My NAB roundup for High Definition Magazine

Cameras

The HD camera line-up is getting wider and more confusing. There are cmos and ccd versions to contend with that have native frame rates or frame rate conversions. Not to mention single and 3 chip designs in both ccd and cmos images as well as 1/2 inch and 2/3 inch versions for some cameras.

The proof of concept 2k and 4k cameras use a bayer filter on CMOS chip a different approach to 3 chip design that makes paper comparisons impossible.

So more than ever one must try before you buy and do take note of whether frame rates are native or converted.

Dalsa the makers of the humpback whale inspired design of the Origin 4kx2k camera claimed 12 stops exposure range. They showed remarkable quality 4k pictures down resed to 2k and projected by Christie at the digital cinema summit and promised working models by the end of this year at rental charge of $3k a day excluding lenses. They hinted at a smaller camera body but I doubt that we will be calling it dolphin cam.

Ikegami had a raft of interesting products that shows they have been listening to thier market. The Ikegami HDK-75EX is a 3ccd 60i native portable camera with integrated fiber adaptor. Conversion to 24p and 30p is available through an optional "engine board". This board fitted to the ccu converts a 60i signal to a 24p or 30p. This is not the same as the ccd being scanned at 24p. Frame rate conversions from a ccu should be evaluated carefully. The Sony 950 was not accepted for 720p production by sports networks as its frame rate conversion (not surprisingly) could not accurately mimic 60 frames per second motion portrayal.

HDL-40C and HDL-240C box cameras. The 240 is a 1/2 inch cmos limited to 720p.

The 40c has 2.2 million pixel cmos in 2/3 inch format capable of 720/60p 1080i and 24p. Sensitivity is f8 at 2000lux Both employ 12bit A to D.

HDL-40HS. Same body as the HDL40 but this camera does 720 at 120fps!

It has three 1280x720 cmos chips and a 12bit A-D. 3lbs 16 watts.

It employs a dual stream HDSDI to a "special" hard disk recorder. Simultaneous output of 720 60p.

Like the the HDL40 it comes equipped with shoulder pad and viewfinder attachments making it a very versatile camera head suitable for hand held or remote head work. Expect to see this ringside. When Panasonic introduced 720 60p years ago I suggested it would make a brilliant slomo camera for SD broadcast in PAL. The same applies with this camera. Ikegami say they are looking at portable recording device, I was met with polite nods when I asked if the the dual stream Sony SRW1 recorder would record the dual streams.

From boffin corner comes the HDK-79NAR featuring a rotating optical block. 1080i only, designed, they say for pop promos. Yes push the button and the picture swirls around, all that is missing is the "batman" theme. A interesting concept first used in surveillance gimbals in the 80s. They have included a auto level function that keeps the image level under low frequency oscillation that is associated with hand held camera work. The camera is a two piece affair and offers some hope for inbuilt image stabilisation for camcorders. It would be interesting to try it in conjunction with a stabilised lens.

HDK 725p native 720/60 12bit A-D ccds CCU can convert ot other frame rates.

HDK-79EC cmos native 720p/60p, 1080/60i or 24p. This sensitivity of F10 at 2000 lux is on a par with HD ccd cameras which is a surprise, it appears they have traded a little signal to noise of 54db for sensitivity. Ikegami say that some of their cameras will have a new cmos sensor that is about to become available.

Those hoping for the small remote head HDL20 camera being able to output 24p were disappointed.

The HDL-0101 is a 1080 60i HD camera with mpeg 2 output via a newly developed OFDM microwave link, selectable from 24 to 60 Mbps This was an impressive demonstration with very high picture quality over a short distance. It has been developed in conjunction with NHK. They claim it will work up to 800 meters. A larger dockable camera system is also available for other cameras.

Arri

The Arri D20 is moving forward in a considered and well mannered order. "If the camera is not right we will start again" was overheard on their stand. They too showed pictures at the Digital Cinema summit and of all the single chip Bayer filter cameras the D20 reel seems to overall have the best combination of colour and resolution.

Sony

Showed a working SRW1 dual stream SR recorder. Of particular interest was its ability to record two separate HDSDI streams from two cameras. In this mode a 40 minute tape lasts 20 minutes. A back room display of the 1080 60p camera was shown, raising doubts that the HDWf950 will be launched outside of the USA as the 60p camera is "not a upgrade to a f950"

Their killer HD product was the little HD box camera the HDC x-300. This camera has a 1/2 inch 1440x1080 imager that is unconverted to HDSDI. The picture look pretty good. It has a slow shutter function combined with a frame store. It was fitted with an auto focus Canon lens. Its suggested price is $15k.

The latest upgrade V7.0 to their Xpri HD non linear edit system included primary and secondary grading. Capturing two HDSDI streams simultaneously is possible, which could be just what is needed when dealing with future dual channel recordings from the SRW1 portable.

The HDW S280 is a compact HDCAM payer recorder that is field friendly priced at $32k

HDV.

Sony showed a mockup of a HDV camcorder as did JVC. JVCs mockup was the size of a fully blown broadcast camcorder, maybe their philosophy is that if the camera looks like a real HD camera the user won't notice the low res picture? JVC also showed a clamshell HDV recorder player the CU-VH1US-P with inbuilt lcd screen

The brakes seemed to have been applied to the HDV train as manufacturers try and figure the effect it will have on sales of other HD kit and the casual observer is becoming increasing attuned to what is and what isn't true HD.

JVC

In addition to its HDV line-up JVC showed a comphrensive range of DLP projectors including a new low cost home cinema projector. Their DM-JV600U MPEG 2 encoder was impressive. 9 to 40mbs bit rate. 15mbs was being micro waved at NAB using existing SD microwaves. Updates to their HD capable ProHD D-VHS decks were announced and an additional deck introduced the SR-VDA300US, which can record MPEG-2 . Also announced was a 3 chip cmos HD camcorder recording MPEG 2 onto DV cassettes. JVC also showed the KH-F87OU 3 cmos pov camera.

HDVD

Where is HDVD? It appears that a battle of wills and words is on hand between companies keen to encode Windows Media 9, at compressed HD quality onto DVDs. They say HDVDs are two years away since the Hollywood studios milk consumers with DVD sales. If this were true it would be a blow to sales of HD displays.

Alignments

Ikegami announced that it would enter a licensing and development agreement with Avid to develop non linear camcorders based on Avid DNxHD. Ikegami showcased a mockup of a tapeless HD camcorder using fieldpak drives, where the content would instantly appear on a desktop. Ikegami have been very quite on the digital cinema camera front, we can expect some fireworks when they develop this recording format. Their are few cameramen who don't prefer the look from a Ikegami camera and they have admitted working on a end to end digital cinema solution.

Avid released DNxHD codec. It is a compression scheme that is 4:2:2 and bandwidth can be selectable between 220 megabits at either 10 bit or 8 bit and a third at 145mbps. It supports all frame rates. It is designed to move HD in a SD infra structure.

Avid call the 220mbs compression "mastering quality". Not a technical term!

Interestingly the day after the Apple fanfare of being able to record native Panasonic codec via fire wire Avid announced the same feature, but down played, possibly as they were upbeat about their relationship with Ikegami. The important point is that the Avid DNx HD codecs will be available for free to anyone. The new codecs are based on MXF, the new Media Exchange Format that promises a high amount of interoperability between editing systems from different manufacturers. Avid promised real time 2k playback on the Nitris and also editing of proxy HD files. By the way DNxHD equals "Digital Nonlinear Extensible, High Definition". Now you know.

Quantal

Launched HD-RGB option for the eQ a grading, effects, editing and mastering system.

When asked if they could deal with Panasonic codecs the answer was "if we don't do it now we'll do it tomorrow". Version 2 software was launched for generation Q which I have seen make short work of encoding HD to Windows Media 9. They also announced a special treatment of the images from the Arii/NAC slo mo camera.

On the face of it this may be nothing more than putting a sequence of tiff files on a timeline and grading, which users of digital slomo cameras have been doing for years.

Support of Arri look up tables for Arri scanners and recorders for generation Q Di systems was announced. Interoperability with Panasonic P2 and XDCAM.!

So Quantel are probably right that DVCPROHD via firewire into a iQ would be no big deal

Kodak's Display manager (KDM) as an application to run on iQ is promised in the near future.

Panasonic announced a collaboration with Apple that centred on Firewire connectivity between a new $30k DVCPROHD deck and 400mbs fire wire port on G5. Shoot DVCPROHD and export it still compressed as zeros and ones from a firewire port on the AJ-HD1200A deck into the G5. The G5 can then store and work with the data in compressed mode, saving disk space. FCP HD will extract 24p frames from Varicam 60p recording and discard the padded frames to further reduce storage.

The future availability of an optional film Data processor for D5 recorders was announced. The processor converts digitised film at 2048 x1556 resolution data and full RGB 10 bit for recording to a D5. A conversion algorithm is used, which isn't stated as being losses but "maintains the resolution and colour fidelity of the original film transfer".

The recording isn't real time 15 frames a second being mentioned.

Panasonic introduced the AV-CGP300, a high definition capable real-time 3D graphics processor designed for on-air sports and live graphics. This real-time 3D graphics processor real-time rendering performance of up to 80,000 polygons per field and 533M pixels per second fill rate. The processor supports all frame rates.

" Vari-Frame" "CineGamma" options as developed for the Varicam are now available for its box style AK-HC900 720p high definition progressive scan camera.

Clarity Image have made a intervalometer to enhance the time lapse capabilities of the Varicam.

Panasonic and Apples partnership is extending into playout and projection. Together they have developed Video Scheduler and Playback Application (VSPA) simple but attractive software to play a mixture of material from movies to commercials from a G5 to a projector.

The VSPA's schedule and calendar functions provide users Day, Week or Month views and allow users to schedule media by name, type, resolution, format, duration, date, start time and end time. Operation over a standard IP network is possible. With the low stage space requirement for DVCPROHD (which only gets uncompressed for playout) a complete movie length clip could be stored. This will be very attractive to public auditoriums, indy festivals and multiplexes.

Are we just one short Apple step away from interactive playout?

Panasonic's removable media P2 was working in standard def with a mockup of a HD camcorder. Prices of P2 card readers were announced of just a few thousand dollars. The form factor of the camera was nothing new and drawn on familiar eng style camcorder. But it was only a block of wood who knows what the real thing will look like?

Grass Valley

Introduced a full res 60fps HD slo mo camera the LDK 6200. The Spirit 4K telecine works in 2k at real time and 4k at 7.5 frames per second at 16bit. It is also possible to scan at 4k and down res to 2k or 1920 x1080. It utilises a dual gigabyte system network.

Apple

Meanwhile possibly the biggest news at the show was Apple's press conference which was expertly tailored to the invited audience. Admist the whooping and whopping the slick and very enjoyable presentation delivered one killer blow after another. Apple knows its market. Final cut pro for $999 with free upgrade to existing users, that's when the whooping started and I realised I was in a room of three thousand mac users. (3001 if you include mike -ed)

Once the dust had settled we could figure out that the demonstrated 4 streams of uncompressed video is 4 streams 720p video not 1080i, that the cost effective "Motion" software needs significant amounts of ram to work at the speed it did during the presentation and that when working with native DVCPROHD doing anything but cuts then the signal is uncompressed and no longer native and losses.

But Apple has done a trick in the way it works with DVCPROHD. When uncompressing Varicam 720p images it does not resample to 1280 x 720 but only to the 960x720 that was recorded on tape. (DVCPROHD Varicam samples the 1280x720 image to 960 x720 for recording).

Apple, by keeping the image at 960x720 reduces scaling artefacts, uses less space and thus works much faster. Apple and Panasonic state that their other DVCPROHD codecs for 30p and 25p will also work on FCP HD this way. The 25p codec looks promising as it scales 1920x1080 to 1440x1080 at 4:2:2. Unfortunately Panasonic do not have a 24p or 25p 1920x1080 DVCPROHD camcorder to take advantage of this codec, rumours on the Panasonic stand suggested a possible 25p camcorder at IBC. i think they will wait for the P2 camcorder.

Blackmagic Design

This non stop company from Australia continues to shake the industry with the rare combination of timely products at perfect price. This time they launch the HDlink a small unit that converts dual stream 4:4:4, HDSDI or SDI to DVI-D. Downloadable look-up curves for use with 444. $1295, they also launched a 4:4:4 12bit capture and playback card for $2495.

Encoders

Encoding has become the new black art. 1.5 gigs compressed to 15mb and it looks pretty good. There is encoding for live transmission encoding for burning video to disk. The problem is that the end result is subjective.

MRC and Helinet put their heads above the parapet with a live HD down link from their cineflex equipped helicopter live into the show. This was then distributed around the show. I watched it on a a 32 inch crt HD monitor and asked a passing engineer his opinion. Then I went to a stand that was displaying the same picture on a Plasma and asked the audience what they thought. The audience thought the pictures were spectacular the engineer thought they were as good as one could expect.

Windows media 9 seems to be winning the PR push of encoder of the year, the results are very good. Tanberg and Digital Rapids with their Carbon HD are worth watching.

JVC showed a low cost encoder.

Sonic Solutions demonstrated DVD Producer, WMV HD Edition, an authoring system designed to create hi-def DVD titles with Windows Media Video encoding. The DVDs will playback in WM9 players included with XP systems.

Monitors

Ikegami showed crt monitors with optional embedded audio output as well as 6inch 17 inch and 22inch lcds.

Astro introduced the WM-3004-M a repackaged and upgraded version of their successful 3001 LCD waveform monitor for $9900. The new 3004 has vectorscope and audio monitoring. Their new DM series is available in 6 inch 8 inch and 15 inch. Both series have snap on battery and refined ergonomics.

Data check featured a 24 inch HDSDI input flat screen for a rather steep $11k. I guess they haven't heard of Apple and Blackmagic.

Marshall monitors launched a 6 inch display that was HD and SD compatible, all frame rates with colour bar generator that "should sell for under $3k". It also has a zoom feature to check focus as well as multiple frame line display.. As the chip sets for many HD products include 25p and 50i by default there are many US manufacturers with HD products that are useful for dear old pal users, even if only in SD mode.

Sony's large screen LCD displays were on show with a sensible stand on wheels that could be at home in the production office or in studio. Sony use a different display panel than the Apple cinema display, which is made by Phillips.

Mention should be made of the increasing range and very high quality of low cost portable HD capable DLP projectors that should be considered for high end monitoring.

Accuscene production model of its on camera viewfinder was on show, featuring colour overlays of IRE, making traditional zebra displays look old fashioned.

Canon

The FJs series of HD-EC prime lenses from Canon has been upgraded and expanded from five to six lenses. The latest addition is the FJs55 lens, with a fast T1.6 capability and 2.4 lb. weight. It joins the FJs5, FJs9, FJs14, FJs24, and FJs35 lenses in Canon's FJs line to meet the specialized needs of HD-EC shooting. All six FJs prime lenses feature a improved focus rotation angle of 280 degrees and improved optical and mechanical performance.

Other new features of the FJs prime lens series includes a new design with standardized front-of-lens diameter of 95mm, enabling the same matte boxes or filters to be used with all lenses. They claim chromatic flares are brought to a zero level. The performance of these lenses will be closely examined and compared to the more expensive Fuji and Zeiss Digiprimes.

Canon also launched the new lower cost HD-EC zoom lens the HJ8ex5.5B KLL-SC lens T2.1, aimed at the TV drama market and the HJ22x7.6 and HJ17x7.7

What could be a gimmick is the ACV-235 Anamorphic Converter. It fits between camera and lens, like other relay lenses. However it only relays a cinemascope aspect ratio image to the ccds. It squashes the 2.35:1 so that the image fully occupies the 16 x9 (1.78:1) aspect ratio of the HD camera. This approach has the advantage of preserving the full vertical resolution of the HD camera.

The previous method of shooting cinemascope aspect ratio involved digital cropping of the top and bottom of the 16 x 9 (1.78:1) frame, decreasing vertical resolution in the process. Lucas did this for Star Wars, the result was a vertical resolution of only 700 lines. The process was described by the DP as "dubious math"

Digital encoders have been added to 4 of their HD lenses enabling repeatable zooms and focus pulls with virtual reality software.

Fujinon

Showed a set of lenses with small diameters that are suitable for HD 3D work.

They also launched a compact range of HD eng style zooms the HA 22x7.3 HA 25x16.5

A new compact HAc18x7.6 T2.6 is a very neat and compact "high performance" new Cinestyle zoom. The HAeF10 10mm T1.5 prime lens was added to the range.

TS-P48a stand alone optical stabiliser fits between lens and camera.

Fujinon launched their Precision Focus Assist System, which won one of the many awards at NAB. Using this focus assist system, a selectable area of the video image is sampled as the focus point. The camera operator can adjust the user selectable point with a roller-ball type of controller, similar to a computer mouse, to position the focus point. This is presented as a square in the viewfinder. Once the camera operator adjusts the focus, the Precision Focus Assist system takes control to optimize focus by tweaking focus until maximum contrast is reached. It is not meant to be an auto focus system. The user must select the area to be focussed. On the stand it didn't work at all well with flat low contrast subjects.

It could work very well on some subjects and I would advise a fairly long trail period for camera operator and production team across a range of subjects.

Panavision

Demonstrated a remarkable long zoom lens. The zoom lens with the greatest range was the Fuji 101x. Fuji jumped from 87x to 101x in the course of a few years and launched the 101x just a few weeks after Canon proudly announced their 100x. So it was a tremendous surprise that Panavison announced not a 120x or 150x but a 300x HD zoom lens!

The focal length ranges from 7mm to 2100 in one smooth operation. At the show the lens was very soft past 1500mm as it "wasn't quite maximised for the long end"

Walso

Showed their interesting 3D attachment the 3D58 LenSys, for HD and SD cameras. this fits over a lens and by the use of a mirror that is synchronised with the camera switches the apparent position of the lens from left to right. The camera is run at 60i so left image is recorded on the first field then the mirror switches to the right where that image is recorded on the 2nd field.

Convergence is controlled by a simple knob. Interoccular distance is fixed. The device runs on AA batteries! Widest angle is limited to 54 degrees. To compliment the attachment they have a HD Demux which splits the frames into two fields then interpolates the half resolution image to full res HD streams.

Zeiss

Launched the 6 to 24mm T1.9 Digizoom. Priced at ¤48,000 this is a compact zoom aimed at steadycam and fast moving crews.It is Zeiss's first HD zoom. It features zero ramping and comes with the pedigree of the widely acclaimed digiprimes. As some lens manufacturers have non disclosure agreements with camera manufacturers regarding future developments we should conclude that Ziess at least think that 2/3 inch prism cameras will be around for long enough for them to reclaim their significant investment in developing a zoom from the bayonet mount up.

Ventex

With a name like ventex one expects a company that makes air-conditioning not high tech optics. They have introduced a C-Hybrid lens. By adapting HD lenses they can simultaneously record on the camera as well as a second miniature camera installed under the lens. The second camera could be a digital still camera infrared camera or low light camera. They can even fit a 1920x1080 30p 60i Altasens ProCam-HD chip. Naturally a second recorder is needed. A t the moment their demo lens is a Fuji HD lens with an adaptation made to the flip in "doubler" that is common to all ENG style video lenses.

Altasens

Chips for sale! This company has done more toput the wind up the big camera manufacturers. Do it your self HD cameras are here. The ProCam-HD sensors support 1080i and 720p. A 1080p is also available. They feature on chip micro lens and have an inbuilt 12bit A-D that uses just 200mv. They announced that their ProCamHD CMOS 3530 sensor is to be used in the Kinetta camera. Their sensors are also used in Ikegami and JVC HD cameras.

Kinetta Inc.

is a new company dedicated to designing and manufacturing digital cinema equipment and systems specifically for film people. The company's products include a portable film-style camera, a 4K 35mm high-speed film recorder, a 4K real-time color corrector and a high definition telecine designed for film archives. The product that has hit the headlines in NAB is the Kinetta camera. If ever there was a camera born out of and into the internet age this is it. A sensor agnostic camera using 16mm, 35mm or video lenses recording uncompressed 1920 x1080 or higher res, onto a compact hard drive with over 100 minutes of recording is promised. Seen in public for the first time at the NAB digital cinema summit, then later the larger than life co inventor Jeff Krienes could be seen sauntering from stand to stand with a small black bag followed by a line of eager DPs. Jeff didn't need a stand at NAB.

We hope next year that his eager followers will not be disappointed, one DP has placed an order on the basis that if the camera is not delivered within a certain time frame he'll get one for free.

Miranda

Offer lower cost alternatives to the back of camera MDC 800. They launched the MDC-900/920 $7k providing HDSDI and SDI outputs. Also provides Y at the same time. The SER 900 $3500 has a HDSDI output with input for additional audio and timecode.

The SDM-872p is a miniature HDSDI or SDI to DVI converter for $1600.

Kodak

showed an intriguing 3D display system that requires no special glasses. This technique is called Autostereoscopic display system. Although the device was being demonstrated in a arcade game style booth to an audience of "one" the hope is that the technology will be developed to enable an audience of "many". In the meantime it is being sought after in the fields of medical, engineering and digital visualisation.

Luma.

Another new startup company with sights set high. They are offering single and 3 chip remote head HD minicams for under $5k and $10k respectively. All frame rates, HDSDI, YPBPR, even 4:4:4 is promised!

Born out of a medical imaging where cameras are lower priced than broadcast industry and frequently first to market as well, they have the right background to kick some sand around on the beach. Noted authorities are watching with interest how this company will create high res low noise HD cameras at this price. Luma state that they are breaking a few rules. They will do things to ccds that apparently could "get you arrested in Japan". At the show on day one their modest stand was immaculately set-up save for having any cameras on it! On day two a fish tank and a noisy single chip camera appeared, camera shooting the fish tank.

"Don't touch the camera and don't feed the fish!" was the warning.

This sums up one of the refreshing and intriguing aspects of NAB 2004, the bite of the apparently diminutive luma fish has to be put to the test, yet they may just reveal themselves to be Pirañas.

Big fish beware!

Michale Brennan

High Definition Magazine