NAB 1998
The Power Of Digital
April 6-9 in Las Vegas
by Pam Malouf-Cundy
If you're familiar with the National Association of Broadcasters, you know it has a giant (over 100,000 attendees the last two years) convention every year in Vegas.
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Technical Director Lisi Crane Quantel introduced Henry V-Infinity and the Editbox Magnum. The Henry V-Infinity has the full Henry toolset (editing, compositing, color correction, effects and graphics) across an infinite number of concurrent superlayers, with two hours' storage. Any parameter or effect can be changed in any layer without having to unpick or rebuild the entire piece. Editbox Magnum (an on-line edit suite) 4x4 model has four layers over a background, and four hours non-compressed storage, as well as a non-linear audio tablet. Editbox Platinum has four layers over a background with one hour's storage, and 601 non-compressed quality. I was impressed. And for TDs, there were the same standard digital/component switchers, as well as the high def ones. Sony's DVS 7250 switcher, a post-production and live digital switcher with two and a half mix effects, as well as the DME 7000, a digital effects generator, were awarded Post magazine's Professionals' Choice awards, meaning they were voted best by the people who use those kind of things. Sony's all-mobile digital video truck won the Pick of the Show award. The newest feature of the Grass Valley "Krystal" from Tektronix, a DVE used in conjunction with the 4000 series digital switcher is four channel combining. Other operational enhancements include: an added 16x9 processing to the Graphics option to support grids and wireframes in this format, an outside/in wipe added to the Kurl Splash option, crop rotation dents changed, cut and paste now works on a channel by channel basis for inserting and deleting time, and Picture Opacity control now defaults to On. |
The NAB Convention features products specifically designed for broadcasters which includes networks, cable companies and local stations. We 'Hollywood movie people' think Avid and all the other companies should cater to our business because it's the biggest. Well, I got news for you - it ain't! Every city in every country in the world - zillions - (Sweden, Mongolia, Iran, Egypt, Zaire, Greenland - shall I go on - then name every city in the world) has a local news station and that is big business. That's why it fills two convention centers. And editing systems? It's old hat if you've been to NAB before but if it's your first time - you'll never see so many different digital editing systems in your life! Check out this convention next year.
Aside: Here in Hollywood we use mainly Avid and Lightworks but don't think it's just by choice... On a marketing level, these other editing companies don't even bother to target our business. It's my understanding that Lightworks chose not to devote as much time to the L.A. market as Avid did and that is why Avid ultimately has a bigger share.
Montage pulled out of the Hollywood market and is still out there going strong focusing on the news and broadcast market (and very successfully I might add, with profit the last two years). They had a booth at NAB and co-owner Seth says he's never felt happier - ha! Are we underestimating all the editing required by broadcast stations - promo's, commercials, live action news footage, studio news footage, inserts? Big business.
Interesting Items
Avid has pretty much said "don't expect Film Composer on Windows NT" period. The only customers who might want it would be Hollywood editors and none of them are asking for it.
42" plasma screens!!! (Sony had a 50" - on display only.) 16:9 viewing area, wider angle of view so you can see clearly from the side and they're not even 6" deep! They are easily mounted on the wall or a corner and, including the wall mount, it is only about 8" out from the wall! This will change the way we decorate our living rooms. (There is a 360° TV being marketed but it's much bulkier and requires a table in the middle of a room - these plasma TVs are the way to go.) They first came out at about $14,000. Now they've dropped to about $11,000 and should keep dropping. Everybody I talked to was equally excited about these TV's.
Virtual Reality Fishtank - Cool! (Approximate cost $22,000.) Plasma screen with bubble-maker in front and some other bells and whistles. Okay, I admit, it looked awesome.
Best booth - Quantel - the huge area had a bridge going through the center, with three ramps to walk up on each side and on each side wall were hung four 42" plasma screens & four 20" monitors. The theme: "No Limits, No Compromises". Between each walkway they had blacklight glowing blue cubes for people to sit on while beautiful women talked about their products (a Quantel Henry was being demonstrated simultaneously.) [Men, too, according to Lisi Crane, and they all knew their stuff - brains in nice packaging.] Even the women who scanned your card were surrounded by 9 monitors. (Okay it's not equipment but it was a fantastic booth!)
NATE - the National Association of Tower Erectors is still in existence - thank goodness - what would we do without erect towers!
By the way, there were more women than normal this year but the ratio is still at least 10 men to 1 woman, so if you're a single gal, take note and plan on attending next year!
Apple Computer Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs addressed the broadcast group stressing that Apple wants to help the broadcast industry convert from analog to the digital (currently mandated by the year 2006) and to "make this digital thing work out so that it is really cool for all of us."
Digital TV Broadcast Lingo:
either "progressive-scan format" or "traditional interlaced."
1080i - 1080 interlaced. This format employs 1,080 scanning lines per frame with 1,920 pixels per line, transmitted at 60 pictures per second. (Adopted by CBS & NBC.)
720p - 720 progressive high-definition format. (Adopted by ABC.)
480p - Falls below the high-definition standard set by ATS Committee. (Adopted by Fox.) [The FCC should addressing this format controversy.]
Update On DVD
Remember DVD stands for Digital Versatile Disk and there are many kinds of discs including DVD-Video, DVD-ROM & DVD-Audio. Machines to use the DVD-R (write once, read many times) and DVD-RAM (double-sided rewritable disks) that were promised for '98 are not affordable for consumers and are not an option at this time. They were selling kits at the show to replace the CD-ROM in your computer with a DVD-ROM player for only $275 bucks. There are some Pentium speed minimums so be sure to ask questions before you decide to upgrade. For more info on DVD check out these websites:
Dealers And Companies You Might Be Interested In:
- SOUND FX
& MX Large Valentino Library
- MEDIA
CONCEPTS buys & sells
used professional equipment - mixers, VCRs, edit systems,
etc.
- NIGEL B FURNITURE great, unique
computer furniture in Burbank - (818) 769-9824
- EYE-Q-SYSTEMS Wireless covert video systems including
cameras that fit in a 2" notebook (videotape your
babysitter?)
- TRIPLE
CROWN PRODUCTS for
T-shirts, caps, shirts with any logo
- UAL - Professional labels for
audio & video cassettes & more. (800)
998-7700
- MEGADRIVE offers fiber channel drives and SCSI drives
up to 368 gigs online.
- NAB 1999 - April 19-22 in Las Vegas. Book your hotel early (like now!) for the best rates and get free passes to the convention from your local post production vendors.
Pam Malouf is a picture editor.
Reprinted from
The Motion Picture Editors Guild Newsletter
Vol. 19, No. 3 - May/June 1998
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