October 4, 2013
AbelCine becomes Canon Cinema Lens Service PartnerMELVILLE, N.Y.–Canon U.S.A., Inc. announced that AbelCine, the U.S.-based motion picture equipment and service provider, is the first official partner to join the Company’s new Cinema Lens Service Partner Program.
As a Canon Cinema Lens Service Partner, AbelCine joins Canon’s existing factory service facility network in providing comprehensive service and support to users of Canon’s EF- and PL-mount Cinema Lenses. AbelCine will be authorized to provide warranty repair, non-warranty repair, and preventative maintenance on the full line of Canon EF- and PL-mount Cinema Lenses.
In order to qualify for authorization and participation in this new partner program, AbelCine met stringent requirements set by Canon U.S.A., Inc. with regard to service environments, installed tooling and the technical expertise of its staff. AbelCine will participate in ongoing staff training by Canon Technical Engineers, and regular calibration of all tooling and equipment will be done to help ensure the highest level of technical support is provided to Canon customers.
AbelCine technicians will be qualified to perform detailed function checks on all Canon Cinema prime and zoom lenses, including diagnosis of issues, as well as lens disassembly, maintenance, adjustment and cleaning.
AbelCine’s New York City and Burbank, Calif., locations will begin offering Canon Cinema Lens Service to end-users in the fourth quarter of 2013.
Disney, Christie ink digital cinema agreement
CYPRESS, Calif.- -The Walt Disney Studios has entered into an agreement with Christie to provide the latest digital cinema technologies and a variety of professional services for The Walt Disney Studios’ production, post-production, screening rooms and premieres. In addition, Christie’s Managed Services will provide Disney’s accomplished engineering team with round-the-clock support for Disney’s digital cinema facilities, supported by Christie’s Network Operations Center (NOC) and Christie’s on-site preventative maintenance services.
The two companies will share projection technology ideas and innovations to provide audiences with unparalleled movie-going experiences. Disney will have early access to emerging Christie technologies and provide input into product development, including laser projection, 4K projection, and Christie’s Integrated Media Block.
“Our agreement with Christie assures us of leading-edge projection technology and services for our Motion Pictures and our Studio Lot,” said Jeff Miller, President, Studio Operations, The Walt Disney Studios. “We’re also looking forward to working with Christie to refine and improve projection technologies.”
A combination of 2K and 4K Christie Solaria Series DLP Cinema projectors will be delivered to Disney in 2013, beginning with Disney’s worldwide headquarters in Burbank, California.
Strap on your computer, wearable tech taking offBy Martha Mendoza, National Writer
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The digital domain is creeping off our desktops and onto our bodies, from music players that match your tunes to your heart beat, to mood sweaters that change color depending on your emotional state — blue for calm, red for angry. There are vacuum shoes that clean the floor while you walk and fitness bracelets, anklets and necklaces to track your calorie burning.
“Everyone agrees the race is just beginning, and I think we’re going to see some very, very big leaps in just the next year,” said tech entrepreneur Manish Chandra at a wearable technology conference and fashion show in San Francisco Monday that was buzzing with hundreds of developers, engineers and designers.
Wearable technologies have long been a sideshow to mainstream laptop and smartphones, but this year Google’s glasses and rumors of Apple’s iWatch are popularizing the field. Analysts forecast swift growth. Last year the market for wearable technology — encompassing everything from hearing aids to wristband pedometers — totaled almost $9 billion. That should climb to $30 billion by 2018, said analyst Shane Walker at IHS Global Insights.
Humans have been wearing technology for centuries, from strapped-on compasses to pocket watches. The current surging industry is centered in the Silicon Valley and San Francisco Bay area, where mostly smaller startups design their products locally and have them manufactured in Asia to take advantage of cheap labor. Monday’s conference was one of several focusing exclusively on wearable technology in recent years.
As wearable technologies proliferate, humans will need to adapt, said Georgia Tech professor Thad Starner. He advises Google on its glasses, which are lightweight frames equipped with a hidden camera and tiny display that responds to voice commands. Starner has worn his for several years.
“We’re talking about paradigm changing devices,” said Starner. “Capabilities that people haven’t thought of before.”
He said that, unlike computers and tablets that people engage with, wearable computers are designed to be in the background, secondary to the wearer’s attention.
“It seems like a paradox, but when you pull the technology closer to your body, there’s a seamless interaction, it’s more an extension of yourself,” he said.
But there are sure to be cultural and social issues. Google Glass — and some emerging competitors — have raised concerns of people who don’t want to be surreptitiously videoed or photographed. And what about interacting?
At Monday’s conference, attendees slipped on monitors that measured their heart rates and temperatures to reflect whether they really were enjoying a movie, and shot photos through their Google Glasses of Vibease, the world’s first wearable vibrator controlled by smartphones, promising long distance intimacy.
“Do you really want a touch screen on the front of your t-shirt? Is it socially acceptable to be poked all over your body for somebody to use your wearable computer?” asked Genevi�ve Dion, who directs a fashion and technology lab at Drexel University.
The answer, for some, is no.
In a newly released survey from Cornerstone OnDemand, 42 percent of workers said they would not be willing to strap on wearable tech for their jobs, with older and more traditional employees more reluctant than their counterparts. The survey polled 1,029 Americans aged 18 and over in August, and had a 3.1 percent margin of error.
And then there’s an issue of bandwidth, said Ritch Blasi, a consultant with SVP-Comunicano who researches the wearable technology market. At this point, there simply isn’t enough network service to support universal and constant wireless use, he said. But that too will catch up.
“It almost makes you think everyone is going to turn into a cyborg,” he said, referring to a fictional, prosthetic-laden high tech comic book superhero.
And will they?
“When you look at the world and everything people are doing?” said Blasi, pausing for a moment. “I think the answer to that is yes.”
GoPro Launches HERO3+
SAN MATEO, Calif.–GoPro announced the availability of its new HERO3+ line of cameras, featuring a 20% smaller and lighter design and 30% better battery life than previous models. These upgrades combine with an improved lens and convenient new video capture modes to produce the most advanced and easy-to-use GoPro yet. In addition, GoPro announced several new mounting accessories that further enable immersive content capture during any activity. The HERO3+ line of cameras and accessories are now available at GoPro.com and at select retailers worldwide.
Prior to GoPro, it was very difficult for anyone to capture content of themselves doing anything without having the help of someone else to film them. GoPro has enabled a new era of self-documentation whereby people can now easily wear or mount miniature ultra wide-angle GoPro cameras to record themselves doing just about anything, anywhere. The result is a surge of immersive user-generated and professional content made possible by the versatility and affordability of GoPro’s cameras and accessories. An average of three GoPro “tagged” videos are uploaded to YouTube every minute, and GoPro is used by the world’s leading production companies to help produce some of today’s most engaging film and television content.
Telestream releases new products with Vantage 6NEVADA CITY, Calif.–Telestream, a provider of video transcoding and workflow solutions, announced availability of Vantage 6 which includes two new products based on the Vantage platform. Post Producer automates repetitive production processes which would otherwise tie up editors and NLE workstations. TrafficManager streamlines commercial ingest and media management, offering a next-generation product following its highly successful FlipFactory predecessor. These new products, plus new features and partner integrations, extend Vantage solutions for postproduction, broadcast and cable environments.
Post Producer addresses the issue of repetitive rendering of different versions of media for today’s multi-language, multi-platform distribution. Based on user templates, Post Producer automatically assembles a segment or spot, compositing video, graphics, titles and captions or subtitles, and applying audio processing as required. Alternate versions are automatically created by simply substituting the necessary elements.
TrafficManager streamlines ad ingest and workflow management for broadcasters and cable/IPTV service providers. As more content is received as files instead of tapes, TrafficManager automates media ingest from digital delivery services and allows web-based submission from local and regional providers. TrafficManager further processes and delivers commercial media to ad-insertion or on-air servers, automatically processing content based upon playout schedule requirements. With hundreds of file formats to process in mixed SD and HD workflows, TrafficManager streamlines internal processes by automating loudness correction, format conversion, and decision-making based upon media attributes, offering a full end-to-end solution for commercials.
Telestream Vantage platform was recently recognized by the Hollywood Post Alliance (HPA) for engineering excellence in video processing. Vantage continues to extend this strength in the postproduction market by providing direct ingest of DPX sequence files and RED RAW acquisition formats, uniquely preserving the artistic integrity of submitted material. These features plus 24 to 25 frames-per-second audio conversion are now available for Vantage Transcode products.
Telestream expands the success of its intelligent decision-making capabilities with the release of Vantage Analysis Pro. Decisions can now be made based upon Dolby E metadata, MediaInfo, and new QC compliance checking – removing the complexity of mixed media environments. Vantage Analysis Pro can be added to any Vantage product and is available as an upgrade to Vantage Analysis.
New partner integrations extend file-based workflows to include more of the digital media ecosystem under Vantage control. Integration with Signiant allows integrated file delivery. Integration with VidChecker adds new file-based QC capabilities.
NEP’s George Hoover Named SMPTE FellowPITTSBURGH–The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) has named George Hoover, NEP’s chief technology officer, a SMPTE Fellow. As SMPTE’s highest membership designation, the title of Fellow is conferred upon individuals who have, by proficiency and contributions, attained an outstanding rank among engineers or executives in the motion picture, television, or related industries.
Hoover is a four-time Emmy Award member and in 2011 was inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame. He is also a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the American Institute of Architects. Along with Jim Boston, Hoover co-authored “TV on Wheels: The Story of Remote Television Production,” the second edition of which is being published in October 2013. Also with Boston, he co-authored the NAB Engineering Handbook section on remote television engineering.
Hoover is one of 14 new SMPTE Fellows who will be inducted on Wednesday, Oct. 23, during the Fellows Luncheon, and further recognized on Thursday, Oct. 24, at the SMPTE Honors and Awards Ceremony. The Fellows Luncheon will feature a keynote by SMPTE Fellow Glenn Reitmeier, who serves as both senior vice president of advanced technology at NBC Universal and chairman of the ATSC Board for 2013. Both events are taking place in conjunction with the SMPTE 2013 Annual Technical Conference & Exhibition at the Loews Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles.
Grass Valley Delivers Production Solutions for MOHE
HILLSBORO, Ore.–Grass Valley announced the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) in Saudi Arabia has selected an end-to-end workflow for its first, fully equipped outside broadcasting (OB) Van. Complete with cameras, servers, switchers, and broadcast infrastructure solutions, the new van will enable MOHE to deliver the highest quality coverage of live events from across the region. For equipment implementation, MOHE will be working with regional system integrator First Gulf Company (FGC).
“MOHE has absolute confidence in Grass Valley and its live production solutions,” said Naim Saidi, FGC CEO. “Being MOHE’s first OB van, it was vital that they got a complete and high quality live production facility, and Grass Valley and FGC provided them with just that. MOHE can rest assured that the OB van will deliver the quality content viewers demand.”
The investment in an OB van provides MOHE with a wide range of production tools to cover all educational events and conferences in the Kingdom.
Grass Valley provided MOHE with a number of flexible solutions, including 6 LDK 8000 Elite cameras, a Karrera Video Production Center switcher, a Concerto multiformat routing switcher, and two T2 intelligent digital disk recorders (iDDRs).
