Post Perspective’s NAB 2017 top five
By Jim Bask
By Brady Betzel of Post Perspective
So once again, I didn’t go to NAB. I know, I should go, but to be honest I get caught up in my day job and my family, so usually I forget about NAB until the week before and by that time it’s too late to pull off. I’m hoping to go next year, like really hoping I make plans.
So there or not, I was paying close attention to the announcements that came out of new products, and even updates to older products. Let’s be real, other than doing some face-to-face networking, you can really get the same if not more info by lurking online. Below are five announcements that really got my attention.
Blackmagic’s DaVinci Resolve 14
Blackmagic saw that this year’s Resolve update from 12.5.5 to 14 is so good they skipped 13. There was a significant drop in the DaVinci Resolve Studio price from $999 to $299, while adding features that many of the top NLE/color correction software dogs are lacking.
The beauty of Resolve is that it is first and foremost an industry-proven color correction powerhouse, one that is used on many of the top movies and television shows in the industry.
They are also expanding their footprint laterally to encompass professional audio as well as professional video. In Resolve 14, Blackmagic has added a Fairlight audio page to allow for a much more Pro Tools-like editing experience within the same Resolve app we have all grown to become extremely excited about. In my mind that means that at a professional facility, or your own garage, you can have a editor/colorist sitting with a re-recording engineer to review a movie or a show with the client at the same time.
.
As long as you have two separate workstations, the colorist and audio mixer can be addressing notes on the same sequence inside of Resolve 14 because of the newly updated collaboration enhancements. The Audio mixer or colorist could then refresh their sequence to update it with any changes the other had made and see them immediately reflected.
I haven’t gotten my hands on this update in a proper environment to test out the collaboration functionality, but the timeline comparison and review features seem like a godsend to anyone who does any sort of conform work. It is the beginning of Blackmagic’s path toward Avid Media Composer’s lock on the industry with their sequence and project sharing.
On Twitter, Blackmagic’s director of DaVinci software engineering, Rohit Gupta answered my question about whether EDLs and AAFs will fall in line with the timeline review. He said it will work “irrespective of how you create the timeline. So it will work with EDL/AAF too.”
Clip, sequence and bin locking are the future for collaborative workflow inside of Resolve. I would love to see how someone uses these features in a large collaborative environment of 10 or more editors, sound editors and colorists. How does Resolve 14 handle multiple sequence updates and multiple people knocking on a bin? How does Resolve work on something like an Avid Nexis?
Moving on, while I’m not an audio guy I do realize that Fairlight is a big player in the pro audio industry, maybe not as sizable a footprint as Avid Pro Tools in the United States, but it still has its place. So Blackmagic inserting Fairlight technology, including hardware compatibility, into Resolve 14 is remarkable.
The Resolve 14 update seems to have been focused on everything but the color correction tools. Except for the supposed major speed boost and options like face tracking, Blackmagic is putting all its eggs into the general NLE basket. It doesn’t bother me that much to be honest, and I think Blackmagic is picking up where a few other NLE players are leaving off. I just hope they don’t spread Resolve so thin that it loses its core audience. But again, with the price of Resolve 14 Studio coming in at $299 it’s becoming the major player in the post nonlinear editor, color correction, and now audio finishing market.
Keep in mind, Resolve 14 is technically still in beta so you will most likely run into bugs, probably mostly under the Fairlight tab, so be careful if you plan on using this version in time-critical environments.
SmallHD Focus
There was a lot of buzz online about SmallHD’s Focus monitor. It’s an HDMI-based external touchscreen monitor that is supposedly two to three times brighter than your DSLR’s monitor. People online were commenting about how bright the monitor actually was and about the $499 price tag. It looks like it will be released in June, and I can’t wait to see it.
In addition to being a bright external monitor it has a built-in waveform, false color, focus assist, 3D LUTs, Pixel Zoom and many more features. I really like the feature that offers auxiliary power out to power your camera with the Focus’ Sony L Series battery.
Atomos Sumo
Another external monitor that was being talked about was the 1,200-nit Atomos 19-inch Sumo, a self-proclaimed “on-set and in-studio 4Kp60 HDR 19-inch monitor-recorder.” It boasts some heavy specs, like the ability to record 4K 12bit Raw and 10-bit ProRes/DNxHR — plus it’s 19 inches!
What’s really smart is that it can double as an HDR grading monitor back in the edit suite. It will map color formats Log, PQ and HLG with its AtomHDR engine. Technically, it supports Sony SLog2/SLog3, Canon CLog/CLog 2, Arri Log C, Panasonic Vlog, JVC JLog, Red LogFilm Log formats and Sony SGamut/SGamut3/SGamut3.cine,Canon Cinema, BT2020, Canon DCI P3, DCI P3+, Panasonic V Gamut and Arri Alexa Wide Gamut color gamuts. While the Sumo will record in 4K, it’s important to note that the monitor is actually a 10-bit, 1920×1080 resolution monitor with SDI and HDMI inputs and outputs.
Avid Everywhere
This year, Avid Media Composer editors saw a roadmap for future updates like an updated Title Tool that is higher than HD compatible (finally!), an advanced color correction mode and Avid Everywhere based on the MediaCentral platform.
If you’ve ever seen an app like Avid Media Composer work through the cloud, you will probably agree how amazing it is. If you haven’t, essentially you will log in to Media Composer via a web browser or a light on machine app that runs all of the hard processing on the server that you are logging in to. The beauty of this is that you can essentially log in wherever you want and edit. Since the hard work is being done on the other end you can log in using a laptop or even a tablet that has decent Internet speed and edit high-resolution media. Here comes that editing on the beach job I was wanting.
In addition Avid announced Media Composer First — a free version of Media Composer. They also released an updated IO – DNxIQ, essentially with the Thunderbolt 3 update along with a live cross-convert .
Sony a9
With all eyes on Sony to reveal the most anticipated full frame cameras in prosumer history — a7RIII and a7SIII — we are all surprised when they unveiled the 24.4MP a9. The a9 is Sony’s answer to heavy weights Canon and Nikon professional full-frame cameras that have run the markets for years.
With a pretty amazing blackout-free continuous shooting ability alongside an Ethernet port and dual SD card slots, the a9 is a beauty. While I am not a huge fan of Sony’s menu setup, I am really interested to see the footage and images come out on the web; there is something great about Sony’s images and video in my eyes. Besides my personal thoughts, there is also a five-axis in-body stabilization, UHD (3840×2160) video recording across the entire width of the sensor and even Super 35 recording.
In the end, NAB 2017 was a little lackluster in terms of barn-burner hardware and software releases, however I feel that Blackmagic has taken the cake with the DaVinci Resolve 14 release. Keep in mind Blackmagic is also releasing updates to products like the Ursa Mini Pro, new Hyperdeck Studio Mini and updates to the ultra-competitive Blackmagic Video Assist, adding ever-valuable scopes.