig deep into the settings of the camera – and those things I very rarely change.

Ed: Well other people have asked the same question and I haven’t got an answer on that one, I’m sorry. And just on that topic, the current interest is for cameras with depth of field and that’s where the DSLRs were sort of big, but now, there are video cameras that have a high depth of field. Having said that, you’ve just shown me that with your Canon XF300, you still can get a reasonable depth of field when you’re doing an interview? Rob: Yes, I mean it just takes an extra minute to set it up and, as long as you’re mic’ing somebody up properly, you can just step back a couple of metres and zoom in and you can create reasonably decent shots with depth of field where, within a couple of metres, something will be out of focus. Like I was just saying, depending on the kind of thing you’re shooting, you’ve got to ask yourself “how much do I want to use that anyway?” If the person you’re interviewing leans forward by a foot, they’re out of focus. I do a lot of corporate work and I don’t do much in terms of creative record so I think for me, I don’t know if extreme depth of field would actually be an advantage. If somebody I’m interviewing, who isn’t actually talent, they actually work for a company – if they lean forward a couple of inches, they go out of focus. I’m going to end up with a lot of out of focus shots because I’m catching people in the middle of their day job to do an interview which might be a testimonial for Nivea. So I might record the CEO in New Zealand and he’s kind of not really set up to say “well I’ve trained for years to do this”, he’s literally got ten minutes in the middle of his day and I don’t have time to say “can we retake that because you leant forward”? I think actually, that might be a disadvantage if I was relying on that to be what makes my shots good, you know.

Ed: Now of course, a lot of people are using other Canon cameras in video production, and that’s the DSLR range, but you’ve never used them? Rob: No – I did chat extensively to somebody who’d made quite a few live music videos on them, and he showed me some of the stuff he’d done on it and it looked fantastic, but for what I shoot, I need to be steady, I need stability … I mean I haven’t tried it, so I’m just making a few assumptions based on things that I’ve heard and read, and I guess just common sense, and that is if I’m recording … like I’ll record a live event, so it might be a party put on by a particular company and I go along and record it, and I just don’t see me getting steady shots for two hours with an SLR. Whereas with this, even if I’m just handholding it, I can do a pretty decent job. I’ve recently added a body harness; I drop this on and that gives me a real steady shot and it’s smooth as. I don’t do stills photography, so it seems a bit weird to buy a stills camera that also takes video, when I’m a videographer – do you know what I mean?

Ed: So what are you relying on to make your shots good? Rob: Actually I rely a lot on content pre-production. In terms of the camera, I need a camera that gives me a shot that looks like what I’m recording. I need representation of real life; I need skin tones to look like skin and not to be blown out orange and red; and I need to be able to turn it on and shoot in five minutes what somebody can say in two minutes. I don’t have lots of time to set up, I need a camera that works well under low light, that works well under sunlight, indoors, outdoors, that I can just kind of … I guess it’s kind of almost like documentary recording, I don’t have the chance to say to somebody “do that again” because at an event, if I want to get this special moment that happened when somebody throws their head back and laughs on the stage, it aint happening again, I can’t go back and set it up, so it’s got to look good first time. That’s what’s important to me in a camera. Ed:

Page 30

And it’s got to sound good?

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Rob: Yes – actually I’ve got a Sennheiser setup for tie clip mic, but I think I ended up with a Sony shotgun mic to go with this. I mean, I don’t use the built-in mic – well I use it when I know I’m not going to need the audio, like I use it to make notes for myself, when I’m only going to use the video footage. It’s alright but it’s not a great mic – you wouldn’t use it to ever give the audio to a client on that mic, but it’s handy to have it and not have to set it up, because like, I record tutorial videos, so I record somebody to camera, then I record a whole load of cutaways. When I record the cutaways, I don’t have to think about setting a mic up, I can just use that mic and I know where I am in the cutaways. So that’s not really part of the camera, but audio is an important thing, yes. Now the place where Rob bought his Canon camera is Rieger’s in Dominion Road and David Honore is here to tell us that he’s been a Canon camera supplier for a number of years. David: Yes, we’ve been selling Canon cameras now for over 20 years and we’ve sold quite a range of their products in that time. Ed: In fact, it’s just one of the cameras in your range of a number of manufacturers, and I guess it’s a case of, a customer comes in with a particular use and you find the camera that fits what they want to do? David: Yes that’s correct. Canon has three main cameras in their range – one quite a compact professional camera, mid size and then the larger professional camera that attracts high end users. Ed: And obviously Rob was one of those high end users who wanted the best? David: Well he looked at several cameras that we had and selected that to be his choice and it’s been working out very well for him. Ed: Are there any particular general features about the Canon that set them apart from other manufacturers – I know people have said in the past that the Canon lens is really a very strong point in their favour?

David: As you’re probably aware, there’s a full range of accessories, as you can see round the shop, to support these cameras. They don’t necessarily come through Canon, but some of them do, and most customers can find what they need. Canon has three models of HD Video Cameras in their Professional Range. Their latest model is the Ultra compact XA10 Full HD (AVCHD) camera with Professional features including Focus ring, 2 XLR inputs, microphone holder, 30 mm Wide Angle HD Video lens and Infra Red Shooting. It has 64 GB internal Flash Memory and dual SD Memory Card Slots. Canon has a Compact Professional Camera XF100 with Professional features, ⅓” CMOS Sensor, MPEG-2 Full HD 4:2:2 50 Mbps codec, industry standard MXF format support recording to dual compact flash memory cards, Wide Angle lens 30.4 – 304 mm and 10x Optical Zoom with a Super Range Optical Image Stabiliser, and 2x XLR Inputs. There is also the XF105 with industry standard terminals HD / SD SDI, Time code and Genlock. Canon’s flagship model, the XF300 series, has been designed through feedback from professional camera operators and is ideally suitable for event videographers, film makers and news gatherers. The XF300 is very mobile and has excellent balance between operation and weight; features 1/3 inch 3CMOS sensors, genuine Canon 18x HD Video L-Series lens, MPEG-2 Full HD 4:2:2 50Mbps codec, utilises MXF file support recording to dual compact flash memory cards, and 2x XLR inputs. Another camera in the same series, the Canon XF305, has Industry Standards Terminals, Genlock, HD/ SD SDI and time Code for seamless integration into multicamera live switch shoots. All of these Canon products are available from Riegers NZVN Camera and Video, Mt Eden. Call David now.

David: I think that with the 300 series, the cameras do have a very good quality lens, they have got a good following amongst a certain category of customers, and also they have the MPEG-2 Full HD 4:2:2 50 Mbps codec which helps to give them the edge. Ed: And in terms of after sales service, the ability to look after Canon cameras … I mean obviously they’re represented in New Zealand? David; Yes, Canon New Zealand give backup to all the Canon cameras that we sell, and we’ve found that this support has been very good. Ed: And there are plenty of accessories to go along with the cameras as well that you have from Canon and from other suppliers?

David Honore with helper David Dollaga (left). Page 32

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How the Aussie’s do it — Part two (see August issue for part one) Ed: And that brings me to ask about the range of work that you’re now doing. I guess you’ve done everything in the past, but now you’ve got yourself established? Adam: Primarily we do TV commercials and a lot of top end music videos as well. We do a little bit of corporate work here and there, but that’s not our core business. I do a lot of conforming and onlining for people, like television programmes, television series and I colour feature films and music videos and TV commercials and what anybody else brings in the door here that they want to get out looking nice. Ed: And the TV commercials, it’s a full service, it’s a case of help with the creative and …? Adam: My company works in a number of different ways. We’re a full service creative agency, so people come here with a product or a service and we come up with the ideas, we write the scripts, we’ll book the talent, we’ll do everything – cast it, the whole lot. Other creative agencies might come to us and say “hey, here’s a script, can you make this for us?” We don’t really care, just so long as we get a bite of the pie. We’re not greedy! Ed:

Where do you see it going, more of the same?

Adam: Oh look for us, we don’t really compete with anyone, because we generate our own business. If someone rings up the network and says “look we want to get a TV commercial made and get looked after,” we’re the preferred supplier. So that’s handy, because I’ve got another part of my business as well, where we’re a full service advertising agency, and between my business and my partner’s business, we book millions of dollars worth of advertising space, so it actually pays for everything that you see here as well. If I was living just off production, I’d be bankrupt by now. You can’t live off production alone at my level, not any more. Unless you work at the top end of the market exclusively – I’m the top end of the mid-market, and I like being there, because I don’t want to shoot every day, I don’t want to edit every day. I can walk round here, the boys are busy upstairs, but like this room here ( Avid Symphony DX / DS ) probably works maybe 20 hours a week, and that’s all I need it to work. I don’t want to shoot every day – would you want to shoot every day; it’d do your head in wouldn’t it? When I do the stuff that I do, I really enjoy what I do, so people come here because I’m specialised and boutique and they know I’m going to give them a special service that they can’t get anywhere else.

pictures! If it was that simple, shit everyone would be doing it. It’s because I’ve come from a background that I understand film. I’ve been a photographer primarily most of my life, and got into the video side and the film side of it. I understand about exposures and lighting and all that sort of stuff, but you can’t just pick up a RED and put a video camera light on the top of it and shoot with it. It’ll look shit; you might as well shoot with an EX1 or a handicam. One of my father’s best friends is a lens technician and a motion picture engineer, so we’ve been doing some really unusual things with RED here. For instance, that’s a 1950s Hasselblad lens right, and he’s made me up custom mounts so I can mount this on my RED. You should see the pictures that we’re getting out of this stuff. We’re having a lot of fun with glass at the moment. Ed:

And that’s the key to it, isn’t it – it’s the glass?

Adam: It’s the glass, it always has been about the glass. I’ve just been out on a shoot, so I don’t know where anything is … that’s one of my new toys … crashes and bangs Ed:

Adam’s just pulled out a very large head.

Adam: Yes, this is a top of the line O’Connor 2575D. That’s why, with RED – like you want to feel the weight of this thing … Ed: I believe you, it’s heavy. Why do you need such a big head? Adam: Because RED’s so big. O’Connor is my favourite brand of choice for tripods and it always has been. But if you put it on a 100mm system it’s just too heavy for it … more crashes and bangs … I’ll pull out a RED and show you. Have you ever played with one? Ed: Aaaah, no. Right, Adam’s just given me a RED to hold and, yes, it’s a heavy little sucker, and then he admits – what’s your admission? Adam: I handhold RED all the time, because I’ve got an EasyRig. Do you know what an EasyRig is? Ed: The one with the cord coming over the top like we saw at the K-Tek stand at NAB?

Ed: A niche in the market. Now, RED, you’ve been out today looking at a RED EPIC? You like the format? Adam: Yes I do. I wasn’t keen on the very first RED because it obviously had a few problems. Red is a totally different setup to anything else. You’ve got to treat RED as 35mm film. As soon as you start treating it as a video camera, you’re going to fail and fall apart straight away. That’s what the problem is. People think that they can buy a RED camera for 25 grand, pick it up and point and shoot and they’ll get awesome

Danny making clever graphics. Page 35

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Adam: Yes, I call it like – it’s a faux steadicam. It’s basically six grand for a piece of string, but it does work and it does save your back, and even when I shoot on the ENG cameras like the 700 or the 800, I still use it a lot, because that’s my style. I’ll shoot with a really long lens and handhold it as long as I can possibly go. As you know, at full zoom, a little bit of movement amplifies a thousand times in the other end, but with the EasyRig it gives you this beautiful “floaty” look. Ed: But, having all this technology, these very high spec lenses and cameras and doing it to the nth degree that you do, isn’t this an overkill, when you know that those ads are going out standard def? Adam: Well I’ll quote something from Jim Jannard from RED. He’s been saying this for a long time now – why he says 4K is the future, and why people like RED so much, is because you can’t get back resolution. If you’re shooting at 4K and finishing at 1080, so a quarter of the size of it, the stuff looks amazing. You can be slightly out of focus but it doesn’t matter, it’s like film. If you look at 35mm film, all the stuff’s soft when you see it, but when you put it through a telecine, they can sharpen it up, they can do whatever you like. Well you can’t go backwards and do it the other way. You can’t get a JPEG and turn it from a couple of hundred K into a couple of Meg, it will just look terrible. Things like depth of field and skin tones and colours and definition, its all there. Also, a lot of people with RED buy the RED Pro primes and they are not bad for 20 grand, but the RED zooms in my opinion are a bit soft and full of chromatic aberration.

Adam weightlifting with his RED.

good storytelling, that’s all that matters. Oh and yes … a good quality of life … if you don’t enjoy working on a project, don’t do it, as how can you expect to deliver a good result to your customers if your heart isn’t in the NZVN project.

Ideally, if I could afford it, I’d love to get a set of master primes – that’s going to cost me half a million bucks! And you say what’s the point of putting a master prime on an F3? It’s a waste. My current lenses are the Arri Zeiss Mark 3 super speeds, because the colours and the sharpness of those lenses are just amazing; I also have a set of Zeiss Compact primes as they are perfect for my steadicam as they are very light. Even though I love my Sony XDCAM cameras, and I have the best glass money can buy ( I use Fujinon ), some people say two-third inch is an inferior format. Well, if you put it side by side with a RED it isn’t, it’s got a different look about it, and that’s what people need to understand. It doesn’t matter what camera you’re shooting with – like I can make the 700 look like a RED by using a P &S Technik adapter and using my 35mm lenses. It’s just “horses for courses”. The best advice I can give anyone either starting out, or even a veteran in this field is this … Always under promise and over deliver, set aside a small proportion of your profits every year to use on upgrading equipment, and always buy equipment that you like, not what other people like. The new Canon 5Ds have really opened up the market and in some ways have made it more difficult to get jobs over the line … but at the end of the day, you need a good workflow in production / postproduction and it shouldn’t really matter if you are shooting on 5D or even 35mm film, if your clients are happy and you are delivering Page 37

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