Back Products
Issue: Volume: 33 Issue: 5 (May 2010)

Back Products

News from NAB
The 2010 National Association
of Broadcasters (NAB) Show,
held last month in Las Vegas,
set the stage for a wealth of new product releases, many of which are presented on this page.
For more news from NAB, visit www.cgw.com.


SOFTWARE

DCC
Creative Suite 5
Adobe Systems announced Adobe Creative Suite 5, the latest version of its design and development software suite. The Adobe Creative Suite 5 Master Collection includes Photoshop CS5, Illustrator CS5, InDesign CS5, Flash Catalyst CS5, Flash Professional CS5, Dreamweaver CS5, Adobe Premiere Pro CS5, and After Effects CS5. Creative Suite 5 products feature integration with online content and digital marketing measurement and optimization capabilities for the first time. Another new component, Adobe Flash Catalyst, provides the ability to design interactive content without writing code and to improve collaboration between designer and developer. Adobe Creative Suite 5 Master Collection boasts more than 250 new features. Photoshop CS5 gains Refine Edge, for better edge-detecting technology and masking results in less time, and the ability to remove an image element and replace the missing pixels with Content-Aware Fill. New stroke options allow Adobe Illustrator CS5 users to create strokes of variable widths and precisely adjust the width at any point along the stroke. Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro, and After Effects are now native 64-bit applications on both Mac and Windows; whereas the Nvidia GPU-accelerated Adobe Mercury Playback Engine in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 helps open projects faster, refine effects-rich HD sequences in real time, and play back complex projects without rendering. The Roto Brush tool in After Effects helps users isolate moving foreground elements in little time; and, Dreamweaver CS5 supports content management systems Drupal, Joomla, and WordPress. Adobe offers Creative Suite 5 Master Collection for $2599, Creative Suite 5 Design Premium for $1899, Creative Suite 5 Web Premium for $1799, Creative Suite 5 Production Premium for $1699, and Creative Suite 5 Design Standard for $1299, as well as 15 point products. Adobe Systems; www.adobe.com

Video

3D Blu-ray
Sony Creative Software presented its Blu-print Blu-ray Disc authoring application and Z Depth 3D subtitle offset editing application. One of the first professional 3D Blu-ray Disc authoring products on the market, Blu-print 6 authors 3D titles in accordance with the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) 3D Blu-ray disc specification. Blu-print 6 enhances workflow for production facilities and professional video editors, offering the import of MVC-encoded content, support of 3D menu graphics and subtitle graphics, and Java integration. To assist editors creating 3D subtitles, Z Depth generates the necessary offset metadata file, helping editors more accurately and easily position subtitles when creating 3D Blu-ray Discs. Blu-print 6 and Z Depth will be available in June 2010 through Sony Creative Software Professional Services. Sony Creative Software;  www.sonycreativesoftware.com

Maxon Cinema 4D
Maxon Computer unveiled its Cinema 4D Broadcast Edition for creating dynamic broadcast graphics. The new product is designed to offer ease of use, quick workflow, fast rendering, and seamless export to compositing tools such as Adobe After Effects, Apple Motion, and Apple Final Cut Pro. The Broadcast Edition combines the company’s Cinema 4D and its MoGraph module, as well as a library of 3D models, materials, cameras, lighting setups, and video clips. The Broadcast Edition is capable of 3D graphics with dynamic camera moves, animations, presentations, and such classic broadcast elements as lower thirds and openers, info graphics, and title sequences. Maxon Computer; www.maxon.net 

Open-Source Platform
EditShare, maker of cross-platform collaborative editing and shared media storage, has transformed the newly acquired Lightworks solution into Lightworks Open Source. It is being called the industry’s first open-source development initiative for a large-scale, non-linear editing (NLE) platform. The Lightworks Open Source platform provides a gateway into the NLE’s core engine, enabling creative developers to implement novel features and workflows. EditShare; www.editshare.com

Boris 7
IMAGES: 3 start with Boris…
Boris FX announced Boris Continuum Complete 7 AE (BCC 7 AE), with more than 200 filters for use with Macintosh and Windows versions of Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro CS5, CS4, and CS3. The latest edition’s 11 new filters include: a three-way color grade filter with built-in keying and masking tools, a new video noise reduction tool, a spline-based warp filter, an audio-driven keyframe generator, a new OpenGL particle engine, and still and video morph technology. Each Boris Continuum Complete filter is re-engineered to take advantage of 64-bit processing and OpenGL acceleration. Version 7 enhancements also include a split-screen preview mode and support for Boris XML Transfer, an Adobe After Effects plug-in for transferring Apple Final Cut Pro sequences to After Effects. Boris Continuum Complete 7 AE is available this month for $995, or $295 as an upgrade from previous versions of Boris Continuum Complete AE Boris FX; www.borisfx.com

Plug-in (or Stereoscopy)

Camera Rig
Alioscopy USA, a 3D visualization technology provider, released a plug-in that facilitates creating Alioscopy-ready 3D content within Maxon Cinema 4D software. The Alioscopy camera rig plug-in for Cinema 4D offers an intuitive way for 3D artists to create immersive Alioscopy-ready 3D content, and help meet the demand for auto-stereoscopic, multi-view content. The plug-in is available now as a free download from the Alioscopy Web site; it is also available, along with a brief tutorial, from Cineversity, Maxon USA’s Cinema 4D training and education resource. Alioscopy US; www.alioscopy.com 

3D

Fusion 6.1
Eyeon Software unveiled Fusion 6.1, the newest version of its 3D software complete with a next-generation GPU supercomputing framework. Version 6.1 exploits the power of low-cost GPU graphics cards to increase productivity and deliver a production-quality GPU renderer. The software’s feature set is enhanced with python scripting, support for RenderMan and Red Camera Mysterium X, and new Metadata, Hue Curves, and Film Grain tools. 3D scene importing via FBX is expanded and designed to streamline the process between 3D animation and rendering. Eyeon Software; www.eyeonline.com

Hardware

Video

Nvidia’s Pipeline
Nvidia unveiled the new Nvidia Quadro Digital Video Pipeline, a turnkey system designed to simplify and accelerate the production of live 3D broadcasts. The Quadro Digital Video Pipeline delivers advanced capabilities throughout production and is integrated into a flexible, reliable, and cost-effective computer system. The release eases the complexity of acquiring, processing, and delivering traditional and 3D content by leveraging Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs). The Quadro Digital Video Pipeline ingests four HD-SDI or two stereoscopic 3D feeds simultaneously; renders and composites real-time 3D graphics, virtual effects, and transitions; outputs right-eye and left-eye HD-SDI streams with audio; and supports both DirectX and OpenGL. The Nvidia Quadro Digital Video Pipeline is now available from Nvidia Quadro value-added resellers, such as PNY.
Nvidia; www.nvidia.com

AJA FiDO
IMAGE: FiDO…
AJA Video Systems introduced five new Mini Converter products at NAB 2010. AJA’s FiDO (Fiber Digital Optical) is a family of five SDI/Optical Fiber converters that enable the transport of SDI, HD-SDI, and 3G SDI over distances of up to 10 kilometers. Now available starting at $445, the FiDO product family includes FiDO-R, a single-channel fiber-to-SDI Mini Converter with dual SDI outputs; FiDO-2R, a dual-channel fiber-to-SDI Mini Converter; FiDO-T, a single-channel SDI-to-fiber Mini Converter with looping SDI output; FiDO-2T, a dual-channel SDI-to-fiber Mini Converter; and FiDO-TR, an SDI/fiber transceiver Mini Converter. AJA Video Systems; www.aja.com

Cards and Filters
AJA Video Systems debuted its line of Corvid video cards, designed to provide simple SD/HD-SDI I/O. The Corvid-LP offers a low-profile PCI form factor for integration into 1RU servers, whereas the Corvid-22 provides multi-channel I/O in SD/HD and 3G SDI, along with LTC and RS-422 capabilities. Available now, the Corvid and Corvid-LP are priced at $795, whereas the Corvid-22 is $1395. The company also released new DirectShow Filters designed to allow DirectShow application developers to work with AJA Kona, Io Express, and Corvid video I/O products. AJA’s DirectShow Filters are available as a free download for 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows. AJA Video Systems; www.aja.com

System Support

IMAGE: Kona…
AJA Video Systems announced that its line of Kona cross-platform video I/O cards and the Io Express portable I/O interface support Adobe Creative Suite 5 Production Premium software. AJA’s new plug-ins also support the Adobe Mercury Playback Engine and 64-bit processing. AJA plug-ins will support Adobe CS5 Production Premium by the end of June as free downloadable software. In other news, the AJA Ki Pro portable digital video recording device now can record high-quality Apple ProRes 422 QuickTime files that are directly compatible with Avid Media Composer and Symphony systems via the Avid Media Access (AMA) architecture. AJA Ki Pro support within Avid systems is planned for availability in June 2010. AJA Video Systems; www.aja.com

Storage

CalDigit RAID
CalDigit presented three new products at NAB. The HDPro-24 rackmount, 24-drive RAID solution achieves speeds of more than 1600MB/s and supports 24 SATA-II 3Gbs drive modules, JBOD, and RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, and 60. CalDigit’s SuperShare solution enables users to share storage over a PCIe-based network, roughly five times faster than traditional fibre SAN solutions. The CalDigit AV Drive is reportedly the first USB 3.0 solution for the Mac and reaches speeds of up to 140MB/s.
CalDigit; www.caldigit.com