|
SYPHAnews - 28th September 2001
Welcome to SYPHAnews - a newsletter designed to keep you up to date specifically
with nonlinear audio and video news, as well as developments at http://SYPHAonline.com
(incorporating http://NLEguide.com and http://DAWguide.com).
We will deliver this service to you free of charge every month - unless
there is some major news or event which we think you should know about
sooner.
New at SYPHAonline.com
STOP PRESS!! For those who missed our newsflash, the all new DAW Buyers
Guide - a buyers guide to digital audio workstations, audio cards and
software packages, disk-based multitracks and tapeless recorders - is
now launched @ http://DAWguide.com.
If you're interested in random access audio recording and editing products,
this is the Web site for you! Now you have FREE online access to our database
of over 250 products and can search by application, system type, host
platform, audio quality, replay channels, cost range, manufacturer and
product name.
All information has been completely renewed as of September 2001, and
will be updated continuously.
Among the new product entries are Full Details listings for:
- Digidesign - Pro Tools LE.
- Emagic - Logic Audio.
- Marantz - PMD 680/690.
- NagraVision - Nagra V.
- SADiE - SADiE SACD Mastering Editor.
- SADiE - SADiE RADiA.
- Steinberg Media Technologies - Cubase VST, Score & VST/32.
- Tascam - SX-1.
- WaveFrame - FrameWorks/DX.
- WaveFrame - WaveFrame/7.
Also, check out all of the new product enhancements and prices for existing
entries.
For the NLE Buyers Guide @ http://NLEguide.com we have a new entries
for:
- FAST Multimedia - blue
- Panasonic - AJ-DE97 QuickCutter (a.k.a. NewsByte50)
NLE news
Autodesk to Acquire Media 100 Software Line
Autodesk has signed an agreement to acquire the software product line
from Media 100. This includes the Cleaner family as well as CineStream,
EventStream technology, EditDV, and IntroDV. The acquired software product
lines will be sold and distributed by Discreet upon final completion of
the acquisition and is expected to be fully branded under Discreet within
the year 2001. See http://www.discreet.com.
Media 100 to Focus on Digital Media Systems Business
and Pegasus
Having signed an agreement to sell its software product line to Autodesk,
Media 100 will focus on developing digital media systems, such as iFinish
and Media 100i. It has also announced Pegasus, a new turnkey editing and
compositing system, which is claimed to offer 240MB/s sustained throughput,
10-bit uncompressed video, unlimited layering, and a user interface familiar
to Media 100 and Avid Media Composer editors. Apparently in development
since 1998, Pegasus is set to ship in the first half of 2002 with a price
of between US$25,000 and US$50,000. See http://www.media100.
Pixel Power Announces Collette Plug-in for Avid NLE
Systems
Pixel Power has announced Collette, its first software-only character
generator, as an Avid AVX plug-in for Avid Media Composer and Symphony
systems. The plug-in allows the Pixel Power character generator tool set
to fit seamlessly into the normal workflow of an Avid edit suite, either
on the same PC or a standalone PC networked to the Avid system over Ethernet
or Avid Unity MediaNet. See http://www.pixelpower.com.
AJA Video Demonstrates Kona Video Capture Cards
AJA Video Systems has demonstrated the Kona-SD and Kona-HD 10-bit uncompressed
video capture cards. These 64-bit PCI cards are Mac, PC, and Linux compatible
and are supported by third-party QuickTime drivers by Blackmagic Design,
making them compatible with applications like Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere,
Adobe After Effects, Discreet Logic Combustion, etc. The Kona-SD is scheduled
to ship in October, and the Kona-HD in November. See http://www.aja.com.
Ulead Announces MediaStudio Pro 6.5
Ulead Systems has announced the release of Ulead MediaStudio Pro 6.5 professional
video editing software. The improvements include advances in DVD authoring
with output to VCD, SVCD and DVD, variable bit-rate MPEG-2 encoding and
limitless DV capture, and Instant Playback, Storyboard Layout and Automatic
A/B Roll Layout are some of the new usability features. The estimated
street price is US$495. See http://www.ulead.com.
Digital Voodoo Announces Upgrade for D1 Desktop 64AV
Card
Digital Voodoo has announced a software and firmware upgrade for the D1
Desktop 64AV card. This upgrade allows capture and playback at offline
resolution and support for real time 10-bit dissolves. Available immediately,
this upgrade is free to those who purchased cards after 23 April 2001,
otherwise costs US$80. See http://www.digitalvoodoo.net.
FAST Multimedia Launches Every In, Any Out Editor
FAST Multimedia has finally launched blue, its 'every in, any out' editor,
that supports native editing in all formats. Based on the new FASTstudio
4.0 software, it allows mixing of all formats in the same timeline, including
MPEG IMX, MPEG-2 I-Frame from 5 to 50Mb/s, uncompressed component, DV,
DVCPRO and DVCPRO 50. All effects are rendered as a background process
that can be as fast as real time, and the system supports native transfers
via SDTI at up to 4 times faster than real time. It also offers 16 tracks
of audio, IEEE-1394 and SDI interfaces, and analogue and AES/EBU audio
I/O. blue systems are estimated to start from around EUR45000. See http://www.fastmultimedia.com.
Pinnacle Systems Purchases FAST Multimedia
Pinnacle Systems has announced its intention to purchase all intellectual
property, software rights, products, other assets and certain liabilities
of FAST Multimedia. Pinnacle sees this as an opportunity to strengthen
its business in Europe and in the professional post production market,
but how this will affect current arrangements with third parties, as well
as existing distributors, has yet to be established. See http://www.pinnaclesys.com.
The electronic Farm Introduces New Modules for Mule
The electronic Farm Mule now offers three modules for its SGI O2, Octane2
and Onyx2-based Mule editing system. The Acre module provides features
and effects for manipulating uncompressed HD material, as well as real
time capture and playback to an HD VTR. The Autumn module provides advanced
colour correction with fully controllable layer-based keyer. The Pig module
provides a paint engine with a wide selection of brushes, palettes, colour
sources and paint modes. The company has also put together the MuleO2+
turnkey package that is based on an SGI Onyx O2 host, includes Mule, Autumn
and Pig. See http://www.electronicfarm.com.
Eagle Research Unveils Rugged Mobile Editing
The new EditPro/M from Eagle Research provides a portable and rugged solution
for those with a need to edit on location. It allows video, audio and
timecode capture direct from the camera, thus eliminating the need to
recapture material from a VTR. Based on Matrox hardware housed in a durable
military specification flightcase with RAID redundancy and internal universal
power supply, the system uses robust connectors and simplified cabling
so that it can be up and running in less than 4 minutes. See http://www.eagle.gr.
Thomson Offers New Editing Tools for News
As part of its networked news editing environment based on the Nextore
video server that supports DV, MPEG-2 and M-JPEG video, Thomson Multimedia
now offers a range of editing tools. The Surf asset management system
supports low-resolution browsing and pre-editing based on a Web-enabled
client interface with frame-accurate timecode and jog/shuttle capability.
The EditStream 2000 application is designed for fast and simple A/B roll
nonlinear editing including voiceover, and the IncitePro application is
for more advanced video and audio editing and finishing. Nextore also
offers interoperability with AVI/Open DML-compatible third party editing
applications, such as the Discreet edit, and there are plans to develop
long GOP support. See http://www.thomson-multimedia.com.
Quantel Announces More Formats for Clipbox
Having cooperated with Sony, Quantel plans to ship a six-port HDCAM version
of the Clipbox server. Quantel and Panasonic have also cooperated to allow
DVCPRO transfer between the Panasonic QuickCutter and Clipbox at more
than 2x faster than real time as a background process using Clipbox Clipnet
gigabit connectivity, thus leaving all the Clipbox ports free for ingest
and playout. In a separate move, Clipnet will also be used by the interface
being developed by Marquis Broadcast to allow the transfer of media between
Clipbox and the Avid NewsCutter. See http://www.quantel.com.
Grass Valley Group Introduces New Features for NewsEdit
In addition to supporting native MPEG, DV and DVCPRO at up to 50Mb/s,
the Grass Valley Group NewsEdit NLE now supports a titling module, advanced
Lyric graphics, and playout software from Chyron. This allows users to
import files created on iNFiNiT and Duet-SD/LE systems, or to use the
Chyron software modules from within the NewsEdit interface. See http://grassvalleygroup.com.
Avid Technology Announces Low Cost Networking and
Upgrades
Avid Technology has announced a low-cost addition to its Avid Unity family
of shared storage and associated service products. Due to ship in Q4 2001,
Avid Unity LANshare is based around an all-in-one storage and server unit
with an Ethernet backbone that supports up to six simultaneous real time
clients. Other announcements include a PAL version of NewsCutter XP and
NewsCutter XP mobile, new Windows 2000-compatible releases of Avid Symphony,
Media Composer and Avid Xpress, a new release of Avid Unity MediaNet that
expands the workgroup to Ethernet-connected editing systems and increases
the number of simultaneous real time clients to 50, and the availability
of the Avid Media Station XL digitising and output station for offloading
tasks from Avid Symphony or Media Composer and which may also be connected
to Avid Unity MediaNet. The company introduced version 5.0 of Avid/DS
and Avid/DS HD that includes the ability to import Adobe Photoshop layers,
a new version if its iNEWS newsroom computer system that integrates the
Avid Media Browse journalist editing system, and the Avid AirSPACE server
that now supports MPEG IMX. Avid also informed us that Pro Tools 5.13
now runs native on Avid Unity. See http://www.avid.com.
Discreet Supports Targa 3000 for edit and New Software
for HD
The Discreet edit version 6.5 now runs under Windows 2000 and the Pinnacle
Systems Targa 3000 for multiple streams of non-compressed video and graphics.
Discreet also announced version 5 software for its fire and smoke multi-master
editing and finishing systems. Smoke 5 will support uncompressed 601 and
HD video, and soft effects such as audio warp and third party Sparks effects,
in the timeline. Fire 5 will support 4k x 4k wide screen cinema image
resolution, and can output to film, HD and 601 all from a single project.
Both systems will support OMF2 for file format compatibility between each
other as well as with Avid NLE systems, and are expected to ship at year-end
2001. See http://discreet.com.
Matrox Powers Compaq AP230 Workstation
Matrox and Compaq have cooperated to provide a turnkey NLE in the form
of the Compaq AP230 video editing workstation. Aimed at the corporate
and event videography markets and priced at just under GB1700 (or DM5170)
excluding VAT, the AP230 incorporates the Matrox RT2500 for analogue and
digital capture, real time editing, with broadcast-quality titles and
3D effects, and output to tape, DVD, CD and the Web. See http://www.matrox.com/video.
IMC Shows Enhancements to Incite
Enhancements to the IMC Incite editor for Windows NT/2000-based systems
include extended support for Matrox DigiSuite hardware to include the
MAX card, and improved real time CG capabilities. Adding to the its real
time capabilities, including extensive tools for rendering, multilayer
compiling and mixing down live input, and hybrid editing, the Incite Audio
Plus option takes advantage of the Merging Technologies Mykerinos PCI
card to bring 64-track 24-bit/96kHz audio editing and surround sound capabilities
directly into the Incite Editor. See http://www.inciteonline.com.
Dayang Launches X-Edit
Claiming to be the largest Matrox OEM and number one supplier of NLE systems
in China, Dayang is set to woo the rest of the world with its new X-Edit
cross-platform NLE. This offers multiformat editing and integrated graphics
and effects, and supports the Matrox DigiSuite and DigiSuite LE, LX and
DTV boards, as well as the Pinnacle Systems Targa 3000. It also integrates
with two other new X-series products, namely the X-CG character generator,
and the X-Effect 3D compositing system. For larger networked systems,
X-Edit can be used with the DayangNet network that uses an advanced database
structure. See http://dayang-image.com.
Panasonic Expands DVCPRO Server Infrastructure for
News
The Panasonic QuickCutter fast-transfer edit workstation, that supports
both 50Mb/s and 25Mb/s DVCPRO, can now be used with the SGI O200 or the
Panasonic AJ-HDR150 video server using the Panasonic DNA news automation
system. The DNA allows native DVCPRO content to be accessed by multiple
QuickCutters in faster than real time via fibre channel networking, and
can be used with Panasonic cameras and VTRs for a complete DVCPRO solution
for news, including ingest, editing, playout, and archiving, as well as
interfacing with leading newsroom computer and automation systems. Panasonic
also revealed plans to introduce an entry-level version of QuickCutter
that will be targeted as a terminal to the DNA and will therefore not
include an internal VTR. See http://www.panasonic-broadcast.com.
Fairlight Purchases Lightworks
The Fairlight group of companies has obtained a controlling interest in
Lightworks Inc, manufacturer of the VOX family of Lightworks editors.
Fairlight was previously a minority shareholder in Lightworks Inc that
was formed by Mark Pounds in 1999 when the assets of the Lightworks product
family were acquired from Tektronix. As a result of the share purchase
from O.L.E Canada Inc, Fairlight will immediately take over the management
of all Lightworks operations. Mark Pounds, president of O.L.E has resigned
from his positions as president, CEO and director of Lightworks Inc. See
http://www.lwks.com.
Leitch Enhances NEWSFlash II and Previews dpsQuattrus
and dpsVelocity v8.0
New enhancement for the Leitch NEWSFlash II editor include the ability
to embed descriptive metadata in all content, to insert flags with a descriptor,
and to add triggers (which may also be interactive) for a down stream
keyer or titler, that can be interactive. The system is now MXF compliant
so that project material can be sent to third party servers, and can use
the Telestream Flip Factory application to communicate with Grass Valley
Group products. For post production applications, in addition to showing
the forthcoming 4-stream dpsQuattrus card, Leitch previewed dpsVelocity
version 8.0 software. This will feature multiple timeline support, real
time garbage mattes, multicamera editing, real time support for video
files with alpha channel, and support for a new, optional external audio
mixing console with motorised faders and jog/shuttle control. See http://www.leitch.com
or http://www.dps.com.
Canopus Launches DVRexRT Professional and New Versions
of Storm
Canopus has launched the DVRexRT Professional as a full-featured, professional-level
NLE that offers extensive real time capabilities, component video I/O,
balanced audio I/O and RS422 control. It includes Adobe Premiere 5.1,
Canopus RexEdit NLE software and an Adobe Premiere RT plug-in that brings
the RexEdit collection of real time filters and transitions to Premiere.
It also includes MPEG encoding, DVD authoring, sound track creation and
Internet streaming tools, along with a professional 19" rack-mount breakout
box. Other new introductions from Canopus include the DVStorm SE with
IEEE-1394/i.Link, S-video and composite connectors, and the Storm Rack
rackmountable version that is powered by dual AMD 1GHz processors and
has dual-monitor capability. See http://www.justedit.com.
DAW news
Digidesign Ships DigiStudio for Pro Tools Internet
Collaboration
Digidesign is shipping DigiStudio, which offers worldwide Internet collaboration
within Pro Tools. Developed in conjunction with Rocket Network, users
can exchange stereo and multichannel surround tracks as well as mono tracks,
and transfer playlists, control settings, automation, plug-in info etc.
Instant messaging allows comments on session changes as they happen, and
a mix down function delivers finished audio to clients for review and
approval. To use DigiStudio, you need an Internet connection, Pro Tools
5.2 software, which is available as a free update to Pro Tools 5.1 or
5.1., and a DigiStudio account accessible via http://www.digipronet.com.
Fairlight Reveals DREAM Family
Fairlight is on course to deliver the first in a new line of DREAM (digital
recording, editing and mixing) products. Called DREAM Satellite, the new
DAW is a replacement for the MFX3plus and MFX3.48 systems, and is based
on the proprietary QDC engine that supports 48 tracks of 24-bit/96kHz
audio with real time crossfades from a single disk. It has a dedicated
controller that reduces previous editing and control keystrokes by 50%,
and a high-resolution monitor, and is expected to retail for around GB£18,000.
The DREAM Station, with integrated editing and surround mixing, and the
DREAM Console recorder, editor and mixer with 24/28 fader frame, are to
follow shortly. See http://www.fairlight.net.
Digigram Introduces PCXpocket 440 and Xtrack 4.1
Aimed at portable production, the new PCXpocket 440 multichannel laptop
sound card supports DSP functions such as mixing, MPEG Layer I and II
and GSM encoding and decoding, variable sampling frequency and other audio
processing capabilities. It supports LTC SMPTE timecode, has 4 analogue
inputs and outputs, SPDIF I/O and the ability to be synchronised with
a second PCXpocket 440 on the same laptop if more I/O is needed. It can
also be used with the new version 4.1 of the Xtrack DAW software that
additionally supports import, export and editing of MP3 files, export
of AIFF and WMF files, and support for audio CD track grabbing. See http://www.digigram.com.
Nagra Previews Nagra V 24-bit Location Recorder
Aimed at replacing portable DAT machines and analogue Nagra recorders
for the film, television and music industries, the 2-channel Nagra V weighs
less than 10lbs and supports 2 hours of 24-bit/48kHz audio (or 3 hours
of 16-bit audio) using an ORB removable hard disk cartridge. It has a
timecode option that supports all standard SMPTE/EBU frame rates, can
use external ORB drives with FireWire, SCSI or USB interfaces, and stores
files in BWF format. The ORB disk uses MSDOS FAT 16 partitioning for file
compatibility with standard edit controllers and PCs. See http://www.nagra.com.
CreamWare Announces tripleDAT Plug-In for its DSP
Systems
CreamWare has announced that its tripleDAT hard disk recording software
is now available as a native plug-in for its DSP systems. The tripleDAT
plug-in takes advantage of the high-quality audio I/O of the Luna II,
Pulsar (I/II) or SCOPE/SP PCI cards, eliminating the need for the ISA
tripleBOARD hardware. The FireWalkers effects suite and osiris audio restoration
package are also included. The recommended retail price is EUR249. See
http://www.creamware.de.
Cube-Tec Releases CubeDVD-A for AudioCube 5 and Cube
Waveform Restorer
Cube-Tec has released CubeDVD-A, a DVD-Audio authoring module for the
AudioCube 5 digital audio workstation. Developed in cooperation with Nippon
Columbia Co. Ltd., it supports Version 1.2 of the DVD-Audio standard.
Cube-Tec is shipping Cube Waveform Restorer, an add-on to the standard
Waveform Restorer in the AudioCube Wavelab editor, which provides an additional
7 manual interpolation algorithms. Cube-Tec has also expanded its technical
support options for AudioCube and QUADRIGA owners, including live help
via instant messaging, remote connection to systems, and online forums.
See http://www.cube-tec.com.
D.A.V.I.D and OmniBus Systems Complete Acquisition
of D.A.V.I.D and OmniBus Businesses
Senior management teams of D.A.V.I.D GmbH and OmniBus Systems Limited
have confirmed that they have successfully completed the acquisition of
the D.A.V.I.D and OmniBus businesses from the liquidator of Management
Data A.G. See http://www.david-gmbh.de and http://www.omnibus.co.uk.
Contact us
We welcome your feedback. Please forward your comments to SYPHA@SYPHAonline.com
To SUBSCRIBE to this free service, please send an email to subscribeSYPHAnews@SYPHAonline.com
To UNSUBSCRIBE, please send an email to unsubscribeSYPHAnews@SYPHAonline.com.
If there are any problems, please send a list of your email addresses
and aliases to SYPHA@SYPHAonline.com.
To ADVERTISE or have your relevant news stories considered, please contact
Yasmin Hashmi at sypha@compuserve.com
or telephone +44 (0)20 8761 1042.
|
Feature
our news headlines on your site. 