September 13, 2013
ARRI implements CFast 2.0 recording media for ALEXA cameras
AMSTERDAM–ARRI announces that it is the first to implement SanDisk’s new CFast 2.0 recording media in a camera, releasing an adapter that allows in-camera CFast 2.0 recording with ALEXA XT models and ALEXA Classic cameras upgraded with the XR Module. ARRI, an active member of the CompactFlash Association, collaborated with SanDisk to develop the CFast 2.0 standard for professional applications that require high data rates in a card that is robust, reliable and cost-effective.
The Extreme Pro CFast 2.0 cards will be available in 60 GB and 120 GB capacities with write speeds up to 350 MB/s, supporting the highest ALEXA frame rates for the highest quality codecs. The card’s rugged, durable form factor is created to withstand real-world exposure to temperature, shock and vibration, and includes a pinless design, which lessens the chance of damaging the card or camera while changing cards.
The combination of ALEXA and CFast 2.0 cards offers the same efficient workflow as SxS PRO cards and the same codec options: ProRes in 16:9 HD, 16:9 2K or 4:3 2K, and DNxHD in 16:9 HD. CFast 2.0 card recording also supports the same safety features as SxS PRO recording: files are closed continuously, so accidentally removing the card or suffering a power loss during recording results in a readable, uncorrupted file. With Software Update Packet SUP 9.0, both SxS PRO and CFast 2.0 cards will also support pre-recording and self-healing metadata.
Because of their high data rate, CFast 2.0 cards support higher frame rates than SxS PRO cards, enabling recording of ProRes 4444 up to 120 fps. The 120 GB CFast 2.0 cards have about twice the recording capacity of 64 GB SxS PRO cards. ALEXA XT/XR cameras now offer an unprecedented choice of professional, robust and reliable recording media: XR Capture Drives, CFast 2.0 cards and SxS PRO cards.
An IBC rollout for Phantom Flex 4KAMSTERDAM–Vision Research, a manufacturer of digital high speed imaging systems, officially launches the Phantom Flex4K, the next evolution in its award-winning digital cinema product line at the 2013 International Broadcasting Convention, September 13-17, 2013 in Amsterdam. The Phantom Flex4K offers exceptional image quality, new workflow options, a user-friendly camera control interface, and outstanding performance at both ultra high-speed and standard frame rates.
“After we previewed the camera at NAB 2013, we have been showing the Phantom Flex4K prototype all summer, and the response has been amazing. Cinematographers can’t wait to get their hands on it,” said Toni Lucatorto, cinema product manager at Vision Research. “The production model of the Flex4K is now ready for its debut at IBC, and we will ship the first orders next month. We are very excited about this camera and its potential in the TV and motion picture industry.”
The Phantom Flex4K supports various in-camera workflows to address different production styles. Phantom’s uncompressed Cine raw format ensures the fastest high-speed capture on set and maximum quality and versatility for post-production. The footage is saved to an all-new hot-swappable Phantom CineMag®IV, available in sizes up to 2TB. Vision Research also has announced plans to introduce in-camera compression via a firmware update in early 2014. Three 3G HD-SDI video outputs are available and compatible with the industry’s latest field recorders.
Capture the full 4K super 35mm sensor and then save those files at full resolution, or choose to output them at 2K resolution for a rich, over-sampled image. Sync-sound frame rates and time code is fully supported. For high-speed capture, it’s possible to record up to 940 fps at the camera’s full resolution of 4096 x 2304, 1,000 fps at 4096 x 2160, up to 2,000 fps when windowed down to 1920 x 1080, and over 3,000 fps at 1280 x 720.
Another notable feature of the camera system is the new, full-featured on-camera control interface. All camera parameters can be set from the built in menu on the right side of the camera body, eliminating the need for software connection on set. Shortcuts are available for popular functions and multiple user presets exist to allow for a quick setup. Controls for capture, playback, save and monitoring can be found on both sides of the camera.
Autodesk rolls out pay-as-you-go plan
SAN FRANCISCO–Autodesk, Inc. customers will now be able to pay as they go for all of the company’s latest Design and Creation Suites, Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk Maya, and the new Autodesk Maya LT.
For the first time, customers can purchase access to a range of Autodesk desktop software on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis, in addition to traditional licenses, broadly expanding choices in how to access and pay for Autodesk software. It’s never been more cost effective for designers, engineers and visual effects artists to get started with Autodesk software with virtually no up-front capital costs, and to quickly ramp up projects using industry-leading Autodesk software.
Customers who choose to purchase monthly, quarterly or annual rental plans will receive similar benefits to Autodesk Subscription customers including staying current with the latest product updates, access to select Autodesk 360 cloud services and basic support.
“Our customers wanted more choices and flexibility in how they access our portfolio of design, engineering and entertainment creation tools. We expect rental plans to be attractive across all the industries we serve, especially for freelancers, startups or businesses that are project-based in nature,” said Andrew Anagnost, sr. VP of Industry Strategy and Marketing at Autodesk. “This model allows customers to compete with the highest quality, industry leading software, while using only what they need when they need it.”
Will Cohen of UK-based VFX startup Milk noted, “It’s no secret; it has been a challenging time to be in the visual effects business. Everyone needs to rethink the business model, and Autodesk launching rental plans will really help change the industry. Having scalability–the flexibility to easily ramp up or back depending on the project–means we can better compete in the modern visual effects industry.”
The option to purchase a monthly, quarterly or annual rental plan will be available starting September 16, 2013. New rental plans apply to products including Autodesk AutoCAD Design Suite, Autodesk AutoCAD Inventor LT Suite, Autodesk AutoCAD Revit LT Suite, Autodesk Building Design Suite, Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite, Autodesk Factory Design Suite, Autodesk Infrastructure Design Suite, Autodesk Plant Design Suite, Autodesk Product Design Suite, Autodesk Maya, Autodesk 3ds Max, and Autodesk Maya LT. Availability varies by country. For more information, visit http://www.autodesk.com/pay-as-you-go .
Orad Introduces New Infuse Internal Chroma Key at IBCAMSTERDAM–Orad Hi-Tec Systems Ltd., specialists in video and graphic solutions for the broadcast market, will present its new Infuse Chroma Key for the first time at IBC2013. Ideal for any virtual studio or augmented reality production, Infuse boasts broadcast quality results with easy-to-use tools to quickly and precisely adjust both chroma and linear keys, even on final output. Because Infuse is embedded within Orad’s HDVG+ and HDVG4 rendering platforms, there is no performance degradation.
The feature-rich Infuse user interface is composed of drop-down menus, color picker, adjustment sliders, and other exacting controls designed for quick and precise image manipulation. One Infuse controller can control up to eight chroma key channels and multiple renderers simultaneously. The combination of keying technologies, including detailed extractions, lets users composite videos and graphics in real time.
“Designed for a fast and easy setup, broadcasters can employ Orad’s new Infuse Chroma Key for just about any production. Users only need to select a few parameters such as background chroma key color, adjusting the matte and other elements as needed,” said Avi Sharir, CEO and president of Orad.
Editshare, Adobe to present new panel integration at IBCBASINGSTROKE, UK–EditShare, known for its shared media storage and end-to-end tapeless workflow solutions, has expanded Adobe content panel integration support to its Flow Media Asset Management application. Built on the powerful EditShare collaborative storage environment, Flow Media Asset Management provides essential media management tools to facilitate any creative workflow. The new Flow panel for Adobe Premiere Pro Creative Cloud allows users to browse and search for content on EditShare storage as well as annotate metadata across shared projects and platforms.
Adobe will join EditShare on Monday, September 16, to deliver a special technology presentation that will discuss the key benefits of the EditShare-Adobe integration for mid-to-large production and postproduction workgroups.
Forbidden integrates with Windows Azure Media Services at IBC
LONDON — Sept. 10, 2013 — Forbidden Technologies, developer of the FORscene cloud video platform, is integrating with Windows Azure Media Services to promote cloud video workflows at IBC2013 in Amsterdam Sept. 13-17.
Windows Azure Media Services is an open and flexible cloud platform that enables customers to build, deploy, and manage applications quickly across a global network of Microsoft-managed data centres. It is an extensible, multitenant media services platform on Windows Azure, offering the best of the Microsoft media platform components combined with integrated partner offerings, which allows customers to build end-to-end media solutions on top.
Forbidden’s FORscene cloud video platform will be shown working with Windows Azure Media Services to allow remote, browser-based editing of footage. Remote edits will be conformed against live, high-resolution footage for Web and mobile distribution. This near-time clipping of live footage for global video-on-demand delivery will be of particular interest to sports rights holders and news organizations looking for frame-accurate, high-quality editing tools.
The solution will be displayed at IBC2013 on the Forbidden stand.
MLB Network to install Grass Valley GV STRATUSHILLSBORO, Ore.–MLB Network, Major League Baseball’s 24/7 cable TV network, will install Grass Valley’s GV STRATUS nonlinear media production tools into its production center, which distributes baseball content to approximately 70 million homes. Grass Valley was selected by MLB Network to help the network maximize efficiencies and streamline workflows. Grass Valley has worked with MLB Network since its launch in 2009 and has already installed multiple Grass Valley K2 HD media servers and most recently in 2012, a second Kayenne� Video Production Center switcher. The project is expected to be complete in 2014.
“Maximizing time and resource efficiencies is crucial to the smooth running of a network which airs 24/7,” said Tab Butler, MLB Network’s director of media management and postproduction. “With GV STRATUS, we couple optimizing our production processes to a higher level while reducing our CapEx.”
MLB Network will take advantage of Grass Valley’s flexible approach to pricing by paying a yearly fee for GV STRATUS. This reflects a growing movement in the broadcast industry for vendors to offer a range of options for CapEx and OpEx models.
MLB Network ingests 5,200 hours of content each week. GV STRATUS will form a crucial part of this production chain, offering a versatile software-based platform for nonlinear media production. GV STRATUS supports a variety of processes including ingest, editing, content aggregation, logging, transfer and playout. The nonlinear tools of the solution can be adapted in countless combinations, allowing GV STRATUS to be tailored to specific functional roles within studio production; ideal for a company on the scale of MLB Network. Additionally, MLB Network’s DIAMOND asset management system will be integrated into the K2 Summit servers as well as GV STRATUS to provide enterprise-wide control and management of productions. Finally, GV STRATUS is coupled with enterprise-level storage furnished by the customer, making it a tool that could be used in many unique installations.
Grass Valley continues to innovate and develop with GV STRATUS. Most recently it has updated the solution to include support for delivery of content to second-screen and multiscreen distribution platforms, tagging of content on the fly, and integration with the GV Edge Integrated Playout System to enable the segmentation of content for promo and commercial insertion.
DP John Seale opts for Codex on “Mad Max: Fury Road”LONDON–Mad Max: Fury Road is the fourth installment in writer/director George Miller’s post-apocalyptic action franchise. It is also the first digital film for cinematographer John Seale, whose storied career spans more than 30 years and such iconic titles as Mosquito Coast, Witness, Dead Poets Society and Rain Man. Facing inhospitable conditions, intense action scenes and the need to accommodate a massive number of visual effects, Seale and his crew chose to shoot principal photography with ARRI Alexa cameras and capture on Codex Onboard recorders, a workflow that has become popular among filmmakers for its ruggedness, reliability and easy integration with post-production.
Codex will be demonstrating the latest workflows using its recording technology, Vaults and other gear, September 13-17 at IBC 2013 in Amsterdam.
Originally, Fury Road was intended to be shot near Broken Hill in New South Wales, Australia. However, several years of unusually heavy rainfall caused the desert in the area to bloom with wildflowers making it unsuitable for the film’s wasteland setting, and production was moved to Namibia. The coastal deserts of that African country are among the most formidable in the world, featuring sand dunes measuring 1000 feet high and 20 miles long. Frequent sandstorms and intense heat required special precautions by the camera crew.
“I’d shot plenty of film-negative films in deserts and jungles under severe conditions, but never digital,” notes Seale. “So I was a bit worried, but I had a fantastic crew of people who had done that…had worked with digital cameras in jungles, deserts, dry, heat, wet, moist, whatever. They were ready and put together full precaution kits of rain covers, dust covers and even heat covers to take the heat off the cameras in the middle of the day.”
Seale’s crew was outfitted with six ARRI Alexas and a number of Canon 5Ds, with the latter used in part as crash cams in action sequences. The Alexas were supported by 11 Codex Onboard recorders. The relatively large number of cameras and recorders helped the camera crew to remain nimble. While one scene was being shot, the next was being prepped. “We kept two kick cameras built the whole time, and two ultra-high vehicles rigged the whole time,” recalls camera coordinator Michelle Pizanis. “When we when drove up (to a location) we could start shooting, rather than break down the camera at one site and rebuild it at the next.”
The original Mad Max is remembered for its gritty look. Fury Road took a different route due to the film’s heavy use of visual effects. “The DI and the post work is so explicit; almost every shot is going to be manipulated in some way,” Seale explains. “Our edict was ‘just shoot it.’ Continuity of light wasn’t really a question. We knew that the film would be cut very quickly, so there wouldn’t be time to analyze every shot. Intercutting between overcast and full sun wasn’t going to be a problem. On this film, the end result controlled the execution.”
In order to provide maximum image quality and flexibility for post-production manipulation, Seale and his crew chose to operate the Alexa cameras in ARRIRAW mode. That, the cinematographer noted, made Codex an obvious choice as only Codex recorders were capable of reliably capturing ARRIRAW.
“The choice to go with Codex was definite for the quality of the recording and post-production considerations,” Seale said. “Everyone said Codex was the recording device that we had to have. Once again, we were a little worried about desert heat and desert cold. It changes so much from night to day. And during the day, we had dust storms, dust flying everywhere. We sometimes had moisture in the air. But the Codex systems didn’t fail us. They came straight through with flying colors and, in post, they are very happy with the results.”
Shooting digitally with Codex offered an advantage over shooting on film as it avoided the need to reload cameras with film negative in the blowing winds of the desert. “There is a certain amount of paraphernalia needed to shoot digitally,” Seale said, “but our crew was used to that. They built special boxes to put everything in. They had little fans. They had inlet and outlet areas to keep air circulation going. Those boxes were complete. Cables came out and went to the camera. If we were on the move, the boxes were bolted down so that they were out of the way and didn’t fall off. Sometimes we sat on them to get our shot.”
RF interfaces were used with the Alexa cameras to transmit images to a command vehicle for monitoring by director George Miller. Miller was not only able to review shots, he could edit material to determine what further coverage was needed. “For George, it was a godsend,” said Seale. “That refined the film shooting and made it a lot quicker than the normal procedures.”
PlayStation 4 won’t sell in Japan until February
By Yuri Kageyama, Business Writer
TOKYO (AP) — Sony’s next-generation video game machine PlayStation 4 won’t go on sale in Japan until next year, meaning that it won’t be on time for the key year-end holiday or New Year’s shopping season.
Hiroshi Kawano, Sony Corp.’s chief of the game business in Japan and Asia, said Monday at a Tokyo event that the PlayStation 4 will go on sale Feb. 22, 2014, in Japan.
The console is going on sale Nov. 15 in the U.S. and Canada, and Nov. 29 in Europe.
Kawano said the late date was to be fully prepared with game software at its launch, and orders will be taken starting next month. But the product will miss the critical Christmas and New Year’s period when Japanese children can count on gifts.
“We plan to have powerful titles at the launch date,” he told a hall packed with guests and reporters.
“We are asking for some time before we can offer it but please look forward to it.”
Sony will instead sell in Japan, before other nations, the 9,480 yen ($90) PSVita TV, a small device that attaches to a TV set to enjoy music, TV shows, movies and karaoke. The PS 4 will cost 39,980 yen ($400) in Japan. It will cost $399 in the U.S.
Nintendo Co., which makes the Pokemon and Super Mario games, started selling the Wii U console last November.
But Wii U sales have suffered, selling just 3.61 million of the machines through the end of June. Nintendo is still targeting sales of 9 million Wii U units over the fiscal year through March 2014.
Microsoft Corp. is planning the Xbox One, debuting Nov. 22.
Hopes have been high in the game industry that the arrival of the three consoles will revitalize the sector, which has lagged from competition from smartphones and other mobile devices, wooing users with their own games, as well as social networking and other pastimes.
Andrew House, president of Sony Computer Entertainment, the Tokyo-based company’s game division, said demand was strong so far for the PlayStation 4, with a million pre-orders.
Sony has not given a PS4 unit sales target for the fiscal year.
The Japan sale date was held off until next year because Japanese game developers have required more time to develop games for the PlayStation 4, he told reporters at headquarters.
“We wanted to make sure that there was a game experience that resonated with the Japanese consumer,” said House.
