|
At January's MacWorld Expo in San Francisco, Apple introduced a scaled-down version of Final Cut Pro, dubbed Final Cut Express. Priced at $299, it shares a user interface and many features with its more expensive sibling but is primarily aimed at consumers who want to move up from iMovie. It does not contain some Final Cut features that Guild members may find essential, including its powerful color correction tools or its media manager. Most important, it offers editors no way to view or use timecode, make an EDL, or batch capture. It requires OS X version 10.2. ACADEMY Announces Technical Oscars The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will award three Oscars for scientific and
Alias|Wavefront will receive an Oscar for developing Maya, a 3D animation and effects package employed in nearly every feature using 3D computer-generated images. Arnold & Richter Cine Technik and Panavision, Inc. will receive the other two Oscars for achievements in camera systems. Scientific and engineering awards will be given for the Deva Digital Audio Disk Recorder, for development of the PRISMS program, a 2D/3D animation program, for Kodak Premier Color Print Film 2393 and for the mechanical construction of the Dedolight 400D, a uniquely designed set light. PINNACLE Acquires STEINBERG, Launches Cinéwave 3 In January, Pinnacle Systems completed its acquisition of Steinberg Media Technologies, based in Hamburg, Germany. Pinnacle manufactures digital media technology for consumer and professional editing, broadcast, and DVD authoring; Steinberg specializes in digital audio software for professionals. By combining these resources, the company will likely become a more significant competitor in professional post production. Like Apple and Avid, it will have strong products for both video and audio. Pinnacle also released Cinéwave 3, with support for Apple's Mac OS X version 10.2. It provides a new CinéSuperSync capability under Final Cut 3.0.4 and now supports standard-definition 24P materials with simultaneous 29.97-fps external video monitoring. Editors can also take advantage of Pinnacle's new 10-bit SDI Pro Digital Plus breakout box with up to
STEINBERG Launches Nuendo 2 Steinberg announced Nuendo 2, its latest audio editing, mixing and recording package with many new features that should appeal to Guild members. It offers timeline rulers in any configuration from feet and frames to beats and bars, customizeable menus, track exchange with other Nuendo workstations, recordable batch process lists and a host of other features. It should be available by the time you read this. MEDIA 100 to Show 844/X HD Technology at NAB Continuing to push the technology envelope with multi-stream, real-time visual effects, Media 100 will show Version 2 of its 844/X system at NAB. Dubbed "The Finishing Release," it offers real-time color correction on four streams with 10-bit precision and many other enhancements including keyframeable real-time motion effects, improved matte tools and rubber-band audio controls with bezier keyframes. The new release should ship in May. The company will also show its XBLUR technology, offering the first real-time Gaussian Blur effects in a nonlinear-editing system. Media 100 also previewed its "HDX" technology, a first-step expansion of its GenesisEngine media processor. New software and a high-density PCI card add 10-bit format conversion capabilities, enabling users to convert high-definition sources to an enhanced internal standard-definition format so that they can utilize the real-time editing and compositing capabilities of the 844/X. On output, the system uses the higher bandwidth of the enhanced SD format to produce broadcast-quality results in any HD format or frame rate. It also does
DIGICONFORM Introduces Conforming System DigiConform is a new computer-based system that interlocks a film synchronizer with digital picture. It allows the user to load video from any source in real time, then precisely interlocks the digital video with the movement of the synchronizer, enabling editors, negative cutters and assistants to check their conforming precisely. Because video playback is from a computer, it is instantly accessible and always fully caught up with film in the synchronizer. DigiConform systems work with most film formats including 16mm, 35mm three- and four-perf, and 65mm, in both NTSC and in PAL. The system can suppress pulldown on playback, so on film shows cut at 24 fps only the true film frames are displayed. DigiConform is already in use at two negative-cutting facilities in the Los Angeles area. COHEN COMMUNICATIONS Offers HD MPEG System Cohen Communications and Heuris have co-developed a rentable MPEG encoding and playback system for high-definition digital dailies, making it practical and affordable for productions to screen HD dailies in the studio or on remote locations. With the system, an HD master is converted into MPEG data and recorded onto hard drives or DVD-RAM, then decoded and played back wherever needed. The encoding part of the system consists of a Tandberg Television HD encoder and a MediaSonic ASI capture station. The playback portion uses Rushplay software from Heuris, running on a MediaSonic HD player with USB 2 drives and a JVC high-definition projector or Panasonic plasma screen. Laser Pacific in Hollywood and ARRI Film in Munich are both using the system. www.cohencomm.net | www.heuris.com DCI PICKS USC to Test Digital Cinema Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) has chosen the Entertainment Technology Center at USC's Digital Cinema Laboratory as its official test site for digital cinema technologies. DCI is a joint venture of seven major studios (Disney, LucasFilm, Sony Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal, Viacom/Paramount, and Warner Bros.), established to develop uniform, open and voluntary standards for digital movie mastering, distribution and exhibition. Dedicated to evaluating new media technologies, USC's Entertainment Technology Center is a neutral research facility funded by Hollywood studios and high-tech companies. |
