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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.

Wacom Pen Input Livens Adobe Creative Suite 4

Posted by Safe Harbor Staff
October 7, 2008

Wacom® today announced support for Adobe® Creative Suite® 4, officially launched yesterday, providing significant workflow advantages and numerous ways for users working with a Wacom pen tablet or interactive pen display to naturally express their creative ideas and enhance productivity. Adobe’s creative professional software applications work exceptionally well with Wacom’s natural pen input solutions. Whether retouching a photo in Adobe Photoshop® CS4, completing a drawing in Adobe Illustrator® CS4, constructing an interactive document with Adobe InDesign® CS4, or creating a new animated character in Adobe Flash® CS4 Professional, a Wacom pen offers the control and interactivity that professionals demand.

In addition to its obvious artistic capabilities, the Wacom pen offers ergonomic and navigational benefits to the CS4 user. For example, the pen provides an intuitive control for operating sliders when editing a sound segment in Adobe Soundbooth® CS4. And because the pen is positioned in the hand in a natural manner and provides exceptional freedom of movement many professionals report that this type of input, especially when used with creative applications, offers superior physical comfort. For Web designers who work in Dreamweaver® CS4 and move between multiple applications such as Photoshop or Illustrator, the pen delivers precise control throughout all of the applications in Adobe’s Creative Suite 4.

"Adobe and Wacom have worked closely together to provide customers with a natural, results-focused computing experience," said David Macy, Senior Product Manager for Illustrator at Adobe. "While some applications within CS4, specifically Photoshop and Illustrator, are certainly more pen-centric than others, we also recognize pen input as a valuable tool for other applications within the CS4 family and we will continue to work closely with Wacom to develop new and exciting features."

Productivity Benefits for both Hands
Wacom’s Intuos®3 pen tablets and Cintiq® interactive pen displays feature customizable ExpressKeys™ and Touch Strips for quick access to keyboard shortcuts and modifiers. These non-dominant hand features greatly enhance productivity by fully utilizing the users hand that is not controlling the pen. Since the customized settings can be application specific, CS4 users can create and save unique personalized settings for each individual application. For example, a new feature within Photoshop CS4 is dynamic brush resizing. Holding down the Ctrl + Opt keys while clicking down and dragging left or right dynamically adjusts the brush size. This command could easily be attributed to an ExpressKey for fast, simple access to brush resizing.

Collaborating in CS4 with Adobe ConnectNow
Adobe ConnectNow is a new online resource in CS4 and especially interesting to those working with a Wacom pen. This service enables users (colleagues, clients, etc.) to remotely share screens and collaborate in real time. With this whiteboard functionality, users can draw or annotate directly on an image, easily communicate changes and share their ideas or concepts with others.

"Adobe CS4 opens up a wealth of creative opportunities to Wacom’s current and future customer base," said Scott Rawlings, Vice President of Marketing for Wacom Technology Corp. "ConnectNow being a prime example, Adobe clearly embraces the extended idea and power of the pen. Not only is it great for art, photo retouching and image compositing, but it’s also easy and natural for collaboration and review, even when working remotely. With the cumulative impact of pen-specific features in CS4, there is no better time to experience the benefits of Wacom pen input when working with these creative applications."

For detailed information covering how Adobe CS4 addresses the creative experience with Wacom input solutions, please visit www.wacom.com/cs4 to learn more.

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 Partners With Universal Studios Florida For WEVA EXPO 2008 Tour

Posted by Safe Harbor Staff
April 17, 2008

WEVA International has partnered with Universal Studios Florida Production Group to plan an exclusive, behind-the-scenes tour of the Universal Studios Production Facilities for professional videographers in conjunction with the WEVA 18th Annual Wedding & Event Video Expo, August 11-14, 2008. WEVA EXPO 2008, the wedding and event video industry's largest convention and trade show will be held at Orlando Grande Lakes Resort, just 10 minutes from Universal Studios Florida.

The largest working motion picture and television studio outside of Hollywood, Universal Studios Florida boasts 9 state-of-the-art soundstages, multiple broadcast studios, and more than 100 backlot sets. Numerous feature films (including The Waterboy, Matinee, and Parenthood) have been shot on the studio backlot.

Home to cable network’s Nickelodeon, Universal Studios Florida has hosted TV programs as diverse as The Ellen Degeneres Show; The Food Network's Emeril, Live!; The Steve Harvey Show; America's Most Wanted; Fear Factor; BattleBotsIQ and TNA (Total Nonstop Action). TNA, today's popular contemporary wrestling show, is taped in Stage 21 - (adjacent to the park).

This summer, WEVA EXPO 2008 attendees will have a rare opportunity to take an optional pre-convention, behind-the-scenes tour of Universal Studios that is being planned for Monday August 11, 2008 (starting early afternoon, ending before the official WEVA EXPO 2008 Opening Night Gala at 5:45pm).

"As announced at our NAB event this week, WEVA is already at work with the Universal Studios Production Group (USPG) designing a backlot tour that is ‘professional to professional’ rather than the standard ‘visitor’ version normally presented to park guests," relates Dan Argenas, WEVA’s Director of Association Communications. "Our goal is to offer WEVA EXPO 2008 attendees an inside view of state-of-the-art television and film production that’s up close and personal."

The WEVA and USPG teams are finalizing details of the tour, including ground transportation (private busses will depart from the JW Marriott). Watch WEVA.com for more news on the Universal Studios Tour and continuous updates on all WEVA EXPO 2008 Wedding and Event Video Sessions, EXPO 2008 Trade Show, and EXPO 2008 Special Events.

Motu Ships Windows Drivers for V3HD FireWire Video Interface

Posted by Safe Harbor Staff
March 19, 2008

MOTU, Inc. is now shipping Windows support for the V3HD FireWire video interface and converter. Users can download the new PC drivers and software at v3hd.com, giving them immediate and complete compatibility with Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 (Version 3.1 or higher) running on Windows XP or Vista (32).

"The V3HD is a one-of-kind I/O device for Premiere Pro CS3 Windows users," said Jim Cooper, Director of Marketing for MOTU. "With plug-and-play FireWire connectivity, hardware-accelerated P2 capture and comprehensive I/O, the V3HD sets a new standard for video capture and monitoring for Premiere users."

The V3HD is the first and only video capture/playback solution for Premiere Pro CS3 that provides hardware-accelerated DVCProHD (P2) capture from any HD video input, including HD component or HD-SDI sources. The V3HD dovetails with the new P2 workflow features recently introduced in Premiere Pro CS3, allowing users to immediately play back P2 clips (either imported or ingested) on a variety of SD and HD formats simultaneously, with no transcoding necessary.

Conversely, the V3HD allows Premiere Pro users to capture any video source, either SD or HD, while simultaneously employing hardware-accelerated encoding and up/down conversion, in the following supported formats: uncompressed SD (standard AVI clips), DV, DVCPRo50 and DVCproHD.

The V3HD is also the first and only all-in-one capture/playback solution for Premiere that provides both SD and HD capture over FireWire, allowing Premiere users for the first time to build comprehensive, yet compact and portable desktop workstations based on PC laptops or notebook computers equipped with FireWire, without the need for separate PCI expansion products.

Advanced features include an "Export to Tape" feature that allows users to lay back clips, or an entire project, to a tape deck using the V3HD's extensive machine control features. The V3HD also supports Premiere Pro's Batch Capture features.

The V3HD Windows support download package is now available here.

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.

AJA Releases Highly Anticipated Io HD

Posted by Safe Harbor Staff
October 15, 2007

AJA Video, a leading manufacturer of professional video interface and conversion solutions, has announced first customer shipments of Io HD, delivering HD editing to the MacBook Pro and Mac Pro Pro via its unique Firewire 800 (IEEE-1394b) interface. Io HD is the first device to natively support Apple’s ProRes 422 video format in hardware, and has been recognized with six industry awards for technical innovation from Broadcast Engineering, TV Technology, Millimeter, Digital Content Producer Videography magazines and ChinaHDnet.com.

"The response to Io HD has been overwhelming and we are so excited to deliver this product to our customers," commented Nick Rashby, President, AJA Video. "We worked very closely with Apple to embed support for ProRes 422 directly into the Io HD, and the effort is yielding an incredible level of performance and video format flexibility to Final Cut Pro editors."

Along with unparalleled video and audio connectivity, Io HD includes a similar feature set to AJA's industry-leading KONA lineup; 10-bit hardware-based up-conversion, cross-conversion, and down-conversion, all performed in real time. Io HD runs on a new AJA-built driver, supporting features such as core audio, and very low latency. Within its portable and high style chassis, Io HD offers SD/HD analog inputs and outputs, SD/HD digital I/O including HD-SDI and HDMI, as well as RS-422, Genlock, Balanced analog and AES audio, and even LTC time code connections.

Io HD is available now through AJA’s global channel of dealers and integrators at an MSRP of $3495.00 US, and includes AJA’s 3-year international warranty and support.

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.

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