Acquisition and Postproduction Technologies: What to Expect at NAB

Even before we ‘shutter-up’ some new technology has started to emerge . . .

Sony has opened the salvo with a successor to the NEX FS100. In addition to super slow motion, the FS700 camera comes with a 4K resolution enabled sensor. Sony says it will release firmware later this year to allow 4096x2160 raw via HDSDI when the recorder is released. At sub £10k this camera is looking to become a staple in indie / creative productions and under certain conditions this camera is sure to produce stunning images.

Canon has sent out an invitation for Sunday evening, pre-NAB and there is speculation of new cameras with 4K resolutions too. It is also known they are developing their own codec with support for 4k resolutions.

Sticking with codecs, Panasonic has announced the specification for AVC Ultra and will be previewing this on their stand with their latest cameras. Aside from new long-GOP features, this codec will also go to 4k 4:4:4 resolutions with data-rates down at 450Mbit/s

Along with ongoing developments of organic sensor technologies, image resolutions, definition and colour fidelity all look to be getting much better.

The future of digital imaging is looking bright!

Postproduction is an area in constant change and this year will see its fair share of winning announcements.

Apple has just released an update to its year-old Final Cut Pro X that sees some stability fixes and speed improvements. They are building an eco system and some large facilities have announced that they have ‘gone X’.

The Adobe stable has the much-anticipated Premiere 6 entering the race and with planned partnerships with over 50 vendors, their product looks to be ubiquitous on the show floor.

The previews are out and it certainly looks like the release they have been promising their customers. Expect further announcements through out the show.

Avid is out of the blocks with a fantastic offer for their Symphony finishing product. What used to cost tens of thousands of dollars is now less than one thousand.

The postproduction market has undergone massive disruption and technological change. Davinci colour correction, which used to be the preserve of the few, is now available to a much wider audience. This democratization is forcing the major players to make their products more feature-rich whilst reducing the cost of entry.

Probably the biggest hype this year is surrounding Autodesk Smoke on a Mac.

A few years ago they released one of their most popular products at around £10K, a huge discount off their premium product. This raised appeal and grew their user base exponentially.

This year, they are suggesting that their new release will be more game changing than anything before it.

With high-end colour grading now standard in many solutions, what will they do to their already popular product? If Smoke is released at a lower price point what impact will this have for the other players?

These are just a few of the vendors making announcements, which make this NAB look like a high-stakes show.

Will you be there? What do you think will make headlines at NAB? Let me know what you see and how NAB will change business for you.