Archive of the Product Announcements Category

At IBC2008, Quantel announced support for several newer camera formats. Support for the Red camera includes;

• Previewing of r3d files before importing – enabling shot selection and speeding workflow
• Partial file import – operators can selective clip ingest by simply setting in and out points
• Import at 4K, 2K or 1K resolution (full, half and quarter res) with different quality options
• Full use of all RED options including exposure, colorspace and color temperature.

Thomson Grass Valley has expanded its line of Triton compact routing switchers with the debut of the new Thomson Grass Valley Triton Plus series. Triton Plus has a reduced frame size, but expanded scalability and support for the highest quality AES110 Ohm audio and 3 Gb/s video signals. The new small footprint router is ideal for demanding AV environments where small size, low weight and affordability are critical. more

Thomson Grass Valley released the K2 Dyno replay controller. The compact, cost-effective next-generation controller coupled with the new K2 Summit production client is designed to help sports producers and other professionals capture live events in crystal-clear HD resolutions and instantly play them out at variable speeds for critical analysis during fast-paced events. It is ideally suited for HD sports production trucks and shared storage production facilities. more

Thomson announced three new models to the LDK series of cameras. They include the Thomson Grass Valley LDK 4000 Elite, LDK 8000 Elite (in Standard and WorldCam versions), and the LDK 8000 SportElite.

Among the new enhancements, the LDK Elite and SportElite HD series significantly improve on the existing cameras’ internal DSPs with new DSP circuits. It’s a completely updated software platform that performs all camera image management functions — such as knee, gamma, contours, and variable matrix — with three channel 22-bit digital precision. The SportElite adds 2x Super Slow-Motion sampling functionality in both 720p and 1080i HD formats. more

Omneon’s ProCast CDN is a high-performance file transport engine supporting high-speed file transfers over WAN.

ProCast CDN can transfer files at very fast rates, orders of magnitude greater than FTP. And, transfer speed is not affected by distance. more

Cobalt Digital announced the release of its new OGCP-9000 remote control panel. Designed to control and configure Cobalt’s 9000 series of cards for the openGear frame, the OGCP-9000 and the OGCP-9000/CC install in standard equipment racks and are 2RU high.

Although both panels are designed for use with Cobalt’s extensive 9000 series for openGear, the OGCP-9000/CC provides special emphasis and features for the new 9084 Color Corrector card. The 9084 is an HD/SD-SDI RGB Corrector with YCbCr video proc and frame synchronization. more

At IBC 2008 Quantel announced the full integration of Apple’s Final Cut Pro into the Quantel Enterprise sQ server-based production environment. The solution brings the exact same workflow advantages with Final Cut Pro workstations as they have with Quantel’s native editors.

With this development, FCP editors have full access to both rushes and metadata as well as to edited sequences generated on Quantel desktop and craft editing workstations. more

Ross Video is showcasing version 7.0 of their OverDrive automated production control system. The production platform includes applications for news, sports, worship and live events. Version 7.0 increases the power and flexibility of the OverDrive system by adding MOS integration for graphic and video server systems, an enhanced Client/Server architecture, and sideCar.

SideCar is a compact remote control panel, which adds multiple user-programmable timers, preview custom controls and the ability to enable or disable remote control of mixers or robotic cameras on-the-fly.

Other new key features include support for the company’s Vision QMD/X switcher family, including integration of internal MLE and global still stores, mis-matched panel and frame configuration support. This feature enables 1 or 2 MLE panels running 3 or 4 MLE frames, and several new enhancements for the RundownControl client and NRCS ActiveX plug-in.

Related articles: Ross Video, Autocue collaborate on a MOS interface; Calrec consoles now controlled by Ross switchers

Need to dispose of some old electronics? Today, you can’t just dump worn out equipment in the trash. Communities don’t like lead and other toxic chemicals being sent to the local land fill. Fortunately, at least one broadcast vendor is offering broadcasters an eco-friendly solution.

In talking to Thomson Grass Valley’s Jeff Rosica, senior vice president of marketing and technology, and Laura Barber-Miller, vice president communications, yesterday, I learned that their company supports an electronic recycling program. It’s called Take Back. When you purchase equipment from Grass Valley, the company will take the replaced old hardware and turn it over to an authorized recycler.

Nifty solution!

However, if that doesn’t work for you, see my September editorial for a different, albeit less efficient, recycling idea. Hint, it involves a chainsaw and perhaps a thousand small envelopes.

The Thomson Grass Valley Infinity Digital Media Camcorder (DMC) now includes MPEG-2 HD Long GOP as a codec choice. The addition of MPEG-2 Long GOP creates a low bit rate recording choice to complement the existing high-quality, high bit rates within the Infinity DMC. This allows Infinity users to choose among a range of HD choices from 18 Mb/sec up to 100 Mb/sec — all in the same camcorder, which can all be recorded to the same piece of media.

Thomson has now added a Long GOP MPEG-2 codec with user selectable bit rates of 18Mb/s, 25Mb/s, 35Mb/s and 50Mb/s. The MPEG-2 Long GOP choice gives users additional file-based workflow options that are compatible with industry NLEs and expands the options for recording and transmission. more