Quantel held a free, two-day symposium at the DGA on November 12 and 13, highlighted by a series of panel discussions on the future of high-definition, digital post production for video- and film-originated projects. Industry panelists participated in a wide range of discussions on topics ranging from "Building the Digital Lab," to "HD and Digital Film in Action," to "Changing Editing Workflow." The company also showed off its new line of workstations, the iQ, eQ and QEdit Pro. Designed for non-linear offline and online work, visual effects and digital finishing, they range in price from about $70,000 to over $500,000. All share a common feature set and user interface built around a stylus and pressure sensitive tablet, with a small mixer and jog wheel. The system is designed to be both resolution and frame-rate independent. Material is digitized and stored in its native format and all kinds of materials can be combined within a single timeline. Once a cut is locked it can be played out at any resolution without rendering.

www.quantel.com

The Hollywood Post Alliance (HPA) held an engaging panel discussion entitled "Post on the

HPA panelists tried out the equipment on the Wheel of Fortune stage after the conclusion of their discussion. Left to right: Steven J. Cohen, Damon Webster, Bryan Carroll, Leon Silverman, Wendy Aylsworth, Larry Chernoff, Charles Swartz and Bob Lambert. Photo by Jon Silberg.

Edge: The Wheel of Fortune" on November 13 at the Wheel of Fortune stage at Sony Pictures Studios. A capacity crowd of 250 listened attentively as a distinguished panel discussed the effects of HD video, high-speed networking and digital intermediate, and how they might change the industry and the livelihoods of the people who work within it.

The HPA is a new trade organization and advocacy group; its mission is to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and knowledge among a broad range of post production professionals and to speak out on behalf of the industry in government and community forums. The group plans a "technology retreat" in early February in Palm Springs and a variety of seminars over the coming year. Guild members are encouraged to join and participate. Individual dues are $95/year.

www.hpaonline.com

Honoring two highly respected Guild members, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg together

Steven Spielberg, Kay Rose, Kenneth Wannberg and George Lucas at the dedication ceremony announcing newly endowed chairs in Sound and Dialogue Editing and in Music Editing. Photo © Alberto Rodriguez/BEImages.net

funded a pair of endowed chairs at the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television: the Kay Rose Endowed Chair in the Art of Sound and Dialogue Editing, and the Kenneth Wannberg Endowed Chair in the Art of Music Editing. Each chair provides a salary for a permanent, full-time faculty position. Endowed chairs are commonly named after donors, but in this case, Spielberg and Lucas chose to name the positions after mentors who inspired them. This appears to be the first time that endowed chairs for sound or music editing have been created at a United States university. [The Editors Guild regrets to report that Kay Rose passed away on December 11, just as we went to press. A full obituary will appear in our next issue.]

EUPHONIX & STEINBERG Announce Alliance

Euphonix Inc. and Steinberg Media Technologies AG announced that they will begin working together to develop integrated professional audio products for the music and audio post-production markets. Euphonix manufactures digital mixing consoles, while Steinberg makes software for digital audio workstations, including Nuendo and Cubase. Through this strategic relationship, the two companies plan to further develop integration between audio consoles and workstations, as well as new distributed processing and control protocols that will enable their products to communicate over high-speed networks. (For more, see coverage of the AES convention.)

www.euphonix.com | www.steinberg.net

AMS NEVE Improves 88R and Adds CEDAR Declick and Decrackle

At this year's AES convention, AMS Neve demonstrated enhancements for the Neve 88R analog console. The 88R's cue mix output capacity has doubled, with a new four-cue module option. Each of the eight auxiliary busses may be split at the center of the console to provide independent left and right side outputs, or they can be combined into a console-wide bus, using the main auxiliary outputs for monitoring and metering. The console also includes a new mappable, automated dual joystick option, for pan movements in stereo and 5.1.

With no additional hardware, users of the company's AudioFile SC editing system can now use CEDAR Audio's automatic declick and decrackle processes to remove scratches, clicks and buzzes. The processes launch with a single keystroke and take place faster than real time.

www.ams-neve.com

Digidesign previewed Pro Tools 6 running under Mac OS X at the AES convention. The release debuts an all-new interface appearance and other features. An enhanced database allows users to view complete file information including mini-waveforms, and to search and audition files and import them directly into Pro Tools. A new Import Session Data command imports any combination of track data, including audio and MIDI playlists, mixer and plug-in automation, routing assignments and plug-in instances/settings from one session to another. Nine-pin deck emulation now allows you to generate and chase LTC while receiving nine-pin record and track-arming commands. The final release will be available in early 2003. Pro Tools 6 for Windows XP is scheduled for the second quarter of 2003.

Digidesign also announced that it will manufacture and distribute Sonic Solutions NoNOISE, a suite of TDM and AudioSuite plug-ins for noise removal and audio restoration. Intended for Pro Tools HD systems, the suite of processors isolates and eliminates audio artifacts without damaging original material. The suggested price is $1,995.

www.digidesign.com

BLACKMAGIC Releases 10-bit SDI QuickTime Capture Card

Blackmagic Design, the Australian manufacturer that makes drivers for AJA's Kona HD and SD video cards, released DeckLink, the first uncompressed 10-bit video PCI card priced under $1,000.

Designed specifically to connect computers to digital broadcast tape decks, the card features SDI video and audio input and output, as well as a Sony-compatible RS422 serial deck control port. All video input, output and deck control ports are in a single card, which requires only three off-the-shelf cables for a complete connection to a deck.

In addition to full-res SDI video, the card also offers a high-quality, compressed format called Online JPEG, which produces broadcast-quality video at data rates compatible with EIDE drives. DeckLink also provides SDI reference video to a deck when capturing, eliminating the need for a sync generator.

www.blackmagic-design.com

FAIRLIGHT Debuts Plug-Ins Manager 5

Fairlight debuted Plug-Ins Manager 5 for its DREAM systems, which offers access to a wide range of DSP-based and native third-party plug-ins that supplement the system's own plug-in suite. Plug-Ins Manager runs independently of the main recording, editing and mixing engine, so that any instabilities or crashes from third-party processes will not interfere with the operation of the main system. Plug-Ins Manager 5 ships with over 50 CreamWare DSP-based plug-ins including effects such as reverbs, delays, dynamics packages, phasers, flangers, etc.

The company also introduced Varispeed for Merlin and made the Serato Corporation's pitch and time algorithms available for all of Fairlight's QDC-based products, under the name "Time Sculptor." Fairlight's new Universal Serial IO card accommodates multiple types of serial IO streams, including common MADI formats. Fairlight also joined the AAF Association and expanded its Midtown Manhattan Sales and Support center. Now on the 17th floor at 2 West 45th Street the facility will house multiple training and demonstration studios.

www.fairlightesp.com

MEDIA 100 Expands 844/X Offerings

Media 100 Inc. announced 844/Xi, a lower-cost version of the company's 844/X editing system. Using its Intelligent Layering Architecture (ILA), the 844/Xi utilizes the Company's GenesisEngine to process four streams -- two video and two full motion alpha -- simultaneously in real time. The 844/X can process four video streams with associated graphics and alpha tracks for a total of ten streams in real time.

The 844/Xi also provides a simplified way to troubleshoot layers called Visual Voicing: Editors can view any two layers in a multi-layer composition, change them and view the results in real time.

The new system, priced at $24,995, will ship with the 844/X v. 1.5 interoperability release, which incorporates OMF compatibility with Avid, Pro Tools, Final Cut Pro and Media 100i, as well as 844/X timeline export to After Effects, support for Photoshop layers in the timeline, and EDL export.

www.media100.com

LIBERTY LIVEWIRE Becomes Ascent Media Group

On November 20, Liberty Livewire changed its corporate name to Ascent Media Group. Most Liberty companies will adopt the new identity, but many of the branches most familiar to Guild members won't see a name change. Level 3, Encore, Hollywood Digital, Todd AO, Signet Sound, Sound One, Modern Music, Soundelux, The Hollywood Edge, POP, Riot, FilmCore and Company 3 will all retain their original names or will add the phrase "An Ascent Media Company" to their name. 4MC (Burbank) will now be called Ascent Media Network Services, Burbank.

www.libertylivewire.com

LEITCH Ships dpsVelocityQ

Leitch Technology's dpsVelocityQ multi-stream editing system, previewed at NAB, is now shipping. Features of the new system include mixable uncompressed and compressed video, real-time simultaneous playback of four video streams and six graphics layers, and a quad-channel real-time 3D DVE.

The system includes all of the features of the dpsVelocity 8 and extends them with four camera multi-cam editing and four channels of real-time 3D DVE. Network editing support is standard, with video media accessible from system or network storage as well as from a dedicated on-board Ultra160 controller.

dpsVelocityQ is available as a fully-integrated turnkey system, or as a hardware/software bundle for a Windows 2000 or XP Professional computer.

www.leitch.com

PROFOUND EFFECTS Adds Track-To-Track Blending To Avid Systems

Profound Effects, Inc. released Profound Effects Transfer, an AVX plug-in for Avid editing systems that allows the user to combine video tracks using transfer modes similar to those in programs such as Photoshop and After Effects.

Transfer modes control how the pixels of one video track blend with the those in lower tracks. The PE Transfer plug-in lets an editor specify how much blending is performed, as well as how the transfer mode settings are interpolated between key frames. Retailing at $49.95, PE Transfer is available for Mac and Windows-based Avid systems that support AVX 1.0, including Xpress DV.

www.profoundeffects.com

BOXX Works with SONICFOUNDRY, Releases ServerBOXX

BOXX Technologies announced that it will offer its 3DBOXX customers an array of Sonic Foundry software for audio and video multimedia production. Workstations can now be preloaded with Vegas Video (a non-linear editor), Sound Forge 6.0 (a digital audio editor) and ACID PRO 4.0 (a loop-based music creation package).

Boxx also unveiled ServerBOXX, a desk-side or rackmountable 5U server built for applications that require multi-processing performance with massive amounts of system memory and I/O bandwidth. Available in dual Xeon or Athlon MP processors, it can accommodate up to 14 drives with up to 2.8TB of disk storage in various JBOD or RAID configurations. Prices start at $4,500.

www.boxxtech.com | www.sonicfoundry.com