NAB 2012:  Art Lebedev Optimus Popularus Keyboard

NAB 2012: Mini Dolly Slider

Skateboard wheels are in a lot of booths here at NAB 2012, but none go lower than the ones on the Mini Dolly Slider.

NAB 2012:  Plasticase Nanuk

Here is the first of a series of videos on products in the “back corners” of the NAB 2012 exibition floor.  Hope you enjoy them!  In this video, Plasticase takes on an un-named giant.

NAB 2012: Maybe this means nothing.

Anyone that has attended NAB in the past decade knows that major booth positions change very rarely, either in position or in size.  For example, it was a big deal when Sony moved a few years back from dominating the Upper South Hall entrance area to a space near the rear of the Central Hall.  And for as long as I can remember, Panasonic has lorded over the Central Hall floor from an elevated position in the middle of the hall.

However…

This year, those scrappy kids from GoPro have eaten away at almost *half* of Panasonic’s space on that tier.  It is a stunning sight to see.  And in combination with Sony’s underwhelming press conference on Sunday, it’s hard for a broadcaster to feel too comfortable at this point.  Are tectonic shifts afoot?

NAB 2012:  Sony Press Conference

The annual Sony NAB press conference was held at Las Vegas’ Hard Rock Hotel, with a setting that seemed to be a bit less grandiose than previous years.  Perhaps this is fitting considering that Sony recently announced as many as 10,000 layoffs coming in the near future.  But even without that hanging over the festivities, the announcements made by Senior Vice President for Broadcast & Production Systems Alec Shapiro were less than stellar, and at times even seemed pretty out of touch, at least to an old broadcast hand like me.

The overarching theme was “Believe Beyond HD,” and near the end of the presentation the spectre of 4K acquisition did rear it’s head.  However, the first three items presented were not 4K productions, but 3D.  Clips from the upcoming programs “Stormsurfers” and hip-hop competition “Battle Of The Year” were projected on a mid-sized screen, but oddly, even with the provided RealD glasses neither clip looked very 3D at all.  (And seeing one of the “Stormsurfers” surfers very obviously holding a GoPro camera on the end of a stick suggests, at least, that not *all* of the footage was shot on Sony cameras.)  Shapiro opined that 3D was growing by leaps and bounds, but at least in the home TV market, the just isn’t true, and might well be a big part of Sony’s current financial malaise.  The third 3D production mentioned was ESPN’s coverage of the X Games, but oddly, no clips were played - and I would REALLY have liked to seen those.

REVIEW:  Blackmagic ATEM 1 M/E Video Switcher

I’ve been working in TV stations for over 30 years now.  I can trace one of the primary reasons I made this career choice back to a basic fact of my DNA:

I love buttons.

Want To Fly In First Class On Your Next Gig?  Here’s How!

I just got back from a whirlwind cross-country trip for a freelance gig I’m working on.  Between me, my field producer and my audio operator, we managed to boil down our equipment complement to six checked bags and three carry-ons. Now prices vary on different airlines, but the way it worked for me was this:

We flew USAirways from Cleveland to Phoenix, changing planes in Charlotte.  When I got online to check us in the night before, I was resigned to paying $60 in checked bag fees for each of us ($25 for the first bag and $35 for the second, all meticulously packed and weighed to be less than 50 pounds.)  However, in the middle of the check-in procedure, a pop-up box asked me if I would like to upgrade my entire party to first class - for $50 each.  On USAirways, this upgrade includes TWO FREE CHECKED BAGS.  (Bonus:  They can then weigh up to 70 pounds.)  In the time it took me to click the “yes” box, I had saved $30 overall and managed to get prime seating for the crew, and moved to the head of the boarding queue to guarantee overhead-compartment space for the two cameras and backpack-full-of-computers-and-iPad we were carrying onboard.  I call that a bargain at twice the price!

Coming home at the end of the shoot from Tucson to Madison, I played the same game on United.  Since both of those flights were on regional jets, first class was not offered, but once again the cost of checking two bags and first-call boarding was less than the cost of checking the bags alone.  While it is easy to imagine scenarios where this technique may not work (e.g., first class is booked full) it is a trick that I will be trying every time I need to check bags from this day forward.

Got any travel tricks of your own you’d like to share?  Let’s hear them!

REVIEW:  Fast Forward Video Sidekick HD Recorder/Monitor

PREFACE:  The ProRes Dilemma

Let’s start this review off by dispelling a long-held rumor.  I’m a PC guy, just always have been, and after reviewing just about every PC NLE at least once, I have settled on Adobe Premiere Pro (and the CS 5.5 suite) as my editor of choice.  Not too long ago, I had a freelance client that absolutely insisted on Apple ProRes files for the output of a project.  Unfortunately, Apple does not allow PCs to write ProRes files, and at the time PC’s couldn’t read them either.

Fast-forward a few months:  Imagine my dismay as I walked the aisles of NAB 2011, looking at all kinds of new recording devices from Aja, Atomos, Sound Devices and others that promised long recording times and transfer speeds – yet the catch was:  Only records in Apple ProRes.

So when I was offered the opportunity to review the Fast Forward Video Sidekick HD combination video recorder and camera-top monitor, I was distressed to think that I could shoot the footage, but couldn’t edit it.  So I put the question to my colleagues on the Vidpro listserv – can PC Premiere Pro play back ProRes?  My pal (and fellow Wisconsinite) Steve Oakley FTP’ed me a few Apple clips that seemed to work, so I went ahead and received the Sidekick HD.  And I can now say with 100% certainty – Adobe Premiere Pro 5.5 can play back Apple ProRes files, even happily combining them on the same timeline with just about any other type of clip you want to add – .AVI, .M2T, Photoshop files, Canon 50Mb, Sony 35Mb, After Effects comps, you name it.  (The theory is that the ProRes playback capability came along with one of the many Quicktime updates Apple shoots out.  Hey, who knew?)

Page 2 of 9 pages  <  1 2 3 4 >  Last »