Product Notes & News
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Lighting in modern office buildingsInspired by the techniques shown at the IOV Videoskills Roadshows, in this short video Martin talks about, and demonstrates, the benefits of using lighting when filming in modern office buildings. With modern cameras able to get a well exposed picture in fairly low light, it's easy to forget what a difference lighting can make. |
Premiere CS4.2 Notes - Matrox v4.2 drivers released Jan '10Windows 7 is now with us, along with Premiere Pro CS4.2, and as usual this requires a new driver from Matrox to support their cards. The good news is that Matrox have now released new 4.2 drivers via their web site. These drivers are designed to work with Adobe's recently released 4.2 & 4.21 updates to Premiere Pro CS4, which you should not install until you can install the Matrox 4.2 drivers at the same time. This driver release also makes it possible to run the Matrox Compress HD hardware H264 accelerator alongside the RT.X2 in the same machine. If you are running Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, you
are probably already aware that Adobe's 4.1.0 update introduced
major issues with Axio and RT.X2 systems unless you also upgraded the
Matrox drivers to the matching 4.1 version, which you must download from
Matrox. Because Adobe have an automatic updater to download and install their
updates, there's a danger that you might update Premiere without realising the
consequences, and subsequently think your system has developed a fault due to
the driver mis-match. |
Part of the team at the IOV VideoSkills RoadshowsThis year Martin has been one of the trainers at the
IOV Videoskills Roadshows,
aimed at helping videographers improve their basic
skills. In the course of the day the topics covered include lighting, sound, camerawork and
editing, with a two-handed interview as the sample subject matter. This is the
resulting video from the Coventry event. |
The last VideoSkills Roadshow was on 10th March in Coventry IOV Videoskills Roadshow - Coventry in HD, from Martin Kay on Vimeo Encoded 1280x720, so best viewed Full Screen on the Vimeo site, in HD |
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Matrox MXO family -
The new range of MXO I/O boxes are designed to work with Final Cut on the
Mac (both Macbooks and MacPro), Premiere CS4/5 on the PC, and in the case of the Mini will also
soon support Avid Media Composer v5. In all cases they serve as a portable breakout box with high quality analogue and digital video outputs. The MXO2 includes inputs as well as outputs and the range includes the following connection options:-
Matrox MAX - The MAX hardware is a faster-than-realtime H264 MPEG4 video encoder which is available as a PCI-Ex card (called CompressHD), or as a factory-fitted option to the MXO2 I/O boxes. See Matrox page. |
Blackmagic
H264 USB Video Recorder
Martin's mini-review of the Panasonic HMC 151 camera- recording in AVCHD format on SDHC cards
I'm not a fan of compact cameras generally - I'd rather have something with a traditional manual lens on it - so I always miss having clearly marked focus and iris rings, but at least the HMC 151 has a "normal" zoom ring on which the servo can be disabled. What I couldn't fail to be impressed by was the overall picture quality when viewed as HD. I'd been monitoring the down-converted SD during much of my shooting, which looked OK but nothing special, so it was only when I finally viewed the AVCHD files via the Panasonic Viewer software that I saw the full amount of detail recorded. And it's this high picture quality, for the price, combined with the low running costs of SDHC cards, which make this camera appealing for a wide variety of applications. Current price (as of Apr '09) is 3395.00 inc 2x16GB cards & reader. |
Matrox RT.X2 - v4 drivers support
Adobe CS4 and Vista 64bit operating system
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Bundled versions now include Adobe Premiere Pro CS4
New V4.0 drivers for Premiere Pro CS4.01 only
Matrox RT.X2 release 4.0 was released by Matrox on 22nd December 2008, and includes the following new features:
- Support for Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, version 4.0.1 (earlier versions of Adobe Premiere Pro are not supported).
- Support for the 64-bit version of Microsoft Windows Vista Business or Ultimate allows users to break the memory limitations of 32-bit operating systems and install more than 4 GB of RAM on their system for improved stability and performance. Vista 64-bit also breaks the 2 terabyte disk-size limitation which exists in 32-bit operating systems. Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Windows Vista Business, and Windows Vista Ultimate (32-bit versions) are also supported.
- New DVI monitor calibration utility that turns your DVI monitor into a true-color video display for use with SD and HD video. Controls for hue, chroma, contrast, brightness, and blue-only let you adjust and control your DVI monitor exactly as you would a broadcast HD/SD video monitor. (Not applicable to RT.X2 LE or RT.X2 SD.)
- WYSIWYG support for Adobe Encore CS4 that lets you preview video played back from the timeline on your video monitor by setting the player for your project to Matrox Player (available on the Advanced page of the Project Settings dialog box).
Please note that in order to offer CS4 and Vista 64-bit support as quickly as possible, there is no support yet for Matrox accelerated exports until a subsequent release. For now, exports are only supported in VFW mode. Matrox accelerated exports will be available via a custom menu shortly. This export will be performed in a modal fashion (like in CS3) so users save the setup time and disk space required to run the Adobe Media Encoder. However, they will have to wait for the export to complete in order to continue working.
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Multi-I/O version of Decklink Extreme HD |
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The DeckLink HD Extreme adds HDMI capture and playback, plus new 3 Gb/s
SDI support, and 3D lookup tables. Now you get all the power of film and high
definition editing, at a standard definition price of only 499.00! DeckLink HD Extreme connects to SDI, HDMI, component analogue, NTSC/PAL and S-Video equipment for capture and playback, while instantly switching between SD, HD and 2K resolutions. DeckLink HD Extreme includes 2 channels of AES/EBU digital audio I/O with a sample rate converter on the input, as well as 2 channel analogue audio I/O on XLRs. More Decklink info & prices |
Avid MEDIA COMPOSER v4 |
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| A few years ago Avid virtually halved the price of Media Composer to its current price of 1650.00, and registered owners of Avid Xpress Pro or previous versions of MC can upgrade for only 330.00. More Avid info & prices |
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Avid Mojo SDI - high quality I/O for Xpress Pro v5.5+ & Media ComposerThe Mojo SDI is an up-rated version of Avid's analogue Mojo DNA external hardware add-on for their Xpress Pro HD (and Media Composer) software. As well as serial digital video, Avid Mojo SDI also provides I/O for IEEE-1394, and either component or composite and S-video. Mojo SDI supports up to 8 channels of embedded audio over SDI and 2 channels of optical S/PDIF audio, with additional connections for 4 channels of AES/EBU audio. And unlike some other add-on hardware, Mojo lets you capture audio or video while also providing output of the same source, so you can monitor what you're capturing, including watching video on a client monitor while recording voiceover. In addition, Avid Mojo and Avid Mojo SDI let you monitor and output HD timelines in SD with real-time down-convert. |
 Click on image to enlarge |
The changing face of ManchesterThose of you who have bought systems from us in the last few years may be familiar with our "Manchester Skyline" Windows wallpaper image (left) taken in January 2003 (from outside our old premises in Salford Quays). There has been a huge increase in residential building in the city since then, including the Beetham Tower, so we thought we'd offer an updated image from Summer 2006 (right). |
Looking back at Caption Generation ... (added Aug 2008)
Back in the days before microprocessors, Character Generators were members of
the Graphics Department armed with sheets of Letraset and cardboard. The
finished caption cards were then handed over to the stage crew who acted as
"Caption Pullers". For a title caption sequence, cards were stacked in shooting
order alternately into two separate piles (like A/B film rolls) and placed on
blackboard-style easels somewhere in the studio. Two cameras (and cameramen)
would be assigned to shooting the captions, with the Vision Mixer switching
between them. As soon as the red light went out on the camera, the Caption
Puller would pull the top caption off the pile and the cameraman would frame up
on the one underneath.
The more complicated captions were made as a multi-layer cardboard sandwich,
with holes in the front layer behind which cardboard tabs could be pulled out to
reveal additional text or images beneath. Each one had to be individually made
by hand and, with a few exceptions like the opening/closing station logo, could
rarely be used again. (read more...)
The art of better sound - when to say "No" (article on the support page)
For some people, their experience of recording sound starts with making wedding videos or recording other live events. As a sound recordist, you’re there to capture whatever is happening, as best you can. Getting better sound under those conditions usually involves better equipment, or making better use of what you’ve already got. But not all shoots are like that, and it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that’s the only way of working. What I’m saying is that whenever you can have any control over your environment, you should try to make use of it.
Broadcast
workflow on a DV budget
Once again we have been working on My North West for Granada TV, and the second series is now complete (weekly transmission started 7.30pm Thursday 23rd Aug 2007). This time there were 8 episodes, and we were involved with the location sound as well as online-editing/grading/dubbing. Unlike last year, the edit software this time was Avid Xpress Pro, and transfers to DigiBeta were via the SDI Mojo. All episodes passed Tech Review first time, except for one which was hit by the little-publicised Avid "green lines" codec bug in v5.2. So now we are better equipped than ever to offer our services and support to anyone undertaking independent production for broadcast.
The
previous year had the opportunity to test the
Matrox RTX100 & Blackmagic Decklink
cards in an "end to end" production process in which DVCam tapes for "My
North West" were captured via an RTX100 and edited in 16:9 format using
Premiere Pro v1.5 before being played out over SDI to DigiBeta via a Decklink card,
again running with Premiere Pro. After the first five episodes had been transmitted
in the Granada (North West) region, the viewing figures for Ep5 were 20% of
the regional audience, against a national average of 15%.You can click here to see a
20 sec promo of
Series 1.
Please note, if you watched it with an eye for technical quality,
that the best bits represent what the camera and edit system are capable of, and the worst
bits represent the limitations of shooting on a DV format (eg with high contrast
lighting conditions) or using less than optimum settings on the camera (which
was an Ikegami HL-DV7). If you are in need of a broadcast
mastering service, or just want to talk about our experience of using the
equipment in this way, then give us a call and talk to Martin! (www.dv2broadcast.co.uk)
Video Forensics - Enhancement Software for Windows XP
is an affordable, easy-to-use video analysis system based on
technology developed by experts at the US Institute for Forensic Imaging. Extend
your capabilities, save time and get professional video enhancement at a
reasonable cost by performing video image analysis with the easy-to-use
CrimeVision software. Save raw and
enhanced video clips and photos, and catalogue automatically by case number,
location, date and other details. This is a stand-alone software package for the
analysis of Video Surveillance material, and includes de-multiplexing
capabilities.
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Running under Windows XP, it is
designed to work with AVI video files, and is not tied to any particular
video capture hardware or editing programme. We have a demo system
operating at our Manchester base.
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Systems we have been building...
...actually this is a rebuild of an RTX100 system. This particular example has 2000GB (2TB!) of RAID-6 storage using 400GB SATA drives on a PCI-Express controller (that's what the bunch of red data cables are for). RAID-6 can withstand two concurrent disk failures without loss of data, which is a worthwhile precaution when you consider how much video work you can store on 2TB, and how long it would take to replace.
The motherboard supports the latest Intel 45nm track pitch CPUs, and it's fitted with a Quad Core Q9300 processor together with 4GB of RAM. The motherboard also has onboard SATA, e-SATA & PATA disk controllers, 8x USB ports, 2x 1394 ports and 2x Gigabit Ethernet ports! Here's the system spec:-
Quad-core Core-duo CPU, 4GB DDR2 RAM, Intel chipset M/B including PCI-Express,
SATA, 1394, USB2, Gigabit ethernet, 8-ch audio, Mid-tower case, 535W PSU,
Fixed 320GB system/data disk, 7-drive 2TB SATA in RAID-6 config, of which 5
drives are in front-access bays,
3.5"FD, 16-speed dual-layer DVD-ReWriter, Nvidia 256MB PCI-Ex 6600 graphics card
Soundblaster Audigy sound card, 54g wireless network card
Matrox RT.X100 Collection & Windows XP Pro
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| One of four i7 920 - RT.X2 LE editing systems supplied to Wyke 6th Form College, with dual 23" LCD PC & TV monitors |
Lease plans
and finance can be arranged for business users
on all systems
Note - all prices quoted on this site are UK pounds - ex VAT
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12/16x Speed DVD +/-R
Duplicators|
Production Services from
DV2Broadcast |
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Here at ZEN we have successfully used AVG Anti Virus for many years on our PCs, and can definitely recommend it!
