This concludes my “week” of posts about the 2012 NAB show in Las Vegas. In case you were wondering how many blog posts I could squeeze out of walking around a convention center for a few hours, the answer is three. If you’re looking for non-technology post, you should go read WIRED’s list of “Record Store Day’s Coolest Vinyl Collectibles.” Items that should be on that list but aren’t: Pulse Emitter/Expo 70/Date Palms/Faceplant 4-way split, the reissue of Mclusky Do Dallas, and Three Lobe’s various artists compilation “Eight Trails, One Path.” Oh, and the Circle LP. I think out of those four items I might end up buying two of them. That’s how stoked I am for Record Store Day. I’m not.
Anyway, on the topic of NAB, here are the ten coolest things I saw there this week:
10. Canon EOS 1D C DSLR – According to other websites, “4k is the emerging standard for resolution in digital cinematography…” and the 1D boasts a resolution of 2049 x 2160 pixels at 24 FPS. When it launches, it’s expected to fetch around $15,000. Or almost as much as I make in a single year at my day job.
09. Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera – “A revolutionary digital cinema camera design that includes powerful features such as super wide 13 stops of dynamic range, high resolution 2.5K sensor, built-in high bandwidth SSD recorder, open file format support, color correction with full version of DaVinci Resolve and a built in LCD with metadata entry…” it looks really sleek, and it will set you back just $2,995. Or double what I paid for my MacBook Pro laptop. Which is apparently about to be made obsolete and/or discontinued.
08. Autodesk Smoke 2013 – I was really fascinated by all the editing software, probably because the demonstrations were the most interesting. I might not know much about how the programs work, but watching people color correct, edit, composite, and create effects is a lot of fun. The Autodesk exhibit was one of the more impressive displays at the show. Smoke now features an intuitive user interface, new creative tools, and lower system requirements. Also it costs $3,495. Or more than I have in my savings account at the moment.
07. Aural Sonic Soundproofing Panel – Yesterday I wrote about how impressed I was with the absorption but it bears repeating, this thing literally cut every decibel of sound that was coming from a decent-sized Fender amplifier. If I was still working at a professional recording studio (remember when I did that? HA!) I would have raced into my boss’s office and recommend he use these panels for dampening purposes. They’re a marvel of soundproofing technology.
06. Wacom Cintiq 24HD – Until I visited the Wacom exhibit at NAB the only tablet I’d ever touched was one Z used to have, and that was like five or six years ago. The new Cintiq 24HD is so sleek, intuitive and responsive that even an imbecile like me can use it. The stylus and monitor responded perfectly to each other and the response-time was instantaneous. It took just a couple minutes to transform a raw photograph into a sharp, professional-looking headshot in Photoshop. Whereas using a mouse or trackpad is a laborious, frustrating experience, the tablet was awesome. It’s like painting or something .Imagine what I’d be able to do if I was more artistic? I’d probably be doing something creative with my life! The Cintiq 24HD costs $2,499. Or about the same price as a mint-condition copy of Dave Bixby’s “Ode To Quetzalcoatl”.
05. Panther Classic Dolly – This is a slightly biased choice, but watch the official trailer for “The Tour” (directed by Tom, motion graphics by Ken and KT!) and tell me that Dolly doesn’t look awesome. “The electro-mechanical drive…is not only quiet, but has also in practice shown itself to be extremely reliable and durable.” It’s got a CPU-controlled center column, “and its pivoting wheel arms can easily be adapted to many diverse shot angles. Together with the Panther Classic accessory program you can realize almost any shot with only one dolly system.” No purchase/rental price listed, but even if they listed one it’d be in Euros so who knows what the current exchange rate is.
04. Ross Furio – A robotic camera system. They had two of these trained on a makeshift live production studio and they looked kind of frightening. The Furio is “designed for live use in which an operator controls multiple cameras with pre-set shot and motion path recalls…the system consists of a Pan-Tilt-Zoom Head, Rail based Dolly System with telescopic lift and a sophisticated IP based control system. Furio Robo scales fro ma simple PTZ head on a fixed tripod to a full multi-camera rail system.” I can’t find any information about a price, but I’m sure it costs somewhere between an ass-load and a fuck-ton.
03. Adobe Creative Suite 6 – Based on the demonstration I saw for After Effects, that alone could have been one of the most impressive sights of NAB 2012. But then I watched a demo on SpeedGrade CS6 with a filter by LookLabs and I was floored by how amazing and advanced editing software has become. The LookLabs plug-in filter was literally like a series of Instagram filters for film editors. In one or two clicks, raw video data was transformed into major motion picture-quality video. It was really stunning. Plus — as I stated yesterday — Ken and KT won a FREE copy of the entire creative suite in a raffle drawing. When it’s officially released, CS6 will set you back $1,700. Or, $700 more than the largest finders fee I’ve ever received for finding/selling a rare record.
02. Vizrt 3D telestration – The only thing cooler than getting to watch sports in 3D is seeing how announcers and analysts will be able to telestrate live in 3D during these broadcasts. In my post yesterday I called the company Stergen, but now that I’m looking at the website I think it was Vizrt. It seems simple, but the basic touch screen somehow transform the telestration into miraculous 3D graphics. I don’t know how much it costs. Probably a lot.
01. NEP Supershooter 3D – Also known as the kick-ass mobile production truck that blew my mind. The production room features five 3D monitors that are viewed by the crew with 3D glasses. There’s also a 3D tape and video room and a 3D convergence station. The truck comes wired for eight 3D cameras, and has two six-channel EVS XT-2 servers, 10 tape machines, and a digital audio console. I can’t even imagine how much one of these things costs. But if anyone knows, by all means share.
Daniel Johnston – My Life In Vain [MP3]
