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MillimeterWhat was new at NAB 2006? Lots.
May 2, 2006 4:16 PM, D.W. Leitner & Dan Ochiva
What was new at NAB 2006? Lots. While many will claim that there weren’t enough big, breakthrough items, after walking the show floor, and sitting through an engaging back-and-forth discussion with our writers as we worked on our Pick Hits, well, it’s been a very good show indeed.
While I won’t use the term breakthrough, so many cool and important upgrades made prior products more usable, dropped their prices, all the while new gear solved production problems. (I’m including some of David Leitner’s observations in this report.)
JVC followed up its popular ProHD GY-HD100U camcorder with two new camcorders, the GY-HD200U and GY-HD250U.
According to JVC’s Dave Walton, these two new camcorders follow the same “Compact-Shoulder” form factor as the 100U. Employing a new “Super Encoder” chipset, the 200U delivers HDV720/60P progressive capture—that’s 60 frames per second, which can deliver slow motion when the final output is 24P.
Besides the new 1/3in. mount HD lenses introduced at the show, JVC has created the HZ-CA13U, an optional lens adapter that fits on the 1/3in. bayonet mount of JVC ProHD camcorders. Why’s that? So you can access the thousands of great quality 16mm film prime lenses that use a PL (Positive Lock) mount, such as those from Arri.
Other features of the GY-HD200U include Enhanced Cinema Gamma; the ability to capture in both SD—including 24P and 24PA—and HD; and a focus assist function (users can set focus on each scene by highlighting details in the viewfinder).
The camera also features two XLR connectors for each audio channel and records CD-quality audio at 384Kbps in the MPEG1 Layer 2 format with the audio level indicators visible on the viewfinder and on the flip-out LCD display.
While a final price hasn’t been settled on, it should come in just less than $8,000. Delivery is expected to begin in October 2006.
Meanwhile, the GY-HD250U HD camcorder is their first HDV model to offer studio capabilities, and features 720/60p capture and recording for electronic newsgathering.
JVC says it’s developed the compact GY-HD250U to help ease the transition from SD to HD to allow customers to utilize much of their existing infrastructure—including cabling. In addition to its studio capability, the GY-HD250U offers the stability of a shoulder-style camcorder for ENG.
“We designed the GY-HD250U with multiple applications in mind,” said Craig Yanagi, National Marketing Manager, Creation Products, who pointed out that enough options are now available to make the camera a good choice for a wide range of studio, facility and field production.
The GY-HD250 records 1280 x 720 progressive at 60 frames per second thanks to a new codec that provides improved compression without visible motion artifacts, says the company. It has built-in genlock capability, component and HD-SDI output, with professional connectors mounted on a magnesium die cast chassis. The GY-HD250U also features the choice of several interchangeable lenses, enhanced cinema gamma, external time code synchronization, BNC connectors, built-in mount for a 14.4V professional battery, and the patented focus assist feature.
The GY-HD250U records full raster high-definition video on MiniDV cassettes, or with the optional DR-HD100U Direct-to-Edit recorder, you’ll get hard disk recording, while simultaneously creating back-up material on digital tape.
The GY-HD250U can be converted to a studio camera with the KY-HD250 studio adapter. The camera’s optional CCU provides connection to industry standard 26-pin multicore cabling for power, genlock, R/B gain, black level, and intercom up to 330 feet. An optional pan and tilt head and 16:9 LCD studio viewfinder make it even more flexible.
The suggested list price for the GY-HD250U is $8,995. Delivery is expected to begin in October 2006.
Lots of developments at Inlet, which makes hardware cards and systems to encode to VC-1/WMV, and has become recognized as among the leading companies working in this fast growing market. (VC-1 is the SMPTE spec that’s a variation of Microsoft’s Windows Media Video.)
The Raleigh, N.C. company has announced that it will now crunch down video to include AVC (H.264 / MPEG-4), the other major spec for DVDs, the ‘net, etc. Demos presented AVC encoding within both the Fathom compression card and Semaphore, a quality control app. Production release follows later this year.
Just a couple of weeks ago, SMPTE completed the standardization process for the VC-1 advanced encoding format. VC-1 is now part of the HD DVD and Blu-ray specs, while Microsoft’s WMV9 format now becomes an implementation of the VC-1 standard.
Fathom 2.5, demonstrated for the first time at the show, is claimed as the industry’s first realtime encoding solution for HD content. Compared to traditional software encoders, Fathom is said to run around four to six times faster for compressing SD content and up to 40 times faster for HD.
Semaphore QC, meanwhile, is a quality control app that runs less that $1,000, yet can quickly scan completed VC-1 and MPEG-4 (H.264) jobs to highlight problem areas that can tweaked for better performance.
Here’s David’s take on a cool new mic, as well as a run down on some interesting camera developments:
I checked out Aussie microphone company Ricsonix, a tiny company located in the depths of the NAB Radio hall.
I was on a hunt. The previous evening I ran into an old friend who always seems to be up on the latest audio gear. He raved about Ricsonic’s Blue Wireless, a very impressive Bluetooth mic they’ll be delivering later this year.
Blue delivers CD-quality audio with zero compression. It’s about a third the weight, size, and cost of conventional radio mics, according to the company. The system is said to use the latest frequency-hopping spread spectrum technology, making transmitters and receivers need less power consumption for near field operation.
Neat part: the transmitter is so small that it fits right under the shirtfront, and isn’t some bulky block of a box that shows up stuck in the talents’ waist. The receiver is also small, lipstick size in fact, and simply plugs into the XLR. That’s it. $1,300 complete. Delivers later this year.
They also sell a button mic that’s, well, literally so small it hides under a faux button, which they provide.
Vision Research’s Phantom 35 (35mm-sized Bayer-filter CMOS) and Phantom 65 (65mm-sized Bayer-filter CMOS) digital cameras. The first, 1920×1080, up to 1000fps; the second, 4K up to 120fps. Both are progressive scan with an exposure index about 600 ISO (no microlens!). Low 40W draw. Pricey (about $100K and $200K, respectively) and lacking a viewfinder, but work great. Company has been in business since 1950.
Cine-tal’s rugged 24in. LCD monitor for digital cinema field production. Full 1920×1080 resolution, dual-link HD-SDI and DVI input/output, with built-in OmniTek waveform monitor and vectorscope (yes!). A beauty who knows her true worth, $8500.
P+S Technik Skater Scope, a new compact, versatile snorkel system that can rotate the horizon 360 degrees. Superb build quality, must be operated to be appreciated. In B4, PL, and Panavision mounts. (www.pstechnik.de)
Aaton Penelope. Prototype of a compact switchable 2-, 3-, and 4-perf “quiet, quiet, quiet” sync-sound 35mm camera from Aaton’s resident genius, Jean-Pierre Beauviala. With a cryptic promise of compatibility with “Aaton JPG2008-Digi-Magazine.” Huh? Anyway, expect the demure Penelope to make her debut at NAB 2007.
Arri’s new Arrimax 18/12, “the most powerful HMI light on the planet,” which can illuminate the side of an entire skyscraper. Lensless, it looks like nothing so much as a monstrous open-face Lowell DP light. Its single-ended 12kW or 18kW HMI lamp slides in or out of the rear of a massive parabolic reflector to adjust beam angle. (Read more on the Arrimax 18/12 here)
Continue the discussion on Crosstalk the Millimeter Forum.