Trip Reports
NAB 2013 Reflections
In Ye Olden Days, every part of the production, storage, postproduction, and transmission chain was built around analog hardware following well-defined standards: 3.58 MHz subcarrier, 13.5 MHz digital sampling; format-specific tape decks, NTSC II encoding and OTA transmission. Moving to HD required replacing all of that with something new.
Now? Sensors and displays are hardware, but the stuff in the middle is a string of ones and zeroes. There aren’t hardware vision mixers any more, just T-handles driving encoders that tell DSPs what proportion of channel A to composite with Channel B. A hard drive doesn’t care if it’s storing 720p, 1080i, 1080p or 2160p, or whether the images refresh at 23.98 Hz, 50Hz, or 59.94Hz. You can wrap anything in a broadcast transport stream; it’s just bits.
RED Digital Cinema: The NAB 2010 Event
Ergonomically, the new EPIC body weighs in at 5 lbs. The prototypes were lightly rigged with LCD, new REDVOLT battery grips, REDMOTE, and CF modules, to show how adaptable the camera is for a range of fast environments. The lightly rigged EPIC looks like a DSLR on steroids. Jim handed the EPIC across the cocktail table to my new RED-using pal Eythan from Atlanta, saying “You want to hold this, don’t you?” and he later told me excitedly that “it was as easy as holding any camcorder.” RED is currently planning Nikon and Canon EF mounts for EPIC, and with these lighter lenses, the camera will have built an excellent documentary and event camera. You can easily build the camera, including in-camera audio inputs, for around 8 or 9 lbs., depending on the lens.
NAB2009 Stereoscopic 3D Wrap-Up
This year’s NAB conference in Las Vegas showcased the art of stereoscopic 3D (aka S3D) in a big way. Attendees were treated to expositions of the tools required for S3D production, post-production and distribution. There were still the usual tech demos from companies like Sony & Panasonic but most of products reviewed below are available Read More
JVC NAB09 Booth Debrief
This year I observed most of the NAB show from a fixed position at the JVC booth. I had been asked by JVC to answer questions and demonstrate the new GY-HM700 cameras in 24P cinema configurations. A Final Cut Pro system was also close-by so I was able to demonstrate the speedy workflow from recording Read More
