Also new in the Panasonic booth (C3712) was a pair of new high-resolution LCD HD production monitors. Two models introduced; the 25.5-inch BT-LH2550 and the 17-inch TT-LH1710 are truly high-end.

The LH2550 provides a 1920 x 1200 pixel In-Plane Switching (IPS) panel with an expanded color gamut that exceeds the NTSC standard. It offers six color space settings, therefore supporting a wide range of high-end applications. more

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.

At the Tektronix NAB2008 booth, the company introduced a 6lb. HD waveform monitor designed for stations launching actual high-def electronic news gathering operations.

The company developed the WFM 5000 after listening to its customers who needed a basic monitoring device that would satisfy the need to maintain the level of quality control over field acquisition they’ve grown to expect after years of SD newsgathering at a price that would not weigh heavily on their budgets, said the company’s John Hammerstrom. The WFM 5000 has a list price of less than $7000.

Besides offering a basic HD waveform monitoring function, the WFM 5000 also can be used as an HD vectorscope, picture monitor and status display for video and audio. It supports audio monitoring for 16 embedded channels of audio and one discrete AES pair and can be mounted to a tripod or atop a camera. At the booth, Tektronix showed the new waveform monitor affixed to a camera mount atop a camera as the unit might be used in real-life shooting situations.

According to Hammerstrom, the company has received thousands of requests from customers for an HD waveform monitor that would allow them to remain competitive with other stations in town without exceeding their HD infrastructure budgets.

Listen to an audio clip from John Hammerstrom.

Related article: Tektronix offers new SD, HD waveform monitors, rasterizers.

Broadcast Engineering TV demo: Tektronix’s WFM7120 for single link SDI

K*WILL is enabling broadcasters to seek out and find the source of lip sync problems wherever they occur. At its NAB2008 booth, the company introduced the portable VP3000, which relies on the company’s Video DNA technology to run signal analysis using double stimulus methodology.

The double stimulus approach compares an original signal source that is presumed to be error free to signal that’s been digitally process, such as a satellite feed or one that’s been encoded or decoded. Based on the original signal, the VP3000 can identify if there’s been any signal degradation, presumably caused by the signal processing. That way, broadcasters have a way to zero-in on the source of the lip syncing errors. more

Yesterday, we started out shooting technology demos at Thomson Grass Valley. The company’s product manager of integrated production solutions, Scott Matics, showed us MediaFUSE. This new content repurposing and multidistribution system provides an end-to-end suite of automated tools that allow broadcasters to increase the amount of content available for Internet and mobile distribution.

I don’t know about you, but I think Internet and mobile are the way of the future. There has been a lot of talk about mobile TV at NAB, and obviously the Internet is a key distribution platform or you wouldn’t be reading this blog.

Our next stop was Sony, where we viewed the TriMaster BVM-L230, a 23in full HD LCD master monitor. The picture clarity was incredible. The monitor features the industry’s first 10-bit LCD Panel driver with full 1920 x 1080 HD resolution. The BVM-L230 also features a Sony developed LED backlight system, which offers wide color spaces and color accuracy not available in conventional LCD monitors.

Watch a video on Sony’s TriMaster BVM-L230 on Broadcast Engineering TV.

Related articles: Thomson Grass Valley Ignites MediaFUSE for multiplatform production; Crosscreek installs Sony LCD monitors for HD production; Sony rolls out new reference LCD monitor.