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March 14, 2006  |   A Prism Business Media Publication  |     
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Table Of Contents
HD Olympians
Things to Do
Blackmagic Announces HDLink Version to Support Intel-based Macs
Inlet Technologies Ships Fathom 2.5

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Up Front

HD Olympians
Michael Goldman
The recently completed Torino Winter Olympics featured several improvements to NBC's method of producing and broadcasting major sporting events in high definition. These Games represented the first time the Olympics had been broadcast on a major network in HD during primetime. As part of that effort, the network created an unprecedented storage infrastructure at its International Broadcast Center (IBC) in Torino to ingest and edit reams of 1080i/50-resolution HD material flowing in from various venues throughout the event.

That network was built around six Avid Unity ISIS systems, three Avid Unity LANshare shared-storage systems, and one classic Unity system that collectively handled 119TB of storage, according to Bill Lorenz, project manager for NBC's editing facilities at the Olympics. Those storage pods safeguarded data flowing out of 27 Media Composer Adrenaline systems at the IBC facility, all equipped with Avid's DNxcel board for HD capture and realtime editing. An additional 11 HD Media Composer Adrenaline systems joined the pipeline from various venues around Torino, along with six SD systems at a handful of locations. Imagery also flowed into the network from selected EVS HD editing systems, using IP Director to allow interoperability with the Avid infrastructure. Three more HD Media Composer systems and another Unity storage system located at NBC headquarters in New York were remotely tied into the IBC network, dedicated to the Olympic broadcasts exclusively.

"Our big challenge was how to store all this HD footage," Lorenz says. "We decided to have two major work groups -- the first built around graphics, which amounted to 11 Media Composers served by one ISIS system (40TB), and the second built around a group of editors putting together features, housed in another ISIS system (24TB). We connected these two storage systems together with (Avid's) Transfer Manager system, allocated storage between them as needed, and we had managers for each work group, rather than a single manager.

"This easily surpasses anything we have ever done, and in fact, it's the biggest storage element I have ever heard of," Lorenz says. "It may be the biggest HD facility ever put together (for broadcast)."

more >>


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Calendar

Things to Do
HD EXPO VariCamp
Date: April 21-23
Cost: $1,500 ($1,400 for advanced registration)
Location: TBA, Los Angeles

HD EXPO Workshops VariCamp is a three-day extensive workshop covering all aspects of the Panasonic VariCam camera, taught by Robert Primes, ASC; Ryan Sheridan; Michael Caporale; Sion Michel, ACS; and C.R. Caillouet, Jr. Workshops include Goodman's Guide ($125 value), breakfast, lunch, and all materials.

www.hdexpo.net/workshops/varicampHome.html


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Newsroom

Blackmagic Announces HDLink Version to Support Intel-based Macs
Blackmagic Design has announced Universal version 2.1 for its highly popular HDLink HD/SD-SDI to DVI monitoring converter. HDLink, one of the most advanced full HD resolution monitoring converters available for LCD computer monitors, now features Universal support for Intel and PowerPC- based Macs. The HDLink connects postproduction-quality SDI video directly to any supported DVI-D based LCD computer monitor for true HDTV resolution video monitoring. Its compact design, combined with full resolution HD, makes it the perfect choice for post-production studios, edit suites, telecine or even location video shoots.

"Developing Universal support for the HDLink was incredibly easy, and we are passing along this newly-added Universal support in a way that couldn't be simpler for our customers," said Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic Design. "HDLink software 2.1 works on the latest Intel-based Macs using the same installer as the one we use for the current PowerPC Macs, and the free software update is available today. This HDLink support will now enable anyone in post-production such as editors, SFX artists and even cameramen, to use the latest Macs with an HDLink."

The latest software release for HDLink is designed to run seamlessly and at peak performance on both Intel- and PowerPC-based workstations and laptops. HDLink now also automatically detects DVI-D or HDMI display types and includes new improvements to 24 PsF mode and HD 720p/50 support for DVI-D and HDMI.

HDLink connects SDI video directly to any supported DVI-D-based LCD computer monitor for true HDTV resolution video monitoring. With every pixel in the HD-SDI video standard mapped digitally onto a 1920x1200 resolution LCD display, HDLink delivers perfect digital-to-screen, pixel-for-pixel HDTV monitoring. HDLink also supports large-screen HDMI televisions for cinema style monitoring. HDLink can switch instantly between HD and SD, and features 4:2:2 and dual link 4:4:4 video quality, complete with two unbalanced audio outputs for low cost in-suite audio monitoring.

HDLink Utility is a simple-to-use interface with pop-up menus and settings for matching LCD display colorimetry. The utility allows color calibration, adjustment of lift, gain and gamma, and features pre-loaded lookup tables for a CRT look and Panasonic Cine-gamma and Thompson's Viper cameras. With a USB connection via a computer running Mac OS X or later or Windows XP, the HDLink can upload custom look up tables or add new features and updates instantly.

HDLink is available now for $695 from authorized Blackmagic Design resellers worldwide. Blackmagic Design's latest software driver is available free to registered HDLink users, and can be downloaded immediately from the Blackmagic Design support web site at www.blackmagic-design.com/support/software.


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Products

Inlet Technologies Ships Fathom 2.5
Inlet Technologies has announced that it is shipping a new version of its comprehensive encoding solution, Fathom 2.5. This latest product release is the result of Inlet's ongoing response to customer needs, and its commitment to delivering breakthrough advancements for professional video production. With the ultimate goal of helping customers monetize their video content quickly and easily, Fathom 2.5 delivers a more powerful set of workflow tools, new encoding options and enhanced flexibility.

Fathom was the industry's first realtime encoding solution for high-definition content in the Windows Media Video and the SMPTE VC-1 formats. Combining hardware for speed with analysis software for control, Fathom adds efficiencies to the video production process that enables high-quality output in less time. Inlet customers have leveraged these benefits in a range of applications, and realize a 4-6 times faster turnaround for standard definition (SD) content and up to 40 times faster for HD.

MPEG-2 file ingest, native encoding of interlaced content, and AVISynth support are among Fathom 2.5's capability enhancements. In addition, concurrent with this release, Inlet is offering a new cost-effective SD-only variant, available in most markets for less than $10,000.


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