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.

Panasonic Toughbook for $349???

Yeah, it ain’t the latest and greatest, and will need a RAM upgrade right out of the box, but if you need a really TOUGH laptop (and I’m looking at YOU, field teleprompter operators) you cannot beat this deal at Geeks.com.  Jeez, the thing even has a touchscreen!

Use the savings code TUFBOOK to lower the price to an insane $349.

This is the machine I see in police cars and the hands of all the telecom repair guys, and if THEY can’t break it, no one can!

THR Roundtable with 2009’s Top Directors

The Hollywood Reporter has put together a great video roundtable series with some of the top directors of last year. They brought together Peter Jackson, Lee Daniels, Jason Reitman, Kathryn Bigelow, James Cameron, and Quentin Tarantino to discuss various filmmaking topics over breakfast. It’s a fascinating discussion.

In one exchange, Tarantino insinuates that he’ll stop directing once theaters stop projecting 35mm film and move to all-digital projection. James Cameron’s response is priceless. Gotta love Tarantino’s childlike obsession with celluloid…the Editing Room nailed him in their re-write of Basterds. Watch the discussion below…

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.

The Making of an Epic Media Project

Rambus is a company of big ideas, and they wanted their 20th anniversary celebration to include a theatrical production that accurately reflected who they are and where they came from. The resulting short film—shown in an Omnimax dome at the San Jose Tech Museum—moved Rambus founders and employees to tears.

Adobe Community Leaders Summit

Last week, Adobe invited a variety of well-known people in the industry to come get a closer look at what they’ve been working on, and to provide feedback on their direction. To Adobe’s credit, this was no “preaching to the choir” session; many of those invited were FCP and Avid editors, and several current users gave Adobe personnel an earful both publicly and privately. It was also made clear to us that no specific product versions or release dates were being discussed, and that we couldn’t repeat anything that had not already been mentioned publicly (reminds us of the old Zen Buddhist saying “Those who know don’t say; those who say don’t know”). However, this event gives us an excuse to aggregate into one place a number of emerging technologies Adobe has already murmured about, for those who haven’t had the chance to keep up…

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.

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