NAB Roundup
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More giant leaps for FCP enhance the overall image quality that's possible. If you're looking for clean images without that pesky banding, then Final Cut Pro's new 10-bit uncompressed 4:2:2 YUV support for both standard definition and HD will be a welcome addition. Also new is native support for DVCPro 50. And Apple's Compressor lets you pull frames directly from the timeline, with no recompression that would degrade image quality. Also a big help with the old in/out will be FCP 4's improved media management, with the ability to capture across time code breaks adding to the overall convenience. Another improvement that caught my eye is what the Apple team tells me is improved EDL support, something I've heard a number of seasoned editors complaining about in version 3.0.
Finally, when it comes to this Beta version of Final Cut Pro 4, there are so many new features stoked up in there that I can't keep writing about them or you won't get to hear about anything else, so please bear with us and we'll offer a full review of the software as soon as it's finished and released. Judging from the solid, crash-free Final Cut Pro 4 demos we saw in Las Vegas, that ship date ought to come in right on time in June, as Apple promised.
Final Cut Pro was also making a good impression in the next area I visited, Quantel, which set up a revealing demo showing how the new format for editing and authoring metadata known as AAF (Advanced Authoring Format) can be used to have completely different editing systems talking to each other as if they were old buddies. Final Cut Pro uses the XML language to offer up its metadata (like dissolves, in and out points and much more) to alien applications, and when you use an AAF export utility made by a company called Automatic Duck (don't you love that name?), that data can be passed along to other editing systems. That Automatic Duck plug-in, incidentally, will be available for download around the same time Final Cut Pro 4 is released in June. In the Quantel demo, a high definition program was being edited on its mighty "resolution coexistent" eQ system, and it sent lower-resolution proxies over a network to a Mac running Final Cut Pro 4. The clips were edited on that workstation, and then converted back to AAF and sent back to the eQ editor. After loading the EDL, the eQ immediately recognized those shots listed in the EDL and found them. There it was -- the edited sequence, exactly the way it had appeared on the Mac next door. "Oops," said the eQ demonstrator. "We need to take out one of these shots." In a flash, he sent the EDL back over to the Mac, where the errant shot was edited out in a few seconds, converted back to AAF and sent back over to the eQ. The whole process was so painless and easy that the onlooking crowd suddenly realized that this AAF idea is going to be of enormous value.
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While we're talking about this Quantel box, I must say that its ability to take in and play back any resolution files at the same time will be a boon to many production houses that are asked to handle a huge variety of formats on a daily basis. For example, if you tell the eQ that you're producing an HD program, and then stoke it full of clips in both SD and HD resolutions, it'll convert (with a high quality up-rez routine) all the SD clips to HD on the fly, right then and there. Then, if you need to output that finished program later in SD, it'll spit that baby out in SD without any waiting around for conversion. It's a powerful system and one that's not available from any of the others.
The next stop of my NAB adventure was the Ultimatte booth, an annual destination for me since there's always some clever display to capture the imagination of even the weariest traveler. Sure enough, there was a tricky demo going on there, with a presenter talking to the crowd, standing in front of a screen with an image projected on it. His shadow was plainly visible on that screen behind him, but wait. The projector wasn't shining in his face at all. How was this happening? Were my bleary eyes finally failing me? Nope, there was one of those sly little Ultimatte black boxes at work, reading the location and shape of the presenter, and somehow putting a mask into the projector so it wouldn't project any light where the guy was standing. As I stood there, jaw agape, I again realized what a sucker I always am for such trickery. Ultimatte told me the new technique, now just a tech demo, will be incorporated into a new presentation product it plans to release in a few months. Meanwhile, Ultimatte announced at NAB a new version of its industry-benchmark hardware keyer, Ultimatte 10, along with an announcement of a free upgrade for users of its software-based AdvantEdge plug-in. I like free upgrades, and I certainly am fond of Ultimatte as well. Can't wait to see what they'll do next year.
So Day 4 was as exciting as its predecessors. Thanks for riding shotgun with your embedded editor, reporter and inflammatory carnival-barking writer at this year's NAB. As I type this, I'm aboard a shiny tin can with jet engines attached, pointed East and heading back toward the wind-swept prairie, where the Midwest Test Facility lies nestled in the heart of a snow-blanketed and picturesque village (really -- in April, no less), a hamlet that's no doubt awaiting the return of a few of its weary sojourners. By the way, thanks for all your kind email messages of encouragement to which I haven't yet had the chance to respond, and thanks also to all those kind souls who were so flattering and complimentary when picking me out of the throngs here at NAB! It's always great to see you dear readers, tight-knit colleagues/comrades/biz-brothers and highly respected competitors in the flesh.
Digital Media Net Executive Producer Charlie White has been writing about new media and digital video since it was the laughingstock of the television industry. A technology journalist and columnist for the past nine years, White is also an Emmy-winning producer, video editor, broadcast industry consultant and shot-calling television director who has worked in broadcasting since 1974. Talk back -- Send Chazz a note at cwhite@digitalmedianet.com.Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
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