LAS VEGAS: Presenting a list of 101 technologies on display at NAB 2012, a combination of award winners, late product announcements and random observations on the floor by the TV Technology staff, their spies, and others.
denotes a winner of TV Technology's STAR Award.
indicates a winner of Digital Video's Black Diamond Award.
denotes a winner of the Mario.
1 Beyond Wrangler LTO-5 NetDrive
A universal, portable LTO-5 drive that automatically off-loads material onto a Mac or a PC, with optional encoding during ingest.
AAdyn Punch Plus
An LED hyper beam fresnel-style light equivalent to a 2,000 W tungsten or 2,500 W HMI. From a TV Tech spy: “It is easily one of the most powerful LED lights at NAB, and yet runs very cool and is quite compact, sturdy and fully programmable for lighting effects like lighting, strobe, etc. at different frequencies.”
Adobe Creative Suite 6
Adobe’s latest pro editing suite with CS applications available through Adobe Creative Cloud.
Adtec EN91
The Adtec EN91 MPEG-4 encoder (pictured right) is “ultra-low delay,” under 100 milliseconds. It features redundent power supplies, enhanced control and monitoring from front panel, and supports SD, 2D/HD and 3D.
Aframe Cloud Video Production Platform
Just that—a cloud-based production platform for remote collaboration. Partners include AbelCine in New York and Burbank, Calif.; DigiNovations in Acton, Mass.; Postworks in New York; Hula Post Production in Burbank; Rule Broadcast Systems in Boston; and WH Platts in Atlanta, Charleston, S.C, and Charlotte, N.C.
AJA Ki Pro Quad
Ki Pro Quad (pictured right is AJA’s new solid-state portable video recorder for capturing files at 4K, “Quad HD,” 2K and HD, with 10-bit 4:4:4 and 4:2:2 color support.
AJA T-TAP
For 10-bit SD, HD and 2K output from a Thunderbolt-enabled Mac. (Pictured left)
AmberFin UQC
AmberFin updated UQC, its unified quality control system for ingest and transcoding.
Anton/Bauer Matrix Cheese Plate
Anton/Bauer’s Matrix Cheese Plate (right) is a new mounting plate that can be used with the company’s Gold Mounts for Sony’s PMW-F3 and NEX-FS-100; Canon’s EOS 5D Mark II, EOS 7D, EOS 60D; and the EOS C300; Panasonic’s AG-AF100 series and Red’s Epic. A/B also unveiled a Gold Mount for the Canon EOS C300.
ARRI L7-C
ARRI’s L7-C 7-inch LED light is fully color controllable, enabling correlated color temperature, green-magenta shift and RGBW colors.
Atom 1024 Camera
A TV Tech spy says: “A very interesting application of technology. It images long-wave infrared light without the need for sensor cooling, and is the first such product capable of high-definition (1024x768) imaging... I can see some applications in reality television and night-time nature productions.”
Autodesk Smoke 2013
Autodesk brought out Smoke 2013 (pictured right) for the Mac at $3,495.
Avid Interplay Sphere
Avid brought Interplay Sphere for cloud editing; a multiplatform distribution solution; new Isis 2000 nearline storage; and Avid Motion Graphics with a real-time 2D/3D rendering engine.
Avid Media Composer 6
Avid’s latest editing suite, a 64-bit app with third-party hardware compatibility, 3D tools, new color correction features and more.
Belden 1776 Mic Cable
Belden had a hammock chair hanging from it at the show (pictured left). “Appears to be the answer to an audio technician’s prayers,” our spy said. “Belden’s new cable is constructed with high-strength conductors and a very tough rubber jacket, allowing it to withstand much more abuse than conventional cables.”
BitCentral EagleEye
BitCentral integrated EagleEye monitoring into its news automation platforms, through the use of a module installed on each server. EagleEye delivers system reports to the Bitcentral Support center.
Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera
BlackMagic stirred up some buzz by introducing its first camera, a handheld digital cinema unit with wide 13 stops dynamic range, 2.5K resolution sensor, built-in SSD recorder, touch LCD metadata entry, CinemaDNG RAW DNxHD and ProRes recording, Thunderbolt and EF lens compatibility (pictured right).
BlackMagic Design Teranex 2D & 3D Processors
“This rackmountable processor enables simultaneous real time SD/HD up/down conversion, 2D/3D conversion and also standards conversion from 50 to 60 Hz and vice versa at a fraction the cost of similar devices by others and by Teranex before being bought by Black Magic,” our spy said.
Brevity V3
New York-based start-up Brevity announced V3 technology that simultaneously transcodes accelerates transport of high-res video “as an integrated process on any network.”
Broadcast Pix on Windows 7
Broadcast Pix said its Granite and Mica switchers are now shipping with new Intel quad-core technology running on Microsoft Windows 7.
Cameron Pace Shadow 5D Production Suite
“The first handheld 5D stereo camera system (pictured left with the show crew) shoots simultaneously in 3D and 2D,” our spy said. “It gives 5D operators the same freedom of movement as 2D shooters. It has unique technology to adjust the center stereo alignment automatically. The key thing is that for the first time, 5D cameramen can go handheld—liberating them from a small number of fixed camera positions.” A
Canon EOS C500 4K Camera
“4K cameras were everywhere at NAB 2012, but the Canon EOS C500 (right) impressed with its controls, connectors and available accessories,” so said the spy. “Video quality is outstanding, and Canon’s attention to production requirements, availability of lenses and affordable cost make the EOS C500 attractive to content creators who want to work at the next level of high definition.”
Carbon XL 10
A camera crane, jib, dolly track and car mount in a system, for under $9,000.
Ciphertex CX-10K-NAS
A 10 GigE NAS storage unit, available in 10, 20 or 30 TB capacities.
Chyron Shout
Chyron came out with Shout (at right) for putting Tweets into live broadcasts. Engage leverages ConnecTV’s second-screen app with Chyron’s broadcast graphics platform.
Clear-Com Tempest 2400 Master Belt
The Tempest 2400 MasterBelt digital wireless intercom enables hands-free communication within the form of a Tempest 2400 BeltStation. The MasterBelt can be paired with any standard Tempest 2400 CP-222 two-channel BeltStation to create a full-featured two-channel system in the 2.4 GHz band.
Cobalt Digital LMNTS
Cobalt’s Loudness Management for n-Transport Streams is a multistream loudness processor that operates at the MPEG transport layer.
Convergent Design Gemini Raw
“The only 4K raw recorder at NAB under $30,000,” our spy said. “It can also be used for quad-screen viewing of 4K from debayered 4K raw output. It is compatible with most high end digital cine cameras like Arri Alexa, Canon 300 and 500 Sony FS3.”
Dalet Galaxy
“Dalet Galaxy includes a high-value, BPMN 2.0-compliant workflow engine that dramatically boosts productivity and agility while also improving operational and business visibility across the media enterprise,” our spy said. “The release will offer many additional features including a new modern-looking graphical user interface; Dalet One Cut, a built-in, multitrack video editing framework”
Desisti LED Fresnel Lights
LED Magis 40 W, LED Leonardo 90 W, LED Leonardo 120 W... Our spy offers: “The first true LED spotlights for the professional lighting industry. The units are available in daylight or tungsten color temperature. The LED Fresnel optically performs identically to the tungsten Leonardo Fresnel.”
Dolby Labs Dolby 3D
Dolby’s new 3D cinema system.
Digital Broadcast Spot Commander
“Spot Commander allows stations that accept ads from outside production companies to automate the whole process,” our spy says. Contributors upload content online, and the application automatically quality checks audio, video, and other parameters.
Digital Rapids Kayak Workflow
Digital Rapids launched a new Kayak workflow platform with DR’s Transcode Manager software enables users to design, deploy and manage customized workflows.
Dougmon
“The Dougmon camera-support system is designed for DSLRs and small video cameras,” our spy says. “I’m nominating it due to its small size, light weight, and ability to provide a great amount of handheld camera stability without the expense of a full Stedicam rig.”
DPA Microphonesd:vote
DPA Microphones unveiled its new d:vote range of instrument microphones, aimed at for broadcast settings that require discrete mics. (Pictured right.)
Edelkrone FocusPLUS+ and FocusONE
Camera accessories for more precise focusing.
Ensemble Designs Avenue P9425 Layering Engine
The new Avenue P9425 Layering Engine provides enables the combination of audio and video content for channel branding, small master control, centralcasting, fly-pack, and remote truck applications.
Ericsson AVP-3000
Ericsson’s new mutli-codec, multifunction video compression and processing platform.
EditShare Lightworks
EditShare launched a redesigned version Lightworks that supports aVCHD, H.264, AVC-Intra, DNxHD and more. A free and a $60 Pro version will become available May 28 on a new website.
Emotion3D Stereoscopic Suite X1
Emotion3D’s 3D rendering software automatically generates depth maps from stereo 3D material, allowing editing in the third dimension.
Evertz Dream Catcher
Dream Catcher (right) represents Evertz’s entry into the server-based replay market. You won’t find this new EVS competitor on the Evertz website yet; it was sneak-peeked at the show.
Florical and DAS Do EAS
Florical and Digital Alert Systems teamed up to “facilitate a more structured and seamless integration of EAS messages into the broadcast workflow.”
For-A/Flovel MC-4000 4K Camera
Uses a 1.25-inch CMOS.
Fujinon PL 19-90 Cabrio Lens
The PL 19-90 Cabrio (ZK4.7x19) features a detachable servo drive, making it suitable for use as a standard PL or ENG-style lens. It also features flange focal distance adjustment, macro function, and is LDS (Lens Data System) and /i metadata compatible.
GenArts Sapphire Edge
New visual effects software includes 350 preset looks, streamlined controls and a one-year subscription to FX Central.
Gepco TactiFlex
Gepco debuted Tactiflex polyurethane-jacketed fiber-optic cable, said to be 30 percent more flexible than standard, ruggedized fiber-optic cables. New RunOne speaker cable combines audio, power and optional data in a single jacket.
GoPro Protune Firmware with Technicolor CineStyle
GoPro’s ProTune firmware upgrade incorporates Technicolor color technology into GoPro’s latest launch.
Haivision KulaByte 4.0
KulaByte is a software-based live H.264 video transcoder that delivers the highest quality RTMP Dynamic Streaming for Flash video and Adaptive HTTP Live Streaming for iOS devices. Now available for both Linux and Windows.
Harmonic ChannelPort
ChannelPort provides integrated branding and master control switching with clip playback on the Omneon server platform. ChannelPort is the company’s first introduction to broadcast channel branding. Multilayer graphics, dynamic text and a user GUI with preview of the graphics and branding in 1 RU.
Harris Magellan
Magellan is a network monitoring and control platform for multiple channels and/or facilities, compatible with Harris and third-party devices.
HP Z1 Workstation
An all-in-one workstation with a 27-inch display that snaps open for parts swaps, starting at $1,899.
IMT Digital Fixed Link
Integrated Microwave Technologies brought its GL modular system with a remote RF head (up to 23 GHz) and internal RF modules (up to 14 GHz) for fixed-link applications. The heart of the GL is a UNM third-gen, full-duplex modem card configurable for single carrier QAM or COFDM at data rates up to 155 Mbps.
IO Industries4K (by 3K) High-Speed Camera
The new 4KSDI digital camera has the same capability as IO’s 2KSDI, but with a new sensor capable of 120 fps at full resolution, scalable to lower resolutions.
JK Audio Interloop
A Bluetooth wireless two way intercom belt-pack system.
JVC GY-HMQ10 Handheld 4K Camera
JVC’s new handheld 4K camcorder captures at 24p, 50p and 60p with a 1/2-inch CMOS.
JVC GY-HM650 Mobile News Camera
The GY-HM650 ProHD handheld mobile news camera (right) uses dual codecs for producing full HD files on a single memory card while creating low-res files on a second card. It features built-in FTP and Wi-Fi for transport. JVC also introduced the GY-HM600 advanced handheld camera; a new live Blu-ray disc recorder; and a new Vérité G series monitor.
Libec Swift Jib50
The Swift Jib50 has a telescopic arm extendable to 35.5 inches, offering the highest angles of any of Libec’s jib arms.
Linear Acoustic Aero 1000
Linear Acoustic’s Aero 1000 (left) comprises up to eight each AeroMax audio processing engines, Dolby decoder/encoders and Nielsen Watermark encoders; features 3GHz SDI and hybrid multiband/metadata processing, in a 1RU chassis.
Litepanels Inca Lights
Fresnel-style LED lights (right) with output equivalent to 650 and 300 W tungsten but with a power draw of only 104 and 39 W. Their color temperature is the same as tungsten—3200K.
Manfrotto Remote Controls for Canon HDSLRs
Manfrotto's remote controls are Canon HDSLR compatible and designed for interconnectivity with Manfrotto’s SYMPLA alternative supports. Manfrotto launched two distinct models of HDSLR remote controls at NAB 2012: Clamp version and Pro version.
Matrox MicroQuad
The MicroQuad (left) is a four-channel SDI-to-HDMI multiviewer priced at $995.
Microwave Video Systems PortaQAM
“Although the 2GHz band switched to digital a couple years ago, there are thousands of microwave links across the country at a variety of frequencies, and many of these are still analog,” our spy says. “The MVS PortaQAM lets you feed a digital ASI signal into a old analog microwave transmitter and recover a flawless ASI signal at the receive end, and it costs many thousands less than replacing the transmitter and receiver.”
Miranda iTX MC
Miranda’s iTX Master Control combines iTX playout with Imagestore master control.
MultiDyne SilverBACK-II
The SilverBACK-II camera-mounted fiber-transport system (right) has been redesigned to handle bi-directional signals from Grass Valley, Hitachi, Panasonic and Sony camcorders among others.
N.I.C.T No-Glasses, Multiview 3D
Tucked into the corner of the research ghetto in the North Hall, Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology was demonstrating vibrant, no-glasses 3D with multiple viewing angles—on a 200-inch screen. Picture left. (It was righteous.)
Nikon D800
The Nikon D800 captures 1080p video at 30, 25 or 24p along with stereo sound for just under $3K.
never.no Prompter
never.no said its Prompter allows TV talent to use social media and interactive content “on the job.”
Nori Square Bounce Reflector
Collapsible square lighting reflector folds up like an umbrella.
OConnor O-Focus Dual Mini
“A compact, double-sided direct drive follow focus unit optimized for both still and cine-style camera lenses,” Oconner says.
International Supplies Optimos All-in-One Slider/Crane
It provides an extremely controlled stable environment for camera movement on rails in multiple configurations and doubles as cart. Kits will range from $1,500 to $3,500.
Orad TD Control
Designed for news, sports, talk shows, and other fast-turn around productions that leverage video box presentations to connect audiences with remote on-air guests and talent, TD Control consolidates the various video streams into a single layout with complete control over video and graphics placement.
Panasonic BT-LH2170 LCD Production Monitor
A 21.5-inch LCD production monitor with native 1920x1080HD resolution and advanced 3D assist features. Due out the coming winter for a suggested list price of $4,500.
Panasonic BT-LH1850
An 18.5-inch HD/SD LCD production monitor with 1366x768 resolution, available now for $2,595.
Panasonic Micro P2
MicroP2 cards have an SD card form factor. A new microP2 Card Adapter will allow their use in current P2 hardware with a fee-based firmware upgrade. The media and the adapter will be available in the spring of 2013.
Pixelmetrix OTT Media Grinder
“The new buzz phrase on the floor of NAB 2012 was ‘over-the-top’ video,” this spy notes. “Videos like these might have one viewer at a time or they might have thousands of simultaneous viewers, so testing for Quality of Service is difficult. Pixelmetrix solved this with OMG, which can test an OTT network with up to 2,000 simultaneous playback requests.”
PRG TruColor HS Digital Light Fixture
The TruColor HS from PRG is a color-accurate digital soft light with “twice the output of a 2K incandescent soft light,” PRG says.
Quantel RevolutionQ
“Quantel launched a new means of accessing hundreds of terabytes of media… online, instantly and by any number of users,” one of our spies says. “It will use off-the-shelf storage options and a proprietary broadcast production system to allow years of content to be stored online and be accessible instantly to simultaneous users.”
RadiantGrid Technologies Automation
Along with AS-02 conversion, RadiantGrid’s transwrapping functionality allows users to reuse the video and audio essences from other container formats such as GXF and repackage them into AS-02.
RED Scarlet
RED’s 5K still, 4K motion camera.
Redbyte Design/Decimator MD-CROSS
HDMI/SDI cross converter with scaling and frame-rate conversion and a pro 3G/HD/SD test pattern generator.
Ross BlackStorm
The BlackStorm 102P playout server, built on Dell hardware, is a two-channel, HD 1 RU video player with 4 TB of storage (expandable to eight) that natively supports Quicktime and a selection of codecs. Ross also introduced Inception, a new social media management tool.
Rovi TotalCode Enterprise 2.0
Rovi’s TotalCode does server-distributed, high-volume, video encoding, with this latest version supporting UltraViolet—an industry first, Rovi says.
RTW TM3
RTW’s multistandardTM3 TouchMonior loudness meter (left) has a 4.3-inch touch display that works horizontally or vertically with a separate interface box. The TM3 stereo version handles analog and digital audio, while the TM3-6CH version also supports 6-channel digital input. RTW said it sold three to a Swiss production company before formally introducing the product.
Sachtler Ace Tripod System
Sachtler Ace was designed for low-weight professional cameras.
Schneider Optics iPro Lens System
The iPro Lens System (right) is specifically designed for the iPhone 4 and 4S. Both the Wide Angle and the Fisheye Lenses use a bayonet mount to securely fasten onto the iPhone case.
Sierra Video Aspen 3232 Routing Switcher
Sierra Video’s Aspen 3232HD-3G routing switcher (left) handles SD-SDI, HD-SDI and HD-3G 2 RUs.
Signiant Media Shuttle
The Signiant Media Shuttle is an interface for accessing cloud-stored media through a secure enterprise network.
Snell Momentum
Momentum media asset management leverages a GUI by which users can reconfigure a facility’s workflow and allocate resources according to need.
Sonnet Echo ExpressCard Thunderbolt Adapter
The Echo ExpressCard Thunderbolt adapter enables the use of Sonnet ExpressCards with Sony Thunderbolt port-equipped computers, including the latest Apple products—as SxS memory card readers.
Sony NEX-FS700 NXCAM
The new Sony model (right) has a Super 35mm sensor, and can shoot 1,080p footage at 240 frames per second, and up to 960 fps at lower resolutions. FS700 ISO ranges up to ISO 20,000. It will also be capable of capturing 4K imagery. It becomes available in June.
Sound Devices PIX 260
PIX 260 (left) is a rack-mount, file-based, A/V recorder/player designed to replace tape decks and production and post-pro.
SSL C-Play
From our spy: “The C-Play system embeds a fully functional spot and music playout system into the C100 HDS or C10 HD broadcast consoles. Until now, broadcasters have been faced with sourcing dedicated playout systems and preparing console project and playout systems individually. C-Play offers the broadcaster sophisticated fully featured playout functionality with the significant ergonomic and workflow advantages of an embedded system.”
SWIT S-2040 Chip-Array On-Camera Light
“Who doesn’t need light, right? And who likes carrying big batteries and generating a lot of heat? The people at SWIT thought about this and came up with the 23-W S-2040 (and the similar 48-Watt S-2050) on-camera light that is lightweight, uses a reasonable amount of power and makes gobs of 5,000K light,” our spy says. “Don’t want 5,000K light? Then flip up the tungsten (3,200K) or flip down the daylight (5,600K) built-in filters.” $295.
Telemetrics Televator EP5
The Televator EP5 pedestal (right), “is a departure from the company’s past Televator offerings,” our spy says. “The new unit is capable of considerably greater height than previous units—65 inches— and the real advantage that it brings is its ability to be used upside down for ceiling mounting, or for use with the company’s ceiling mounted track system.”
Telestream Vantage Transcode HE Server
Telestream’s Vantage Transcode HE Server with Telestream’s LightSpeed addresses the requirements of adaptive bitrate workflows to streamline the process of source file decoding, video processing, parallelized H.264 encoding, packaging, encryption, quality control, and delivery—all within a single system.
Thales Angénieux Optimo Zoom Lenses
Thales Angénieux brought two new Optimos to the floor, the 19.5-94 and the 28-340, with 31.4mm diagonal coverage.
Toshiba NP Engine
The NP Engine is a “hardware engine for streaming servers that directly delivers video content from SSD to IP networks, without accessing the server’s CPU or memory resources,” according to Toshiba. “NPEngine can simultaneously deliver up to 64,000 high quality video streams at a rate of 40Gigabit per sec, far surpassing the performance of a typical server, and reducing power consumption, the number of servers and the space required.”
TSL TallyMan Virtual Panel
The TSL Professional Products TallyMan Virtual Panel (left) is a software-based control platform, eliminating the need to install individual hardware panels for each new router upgrade. TSL also launched PAM3 MK2 multichannel audio monitoring unit with a Dolby decoding option.
TVlogic LQM-471W Quad Input LED Monitor
The LQM-471W is a 47-inch 1920x1080 quad input monitor designed for multi-source monitoring in control rooms. The LQM-471W supports multiple display configurations with features like waveform/vector scope, closed-caption support, timecode display, and remote control.
TV Logic’s LVM-074W production viewfinder won a Black Diamond from TV Technology sibling Digital Video.
Universal Distribution System compact 3 G router (right) with 144 x 144, 64 x 64 and 32 x 32 affordable cost and controlled through a web-interface. With HD-BNC and SFP interfaces. Very practical for small facilities, broadcast and post production systems.
Vomodo
“...for live HD remotes in a backpack,” our spy says. “It transmits live broadcast quality HD video from various cameras for live broadcasts and it draws only 65 W when in use.”
Wheatstone Sideboard Rack
The new Sideboard Rack audio mixer control surface (left) includes eight fader channels, each with off/on switches, full metering, program and audition buses, and a headphone output, in a 4 RU frame. “The mixer works in conjunction with Wheatstone’s Wheatnet-IP Blade and would be ideal for applications where a lot of audio capability is needed and space is at a premium,” our spy says.
Wide Orbit Complete Station in a Rack
A 16-channel HD playout, turnkey system that includes traffic, automation, servers and all necessary components in a single rack—ready to plug in. It’s BXF compliant and can be used for broadcast or multichannel playout.
XenData SX-10 Network Appliance
“An LTO archive in 1RU—plus up to two external LTO-drives—that makes archiving affordable with a simple interface in a 1 RU chassis. It connects on a network and can be managed across any file-based workflow,” another spy says.
Zylight Folding Fresnel Light
“Zylight developed a folding Fresnel light that uses LEDs on the backplane, where dissipating heat is not a problem,” our spy says. “The lens can move back and forth to provide focus, and the whole assembly can be folded to about 3 inches flat. The quality of light is similar to an HMI Fresnel, only drawing less power, weighing less and taking up a lot less space—and the Zylight Folding Fresnel can run on batteries.”
Zylight F8
Creative Video’s reviewer had this to say: “The F8 (right) is the world’s thinnest Fresnel lighting fixture. It houses a powerful single LED lighting source which can be fully dimmed either locally via a dial on the back of the lamp, or via Wi-Fi using Zylight’s ZyLink wireless dimmer controllers.”
Zaxel Real-Time Streaming of Compressed 4K
Pictured at left is Dr. Norihisa Suzuki, co-founder, president and CEO of Zaxel, being streamed live in 4K compressed to 60 Mbps on a four-foot screen.
