P12 Shure Microphones

P20 More from Dedolight

P25 Beer and Pizza

P26 Avid MC6 with Atomise

DISPLAY & CLASSIFIED ADVERTBOOKINGS BY WED 1 FEB

ADVERT COPY BY FRI 3 FEBUP ON THE WEB BY FRI 10 FEB

NZVN on the web. Go to <https://sites.google.com/site/nzvideonews> for more news.

The sound of the surf you don’thear in this interview is fromWaikanae Beach, north ofWellington, and the racingdriver we’ve come to meet hereis Richard Kelly from ( as youcan tell from the advertising onhis company car ) AtomiseEditing Solutions Experts.

Ed: Now in fact it’s only one“expert” isn’t it Richard?

Richard: We have grown.There are actually three of usnow in the company – Meredithhandles all the back office stuffand recently Richard Thomas-sen has joined the team as atechnician. It’s working outextremely well.

Ed: And where’s the otherRichard based – also Welling-ton?

Richard: Also based inWellington; we’ve got a fewcontractors we can call on inAuckland, but the permanentstaff is all based out of Welling-ton.

Ed: Now you call yourselves “editing solutions experts”but surely these days editing solutions are pretty much“out of the box” and they work?

Richard: Depending on the level of complexity you’vegot in your requirements, absolutely – but when you’vegot large shared storages with large networks and alarge number of editing clients hanging off them ( as doquite a number of our customers ) there is someexpertise necessary in getting the setup right. It’scertainly a little bit more complex than “plug and play”.You’ve got to really understand both how the systemswork and how your clients work and configure everythingto work properly.

Ed: So sometimes clients can be a problem?

Richard: Only “editing clients” – our clients arewonderful.

Ed: Would the biggest client you look after be involvedwith those little people?

Richard: Yes, we’re very pleased to have supplied thesolution for The Hobbit obviously, alongside a number ofother jobs that are going through the industry at themoment. We’re also working quite closely with NHNZ inDunedin. They’ve got some reasonably complex solutionsand gear working together; and of course we look afterWeta Digital with quite a complex installation; a couple offilm jobs in Auckland and a couple of facilities in Auckland.

Ed: So that’s pretty big time and I guess these boysdon’t have time for turkeys so you must know what you’redoing if they’re happy with you – and I assume they arehappy?

Richard: I’m pleased to say they’re happy with us andI’m also very, very pleased to say that a lot of ourbusiness has come from word of mouth. We work very

Formula Atomise

DECEMBER 2011 Vol 176

Richard Kelly with company car.

Page 2

has only got a single editing system, as it is for a clientwho has 9, 10, 11 editing systems. When it comesdown to it, the editing system is their way of earningtheir living, so you have to completely understand thatand respect that and provide a level of service to matchthat.

Ed: And one day they might buy more?

Richard: Hopefully, yes, as we’ve learnt – not onlydo they buy more, they also tell people to come andbuy off you. One of the most important things that I tryand do is make sure our customers are well lookedafter, because they are one of our key means ofgrowing our business.

Ed: Can you work that remote monitoring system intoa single use client?

Richard: Absolutely, and we do.

Ed: Wow, that’s certainly good for their peace ofmind. But surely these systems, especially the Avidsnow, they’re pretty stable, they’re not likely to fall over… it can’t happen very often?

Richard: It doesn’t happen very often. We workvery hard to make sure it doesn’t but, for example,maybe someone’s got a new type of media that’s comethrough that they haven’t worked with before, or one ofthe classics is maybe they’ve got some media whichhasn’t been shot at exactly the frame rate they’dexpected – things like that – and they just need someassistance with us coming in and having a look at whatthey’re seeing, just to help diagnose what’s going on.We’re not talking just computer issues; we’re talkingfull workflow support.

hard to deliver a very high end solution with very highend support and we can do it from Wellington, which isquite straight forward to do now. We’re providingsupport using remote access systems to clients allaround the country.

Ed: And I guess that’s true with the large systemswith networks, which is both the Avid Unity and theApace Systems, that it’s pretty much a “hands on” thingand you do a one-on-one with those clients and theirrequirements?

Richard: Absolutely. It’s very much, for most of ourclients, checking those systems, just to make sureeverything’s okay.

Ed: But that’s not physically checking, that must beonline checking?

Richard: It is remote dial-in checking. All thestorage systems are configured to actually email me orRichard T if something is happening. So 9 times out of10, we’ll actually know something’s up before theediting client at the other end has even noticed thatsomething’s not quite as it should be. With the level ofequipment we’re dealing with, we don’t really have toworry about hard disc failures and such things toooften, thank goodness.

Ed: But then also you look after the smaller clients,the single person who might just want an editingsolution and I guess that’s not a 24 hour service?

Richard: We cover the whole gamut of clients andwe’ve got a lot of single user clients who are just asvaluable to us as our big clients. There’s a largenumber of them out there and it’s very important tohave the same high standard of support for a client who

Page 4

Richard: There’s still a lot of room for tape, youknow, especially when you’re dealing with massiveamounts of data such as you can gather quickly on aRED Epic at 5K or 4K a frame – your only place to put itis onto tape generally.

Ed: There you are, another convert. One day I’ll getthe Modernists to agree with me on tape, but for themoment … Media Composer 6 – there’s certainly been alot of information come out about it recently and a lot ofhype, but is it true? Is it really as good as they say itis?

Richard: Absolutely. I’ve been very lucky to workwith it right through the Alpha and Beta programmeswith a number of our clients and a huge amount ofeffort has gone into it. Right from during the Alphaprogramme, I had clients asking if they could use it inproduction – it is (and was) that good from very earlytimes.

Ed: In what particular ways – for example, let’s startwith the big clients, the multi users, what’s a couple ofthe key benefits for those clients?

Richard: Media Composer 6 is a 64 bit nativeapplication, so that means … one of the things we’reseeing turning with a couple of our larger clients, is verycomplex sequences.

Ed: Especially 3D I imagine?

Richard: 3D adds a great level of complexity, buteven at 2D we’re talking many, many layers of video,with many, many, many objects in a bin and in atimeline and, on occasion, we’ve actually reached themaximum limit that Media Composer’s had, which is anextraordinarily high limit and it’s been quite astounding

Ed: So they might have some legacy equipment thatdoesn’t talk happily with the new software?

Richard: That’s always possible, but a lot of thesupport calls we get are about “we’ve received a filefrom X and it’s not quite what we expected. How do wework with this?”

Ed: Is there any particular camera that producesdifficult files?

Richard: No, there’s nothing in particular. But interms of file based media support we’re pretty broadacross the range, especially with Media Composerversion 6 having AVCHD support now. That was alwaysone of the tricky things, having to take AVCHD andconvert it to something else to get it into Avid. Butthat’s gone now with Media Composer 6. You’ve gotlots of devices that plug into the camera that act asstorage and all of them have their own particular setup.So there’s a large scope for interesting results shall wesay.

Ed: Yes, I remember the headlines at NAB a fewyears ago – it was all about “convergence”; perhaps itshould have been “divergence”?

Richard: It’s more convergence in terms ofeverything has become computer related. We’ve goneaway from having baseband tape …

Ed: Oh no, don’t say that, no we haven’t gone awayfrom tape. I love tape.

Richard: Tape is wonderful. Hey and don’t forget, atthe end of the day, most large projects end up goingback out onto LTO tape.

Ed: Yay!

Free up online edit storage reducing capital expenditure through use of lower cost storage

Long term Archive and Disaster Recovery

Improved file based workflows between facilities

Simple to perform background operation

!"#$%&'

© 1998-2011 Marquis Broadcast Ltd. All rights reserved. Head office: 23 Horseshoe Park Pangbourne Berkshire RG8 7JW UK. www.marquisbroadcast.com

("#)*%+

UK Head Office

Marquis Broadcast Limited 23 Horseshoe Park Pangbourne Berkshire, RG8 7JW United Kingdom

Phone +44 (0)118 984 4111

Email sales@marquisbroadcast.com

Sales Contacts

Americas Jason DanielsonPhone +1 650 743 6644Email jason@marquisbroadcast.com

EMEA/Asia Pacific Neil ColesPhone +44 (0)118 984 4111Email neil.coles@marquisbroadcast.com

Cache-A Archive Appliances Pro-Cache 4

Pro-Cache 5

Prime-Cache 4

Prime-Cache 5

(LTO & LTFS)

Edit SystemsAvid Media

Composer

Avid NewsCutter

Avid Symphony

Apple Final Cut Pro

System Requirements

Typical Applications

Park sequences directly to LTO tapes

Create archives for Disaster Recovery or for later Reworking

Transfer complex sequences between facilities

Park any type of media

Key Benefits

Parking Server Windows 2008

Windows 2008 R2, 7

Windows 2003, Vista,

XP Pro

Minimum Spec P4 3GHz, 1GB Ram,

10G Drive Space, 1G NIC

Edit Storage Apple XSAN

Avid Interplay

Avid Unity

Avid ISIS

Standalone workstation

Shared NAS/SAN

Edit Storage

Clips Sequences

Edit Clients

Atomise LimitedAuthorised Reseller of Professional Editing Equipment

Visit www.atomise.co.nz; email atomise@atomise.co.nz or call Richard Kelly on 04 380 5010 / 021 86 33 94

for information & demos.

Apace Systems

Editing Solutions Experts

marquis

bridgingSequence Converter for Avid and FCP Editors D

ata

sheet

b

Overview

Bridging enables Apple Final Cut Pro and Avid operators

to exchange sequences by simply dropping them from

one timeline into the other. Media and timeline

structures are moved as background operations and

converted on the fly.

Aimed at multiple users of both Avid and FCP this cost

effective utility enables facility managers to benefit from

improved flexibility when organising projects and

allocating resources as Avid and Apple systems can be

easily integrated into a single workflow.

How It Works

Using a Client Server architecture up to 20 simultaneous

Clients can initiate Bridging conversions. The background

Service locates, re-wraps sequence media and converts

the sequence structure for the destination editor. Edit

workstations are free to continue editing while

sequences are bridged.

Based on the shots that appear in the sequence Bridging

will transfer media from the source editor to the

destination editor. Media is converting on the fly

between the different wrappers, MXF OPAtom for Avid

and QuickTime self-contained media for Apple.

Sequence information is converted between Avid AAF

and Apple XML formats to create the required sequence

structure. Audio and video track layout is preserved with

tails automatically added to all edit points.

Bridging is an automatic background utility that enables editors to exchange sequences for cross platform collaboration and workflow migration

Convert sequences and move media in the background

Facilitate production collaboration

Save time and effort transferring editsTypical Use Cases

Media producers with investments in both Avid and FCP

Shared production workflows using different people / edit systems

Off line shot selection / on line edit production

Overflow management from one production resource to another

Key Benefits

More freedom in planning and organising productions

Facilitate production collaboration

Save time and effort transferring edits

Easier to use best-of-breed tools for different stages of production

Bridging V2.6 Available Now

Includes full support for Avid Interplay

parkingMedia Mover for Avid and FCP Editors D

ata

sheetp

Overview

Parking is an easy to use, cost-effective utility for creating

re-editable archives or transferring sequences between

different edit locations.

It is particularly relevant for HD and 3D production where

the larger file sizes impact significantly on limited edit

resources.

Sequence Parking

Parking provides a powerful and cost effective 'one click'

method for moving both edit sequences and media in a

single background operation.

Parking consolidates sequence media with definable

handles, automatically creating a reduced version to allow

deletion of excess rushes whilst maximising the throughput

of the edit environment.

The portable nature of parked sequences makes them ideal

candidates to support disaster recovery, business

continuity and inter-site workflows.

Project Parking

Project Parking enables Avid users to safely archive

complete projects. It extends the ’parking’ concept to allow

users to move complete projects quickly and easily

between systems within the same facility or between sites.

By parking not only the sequence edits, effects and project

settings but also the original rushes, Project Parking

provides a simple vehicle for archiving all media associated

with a project.

Although archives are saved to and restored from disk,

project archives can be easily moved into managed or

cloud-based storage or become an asset within an

Hierarchical Storage Management system.

Parking is a Sequence and Project Mover for Archive Storage, Distribution and Disaster Recovery

marquis

Typical Use Cases

Broadcast content creators needing to re-edit short form - News/Sports

Facilities needing to reversion programme or promo content

Maintaining look and feel when moving Sequences for localisation

Edit environments needing to free up edit space

Key Benefits

Reduce capital expenditure

Protect your assets

Distribute content across facilities

Parking V2.6 Available Now

Avid Interplay integration

Support for mixed Avid and FCP clients on a single system

‘Full copy’ Parking mode option

Introduction of ‘Pre Flight Check’

Avid Project Archiving Available Q4

Fast and cost effective archive and restore process

Create files for Disaster Recovery or later reworking

Improve file based workflows between facilities

Park media onto lower cost edit shared storage

Bridging is an automatic background utility that enables editors to exchange sequences for cross platform collaboration and workflow migration.

Convert sequences and move media in the background. Facilitate production collaboration.

Save time and effort transferring edits.

Parking is a Sequence and Project Mover for Archive Storage, Distribution and Disaster Recovery

Fast and cost effective archive and restore process Create files for Disaster Recovery or later reworking

Improve file based workflows between facilities Park media onto lower cost edit shared storage

parkingMedia Mover for Avid and FCP Editors D

ata

sheetp

Overview

Parking is an easy to use, cost-effective utility for creating

re-editable archives or transferring sequences between

different edit locations.

It is particularly relevant for HD and 3D production where

the larger file sizes impact significantly on limited edit

resources.

Sequence Parking

Parking provides a powerful and cost effective 'one click'

method for moving both edit sequences and media in a

single background operation.

Parking consolidates sequence media with definable

handles, automatically creating a reduced version to allow

deletion of excess rushes whilst maximising the throughput

of the edit environment.

The portable nature of parked sequences makes them ideal

candidates to support disaster recovery, business

continuity and inter-site workflows.

Project Parking

Project Parking enables Avid users to safely archive

complete projects. It extends the ’parking’ concept to allow

users to move complete projects quickly and easily

between systems within the same facility or between sites.

By parking not only the sequence edits, effects and project

settings but also the original rushes, Project Parking

provides a simple vehicle for archiving all media associated

with a project.

Although archives are saved to and restored from disk,

project archives can be easily moved into managed or

cloud-based storage or become an asset within an

Hierarchical Storage Management system.

Parking is a Sequence and Project Mover for Archive Storage, Distribution and Disaster Recovery

marquis

Typical Use Cases

Broadcast content creators needing to re-edit short form - News/Sports

Facilities needing to reversion programme or promo content

Maintaining look and feel when moving Sequences for localisation

Edit environments needing to free up edit space

Key Benefits

Reduce capital expenditure

Protect your assets

Distribute content across facilities

Parking V2.6 Available Now

Avid Interplay integration

Support for mixed Avid and FCP clients on a single system

‘Full copy’ Parking mode option

Introduction of ‘Pre Flight Check’

Avid Project Archiving Available Q4

Fast and cost effective archive and restore process

Create files for Disaster Recovery or later reworking

Improve file based workflows between facilities

Park media onto lower cost edit shared storage

marquis

bridgingSequence Converter for Avid and FCP Editors D

ata

sheet

b

Overview

Bridging enables Apple Final Cut Pro and Avid operators

to exchange sequences by simply dropping them from

one timeline into the other. Media and timeline

structures are moved as background operations and

converted on the fly.

Aimed at multiple users of both Avid and FCP this cost

effective utility enables facility managers to benefit from

improved flexibility when organising projects and

allocating resources as Avid and Apple systems can be

easily integrated into a single workflow.

How It Works

Using a Client Server architecture up to 20 simultaneous

Clients can initiate Bridging conversions. The background

Service locates, re-wraps sequence media and converts

the sequence structure for the destination editor. Edit

workstations are free to continue editing while

sequences are bridged.

Based on the shots that appear in the sequence Bridging

will transfer media from the source editor to the

destination editor. Media is converting on the fly

between the different wrappers, MXF OPAtom for Avid

and QuickTime self-contained media for Apple.

Sequence information is converted between Avid AAF

and Apple XML formats to create the required sequence

structure. Audio and video track layout is preserved with

tails automatically added to all edit points.

Bridging is an automatic background utility that enables editors to exchange sequences for cross platform collaboration and workflow migration

Convert sequences and move media in the background

Facilitate production collaboration

Save time and effort transferring editsTypical Use Cases

Media producers with investments in both Avid and FCP

Shared production workflows using different people / edit systems

Off line shot selection / on line edit production

Overflow management from one production resource to another

Key Benefits

More freedom in planning and organising productions

Facilitate production collaboration

Save time and effort transferring edits

Easier to use best-of-breed tools for different stages of production

Bridging V2.6 Available Now

Includes full support for Avid Interplay

Flexible, Cost Effective Archiving with Cache-A single tape

or library solutions

Creating and managing digital archives is an essential step in file

based workflows.

The combination of Sequence Parking from Marquis and LTO

based Archive Appliances from Cache-A creates a very cost

effective solution.

Background media transfers, and an easy to manage Archive cata-

logue, create a very flexible archive solution, easily deployed and highly

cost effective in terms of capital and operating investment.

Page 6

the Avid, make the changes that your client wants andbingo, you don’t have to reconstruct the whole thing?

Richard: Absolutely – and I’m sure it’s much easierto bring it into Media Composer compared to bringing itinto Apple’s latest offering So we can maintain aclient’s existing information and bring it into a newenvironment with everything that they need to keepworking, and that’s extremely important. Avid’s strongpoint has always been that very, very tight workflow onmaintaining all the metadata, maintaining all yourinformation, the whole way through your entire process.

Ed: And if somebody gets into trouble and they don’twant to call you, Avid’s got a pretty good online facilityhaven’t they in terms of tutorials and a knowledgebase?

Richard: They do have an extremely good offeringwith Alex (Avid Learning Excellerator™), with onlinetraining, and the knowledge base is also extremelygood. But we encourage everyone who purchases Avidfrom us to use us as their first line of support.

Ed: So you give everyone your cell phone number?

Richard: My cell phone number is on the card, mySkype address is on the card, our phone numbers areall on our website – we’re there to make sure that thegear that we supply works.

Ed: Now Richard, along with remote analysing ofproblems in client’s machines, something else you cando remotely with a client?

Richard: Yes, we can dial in using a bit of software,for example LogMein or TeamViewer which we install on

the client machine so we can actually dial in and see

everything that our client is seeing. Say they’re asking

about how to use a particular feature or they’ve got

something they’d like to show us in the editing

application, we can actually see everything that they

see, and can move their mouse and take control of their

keyboard and everything, and assist that way while

we’re talking to them on the phone.

Ed: And it works?

to hit it occasionally. But 64 bit means it will addressall of the RAM you put into the computer which, with filebased input, that means you’ve got more headroom fordealing with the files and the complexity of theinformation that you’ve got coming in. The amount ofmetadata that’s coming in has obviously increased aswell, because metadata is the lifeblood of all of thismedia.

With 3D, Media Composer 6 is an absolutely astoundingmove forward. It is working in the 3D environment inthe same way that you’d work in a 2D traditionalnonlinear editor environment. You don’t have anylimitations for how you’re going to work and it willhandle all of the process, be it full frame, side by side,under over, out to single eye for working on a broadcastmonitor if you haven’t got a 3D broadcast monitor. Ifyour end result’s going to be viewing on anothermonitor for the director or producer, then it’s as simpleas just selecting the output to the 2D or 3D dependingon what your requirements are at that moment for your3D project, and it simply comes out of the box lookingbeautiful.

Another one of the big changes is support for a muchwider range of third party hardware. Now that’s amassive change for Media Composer.

Ed: ... of Avid not being quite so retentive?

Richard: Avid being very open, shall we say.

Ed: Well you can say that, I can say “retentive”.

Richard: I can say “open” … so, of course, one of thegreat things about that is we’ve got a lot of Final Cutusers who are migrating to Media Composer at themoment, because Avid really is strongly taking back theprofessional editing market; they’re really concentratingon making sure they’ve got a proper professionalproduct.

Ed: Well that was what my next question was about… so the single user, the person who’s got Final Cut,moves to Media Composer. Some people are sayingthat, for the professional user, the Adobe Premierepackage is a better format for quick corporate work?

Richard: Of course I’d have to disagree. I trulybelieve that Media Composer is the bestnonlinear editing package on the marketat the moment. It is such a wideranging product now, in terms of what itcan deal with coming in, and it’s sosimple and easy to use. When you thinkabout it, it’s what all other NLEs havecopied to a certain extent. It was thefirst one to market as an NLE and everyother NLE has copied its concepts to acertain degree, or based their workflowson the concepts that Media Composerbrought to market. The beauty is, nowwith Media Composer 6, a client can gofrom a Final Cut system where they’vealready got AJA hardware, bring in MediaComposer 6 and that AJA hardware willnow work with Media Composer and theycan still keep both on the same system ifrequired.

So it’s a very open system, it’s verystraightforward, it allows a really goodtransition and in fact, there’s some reallygood tools now for transitioning wholeprojects and media from Final Cut toMedia Composer that make it very easyfor clients to make a transition.

Ed: So if you have a legacy project inFinal Cut, you can actually bring it into Richard Thomassen ready to assist.

Page 8

Richard: It works very, very well. It’s just likehaving technical support on site whenever you need it.

Ed: Excellent, so as you see we’ve got Avid on thecar, Apace is another product that we’ve certainlytalked about a lot, but you don’t stop there – you’ve gotsome other solutions I believe?

Richard: In addition to Avid and Apace, we’ve gotthe complete Hewlett Packard range, Force 10 Networkswitches, JMR Storage, and Panasonic as our keybrands. We can provide a reasonable turnkey solutionfor anybody’s needs.

If somebody requires an audio solution instead of avideo solution, we also work very closely with one of theproviders who are able to put together a completeturnkey solution for your post environment, with quite anice collaborative environment.

Ed: And I guess that’s important, that if you’re goingto set yourself up with an editing solution and you wantsome add-ons, it’s better to get the one person to put itall in – as the phrase goes “one throat to choke”?

Richard: Often a very important thing to a client ishaving a single point of contact and someone whoknows not only how their systems work, but how theirparticular workflow operates.

We work very hard to gain access to any product that isAvid qualified that we know is going to work with ourediting products.

Ed: And you sell tape?

Richard: Of course! NZVN

Conrad with a sound selection from Shure.

Page 12

Conrad: ... there are four models. At the entry

level, we have a non-modular VP82. This is a short

shotgun specifically designed for camera mounting;

very short, it requires 48 Volt phantom power; very

light and very well priced in the market.

Ed: The other three microphones – they all break

down into two bits?

Conrad: These are VP89 Shure shotgun

microphones. They’re modular, so the capsules or

microphone parts come in three sizes – small, medium

and large – along with the preamp which requires 48

Volt phantom power. It’s a modular system so you

don’t have to buy the preamp each time; you can

interchange any microphone capsule with one preamp.

Ed: So why would you want a short one and a long

one?

Conrad: That will give you different performance in

different recording environments, depending on what

you’re intending to do. For example, if you’re a

reporter, you may tend to use a short shotgun at close

range on a pistol grip; whereas if you’re outdoors trying

to record bird noises, you would then probably go for

the longer shotgun for more accuracy and longer throw

and the ability to record at longer distances.

Ed: And there’s a whole range of windsocks – again

Rycote product?

Conrad: That’s right, the microphones come

complete with a foam windscreen and a case and from

there, if you’re recording in higher wind environments,

you would look at the Rycote products as an addition;

and then you also have different types of mount for

camera use. Obviously different camera users like their

Shure Microphonesfor TV Production

Now Sound are the New Zealand agents for Shure and

we have Conrad Jones telling us that retail sales are not

through Now Sound but through the dealer network in

New Zealand – and you will find most of those in the

pages of NZ Video News.

Ed: Is that true Conrad?

Conrad: That’s correct.

Ed: Great. So make the effort to look at the Shure

product, because it does appear to add something to

the industry we’re in. I guess we should start with

shotgun microphones and the question has to be – well,

why would you pick a Shure over any other brand?

Conrad: With the testing and comparative testing of

microphones that we’ve done with some competing

brands, the real standouts of the Shure microphones

are their very low inherent handling noise and the real

push through the mid-range for definition and clarity

within your recordings; and then coupling that with the

Rycote products gives you an extremely well performed

microphone in the types of environment where you

would use a shotgun microphone.

Ed: That’s a special arrangement isn’t it, that Shure

has with Rycote, that they are building support

mechanisms, including the Lyre, to handle the Shure

mic, and they are labelled “Shure”?

Conrad: Yes, that’s right, Rycote is partnered with

Shure to produce the products that match perfectly with

Shure microphones and there are some really nice

supports to help with the performance of these

microphones.

Ed: And these are supports that either go on a boom

pole or mount on a camera?

Conrad: Yes, effectively they’re traditional Rycote

products – a pistol grip mount, camera mount, and

boom pole accessories that suit those particular

microphones and the jobs that they’re used for.

Ed: And even though these are branded “Shure”, if

you happen to have another microphone brand, then it

will still fit because diameters and lengths are industry

standard, so you’re not limited to just Shure

microphones with these products?

Conrad: No, you’re not. There’s effectively three

different sizes with shotgun microphones – these are

“standard size” if you like, and most of the microphones

on the market will fit within these accessories. There

are exceptions to that rule, but effectively it’s a

standard microphone diameter.

Ed: Now where’s the Shure product designed?

Conrad: They are designed in the States. It’s aprivate company owned and operated still by MrsShure.

Shure is one of the largest microphone manufacturersin the world. With a history of audio innovationspanning over 80 years, Shure has turned a passion formaking great microphones and audio electronics into anobsession. No wonder Shure continues to set theworldwide industry standard for superior microphonesand audio electronics.

Ed: So, in the shotgun range ...?

Page 14

microphones positioned differently, so these allow you

to choose how you mount your microphone, or take it

off the camera altogether.

Ed: And they come with nice long Canon connector

cords do they?

Conrad: Some of the Rycote products are supplied

with the XLR cables to go with them but you will need

to check with your preferred dealer on the different

options

Ed: When you buy the microphone you don’t get a

connector to your camera?

Conrad: When you buy the microphone you get amicrophone, a case and a foam windscreen. You

choose your own cable length to match the use.

Ed: Now I actually did some preparation for this

interview Conrad –quite unusual for me – but I did, and

I read the brochures, and finally I figured out what

“cardioid” means. I always thought that

it was a spelling mistake, but cardioid in

the design of a microphone … let’s see ifyou know what it means?

Conrad: Thanks for that! So you’vegot different types of polar pattern if youlike, omni being basically a general circle– if you put a circle around themicrophone where you would pick up thesound from; cardioid is a slightlydifferent “pattern” of how the noise orthe surrounding sound would becollected and gathered; then you havehyper-cardiod and low bar hyper-cardioidand super-cardioid. It’s just the different“pattern”, or shape of how the audio iscollected. Now, in answer to your testquestion, it’s called “cardioid” becausethe pattern is “cardiac” or “heart”shaped.

Ed: Well done – test passed!

Conrad: So triple middle cartridgepolar patterns should be called “kidney”because they look like kidneys, is thatcorrect?

Ed: Well, we’ll put that to thecommittee. Perhaps Mr Buckland wouldknow the answer to that one? And thepattern for the VP89?

Conrad: Hyper-cardioid / Low bar.

Ed: And that’s a good thing?

Conrad: Long and skinny basically,so very directional, a lot less outsidenoise coming in. So if you’re recording abird noise, you get the bird noise and alittle bit of ambience, but preferably notthe car on the southern motorway.

Ed: Or the tractor that’s pulling down

the trees on the side?

Conrad: Preferably not, but in some cases, yes, you

may get that.

Ed: And I notice the VP89s have got a switch. Is this

an on /off switch, or what does it do?

Conrad: It’s a low-cut filter.

Ed: So if you’ve got a bit of side noise that’s a bit

“peaky”, you put this switch on and it just takes that

top end off?

Joni is ready to transmit.

Conrad: Yes, it will help you with low frequency

unwanted noise.

Ed: But isn’t this something you’d fix in post?

Conrad: Oh absolutely you can do that as well.

Ed: So would you advise me to use the switch or not?

Conrad: It depends on the recording environment.

It’s there for a reason; it’s to help you with your

recording, in difficult environments.

It’s worth giving it a try, doing a little test to see

whether you find the low-cut filter switch on or off to be

what you like in your recording. Now that moves us on

to radio microphones, which really are the “topic de

jour” because of what’s happening in the industry, and

Shure’s not to be left behind; they’ve got a very nice

slim little radio microphone on offer. Taking over the

radio microphone side of this interview, we have Joni

Benton.

Ed: Joni, on the transmitter side, Shure’s been doingthese for quite a long time, because there’s been asystem for the “tour sound” market and that is with avery sophisticated wireless diversity receiver that ismains powered and then a choice of two body packtransmitters. But what is new is a compact receiverthat’s just come on the market, the UR5.

Joni: Shure are really focusing on the Broadcast

market again; they’ve decided to come out with a high

end portable wireless receiver that works with the

RS3411xs RackmountUp to 102TB, 34 drives at 3TB per drive.

Synology xs-series NAS servers combine high performance, massive scalability and reliability for small and medium-sized businesses.

• 10GigE connectivity boosts throughput to 1,000MB/sec

• Full Windows, Mac and Linux support

• Hot-swappable Hard Drive Design

DS3611xs DesktopUp to 108TB, 36 drives at 3TB per drive.

Digital Video Technologies (NZ) Ltd | Phone: 09 525 0788 | Email: sales@dvt.co.nz | 45 Fairfax Avenue, Penrose, Aucklandwww.dvt.co.nz

Synology NAS SolutionsDisk to disk backup and archive now affordable to everyone

MASSIVE SCALABILITY

DUAL 10GIG ECONNECTIVITY (1,000MB/SEC)

DS2411+ DesktopUp to 72TB, 24 drives at 3TB per drive.

DS1511+ DesktopUp to 45TB, 15 drives at 3TB per drive.

All high performance, scalable and full featured NAS solutions for businesses that need an effi cient way to centralise data protection, simplify data management, and rapidly scale storage capacity – with minimal time spent on setup and management.

• 165MB/sec write, 195MB/sec read performance

• Full Windows, Mac and Linux support

• Dual GigE connectivity with failover and link aggregation support

RS2211+ RackmountUp to 66TB, 22 drives at 3TB per drive.

DS1511+ Desktop

DUAL GIG ECONNECTIVITY (166MB/SEC)

PRODUCTION | POST | VISUAL EFFECTS

Christmas Hours: Closed 5pm 23 Dec till 9am 9th Jan

Merry Christmas

& Happy

New Year

from the team at DVT

Page 16

Ed: And even the UR1 transmitter is a smaller size

than I’ve seen with other product, but the UR1M (the

micro version) is half that size?

Joni: That’s right, it’s tiny and really light.

Ed: And it says “with 2xAAA batteries, it’s up to 9

hours continuous use” so that’s very battery-friendly?

Joni: Yes and all of UHF-R systems can be networked

on a computer using Shure’s “Wireless Workbench”

software. This software will show you battery life

remaining and you can do all your frequency

management if you are running multiple systems.

Ed: And coming out very soon will be the UR3; this is

a plug on transmitter and that also is going to add to

the broadcast package where you can plug this onto the

end of your handheld microphone, or even your boom

pole?

Joni: Yes, it comes with an XLR connector and an

earphone jack for additional monitoring.

Ed: So that plugs in your boom pole into the XLR

connector on the end of it and there’s your transmitter,

so a very, very handy addition to a microphone pack?

Joni: Yes and you’ve got your selectable phantom

power on there, so you can select between 12 and 48

Volts. Plus you also have adjustable output power.

Ed: So these look pretty cool but really for the top

end of radio mic work. I’m pretty confident that Shure

will be looking into the spectrum issues in New Zealand

very carefully and not supplying product that is not

going to be able to be used within a couple of years. Is

that true Joni?

Joni: Yes, that’s very true. Back in 2009 the

government told us that we had to stop selling into the

700 MHz range, which we did, and we are now only

selling into the 518-558 MHz and 606-686 MHz range.

UHFR being high end operates over a very large

spectrum and obviously with all the tools that it comes

with, ie Wireless Workbench, you can easily manage

your channels.

Ed: So all Shure wireless microphone products from

now on are definitely future proof?

Joni: No one can say this 100% until Sky TV, Maori TVand TAB have decided whether they will pick up theiroptions, but Shure will be offering trade-in deals if /when this happens.

Shure are already offering trade-in deals on old 700MHzUHF systems here in New Zealand.

current UHF-R wireless microphone systems. Obviously

it has the excellent bandwidth that the UHFR offers,

which is up to 2400 selectable frequencies across 60

MHz of bandwidth and it offers the same functionality

that the other UHFR units offer, with scan in sync for

very easy setup.

All UHF-R systems offer “Audio Reference Companding”

which basically means the sound comes through crystal

clear. The best thing about this portable wireless

receiver is it offers a multi-transmitter mode, which

means you can switch between multiple transmitters

very fast.

So you have the one receiver and you “hot-swap”

between up to 20 transmitters which are named at the

touch of a button. This replaces the need to mount

multiple receivers on your camera whenever you only

need to tune to one transmitter at a time.

Ed: Basically then it’s just changing a channel, but

you don’t have to go into a menu to do it, it’s just the

push of a button and you go to the preselected next

channel?

Joni: Correct.

Ed: That’s pretty cool and something else that I find

very useful is in fact that it runs on 2xAA batteries?

Joni: That’s right.

Ed: So that’s the UR5 which has really extended the

Shure range into the broadcast market and that means

that the UR1 and the UR1M – the body pack

transmitters – now have a new lease of life in the ENG

market?

Joni: That’s correct. These are aimed at the high end,

so it’s not everyone who can obviously afford to get

these units, but for high end applications, yes.

Ed: If you really want quality and you want it to last?

Joni: Yes, and Shure push this system as being for

“mission critical” recording.

They’ve been around for years, they’ve been doing it for

years, it doesn’t drop out, it is mission critical.

Ed: And these are good … they look like die-cast

aluminium cases that will survive a good drop?

Joni: Yes, all Shure products are tested to beyond what

you would normally experience in most situations – so

they’ve all been dropped and frozen and heated up and

all the rest.

So, yes, they’re pretty bullet-proof. NZVN

AUDIO

VIZUAL

Steadicam Smoothee

Professional lightweight hand-held stabiliser for the iphone4 allowingyou to capture incrediblevideo.

www.steadicam.comLIST $310+gstA2Z $265+gst

Canon XF-105

The Canon XF105 professional video camera offers stunningimage quality with FULL HD MPEG-2 4:2:2 at 50Mbps in an amazingly compact design.www.canon.co.nzLIST $6434+gstA2Z $5295+gst

Canon XF-305

NEW! HERO 2!

Professional Power to the People1080p | 960p | 720p | WVGA120 | 60 | 48 | 30 FPS11MP 10/Photos/sec170° | 127° | 90° FOV

www.gopro.comLIST $433+gstLimited Stock!

Sony PMW-EX3

The PMW-EX3 compact camcorder with an interchangeable lens system incorporates three ½-inch type Exmor™ Full HD CMOS sensors, each with an effectivepixel count of 1920 x 1080, delivering stunning-quality HD images in 1080P, 720P and 1080i HD resolutions.www.pro.sony.co.nzLIST $12,800+gstA2Z $11,375+gst

GOPRO HD HERO2

iKan VX7E Monitor

7” HD-SDI Monitor w/ Peakingand False Colourwww.ikancorp.comLIST $1610+gstA2Z $1395+gst

P2 handheld memory cardcamera recorder. Shoulder-typeperformance and functions in a professional handheld camera recorder.

www.panasonic.co.nzLIST $7900+gstA2Z $7465+gst

The XF305 - Canon’s newest professional digital video camera for event videographers, film makers, news gatherers, and live multi-camera environments - is truly state of the art.

www.canon.co.nzLIST $10,869+gstA2Z $8395+gst

Panasonic AG-HPX250

A2Z Technologies Ltd29 Sale StreetFreemans Bay

(09) 375 3085E. info@audio2vizual.co.nz

www.audio2vizual.co.nzConditions Apply, while stocks last

More Christmas Specials In Store!

AUDIO

VIZUAL

Sony Tablet S(32 GB, Wi-Fi)

Imagine all of Sony's expertise integrated together to fit perfectly in your hand. A tablet that streams over 7 million songs from a global catalogue from Sony Entertainment Network, is PlayStation certified for the best gaming experienceand acts as your universal remote control.

www.sony.co.nzLIST $825+gstA2Z $785+gst

Canon 580EXII Speedlite Flash

Newly designed with improveddust/water resistance and greater body strength, the 580 EX II Speedlite also features fast recycling time and a full 180 degree swivel in either direction.

www.canon.co.nzLIST $870+gstA2Z $658+gst

See, capture & experience more with Canon full-frame. No limitations for serious photographers. 21.1 megapixel 35mm full-frame CMOSsensor. DiG!C 4 Image Processor.ISO 100-6400.

www.canon.co.nzLIST $4955+gstA2Z $3840+gst

Sony PMW-EX1R

Successor to the award winning EX1,the EX1R’s refinements include features such as Cache,DVCAM and Picture inversion.It has been designed to meet the uncompromising needs of content creators with a state of the art workflow, exceptional image reproduction and a complete feature set for any production

www.pro.sony.co.nzLIST $9900+gstA2Z $8775+gst

Canon EOS 5D MkIIw/ 24-105mm Lens

ikan iLED 312

Porta-Brace offers a wide range of quality products and case solutions designed to improve film and video field performance. Extreme heat, cold, moisture, impact, and other environmental risks are central factors in the product-design process for all Porta-Brace products.www.portabrace.comPorta-Brace Mini DV3+QS4 CaseLIST $315+gstA2Z $265+gst

Porta-BraceBags

A2Z Technologies Ltd29 Sale StreetFreemans Bay

(09) 375 3085E. info@audio2vizual.co.nz

More Christmas Specials In Store!

www.audio2vizual.co.nz

On-Camera dual colour LED lightwith variable colour temperaturewww.ikancorp.comLIST $770+gstA2Z $685+gst

Conditions Apply, while stocks last

Page 20

Roman: Dr Depu Chin has been working with us for22 years and he almost lives here. He develops all theoptical elements that Dedo asks for. So Dedo has anidea and he comes to Chin and Chin is sitting here fordays and sometimes for years, trying to find an answer.Sometimes, when we show him the pictures peoplemake with our lights, Chin is astonished because hedidn’t know that those elements can create such

pictures. One day, when he saw a stillphoto in a catalogue, he said “before Igo to sleep I sometimes take a look intothis catalogue because I can’t believethat those pictures were made with ourlights.”

Ed: Are you allowed to have ideasyourself?

Chin: Dedo has ideas, I calculate andmake experiments – nothing else.

Ed: So how do you make experiments?Dedo has an idea for, I guess, aparticular throw of light. Is that whathe’s looking for?

Chin: It always comes from him and Itry his idea …

Roman: Chin analyses and optimisesDedo’s ideas and makes them a reality.

Ed: But you try them in the computer,that’s that first stage, to see what thecomputer can come up with?

Roman: First of all, there is the stepwith the computer simulations, then we

More “Behind the Scenes at Dedolight”Last month, we spoke with Dedo Weigert about thehistory and developments of the Dedolight company.Dedo obviously couldn’t have achieved all this byhimself and one of his key people is Dedo’s right-handengineer – Dr Depu Chin. He speaks Chinese andGerman but only a little English so we have a three wayconversation with Roman Hoffmann.

Dr Depu Chin at his ray computer.

Page 21

programme or have youwritten part of it yourself?

Roman: No, this is ausual programme. Chinhasn’t added anything to it.But sometimes, to use it toits full extent, he has tocorrect some bits and piecesand feed it with newinformation.

Ed: The parameters … sothe parameters that you’relooking for, you’ve addedsome there that maybeothers wouldn’t?

Roman: If you have thecorrect orders for thecomputer, then the resultswill be there but you have toknow exactly what you putinto the computer.

It doesn’t do anythingautomatically. What we seenow is a digital drawing ofthe classic Dedolight optical

system, and we can define exactly the light source. Wecan decide the size and the colour temperature and theperformance of the light.

And now we can start our simulation. We can, forexample, simulate a distance from the light source to

start real experiments. Then we correct our result andin the end we optimise our result. Then the finaldecision, if it is okay or not, is up to Dedo.

Ed: Well his name is on the company and the lights.Tell me, is the computer programme an off-the-shelf

Ed, Depu and Roman in the design office.

Page 22

Ed: So then do you make a prototype here?

Chin: We make the prototype here always.

Chin’s finishing off by saying that these ray calculations

are not exact but they certainly give a very good

approximation and from this he can tell whether this

project will actually work or not, or he has to go back to

Dedo and say sorry, come up with a new idea, a better

one.

Lastly on our tour, we’re in the workshop with Raffael

who’s telling me what they do here.

Raffael: In our Munich workshop, we build all the

prototypes, we build the special series and the highly

technical equipment like the HMIs, metal halides. We

have two apprentices who learn how to become

mechanical engineers and they all trained on our CAD

cutting machines.

The first production of the new 1200 light and Dedo 4.0lights is on the way through our workshop in Munich.When we go into full production, we need to outsourcesome of the work to the former staff of the BarrandovStudios in Prague. They are very famous, that’s wherePantal was shot, a famous TV series.

They went out of work because the Americans cameover and said “we don’t need any European lightingguys.” They’re very knowledgeable, so we employthem now and they built all our classic Dedolights to ourspecifications.

I came away from the experience with a strongerappreciation of Dedolight product knowing the skills, thethought and the passion that goes into their design.The result is confidence that any item carrying theDedolight name will do what it claims and do it well.

the projection, like for example, we now just definethree metre and we can also define how many beamswe want to calculate. In this case, we want to see twomillion beams. To do that by hand with the humanbrain, it would take three times the lifetime of a humanbeing. When Chin started doing that by hand it tookhim one day to calculate one beam – one ray. Now wewill do two million beams and you also need verydetailed optical mathematical knowledge, otherwise youwill make many mistakes. It’s calculating; 10 secondsand we are ready. And there we go … what we see isthe light distribution of two million beams. What we seenow is the lit area and the distribution of the light inthis area.

We’re just looking at the surface of a particular picturehere, showing the light distribution from this computersimulation.

NZVN

Raffael with moulding.

The very flat histogram tells the storyof even light distribution.

Ed: So if you paid four times as much for the glass, it

would be more even, but really of no practical use?

Roman: Yes, but if you analyse it by eye, you

wouldn’t see any change, so this is only the computer

simulation.

Ed: I guess there’s no point in looking at this in three

dimensions?

Roman: This programme is limited only to 2D, butthere are possibilities to make light visible in 3D as well.

Ed: Does that have a value? Is there any need to do

that?

Roman: We need to do that for architectural

purposes. If architects want to simulate a lighting

design for a museum, they want to have it in 3D to

have the exact beam parameters in a three-dimensional

room. So we have to do it, but after the calculation,after the light is made, we give it to a laboratory where,

in a bowl, they test the light in three dimensions. This

is also because let’s say, in our work, we are talking

also very often only about two-dimensional pictures that

are taken. Two-dimensional simulations are enough for

that.

Ed: So for colour distribution there’s another

programme again. How long would be the time you

would spend on the computer simulation before youactually made a prototype product?

Roman: Dedo has the idea and Chin begins to

calculate. It takes 1-2 months before he makes the

experiment.

Phone (09) 3024100 Email: info@kelpls.co.nz Website: www.kelpls.co.nz

Thanks to all of our customers for their support overthe past year.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

We look forward to continuing to be of service to you all in 2012

All the team at PLSXmas Break: Dec 23rd @1200 till Jan. 16th 2011 @0830

Page 25

Ken: I guess it’s the time of year; there are so manythings happening at this time of year we don’t expectlarge numbers to turn up. The people who have areinterested in the products on display, asking manyquestions and enjoying the casual get together.

Ed: And the product’s always here, so even thoughthere won’t be beer and pizza during the day, you canstill come in and have a look at the same product?

Ken: Yes, just don’t come tomorrow or Thursday orFriday because all the gear will be in Wellington.

Ed: Having beer and pizza in Wellington?

Ken: Yes, one of the advantages of having two offices;we’re offering the same thing in Wellington. Glenn willset up the gear in our Wellington office and Sony staffKate and David will also be there to assist.

We decided it would be a good thing for customers justto have an informal get-together at both offices andlook at gear over a beer and pizza and discuss what’shappening in the market.

Ed: And ask questions I guess?

Ken: Yes ask as many questions as they like of Sonyand Protel staff.

Ed: Including where the industry’s going?

Ken: Yes ask questions of Sony and Protel about newproduct developments – you know, just chat together,that’s the main thing. We like to get to connect withour customers, so does Sony, so these events are greatfor that. That’s why we have them.

Ed: And I see you’ve got a Sony HDV banner hereKen – it’s looking a bit faded, as though it’s been in thesun for a while?

Ken: I should probably retire it but it’s not a very oldbanner, just a few years. It is a reminder of how fastthe camera technology is changing and some of theproducts are no longer available.

Ed: But that the old stuff still works?

Ken: Yes certainly and often older cameras can beconnected to modern HD-SDI equipment. You canrejuvenate old camera equipment by using the HDMIoutput or HD-Component outputs and connect to AJA,Blackmagic or Atomos or Datavideo converter products.

Ed: There’s nothing like rejuvenating old equipment!

Ken: What have you tried rejuvenating recently Grant?

Ed: None of your business. Merry Christmas.

Ken: Merry Christmas to you and all the readers ofNZVN.

All Points lead to ...“Beer & Pizza” was the invite from Proteland that’s top of the list for anyjournalist – especially me: but then thepointing started and it was all on.

Ed: Ken there’s been some pointingthis evening. You weren’t making fun ofDavid Colthorpe and the way I alwaysget him to point at something in our NABphotos were you?

Ken: Oh no! As directed by thecameraman (Ed.) we were pointing atthe Atomos Samurai, the new HD-SDIportable recorder/monitor/playbackdevice which we took delivery of a dayago, the first in the country. In fact, youwere being recorded on the Samuraifrom the HD-SDI output of the F3directing us for the point shot.

Ed: I thought this was just a Sony evening?

Ken: It’s a partnership; Sony is a supportive supplier,and they don’t mind us connecting other products totheir cameras and monitors. Other products as apackage, assists in the sale of Sony products. See thePMW-F3 mounted on a Vinten VAS8 tripod and AtomosSamurai attached atop of it, also the NEXFS100PK on aVinten Vision blue tripod with an Atomos Ninja attachedto it, and a PMW-EX3 also mounted to a Vinten VisionBlue tripod. We also have on display an Apple iMac withAtem GUI software controlling the BlackMagic Atem1vision mixer connected to the three outputs of thecameras and the switched output connected to the newSony PVM2541 OLED monitor. Isn’t the OLED imagestunning and it’s the first to be shown in New Zealand.

Ed: It certainly is a beautiful picture. I guess thenthat you’d also like to add that it’s all about the value ofcoming to a reputable dealer like Protel isn’t it … you’renot just showing one product. You supply a packageKen – and you’ve got quite a big package to offer Iunderstand?

Ken: What can I say? We offer packaged solutionswith all components to make things work. We prefer tooffer a total solution to customers so that they walk outthe door with workable solutions.

Ed: And quite a turnout of industry leaders tonight?

Ken: Yes absolutely – though we always like to havemore turn up, the more the merrier.

Ed: Well I think its sad more couldn’t make it,because there’s wonderful beer and the pizza isfantastic and plenty to discuss.

NZVNAt the Wellington venue.

Page 26

over the last few releases, to look at ways to modernise

the interface.

Ed: Avid’s been listening you mean?

Evan: Avid’s been listening … I think Avid has been

listening and our customers are really excited about

what we’ve been doing.

Richard: I’m pleased you said that Grant – “Avid has

been listening”.

Ed: I think that was from NAB about four years ago,

but anyway …

Richard: But we’ve been rolling out those new

interface components. The Smart Tools was the first

introduction of that …

Ed: Oh, what do you call a “Smart Tool”?

Richard: One of the challenges for people coming

fresh to Media Composer was that the majority of the

tools required an operator to know which key on the

keyboard to press. Working from the keyboard is still a

valid way of operating the system, because obviously

shortcuts make for fast and efficient editing.

Ed: But for mouse editors?

Richard: But for mouse editors it can be a bit of a

challenge, and particularly new users and new users

from other platforms, because obviously, the shortcuts

could be different, although they can be customised and

changed to match other systems, but understandably

mouse users like to use the mouse. So with Smart

Tools, we introduced a whole bunch of direct

manipulation toolsets to allow you to directly

manipulate clips within a sequence. So you no longer

have to go into a particular mode, or you no longer

need to know the exact key on the keyboard.

Ed: That’s a pretty good step. But it also looks as

though you’ve got a whole lot of tools up here just

underneath your source and output monitors?

Richard: Yes, well all of these buttons or functions

haven’t necessarily been

changed over time, although

we may have removed some

of them. They’re really just

you know, again, helping

the mouse editor to be able

to work with such functions

within the system.

Evan: And that’s all fully

customisable as well, so if

you’ve got some tools that

you want to use. you can

customise those menus to

your own particular require-

ments.

Ed: It actually looks to me

a bit like a Liquid toolbar,

with lots of the features that

Liquid had on its toolbar?

Richard: Possibly, al-

though Media Composer has

always had these, so there’s

probably a fusion there

between applications into

Apple, applications that are

borrowed from …

What’s in MC6 for Movers?We’re here at the Avid launch of Media Composer

version 6 for the Auckland market, and Richard Kelly,

with the help of Evan Boyd from Avid, is going to run us

through some of the features that make the transition

easier for someone used to editing on another platform.

Ed: Richard, you’ve been helping the guys at WingNut

and other places with Media Composer 6 but I guess,

they prefer the traditional Avid timeline?

Richard: In terms of whether they prefer version 6

over version 5.5?

Ed: No, no the timeline, how the timeline looks –

because to anyone who is coming from a different

editing programme, when you open it up and you look

at the timeline, the way things are arranged, how the

buttons are labelled, that first impression and I know

for me, that first impression is very important. I either

go “oh, that looks nice” or “oh my God!”

Richard: At WingNut they’re all professional Avid

editors who have worked with Avid for a very long time,

so they certainly have a good feel for how the interface

has developed over the years. Of course, with Media

Composer 6, it’s a whole revised interface again, so

everything looks a little different.

Ed: Apart from, in this demo, just having one

monitor, it looks fairly standard, although …?

Richard: It’s very similar, so existing users are going

to be happy, but there is a nice new look to it. It’s a

much cleaner look.

Ed: And you can choose different colours? It doesn’t

have to be purple?

Richard: Well you can choose different shades of the

timeline and it doesn’t have to be purple, no.

Evan: Clearly the interface needed to be revised and

there’s been a strategy in place over a number of years

Richard Kelly (left) with Evan Boyd from Avid.

Gemini 4:4:4 is a revolutionary full uncompressed HD recorder which stores video/audio data onto two removable 1.8” SSDs (Solid State Drive) for playback/transfer to a PC/MAC. Gemini supports most HD/2K formats in 4:2:2/4:4:4, 8/10-bit formats with single-link HD-SDI/3G or dual-link. A built-in 5.0” sunlight viewable (800 cd/m²), 24-bit, 800x480 color LCD touch-screen serves as a high-quality monitor and playback screen. Gemini also features an industry fi rst: the unique ability to record to both drives simultaneously, creating identical masters.

Gemini 4:4:4Award winning uncompressed recorder

Features:• 4:4:4 RGB S-Log 10-bit• Low Power, Weight, Size and Cost• Includes transfer station and hard case • 3D (Option) and/or ARRIRAW (Planned) Support

via paid updates

PRODUCTION | POST | VISUAL EFFECTS

Captures pristine video and audio direct from any camera with HD/SD-SDI. The Samurai builds on the already impressive HDMI based Ninja to bring a host of new production weapons aimed at camera professionals with HD/SD-SDI cameras.This incudes plus timecode, genlock and the ability to work with multiple synchronised units. With up to 10 hours battery, you truly have a super high quality deck & monitor in the palm of your hand.

Features:• 5” TFT/LCD 800x480 super high resolution screen• HD/SD-SDI Connecitvity• 24 PSF support with 24/60i 3:2 Pulldown removal on capture• SDI Play Out or Loop-Though: connect to an external broadcast monitor or

director’s monitor and record and playback on set• SCreen Flipping and more....

The revolutionary Ninja is a portable touchscreen Professional 10bit HD Recorder, Monitor, & Playback device that captures pristine video and audio direct from any camera with a clean HDMI output. It encodes in real-time to the visually-lossless Apple ProRes format, onto low-cost, removable 2 ½ inch hard disks in Apple ProRes.

Features:• Recording direct to Apple ProRes via HDMI• Monitoring - On the Ninja Screen• Instant onscreen playback for review of Apple Prores fi les• Simple intuitive touch screen functionality• Continuous Power with dual Battery technology• Affordable Storage on removable 2.5” HDD/SSD disks• Includes rugged case that fi ts all accessories.

Digital Video Technologies (NZ) Ltd | Phone: 09 525 0788 | Email: sales@dvt.co.nz | 45 Fairfax Avenue, Penrose, Aucklandwww.dvt.co.nz

SamuraiNinjaRecord | Monitor | Playback | Ready-to-Edit Record | Monitor | Playback/Playout | Ready-to-Edit

HD-SDI FIELD

RECORDERHDMI FIELD

RECORDER

Christmas Hours:Closed 5pm 23 December till 9am 9th January

Merry Christmas

& Happy

New Year

from the team at DVT

Page 28

Ed: That’s a good Windows function and I guess

Windows 7 is a pretty good platform for this?

Evan: Well you can choose your platform – you can

have Windows 7 professional 64 bit, or if you’re a

Macintosh user you can use Lion 10.7.

Richard: The key part about that is now the

application is native 64 bit, so the operating system

you’re going to use also needs to be 64 bit.

Ed: Okay, now what else have we got here that would

be something that I, as a mouse editor, would really

find good?

Richard: Well in terms of editing, you can do

virtually anything with a mouse, any application. So if

I’m working with audio, I can manipulate the audio

levels using the mouse. For example, we can enable

our audio waveforms here; we can then view the

volume …

Ed: Can you change the actual viewing height of the

audio track easily?

Richard: Absolutely. So say I was just working on

audio channel one, I deselect these because these are

the ones I don’t want a break on; Ctrl L for large …

Ed: Aaah, you just keep making it bigger.

Evan: The waveform is looking a bit too big, it’s

clipping, you really want to see if there’s any extra

audio in there …

Ed: The audio waveform looks as though it’s over-

levelled pretty well all the way through, but this could

be just how it’s displayed and, in this case it is, because

now you can change the scale of your audio waveform

without changing the actual level of the audio – not

something I’ve seen anywhere else.

Evan: Yes, correct. So you can actually see if there’s

more audio there, or you can zoom into the audio

waveform itself.

Ed: Okay, what about transitions and filters and so

on. Do you have some nice bins for those to easily drag

and drop?

Evan: Well let’s bring in some content. I’m going to

move to some AMA ( Avid Media Access ) media files.

These are ProRes files that I’m going to link to what

were originally created using Final Cut Pro. I’m going to

link to those directly and just start working with them –

I don’t have to import or transcode them, they just

become available.

Now that I have these ProRes files available, I might

want to create a new sequence to put them in; so again

it’s just a right mouse click, brand new sequence. So

let’s maybe cut some of these together – choose this

shot here, mark an in and out scene, drag and drop it

down onto a timeline … one of the other things that we

can do when working in a bin which is kind of cool, is

we’ve got a frame view.

We can see the head frame of all of these shots, and

say I want to cut in my next shot, I can actually play

directly from the bin, I don’t have to work from the

source monitors. I can hit “play” and it plays it within

the bin here.

Ed: So you’re not even having to drag it into the

source monitor to look at it. Rather than just a little

view that you get in other applications, this is actually a

decent sized view. Now I want you to put that

Ed: Have you got a photo snap tool – take a

photograph of the timeline where the cursor is?

Now they’re looking you see, now they’re looking within

the tools to find the tool that might do what I want and

I guess this emphasises my problem years ago with

Avid – where the f*** is it? It’s somewhere in there …

Evan: It’s in the manual.

Ed: It’s in the manual – yeah, right!

Richard: That’s why we have a comprehensive set of

help tools in the system as well, so the entire user

manual is available to any user at any time, and it’s

searchable. So you can search for things and find

things.

Ed: Okay and I guess that really, the simple thing is,

once you’ve found it, then you can easily find it again,

or you can make it a customisable keystroke.

Evan: Correct and you can map it to anywhere in the

interface you’d like it to be, as a button.

Richard: Moving on, we’ve now got dockable and

tabable windows.

Evan: In terms of windows management, the entire

engine behind the User Interface has been rewritten.

Richard: One of the challenges, if you’re working on

a system with only one monitor, was “how do I manage

all of these open windows with all these bins of

information?” What we can do now is we can dock

them onto various other components within the

interface, or remove them as required.

Ed: Aaah, floating windows and dockable windows as

you say?

Richard: And reordering. So with that, we’ve kind of

gotten rid of and consolidated some of the features. We

had a lot of features in Media Composer that were

similar in function. So when we’ve introduced the tab

spacing space, we’ve removed things like “super bins”

for example, because the tab spacing space replaces

that.

We’ve also consolidated some of the commands within

the bin, so rather than having the text view, brief view,

frame view, script view, we’ve the mid to brief view,

because the text and brief view were kind of the same

thing anyway. So it simplifies the interface and

simplifies the experience for the user.

Ed: Okay, speaking of simplification, when a new user

takes on Media Composer 6 – they’ve come from say

Final Cut Pro – can they immediately open up a

template timeline that looks like their Final Cut Pro, so

it makes it easier to get into Avid 6?

Richard: For editors transitioning to Avid we can

provide them with an excellent training course that is

specifically designed for Final Cut editors moving into

Media Composer to give them the familiarity they need

to move into the Media Composer 6 platform.

Evan: And because the Smart Tools have been

specifically designed for editors who have come from

mouse driven applications, if you think about Final Cut,

Premiere, for example, these are similar icons to those

applications, so they should be relatively familiar with

using most tools.

Ed: And when you hover over them does it tell you

what it does?

Evan: Correct.more on page 32

Atomise LimitedAuthorised Reseller of Professional Editing Equipment

Visit www.atomise.co.nz; email atomise@atomise.co.nz or call Richard Kelly on 04 380 5010 / 021 86 33 94

for information & demos.

Apace Systems

Editing Solutions Experts

Atomise Limited is proud to supply and support the editorial solution for “The Hobbit”.

Avid Media Composer Nitris DX | Avid ISIS 7000 | Apace VSTOR OctopaRead about it in the June edition of Content And Technology magazine.

http://tinyurl.com/CandT-june11

• Now 64bit native for higher perfomance

• New sleek interface

• Avid Open I/O brings support for more I/O hardware

• Edit 3D like you edit 2D with new tools

• Avid DNx444

• Create 5.1 and 7.1 mixes

• Access, screen, and edit AVCHD and RED EPIC clips through AMA

• Full native ProRes support on Macs

• Color correction and grading functions with Artist Color

Contact Atomise Limited for information today

Introducing JMR Electronics StorageHigh performance Avid Qualified storage available now at great prices

Up to 1,500 Megabytes per second transfer rate with RAID securityContact Atomise today for a quote

Digital Video Technologies (NZ) Ltd | Phone: 09 525 0788 | Email: sales@dvt.co.nz | 45 Fairfax Avenue, Penrose, Aucklandwww.dvt.co.nz

Terms and Conditions apply. Contact DVT to fi nd out more information.

PRODUCTION | POST | VISUAL EFFECTS

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to upgrade to the latest Adobe product. Offer expires 31 December 2011. Call DVT or email sales@dvt.co.nz

Christmas Hours:Closed 5pm 23rd Decembertill 9am 9th January

Merry Christmas

& Happy

New Year

from the team at DVT

Vinpower Digital has released a new Eco Solvent Ink system that can print on nearly any surface with spectacular results for mere pennies per print

The availability of Eco Solvent Ink printers is nothing new, but they typically cost many thousands of dollars

and tend to be very large complicated machines. The Venetian is far more affordable and easy to use in a

compact device that can fit nearly anywhere.

The Venetian printer using the Eco Solvent Ink can print across many different surfaces without requiring any

special coating or treatment. In fact, it is perfect for use with optical discs (i.e. CD, DVD, or Blu-ray), Security

ID cards, Fabric, Paper, and many other surfaces. In addition to being able to print on a variety of surfaces, the

Eco Solvent Ink is also extremely water and scratch resistant ensuring the printed image will endure day-to-day

use or handling. The Venetian uses a Continuous Ink System (CIS) with 100ml exterior clear tanks, so the user

can tell at a glance if the ink is running low to prevent running out of ink again in the middle of an important

job.

In addition, our Eco Solvent Ink is very Earth friendly, as the solvent does not release any harsh chemicals that

would negatively affect the planet. The Eco Solvent Ink will not clog or damage the print head either, making

the Venetian a true cost effective print solution for so many applications.

Venetian Printer at $1,195+gst, and comes with 6 colour Solvent ink bottles at 100ml each

Optional: 100 disk Autoloader at $945+gst, each 100ml solvent costs $119+gst

www.imagingtechnology.co.nz; 12 Holloway Place, Penrose; PO Box 62-157, Auckland; Tel: 09 5257888 Fax: 09 5257898

Page 32

Richard: Yes, so it gives you a tactile control surface

for manipulating virtually any parameter within the

application. So rather than using a keyboard or a

mouse, or keyboard shortcuts, you can use tactile

controls for doing those things.

Ed: And I understand the other really good thing

about 6 is that the number of different formats that you

can bring in has greatly increased?

Evan: Yes, correct. So Richard kind of touched on that

but it is the AMA which stands for “Avid Media Access”

which is the ability to link directly to media files and just

start working with them. So you don’t need to

transcode them, rewrap them, turn them into

QuickTime …

Ed: Until you render at the end I guess – until the

output?

Evan: You can just play out directly from those linked

files. If you needed to export a file, absolutely, because

you may have effects and things which you may need

to render in, but no you can play out directly “master

out.”

Ed: But what about different frame sizes … say you’ve

got a 720p, you bring it in, does it automatically

conform to whatever timeline you’ve set up?

Evan: Correct, and in real time. So you may or may

not have noticed, but my project format that we’re

working in on this system is 1080i 50. The footage that

we’ve linked to is actually 23.98fps. So it’s

automatically conforming the frame rate to match our

project. As you can see, we’re getting a real time

output from that conversion to the external display.

Ed: Okay, but what about the frame size?

Evan:The same thing. It will automatically eitherupscale or downscale the frame size depending on yourformat that you have in. So my dimension is set for1920x1080 but that could be 1440x1080 or like for nonfull rasta formats, or it could be 720p or whatever, andyou can mix all of that together.

Ed: What does it do with a 4x3 when you bring it in?

Evan: It will automatically pillar box the footage for youif it’s in a 16x9 project and you have control overmanipulating how that is controlled, whether you wantto do rush in and zoom …

Ed: Okay, so it will automatically bring it in in sort ofbest fit, but then you can manipulate it afterwards ifyou don’t like that?

sequence in a little box overlayed on that first clip. I

want a “picture in picture.”

Evan: Okay, so we go “Effects” we have a 3D warp,

drag and drop it on, open up my parameters and then I

can do it correctly by just dragging it.

Ed: Okay, so it’s a different way of doing it, but it’s all

there – and if you wanted to add key frames to that, so

you wanted it to start at that size, go for one second

and then enlarge to twice the size.

Evan: Right, I’ll start at the beginning. I’ve got a key

frame button here, add key frame and then say at the

end of it I wanted to move down here and get bigger …

it automatically records all of that.

Ed: And shows you the track that it’s taken to get

there. So, again, very like the Premier Motion facility

but just a slightly different way of doing it. I guess that

must be similar throughout the whole of Media

Composer 6, that there’s a lot of convergence in the

editing programmes – would that be right Richard?

Richard: Of course Media Composer was the first

nonlinear editor to market …

Ed: Yes, we heard that somewhere before didn’t we –

but we’ll hear it again.

Richard: So this is the interface that you became

used to after Media Composer came out. It was

borrowed by many other editing systems.

Ed: But never improved on?

Richard: Of course not!

Ed: Yes, well, while we’re in Fantasyland, what else

have we got to see? Something else that a user from

Premiere or Final Cut would appreciate?

Evan: Well AMA is one of the big ones; that’s a very

nice and easy way of working that all users appreciate.

It’s simply being able to link to the media in its native

format and work with it immediately in the timeline.

One of the other very cool things is being able to use an

interface for doing the Euphonix Artist Series interfaces

with Media Composer now.

So you’ve got the colour there with three balls for doing

your colour correction; you’ve got the control for

automating and just about everything in the interface.

And of course there is the mix … you’ve got the facility

there to very much automate with control surfaces your

entire editing application.

Page 33

Evan: You see the lovely little green dot?

Ed: Yes.

Evan: Okay, that means it’s a real time effect.

Ed: Aaah, so you don’t have to do anything?

Evan: Correct.

Ed: But if it needs rendering you see …?

Evan: A blue dot must be rendered.

Ed: So how do you do it – what’s the process?

Evan: There’s a couple of different ways, but the

easiest way is to have some “send to” presets here, so

send to a DVD and then that would automatically create

the required format for DVD authoring for the Avid DVD

application.

Ed: So Richard, in just a short time I think you’ve

shown me that this is not just a tool for filmmakers who

have been using Avids in the past, but somebody who

has been in the corporate production environment, even

the wedding environment, could take this and with a

little bit of training and a little bit of looking at the

manual, use it as their workhorse editing tool?

Richard: Absolutely, as a lot of people already do. It

is a very, very good editing application. It is not just

for the absolute high end user, it really is for anybody

working in a media environment.

Ed: And it’s available from?

Richard: Atomise Limited – Editing Solution Experts.

Evan: Correct.

Ed: Okay, now what I would find really important is

quick output. You’ve finished your project, as you say,

you can bring in a whole lot of different formats and

they’re all sitting there on the timeline, but your client

wants the programme as a clip to go on the web, but

they also want a DVD. What do you do?

Evan: Oh you’ve got a number of options. With the

application comes some extra bits of software starting

with Sorenson Squeeze and on the PC you’ve also got

Avid DVD, so you can bring your project into those

softwares using the “send to” button and it will step you

through the whole process of building that part of the

project.

Of course, if you’ve got external hardware – say you’ve

got, for example, a Blackmagic Pro recorder box that

does on the fly H264 encoding, you could just come out

as a video signal into your pro recorder box in real time

and make your file ready to go on YouTube which is a

very efficient and fast way of making H264.

Richard: Obviously one of the things with version 6

is that we have our open IO partners. So we now have

AJA, Matrox, Moto, Bluefish444 and Blackmagic Design

who have the ability now to interface their cards with

Media Composer, so it gives a whole range of options

available. So a similar range of options available to

Premiere and Final Cut users, so the same cards.

With that, the Matrox MXO2s have H264 acceleration,

the MAX, so if you’re a user of an MXO2 MAX hardware

box, Media Composer will take advantage of that H264

encoding acceleration, so if you are exporting to an

H264 format we will use that acceleration of that box in

version 6.

Ed: I’m interested – Avid DVD – so you’ve actually

got an internal DVD making programme?

Evan: Well we kind of look at it in a different way. I

know you come from a Liquid background … now Liquid

is kind of the “all in one” application in many ways, you

know DVD, exporting and so on.

With Media Composer, we’ve kind of looked at a

different approach and said “well what are the “best of

breed” applications out there to create a DVD, to

encode content for example, or even do effects?”

Sorenson’s pretty good and we know it’s kind of an

industry standard encoding application cross-platform

and Sonic make awesome DVD and Blu-Ray authoring

applications.

So we’ve partnered with them and Media Composer is

bundled with those applications, kind of similar to the

way Final Cut was sold when it was sold as a bundle or

as Final Cut Studio. So your options for DVD authoring

are Avid DVD, which is actually Sonic DVD.

Ed: But it’s within the programme, it comes bundled

with it, okay, but when you’re exporting … so you

export the timeline as an unrendered, unconformed

timeline and the Sonic programme will convert it to a

DVD?

Evan: Any effects and things you have in your

sequence would need to be rendered prior to the

export, or on export you will render them automatically.

Ed: Well how do you know when you’re looking at

your timeline there, that things aren’t rendered and

need to be before you go to DVD?

NZVN

NZVN ADVERTISING RATESNZ Video News is posted free to New Zealand video production professionals - if youknow someone in the business who would like NZVN too, tell them to write or phone us

Rates from April 2008 NZVN AD RATES: - EXCLUDING GST

Advertisement A6 (must be set portrait) $ 80A5 (must be set landscape) $140 for one $270 for two in the same issueA4 (must be set portrait) $260 for one $250 each for more than one in the same issueSpot colour - a supplement of $120 per A3

Full colour - a supplement of $420 per A3

Classified 40 words pre-paid cash $ 20 ($23 including GST)

Loose Inserts are accepted conditionally

AD COPY REQUIREMENTS: To qualify for listed rates, all copy and artwork must be submitted in photo copy readyform - black on white, as an Adobe PDF file - print optimised. Email to <finnzed@xtra.co.nz>

AD DEADLINES: SEE FRONT PAGE Pay by cheque or direct credit to ANZ # 010242-0160111-00

Page 35

www.panavision.co.nz

Tim (09) 3608766 318 Richmond Rd, Grey Lynn, Auckland tim.timlin@panavision.asia

the new shooting heads from Manfrotto

Sales Support Service

heads up!

Manfrotto 509HD

100mm ball head

13Kg max load

Manfrotto 504HD

75 mm ball head

7.5Kg max load

Manfrotto 502A

75mm ball head

4Kg max load