NZ Video News December 2011

DECEMBER 2011

Vol 176

Formula Atomise The sound of the surf you don’t hear in this interview is from Waikanae Beach, north of Wellington, and the racing driver we’ve come to meet here is Richard Kelly from ( as you can tell from the advertising on his company car ) Atomise Editing Solutions Experts.

Ed: Now in fact it’s only one “expert” isn’t it Richard?

Richard: We have grown.

There are actually three of us now in the company – Meredith handles all the back office stuff and recently Richard Thomassen has joined the team as a technician.

It’s working out extremely well.

Ed: And where’s the other Richard based – also Wellington?

Richard: Also based in Wellington; we’ve got a few contractors we can call on in Auckland, but the permanent staff is all based out of Wellington.

Ed: Now you call yourselves “editing solutions experts” but surely these days editing solutions are pretty much “out of the box” and they work?

Richard: Depending on the level of complexity you’ve got in your requirements, absolutely – but when you’ve got large shared storages with large networks and a large number of editing clients hanging off them ( as do quite a number of our customers ) there is some expertise necessary in getting the setup right.

It’s certainly a little bit more complex than “plug and play”.

You’ve got to really understand both how the systems work and how your clients work and configure everything to work properly.

Ed: So sometimes clients can be a problem?

Richard: Only “editing clients” – our clients are wonderful.

Richard Kelly with company car.

Ed: Would the biggest client you look after be involved with those little people?

Richard: Yes, we’re very pleased to have supplied the solution for The Hobbit obviously, alongside a number of other jobs that are going through the industry at the moment. We’re also working quite closely with NHNZ in Dunedin. They’ve got some reasonably complex solutions and gear working together; and of course we look after Weta Digital with quite a complex installation; a couple of film jobs in Auckland and a couple of facilities in Auckland.

Ed: So that’s pretty big time and I guess these boys don’t have time for turkeys so you must know what you’re doing if they’re happy with you – and I assume they are happy?

Richard: I’m pleased to say they’re happy with us and I’m also very, very pleased to say that a lot of our business has come from word of mouth. We work very

NZVN on the web. Go to <https://sites.google.com/site/nzvideonews> for more news.

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hard to deliver a very high end solution with very high end support and we can do it from Wellington, which is quite straight forward to do now.

We’re providing support using remote access systems to clients all around the country.

Ed: And I guess that’s true with the large systems with networks, which is both the Avid Unity and the Apace Systems, that it’s pretty much a “hands on” thing and you do a one-on-one with those clients and their requirements?

Richard: Absolutely. It’s very much, for most of our clients, checking those systems, just to make sure everything’s okay.

Ed: But that’s not physically checking, that must be online checking?

Richard: It is remote dial-in checking.

All the storage systems are configured to actually email me or Richard T if something is happening. So 9 times out of 10, we’ll actually know something’s up before the editing client at the other end has even noticed that something’s not quite as it should be. With the level of equipment we’re dealing with, we don’t really have to worry about hard disc failures and such things too often, thank goodness.

Ed: But then also you look after the smaller clients, the single person who might just want an editing solution and I guess that’s not a 24 hour service?

Richard: We cover the whole gamut of clients and we’ve got a lot of single user clients who are just as valuable to us as our big clients. There’s a large number of them out there and it’s very important to have the same high standard of support for a client who

has only got a single editing system, as it is for a client who has 9, 10, 11 editing systems. When it comes down to it, the editing system is their way of earning their living, so you have to completely understand that and respect that and provide a level of service to match that.

Ed:

And one day they might buy more?

Richard: Hopefully, yes, as we’ve learnt – not only do they buy more, they also tell people to come and buy off you. One of the most important things that I try and do is make sure our customers are well looked after, because they are one of our key means of growing our business.

Ed: Can you work that remote monitoring system into a single use client?

Richard:

Absolutely, and we do.

Ed: Wow, that’s certainly good for their peace of mind. But surely these systems, especially the Avids now, they’re pretty stable, they’re not likely to fall over … it can’t happen very often?

Richard: It doesn’t happen very often. We work very hard to make sure it doesn’t but, for example, maybe someone’s got a new type of media that’s come through that they haven’t worked with before, or one of the classics is maybe they’ve got some media which hasn’t been shot at exactly the frame rate they’d expected – things like that – and they just need some assistance with us coming in and having a look at what they’re seeing, just to help diagnose what’s going on.

We’re not talking just computer issues; we’re talking full workflow support.

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Ed: So they might have some legacy equipment that doesn’t talk happily with the new software?

Richard: That’s always possible, but a lot of the support calls we get are about “we’ve received a file from X and it’s not quite what we expected. How do we work with this?”

Ed: Is there any particular camera that produces difficult files?

Richard: No, there’s nothing in particular. But in terms of file based media support we’re pretty broad across the range, especially with Media Composer version 6 having AVCHD support now. That was always one of the tricky things, having to take AVCHD and convert it to something else to get it into Avid. But that’s gone now with Media Composer 6. You’ve got lots of devices that plug into the camera that act as storage and all of them have their own particular setup.

So there’s a large scope for interesting results shall we say.

Ed: Yes, I remember the headlines at NAB a few years ago – it was all about “convergence”; perhaps it should have been “divergence”?

Richard: It’s more convergence in terms of everything has become computer related. We’ve gone away from having baseband tape …

Ed: Oh no, don’t say that, no we haven’t gone away from tape. I love tape.

Richard: Tape is wonderful. Hey and don’t forget, at the end of the day, most large projects end up going back out onto LTO tape.

Ed:

Yay!

Richard: There’s still a lot of room for tape, you know, especially when you’re dealing with massive amounts of data such as you can gather quickly on a RED Epic at 5K or 4K a frame – your only place to put it is onto tape generally.

Ed: There you are, another convert. One day I’ll get the Modernists to agree with me on tape, but for the moment … Media Composer 6 – there’s certainly been a lot of information come out about it recently and a lot of hype, but is it true? Is it really as good as they say it is?

Richard: Absolutely. I’ve been very lucky to work with it right through the Alpha and Beta programmes with a number of our clients and a huge amount of effort has gone into it. Right from during the Alpha programme, I had clients asking if they could use it in production – it is (and was) that good from very early times.

Ed: In what particular ways – for example, let’s start with the big clients, the multi users, what’s a couple of the key benefits for those clients?

Richard: Media Composer 6 is a 64 bit native application, so that means … one of the things we’re seeing turning with a couple of our larger clients, is very complex sequences.

Ed: Especially 3D I imagine?

Richard: 3D adds a great level of complexity, but even at 2D we’re talking many, many layers of video, with many, many, many objects in a bin and in a timeline and, on occasion, we’ve actually reached the maximum limit that Media Composer’s had, which is an extraordinarily high limit and it’s been quite astounding

Page 4

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Editing Solutions

Visit www.atomise.co.nz; email atomise@atomise.co.nz or call Richard Kelly on 04 380 5010 / 021 86 33 94 for information & demos.

Experts

Bridging is an automatic background utility that Parking is a Sequence and Project Mover for Archive Bridging is an automatic background utility that enables Parking is a Sequence and Project Mover for Archive Storage, editors to editors exchange to sequences for cross platform for cross Storage, Distribution and Disaster Recovery enables exchange sequences Distribution and Disaster Recovery collaboration and workflow migration Fast and cost effective archive and restore process platform collaboration and workflow migration. over for Archive Storage, Fast and cost effective archive and restoreBridging process is an automatic background utility that enables Convert sequences and move media in the background Create for Disaster Recovery or later reworking Convert sequences and move media in the Create files files for Disaster Recovery or later reworking editors to exchange sequences for cross platform Typical Use Cases Facilitate production collaboration Improve file based workflows between facilities Typical Use Cases Improve file based workflows between facilities Park background.

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Save time and effort transferring edits Park media onto lower cost edit shared storage collaboration and workflow migration Broadcast content creators needing Media producers with investments to re-edit short form - News/Sports media onto lower cost edit shared storage Save time and effort transferring in both Avid edits. and FCP Overview

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Save time and effort transferring edits Aimed at multiple users of both Avid Recovery or forfrom later Broadcast content creators needing effective utility enables facility managers to benefit Media producers with investments Reworking improved flexibility when organising projects and to re-edit short form - News/Sports Sequence Parking Key Benefits Key Benefits allocating resources as Avid and Apple systems can be Avid and incomplex both FCP Transfer sequences More freedom in planning easily integrated into a single workflow.

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Offconverts line shot selection / on line tools Service locates, re-wraps sequence media and moving Sequences for localisation Easier to use best-of-breed Parking V2.6 Available Now Free upeditor. onlineEdit edit storage for different stages of production the sequence The portable nature of parked sequences makes them ideal structures are moved as background operations andstructure for the destination edit production capital expenditure workstations are free to continue reducing editing while Avid Edit Interplay integration candidates to support disaster recovery, business Edit Edit environments needing toconverted on theClients fly. sequences are bridged. continuity and inter-site workflows. through use of lower cost Storage Support for mixed Avid and FCP free up edit space storage Overflow Bridging V2.6 Available from oneNow Based on the shots that appear in the sequence Bridging management clients on a single system Aimed at multiple users of both Avid and FCP this cost will transfer media from the source editor to the production tofullanother Project Parking Includes support for Long term Archive and resource ‘Full copy’ Parking mode option Media is converting on the fly Avid Interplay effective utility enables facility managers todestination benefiteditor. from Disaster Recovery Project Parking enables Avid users to safely archive between the different wrappers, MXF OPAtom for Avid complete projects. It extends the ’parking’ concept to allow Introduction of ‘Pre Flight Check’ and and QuickTime self-contained media for Apple. improved flexibility when organising projects Improved file based users toBenefits move complete projects quickly and easily Key Q4 Avid Project Benefits Sequence information betweenKey Avid AAF between systems within the same facility or between sites. between facilities allocating resources asArchiving Avid Available and Apple systems can be is convertedworkflows and Apple XML formats to create the required sequence By parking not only the sequence edits, effects and project Reduce capital expenditure easily integrated into a single workflow.

Simple to perform More freedom in planning structure. Audio and video track layout is preserved with settings but also the original rushes, Project Parking background tails automatically added to all edit points. andoperation provides a simple vehicle for archiving all media associated organising productions with a project.

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to hit it occasionally. But 64 bit means it will address all of the RAM you put into the computer which, with file based input, that means you’ve got more headroom for dealing with the files and the complexity of the information that you’ve got coming in. The amount of metadata that’s coming in has obviously increased as well, because metadata is the lifeblood of all of this media.

With 3D, Media Composer 6 is an absolutely astounding move forward. It is working in the 3D environment in the same way that you’d work in a 2D traditional nonlinear editor environment.

You don’t have any limitations for how you’re going to work and it will handle all of the process, be it full frame, side by side, under over, out to single eye for working on a broadcast monitor if you haven’t got a 3D broadcast monitor. If your end result’s going to be viewing on another monitor for the director or producer, then it’s as simple as just selecting the output to the 2D or 3D depending on what your requirements are at that moment for your 3D project, and it simply comes out of the box looking beautiful.

Another one of the big changes is support for a much wider range of third party hardware. Now that’s a massive change for Media Composer.

Ed: ... of Avid not being quite so retentive?

Richard: Avid being very open, shall we say.

Ed: Well you can say that, I can say “retentive”.

Richard: I can say “open” … so, of course, one of the great things about that is we’ve got a lot of Final Cut users who are migrating to Media Composer at the moment, because Avid really is strongly taking back the professional editing market; they’re really concentrating on making sure they’ve got a proper professional product.

Ed: Well that was what my next question was about … so the single user, the person who’s got Final Cut, moves to Media Composer. Some people are saying that, for the professional user, the Adobe Premiere package is a better format for quick corporate work?

Richard: Of course I’d have to disagree. I truly believe that Media Composer is the best nonlinear editing package on the market at the moment.

It is such a wide ranging product now, in terms of what it can deal with coming in, and it’s so simple and easy to use. When you think about it, it’s what all other NLEs have copied to a certain extent. It was the first one to market as an NLE and every other NLE has copied its concepts to a certain degree, or based their workflows on the concepts that Media Composer brought to market. The beauty is, now with Media Composer 6, a client can go from a Final Cut system where they’ve already got AJA hardware, bring in Media Composer 6 and that AJA hardware will now work with Media Composer and they can still keep both on the same system if required.

So it’s a very open system, it’s very straightforward, it allows a really good transition and in fact, there’s some really good tools now for transitioning whole projects and media from Final Cut to Media Composer that make it very easy for clients to make a transition.

Ed: So if you have a legacy project in Final Cut, you can actually bring it into

the Avid, make the changes that your client wants and bingo, you don’t have to reconstruct the whole thing?

Richard: Absolutely – and I’m sure it’s much easier to bring it into Media Composer compared to bringing it into Apple’s latest offering So we can maintain a client’s existing information and bring it into a new environment with everything that they need to keep working, and that’s extremely important. Avid’s strong point has always been that very, very tight workflow on maintaining all the metadata, maintaining all your information, the whole way through your entire process.

Ed: And if somebody gets into trouble and they don’t want to call you, Avid’s got a pretty good online facility haven’t they in terms of tutorials and a knowledge base?

Richard: They do have an extremely good offering with Alex (Avid Learning Excellerator™), with online training, and the knowledge base is also extremely good. But we encourage everyone who purchases Avid from us to use us as their first line of support.

Ed:

So you give everyone your cell phone number?

Richard: My cell phone number is on the card, my Skype address is on the card, our phone numbers are all on our website – we’re there to make sure that the gear that we supply works.

Ed: Now Richard, along with remote analysing of problems in client’s machines, something else you can do remotely with a client?

Richard: Yes, we can dial in using a bit of software, for example LogMein or TeamViewer which we install on the client machine so we can actually dial in and see everything that our client is seeing. Say they’re asking about how to use a particular feature or they’ve got something they’d like to show us in the editing application, we can actually see everything that they see, and can move their mouse and take control of their keyboard and everything, and assist that way while we’re talking to them on the phone.

Ed:

Page 6

And it works?

Richard Thomassen ready to assist.

Richard: It works very, very well.

It’s just like having technical support on site whenever you need it.

Ed: Excellent, so as you see we’ve got Avid on the car, Apace is another product that we’ve certainly talked about a lot, but you don’t stop there – you’ve got some other solutions I believe?

Richard: In addition to Avid and Apace, we’ve got the complete Hewlett Packard range, Force 10 Network switches, JMR Storage, and Panasonic as our key brands. We can provide a reasonable turnkey solution for anybody’s needs.

If somebody requires an audio solution instead of a video solution, we also work very closely with one of the providers who are able to put together a complete turnkey solution for your post environment, with quite a nice collaborative environment.

Ed: And I guess that’s important, that if you’re going to set yourself up with an editing solution and you want some add-ons, it’s better to get the one person to put it all in – as the phrase goes “one throat to choke”?

Richard: Often a very important thing to a client is having a single point of contact and someone who knows not only how their systems work, but how their particular workflow operates.

We work very hard to gain access to any product that is Avid qualified that we know is going to work with our editing products.

Ed:

And you sell tape?

Richard:

Of course!

NZVN

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Shure Microphones for TV Production Now Sound are the New Zealand agents for Shure and we have Conrad Jones telling us that retail sales are not through Now Sound but through the dealer network in New Zealand – and you will find most of those in the pages of NZ Video News.

Ed:

Is that true Conrad?

Conrad:

That’s correct.

Ed: Great. So make the effort to look at the Shure product, because it does appear to add something to the industry we’re in. I guess we should start with shotgun microphones and the question has to be – well, why would you pick a Shure over any other brand?

Conrad: With the testing and comparative testing of microphones that we’ve done with some competing brands, the real standouts of the Shure microphones are their very low inherent handling noise and the real push through the mid-range for definition and clarity within your recordings; and then coupling that with the Rycote products gives you an extremely well performed microphone in the types of environment where you would use a shotgun microphone.

Ed: That’s a special arrangement isn’t it, that Shure has with Rycote, that they are building support mechanisms, including the Lyre, to handle the Shure mic, and they are labelled “Shure”?

Conrad: Yes, that’s right, Rycote is partnered with Shure to produce the products that match perfectly with Shure microphones and there are some really nice supports to help with the performance of these microphones.

Ed: And these are supports that either go on a boom pole or mount on a camera?

Conrad: Yes, effectively they’re traditional Rycote products – a pistol grip mount, camera mount, and boom pole accessories that suit those particular microphones and the jobs that they’re used for.

Ed: And even though these are branded “Shure”, if you happen to have another microphone brand, then it will still fit because diameters and lengths are industry standard, so you’re not limited to just Shure microphones with these products?

Conrad: No, you’re not. There’s effectively three different sizes with shotgun microphones – these are “standard size” if you like, and most of the microphones on the market will fit within these accessories. There are exceptions to that rule, but effectively it’s a standard microphone diameter.

Ed:

Now where’s the Shure product designed?

Conrad: They are designed in the States. It’s a private company owned and operated still by Mrs Shure.

Shure is one of the largest microphone manufacturers in the world.

With a history of audio innovation spanning over 80 years, Shure has turned a passion for making great microphones and audio electronics into an obsession.

No wonder Shure continues to set the worldwide industry standard for superior microphones and audio electronics.

Ed:

So, in the shotgun range ...?

Conrad with a sound selection from Shure.

Conrad: ... there are four models. At the entry level, we have a non-modular VP82. This is a short shotgun specifically designed for camera mounting; very short, it requires 48 Volt phantom power; very light and very well priced in the market.

Ed: The other three microphones – they all break down into two bits?

Conrad: These are VP89 Shure shotgun microphones.

They’re modular, so the capsules or microphone parts come in three sizes – small, medium and large – along with the preamp which requires 48 Volt phantom power. It’s a modular system so you don’t have to buy the preamp each time; you can interchange any microphone capsule with one preamp.

Ed: So why would you want a short one and a long one?

Conrad: That will give you different performance in different recording environments, depending on what you’re intending to do.

For example, if you’re a reporter, you may tend to use a short shotgun at close range on a pistol grip; whereas if you’re outdoors trying to record bird noises, you would then probably go for the longer shotgun for more accuracy and longer throw and the ability to record at longer distances.

Ed: And there’s a whole range of windsocks – again Rycote product?

Conrad: That’s right, the microphones come complete with a foam windscreen and a case and from there, if you’re recording in higher wind environments, you would look at the Rycote products as an addition; and then you also have different types of mount for camera use. Obviously different camera users like their

Page 12

microphones positioned differently, so these allow you to choose how you mount your microphone, or take it off the camera altogether.

Conrad: Yes, it will help you with low frequency unwanted noise.

Ed: And they come with nice long Canon connector cords do they?

Conrad:

Conrad: Some of the Rycote products are supplied with the XLR cables to go with them but you will need to check with your preferred dealer on the different options

Conrad: It depends on the recording environment.

It’s there for a reason; it’s to help you with your recording, in difficult environments.

Ed: When you buy the microphone you don’t get a connector to your camera?

Conrad: When you buy the microphone you get a microphone, a case and a foam windscreen.

You choose your own cable length to match the use.

Ed: Now I actually did some preparation for this interview Conrad –quite unusual for me – but I did, and I read the brochures, and finally I figured out what “cardioid” means. I always thought that it was a spelling mistake, but cardioid in the design of a microphone … let’s see if you know what it means?

Ed: Ed:

But isn’t this something you’d fix in post?

Oh absolutely you can do that as well.

So would you advise me to use the switch or not?

It’s worth giving it a try, doing a little test to see whether you find the low-cut filter switch on or off to be what you like in your recording. Now that moves us on to radio microphones, which really are the “topic de jour” because of what’s happening in the industry, and Shure’s not to be left behind; they’ve got a very nice slim little radio microphone on offer. Taking over the radio microphone side of this interview, we have Joni Benton.

Conrad: Thanks for that! So you’ve got different types of polar pattern if you like, omni being basically a general circle – if you put a circle around the microphone where you would pick up the sound from; cardioid is a slightly different “pattern” of how the noise or the surrounding sound would be collected and gathered; then you have hyper-cardiod and low bar hyper-cardioid and super-cardioid. It’s just the different “pattern”, or shape of how the audio is collected. Now, in answer to your test question, it’s called “cardioid” because the pattern is “cardiac” or “heart” shaped.

Ed:

Well done – test passed!

Conrad: So triple middle cartridge polar patterns should be called “kidney” because they look like kidneys, is that correct?

Ed: Well, we’ll put that to the committee. Perhaps Mr Buckland would know the answer to that one? And the pattern for the VP89?

Conrad: Ed:

Hyper-cardioid / Low bar.

And that’s a good thing?

Conrad: Long and skinny basically, so very directional, a lot less outside noise coming in. So if you’re recording a bird noise, you get the bird noise and a little bit of ambience, but preferably not the car on the southern motorway.

Joni is ready to transmit.

Ed: Or the tractor that’s pulling down the trees on the side?

Conrad: Preferably not, but in some cases, yes, you may get that.

Ed: And I notice the VP89s have got a switch. Is this an on /off switch, or what does it do?

Conrad:

It’s a low-cut filter.

Ed: So if you’ve got a bit of side noise that’s a bit “peaky”, you put this switch on and it just takes that top end off?

Ed: Joni, on the transmitter side, Shure’s been doing these for quite a long time, because there’s been a system for the “tour sound” market and that is with a very sophisticated wireless diversity receiver that is mains powered and then a choice of two body pack transmitters. But what is new is a compact receiver that’s just come on the market, the UR5.

Joni: Shure are really focusing on the Broadcast market again; they’ve decided to come out with a high end portable wireless receiver that works with the

Page 14

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current UHF-R wireless microphone systems. Obviously it has the excellent bandwidth that the UHFR offers, which is up to 2400 selectable frequencies across 60 MHz of bandwidth and it offers the same functionality that the other UHFR units offer, with scan in sync for very easy setup.

All UHF-R systems offer “Audio Reference Companding” which basically means the sound comes through crystal clear.

The best thing about this portable wireless receiver is it offers a multi-transmitter mode, which means you can switch between multiple transmitters very fast.

So you have the one receiver and you “hot-swap” between up to 20 transmitters which are named at the touch of a button. This replaces the need to mount multiple receivers on your camera whenever you only need to tune to one transmitter at a time.

Ed: Basically then it’s just changing a channel, but you don’t have to go into a menu to do it, it’s just the push of a button and you go to the preselected next channel?

Joni: Correct.

Ed: That’s pretty cool and something else that I find very useful is in fact that it runs on 2xAA batteries?

Joni: That’s right.

Ed: So that’s the UR5 which has really extended the Shure range into the broadcast market and that means that the UR1 and the UR1M – the body pack transmitters – now have a new lease of life in the ENG market?

Joni: That’s correct. These are aimed at the high end, so it’s not everyone who can obviously afford to get these units, but for high end applications, yes.

Ed:

If you really want quality and you want it to last?

Joni: Yes, and Shure push this system as being for “mission critical” recording.

They’ve been around for years, they’ve been doing it for years, it doesn’t drop out, it is mission critical.

Ed: And these are good … they look like die-cast aluminium cases that will survive a good drop?

Joni: Yes, all Shure products are tested to beyond what you would normally experience in most situations – so they’ve all been dropped and frozen and heated up and all the rest.

So, yes, they’re pretty bullet-proof.

Ed: And even the UR1 transmitter is a smaller size than I’ve seen with other product, but the UR1M (the micro version) is half that size?

Joni: That’s right, it’s tiny and really light.

Ed: And it says “with 2xAAA batteries, it’s up to 9 hours continuous use” so that’s very battery-friendly?

Joni: Yes and all of UHF-R systems can be networked on a computer using Shure’s “Wireless Workbench” software.

This software will show you battery life remaining and you can do all your frequency management if you are running multiple systems.

Ed: And coming out very soon will be the UR3; this is a plug on transmitter and that also is going to add to the broadcast package where you can plug this onto the end of your handheld microphone, or even your boom pole?

Joni: Yes, it comes with an XLR connector and an earphone jack for additional monitoring.

Ed: So that plugs in your boom pole into the XLR connector on the end of it and there’s your transmitter, so a very, very handy addition to a microphone pack?

Joni: Yes and you’ve got your selectable phantom power on there, so you can select between 12 and 48 Volts. Plus you also have adjustable output power.

Ed: So these look pretty cool but really for the top end of radio mic work. I’m pretty confident that Shure will be looking into the spectrum issues in New Zealand very carefully and not supplying product that is not going to be able to be used within a couple of years. Is that true Joni?

Joni: Yes, that’s very true.

Back in 2009 the government told us that we had to stop selling into the 700 MHz range, which we did, and we are now only selling into the 518-558 MHz and 606-686 MHz range.

UHFR being high end operates over a very large spectrum and obviously with all the tools that it comes with, ie Wireless Workbench, you can easily manage your channels.

Ed: So all Shure wireless microphone products from now on are definitely future proof?

Joni: No one can say this 100% until Sky TV, Maori TV and TAB have decided whether they will pick up their options, but Shure will be offering trade-in deals if / when this happens.

Shure are already offering trade-in deals on old 700MHz UHF systems here in New Zealand.

NZVN

Page 16

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More “Behind the Scenes at Dedolight” Last month, we spoke with Dedo Weigert about the history and developments of the Dedolight company.

Dedo obviously couldn’t have achieved all this by himself and one of his key people is Dedo’s right-hand engineer – Dr Depu Chin. He speaks Chinese and German but only a little English so we have a three way conversation with Roman Hoffmann.

Roman: Dr Depu Chin has been working with us for 22 years and he almost lives here. He develops all the optical elements that Dedo asks for. So Dedo has an idea and he comes to Chin and Chin is sitting here for days and sometimes for years, trying to find an answer.

Sometimes, when we show him the pictures people make with our lights, Chin is astonished because he didn’t know that those elements can create such pictures. One day, when he saw a still photo in a catalogue, he said “before I go to sleep I sometimes take a look into this catalogue because I can’t believe that those pictures were made with our lights.”

Ed: Are you allowed to have ideas yourself?

Chin: Dedo has ideas, I calculate and make experiments – nothing else.

Ed: So how do you make experiments?

Dedo has an idea for, I guess, a particular throw of light. Is that what he’s looking for?

Chin: It always comes from him and I try his idea …

Roman: Chin analyses and optimises Dedo’s ideas and makes them a reality.

Ed: But you try them in the computer, that’s that first stage, to see what the computer can come up with?

Roman: First of all, there is the step with the computer simulations, then we

Dr Depu Chin at his ray computer.

Page 20

programme or have you written part of it yourself?

Roman: No, this is a usual programme.

Chin hasn’t added anything to it.

But sometimes, to use it to its full extent, he has to correct some bits and pieces and feed it with new information.

Ed: The parameters … so the parameters that you’re looking for, you’ve added some there that maybe others wouldn’t?

Roman: If you have the correct orders for the computer, then the results will be there but you have to know exactly what you put into the computer.

It doesn’t do anything automatically. What we see now is a digital drawing of Ed, Depu and Roman in the design office. the classic Dedolight optical system, and we can define exactly the light source. We start real experiments. Then we correct our result and can decide the size and the colour temperature and the in the end we optimise our result. Then the final performance of the light. decision, if it is okay or not, is up to Dedo.

Ed: Well his name is on the company and the lights.

Tell me, is the computer programme an off-the-shelf

And now we can start our simulation. We can, for example, simulate a distance from the light source to

Page 21

the projection, like for example, we now just define three metre and we can also define how many beams we want to calculate. In this case, we want to see two million beams. To do that by hand with the human brain, it would take three times the lifetime of a human being. When Chin started doing that by hand it took him one day to calculate one beam – one ray. Now we will do two million beams and you also need very detailed optical mathematical knowledge, otherwise you will make many mistakes. It’s calculating; 10 seconds and we are ready. And there we go … what we see is the light distribution of two million beams. What we see now is the lit area and the distribution of the light in this area.

We’re just looking at the surface of a particular picture here, showing the light distribution from this computer simulation.

Ed:

So then do you make a prototype here?

Chin: We make the prototype here always.

Chin’s finishing off by saying that these ray calculations are not exact but they certainly give a very good approximation and from this he can tell whether this project will actually work or not, or he has to go back to Dedo and say sorry, come up with a new idea, a better one.

Lastly on our tour, we’re in the workshop with Raffael who’s telling me what they do here.

Raffael: In our Munich workshop, we build all the prototypes, we build the special series and the highly technical equipment like the HMIs, metal halides. We have two apprentices who learn how to become mechanical engineers and they all trained on our CAD cutting machines.

The first production of the new 1200 light and Dedo 4.0 lights is on the way through our workshop in Munich.

When we go into full production, we need to outsource some of the work to the former staff of the Barrandov Studios in Prague. They are very famous, that’s where Pantal was shot, a famous TV series.

They went out of work because the Americans came over and said “we don’t need any European lighting guys.”

They’re very knowledgeable, so we employ them now and they built all our classic Dedolights to our specifications.

I came away from the experience with a stronger appreciation of Dedolight product knowing the skills, the thought and the passion that goes into their design.

The result is confidence that any item carrying the Dedolight name will do what it claims and do it well.

NZVN

The very flat histogram tells the story of even light distribution.

Ed: So if you paid four times as much for the glass, it would be more even, but really of no practical use?

Roman: Yes, but if you analyse it by eye, you wouldn’t see any change, so this is only the computer simulation.

Ed: I guess there’s no point in looking at this in three dimensions?

Roman: This programme is limited only to 2D, but there are possibilities to make light visible in 3D as well.

Ed: Does that have a value? Is there any need to do that?

Roman: We need to do that for architectural purposes. If architects want to simulate a lighting design for a museum, they want to have it in 3D to have the exact beam parameters in a three-dimensional room. So we have to do it, but after the calculation, after the light is made, we give it to a laboratory where, in a bowl, they test the light in three dimensions. This is also because let’s say, in our work, we are talking also very often only about two-dimensional pictures that are taken. Two-dimensional simulations are enough for that.

Ed: So for colour distribution there’s another programme again. How long would be the time you would spend on the computer simulation before you actually made a prototype product?

Roman: Dedo has the idea and Chin begins to calculate. It takes 1-2 months before he makes the experiment.

Page 22

Raffael with moulding.

Thanks to all of our customers for their support over the past year.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

We look forward to continuing to be of service to you all in 2012

All the team at PLS Xmas Break: Dec 23rd @1200 till Jan. 16th 2011 @0830

Phone (09) 3024100

Email: info@kelpls.co.nz

Website: www.kelpls.co.nz

All Points lead to ...

“Beer & Pizza” was the invite from Protel and that’s top of the list for any journalist – especially me: but then the pointing started and it was all on.

Ed: Ken there’s been some pointing this evening. You weren’t making fun of David Colthorpe and the way I always get him to point at something in our NAB photos were you?

Ken: Oh no!

As directed by the cameraman (Ed.) we were pointing at the Atomos Samurai, the new HD-SDI portable recorder/monitor/playback device which we took delivery of a day ago, the first in the country. In fact, you were being recorded on the Samurai from the HD-SDI output of the F3 directing us for the point shot.

Ed: I thought this was just a Sony evening?

Ken: It’s a partnership; Sony is a supportive supplier, and they don’t mind us connecting other products to their cameras and monitors.

Other products as a package, assists in the sale of Sony products. See the PMW-F3 mounted on a Vinten VAS8 tripod and Atomos Samurai attached atop of it, also the NEXFS100PK on a Vinten Vision blue tripod with an Atomos Ninja attached to it, and a PMW-EX3 also mounted to a Vinten Vision Blue tripod. We also have on display an Apple iMac with Atem GUI software controlling the BlackMagic Atem1 vision mixer connected to the three outputs of the cameras and the switched output connected to the new Sony PVM2541 OLED monitor. Isn’t the OLED image stunning and it’s the first to be shown in New Zealand.

Ed: It certainly is a beautiful picture. I guess then that you’d also like to add that it’s all about the value of coming to a reputable dealer like Protel isn’t it … you’re not just showing one product. You supply a package Ken – and you’ve got quite a big package to offer I understand?

Ken: What can I say? We offer packaged solutions with all components to make things work. We prefer to offer a total solution to customers so that they walk out the door with workable solutions.

Ed:

And quite a turnout of industry leaders tonight?

Ken: Yes absolutely – though we always like to have more turn up, the more the merrier.

Ed: Well I think its sad more couldn’t make it, because there’s wonderful beer and the pizza is fantastic and plenty to discuss.

Ken: I guess it’s the time of year; there are so many things happening at this time of year we don’t expect large numbers to turn up. The people who have are interested in the products on display, asking many questions and enjoying the casual get together.

Ed: And the product’s always here, so even though there won’t be beer and pizza during the day, you can still come in and have a look at the same product?

Ken: Yes, just don’t come tomorrow or Thursday or Friday because all the gear will be in Wellington.

Ed: Having beer and pizza in Wellington?

Ken: Yes, one of the advantages of having two offices; we’re offering the same thing in Wellington. Glenn will set up the gear in our Wellington office and Sony staff Kate and David will also be there to assist.

We decided it would be a good thing for customers just to have an informal get-together at both offices and look at gear over a beer and pizza and discuss what’s happening in the market.

Ed: And ask questions I guess?

Ken: Yes ask as many questions as they like of Sony and Protel staff.

Ed: Including where the industry’s going?

Ken: Yes ask questions of Sony and Protel about new product developments – you know, just chat together, that’s the main thing. We like to get to connect with our customers, so does Sony, so these events are great for that. That’s why we have them.

Ed: And I see you’ve got a Sony HDV banner here Ken – it’s looking a bit faded, as though it’s been in the sun for a while?

Ken: I should probably retire it but it’s not a very old banner, just a few years. It is a reminder of how fast the camera technology is changing and some of the products are no longer available.

Ed:

But that the old stuff still works?

Ken: Yes certainly and often older cameras can be connected to modern HD-SDI equipment.

You can rejuvenate old camera equipment by using the HDMI output or HD-Component outputs and connect to AJA, Blackmagic or Atomos or Datavideo converter products.

Ed:

There’s nothing like rejuvenating old equipment!

Ken: What have you tried rejuvenating recently Grant?

Ed: At the Wellington venue.

None of your business. Merry Christmas.

Ken: Merry Christmas to you and all the readers of NZVN. NZVN Page 25

What’s in MC6 for Movers?

over the last few releases, to look at ways to modernise the interface.

We’re here at the Avid launch of Media Composer version 6 for the Auckland market, and Richard Kelly, with the help of Evan Boyd from Avid, is going to run us through some of the features that make the transition easier for someone used to editing on another platform.

Ed: Richard, you’ve been helping the guys at WingNut and other places with Media Composer 6 but I guess, they prefer the traditional Avid timeline?

Richard: In terms of whether they prefer version 6 over version 5.5?

Ed: No, no the timeline, how the timeline looks – because to anyone who is coming from a different editing programme, when you open it up and you look at the timeline, the way things are arranged, how the buttons are labelled, that first impression and I know for me, that first impression is very important. I either go “oh, that looks nice” or “oh my God!” Richard: At WingNut they’re all professional Avid editors who have worked with Avid for a very long time, so they certainly have a good feel for how the interface has developed over the years. Of course, with Media Composer 6, it’s a whole revised interface again, so everything looks a little different.

Ed: Apart from, in this demo, just having one monitor, it looks fairly standard, although …?

Richard: It’s very similar, so existing users are going to be happy, but there is a nice new look to it. It’s a much cleaner look.

Ed: And you can choose different colours? It doesn’t have to be purple?

Richard: Well you can choose different shades of the timeline and it doesn’t have to be purple, no.

Evan: Clearly the interface needed to be revised and there’s been a strategy in place over a number of years

Ed:

Avid’s been listening you mean?

Evan: Avid’s been listening … I think Avid has been listening and our customers are really excited about what we’ve been doing.

Richard: I’m pleased you said that Grant – “Avid has been listening”.

Ed: I think that was from NAB about four years ago, but anyway …

Richard: But we’ve been rolling out those new interface components. The Smart Tools was the first introduction of that …

Ed:

Oh, what do you call a “Smart Tool”?

Richard: One of the challenges for people coming fresh to Media Composer was that the majority of the tools required an operator to know which key on the keyboard to press. Working from the keyboard is still a valid way of operating the system, because obviously shortcuts make for fast and efficient editing.

Ed:

But for mouse editors?

Richard: But for mouse editors it can be a bit of a challenge, and particularly new users and new users from other platforms, because obviously, the shortcuts could be different, although they can be customised and changed to match other systems, but understandably mouse users like to use the mouse. So with Smart Tools, we introduced a whole bunch of direct manipulation toolsets to allow you to directly manipulate clips within a sequence. So you no longer have to go into a particular mode, or you no longer need to know the exact key on the keyboard.

Ed: That’s a pretty good step. But it also looks as though you’ve got a whole lot of tools up here just underneath your source and output monitors?

Richard:

Yes, well all of these buttons or functions haven’t necessarily been changed over time, although we may have removed some of them. They’re really just you know, again, helping the mouse editor to be able to work with such functions within the system.

Evan: And that’s all fully customisable as well, so if you’ve got some tools that you want to use. you can customise those menus to your own particular requirements.

Ed: It actually looks to me a bit like a Liquid toolbar, with lots of the features that Liquid had on its toolbar?

Richard Kelly (left) with Evan Boyd from Avid.

Page 26

Richard: Possibly, although Media Composer has always had these, so there’s probably a fusion there between applications into Apple, applications that are borrowed from …

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Ed: Have you got a photo snap tool – take a photograph of the timeline where the cursor is?

Ed: That’s a good Windows function and I guess Windows 7 is a pretty good platform for this?

Now they’re looking you see, now they’re looking within the tools to find the tool that might do what I want and I guess this emphasises my problem years ago with Avid – where the f*** is it? It’s somewhere in there …

Evan: Well you can choose your platform – you can have Windows 7 professional 64 bit, or if you’re a Macintosh user you can use Lion 10.7.

Evan: It’s in the manual.

Ed:

It’s in the manual – yeah, right!

Richard: That’s why we have a comprehensive set of help tools in the system as well, so the entire user manual is available to any user at any time, and it’s searchable. So you can search for things and find things.

Ed: Okay and I guess that really, the simple thing is, once you’ve found it, then you can easily find it again, or you can make it a customisable keystroke.

Evan: Correct and you can map it to anywhere in the interface you’d like it to be, as a button.

Richard: Moving on, we’ve now got dockable and tabable windows.

Evan: In terms of windows management, the entire engine behind the User Interface has been rewritten.

Richard: One of the challenges, if you’re working on a system with only one monitor, was “how do I manage all of these open windows with all these bins of information?” What we can do now is we can dock them onto various other components within the interface, or remove them as required.

Ed: Aaah, floating windows and dockable windows as you say?

Richard: And reordering. So with that, we’ve kind of gotten rid of and consolidated some of the features. We had a lot of features in Media Composer that were similar in function. So when we’ve introduced the tab spacing space, we’ve removed things like “super bins” for example, because the tab spacing space replaces that.

We’ve also consolidated some of the commands within the bin, so rather than having the text view, brief view, frame view, script view, we’ve the mid to brief view, because the text and brief view were kind of the same thing anyway.

So it simplifies the interface and simplifies the experience for the user.

Ed: Okay, speaking of simplification, when a new user takes on Media Composer 6 – they’ve come from say Final Cut Pro – can they immediately open up a template timeline that looks like their Final Cut Pro, so it makes it easier to get into Avid 6?

Richard: For editors transitioning to Avid we can provide them with an excellent training course that is specifically designed for Final Cut editors moving into Media Composer to give them the familiarity they need to move into the Media Composer 6 platform.

Evan: And because the Smart Tools have been specifically designed for editors who have come from mouse driven applications, if you think about Final Cut, Premiere, for example, these are similar icons to those applications, so they should be relatively familiar with using most tools.

Ed: And when you hover over them does it tell you what it does?

Evan: Correct.

Richard: The key part about that is now the application is native 64 bit, so the operating system you’re going to use also needs to be 64 bit.

Ed: Okay, now what else have we got here that would be something that I, as a mouse editor, would really find good?

Richard: Well in terms of editing, you can do virtually anything with a mouse, any application. So if I’m working with audio, I can manipulate the audio levels using the mouse. For example, we can enable our audio waveforms here; we can then view the volume …

Ed: Can you change the actual viewing height of the audio track easily?

Richard: Absolutely. So say I was just working on audio channel one, I deselect these because these are the ones I don’t want a break on; Ctrl L for large …

Ed:

Aaah, you just keep making it bigger.

Evan: The waveform is looking a bit too big, it’s clipping, you really want to see if there’s any extra audio in there …

Ed: The audio waveform looks as though it’s overlevelled pretty well all the way through, but this could be just how it’s displayed and, in this case it is, because now you can change the scale of your audio waveform without changing the actual level of the audio – not something I’ve seen anywhere else.

Evan: Yes, correct. So you can actually see if there’s more audio there, or you can zoom into the audio waveform itself.

Ed: Okay, what about transitions and filters and so on. Do you have some nice bins for those to easily drag and drop?

Evan: Well let’s bring in some content. I’m going to move to some AMA ( Avid Media Access ) media files.

These are ProRes files that I’m going to link to what were originally created using Final Cut Pro. I’m going to link to those directly and just start working with them – I don’t have to import or transcode them, they just become available.

Now that I have these ProRes files available, I might want to create a new sequence to put them in; so again it’s just a right mouse click, brand new sequence. So let’s maybe cut some of these together – choose this shot here, mark an in and out scene, drag and drop it down onto a timeline … one of the other things that we can do when working in a bin which is kind of cool, is we’ve got a frame view.

We can see the head frame of all of these shots, and say I want to cut in my next shot, I can actually play directly from the bin, I don’t have to work from the source monitors. I can hit “play” and it plays it within the bin here.

Ed: So you’re not even having to drag it into the source monitor to look at it. Rather than just a little view that you get in other applications, this is actually a decent sized view.

Now I want you to put that more on page 32

Page 28

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sequence in a little box overlayed on that first clip. want a “picture in picture.”

I

Evan: Okay, so we go “Effects” we have a 3D warp, drag and drop it on, open up my parameters and then I can do it correctly by just dragging it.

Ed: Okay, so it’s a different way of doing it, but it’s all there – and if you wanted to add key frames to that, so you wanted it to start at that size, go for one second and then enlarge to twice the size.

Evan: Right, I’ll start at the beginning. I’ve got a key frame button here, add key frame and then say at the end of it I wanted to move down here and get bigger … it automatically records all of that.

Ed: And shows you the track that it’s taken to get there. So, again, very like the Premier Motion facility but just a slightly different way of doing it. I guess that must be similar throughout the whole of Media Composer 6, that there’s a lot of convergence in the editing programmes – would that be right Richard?

Richard: Of course Media Composer was the first nonlinear editor to market …

Ed: Yes, we heard that somewhere before didn’t we – but we’ll hear it again.

Richard: So this is the interface that you became used to after Media Composer came out.

It was borrowed by many other editing systems.

Ed:

But never improved on?

Richard:

Of course not!

Ed: Yes, well, while we’re in Fantasyland, what else have we got to see? Something else that a user from Premiere or Final Cut would appreciate?

Evan: Well AMA is one of the big ones; that’s a very nice and easy way of working that all users appreciate.

It’s simply being able to link to the media in its native format and work with it immediately in the timeline.

One of the other very cool things is being able to use an interface for doing the Euphonix Artist Series interfaces with Media Composer now.

So you’ve got the colour there with three balls for doing your colour correction; you’ve got the control for automating and just about everything in the interface.

And of course there is the mix … you’ve got the facility there to very much automate with control surfaces your entire editing application.

Richard: Yes, so it gives you a tactile control surface for manipulating virtually any parameter within the application. So rather than using a keyboard or a mouse, or keyboard shortcuts, you can use tactile controls for doing those things.

Ed: And I understand the other really good thing about 6 is that the number of different formats that you can bring in has greatly increased?

Evan: Yes, correct. So Richard kind of touched on that but it is the AMA which stands for “Avid Media Access” which is the ability to link directly to media files and just start working with them.

So you don’t need to transcode them, rewrap them, turn them into QuickTime …

Ed: Until you render at the end I guess – until the output?

Evan: You can just play out directly from those linked files. If you needed to export a file, absolutely, because you may have effects and things which you may need to render in, but no you can play out directly “master out.”

Ed: But what about different frame sizes … say you’ve got a 720p, you bring it in, does it automatically conform to whatever timeline you’ve set up?

Evan: Correct, and in real time. So you may or may not have noticed, but my project format that we’re working in on this system is 1080i 50. The footage that we’ve linked to is actually 23.98fps.

So it’s automatically conforming the frame rate to match our project. As you can see, we’re getting a real time output from that conversion to the external display.

Ed:

Okay, but what about the frame size?

Evan:The same thing.

It will automatically either upscale or downscale the frame size depending on your format that you have in. So my dimension is set for 1920x1080 but that could be 1440x1080 or like for non full rasta formats, or it could be 720p or whatever, and you can mix all of that together.

Ed:

What does it do with a 4x3 when you bring it in?

Evan: It will automatically pillar box the footage for you if it’s in a 16x9 project and you have control over manipulating how that is controlled, whether you want to do rush in and zoom …

Ed: Okay, so it will automatically bring it in in sort of best fit, but then you can manipulate it afterwards if you don’t like that?

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Evan: Correct.

Evan: You see the lovely little green dot?

Ed: Okay, now what I would find really important is quick output. You’ve finished your project, as you say, you can bring in a whole lot of different formats and they’re all sitting there on the timeline, but your client wants the programme as a clip to go on the web, but they also want a DVD. What do you do?

Ed:

Evan: Oh you’ve got a number of options. With the application comes some extra bits of software starting with Sorenson Squeeze and on the PC you’ve also got Avid DVD, so you can bring your project into those softwares using the “send to” button and it will step you through the whole process of building that part of the project.

Evan: A blue dot must be rendered.

Of course, if you’ve got external hardware – say you’ve got, for example, a Blackmagic Pro recorder box that does on the fly H264 encoding, you could just come out as a video signal into your pro recorder box in real time and make your file ready to go on YouTube which is a very efficient and fast way of making H264.

Richard: Obviously one of the things with version 6 is that we have our open IO partners. So we now have AJA, Matrox, Moto, Bluefish444 and Blackmagic Design who have the ability now to interface their cards with Media Composer, so it gives a whole range of options available. So a similar range of options available to Premiere and Final Cut users, so the same cards.

With that, the Matrox MXO2s have H264 acceleration, the MAX, so if you’re a user of an MXO2 MAX hardware box, Media Composer will take advantage of that H264 encoding acceleration, so if you are exporting to an H264 format we will use that acceleration of that box in version 6.

Yes.

Evan: Okay, that means it’s a real time effect.

Ed:

Aaah, so you don’t have to do anything?

Evan: Correct.

Ed: Ed:

But if it needs rendering you see …?

So how do you do it – what’s the process?

Evan: There’s a couple of different ways, but the easiest way is to have some “send to” presets here, so send to a DVD and then that would automatically create the required format for DVD authoring for the Avid DVD application.

Ed: So Richard, in just a short time I think you’ve shown me that this is not just a tool for filmmakers who have been using Avids in the past, but somebody who has been in the corporate production environment, even the wedding environment, could take this and with a little bit of training and a little bit of looking at the manual, use it as their workhorse editing tool?

Richard: Absolutely, as a lot of people already do. It is a very, very good editing application. It is not just for the absolute high end user, it really is for anybody working in a media environment.

Ed:

And it’s available from?

Richard:

Ed: I’m interested – Avid DVD – so you’ve actually got an internal DVD making programme?

Evan: Well we kind of look at it in a different way. I know you come from a Liquid background … now Liquid is kind of the “all in one” application in many ways, you know DVD, exporting and so on.

With Media Composer, we’ve kind of looked at a different approach and said “well what are the “best of breed” applications out there to create a DVD, to encode content for example, or even do effects?”

Sorenson’s pretty good and we know it’s kind of an industry standard encoding application cross-platform and Sonic make awesome DVD and Blu-Ray authoring applications.

So we’ve partnered with them and Media Composer is bundled with those applications, kind of similar to the way Final Cut was sold when it was sold as a bundle or as Final Cut Studio. So your options for DVD authoring are Avid DVD, which is actually Sonic DVD. Ed: But it’s within the programme, it comes bundled with it, okay, but when you’re exporting … so you export the timeline as an unrendered, unconformed timeline and the Sonic programme will convert it to a DVD? Evan: Any effects and things you have in your sequence would need to be rendered prior to the export, or on export you will render them automatically.

Ed: Well how do you know when you’re looking at your timeline there, that things aren’t rendered and need to be before you go to DVD? Page 33

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