NAB Report
by Patrick
Gregston
This year’s National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas proved once and for all that it isn’t just ‘national’ and it isn’t only for ‘broadcasters’. While no statistics about where the attendees were from were published, every show bus I rode in had at least a third of its passengers from overseas. At any given food stand, line or demonstration, one was as likely to hear a foreign language as English in any of its forms (which at this show include ‘geek’, ‘techno’, Australian and ‘marketing’).
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Waterhouse were selling "asset management" software and services, and newcomers like Bulldog were selling services to track music and picture "assets" throughout a media enterprise. WhamNet! and Creative Planet were among the companies selling one form or another of web-based production and post-production services. Obvious Technologies and Telestream were among others demonstrating web-based viewing and reviewing services.
While digital video production tools at ever-decreasing prices dominated the headlines at last year’s show, an explosion in distribution schemes was a key theme this year. Various models of the "e-home" were on display, as well. Intel had refrigerators with video monitors in the door displaying streaming video, delivered on DSL to the home PC and sent from there to the fridge through wireless connections. Other services for the kitchen would automatically prompt you to order replacements for whatever you just took out of the fridge. Devices designed to let you listen to web based radio without being near your computer were also available.
Neither manufactures nor broadcasters seem quite sure how these new technologies or services will be accepted or paid for. This vagueness extended to more focused offerings such as web-based production budgeting, management and post services. As relevant as "how does this work?" was the question, "how will I make money if I buy your product/service?" A remarkable number of booth dwellers had no answer, or responded with "that’s up to the customer". Given that in some cases millions of dollars had been invested, it was staggering that so little work had been done to establish that a real need or business model existed for these products.
For the vendors of interactive services designed to be connected with conventionally broadcast programming, the message was "if you don’t have interactive content you’ll soon lose viewers". As a whole, the industry is moving fast and far from the production and distribution models on which the Hollywood-based studio system was built. Even cable and home video seem destined to be old-fashioned businesses at any minute.
In Our Neck of the Woods
On the film and television front, there was plenty to see and wonder about. With the national broadcasters firmly down their separate paths of digital broadcast (each has adopted a different subset of the HD standard and will use different resolutions), and with competing formats for everything from cameras to theatrical display , one had to wonder how much resolution is enough.
Texas Instruments, which has been busy introducing their DLP projection system into theaters, showed their latest models. Sherel Horsley, VP of Product Management for TI noted that, "as an engineer, it is very easy to say that something isn’t there yet. We have worked a long time with a broad coalition of interested parties, including cinematographers, on making this technology. We have introduced a product based on that work, and are going to bring upgrades to that market in a sensible way." To improve cashflow in the meantime, TI has licensed DLP to Panasonic who showed a 60-inch rear projection version for home use, available this fall. The image was bigger and better than the plasma screens, which were ubiquitous at the show. Pricing for the 60" DLP was the same as 42" plasma models: $10,000.
Sony had their usual camera displays but this year added both DTV (the new set of digital broadcast standards, which includes both SDTV and HDTV) and NTSC (the existing analog standard) versions. The DTV side had cameras in each of the various formats adopted by US broadcasters, but it was hard to compare the different formats and resolutions since the cameras were never focused on the same thing at the same time. All the digital systems looked better than the NTSC images, but it took concentrated effort to see the differences in quality among the various digital formats
Only Sony had 1080/24P VTRs on display, but many post-production manufacturers carried tools designed to work in this "highest common denominator" format, including Avid, Sony, Quantel, Discrete, and Apple. Most had uncompressed versions.
Of all of these, Apple had the most aggressive approach. Final Cut Pro was released only a year ago and had been shown only with software compression. At NAB there was a Final Cut Pro for most budgets and formats. Most amazing was the Mac G4 with a Pinnacle Cine card, running 1080/24P uncompressed. Said to be available in "mid-summer," the price for a complete system is projected to be "under $30,000". Although Final Cut Pro is only in version 1.25, it already integrates many traditionally separate functions. Compositing, plug-ins, titling, and some fairly sophisticated audio tools are all within the application. Support for real-time effects is expected soon. Three third party developers are said to be building support for film cut lists.
Even more impressive was the interest in customer feedback that I saw among the Apple employees. When asked about analog audio scrub, the demonstrator was unfamiliar with the idea of digital sound played slowly like a track on a head, but as soon as he understood, he pulled out a business card and asked for an e-mail on the subject so he could "get this to the engineers". Analog audio scrub is actually already in Final Cut Pro for up to eight active channels. This demonstrator didn’t know how to activate it – but his attitude was refreshing, nonetheless.
It was hard not to see Apple’s many versions of Final Cut as the bellweather of falling costs for editing systems. As one post supervisor said, "At these prices you could buy one for a show and throw it away when you’re done".
At the other end of the price spectrum was the trend toward a ‘workgroup’ future, with teams of people all cutting from common hard drives. This sounds simple but depending on which booth one was at, it could be very expensive. There were dozens of companies selling disk arrays for "Storage Area Networks" or SANs. Many of these products have not been certified or installed in off-line or broadcast environments, nor did their booths have actual applications running. A noted exception was Glyph Technologies. They demonstrated multiple Pro Tools stations linked together using their Coba-SAN product, using drives from multiple vendors. Based on Fibre Channel, it allows the creation of workgroups within a 500 meter radius and permits the use of existing SCSI drives. Emphasizing that Glyph specializes in serving "professional artists," the booth had a whiteboard to sketch custom solutions for anyone who walked up. Ed Bacorn, product manager, said, "Meeting the demands of working artists requires looking at the specifics of each installation. We can’t impose a solution in any market. Glyph won’t have the answer for all circumstances." Such realistic talk was fresh air in the crowded halls of this show.
The low-cost leader in digital nonlinear editing was the AVIO from Draco. An integrated "black box" product, it can produce high-quality images, effects and titles in an easy-to-use product. When asked if simple tools meant that anyone could edit, a Draco spokesman said, "Describing brain chemistry no more references intelligence than a pencil references literature." May all producers remember this.
Manufacturer Reports
Avid
Avid had a lot of new faces to introduce. Besides new COO, David Krall, formerly with Digidesign [he became CEO after the show], Guild member Rob Kobrin made his NAB debut as part of the Avid executive team. The company’s theme for the show was "connect with Avid." Numerous initiatives to solicit customer feedback are in development or operation. While Rob didn’t make any promises to our community, he did express the hope that things will get better. Michael Keenan, sales manager for the Western Region, which includes Hollywood, expressed it this way, "As the Avid Manager who services the Hollywood community, I see Rob at Avid as Avid once again positively aligning itself with one of my most important customer bases."
The company announced same-day release of feature-equivalent versions of all Composer products on Windows NT and Mac from version 10 forward. "The NT and Mac are similar enough to make this feasible," Eric Peters said. "We want to make the CPU, which is a relatively inexpensive element, a non-factor." They also introduced "FlexSupport," an alternative designed to let users build support to suit their needs and "Avid On-Call," a 24/7 flat-fee-per-event support option. It’s priced at $199 from 8AM to 8PM. The service has a no pay guarantee – if the customer isn’t satisfied, Avid will provide a refund for the call.
As in the past, there was only one workstation running the Film Composer in the Avid booth. Showing a prototype of version 10, it featured a Mac-based Meridien system, which is the video board-set that has replaced the old ABVB boards on all current Avids (but which still doesn’t support Mac and film). The program looks identical to its NT-based cousin. According to Alan Stewart , Avid’s tech support person in LA, "It’s pretty transparent. I’m a Mac man from way back but I prefer NT, because I get fewer calls on those installations. NT is faster when you have to transfer files across a network, too." Film support for Mac Meridien Avids is to be available by late summer.
Of the many web-based and streaming video applications Avid showed, "Send and Review," a one-button export to streaming video formats, seemed to have the most value for our members. It will allow any editor to post a scene or reel to a web-linked server, e-mail the producer or director with the web address and allow them to play the cut on a computer with VCR like controls. The producer can then make notes by voice or text, which will be timecode-linked to frames in the edit. After the review, the notes are posted and an e-mail is sent to the editor indicating that notes are ready. While not yet available or priced, Send and Review promises to keep the pace of post-production going no matter how far your producer or director gets from the editing room. The only drawback apparent was the estimated five to six times real-time needed to convert a cut to a streaming file format.
Pro Tools
Digidesign had four significant announcements. OMF is now supported on both the Mac and Windows NT platforms. As part of this upgrade, Pro Tools can now send and receive OMF files. Also, with ‘AVOptionXL’, Pro Tools now works with Avid’s Meridian hardware. With the addition of the FilmFrame option, Pro Tools products will play 24 FPS material, both picture and sound, from either the Meridian or ABVB systems. This fall, Pro Tools will also support Avid’s Unity media server.
Lightworks
Lightworks returned to NAB as an independent company for the first time since 1995. While showing an upgrade of the VIP product, their most significant announcement for the film-based post community was VOX, a prototype of the Lightworks system based on a Windows NT computer with a Matrox video board set. Variable compression from off-line to online, editing direct from tape, and "Voice-over" which allows recording of new audio while monitoring existing tracks, were among the features shown. Support for multiple film formats and telecine paths, as well as multiple video standards is included. The most interesting improvement in the mostly-familiar Lightworks interface was a new button which provided a unique graphical diagram, called "Treeview", of the visual effects applied to a clip. 2D, DVE, color correction, titling, and keying are all part of this tool. Plug-in support of BorixFX, Ultimatte, and Inscriber/CG (a third party titling application) is now implemented. Users can drag effects into the display and point and click to create effects. Other features include the ability to map all commands to the keyboard, allowing for the emulation of familiar keyboard layouts from other systems. Slated for availability in the fall of this year, Lightworks Inc. has yet to describe a distribution strategy for their products in our market. They are also offering reconditioned Turbo and Heavyworks 2 products for immediate delivery. Version 6.5 will be released in June. Pricing is not yet set.
Montage
Another familiar name garnered attention at NAB. Montage, best known for its unique, multi-monitor interface in the early days of tape-based nonlinear, was merged into Pinnacle, a broad-based manufacturer of digital products for the video industry. Montage has been busy building integrated digital video facilities around the world including one in Kuala Lumpur that has over 200 editors linked to a central video server. Montage displayed products that allow IP (Internet Protocol, not interpositive!) based video post-production from telecine to news distribution. According to Dave Engleke (waiting for title), expect to see Montage bringing their products to our community "sooner than later".
Patrick Gregston is an assistant editor,
post-production consultant and vendor.
He can be reached via email
Reprinted from
The Motion Picture Editors Guild Magazine
Vol. 21, No. 3 - MayJune 2000
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