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MillimeterNAB 2005
May 26, 2005 3:23 PM
NAB 2005
You couldn’t see it from the new monorail that zipped up to the side of the Las Vegas Convention Center. You could sense something, however, from the surge of eager tire-kickers that swarmed up to the show doors on the first day.
But as soon as you walked into the big convention floors, you could see where all the excitement was coming from. The crowds checking out the latest camera and camcorder introductions grew the largest—the word had come before the show that there would be plenty of breakthrough products, and no one seemed disappointed to hear that HD and HDV production suddenly got a lot better and cheaper to boot.
For more in depth analysis of what was hot at NAB 2005, be sure to read all about it in June's Video Systems!
Camcorders
Three camcorder introductions grabbed everyone’s attention at the show, any one of which would have made big news alone.
Panasonic dropped a bombshell with the announcement of the AG-HVX200 handheld P2 camcorder. Due to release later this year, the compact camcorder forgoes HDV compression to deliver a full 100 Mbps DVCPRO HD recording capability, even while pricing under $10,000. That tab includes an 8 GB card (expected to price about $2k by time the HVX200 ships), which holds 8 minutes of 720p/60.
JVC, one of the originators of the HDV spec, took it to another level by introducing “proHD,” an extension of HDV that supports timecode, 24fps, an added pair of 48kHz 16-bit PCM audio tracks, all going onto a 19Mbs, 6-frame GOP, MPEG-2 video track. J
Sony already delivered the first HVR-Z1U camcorders before the show. It’s certainly been popular: Since the launch late last year, Sony says it’s sold over 37,000 of the camcorders and companion HVR-M10U decks.Features include newly developed, 16:9 native Super HAD 1/3-in. CCDs, with an improved microlens design that allows more light to reach each pixel imager, reducing video noise and bettering the signal-to-noise ratio.
Editing
As with the last couple of shows, postproduction at NAB 2005 literally started with Avid and Apple. That’s who you saw right as you walk in the big South hall, Apple and Avid directly across the aisle from one another.
Avid’s iNews Instrinct gets our vote for the biggest new editing product announcement at NAB 2005, although ironically it doesn’t target the professional editor. The most striking innovation (or gimmick) is that Avid physically turns the computer monitor into portrait mode, allowing the news editor to logically work top to bottom.
New HD capabilities make Avid XPress Studio HD an integral part of the Avid workflow, allowing editors to move freely from an in-studio Adrenaline to the field and back, regardless of media format.
With Apple directly across the aisle from Avid it’s impossible to ignore the competition, and not just with the FireWire-based tools. This year, Apple announced a four-application production bundle, Final Cut Studio, thus staying competitive with the other “Pro” Studio/Suites from Adobe and Avid.
Final Cut Pro 5 now has HDV and P2 support, the ability to ingest and output up to 24 channels of high resolution 24-bit, 96kHz audio, and excellent two-way mixing and fading communication between Final Cut and Mackie devices.
Oddly, Adobe has never used NAB to launch post-production products (expect Adobe to announce product upgrades sometime between DV Expo and the end of the summer, as they always do), but that didn’t stop Adobe from making a big noise the first morning at NAB 2005.
Adobe announced a bombshell – the acquisition of Macromedia – that sets the stage of a dominant publish-anywhere giant that controls Postscript fonts, Acrobat, Shockwave, and Flash.
Canopus’ new EDIUS Pro Version 3 feature support for its new Format Support Modules, which enables users to customize their NLE setup to better work with MXF, Sony XDCAM, Panasonic P2, and Panasonic VariCam. EDIUS Pro 3 also includes HQ batch capture from HDV, advanced audio tools and precise color correction controls.
Leitch’s VelocityHD 9.1 NLE includes support for the HDV, Panasonic VariCam variable frame rates, and mixing HDV with other HD formats on the same timeline. VelocityX is a software-only version offering the same interface and operations, but as a hardware-independent nonlinear editing/FX solution for laptops and desktops with flexible HD and SD format and codec support.
Sony Vegas 6 now offers real-time SD, DV, and HDV video editing with unrivaled audio tools. It also features multiprocessor support and enhanced video monitoring via component or DVI connections, including scaling, deinterlacing, and color profiling support. New audio features include VST sound FX plug-in support, audio scrubbing, and support for more sophisticated metadata-rich audio files.
Continue the discussion on Crosstalk the Millimeter Forum.