NewTek encores NAB TriCaster upgrade guarantee for NAB 2010

NewTek, manufacturer of TriCaster portable live production systems and 3D software animation products, has just announced the NAB TriCaster Upgrade Guarantee Program. This renewed program means that NewTek customers can trade in any TriCaster purchased between January 15 and April 12, 2010 for full purchase price credit towards any new TriCaster product introduced at the 2010 NAB show, which will take place in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, from April 12 to 15.  This is very reassuring for anyone who may have been holding back a purchase of a TriCaster until NAB.

NewTek’s TriCaster TCXD300 ignites 3rd multicam revolution, now in HD

Any video professional with a couple of decades of experience under her/his belt will remember the original Video Toaster, which was a card that ran in a Commodore Amiga computer, and (among many others) included the infamous Kiki wipe. Despite very minor defects, the original Video Toaster —in its era— represented a revolution for multi-camera live (or live-on-tape) productions. Now NewTek has given birth to the HD-capable version of the 3rd-generation product. The TriCaster TCXD300 is an amazing standalone box that works in either SD or HD, and can record internally or externally, in addition to encoding live webcasts in HD. It has a high quality character generator and includes virtual sets. After attending an intense, multiple-hour demonstration in Miami, conducting a radio interview for both of TecnoTur’s audio channels (the current Castilian channel, and the upcoming English channel) with two TriCaster team members, and a followup e-mail interaction with NewTek’s executive VP of engineering, I now know that there is no exaggeration in stating that the TriCaster TCXD300 is indeed the 3rd multicam revolution for HD live-to-disk, HD live-to-air, or HD live-to-web production. Experience many of the details in this article.

JuicedLink launches benign method of defeating AGC in hybrid cameras

By introducing the DN101, any of the existing CX family of preamps from JuicedLink can now interface properly with the current audibly-challenged hybrid cameras and defeat their AGC (Automatic Gain Control) in a benign way. We know that the best way to record audio with these cameras is with a separate professional audio recorder. However, there are occasions when there isn’t time to sync separate audio in post (even when you have the help of a wonderful tool like PluralEyes). In those cases, we want the best possible audio available from the camera, even though it certainly won’t be as good as what an independent pro audio recording would be. JuicedLink has always shown a purist engineering attitude, and is known for their tutorial videos which successfully translate audio engineering terms and concepts for the layperson. In one of its latest videos called Tones are evil!, JuicedLink’s president and engineer explains why he believes that his method of defeating the AGC in cameras is superior to 20 KHz tone-based methods used by competitors like Beachtek. Learn more about this issue, the JuiceLink company, philosophy, and audio products in this article.

Skype’s certified HD webcams: a first look

As I explained in the related article Skype goes HD, Skype software now supports full-raster HD 720p (1280x720) for Windows computers, and I expect the same support for Mac computers very soon. So far, Skype has certified HD webcams from two different manufacturers. All of these certified models use onboard H.264 hardware encoding to alleviate CPU cycles and bandwidth, and are expected to be available in early 2010. In this article, you’ll see the their photos, prices, and published specs. Each manufacturer has chosen to emphasize different types specifications, as you will read.

Skype goes HD for computers + embedded in certain consumer HDTV sets

Earlier this month, Skype announced its support for progressive, full-raster HD 720p (1280x720) on Windows computers, and is to be embedded in certain consumer HDTV sets. For readers unfamiliar with it, Skype is free software for Mac & Windows computers —in addition to certain mobile phones and other handheld mobile devices— which facilitates 1-on-1 or multi-user communication. Skype software offers any combination of text chat, high-quality audio chat, and video chat (device dependent). Regardless of the device used at either end, all Skype-to-Skype communication is free (less the cost of the device itself and the Internet connection. In addition, at extremely low cost, Skype optionally offers the placing Skype calls to POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) numbers, and/or receiving POTS calls via Skype. As has been Skype’s historical fashion, the company has upgraded the Windows versions of the software first, although I expect the HD capability added to the Mac version shortly. Skype is also used for remote invitees in TV talk shows, and the addition of HD 720p will certainly augment its use in that application.

Recover 4:4:4 from Canon 7D’s live HDMI output

Early this morning, I was surprised with an e-mail from a bikini store from the Basque Country. For those who don’t know, the Basque Country is an Autonomous Community of northern Spain. They obviously knew that I don’t speak Euskera (Basque), so they wrote in perfect Castilian, and fortunately were not attempting to sell me a bikini (since being a man, I really don’t need one). They explained that they had experienced a great increase in volume in online sales of their bikinis. “Due to budget constraints”, they recently purchased a Canon 7D to create their new video catalog. They went on to say that they were considering a new Swedish process which apparently recovers the original 4:4:4 shot material from the Canon 7D’s live HDMI output, which only carries 4:2:2. I wasn’t familiar with that Swedish process, so I looked into it and found that —according to the developer, even though in live mode the Canon 7D currently outputs an uncompressed cropped image of 1620x910 (not full 1920x1080), that is indeed the “same crop as the 1080p compressed material on the camera’s memory card”, meaning that after upscaling, there is no resolution loss compared to what would have been recorded in the camera. Wow! That’s a lot of bad news, and a lot of good news in a single sentence!

Beware the attack of the anachronisms!

During a recent translation/localization project for a major NLE manufacturer, my friend Rubén Abruña and I ran into a conundrum when debating with our client about how a few words should be translated. Among them was the word Slate, which Rubén and I (and everyone else we personally know in Spain and Latin America) had called Pizarra. We were quite shocked when our client told us that they wanted to use the word Claqueta, which actually corresponds with the word Clapstick. For us, the difference between a Slate and a Clapstick were clear: A Slate just shows information. While a Clapstick may show information, it always has a sound-producing “clapper” which was created to facilitate synchronizing audio and video in post. In fact, as far as we are concerned, both Clapstick and Claqueta are onomatopoeia, or words that were created to imitate the sound created by the device. For that reason, Rubén and I were quite clear about why we called a Slate as a Pizarra, and a Clapstick as a Claqueta. However, I began to discuss this with industry colleagues in Latin America/Spain, delve into the etymologies of each term, and discovered that —whether we like it or not, even Slate (Pizarra) is an anachronism.

Audio options for hybrid cameras: a study by P3Pictures

Jon Fairhurst of P3Pictures has done quite a study on audio options for hybrid cameras. Although P3Pictures uses a Canon 5D Mark II for its testing, at least some of their conclusions could apply to other hybrid cameras, including the Canon 7D, Panasonic Lumix GH1, and others yet to be released. P3Pictures’ goal with these scientific tests is to find the most professional quality sound, with mid-priced equipment. In all tests, P3Pictures uses the M-Audio Microtrack II, Zoom H4n, BeachTek DXA-5D, and the juicedLink CX 231. The first test is done with a closely placed shotgun mic. The second test uses a camera-mounted shotgun. The third test is with a wireless lavaliere microphone. Part 4 is foley recording, and Part 5 explores the noise floor of each option. Part 6 are P3Pictures’ conclusions. Here come the videos…

Sony Latin America also upgrades 3G HDV camcorders to universal, for a small fee

On February 10th, 2009, I informed our readers that Sony USA was offering upgrades to world-class compatibility on their 3G HDV camcorders. As explained in that first article, the Sony upgrade activates the otherwise dormant modes of these cameras, i.e. 576i PAL, HD 25p, and HD 50i modes, on top of the original “24p” (23.976p), “30p” (29.97p) and “60i” (59.94i) modes. Now I am happy to report that Sony BPLA (Sony Broadcast Professional Latin America) is offering the same upgrade on the same cameras in their region.

nanoFlash recorder: Now lower price, and more features

Convergent Design has announced a price reduction on their nanoFlash recorder, which we covered during the NAB on April 21st. Now the list price is US$2995 and more features have been added, including an analog audio input, over/undercrank, and native recording of 720p23.976/25/29.97 which comes from the camera with pulldown over 50p or 59.94p. In other words, the nanoFlash will remove the extra frames based upon the metadata. The nanoFlash recorder now offers over/undercranking of a pure 720p59.94p stream.

Sony adds new entry-level model to family of HD Pan-Tilt-Zoom cameras

At NAB 2009, Sony is introducing an entry-level model to its line of high-definition compact pan-tilt-zoom cameras. According to Sony, the new BRC-Z330 remote control camera is designed for an array of remote acquisition applications, such as television production for recording programs, and for use as a weather or traffic camera. Compact and lightweight, the new camera maintains the design elements of its predecessors but uses a specially designed read-out from its CMOS imaging technology to significantly shorten image delays.

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