Held on November 29th and 30th at the Javits Center in New York City, the HD World conference and exposition was a place where HD production, acquisition, origination and distribution systems providers came to talk about the industry and show their wares. Consumers aren’t the only ones who have to get new equipment to deal with HDTV, as the move towards HD impacts the entire television “food chain” including infrastructure, technical and engineering systems, production, new digital workflow, and the creative process. This show provided a forum for those working on the other side of the screen.
HD Digital mixing gear was predominant, with each manufacturer using real-time demos to show how their board and monitoring system was the best solution.
Portable and rackmount systems were also on display, targeting users such as HD movie makers in the field and TV news crews.
Camera systems were also exhibited. Canon was showing their lenses, Sony their cameras, and one company even had a remote-control camera rig.
There were also companies showing off their video effects systems. Here I am using the Orad RealSet system, which makes backgrounds on-the-fly for blue-screen taping.
It appears that there is even room left for tape in the new HD world.
Where are the booth babes?
What’s he doing to Kramer on the first pic?
Fade to black.
RBG
Actually, tape is still the primary capture method for HD. Hdcam SR is capable of a 3 Gb data rate and two hours on one tape. It is the most often used medium in ECinema.
Tom
Damn, I thought this was Harley-Davidson World.
Hey, I thought all that stuff was done on Mac’s with Avid or Protools? What do you mean I paid thousands of dollars for prosumer tools? I thought they were the real deal!
Lol
What no pictures of the Sony F23? Possibly the greatest camera ever made.
4. Yes. Not to mention tape for HD-CAM, DVCPRO-HD, HDV and others.
Idle Ramblings Dept.:
I think, however, Sony’s XDCAM could be the next “Betacam” world standard given it’s ability to record and archive with better-than-tape longevity directly onto a Blu-ray disc. As compared to the innovative P2 RAM chip storage which is too expensive for archive. That said, I think I would still prefer recording directly to an efficient, inexpensive & easy monster hard drive – both professionally and for home movies.
RBG
RGB,
That’s one I agree with you on. Whompin-ass big-capacity media (hard disks and soon, fbig flash drives) are going to drive 85% of all other storage out of business. The other 15% will be for apps where one has to (or wants to) physically transport the data instead of sending it broadband.
#8 #9
I don’t know guys. I have had a chance to work with both XDCAM and XDCAM HD and I wasn’t impressed with either of them image quality wise. Actually they suck. Especially for post effects work.
HDCAM off a Sony 950 is, in my opinion, the best footage I have seen. Why settle for less than the best. That is how we ended up with VHS.
10. Heard that. No direct experience here. But understandable as it samples at exactly the same 4:2:0 as HDV – not at all great for keying titles, graphics, green screen, etc… without sneaky compromises. (Ya gotta dump the footage into a 4:2:2 edit system to get around that for FX. That’s what makes HDV very interesting.) But I just like the idea of cheap, durable random-access archive.
At a data rate of 35Mb/s vs 25Mb/s for HDV, surely it must be a significantly better picture. And HDV threatens to be a de facto corporate video and doc standard. While XDCAM production is permitted by no less than the hyper-picky Discovery Channel.
“HDCAM off a Sony 950” Agreed. That’s mainly my experience. But, as I understand it, a 950 mainly offers 24P (24 PU…don’t get me started) over the cheaper HDW-730.
That’s why I say XDCAM could be the new Beta SP and maybe HDCAM is the new DigiBeta?
Excuse the shop talk.
RBG
In Picture #1 is that a Staples “That Was Easy” button on the console?
12,
Yup. Those guys have a great sense of humor. I should have asked them what function it controlled, as they have it wired to the board!
#11
“hyper-picky Discovery Channel”
Yeah no kidding!!! lol 🙂 Have you ever gotten one of their “books” on requirements?
The 950 shoots 29.97 and 30 as well but the best part is 4:4:4 color resolution where the 730 only has 4:2:2 and with post work it makes all the difference. Besides 24P is not only not a problem anymore it is desired as an original format.
“But I just like the idea of cheap, durable random-access archive. ”
Me too! but not for Film or Commercial work.
“That’s why I say XDCAM could be the new Beta SP and maybe HDCAM is the new DigiBeta?”
Oh I missed that. Plain old Beta SP. Wow, I thought people stopped using that a couple of years ago. Didn’t Sony officaly kill that? Yeah as a replacement for Beta SP sure. Considering most people watch digital cable or satellite they are now use to the 4:2:0 color and compression.