News posts from 2003 Q3
 

Last week Adobe acquired Cool Edit Pro, a popular multi-track sound editing program, from Syntrillium.

Learn more:
http://www.syntrillium.com/news/article.html?91
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pres...ntrillium.html

It's clear that Adobe needed an audio application to round out its video suite.

For now, Cool Edit Pro will continue to be available as a standalone product. I could not find any information to suggest that Adobe might integrate the audio technology directly into Premiere.

I was excited by this when I first heard of it...but CEP seems to be a music creation app like Acid Music..another app that is a great idea but for me floundered on my lack of musical creativity/interest.

Of far greater interest would be something with more powerful audio manipulation, such as sound forge

The press releases seemed careful to point out that Adobe had acquired technology as opposed to products and equally careful to point out that Cool Edit Pro would not vanish.

We thus don't know yet how Adobe will use the technology. Loops are obviously important for video production, but Adobe doesn't have any audio stuff at all. A Sound Forge-like product could emerge, or audio could get a big improvement within Premiere.

I could be telling tales out of turn, but my wife works for Adobe and says they will be doing both: a stand alone audio editing product and boost to audio editing within Premiere. She was talking about brininging home a beta copy to check out.

News from Japan
 

http://neasia.nikkeibp.com/wcs/leaf?...sabt/fw/254765

Just interesting blurb about cameras with 2.5" CCD (yes, CCD of size of flip-out LCD screen!), super-resolution HDTV, mobile TV broadcasting and more.

DP needed for 2-month shoot in Thailand
 

Hey everyone,

I can't vouch for this information since I know nothing about the person posting it or the production itself. I just thought some of you might be interested in checking it out for yourselves.

Isn't monkey brain on some of the menus over there?

Most of the menus are in plastic covers...so no problem...just wipe it off.

hehehe... you are funny! Good answer ;)

It's called Ultra Definition. This and 3D screens without special glasses is the next step after HD. Just as HD will catch up, there will be more profit in something new. $ are behind this all.

Monkeey Brains?
 

Only monkey brains on the menu over here are those carved from fat, drunk white guys doing drugs and buying hookers. Other than that, you're thinking of India.

But we do eat friend cockroaches and othere bugs.

David

Hi David,

No offense meant...hope none was taken. Thailand is THE best place for food, in my opinion. I could eat green curry chicken and pad thai (sp?) every day. India would be my second favorite place for food.

Any more info about the shoot you can share?

None was taken, just thought I'd add a laugh to things.

The shoot is me mapping out a company's operations all over Thailand and its relative benefits for potential customers

The Indian food here is great, just not enough of it and way more expensive than regular Thai food.

Peace,
David

ps; Thanks for the job info. I emailed him. We shall see what happens

Okey-doke,

When he gets back to you let us know the details. Even though I won't be trying for the job, I'm still curious about it.

Videographer killed in Iraq
 

...Also Saturday, a gunman shot and killed a young British journalist outside Iraq's Natural History Museum.

Richard Wild, a 24-year-old freelance videographer, was standing in a crowd in the midday sun when he was killed by a single, small-calibre bullet fired into his head at close range, said Michael Burke, an independent British TV producer in Baghdad.

Wild arrived in the country two weeks ago aiming to be a war correspondent, his co-workers said Sunday. Burke identified Wild's body at a hospital morgue. The assailant fled into the crowd and was not apprehended, he said.

Wild's death brings to 16 the number of journalists killed since the beginning of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq on March 20.

http://canada.com/national/story.asp...5-CA155FB942A9

British journalist killed in Iraq
14.03PM BST, 6 Jul 2003
A British television journalist has been shot dead in the centre of Baghdad.

He has been named by colleagues as 24-year-old Richard Wild.

Mr Wild was a freelance journalist, who was hoping to become a war correspondent.

Mr Wild, a former soldier, had worked at ITN's London offices before heading out to Iraq.

ITN chief executive Stewart Purvis said: "We are shocked and saddened to hear of the reported death of Richard Wild.

"In the six months that Richard worked at ITN, he was regarded as a dedicated and popular member of the newsroom team, particularly as he tracked all the material coming into ITN during the Iraq war."

Wintesses said Mr Wild was shot outside Iraqi National Museum and his body was handed over to US troops.

http://www.itv.com/news/1801338.html

HD-on-DV Standard reached
 

Hi all,

according to Heise (the publisher of the german C't computer magazine), Canon, Sharp, Sony and Victor have agreed on a standard for recording HD material on standard DV tape cartridges. The standard is called HDV and will record MPEG2 format. Included in the standard are 720p at 25, 30, 50 and 60 fps progressive and interlaced as well 1080x1440i at 50 and 60 fps.

This is important news as it may mean that material acquired on one device will be readable on the others, as well as having a common base for NLE's to work towards.

Read the full story at http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/nij-08.07.03-000/

Kai.

See ongoing discussions of this topic at http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=11605

and also at http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=11628 -- this one's at three pages of responses so far!

dvexpo pics
 

Robert

Guess you missed the main entrance roll-up barrier which came crashing down around 2:45pm. Luckily no one was hurt. It looked rather odd, all bent out of shape. I went to grab my camera from the booth, but they had it fixed by the time I got back. Nice shots of Kolb, Downey, BAJ and that Canon dude. Good to see you today,

More about HDV coalition
 

http://neasia.nikkeibp.com/wcs/leaf?...bt/news/256509

Interesting things start toward the end of the article: 720p sub-standard is pushed mostly by JVC, while others defined 1080i one.
As far as I can understand this is the same standard as in Blue-Ray disk recorders.
Interesting time is ahead, I must say!

I'd rather position Cool Edit as a (multitrack) waveform audio
editor and manipulator. Seeing that they taut that the new
Premiere Pro has enhanced audio capabilities I would not be
surprised if some of that came from Cool Edit parts.....

DV Expo: Manufacturer for camera stabilizers?
 

Hi,

Does anyone know/remember which company was selling camera stabilizers at the DV Expo East? They were close to the Matrox and Bogen booths. On the center aisle.

DV Expo Exhibitor Listing

And it was great to meet Chris Hurd in person!

Thanks in advance.

Michael

Nice to meet you too! The exhibitor in question is Gary Tull of Hollywood Lite. Hope this helps,

Thanks Chris. Next time your in town I'll have to buy you a drink to say thanks!

Heh. I'm still in town! MacWorld is going on at Javits. So that'll be a Johnnie Walker Blue label on the rocks, please. Oh wait, you said next time. See ya in February,

mike check out this link...i took these of a great stabilizer at dvexpo east...

http://www.emptyloft.com/antonbauer/

Aha. I saw that too, but technically it's a shoulder support, which is a different animal from the steadicam-style Hollywood Lite that Michael's referring to. This A-B shoulder support is quite functional and stylish, well worth looking into.

thats exactly it...

its by no way as diverse as soundforge thou.. and i dont know ANY music studios using Cool edit for Pro work either, so i dont know where they get the idea that this app is "pro" as from what i have seen of it, its more of a midrange hobbyists application.
Its not bad, but its not the best...
mind you Pinnacle will have steinberg's wavelab, Sonic Foundry have Soundforge, and obviously Adobe need to compete somehow and this seems to be it......

Canon CMOS production
 

An article on DP review cited,

"In an interesting article posted today in the Japanese Nikkei, Canon is to invest 6 billion Yen (approx. $50 million) to install a new production line at its Ayase facility (Kanagawa, west Tokyo). This investment will apparently double product capacity of CMOS sensors for digital SLR cameras. This is interesting in that it confirms Canon's commitment to the use of CMOS in current and future digital SLR's.

The company will invest about 6 billion yen to install a new line that can process 8-inch wafers at its Ayase facility in Kanagawa Prefecture. Canon did not reveal the scale of its CMOS production, but said the new line would double the firm's production capacity when it begins operating early next year".

Even more interesting question is why they produce it in-house. One of the beauties of CMOS technology is that there is a plenty of foundries offering this process. These foundries know how to mass produce it. On the other hand, Canon is not a reknown semiconductor manufacturer. I bet the cost of their in-house production is much higher than one in dedicated foundry. So why don't they ask somebody experienced to manufacture their sensors?

Perhaps trade secrets or quality assurance?

Nowdays there is an abundance of very high-quality semiconductor reverse engineering services. They are cheap too. I don't think trade secret could last more than a day after the device has been released to the broad market.
As for quality assurance, there are standard procedures any good foundry follows to. I don't see how Canon can be better than a semiconductor-dedicated company for which chips are bread and butter.

It's a shame Canon never got into the CCD business, and it's way too late now. I think for them CMOS production is a way to make up for missing the boat in the CCD manufacturing market.

Charles McConathy
 

Hello DVINFO'ers,

I am sorry to bring sad news.
Charles McConathy, the owner of Promax, is sick with cancer.

If you ever went to a trade show where Promax exhibited, you
would have seen a smiling grey haired gentleman out on the floor
talking with the customers with a twinkle in his eye.

Charles is the best of the good guys on the net. He has spent countless
hours online responding to complex questions with good answers.

Charles was the hard drive guru when scsi was voodoo.
He steered many of us into solutions
that actually worked, instead of higher price alternatives that didn't.
Promax has always been one of my favorite vendors, because I could
trust them to do what they said they would do.
The reason Promax flourished is because of his hard work, ethics
and continuing generosity to the entire video community.

I sincerely send Charles and his family my very best wishes in this
extraordinarily difficult time.

Jacques

PS you can send your get well wishes to: mcconathy@promax.com

Very, very sad to hear about this. I appreciate the notice, Jaques.

New Sony DVD cam coming soon
 

I just heard from Sony's main competition that Sony will be releasing a new DVD cam shortly. That's all I know. Thanks. :)

Hmmm, wonder if it is there new HDV camera...guess we'll have to wait and see.

Thanks Jaques,
Charles reputation as one of the good guys has been long established in my shop. In fact, I worked with him to build the first "affordable" Mac NLEs in our world. We're going back to the blazing Quadra 840AV and Radius card, Premiere 1.0 I think. He's earned enough enough goodwill to help him through this I'm sure

Question. What's the best, least expensive way to generate excitement for a new camcorder release?

Answer. Start a rumor of a new camcorder release and let the amateur or prosumer community speculate like wild !

Let's face it, the real surprise will be if it is actually something really new, really good, and at a really competitive price. Thanks for the heads-up Frank, but ......

Cheers, Nick

Nick, are you talking about the pocket sized CineAlta?