04/11, 6:55am
Panasonic launches new pro camcorders at NAB show
Panasonic has used the NAB show in Las Vegas to unveil the AG-3DP1, a 3D P2 HD twin-lens shoulder-mount camcorder. The AG-3DP1 offers a larger imager, 10-bit color depth, AVC-Intra recording to P2 media, and EFP-style shooting to offer affordable 3D production for live events, sports, documentaries and independent films. Panasonic also announced that it is supplying NASA with AG-3DA1 3D camcorders, BT-3DL2550 3D LCD monitors and rugged Toughbook notebooks.
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04/05, 6:05pm
Video-monitoring app full of new features
Divergent Media will be previewing ScopeBox 3.0 at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show in Las Vegas next week, showing off the latest version of their video-monitoring and direct-to-disk capture and analysis software. The company will be giving hands-on demos and Q&A sessions at their booth (SL-10811) in the South Lower Hall. The new version introduces an all-new video processing pipeline, fail-safe capture and live editing functionality, and a new, dramatically lower price.
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04/05, 5:50pm
Apple boots FCPUG sponsors
Apple has dropped strong hints that a Final Cut Studio overhaul would show at the NAB expo next week through curious moves with sponsors. The Final Cut Pro User Group Supermeet has said that at least Avid and Canon, along with one of the Supermeet organizers and possibly Black Magic, have all made abrupt sponsorship and presentation exits from the gathering, which runs side-by-side with NAB. Avid explicitly blamed Apple as it "doesn't want anyone to have stage time" except for itself.
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03/31, 1:30am
Free hour-long demos of Smoke for Mac, more
Autodesk has announced that they will be hosting demos at the National Association of Broadcasters conference in Las Vegas April 11th-14th for the upcoming 2012 edition of Smoke for Mac, an all-in-one editorial finishing tool. The company will also offer free hands-on training sessions for Smoke aimed at digital artists and editors at Post Production World as part of the overall NAB experience.
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08/17, 4:25pm
NAB and RIAA would require FM in return for bill
The NAB and RIAA have proposed a compromise for a bill that could theoretically force all portable media devices to include FM radios. Under a yet to be formal suggestion for the Performance Rights Act, they would allow $100 million in performance royalties a year but would demand FM chips in MP3 players, smartphones and many other devices. Supporters have argued to Ars Technica and to legislators that forced radio would provide "more music choices."
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04/22, 3:20pm
iPhone becomes teleprompte
As camcorders continue to shrink, so has the venerable teleprompter -- to the size of an iphone. Bodelin Technologies has created an iPhone app and several accessories that turn an iphone or iPod Touch into a teleprompter.
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04/21, 8:55am
Flash for TVs shown at NAB
At a recession-dampened NAB show, Adobe's demo of Flash for the Digital Home was one of few exhibits to draw large crowds on Monday. The company set up a mock living room, complete with an easy chair to demonstrate the ground-breaking technology, which could finally bring IPTV into the mainstream.
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04/21, 6:50am
Blackmagic intros routers
Blackmagic Design is adding two new Videohub routers, and has updated software for the line. Announced at NAB, the Enterprise VideoHub has a 144x288 SDI capacity, while the new Studio Videohub is a 16x32 model. Blackmagic has also released VideoHub 4.0 software for Mac OS X and Windows featuring a new interface.
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04/20, 11:15pm
Media Express 2.0 launched
Blackmagic Design is using NAB 2009 to announce multiple products for post-production and broadcast industries and new workflow tools. Media Express 2.0 software is being launched, including direct capture and playback of DPX, QuickTime and AVI files, list-based batch capture and a new software interface for the Mac (also Windows and Linux support). Media Express works on all Blackmagic Design DeckLink, Multibridge and Intensity products.
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03/04, 5:50pm
NAB FCC white space suit
The National Association of Broadcasters and the Association for Maximum Service Television have asked a Federal court to shut down the FCC's authorization of white space wireless devices, saying they threaten public safety, according to a Tuesday report. The plaintiffs allege portable, unlicensed personal devices operating in the same band as TV broadcasts have been "proven" to cause interference despite FCC tests to the contrary.
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04/15, 1:05am
Blackmagic Decklink HD
Blackmagic yesterday unveiled a new DeckLink HD Extreme at NAB 2008, an update to its PCI-based video capture card, adding support for HDMI and 3Gb per second SDI. The card allows users to switch between SD, HD, and 2K formatted video for capture and editing purposes. Users can also connect S-Video, PAL, NTSC, and analogue component video sources to the card. DeckLink HD Extreme is selling for $1000 from Blackmagic.
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04/15, 12:50am
Blackmagic USB video, SDI
Blackmagic Design recently unveiled several new video interfaces at the NAB 2008 conference, the USB-based Video Recorder – available in consumer and professional versions – and a large scale 8U rack-mount SDI router. The Blackmagic Video Recorder offers consumers the ability to capture video directly to H.264 through component or S-Video onto their computer. The consumer USB Video Recorder sells for $120.
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04/14, 10:35pm
Rugged removable storage
Designed for mobile video markets, Maxell's Professional Media Products Division has introduced a light-weight, rugged and shock-resistant compact removable hard drive solution for field archive operations. Debuting at NAB in Las Vegas, the company calls it the first "Field Tough Media" solution of its kind. It leverages Maxell iVDR technology that connects directly through a bi-directional USB or eSATA adapter to a shoulder-mounted camcorder capable of delivering 10-bit, 4:2:2 master- quality video and native full HD video. In its current form factor, Maxell iVDR solution is capable of storing 160 GBof data and has a transfer rate of 540Mbps.
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04/14, 9:55pm
Mini SeriTek/SpyderHUB
FirmTek on Monday announced the SeriTek/SpyderHUB, which provides USB and FireWire host connection options plus hardware RAID, eSATA Mac OS boot capability and FireWire daisy chaining capability in an ultra-small external design. The ultra small, four-ounce device offers the ability to connect to external hard drives using any eSATA enclosure such as the SeriTek/2EN2, allowing users to attach and boot from up to two eSATA hard drives at a remote location. Supporting both desktop and notebook computers, it allows professionals to utilize eSATA enclosures from computers that do not support a Serial ATA host adapter.
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04/14, 9:35pm
G-Tech revs storage at NAB
G-Technology on Monday added a new G-RAID Pro drive to its product line, increased the performance and quiet operation of its G-RAID drive, and added RAID 1 protection and eSATA connectivity to its G-RAID mini portable drive. The company's triple interface G-RAID Pro solution features FireWire 800, FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 connectivity and storage capacities up to 4TB to handle both the bandwidth and storage-intensive requirements of compressed HD formats. The on-board hardware RAID controller supports both RAID 0 and fail-safe RAID 5 operation with auto-rebuild functionality, and utilizes four hot-swappable 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s disk drive modules.
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04/14, 7:15pm
HP DreamColor
Hewlett Packard, with some assistance from DreamWorks, is announcing a new technology dubbed "HP DreamColor" that the company says will be a "disruptive" force in the market place. MacNN spoke with Jim Zafarana is Vice President, Worldwide Marketing for Hewlett-Packard Company's Workstation Global Business Unit and Jeff Wood, Director Product Marketing at HP about the new technology, which will purportedly pave the way for displays with accurate, predictable color reproduction at a fraction of the cost of similarly capable monitors and finally offer a transition route to flat-panel displays for graphic design firms (like DreamWorks) that have thus far been stuck with CRT displays.
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04/14, 3:15pm
Panasonic HMC150 HD Cam
Panasonic on Sunday revealed its newest AVCCAM professional camcorder, the AG-HMC150, at the NAB show in Vegas. The camera uses the industry's newest compression standard, AVCHD, to record video onto SD cards exclusively. Based on the standard-definition AG-DVX100, the HMC150 can record 1080 and 720 HD video at average speeds up to 21 Mbps. Four recording modes give users the flexibility to record up to 12 hours of 1440x1080-pixel HD video or three hours of 1920x1080 on a 32GB SD card. Resolution of 1280x720 can also be set, with the HMC150 supporting 1080/24p, 1080/60i and 720/60p HD formats.
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04/14, 3:00pm
GridIron demos Flow at NAB
GridIron Software on Monday announced that GridIron Flow software is now undergoing beta testing with a select group of creative professionals and is being demonstrated this week on both Mac OS X and Windows at the NAB (booth SL6220). According to the company, Flow is billed as "a revolutionary new approach to workflow management for creative pros that dramatically simplifies the design process for print, web, film, and video projects." The software transparently tracks work from idea to end result and manages all assets and applications with any modifications to existing workflows. Expected to ship later this summer starting at $350, Flow automatically tracks projects allowing users to instantly see the relationships between all assets without changing the way you work.
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04/14, 2:20pm
RED at NAB 2008
RED today launched into the NAB pro video expo by debuting cameras at opposite ends of its signature RED One. The Scarlet is RED's first true handheld camera and incorporates a new, 2/3-inch version of the trademark Mysterium X sensor that still produces greater-than-1080p images. At 3K, the horizontal resolution is sharp enough to eclipse the best HD viewable on Blu-ray or other newer formats. While smaller than the Red Ray, it still offers an 8X zoom lens and shooting at up to 120 frames per second depending on the resolution; 180 FPS shots are available for short bursts.
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04/14, 8:15am
HP xw8600 and xw9400
HP this morning has marked the launch of NAB with two systems targeted at AV editors or most anyone who depends on very high end performance. A new version of the xw8600 uses Intel's latest 3.2GHz quad-core Xeon to handle very processor-intensive tasks such as media encoding; up to two each can fit in a single system to make it the most individually powerful desktop at HP, the company says. Systems built on the new chip vary in price but lift the price by about $2,460 both through the faster design as well as the requirement of using 4GB of 800MHz memory.
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04/14, 12:55am
Premiere adds Sony format
At NAB Adobe also announced native support for the Sony XDCAM EX camera format in its Premiere Pro CS3 video editing and production software. Premiere Pro delivers a file-based workflow without transcoding or rewrapping, providing a software-only, tapeless High Definition (HD) workflow—from capture to output. Adobe will demonstrating the Sony XDCAM EX editing workflow during The 2008 NAB conference at booth SL3220.
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04/14, 12:35am
Adobe debuts CinemaDNG
At NAB in Las Vegas, Adobe on Monday launched a new effort for an industry-wide open file format for digital cinema files, initiative to define an industry-wide open file format for digital cinema files to streamline workflows an ensure easy archiving and exchange. Built on the company's Digital Negative Specification (DNG) file format for photos, Adobe said it plans to work with a broad coalition of leading camera manufacturers, including Panavision, Silicon Imaging, Dalsa, Weisscam, and ARRI—along with software vendors, including Iridas and The Foundry, and codec provider CineForm—to define the requirements for an open, publicly documented file format that it plans to call CinemaDNG.
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04/07, 7:25pm
Sonicfire Pro 5
SmartSound has announced the release Sonicfire Pro 5, a new music library solution. Shipping in June, Sonicfire Pro 5 features new music timing controls and searching features. The tool allows users to choose a beat from a score and move it to a spot in the Timeline without changing the rhythm or tempo of the music. Sonicfire can also suggest music that is the best fit and provide customization tools to make it precisely match the timing of scenes.
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02/25, 3:05pm
Cineon/DPX Pro for FC 3.0
Glue Tools today announced that it will release Cineon/DPX Pro for Final Cut 3.0 at NAB 2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The latest release of Cineon/DPX for Final Cut Pro includes Cineon and DPX Sequence Presets along with a full Cineon or DPX Codec, completely eliminating the need to render sequences in Final Cut Pro's timeline. "No More Red Render Bar!" the company states. "Your imagery can be directly loaded into Final Cut Pro or Compressor, without needing to be compressed into an intermediate codec or movie format." The company is already accepting pre-orders for Cineon/DPX for Final Cut 3.0 at $400 per license. The update requires Final Cut Studio 2 and QuickTime 7.3.1. Upgrades for customers who purchasd Cineon/DPX Pro for Final Cut 2.5 after February 1st will receive a free upgraede to 3.0 when the software is made available at NAB.
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02/18, 2:55pm
NAB Fight Sirius XM Local
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) today urged the the Federal Communications Commission to block satellite radio providers Sirius and XM from offering local broadcasting, hoping to claim an edge for terrestrial radio in the event that the proposed merger between Sirius and XM is completed. A recent filing by NAB to the FCC points out that both Sirius and XM have an alleged record of ‘misbehavior’ in adopting the FCC’s rules and should be prevented from taking this abuse to local stations: both Sirius and XM have admitted to unauthorized or misused antennas and repeaters, according to the NAB's claims.
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02/07, 9:25pm
NAB accounted for
Following up on the earlier report, Kristopher Jones, spokesman for the NAB conference, said that while Avid and Apple will be missed, the spaces have already been filled. The trade show, which generates more than $50 billion in commerce for its business partners, is featuring 220 new exhibitors this year, making the final count around 1600 exhibitors, according to SetteB.IT. NAB 2008 is expected to cover over 900,000 square feet at the Las Vegas Convention Center and Las Vegas Hilton, while hosting over 111,000 attendees.
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02/07, 4:35pm
Apple pulls out of NAB
Apple has pulled out of the National Association of Broadcasters Conference for 2008, citing a reduction in overall trade show participation. TV Technology reports that the move was speculated, if not fully expected, late last year when Avid (Apple's main competitor in the digital video space) withdrew from the show. "Apple is participating in fewer trade shows this year,” said Anuj Nayar, senior manager of PR at Apple. "Often there are better ways to reach our customers. The increasing popularity of our retail stores and Apple.com Web site allows us to directly reach more than 100 million customers around the world in innovative new ways."
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