Studio Monthly articles from March 2007

Studio Monthly archives from March 2007

Welcome to test drive season.(editor's note)
March 1, 2007... Friends of mine, who are luckily married to each other, like nothing better to do on weekends than test drive new cars. They rarely lease (which would probably make the most sense for them) but they do trade up and trade in often. In this...

What's my flow? Online with After Effects, not just a Flame.(quick cuts)
March 1, 2007... The tools I use are Adobe After Effects, Final Cut Pro and Automatic Duck, with a Power Mac Dual G5 and an AJA Kona 2 card. My workflow goes like this: The editors cut in an Avid and give me an OMF, rather than spit out an EDL. We use Automatic...

Panasonic takes on the Iditarod.(Downloads + Web Links)
March 1, 2007... Six field video crews, equipped with ten Panasonic P2 HD cameras, will hit the trails this month to officially capture, for the first time, the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in high definition. According to Stan Hooley, executive director of the...

New 16 GB P2 cards coming soon.(Downloads + Web Links)
March 1, 2007... Larger solid-state media is finally within reach. But with the recent news that Panasonic will release 16 GB P2 solid-state cards in May and 32 GB cards by the end of the year, comes the question: Will the cards work with older Panasonic...

Universally fit.(Spotlight on Switchers)
March 1, 2007... Compact and multi-format, Panasonic's new AV-HS300G SD/HD live switcher is aimed at live event productions, sports, music videos and cable shows, as well as broadcast facilities transitioning from SD to HD. The AV-HS300G, now shipping, is...

A clean Slate.(Spotlight on Switchers)
March 1, 2007... Broadcast Pix, known for switchers that include graphics, clips and monitoring, is now offering aspect ratio management across its entire line of Slate switchers. The new AutoAspect lets 16:9 and 4:3 inputs, clips and graphics be used...

Easy on the learning curve.(Spotlight on Switchers)
March 1, 2007... The EDIROL by Roland V-44SW is a 2U rack-mounted, multi-format video mixer/switcher that's affordable and easy-to-use for smaller market presentations where installation or live events call for switching and mixing between a variety of sources....

An NAB debut.(Spotlight on Switchers)
March 1, 2007... FOR-A will introduce its newest HANABI series switcher, the HVS-600HS HANABI 1 M/E, at this year's NAB. The HVS-600HS expands the features found in the HVS-500HS and accepts HD, SD, HDV and DV formats. Both the HVS-500HS and HVS-600HS offer...

Built to go.(Spotlight on Switchers)
March 1, 2007... Mobile Studios, developers of the live production flypack systems, is currently offering the MS7HD-F, a mobile production package featuring FOR-A's HVS-500HS HANABI 1 M/E HD switcher. The system is capable of multi-camera shooting and is aimed...

Two for two.(Spotlight on Switchers)
March 1, 2007... Datavideo is now offering two new switchers, the one-piece Datavideo SE-1000, for small production companies, and the SE-900 8-input SD switcher. The SE-1000, which has both HD and SD outputs, supports live production from a mixture of up to 4...

Panasonic BT-LH2600W: the future of LCD monitoring in the studio.(ROI reviews)
March 1, 2007... With an ample 26-inch viewing diagonal sporting a true 16:9 aspect ratio, Panasonic's BT-LH2600W brings up the flagship position in the company's professional LCD monitor line-up. Although not especially large by today's flat-panel standards,...

On2 Flix Pro 8.5: a serious and affordable boost for Flash video.(ROI reviews)
March 1, 2007... The innovators at On2 have been leading the pack in the development of Internet video codecs for years. Flix Pro 8 is an encoding environment that gives the user access to advanced video codecs for converting video files into Adobe Flash...

Sorenson Squeeze 4.5 Compression Suite: a great tool for projects from Windows Media to Blu-ray.(ROI reviews)
March 1, 2007... Sorenson Squeeze packs a powerful punch. With lots of advanced features, it's easily well worth the investment. The compression application has presets that should get novices compressing their media projects quickly. And, because you can still...

Capture HDV in QuickTime for editing in Apple Final Cut Studio.(how)
March 1, 2007... STEP 1 SET UP YOUR CAMCORDER TO OUTPUT HDV OVER FIREWIRE Power on your HDV camcorder. Verify that the camcorder is outputting HDV over the camcorder's 1394 FireWire interface. In this example, we're using a Canon XL H1. Whenever it's...

Build out a mobile sound design studio from scratch.(how)
March 1, 2007... STEP 1 CONSIDER THE SCOPE OF YOUR PROJECT Though this is one of the easiest steps in the process, it's extremely important. Not all of us are going to use our trucks to cover large events like the Super Bowl, so before doing anything...

Conform, preview and master up- down- and cross-converted footage with AJA Xena 2K and Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0.(PRODUCT MANAGER TUTORIAL)
March 1, 2007... STEP 1 CAPTURE ASSETS THAT DON'T MATCH YOUR WORKING RESOLUTION You've decided to cut the whole project in 720p 59.94. Capture all your assets in 720p, up-converting your NTSC assets to pillar-boxed 720p 59.94. To do this conversion, launch...

Redrock Micro M2 Indie Bundle: one giant step closer to the elusive film look.(TECHNOLOGY)
March 1, 2007... EVER SINCE THE INTRODUCTION OF THE MODERN DAY video camera, digital filmmakers and producers of every kind have been striving for that elusive "film look." The advent of affordable high definition camcorders, cinema gamma and 24p has brought us...

Managing the music: too many tracks and too little time to find them? Music libraries, growing faster than ever online, are putting a premium on search and control features.(TECHNOLOGY)
March 1, 2007... Music libraries are massive and getting bigger on a daily basis. Blame the democratization of digital music creation for a world where anyone can--and seemingly does--make their own music. But the bulk of the tracks come from about a dozen core...

Batteries built to last; Afraid your new liquid hydrogen or lithium-ion camera battery, like those in recently recalled laptops, might explode during your next shoot? Relax: batteries for pro camcorders have come of age, resulting in more capacity, smaller, lighter sizes and yes, safer and more solid power.(CAMERA ACCESSORY NEWS)
March 1, 2007... While industry stalwarts nickel cadmium (NiCd) and nickel metal hydride (NiMH) technology are quickly going the way of the standard definition digital camera the rechargeable technology that's now making a name for itself in the professional...

Do you need HD in your toolkit? The answer is a resounding yes ... and right now!(issues)
March 1, 2007... Open any technology magazine and you'll see the words "high definition" just about everywhere, with experts proclaiming the superiority of HD in some form or another. The advent of HDTV, at every level of the market, has been welcomed with...

INTERspectacular takes Times Square.(STUDIOS ON THE RISE)
March 1, 2007... WHAT'S THEIR GIG? If you were to meet Luis Blanco and Michael Uman, INTERspectacular co-founders and co-creative directors, you'd probably soon guess that their main mission in life is to have fun. You'd be right. Consider these facts:...