Postproduction at NAB 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last week was the celebration of NAB 2013 in Las Vegas; this is a summary of some of the main news concerning audiovisual post-production.

MISTIKA

SGO was one of the companies showcasing its broadcast and post production solutions, with Mistika Air and new developments in Mistika Post v7.2.

Among the headlines was the launch of Mistika Air, aimed at offering broadcasters production tools with parallel workflows in Ultra HD, HD, 4K and 8K in multiple encodings. Mistika offers support for most current cameras, including those from Sony, Canon, ARRI or RED, making a significant difference in speed over other systems, which is critical when working in 4K.

Full support is now offered for 4K QuadHDMI/4K QuadDVI, 4K QuadSDI with option for 1.5Gbit and 3G, single 4K connector via HDMI 1.4, 4K HFR).

The new features include endless possibilities for directing and combining color selections across any number of layers, with all layers having a full set of functions to transform color, all in a single tool designed to maintain real-time performance. All functions are accessible directly from the Tangent Element controllers. A revamped color correction interface has been included, including Curves Mode for fine-tuned control, the option to mix modes for each layer, and new mask processing options.

New features in version 7.2 include:

• Improved tools for the creation of DCPs.
• Ability to create “clip sets” to group clips of similar interest.
• Support for more codecs in the compositing tools, with RAW and compression, for metadata control.
• New XML and AAF support.
• Ability to create custom filters from any combination of effects and attach them to monitor, editor or render outputs.
• New integrated tracker.
• Significant improvements in read and decode speed for compressed and uncompressed formats.
• Unification of time-warp with support for optical flow.

 

 

PABLO RIO

Quantel announced that its high-end color correction and finishing system now supports the AJA Corvid Ultra 4K card. This combination gives you the opportunity to output high frame rate (HFR) video at 4K (at 50fps and 60fps).

Pablo Rio also uses Nvidia Maximus technology, with support for the Nvidia K20 Tesla, providing twice the performance of previous generation GPUs (based on the Fermi architecture instead of Kepler).

This is the first time Quantel has offered operability with any video card other than its own.

Quantel offers this turnkey system including Corvid Ultra, sold directly to users.

Here you have more information about Pablo Rio.

 

COLOR ASSIST

Technicolor announced compatibility of Color Assist, its color correction software, with the Final Cut Pro X editing system, responding to user requests since its release in November.

Color Assist includes 25 Looks designed by Technicolor colorists, each designed to capture a particular effect, genre or style. Users can easily apply any of these looks and view them in real time.

There are also additional packs available (for $19), which include 10 new looks each. Among them you can find Color Assist Looks: Movies, with styles that recreate classic cinema; or Color Assist Looks: Extreme, for more experimentation.

In addition, Color Assist offers color correction tools such as “3-Way Color Corrector”, “Key Selector” and “Curves”, which allow for manual adjustments.

Based on the DP Lights system, also from Technicolor, this application provides the ability to save up to 9 color compositions per video clip.

Color Assist works on PC and Mac in FCP 7, FCP X, Adobe Premiere Pro (CS5.5 and CS6). It is priced at $99 and you can buy it or download the free 7-day trial from here.

Technicolor has announced that it has more new releases planned for the second quarter of 2013.

ON-SET DAILIES 2013

Colorfront showed at NAB the latest version of its On-Set Dailies system, an upgrade that adds the ability to work at 64-bit.

On-Set Dailies 2013 integrates playout, synchronization, quality control, color correction, audio and metadata management tools. It is a “faster-than-real-time” delivery system for commonly used formats and its advanced features include 4K debayering, support for ACES workflow and support for 4K and UHDTV (Ultra HD).

One of the new features is On-Set Dailies 2013 Live, which provides real-time debayering and color correction for camera feeds up to 4K. Colorists can then design their looks before they even start shooting, making color correction a pre-production process instead of only being done in post-production.

To provide 2K and 4K monitoring and an I/O solution with support for UHDTV (3840 x 2160 at 60fps), AJA’s Corvid Ultra card is supported. Users will be able to output 4K material via four HD-SDI to a 4K monitor and can correct this type of signal live.

The new integrated capability called “Copy Central” facilitates the creation of dailies by offering simultaneous copy verification for multiple destinations, including the LTO file, and produces PDF reports.

There are also the new “Bins” functions, with which you will be able to manage media and metadata by creating bins, timelines, quick and easy searches and exporting files for project management.

MARQUISE TECHNOLOGIES

Marquise Technologies was another company at NAB to showcase new products, offering a complete workflow, from dailies to mastering, with support for ACES.

• MIST Mobile

This mobile device, specially designed for the creation of on-set dailies, has been enhanced by the Live Module. This module allows to work live from an SDI signal, or to do a RAW debayering in real time.

In terms of color correction, it has a six-vector supplement for the introduction of secondaries and supports the ACES workflow.

In order to properly create a DCP or IMF, Marquise Technologies has two turnkey systems built around hardware-accelerated JPEG 2000 encoding for real-time 4K mastering.

• MIST DCI Mastering

It is the only solution that uses a “Color Space Chromatic Adaptation”, allowing a more accurate conversion to the DCI XYZ color space. MIST also has the exclusivity of creating ACES DCPs.

The complexity of subtitle management has been solved with the “Subtitle Editor” capable of editing, importing and exporting SMPTE subtitles in XML and MXF.

Full HFR and AFR (Archival Frame Rate) support has also been added, as well as stereo downmixing for 5.1 and 7.1 audio for easy monitoring.

• MIST IMF Mastering

It is the only solution capable of packaging an MFI from an ACES project, or visually creating multiple OPLs using the node-based FlowGraph that now has support for MXF-AS02 and MXF-AS11.

It also allows easy media archiving and retrieval, and supports new formats from the Sony F65 and F55 RAW, Sony SRMaster and Canon RMF, among others.

• RAIN 4K

It benefits from support for the same new formats as MIST and features enhanced 4K processing and “GPU Direct”.

EASY DCP

The developers of easyDCP have improved their products easyDCP Creator and easyDCP Player, allowing their users more possibilities.

Starting with easyDCP Player, these are the new features:

• Support for HD-SDI playback through Blackmagic Design‘s DeckLink and UltraStudio products, enabling playback on high-end projectors.

• Support for Supplemental DCPs and Multi-PKL DCPs, a method to work with a DCP without altering the original data. Results can now be reviewed with easyDCP Player.

• JPEG2000 decoders can now be configured with “Quality vs. Performance”, allowing to increase the decoding speed but leaving aside the maximum quality.

• Integration with DaVinci Resolve (about which you can read more in this article).

Compared to version 2.2 of easyDCP Creator, the user interface has been improved for speed. There is now the possibility to “burn” subtitles during DCP creation to Apple Quicktime/DPX/TIFF and support for parsing and rendering SMPTE subtitles. Advanced options for “pillarbox” and “letterbox” and advanced “Quicktime-Shift” color transformation have also been added.

Here you have more information about easyDCP.

SAPPHIRE 7

GenArts, a company specializing in visual effects software, introduced Sapphire 7 at NAB. This new update provides users with greater control, increased speed and expanded effects, with the goal of enabling users to create better effects in less time.

Sapphire 7 includes more than 2,500 presets (twice as many as in version 7). These are its new features:

• New and improved effects: EdgeAwareBlur, Beauty, Advanced Sharpen, PanAndZoom (only available for Avid), LensFlare, Zap and MotionBlur.

• New and improved transitions: FilmRoll, CardFlip and FlutterCut.

• Added CUDA GPU support to provide an overall speed increase.

• For the first time in Sapphire, users will be able to share presets between different platforms.

• Real-time rendering of most effects on Avid systems.

Here is a video about the new features for publishers.

 

BORIS CONTINUUM COMPLETE

Boris FX introduced a new VFX browser and an update to its Boris Continuum Complete (BCC) plugin collection.

The new BCC Effects Library Browser plugin allows you to preview thousands of presets through animations. These presets will appear sorted according to filter and category.

This plug-in can be used on any BCC-compatible system, even if BCC is not installed. It will be available in Q2 2013 as a free download for all existing users.

Boris FX has also released version 8.2 of Boris Continuum Complete, with improved render times for all OpenGL-accelerated filters. In addition, as in Sapphire 7, most filters on Avid are processed in real time, including Lens Flare 3D and Stage Light.

Particle effects such as Particle Emitter 3D have also been improved, with faster processing and improved depth-of-field implementation.

BCC is now optimized to work with NVIDIA and ATI, expanding its graphics card support.

BCC v8.2 FxPlug for Final Cut Pro and Motion is now available here. Avid, After Effects, Premiere Pro and Sony Vegas versions will be available in the second quarter of this year.

IMAGINEER SYSTEMS

Imagineer System, creators of mocha Planar Tracking technology, announced a partnership with CoreMelt to integrate Planar Tracker into SliceX, the mask creation plugin for FCP X.

In addition, Imagineer Systems made presentations of the new versions of mocha Pro and mocha AE. In the new mocha v3.2 release, support for localization and internationalization is added, including a translated interface and documentation versions of mocha 3.2 for Chinese and Japanese, with more languages announced for the future.

Mocha 3.2 also adds support for Contour ShuttlePro controllers, which will allow more options, keyboard shortcuts and faster workflow.

 

XAVC S FORMAT

Following the sale of over 2000 units of CineAlta 4K cameras and consequently the huge adoption of the XAVC format, Sony has introduced a version of its 4K codec that is more “consumer friendly”. It dispenses with the MXF container and uses an MPEG-4 instead. It is based on the familiar H.264, which should ensure broad compatibility for applications to support the XAVC S format.

The format has several advantages for high-quality image reproduction, including 4K pixel resolution, 10-bit color depth, wide color space (S-Gamuy) and S-log gamma.

XAVC S profile:

• Resolution: 4K (3840 x 2160), HD and Proxy
• Compression: MPEG-4 AVC/H.264
• Container format: MP4
• Audio: Linear PCM and AAC

A licensing program has been proposed to editing software and hardware manufacturers and some 60 manufacturers have already submitted an application. 31 will support the XAVC format and workflow, including Adobe, Assimilate, Avid, Blackmagic Design, Colorfront, FilmLight, Final Cut Pro X, MTI Film, Quantel and more.

You can also read the articles about:

• Adobe introduces Creative Suite 7
• Avid Media Composer 7
• New FilmLight products
• DaVinci Resolve 10
• The Foundry updates Nuke and Hiero
• New from Blackmagic Design at NAB
• Sorenson Squeeze 9