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Comedy legend Sinbad came to the NewTek booth at NAB 2017 to look at getting the essentials for his newest project, a new Internet channel with multiple shows. Sinbad was among the first to pioneer making shows for “Internet TV,” well before video became a thing, let alone the biggest thing, on the Internet. He used NewTek’s Video Toaster and Flyer for productions back in the day. The new projects include one program dedicated to creating fake news, with participation invited from anyone in the world with a smartphone and an outrageous imagination. Skype will bring these reporters and guests into the studio in his guest house, where he will use TriCaster virtual set technology to “make it look like a multi-million dollar set.”

Sinbad’s take is that we’ve reached the future where shows are created directly by anyone with an idea and offered to audiences with no intervening gatekeepers. Anyone can create and publish content on any number of platforms or directly from their own social media accounts or website. The result isn’t always something great, and is no longer a one-way street, but is instead an interaction. A lot of performers are not sure how to adapt to this new world.

“There’s a lot of stuff that sucks out there, that’s got followers – you’ve got cats with four million followers, some guy who can’t dance with two million followers,” Sinbad observed. “So people with talent are saying ‘how do I get back on?’ Entertainers are sometimes the last ones to grab onto the technology…they say ‘I want to do a show, I need to get a budget.’ I say ‘Look man, you gonna let a kid that dances with a dog beat you?’”

If talented entertainers can get past the shock and awe of the new content consumption landscape and embrace the technology and the potential, they will stand out and succeed, Sinbad feels. “When you have talent and the technology, [content] goes to a whole new level.”

Please enjoy our interview with Sinbad for more insights on the future of entertainment media and inside info on his upcoming projects.

Click here to watch the video on YouTube

If you follow our other videos, you know about the 4 levels of live streaming (https://youtu.be/BAZS_cdTh0s). Wirecast settles in at Level 3, which is running your live stream from your computer (but not necessarily a dedicated one). We got the inside scoop on Wirecast 7.6 and learned how it can help Level 3 streamers get a professional look.

Click here to watch the video on YouTube

Dr Andrew Cross – NewTek NDI Central Live at NAB 2017 from NewTek on Vimeo.

Dr Andrew Cross, NewTek President and CTO and Rex Olson talk about the latest product releases and technology developments at NewTek

So what was the big news for Avid this year at the NAB Show?
The big thing this year is the culmination of four years’ worth of work on the Media Central platform. The last piece to create a global ecosystem was to put the whole thing on the cloud. So we announced a strategic alliance with Microsoft.

We had already put some of the creative assets in the cloud, like Media Composer and Pro Tools, but now the entire platform is in the cloud.

We concurrently announced that Al Jazeera will be the first global newsroom to run their entire operations in the cloud using that platform.

The big thing is this strategy was to solve the industry’s biggest problems, and all the major building blocks are now complete. There are 2,000 global deployments of the platform, so there’s a lot of momentum right now.

It looks like the Nexis storage platform has been through big changes.
Yes, the last big piece was Nexis, which is software-defined storage. It can run on the cloud; it can run on any hardware. And the big thing here is, there was an IP upgrade that doubled the capacity of a user’s storage without the user doing anything. These things start to demonstrate why this approach to solving the biggest issues is so successful and so viable.

Click here to read the full article on SVG 

No Film School pumped out 85 videos for you this year at NAB 2017. As a reader, this might’ve been a little overwhelming. To make things easier for you to digest, we’re breaking our content down by category. It seems that every year software becomes more and more an integral part of filmmaking. As cameras grow more sophisticated, so must the programs designed to process the technology. This year, we saw some products that go beyond your run-of-the-mill NLE editing programs. These new applications and plug-ins promise to keep the post-production process simpler and more user-friendly.

For example, exciting programs like FilmConvert could change the workflow of editors forever by removing an entire step of the editing process—and a tedious one at that. If the prototype becomes a reality, it would mean no more laboring over matching cameras on a multi-cam production. Simply upload your footage, choose the camera you want to match it to, and six seconds later, all your footage will look the same. It doesn’t matter if you shoot on an iPhone, GH5, or an a7sii.

One NLE editing program that is already evolving the medium is BlackMagic’s DaVinci Resolve 14. (Notice they skipped 13—a company called BlackMagic already has enough superstition to worry about with the release of a new product.) The update features tools that will make DaVinci one of the first affordable all-in-one editing suites on the market.

The first production monitor that also records 4K 12bit Raw, 10bit ProRes/DNxHR, plus 1080p60 live switching and recording

Atomos once again redefines the workflow options for video creatives by creating the first production/studio monitor to combine a 19” HDR 1200nit 10+ stop panel with 4K 12bit Raw or 10bit 422 ProRes/DNxHR recording and HD recording up to 240p or live switching and recording of four 1080p60 channels.

Adding HDR and 1200nit brightness to a 19” monitor at an MSRP of $2,495 is an amazing feat itself, but the addition of recording, switching and playback is a true revolution, completely redefining how production monitors will be used on set and in studio. It gives clients and crew on set instant access to review recorded content in HDR quality and doubles as a grading and editing monitor for laptops in the field. The live switching and recording is another dimension again adding the flexibility to live switch between four 1080/60p channels, record 4 x ISO channels and mix a live record complete with cueing, cross fade and hard cuts.

Congrats to G-Technology, Atomos, NewTek iZotope and Teradek on their much deserved Red Shark best of NAB 2017 Awards!

Our RedShark team trawled through NAB to find potential winners. This was not a perfect process – there was absolutely no chance that we would get round to everybody, so it’s important to say that our system is not flawless. There may be potential winners out there that we have missed and to anyone who thinks they might have been overlooked, the message is simply to tell us. Tell us now to look out for you next time and then tell us again when we announce the next awards which will be in September at IBC2017 in Amsterdam.

Best HDR Product – Atomos Sumo

There was no doubt that this was to be the winner, except that it’s not going to ship for several months. We debated whether it should be excluded because of this but having seen the product in prototype form it was clear that the Sumo is at an advanced stage. There is no sense in which it’s vapourware. That being the case, it’s a worthy winner because it’s going to bring HDR monitoring to the masses at a great price point. And that’s without taking into account that it’s a video switcher and a 4K video recorder too

Best Storage Device – G-Technology, EV Series

G-Technology has almost become the default choice for DITs and anyone who needs to store and move large media files. The new EV range includes Thunderbolt 3, giving a very big speed increase. They’ve also started adding HDMI sockets to their Thunderbolt products. Why would you want an HDMI socket on a drive? Because Thunderbolt 3 can power your monitor too. This allows you to daisy-chain your monitor and your drive with the same, single connection to your laptop.

All of this, together with stylish industrial design and a five-year warranty, encouraged us to give G-Technology this award.

Best Live Production Product – NewTek Tricaster TC1

The new Tricaster works with 4K video and is built on top of NewTek’s remarkable NDI video over IP network technology. While other companies dance around each other to arrive at interoperability, NewTek has gone ahead and made a comprehensive and open IP video ecosystem that just works.

Best IP Product – NewTek NDI

NDI deserves to win this. At the show, NewTek had over 40 NDI sources coming from other booths on the show floor, across a hastily assembled network. This sounds like a recipe for disaster. But in practice, it worked beautifully, and it made the point that NDI is here and now. Not only that, but broadcast-level manufacturers like Vizrt are including it in their products, dispelling any doubts about quality.

Click here to read the full article on RedShark News

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.

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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.

 Avid’s industry-leading video editing solutions provide the cutting-edge tools and streamlined workflows you need to maximize your creativity and tell the most compelling story possible. Featuring software and hardware that integrate seamlessly, Avid video editing solutions speed up your workflow and free you from technical distraction. Proven and trusted by the world’s top professional film and video editors for over 25 years, Avid video editing solutions give you the speed, power, and precision you need to create the highest-quality video with great efficiency and ease.

By David Shapton

Software-only NLEs and powerful laptops mean that where once an editing suite cost hundreds of thousands of pounds, almost anyone could equip themselves to edit video to a very high standard. So Avid branched out and acquired companies to build new strengths in other areas of technology. Now, Avid has products as diverse as its Nexis software-defined storage to Sibelius – almost the definitive music notation application. In there too, are Avid Media composer, and Pro Tools – which is the rock-solid standard DAW for professional recording musicians. 

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