Issue: Volume: 25 Issue: 4 (April 2002)

NAB 2002



MISCELLANEOUS

Radical compositor
3dFilm from RadTIME enables users to quickly composite and animate layers of resolution-independent digital media, including film and broadcast-quality video.
RadTIME Inc.; www.radtime.com;
Booth #S-7919 and S-6327




Telecine toolbox
With First Art's Primal, users can create image treatments in real time in HD or SD resolutions. Some features include "Infinity defocus," lens flares, painterly effects, and a color warper.
First Art; www.firstart.co.uk;
Booth #11777

Next-generation Ultimattes
Ultimatte's matte extraction tools for Adobe, Avid, Discreet, and other effects and NLE products include an intuitive user interface and a separate shadow channel, smart matte sizing, and image decompression.
Ultimatte; www.ultimatte.com;
Booth #S3914

MODELING AND ANIMATION

A Maya for everyone
Win | MAC | UNIX The latest versions of Alias|Wavefront's Maya include Maya Real-Time Author (RTA), which enables users to trigger Shockwave animations, configure Shockwave cameras, and control 3D sound from within Maya; and Mental Ray for Maya, an optional, integrated plug-in renderer that is a superset of the mental ray version 3.0 renderer. Maya for Mac OS X is also now available.
Alias|Wavefront; www.aliaswavefront.com;
Booth #S5418

Image manipulation plug-ins
With RE:Flex, from RE:Vision Effects, users can create warps and morphs using After Effects' drawing and masking tools. RE:Flex sells for $495. RE:Vision also offers ReelSmart FieldsKit, which sells for $89.95. FieldsKit provides smarter deinterlacing and more workflow options for interlacing and pulldown.
RE:Vision Effects; www.revisionfx.com;
Booth #S6927

VIDEO/MULTIMEDIA

Nonlinear editing systems
A multistream nonlinear editing system based on the dpsQuattrus hardware, dpsVelocityQ features real-time simultaneous playback of four video streams (uncompressed or compressed), six dynamic graphics streams, and four channels of real-time 3D DVE.
DPS; www.dps.com;
Booth #19511

Powerful pixels
Pixel Power's Clarity2 SD character generator features dual AMD Athlon MP1900+ processors and multiple pixel processors for rapid delivery of on-air graphics. The Clarity2 features two channels of live push-back and full-frame animated graphics.
Pixel Power; www.pixelpower.com;
Booth #L19577

Virtual-set rendering
Win New from Radamec, Scenario XR renders virtual sets in real time, including reflections of live inserted elements, and imports 3D set designs from industry-standard 3D packages, including 3ds max. The system uses Radamec's new 436VR camera sensor head and lens encoders to provide accurate camera position information.
Radamec Broadcast Systems; www.radamecbroadcast.com;
Booth #L12268

More fire from Discreet
UNIX The Fire 5 HD editing and finishing system from Discreet offers real-time, high-resolution digital cinema and HD capabilities, as well as extended integration with Discreet's Inferno 4.6. New features include Open Media Framework Interchange (OMFI) for transferring file formats from Avid offline NLE systems, resolutions up to 4Kx3K with 12-bit color depth, matte containers, and audio timewarps. Price not available.
Discreet; www.discreet.com;
Booth #S4409



MISCELLANEOUS

Digital playback; film grading
An uncompressed film and video playback solution, 5D Cyborg v2 is designed to improve workflow by centralizing digital content and reducing the need to output to film. Capable of playing up to 2K 8-bit RGB in real time, the device features a full 3D environment with accurate camera model, interactive lighting model with up to 24 simultaneous lights, deformations, and effects on every layer. Also from 5D is 5D Colossus, a film grading system featuring primary and secondary grading, workgroup interaction, animation settings, tracking, masks, and log and linear controls.
5D; www.five-d.com;
Booth #S3908

DV hardware and software
Matrox Video Products Group offers several digital video hardware and software solutions for real-time editing, DVD authoring, and Web streaming applications, including the Matrox DigiSuite MAX, the Matrox RT2500, and the Matrox RTMac.
Matrox; www.matrox.com/video;
Booth #S4427

Storage appliance
The newest member of DataDirect Networks' Silicon Storage Appliance family, the S2A 3000 is designed for workgroup and departmental use. A plug-and-play S2A 3000 workgroup SAN with 1TB sells for $49,995.
DataDirect Networks; www.datadirectnet.com;
Booth #S5744

Portable switchers
A 10-bit SDI switcher, Brick House Video's VTB-1D comes as a portable stand-alone or rack-mounted unit with separate remote panel and integrates auto/manual dissolve and wipe, 4x4 SDI input/output, analog composite program output for monitoring, embedded audio switching, an internal test generator, and 525/625 switching.
Brick House Video; www.brickhousevideo.com;
Booth #L18238

MOTION CAPTURE

Intelligent mocap
Vicon's 8i optical motion-capture system works with up to 24 cameras, and can capture for any duration up to 24 hours. And with the company's Vicon iQ software, users can capture extreme movements of multiple characters that traditionally would be impossible to capture, or be very tedious to edit.
Vicon; www.vicon.com;
Booth #S5127

SYSTEMS

Boxx bonanza
HDBoxx is an uncompressed nonlinear HD editing and compositing system for Windows 2000 offering 10- and 8-bit YUV and 8-bit RGB support as well as the ability to render a 1-second uncompressed 1080i dissolve in 2.4 seconds. Supporting all HD and SD formats, HDBoxx offers variable frame-rate support for Panasonic's new AJ-HDC27V HD Cinema camera. Boxx also has announced new versions of 3DBoxx and RenderBoxx featuring the latest AMD and Intel processors.
Boxx Technologies; www.boxxtech.com;
Booth #S2329

Broadcast, post, and storage
Avid offers several broadcast products, including Avid Unity LANshare, an Ethernet-based shared media solution; and Avid NewsCutter 3.0, which now works with Avid's iNews products and features new Web publishing tools and XP model support for DV 50. New from Avid's Post group are a Mac version of Avid Xpress DV v3, and enhanced versions of Media Composer, Symphony, Film Composer, and Avid Xpress v5, all designed to improve networking, storage, and media sharing support.
Avid; www.avid.com;
Booth #L13200

On-air with Orad
Orad's CyberGraphics on-air graphics system features seamless integration of pre-recorded and live rendered scene portions and plug-ins to main authoring tools. CyberSet is Orad's line of virtual-set solutions offering a range of camera tracking modules, photorealistic sets, redundancy and broadcast security techniques, and new lighting effects. Other products include CyberSport, Forum, and DVG.
Orad; www.orad.tv;
Booth #S3944

Content design system
Media 100's new digital system for content design, the 844/X delivers real-time image processing, along with internal precision to support the arrangement and editing of complex audio-visual content incorporating many layers.
Media 100; www.media100.com;
Booth #L14418