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Adobe and RED Collaborate to Create Next-Generation Raw Workflows

Posted by Safe Harbor Staff
November 17, 2008

RED and Adobe share the goal of developing a native raw workflow that keeps filmmakers close to the lens, so that you’re always working with the sensor data the camera captured. By always working close to the lens, without proxies or other restrictions, editors can adjust the look and feel of their work all the way through the production process, knowing that their changes are completely accurate.

The first step of this long-term partnership is the importer plug-in bringing native support for RED R3D files to Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, Adobe Encore CS4 and Adobe After Effects CS4, allowing 4K resolution native R3D files to be dropped straight onto the timeline without transcoding or rewrapping. It is now in beta and available for download at www.red.com/support.RED is making the beta plug-in available as early as possible to provide customers a more flexible workflow immediately, and in order to obtain feedback from the community on how best to develop this workflow. Over the coming months, you can expect to see new developments that move both companies closer towards our shared vision for advanced raw workflows.

Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium software is an indispensable part of a film and video professional’s toolkit and leads the way in tapeless and raw workflows. The alliance with RED underscores Adobe’s commitment to integrate tapeless camera formats into its line of professional video products, and will enable advanced post-production workflows to be faster and more flexible.

Hollywood-caliber digital cinematography made more affordable: RED cameras have taken the digital filmmaking world by storm, making high-resolution digital cinematography accessible to many more productions. RED cameras capture extremely high resolution raw files, opening up the possibility of a digital production workflow that allows filmmakers to make image processing decisions throughout the post production process because raw files keep the image sensor data directly. Until now, a truly native, nondestructive workflow has not been possible in desktop video tools.
A native, raw workflow today: Importing R3D files directly into Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Encore and Adobe After Effects without conversion delivers a faster, color-rich workflow that gives users control of the look when they edit. Filmmakers can dynamically change the resolution; applying color correction to the footage in full resolution for example, and then lowering the resolution on the fly to gain better performance from their hardware as they scrub through edits.
A more powerful, streamlined workflow tomorrow: Because Adobe Premiere Pro works directly with the sensor data, editors can work with footage as close to what the lens saw as possible, opening up much richer, more powerful ways of working non-destructively on the color and look of their work.

Customers who want to get started with the RED and Adobe workflow today can download the free Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 and After Effects CS4 trials for Mac OS X or Windows at www.adobe.com/downloads and the RED importer plug-in at www.red.com/support.

NVIDIA Introduces NVIDIA Quadro CX

Posted by Safe Harbor Staff
October 17, 2008

NVIDIA has introduced its new accelerator for Adobe® Creative Suite® 4 software, the NVIDIA® Quadro® CX. This new GPU provides creative professionals with a faster, better, more reliable way to maximize their creativity. Quadro CX was architected to deliver the best performance for the new GPU-optimized features of Adobe Creative Suite 4.

"Adobe is at the forefront of the Visual Computing Revolution," said Dan Vivoli, executive vice president of marketing at NVDIA. "CS4’s GPU features are sending shockwaves through the creative industry."

"Photoshop users are always looking for maximum performance, and we recognized that tapping into the power of the GPU is one way to give it to them," said Kevin Connor, vice president of product management for Professional Digital Imaging at Adobe. "Thanks to NVIDIA’s efforts to optimize the Quadro CX product for CS4, users can be assured of a dramatically fast and fluid experience on tasks such as panning, zooming, and rotating large images as well as manipulating 3D content."

NVIDIA specifically designed and optimized the Quadro CX to enhance the performance of Adobe Creative Suite 4 product line and meet the unique needs of the Creative Suite 4 professional. Adding NVIDIA Quadro CX to the pipeline gives creative professionals a faster, better, and more reliable experience. With NVIDIA Quadro CX users can encode H.264 videos at lightning-fast speeds with the NVIDIA CUDA™-enabled plug-in for Adobe Premiere® Pro CS4, RapiHD™ from Elemental Technologies; accelerate rendering time for advanced effects; and accurately preview what deliverables will look like with 30-bit color or uncompressed 10-bit/12-bit SDI before final output.

Adobe Creative Suite 4 software now has added optimization to take advantage of GPU technology, including the parallel processing capability in the Quadro CX GPU. These enhancements accelerate a number of visually intensive operations, including:

Adobe® Photoshop® CS4 uses the NVIDIA Quadro CX GPU to bring unprecedented fluidity to image navigation. The GPU enables real-time image rotation, zooming, and panning, and makes changes to the view instantaneous and smooth. Adobe Photoshop CS4 also taps the GPU for on-screen compositing of both 2D and 3D content, ensuring smoothly anti-aliased results regardless of zoom level. Brush resizing and brushstroke preview, 3D movement, high-dynamic-range tone mapping, and color conversion are also accelerated by the GPU.
Adobe After Effects® CS4 now has added optimization features to accelerate a variety of creative effects, making it easier than ever to add graphics and visual effects to video, which allows the artist to quickly move from concept to final product and speeds up the workflow. Effects accelerated include depth of field, bilateral blur effects, turbulent noise such as flowing water or waving flags, and cartoon effects. NVIDIA Quadro CX takes advantages of these workflow enhancements.
Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 can take advantage of Quadro CX to accelerate high-quality video effects such as motion, opacity, color, and image distortion. Quadro CX also enables faster editing of multiple high-definition video streams and graphic overlays and provides a variety of video output choices for high-quality preview, including DisplayPort, component TV, or uncompressed 10-bit or 12-bit SDI.

NVIDIA Quadro CX is available starting today, from leading resellers, e-tailers, and retailers, for $1,999 USD. For more information on NVIDIA Quadro and the new Quadro CX, please visit: www.nvidia.com/quadrocx.

Adobe Introduces Creative Suite 4 Product Family

Posted by Safe Harbor Staff
September 23, 2008

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the Adobe® Creative Suite® 4 product family, a milestone release of the industry-leading design and development software for virtually every creative workflow. Delivering radical workflow breakthroughs that bring down the walls between designers and developers — and packed with hundreds of feature innovations—the new Creative Suite 4 product line advances the creative process across print, Web, mobile, interactive, film and video production. With new levels of integration and expressiveness for Flash technology across the entire product line, Adobe’s biggest software release to date includes Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design editions, Creative Suite 4 Web editions, Creative Suite 4 Production Premium, Creative Suite 4 Master Collection, as well as 13 point products, 14 integrated technologies and seven services.

Adobe Creative Suite Master Collection CS4 combines virtually all of Adobe's new design and development applications, technologies and services in a single box — the most comprehensive creative environment ever delivered.

"Designers and developers are shaping the way that people consume information, share ideas, sell products, tell stories and create memorable experiences — in print, online and via mobile handsets," said Shantanu Narayen, president and chief executive officer at Adobe. "Whether you’re creating a rich Internet application, a video or a best-selling magazine, Adobe Creative Suite 4 delivers powerful cross-media technologies that have the ability to elevate products, brands and ideas above the clutter."

Adobe Creative Suite 4 offers unprecedented choice among editions and stand-alone products, with comprehensive support for the most cutting-edge workflows for virtually any design discipline. Customers can choose from six suites or full version upgrades of 13 stand-alone applications, including Photoshop® CS4, Photoshop CS4 Extended, InDesign® CS4 (see separate releases), Illustrator® CS4, Flash® CS4 Professional, Dreamweaver® CS4, After Effects® CS4, and Adobe Premiere® Pro CS4.

A simplified workflow in Adobe Creative Suite 4 enables users to design across media more efficiently by making it easier to complete common tasks and switch between mediums without leaving a project. InDesign CS4 includes a new Live Preflight tool that allows designers to catch production errors and a newly customizable Links panel to place files more efficiently. The revolutionary new Content-Aware Scaling tool in Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop CS4 Extended automatically recomposes an image as it is resized, preserving vital areas as it adapts to new dimensions. An expanded version of Dynamic Link in CS4 Production Premium enables users to move content between After Effects CS4, Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, Soundbooth® CS4, and Encore® CS4, so updates can be seen instantly without rendering.

Designers using the Adobe Creative Suite 4 product family will be able to gain unprecedented creative control using the new expressive features and visual performance improvements in Adobe Flash Player 10 to deliver breakthrough Web experiences across multiple browsers and operating systems.

Adobe Creative Suite 4 brings 3D center-stage providing the ability to paint, composite, and animate 3D models using familiar tools. Flash CS4 Professional now offers the ability to apply tweens to objects instead of keyframes, providing greater control over animation attributes. Also in Flash, the new Bones tool helps create more realistic animations between linked objects. With a searchable library of more than 450 dynamically updated device profiles from leading manufacturers, Adobe Device Central CS4 (see separate release) enables users to easily test mobile content designed using many of the Creative Suite 4 products.

Adobe Creative Suite 4 significantly expands access to services* available to creative professionals and developers who want to collaborate online. Adobe ConnectNow, a service of Acrobat.com, can be accessed from InDesign CS4, Illustrator CS4, Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop Extended CS4, Flash CS4 Professional, Dreamweaver CS4, Fireworks® CS4, and Acrobat® 9 Pro, allowing real-time collaboration with two colleagues or clients. Designers can also share color harmonies with Adobe Kuler™, which is now accessible from within InDesign CS4, Illustrator CS4, Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop Extended CS4, Flash CS4 and Fireworks CS4. Other online resources include: Adobe Community Help for technical questions; Resource Central for accessing video and audio product-related news and tutorials, as well as Soundbooth scores, sound effects, and other stock media; and Adobe Bridge Home, a customizable resource for tips, tutorials, news and inspirational content.

Adobe Creative Suite 4 and its associated point products are scheduled to ship in October 2008 with availability through Adobe Authorized Resellers and the Adobe Store at www.adobe.com/go/gn_store . Estimated street price for the Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium will be US$1799, US$1699 for Adobe Creative Suite 4 Web Premium, US$1699 for Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium, and US$2499 for Adobe Creative Suite 4 Master Collection. Adobe plans to offer tiered upgrade pricing from previous versions. For a limited time, validly licensed customers of eligible versions of Adobe Creative Suite, Adobe Production Studio and Macromedia Studio will be able to upgrade to Creative Suite 4 for the CS3 upgrade price. For more detailed information about features, upgrade policies, pricing, and international versions please visit: www.adobe.com/creativesuite.

Adobe Flash Player 10 is currently available in beta as a free download from Adobe Labs at www.adobe.com/go/astro with general availability expected by the end of the year. Adoption of the previous update to Adobe Flash Player 9 set all-time records by achieving over 80 percent reach on Internet enabled desktops in less than six months and Flash Player 10 is expected to achieve a similar adoption rate.

Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information - anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.

DV MAGAZINE ANNOUNCES 2008 NAB BEST OF SHOW WINNERS

Posted by Safe Harbor Staff
April 17, 2008

Digital Video (DV) magazine, published by NewBay Media, announced its Best of Show awards today at the 2008 National Association of Broadcasters Convention.

NewBay Media's Broadcast & Video Group of products, which also includes Videography magazine, DV Expo and the Creative Planet Community of websites, is uniquely poised to recognize the full spectrum video technology. A select panel of engineers, production and post professionals and editors joined the magazine staffs to judge the Best of Show awards for each publication.

The Best of Show Awards recognize outstanding achievement in the advancement of the art and science of video technology. These awards include the Videography Vidy Awards, the longest-running NAB awards program; and the DV Black Diamond Awards, which launched in 2007.

"To receive an award, a technology is evaluated by our panel of editors and industry experts," says NewBay Media Broadcast & Video Group Vice President of Sales Eric Trabb. "The winning technologies reflect innovation and engineering excellence."

The award winners are as follows:

Audio-Technica AT2020 USB Microphone
Blackmagic Design Video Recorders
Cartoni Status Pro Head
DSC Labs Advanced Guide to Digital, Film and Television Production
EDIROL F1 Digital Field Recorder
Indie-Dolly Systems Universal Dolly
Innovision DV Probe
JVC MR-HD200
Litepanels Micro
Matrox MX02
Media Services Movie Stick
MOTU V3HD
Panasonic AG-HMC150 AVCHD
Prompter People Mic Light
Rosco LitePad HO
Sachtler SOOM
Sonnet Technologies Fusion F2 RAID
Sony PMW-EX3
T-Jib T-Slide
VariZoom Zero Gravity

WEVA EXPO 2008 Set for August 11-14 at Orlando Grande Lakes

Posted by Safe Harbor Staff
March 6, 2008

The WEVA 18th Annual Wedding & Event Video Expo (WEVA EXPO 2008), the wedding and event industry’s biggest convention and trade show, open to all wedding and event videographers worldwide, will be held August 11-14, 2008 at the breathtaking 500-acre Grande Lakes Orlando Resort, Florida’s premier destination.

Only 15 minutes from the Orlando International airport, Universal Studios, and Sea World, Grande Lakes Resort features two of the most respected names in hospitality - The JW Marriott, which will host WEVA EXPO 2008, and The Ritz-Carlton. Both hotels are directly connected and situated in the heart of a pristine and eco-friendly nature reserve that stretches across 500 lush and tropical acres surrounded by lakes.

The special guest room rate at the JW Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes, a 26-story masterpiece in mediterranean design, will be just $99/night (single or double occupancy & kids 18 and under stay free) for all EXPO attendees. This exceptional rate is valid three days before and after WEVA EXPO 2008. Each elegant guest room is equipped with high-speed Internet access that will be free for all WEVA guests. WEVA EXPO 2008 attendees staying at The JW Marriott will be able to enjoy all the facilities and services Grande Lakes offers indoors and outdoors, at both hotels, without any add-on resort fees.

Marriott reservation operators will begin taking WEVA guest room reservations next week. Visit www.grandelakes.com now and click on the videos, the photo galleries and cool 360-degree panoramas to get introduced to this lush and lavish tropical paradise.

"Grande Lakes Resort is an ultra, world-class property for hosting our industry’s largest and most exciting convention and trade show of the year," said WEVA International Chairman Roy Chapman. "The special rates and discounts arranged for WEVA attendees make it affordable for all videographers working at all levels to attend this year's EXPO."

"The JW Marriott at Grande Lakes is a picture-perfect environment for videographers who want to network. There are so many spots to relax and share information – whether you’re in a cutting-edge session on new wedding editing techniques, or at the huge trade show or sharing production clips on your iPod or iPhone at poolside - and you'll find a lot of pools, and whirlpools, dotted all around this scenic mega resort," said Dan Argenas WEVA’s Director of Association Communications.

Watch www.weva.com for more news shortly. Make plans now to attend the WEVA 18th Annual Wedding & Event Video Expo 2008 this summer!

About Wedding & Event Videographers Association International (WEVA)
Founded over a decade ago, WEVA International is the world's largest trade association for professional wedding and event videographers and leads the field with education that's on the cutting-edge of industry developments. WEVA is dedicated to advancing the professional interests of videographers globally through continuing education at events such as Wedding & Event Video Expo and WEVA's Wide World of Weddings & Events, technical support, group benefits, advocacy committees, new media, including Wedding & Event Videography Resource Guide and streaming video on WEVA-TV. For more information contact the association at 941-923-5334 or www.weva.com.

Motu Demonstrates V3HD at Safe Harbor

Posted by Safe Harbor Staff
September 27, 2007

Jim Cooper from Motu was in the Safe Harbor studio Wednesday, September 26 demonstrating the new Motu V3HD video converter box.

V3HD turns your Mac or PC desktop or laptop computer into a powerful HD/SD video production workstation equipped with all the video and audio I/O you need, with one simple FireWire connection.

In this photo taken from the demo, a DVCPRO HD Final Cut Pro timeline is being sent over Firewire to the V3HD, which outputs to several different formats simultaneously, including HDMI, HD SDI, HD Component, SD SDI, SD Component, and S-video. This setup allows you to monitor your video in every available format while you're working.

Some standout features that were demonstrated:

#1 – CONNECTIVITY
The V3HD will work with practically ANY tape format and/or connection, SD or HD. Regardless of what format you shoot, you can easily send it through V3HD into your PC or Mac. Even if shooting on Panasonic with P2 card, V3HD is still used for monitoring and output (not capture).

This makes it convenient to monitor on variety of displays, as well as record edits to almost any record deck. This counts for AUDIO as well as video. Great for studios where clients are bringing in their own gear, will provide interface for most any setup.

#2 - LOW OVERHEAD
DVCPRO HD does not require the huge hard drive arrays and ultra-fast processors that uncompressed video needs. It even works great with a laptop!

#3 - AUDIO
Has comprehensive audio features and connections, great control over monitoring, mixing and routing of signals.

#4 - STAND-ALONE CONVENIENCE
Unit can be used without a PC connection for signal conversion, is portable.

#5 - PC or Mac
Some users have both and can switch as simply as unplugging FireWire cable.

#6 - DVCPRO HD
DVCPRO HD is a widely used standard with good quality and smaller file sizes, a good compromise on quality and system requirements. V3HD is a great choice for those using Panasonic DVCPRO gear in their workflow already.

V3HD is shipping now - order yours today!

PNY Technologies Showcase Latest Graphics Technology at SIGGRAPH 2007

Posted by Safe Harbor Staff
August 3, 2007

PNY Technologies, the supplier and marketer of NVIDIA® Quadro® FX by PNY professional graphics boards, specialty products and NVIDIA Quadro Plex, announced today it will be joined by key strategic partners at Siggraph 2007 in San Diego, August 7th – 9th (booth #521).

PNY will demonstrate why the NVIDIA Quadro FX by PNY professional graphics boards and specialty products improve the application performance of industry leading solutions for animation, on-air broadcast graphics, visual effects, film color grading, computer aided design and scientific visualization needs.

At Siggraph 2007 PNY Technologies will showcase the following solutions for:

3D Animation and Design
NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 by PNY
The Academy Award® winning Autodesk Maya and Autodesk 3ds Max 8 professional 3D modeling and animation software.

3D Animation
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4600 by PNY
Softimage XSI, a leading 3D animation software for Games, Film and Television.

3D CAD
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4600 by PNY
SolidWorks® 2008, the newest version of SolidWorks leading 3D CAD software.

Digital Intermediate (DI)
NVIDIA Quadro FX 5500 SDI by PNY
ASSIMILATE’s SCRATCH Data-Centric Workflow Solution paired with Globalstor’s ExtremeStor-DI delivers a high-performance fault-tolerant hi-definition DI solution.

On-Air Broadcast Graphics
NVIDIA Quadro FX 5500 SDI by PNY
Brainstorm’s virtual studio and 3D broadcast graphics software – eStudio.

Matrox MXO 2.0 Announced at NAB 2007

Posted by Safe Harbor Staff
April 12, 2007

Matrox® Video Products Group today announced that the Matrox MXO™ 2.0 release will be demonstrated at NAB 2007 in booth SL2015.

"We listened to our customers and added important new functionality to MXO that will truly eliminate the need for Final Cut Pro users to invest in expensive HD monitors," said Wayne Andrews, Matrox MXO product manager. "DVI monitor calibration, super black and super white support, one-to-one pixel mapping and the other features we’ve added in release 2.0 make Matrox MXO a must-have for video editors on the Mac. Apple Cinema Displays or other DVI monitors can now be used reliably for monitoring detailed editing work, even color grading."

New features in the Matrox MXO 2.0 release include:

DVI monitor calibration – hue, chroma, contrast, brightness, and blue-only adjustments
Super black and super white monitoring on the DVI display
Pixel-to-pixel mapping on the DVI display
"Virtual bezel" on the DVI display
New HD editing resolutions – 1080p at 23.98, 25, and 29.97 fps; and 720p at 25 and 50 fps
New DVI output resolution – 1024x768 at 59.94 fps
Region of interest output selection in Presentation Mode
Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 support
"Leopard" support

Key features of Matrox MXO

Inexpensive HD monitoring
Frame-accurate, broadcast-quality HD/SD output
Realtime HD to SD downscaling
WYSIWYG video output from QuickTime-based applications
Flicker-free video output of computer desktop
Portable, hot-swappable versatility

]b[Price and availability
Priced at $995 US in North America (₤619, €899), Matrox MXO is available from Safe Harbor and other authorized dealers. Release 2.0 will available to registered users as a free download from the Matrox website in May 2007.

NAB 2007

Posted by Safe Harbor Staff
March 22, 2007

Check here often for a complete summary of news bits from the NAB show floor!

New products that are relevant to our video editing and animation customers – order today!

New features include multichannel file recording, editing and processing, phase scope metering, and Dolby® Digital AC-3 export.

Work with multiple formats on the timeline, new color grading tools, better integration and more!

Io HD
An effortless, transportable plug-in solution to working with HD and SD in Final Cut Pro 6 on a Macbook Pro or Mac Pro computer!

VT[5] SX-SDI
NewTek advances the state of live production with SX-SDITM, the newest VT[4] hardware that provides 8 serial digital inputs and outputs.

Great specials, just for NAB!

Bundle deals from Sony

AMD Awarded a Technical and Engineering Emmy for Graphics Excellence

Posted by Safe Harbor Staff
January 15, 2007

The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has awarded a Technical and Engineering Emmy® Award to AMD for its industry-leading ATI Radeon™ 9700 technology. This award for Pioneering Work in Near and Real-Time fully programmable Shading via Modern Graphics Processors was announced during an award ceremony at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) on January 8, 2007, in Las Vegas.

"This is a truly dynamic time for television industry, and we are recognizing the significant contributions made by technology and engineering professionals in enhancing and redefining the consumers’ experiences with the media," said Peter Price, President/CEO, National Television Academy. "This year, we are particularly pleased to commend those who are contributing to the technical development of television anytime, anywhere through the advancement of broadband and portable delivery platforms."

The Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards honor accomplishments in two areas: Science, Engineering & Technology for Broadcast Television and Science, Engineering and Technology for Broadband and Personal Television. Prospective awardees and technologies are recommended and selected by a blue ribbon panel of industry experts and professionals.

"The advent of programmable shading was a watershed moment in computer graphics," said Bob Drebin, Chief Technical Officer, Graphics Products Group, AMD. "For the first time artists could experiment with lighting and shading schemes in real time, thanks in part to the programmability and performance of the Radeon 9700. We deeply appreciate the recognition from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and look forward to continuing to drive the evolution of the hardware to help artists and programmers amaze and delight, both within the field of entertainment and beyond."

For more information on the ATI GPU or any AMD products please visit http://ati.amd.com

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About This Blog

Safe Harbor's video and post production news blog offers you the latest announcements and updates from the industry.