After more leaks than a sieve, the Panasonic GH3 is revealed

Perhaps it was the multiple leaks of specifications to photo websites, or Panasonic itself posting a promotional video on YouTube and then taking it down, or yesterday, Samy's Photo posting specifications and pictures, but today's announcement of Panasonic's new GH3 seems like an anti-climax. It shouldn't, since Digital Photography Review writes that only the Canon 5D Mark III has a higher 2K video bitrate than the the GH3, and the Canon DSLR is priced more than $2,000 (U.S.) higher. The GH2 was a firmware hacker's dream, with the video bitrate taken all the way to 176Mbps in AVCHD with All I-frames, while the maximum video ISO was increased from 3200 to 12,800. The problem was that the some GH2s became unstable when run at this insane bitrate (most users chose to use a more reasonable 44Mbps, which is still much faster than the maximum 28Mbps of AVCHD 2.0 at 1080p60.)

Panasonic has taken the hackers' improvements to heart, and has implemented a maximum bitrate of 50Mbps in 1080p60, or 72 to 80Mbps in All-I Frame at 1080/24p or 30p, both using H.264 compression. (All the frame and bit rates of AVCHD 2.0 are also supported.) Its maximum ISO, in both still and video mode, is now 12,800. This gives the GH3 virtually the same performance as the GH2 with hacked firmware, without requiring hacking or voiding the camera's warranty. In order to provide better performance while maintaining the camera's reliability and stability, the GH3 has a new three-core Venus 7 CPU.

The GH3 also supports timecode in H.264 and AVCHD modes, and it has a headphone jack for audio monitoring, in addition to a microphone jack and manual control over audio levels. The HDMI out can be configured with overlays on or off, so it can be used for monitoring and with an external recorder. (It's not clear whether the GH2's HDMI quirks, which made it unusable in many cases with external recorders, have been fixed in the GH3.)

The GH3 is no slouch as a still camera, either:

• 16 Megapixel sensor
• 1.7 million dot OLED viewfinder
• 614K dot 3" OLED touchscreen display
• Autofocus speed of .07 seconds
• 6 fps maximum continuous frame rate
• Memory card slot for SD, SDHC and SDXC cards
• A fully sealed magnesium alloy frame
• Built-in Wi-Fi

The U.S. price of the GH3, $1,300 for body only, is comparable to the price of the GH2 when it was first launched, but the GH3 is much more camera. The GH2 became the budget "go-to" DSLR-style camera for many cinematographers, even though its Micro Four-Thirds sensor is smaller than APS-C or full-frame. With its faster native bitrate, and a faster CPU that hackers may well be able to tune for even more outrageous performance, the GH3 is likely to supplant the GH2 as the bargain camera of choice for cinematographers.

Livestream jumps into the production switcher business with the HD500

Earlier today, Livestream announced its first entry into the portable production switcher market. The HD500 is targeted directly against NewTek's Tricaster 455, at about half the price--$8,500 (U.S.) vs. $15,995 for the 455 without a control surface. Shipments will begin on October 15th. The HD500's features include:

• Live video mixing for multi-camera productions (1 M/E bus)
• Live audio mixing
• Graphics overlay and titling (2 graphics & titling channels)
• Digital video recorder (DVR) and player (two sources, 10 hour capacity at 1080i 100Mbps MJPEG AVI)
• One-click live streaming in HD multi-bitrate to Livestream's service
• Integrated multiviewer and 17" 1920 x 1200 display
• 4 HD/SD SDI inputs with live video out; 5 inputs when configured for streaming or recording
• 5 video outputs (HD/SD SDI, HDMI, Component, Composite and S-Video)

The HD500 is based on a portable workstation running Windows 7 that's small enough to be brought on-board airplanes as carry-on luggage. It's got an Intel Core i7 3.2 GHz six-core CPU, integrated 17" display and multiple PCI slots--all of which are taken up by the display controller and off-the-shelf Blackmagic Design DeckLink cards for video I/O. The software was written by Livestream's own development team.

According to Max Haot, Livestream's CEO and co-founder, the HD500's design was based on input from Livestream's own in-house video production team, which produces hundreds of live streamed events each year for clients. The team has used a variety of production switchers over the years, including Tricasters and Blackmagic Design's ATEM 1 M/E and 2 M/E. They wanted a highly portable, all-in-one production switcher that would be simple to use.

The HD500 leaves out some of the features in the Tricaster 455, such as virtual sets, because Livestream's production team found that it never used them. In addition, there's no dedicated control surface available for the HD500, although Livestream may offer one as an option in the future.

Livestream's goal with the HD500 is to make it easier and less expensive to produce live video events, which will draw in more clients and revenues. To that end, the company plans to unbundle its switcher software in Q1 2013 and make it available to its customers for free. A paid version will support streaming services from competitors. Haot also believes that the HD500's price and features will appeal to companies using other streaming services--its internal encoder is dedicated to Livestream, but even with an external encoder, the package cost will still be below that of the Tricaster 455. Haot also made clear that the HD500 is only the first in a family of hardware switchers planned by Livestream.

One concern I have is Livestream's plan for product repairs. The company offers phone support seven days a week, 12 hours a day, but if a problem with a customer's HD500 can't be resolved by over-the-phone troubleshooting, the entire device has to be shipped back to Livestream's manufacturing partner for repair. There's no field repair option and no local dealers to contact for an emergency hardware loan. Livestream doesn't want users to open up the switcher to attempt their own repairs, and only two months of phone support are included in the purchase price. If a HD500 breaks down at a live production site, shipping the switcher back for repair won't be an acceptable option.

Another concern is the quality and reliability of Livestream's switching software. NewTek has been making Tricasters since 2005; that gives them a lot of time to have worked out the bugs. By comparison, this is Livestream's first go at a broadcast-quality production switcher. It's inevitable that features will be missing or poorly implemented, and that there will be bugs in the software. Those issues will get worked out over time...but do you want to be the one who first runs into them during a live production? If I were in the market for a switcher, I'd probably let Livestream's software mature for 6 to 12 months before I'd buy.

The HD500 is a compelling all-in-one switcher--but there are an ever-increasing number of options for buyers. More than ever, it's important to clearly understand how you're going to use your switcher, how you're going to connect it to cameras, the rest of your video chain, and (for streaming) the Internet, and which streaming service (or services) you plan to use, before you buy.

Canon's EOS C100: The new entry point into Canon's cinema cameras

IBC is fast approaching, and in anticipation of the show, Canon just announced the EOS C100 Cinema Camera, its new entry-level model. According to Digital Photography Review, the C100 is approximately 15% smaller than the C300, but it has the same basic design. It has a Super 35mm 8.3 Megapixel sensor, and the camera supports any lens with an EF mount, including Canon's Cinema lenses. Unlike the C300 and C500, both of which use Canon's 50Mbps 4:2:2 video codec, the C100 is strictly AVCHD-based, with a 24Mbps 4:2:0 codec. It has two SD card slots and can record to both cards simultaneously for automatic backup, or in relay mode to permit one card to be replaced while the camcorder records on the other card. The C100 records in 1080p at 24/25/30 fps, and 1080i at 50/60 fps. ISO sensitivity is from 300 to 20,000.

With the C100, Canon has included many of the automatic features that were left out of the C300: One-shot auto focus, auto iris and auto white balance. Continuous auto focus and iris adjustment when used with Canon's EF stepper motor lenses (STM) will be added with a firmware update next year. The C100 has built-in ND filters and dual XLR audio inputs. Video output is via a lockable HDMI connector. Expected list price when the C100 ships in November is $7.999 (U.S.).

The camera that the C100 will most likely be compared with is Sony's FS700, which has the same $7,999 list price without lens, and overall, very similar specifications. The FS700 uses AVCHD, but unlike the C100, it offers the 2.0 version that supports 28Mbps recording and 1080p at 50/60 fps. It also has full HD slow motion to 240 fps, and up to 960fps at lower resolution, while Philip Bloom notes that the specifications for the C100 don't say anything about slow motion support. The FS700 also has a 3G HD-SDI output, while the C100 is limited to HDMI out. On the downside, the FS700 uses Sony's E-mount, which has fewer available lenses than Canon's EF mount. In addition, it uses the "Lego bricks" design of the FS100, which seems to be about equally loved and hated by cinematographers.

My suspicion is that this could turn into the video equivalent of Canon vs. Nikon still cameras, with camps of users who simply prefer the video from one manufacturer over the other. In any event, the C100 is likely to be a very popular camera with users and a very important camera for Canon.

NewTek's new Tricaster 40: Right price point, wrong feature set

Earlier today, NewTek announced a new Tricaster, the 40, that offers HD video switching at a very competitive price. The Tricaster 40 has six live inputs and three internal video sources, including an internal hard drive that can store up to 20 hours of 1080i HD video. It also offers the same 24 virtual sets as NewTek's more expensive Tricasters, making it one of the least expensive ways to use professional virtual sets. The entire package weighs 19 pounds and is about the size of Shuttle's small form factor PCs. The Tricaster 40 lists for $4,995, and its optional dedicated control surface is $1,995.

The biggest problem that I have with the Tricaster 40 is that all of its inputs and outputs are analog, not HDMI or SDI. If you want digital inputs, you have to step up to the Tricaster 455 A La Carte model (without a control surface) for $15,995. Virtually every camera and camcorder that you'd want to use for HD production today has either a HDMI or SDI output, so with the Tricaster 40, you're stuck with a stack of converters and a rat's nest of cables. Blackmagic Design's ATEM 1 M/E, which has four HDMI and four SDI inputs, along with HDMI and SDI outputs, lists for $2,495. It seems to me that the decision by NewTek to leave professional digital video inputs and outputs off the 40 wasn't so much a cost-saving measure as it was a deliberate attempt to keep the 40 from cannibalizing the company's more expensive Tricasters. That might have worked when NewTek was the only game in town, but customers are now very aware that they have other choices.

At this point, the only reason that I'd recommend a Tricaster 40 over the ATEM 1 M/E is for the virtual set capability. If you want to use virtual sets, the Tricaster 40 is a steal. Also, if you want to use a dedicated control surface, you can save some money over an ATEM 1 M/E ($6,990 for the Tricaster 40 and control surface vs. $8,485 for the ATEM 1 M/E with control surface and HyperDeck Studio dual-slot disk recorder.) However, the best solution would be for NewTek to "bite the bullet" and put professional inputs and outputs on a device that's screaming for them.

Blackmagic Design adds software audio mixer to its ATEM production switchers

When doing live video production, it's easy to give audio short shrift. If you're traveling light or have limited space, there are many times when you'd prefer not to carry a separate audio mixer, or use an A/V mixer that often compromises both audio and video capabilities. Blackmagic Design announced today that the software audio mixer that it recently added to its ATEM 2 M/E production switcher is now included at no cost with both its ATEM 1 M/E and ATEM Television Studio switchers.

Blackmagic's ATEM Switcher 3.2 Audio Mixer uses the embedded audio from SDI and HDMI cameras attached to the switcher, and from the switchers' built-in audio interfaces (AES/EBU in the Television Studio, and a breakout cable in the 1 M/E and 2 M/E.) It can also accept audio from any audio interface connected to the computer running the audio mixer software, and in the case of the 1 M/E and 2 M/E, from the switcher's internal media players.

The audio mixer software communicates with the production switcher, so that in Audio Follows Video (AFV) mode, audio automatically crossfades when the video input changes. Or, selected audio inputs can be permanently mixed into the program output. The new audio mixer is integrated into Blackmagic's ATEM Control Panel software, which runs on both Windows and OS X, and is accessed through a tab in the Control Panel. ATEM Switcher 3.2 Audio Mixer is available now for free download from Blackmagic Design's website.

Blackmagic Design crashes the cinema camera party

Last year at NAB, when I spoke with Blackmagic Design's CEO Grant Perry and Director of Marketing Americas Terry Frechette about the company's new video production switchers, I noted that they sold just about everything for video except cameras. This year, they corrected that oversight. The new Blackmagic Cinema Camera shown at NAB was a huge surprise--to my knowledge, there were no rumors that Blackmagic was working on a cinema camera, especially one as "out of the box" as this design. It looks like a simplified, trapezoidal DSLR with mounting points on both the top and the bottom of the case. It should work with a variety of cages and mounting systems from companies such as Redrock Micro and Zacuto.

The Blackmagic Cinema Camera has a 2.5K sensor (2432 x 1366) with an active area of 15.6 x 8.8 mm—bigger than Super 16mm but smaller than Micro Four Thirds. The company claims 13 stops of dynamic range. It supports Canon's EF-format lenses, including Canon's autofocus lenses, as well as Zeiss's EF-compatible ZE mount lenses. The camera can output RAW using Adobe's 12-bit open-source Cinema DNG format at full 2432 x 1366 resolution, as well as compressed video in Apple's ProRes and Avid's DNxHD formats, at 1080p/23.98, 24, 25, 29.97 and 30 fps. It saves onto a SSD using a built-in recorder and outputs through both 3Gbps HD-SDI and Thunderbolt interfaces. (A 256GB SSD can store 30 minutes of RAW footage or more than two hours of video in ProRes or DNxHD format.)

Virtually all interaction with the camera is through a built-in 5" 800 x 480 touchscreen display that comes with a snap-on hood--there's no separate viewfinder. A handful of buttons are used for recording (buttons on both the front and back of the camera), automatic iris, focus, transport control, bringing up the menu and power. Audio in is via standard stereo mic/line inputs. The camera can run on 12V to 30V DC and has a built-in battery. And, I forgot one important thing: Its list price is $2,995 (U.S.). That's not a misprint--it's priced less than $3,000. The Cinema Camera is scheduled to ship in July.

According to Blackmagic's representatives, the company learned from customer feedback that, while cinematographers love the price and video capabilities of today's DSLRs, they're tired of working with cameras that were designed for still photography first. That includes small LCDs designed more for changing menu settings than for accurately judging image framing and quality, limited recording time, no built-in support for industry-standard video recording formats and HDMI outputs that are useless for live recording.

The Cinema Camera fixes all these problems, drops all the still photography-oriented features, and sells for $2,995. It also comes with a full copy of DaVinci Resolve software for color correction on Windows and OS X PCs, and Ultrascope for monitoring output--the software alone costs $995 when purchased by itself. Of course, the camera's not perfect--it's not 4K, the imager is small, the compressed output is 10-bit 4:2:2, there's no 60p mode, slow motion or ND filters--but it's $2,995, which covers a bunch of complaints.

As I always say when new cameras are released, you'd be smart to hold off on placing an order until good third-party reviews of the Cinema Camera are released, along with sample footage. (Australian John Brawley was the first cinematographer to get his hands on a prototype camera for in-field testing. He's posted footage on Vimeo.) However, I suspect that there are lots of people who aren't going to wait--they want to be among the first to get their hands on it. 

Sony's new NEX-FS700: 4K, Super Slo-Mo, Under $10,000

Engadget has a press release with details about Sony's new NEX-FS700, the follow-on to the FS100, which I expect to remain in Sony's product line. Here's a summary:

• The good: The FS700 has a 4K Super 35mm Exmor sensor, and it has a variety of slo-mo modes, including 120 fps in a 16-second burst at 1080P and 240 fps in an 8-second burst, also at 1080P. If you're willing to settle for lower resolution, the FS700 also has 480 and 960 fps modes. It uses E-mount lenses and can support all the usual E-mount adapters. It also has built-in ND filters and a 3G HD-SDI output in addition to HDMI.
• The bad: The FS700 has the same "Lego blocks" form-factor as the FS100. There have been many complaints about handling the FS100 in the field, including poor placement of controls; it remains to be seen if the FS700 will remedy at least some of these problems.
• The unknown: Sony's press release quotes the price of the FS700 as "under $10,000 (U.S.)." Leaked reports on the camcorder had it priced at $9,000 or even $8,000. We'll probably know the real price in a few weeks at NAB. In addition, even though the FS700's sensor supports 4K, the camera will require a firmware update at some unspecified time in the future in order to output 4K over 3G HD-SDI to a Sony recorder. Will Sony charge for the firmware update, or will it be free for registered owners of the FS700? Again, we'll most likely learn the details later this month.

Given that the Scarlet-X is already shipping at a $9,000 base price, the FS700 isn't likely to be a game-changer, although it will be considerably less expensive than a fully-equipped Scarlet-X or Canon C300. Canon has a new cinema camera announcement scheduled for NAB, so they may already be preparing to compete in the "4K for under $10K" market. The company that I'm surprised that we haven't heard anything from yet is Panasonic: The AF100 is getting old. Will they have anything new to show at NAB?

Vizio launches $99 Google TV set-top box

Dan Rayburn of StreamingMedia.com reports that Vizio's new Google TV-based Stream Player will ship in the first half of 2012, and will be priced at $99 (U.S.). According to Rayburn, the set-top box will only be sold directly by Vizio from its website, but I don't expect that to last--Vizio sells too much product through resellers such as Costco for the company to ignore that channel.

The VAP430 Stream Player uses the new ARM-based Google TV architecture, and Vizio has reskinned Google TV's user interface. It will have HDMI in and out (so it can be connected to a receiver or A/V amplifier in-line with another set-top box or other device without taking up an additional HDMI port), Ethernet and Wi-Fi interfaces, and a USB port that can be used to connect an external hard disk (only for playing, not recording, audio and video). It will also come with a universal remote control with both IR and Bluetooth outputs. The device will support 1080P video in and out, and Vizio claims that the device will have sufficient bandwidth to support 3D streaming.

Vizio has confirmed that the Stream Player will support Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu Plus, HBO Go (for existing HBO subscribers), YouTube, Pandora, Technicolor's new M-GO streaming video service, and others. Additional services will be announced by the time the device ships.

On paper, Vizio has hit all the right notes: The Stream Player will be priced competitively with Apple and Roku, it will run a more polished version of Google TV, and it can be connected in-line with the user's existing cable, satellite or IPTV set-top box, instead of requiring a separate HDMI connection. It remains to be seen how well the device works when it gets into the hands of consumers, and whether Google and Vizio have smoothed out the many rough spots in Google TV's user interface. If it works well, it'll help put Google TV back into the thick of the over-the-top set-top box competition.

JVC's 4K $5K Camcorder

After showing it at the 2010 NAB Conference as a non-working mock-up and at the 2011 NAB show as a working prototype, JVC has formally announced the first prosumer 4K camcorder, the GY-HMQ10, at CES 2012.  The GY-HMQ10 records at 3840 x 2160 resolution, or four times the resolution of a conventional 2K (1920 x 1080) camcorder, using a single 1/2" CMOS imager and a fixed 10X zoom lens. It supports frame rates of 24P, 50P and 60P. The camcorder can also record in 2K mode for compatibility with existing infrastructure at 50/60P and 50/60i.

The camcorder uses AVCHD compression...but the AVCHD standard doesn't support 4K. To do it, JVC splits the 4K image into four 2K images that it records and compresses simultaneously using the company's new Falconbrid processor. Each 2K image is compressed at 36Mbps, for a total bit rate of 144Mbps. Each 36Mbps stream is then recorded on its own dedicated SDHC card. So, yes, the HMQ10 has four memory card slots. For live broadcasts and external recorders, the HMQ10 has four (yes, four) HDMI outputs. The camcorder can also down-convert the 4K images to 2K on the fly, so if 2K is all you need, you can use a single SDHC card and HDMI interface. It's also got two XLR microphone inputs.

Does it work? I saw footage that was shot on JVC's prototype at NAB last year, using a true 4K monitor. The picture quality was stunning, but there was no way to test the camera under real-world operating conditions--panning, zooming, low light, etc. So, how much would you pay for all this? When the camcorder ships in March, JVC plans to charge $4,995 (US). That's right--$5K for a 4K camcorder. The 4K mode isn't terribly practical today, and with a 1/2" imager and without a removable lens, the HMQ10 isn't going to be as flexible as a camcorder like Sony's FS100 or Panasonic's AF100/101. Nevertheless, 4K for $5K? That's pretty amazing pricing.

Rifles vs. shotguns: The GoPro advantage

The rule over the years for camera and camcorder manufacturers has been to make a model for every need and every price point. Canon, Nikon, Sony and Panasonic sell everything from inexpensive point & shoots to DSLRs. All but Nikon do the same with camcorders--prices run from around $100 for YouTube-focused models to upwards of $100,000 for digital cinema cameras.

The "model for every purpose and every pocket" approach means that, as a manufacturer, you won't miss a sale because you don't have a model that a customer can afford or can use, but it has some significant downsides. One is that it's expensive to develop new camera designs, both in terms of money and time. Canon's new C300 digital cinema camera took two years to develop, and that was considered a "fast track" project that required adapting the electronics from an older camcorder design in order to meet its deadline. In addition, as development budgets get strained, it's necessary to "milk" designs by releasing cameras that are minor variations on each other. Not to pick on Canon again, but the T2i, 60D and T3i DSLRs are very similar to each other, with minor differences in areas such as LCD mountings and video settings.

There's another side-effect of having so many models--features are deliberately left out of some lower-priced models in order to avoid cannibalizing sales of more-expensive ones. Sony is famous for this; for example, a big reason that the FS100 only has a HDMI output instead of HD-SDI is to avoid cannibalizing sales of the F3 camcorder. There's no technical reason why the FS100 can't have HD-SDI--the less-expensive Panasonic AF-100 has it, and it was introduced a year before the FS100.

Some companies practice another approach--build a limited number of models (or even a single model) of camera or camcorder, with a very specific target market or application. That brings us to GoPro, a camcorder company based in Half Moon Bay, California. GoPro only sells two models: The HD Hero and the new HD Hero2. Physically, the two cameras are almost identical to each other, but the Hero2 has improved electronics and optics. There's about $60-$70 difference between the two models, and none of them sell for more than $300. According to company founder Nick Woodman, GoPro initially built ruggedized cameras for use by surfers and skiers, but they were designed to be used by two people--one to surf or ski, and the other to shoot the action. Woodman's revelation, and the core principle behind everything that GoPro sells, is that athletes want to take video or still pictures of themselves in the act, or from their point of view. That meant that GoPro's cameras needed to not only be ruggedized--they had to be tiny, operate automatically, and be mountable just about anywhere.

GoPro sells a suite of mounting kits that allow its cameras to be mounted anywhere from the exterior of a race car to a surfboard. The company has a library of incredible footage shot underwater, on skydivers, mountain bikes, snow skis, skateboards, even as the payload for a weather balloon at the edge of space. It also has accessories to make the cameras easier to aim, extend their battery lives, transmit their video via Wi-Fi and gang two cameras together for 3D video. Yet all of it is based on the same camera design, for the same fundamental application.



I was amazed by how crowded the GoPro booth was at the NAB conference last April. This is a under-$300 camera, yet broadcast professionals were packed into the booth. GoPro's cameras are used for shooting the contestants' points of view on reality game shows, for recording experiments on Discovery's "Mythbusters", and for use almost anywhere danger is involved. Two thoughts went through my mind:

• Someone is going to buy Woodman Labs, the parent of GoPro, and
• Surely one of the big Japanese camera or camcorder makers will jump into the market.

I certainly hope that Woodman Labs isn't sold--the scariest example of what could happen is what happened when Cisco acquired Flip Digital. Before the acquisition, Flip was the leader in the market for inexpensive, simple-to-use camcorders. Earlier this year, due both to competition from smartphones and mismanagement, Cisco shut down Flip completely. Whenever a big company buys a small, focused company, it's usually the small company that suffers. As for the second possibility, a Japanese competitor could try to copy GoPro's ideas, but they'll stumble on their need to be all things to all people. To build a viable competitor, you need to understand GoPro's markets and applications as well as GoPro does, and that's hard when you're also trying to build cameras for every possible market and application.

Had GoPro tried to enter the general-purpose camera or camcorder markets, it would have had its head handed to it. Instead, it dominates the point-of-view market, which it can effectively defend. There's a lesson there, not just for other small companies but for the big camera makers as well. It may be time to focus on a few markets instead of trying to compete in all of them.

"My name is Bond...Teradek Bond."

Video "uplink in a backpack" systems, pioneered by LiveU, have become very popular for use at major-market television stations for live remotes. These systems use multiple 3G/4G broadband wireless connections, as well as Wi-Fi, to send HD-quality broadcast video live from the field for streaming to the Internet, or for live broadcast. LiveU typically rents its systems for $2,500/month or leases them on an annual basis for $1,500/month; comparable systems from TVU and Streambox sell for $25,000 to $40,000 (U.S.).

Teradek, whose Cube was the first device that made live broadcast-quality Wi-Fi streaming from camcorders feasible and inexpensive, has launched a new device called Bond that shrinks the "uplink in a backpack" down to a size that fits on top of a camcorder, and a price that almost any producer can afford. The Bond is designed to be connected to a Cube, and accepts up to five 3G or 4G USB cellular modems. The Cube provides the HD/SD-SDI or HDMI video input for the Bond; some models also provide Wi-Fi output. At the station or streaming end, Sputnik, a Linux-based application reconstructs the bonded video into a single MPEG-TS stream that can be processed with most H.264 decoders.

That's interesting, but not revolutionary: The LiveU, TVU and Streambox systems do essentially the same thing. What makes Teradek's system revolutionary is the price: The Bond's list price is $2,490 (U.S.). A Cube 250 with a HDMI interface and USB output (needed for the Bond) lists for $1,590. Sputnik is free. If you want to use an end-to-end Teradek solution, a Cube 400 decoder outputs to a HDMI interface as well as wired Ethernet, for $1,190. That's a complete, broadcast-quality broadband ENG uplink/downlnk system for $5,270. Depending on whether you rent monthly or annually, that's about two or four month's rental of a LiveU system, and about 20% of the purchase price of a TVU system. You're going to see a lot more live webcasts and broadcasts, thanks to Teradek and its Bond.

Atomos' little solution to a big problem

From the standpoint of getting high-quality video and audio out of a camcorder, either HDMI or HD-SDI will work, but HDMI is a consumer connection--the connector doesn't lock, and it's designed for casual use. SDI, on the other hand, is a professional connection--the connectors lock, and it's designed for much heavier usage than HDMI. There have been converters that input HDMI and output HD-SDI and vice versa, but they've tended to be big and line-powered--not something that you'd want to carry with you wherever you go.

At IBC, Atomos, the Australian video recorder folks, introduced a new product, Connect, that solves the problems with existing converters. The Connect is available in two versions: HDMI to HD-SDI, and HD-SDI to HDMI. Each one is priced at 249 Euros/$349 (U.S.), and is only 42.5mm W x 29 mm H by 72.5mm L. They're powered by a Sony battery and fit on Sony, Canon and Panasonic battery plates, so they can be mounted easily on almost any device. They can also be ganged together, so that multiple converters can share a single external battery.

Atomos' Connect converters can add a HD-SDI interface to any camcorder, make DSLRs work with professional video recorders and switchers, and enable lower-cost HDMI monitors to be used with HD-SDI devices. The company expects to begin shipping the devices worldwide by the end of 2011.

NAB 2011 Part 2: Blackmagic Design and the Video Value Proposition

In the interest of transparency, I want to start this post by saying that I've been a fan of Blackmagic Design for years, ever since the company launched its Decklink card in the U.S. market. Blackmagic Design reminds me a lot of what Hyundai has become in the automobile business--not only do you get an excellent product, but you get it at an excellent (and sometimes amazing) price. They carry on in the tradition of fellow Australian company Røde Microphones, which pioneered making high-quality microphones at very reasonable prices, and Atomos, which is selling amazing on-camera video recorders at a fraction of the price of most competitors.

At IBC 2009, Blackmagic announced that it had acquired DaVinci Systems, the maker of some of the most powerful and widely-used professional color correction and restoration systems for film and television. DaVinci Resolve was priced for high-end post-production facilities; an entry-level system was over $100,000 (U.S.) and could easily scale to several hundred thousand dollars as more processing nodes were added. Many industry observers wondered about how DaVinci's high-priced products would fit with Blackmagic's product line, most of which was priced at $1,000 or below. It didn't take long to find out the answer.

At NAB 2010, Blackmagic announced a $995 software-only version of DaVinci Resolve that's compatible with Apple's OSX and runs on most MacBook Pros, iMacs and Mac Pros. The software-only version is only a single processing node and doesn't include a control surface, but it's functionally identical to the product that had sold for $100,000 less than a year earlier. If you want a multi-node system, you can go with a $19,995 Linux version of the software and use it with a variety of third-party control surfaces, but if you want DaVinci's own control surface (which comes with a license for the Mac version), that's priced at $29,995. So, you could now pay less than $50,000 to get exactly the same functionality that you originally paid more than $100,000 for. And, since the Linux license supports multiple CPUs and GPUs, less than $50,000 also gets you the same functionality as those Resolve systems that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Last August, Blackmagic acquired Echolab, the manufacturer of a highly-regarded line of production switchers that had fallen on hard times and declared bankruptcy. Blackmagic continued production of Echolab's two most recent designs, the ATEM 1 M/E with 10 inputs for $19,995, and the ATEM 2 M/E with 18 inputs for $51,995. At the time, I wondered if Blackmagic was going to apply the same cost-reducing philosophy to the ATEM switchers that it did to DaVinci Resolve. Again, I didn't have long to wait.

At this week's NAB, Blackmagic announced the next generation of ATEM:

• ATEM Television Studio, a six-input HDMI/HD-SDI 1 M/E switcher with two built-in media player framestores, two downstream keyers, software control panel, built-in H.264 real-time encoder,  built-in 10-channel multiviewer with HDMI and HD-SDI outputs, separate program HDMI and HD-SDI outputs, and an Ethernet interface, for...$995. That's not a misprint. $995.
  
  Roll a few of these concepts around in your head: A "personal switcher" that's small enough to hold in your hand but has four HDMI and four HD-SDI inputs, any six of which can be active at one time. A built-in hardware H.264 encoder. A built-in multiviewer that can use any off-the-shelf HDMI display. No need whatsoever for any PC slots. A software control panel that runs on Mac or PC. The ability to connect to hardware control surfaces and the Internet via Ethernet. $995. This is an order of magnitude better price/performance than anything comparable that I saw on the show floor.
  
• ATEM 1 M/E: Based on the specifications of the original ATEM 1 M/E, with 4 HDMI and 4 HD-SDI inputs, all of which are active, a separate analog input, frame resynchronizers on every input, HDMI, HD-SDI and analog program outputs, down-converted SDI output, a multiviewer, USB 3.0 and Ethernet interfaces, RS-422 control, and a PC and Mac-compatible software control panel. Plus, it includes stinger and DVE transitions, 6 keyers, built-in media players, etc. Blackmagic completely redesigned the electronics and firmware so that the switcher is small enough that you can hold it in your hand. And the price? $2,495. If you want the ATEM 1 M/E's original control surface, that sells for $4,995. The total is $7,490.
  
  The only feature that Blackmagic deleted from the new version of the ATEM 1 M/E is the second multiviewer, which most customers found redundant, and they added additional features, such as USB 3.0. Then, they cut the price by $12,505. If you can live with a software control panel, they cut the price by $17,500.
  
• ATEM 2 M/E: Take the ATEM 1 M/E and expand it to 16 simultaneous inputs, add a super source multi layering compositing engine, an additional multiviewer and an expanded software control panel. The resulting switcher is 3 RU high instead of 2 RU high for the ATEM 1 M/E, but you can still hold it in your hand. And, it's priced at $4,995. If you want the original ATEM 2 M/E control surface, it's priced at $14,995. The combination is $19,990, for an equivalent to the same switcher that sold for $51,995 at NAB last year.

These are, in many ways, revolutionary products, and the ATEM Television Studio will likely have the most impact of any of them. Consumers who had never even considered the possibility of doing live multicamera production and streaming it on the Internet will have an affordable way to do so. It has the potential of opening up entirely new applications, as do the other two models. All three models are going to put dramatic price pressure on Blackmagic's competitors, who are going to have to either drop their prices to remain competitive or add features to justify the big difference between their prices and Blackmagic's. Finally, we may see third-party control surfaces support the ATEM switchers at prices even lower than Blackmagic's, just as lower-cost color correction control surfaces are now available from a variety of vendors.

There's one final piece necessary if you want to do multicamera live production, especially in large churches, arenas and stadiums, and that's a way to extend the connections between the cameras and the switcher. To handle that, Blackmagic announced the ATEM Camera Converter, which accepts either HDMI or HD-SDI as input along with two microphone inputs. It's also got inputs for a talkback microphone and an output for talkback headphones. It then converts the signals to ride bidirectionally on an optical fiber pair, up to 147,000 ft. (27.8 miles or 44.8 kilometers). At the switcher end, another ATEM Camera Converter provides HDMI and HD-SDI outputs from the optical fiber signal, as well as talkback audio input and output for the director.

And the cost? $595. A pair is needed for each camera, for a total of $1,190. Consider that before now, you would have had to use professional cameras with multicore and optical fiber interfaces that cost tens of thousands of dollars. The ATEM Camera Converter enables you to use any good consumer or prosumer camcorder with an HDMI interface. The combination of the ATEM switchers and Camera Converters will make professional live field production affordable for schools, churches, community cable stations, small-market TV stations and Internet video producers of all kinds.

Just to touch on a few of Blackmagic's other NAB 2011 announcements:

• UltraStudio SDI, a cost-reduced version of the UltraStudio Pro with HD-SDI in, a HDMI 1.4 display output for monitoring, and a USB 3.0 interface, for $395.
• UltraStudio 3D, Blackmagic Design's first device with a Thunderbolt interface, with dual HD-SDI inputs, HDMI input, analog inputs on a breakout cable and HDMI monitor output for 2D ot 3D video capture and display, for $995.
• HyperDeck Studio, a dual-drive uncompressed HD recorder that uses the same 2.5" SSD drives as the new HyperDeck Shuttle I wrote about yesterday. It has HDMI and HD-SDI inputs and outputs, VTR-style deck controls, a jog shuttle dial, a small LCD monitor for time code, audio and video monitoring, and an Ethernet interface. SSD drives can be swapped while the device is running for effectively infinite recording time. The price is $995.
• H.264 Pro Recorder, a real-time H.264 encoder with component, HDMI and HD-SDI inputs, USB output and RS-422 control, for $495.
• And, as for DaVinci Resolve, Blackmagic introduced a new feature-reduced version called DaVinci Resolve 8 Lite, intended for users from whom even $995 is too much money right now. The price? Free.

My point in going into this detail isn't to provide an ad for Blackmagic (although I'm sure that the blog post reads like one), but to make it clear that video technologies that cost tens of thousands of dollars just a year ago, and hundreds of thousands of dollars a few years ago, are now available at a price so low that hobbyists can afford them. Just as making computer power available to consumers at a reasonable price sparked a revolution in the early 1980s, so making video and audio power available at a low price will spark an explosion in how media is produced and who produces it.

In the final part of this series, I'm going to take a look at some of NAB 2011's other interesting new products and trends, including the first Thunderbolt-compatible peripherals, POV cameras, the rise of ENG trucks in a backpack (or a cigarette case), and a brief comment on Apple's forthcoming Final Cut Pro X.

NAB 2011 Part 1: Cameras, Recorders and Lighting

The overarching theme of NAB 2011, at least for me, was "Price is no longer an obstacle". Other people might focus on 3D, which was everywhere in its headache-inducing splendor, but for me, the story was that you can do more for less money than ever before. In the next few posts, I'll deal with some of the most interesting trends and products I saw at the show.

DSLRs, Interchangeable-Lens Camcorders and Accessories

The DSLR trend was very much alive and well at NAB, but individual vendors dealt with it in different ways. For the first time, Canon gave over large portions of its booth to its DSLRs, even though it didn't make any new announcements. You could shoot video of models using 7Ds, 5D Mark IIs and 1D Mark IVs on tripods with cinema heads, alongside Canon's camcorders.

On the other hand, you'd be hard-pressed to know that Sony or Panasonic even makes DSLRs (or EVILs, or whatever acronym you want to use) from what they showed in their booths. However, Sony extensively featured its new F3 and FS100 camcorders that use the E-mount lenses designed for its NEX family of still cameras, as did Panasonic with its AF100 camcorders that use its Micro Four-Thirds sensor and lenses. Sony is clearly trying to make up for lost time against Panasonic; FS100s could be found in booths all over the show floor, even though it isn't officially shipping.

I sat in on a presentation by Gale Tattersall, the Director of Photography for Fox's "House", on Monday as he showed some of the footage shot using Canon 5D Mark IIs for last season's final episode. He stressed that price had absolutely no consideration in his or the producers' decision to go with the Canon DSLRs--it was the quality of the images and the flexibility that the cameras' small size gave for getting shots in extremely cramped locations. Tattersall was back in the booth on Tuesday shooting video with a Canon DSLR and handheld rig.

Every major lens manufacturer was showing prime lenses (and in some cases, zoom lenses as well) for DSLRs: Zeiss, ARRI, Thales Angenieux, Schneider, Cooke and Leica were all well-represented. The words "bargain" and "lens" usually don't go together, although Zeiss was recommending that DSLR users who find its CP.2 line of video prime lenses too expensive should consider using its still prime lenses for video work.

Anyone interested in DSLR rigs could find them in abundance on the show floor. Zacuto, Redrock Micro, Ikan, Cinevate, Genus, D|Focus, Jag35 and Shape were exhibiting, and most of their booths were jammed when I visited. Competition for rigs, follow focuses and viewfinders is intense, driving prices down and product variety up.

In fact, that last sentence could be a summary of the entire market for DSLRs and related products. You can start with a body, such as a Canon T3i or Panasonic GH2 for under $1,000 (U.S.) and add components as you need them. Lenses can be rented as needed and purchased over time. In fact, you're probably better off not buying the top-of-the-line in any component (with the exception of lenses), because prices are falling and capabilities are being added so fast that what's "top-of-the-line" today will be significantly less expensive a year from now.

On-Camera Recorders

Companies such as Vitec's Focus Enhancements and AJA Video have made on-camera recorders for a number of years that are designed to supplement or replace tape and flash memory, enabling longer record times and more reliability. Record times are a particular problem with some DSLRs that permit as little as seven to 14 minutes of recording at a time onto flash memory cards.

At NAB, we saw the next wave: Low-cost, high-resolution recorders that do double (or triple) duty: They also serve as viewfinders and, in some cases, compressors for immediate ingest into editing systems. Here are a few examples:

• Atomos' Ninja can convert 8- or 10-bit HDMI video and audio, compress it on the fly using Apple's ProRes codec, and store it on any 2.5" SATA hard drive or SSD. It's also got 480 x 270 display that can be used for monitoring or playback. U.S. list price is $995.
• Atomos' Samurai has the same basic design and capabilities, but it has a HD-SDI interface instead of HDMI, an 800 x 480 display, and improved audio monitoring capabilities. U.S. list price is $1,495.
• Fast Forward Video's SideKick comes with both HDMI and HD-SDI interfaces, can capture uncompressed 8- or 10-bit 4:2:2 video at up to 220Mbps, can compress on the fly to Apple's ProRes codec, and has a 480 x 272 display. It uses the same 2.5" SATA SSDs as Atomos (it doesn't support hard drives), but unlike Atomos, FFV ships the SideKick with a 128GB SSD, so it's immediately usable right out of the box. U.S. list price is $2,495.00.
• Convergent Design's Gemini 4:4:4 has both HDMI and HD-SDI interfaces, and records 8- or 10-bit 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 video at up to 280Mbps onto one or two (hence the name Gemini) 1.8" SATA SSDs. Video and audio can be recorded on both drives simultaneously (for safety) or can span the two drives for longer recording times. The Gemini also has some sophisticated processing capabilities, including over- and under-cranking and the ability to apply 1D user-definable LUTs. It has a 800 x 480 display. U.S. list price is $5,995.00.

One final option: If you don't want a built-in display or compression, Blackmagic Design introduced the HyperDeck Shuttle, which has both HDMI and HD-SDI interfaces and stores uncompressed 8- or 10-bit 4:2:2 video onto a 2.5" SATA SSD. The SSDs slide into and out of the HyperDeck easily, so they can be swapped in the field. Recorded SSDs can be plugged into any external eSATA or USB dock, leaving the Shuttle mounted on the camera. Best of all, the price of the HyperDeck Shuttle is only $345. (Blackmagic Design introduced so many new products that I'll be covering their announcements in a separate post.)

Lighting

If there was any question that LED lighting has gone mainstream, this year's NAB settled it. Every lighting manufacturer I saw on the floor had LED models. Vitec's Litepanels remains the model for most of the industry, although no one has yet cloned their Sola LED Fresnels. "Clone" is a good word for a lot of the LED lights, especially knock-offs of more-expensive designs built by Chinese manufacturers. There were a number of clones on the floor that are variations of the tunable color temperature designs pioneered by Zylight and Litepanels.

Whether it's fixed color or bi-color, with or without dimming, competition is driving LED prices down into the range of fluorescent lights, and fluorescent prices have dropped into the incandescent range. The color quality of fluorescent bulbs continues to improve--especially compact fluorescents that can replace incandescent bulbs in existing fixtures with much less heat and power consumption. In fact, fluorescents are the best price/performance compromise for a lot of applications--similar power consumption and heat output as LEDs and a much lower price.

In Part 2, I'll review some new products from Blackmagic Design that will redefine customer expectations about what video technology can do, and more importantly, how it should be priced.

Panasonic's new GF2: Full HD in a compact camera

Panasonic's long-rumored GF2 has finally been announced, and Digital Photography Review has had a few days to test a pre-production model. Panasonic will ship the GF2 in the U.S. in January, and will release U.S. pricing in December.

The GF2 is slightly smaller and lighter than its predecessor, the GF1. (It's still slightly bigger overall than Sony's NEX-5, but when using its pancake lens, it's a bit thinner.) It uses the same 12.1 Megapixel imager as the previous model. In order to reduce its size, Panasonic had to remove some of the physical controls that were on the GF1 and replace them with menu options.

Perhaps the biggest change in the GF2 is that it now has Full HD video, rather than the AVCHD Lite in the GF1. That means that the GF2 has 1080/60i and 720/60p video (the 60i mode reads the image data off the sensor in 30p mode).  However, the GF2's AVCHD bitrate maxes out at 17Mbps, not the 24Mbps maximum that Panasonic's GH2 and some other DSLRs can achieve. ISO sensitivity has been increased to 6400 from the 3200 maximum of the GF1. The GF2 also has a built-in stereo microphone, but as with most DSLRs, you'll be better off capturing audio with an external recorder. It fully supports Panasonic's new 3D lens, which will turn it into a tiny, albeit limited, 3D camera.

Digital Photography Review didn't do image and video quality testing, so that will have to wait for another review. The fact that the GF2 only goes to 17Mbps AVCHD means that its video output almost certainly won't stand up to that of the GH2. There's no word about whether the GF2 provides a live output on its HDMI interface while recording, what the resolution of the live output is, and what (if anything) is superimposed on it by the camera.

The GF2 is clearly a consumer-oriented camera, a step up from point-and-shoots rather than a smaller replacement for a DSLR. It's unlikely to have many cinematography applications, especially if it's priced only a few hundred dollars less than the GH2.

Panasonic's GH2: Evolutionary, not revolutionary

Photokina is open, and Panasonic has officially released the GH2 DSLR, its next-generation HDSLR, priced at $899.95 (U.S.) for body only, $999.95 with a 14-42mm lens, and $1,499.95 with a 14-140mm lens. (Panasonic also announced a 100-300mm lens, but it looks like it will be almost as expensive as the GH2 body.) The camera will ship in December.

The GH2 has an 18 megapixel multiple aspect ratio imager (16 megapixels output), and an autofocus speed of 0.1 second. Like the GH1, the GH2 supports fully manual control in video mode. The camera's ISO range is 160-12,800, and Panasonic claims that the GH2's imager has 3 dB better noise and 200% better sensitivity than the imager in the GH1.

The GH2 captures 1080p at 60fps (NTSC) and 50fps (PAL), but outputs 1080i at both frame rates. Both the NTSC and PAL models also shoot and output 1080p at 24 fps, and 720p at 60 or 50 fps. The GH2 supports variable frame rates of 80%, 160%, 200% and 300%.

The GH2 has continuous full-quality video output from its HDMI port while the camera is recording. It's not clear if the camera overlays settings on the HDMI image while recording like the Canon DSLRs do, but if it doesn't (or if the overlays can be turned off), the GH2 would be the first DSLR whose HDMI output can be monitored and recorded for real applications. The camera doesn't have continuous autofocus in video mode, but it does have Touch AF in video. It has a rotatable, 460K LCD and a 1.4 megapixel electronic viewfinder. Finally, the GH2 has an audio input and stereo microphone, but professional users would likely be better off with an external audio recorder.

Based on its specifications alone, the GH2 is a good news/bad news story. The 18 megapixel imager should result in lower light sensitivity, but Panasonic claims that it's achieved significantly better sensitivity than the GH1. The higher pixel count of the GH2 should also increase rolling shutter problems, and the GH2 doesn't have the features of the AG-AF100 that are designed to minimize rolling shutter, so it remains to be seen how the GH2 performs. Panasonic claims that the HDMI output works when the camera is recording, but it's not clear if it's exactly the same image as that being recorded on the GH2's memory cards. The GH2 captures 1080p but outputs 1080i. It doesn't have continuous autofocus in video mode, but it does have one-touch autofocus.

Once the real-world reviews start coming in, we'll know more about the video performance of the GH2, but at least on paper, it seems to address most of the shortcomings of the GH1 at a more aggressive price.

Panasonic sets new low price point for webcasting studios

Panasonic has introduced a trio of products that represent a new low price point for automated webcasting studios:

• The AW-HE50S is a 1/3" 1080P camera with integrated pan/tilt/zoom and a HD/SD-SDI interface, at a $5,500.00 list price. (The same camera is available as the AW-HE50H for $1,000 less with a HDMI interface.)
• The AW-HS50N is a small 1080P 5-input, 3-output HD switcher with four HD/SD-SDI and one DVI-D input, and 2 HD/SD-SDI and one DVI-D outputs, an AUX bus, built-in keyer, dissolve transitions and a multiviewer, allowing all inputs and transitions to be viewed on one HDTV monitor. The list price is $4,000.
• The AW-RP50 (list price $2,200) is a remote camera controller that allows a single operator to set up all the parameters and control the movement of up to 100 HE50 and HE100 cameras. It has a network connection for the AW-HS50N, so that a single operator can simultaneously switch a show and control the cameras.

With these three products, you can create a basic, automated three-camera setup for less than $23,000, or a four-camera setup for just over $28,000. What's more, all of the components are light: The switcher and camera controller together are around nine pounds, and each camera is 3.5 pounds. Add a live encoder with an Ethernet or WiFi interface, and you're ready to stream.