My last day at the show, Thursday, was more relaxed without back-to-back prearranged meetings, so I had a chance to wander round, seeing new products. Most impressive was the new video monitor from Barco. Although still in the design stage, the pictures were stunning. Both Barco and Sony have shown that LCDs can be used to assess picture quality without distortions added by the display. Although we may mourn the passing of the CRT, the reality is that the broadcast sector represents such a small proportion of display device that it is no longer economic to manufacture the tubes.
The Barco and Sony displays are not those you would buy in the local computer store. For a start they have a 10-bit drive, rather than the eight- or even six-bit displays in consumer gear. Without this, reproduction of blacks is poor, and certainly inadequate for grading. The other differences are LED backlights rather than cold cathode for controlled color gamuts, and 120Hz refresh to minimize the motion artefacts caused by the sample and hold of LCDs.
Apple and Avid did not have booths, but I had the opportunity for a briefing on Final Cut Server. Digital asset management has been a special interest to me since the turn of the century. Back then you needed deep pockets to set up a system, $5M was not uncommon for the software, servers and an enterprise database. Add to that the running costs, on-site database administrators, support licenses.
Apple’s offering starts at a thousand bucks. OK it’s for 10 concurrent seats, but for a local station that is just what they need to manage P2 or XDCAM media. It will be interesting to watch the takeup of this product, and whether we will see competition. It’s long been my view that file-based production demands DAM, but for many it has been unaffordable. Such products make clear the advantages of file-based production over tape. It won’t be long before young folks entering the business will understand “tape” to be data tape, and videotape will join the audio cassette as a historical curiosity.
The audio console powerhouse, SSL demonstrated a new combination of mixing console, signal router and workstation controller called Matrix. SSL says it is targeted at post production and television studios who work primarly on DAWs.
Matrix is a SuperAnalogue 16 channel, 40 input mixing console with built-in signal router and multi-layer digital workstation control. It’s designed to bring analog audio mixing and posting into a digital workflow by providing a varaiety of new tools to work effectively in both domains simultaneously.
The console comes equipped with comprehensive foldback facilities and mix and auxiliary busses. A 16+1 fader, 4 layer DAW controller connects to other devices over a single Ethernet connection enabling access to popular DAWs including Pro Tools, Logic, Live and Reason.
The console has an integrated, recallable, software-controlled 32×16x16 analogue routing matrix, which eliminates the need for external patchbays.
The Matrix provides platform-independent project management and routing control for facilities of all sizes.
Half way through now and I have seen more “workflow solutions” than I though possible. I do wish the marketing folks didn’t run a controlled vocabulary, a bit of variety would be great. In the next print issue I’m running a feature on workflows so I have no shortage of raw content to work with.
The new cameras from Sony and Panasonic look great, something for everyone from the digital cinematographer (F35, new 2700 and 3700 Varicams) right down to the budget shooter. Panasonic were showing prototypes of new AVCHD camcorders with long-GOP AVC recorded to SD cards. Sony had similar cameras recording HDV to CF cards. Although these are aimed at very much at the wedding and event videographer, you can bet they will appeal for many broadcast applications like documentary productions. more
Axcera introduced the 6X Series liquid-cooled solid-state television transmitter that uses the company’s frequency agile exciter and LDMOS devices for broadband operation across the entire UHF band.
The showed a 6X transmitter that supports 7kW DVB-T, 10kW ATSC and 20kW analog operation on the floor. It will support power levels up to 30kW DVB-T and 40kW ATSC. According to company president David Neff, an important feature of the 6X transmitter is its relatively small form factor.
Axcera also highlighted the fact it’s supporting five different transmission technologies for mobile TV broadcasts with a red-hot car receiving mobile TV broadcast transmission as part of the NAB2008 demonstration of the technology.
Neff discussed mobile TV transmission, the final push to complete the DTV transition in the United States as well as a recently released report from research organization Centris showing that DTV coverage patterns may leave millions of viewers without over-the-air television reception.
At the TANDBERG booth (SU4210), I met with Lisa Hobbs, vice president of business development for satellite and broadcast. The company is showing two new integrated receiver decoders optimized for high-volume video distribution applications.
The RX8310 distribution receiver uses DVB-S2 modulation and MPEG-4 AVC compression. And it has the option to decrypt multipe services, allowing decryption of a complete multiplex of channels with a single unit. The system allows for single service decoding of MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 4:2:0 SD video and HD service downconversion.
The RX8320 ATSC broadcast receiver provides ASI and 8-VSB inputs for the reception of broadcast services over terrestrial or fiber links with automatic redundancy switchover between inputs. For more on the RX8320 ATSC broadcast receiver, watch a demo on Broadcast Engineering TV.
So representatives from every company at this year’s NAB, and surely every NAB since the beginning of time, want to convince the public that their companies are the best, whether they are trying to corner the newsroom system market from acquisition to playout or focus specifically on one aspect of the broadcast industry and encourage integration with as many companies as possible.
But, really, what can I say to a company that was featured, in small or large part, in more than a dozen booths beyond its own — not just integrated by these companies, but backed by as well — and that adheres to the idea of being “cheaper, faster and better” than any other company that is trying to do what it does? more
The editors and writers of Broadcast Engineering post live from the 2008 NAB Show in Las Vegas as the news happens. Check back throughout the day for the latest in industry news, reports from press conferences and product introductions.
