SYPHAnews - 28th March 2002

Welcome to SYPHAnews - a newsletter designed to keep you up-to-date with nonlinear audio and video news, as well as developments at http://SYPHAonline.com (incorporating http://NLEguide.com and http://DAWguide.com).

We will deliver this service to you free of charge every month - unless there is some major news or event which we think you should know about sooner.

New at SYPHAonline.com

STOP PRESS!! The NAB2002 convention is almost upon us and we look forward to meeting those of you who are attending - our booth number is L11475.

The all new NLE Buyers Guide - a buyers guide to nonlinear video editing systems, video cards, software packages, edit controllers, host platforms, and disk recorders/servers for editing - is now launched @ http://NLEguide.com.

If you're interested in random access video editing products, then this is the Web site for you! Now you have FREE online access to our database of over 200 products and can search by application, system type, host platform, video input/output, cost range, manufacturer and name.

All information has been completely renewed as of 2 April 2002, and will be updated continuously.

There are new Full Details listings for:

• Aurora Video Systems - IgniterLT
• Aurora Video Systems - IgniterRT
• MacroSystem Digital Video - Casablanca Avio
• MacroSystem Digital Video - Casablanca Kron
• Panasonic - AJ-HDR150E
• Pinnacle Systems - Liquid blue
• Quantel - eQ
• Quantel - QEdit
• Quantel - sQ Server

Also, check out all of the new product enhancements for existing entries.

For the Pro Camera Guide, we have a new listing for:

• Ikegami Electronics - HDL-V90.

For the DAW Buyers Guide, we would like to welcome Steinberg Media Technologies as a bronze sponsor. We also have a new full details listing for:

• Akai Professional - DPS24.

and new or updated listings for:

• Roland - VS-2480CD
• Roland - VS-1824CD
• Antex Electronics - StudioCard 2000
• Antex Electronics - LX-24m.

  

NLE news

Avid Announces Avid|DS and Avid DS|HD on Compaq Evo Workstation W8000
Avid Technology has announced that its Avid|DS and Avid DS|HD systems for realtime editing, conforming and finishing of HD and standard-definition projects, are now available on the Compaq Evo Workstation W8000. This HD-ready platform is designed to provide a highly scalable architecture that is optimised for uncompressed video editing. It has dual 1.7GHz Intel Xeon processors, enhanced 3D acceleration with the 3Dlabs Wildcat 6210 graphics card, and 1.5GB of RDRAM. Avid is offering special upgrade pricing for existing customers and competitive pricing for new purchases. Based on the new Compaq Evo Workstation W8000, the price for an Avid|DS system still starts at US115,000 USMSRP including more than four hours of storage, and an Avid|DS HD system still starts at US190,000 USMSRP including 40 minutes of uncompressed HD storage. See http://www.avid.com.

Quantel Launches generationQ
After three years in development, Quantel has launched generationQ - a new range of integrated and highly scalable technologies for editing, effects, graphics, news and production applications for broadcast and post production. The QEdit software is available for a range of hardware and operational levels, from field editing using a FireWire-equipped laptop, to simple cuts-only editing and/or voiceover using a standard PC, to higher performance editing (including layering, colour correction etc) using the new PC-based Quantel PCI card for video I/O and image processing, to close-to-air craft editing or multi-resolution SD and HD work using the new eQ platform. At the highest end, the Quantel iQ platform remains available for 2k, digital film and high resolution work. For news applications, the new scalable sQ Server supports PC or Quantel platforms, allows direct cuts-based editing from the server with automatic source material protection down to frame level, and includes integrated server automation. For graphics, Quantel now offers Paintbox software that can run on hardware from standard PC level up to the resolution co-existent gQ platform. See http://www.quantel.com.

Leitch Ships dpsRealityHD Parallel HD/SD Post Production Platform
Leitch has announced the availability of the dpsRealityHD parallel HD/SD digital disk recorder. Aimed at providing an affordable, integrated solution, dpsRealityHD is designed to largely eliminate the need for HD peripheral equipment during the post-production process through the creation of SD proxies of the HD frames. This allows editors to make edit decisions and preview their work on SD equipment while producing HD material without sacrificing any of the original quality and attributes of their HD sources. HD VCRs and peripherals such as monitors can be used throughout the process, but are optional for everything except acquisition, detailed fine-tuning and final output. By offering native HDCAM support, dpsRealityHD aims to minimise recompression of HDCAM sources, minimise storage requirements and allow the use of standard hard drives at standard data rates. It includes the proprietary Virtual Tape File System and tightly integrated eyeon Digital Fusion HD nonlinear compositing and effects software. See http://www.leitch.com.

Aurora Adds New RGB Processing to Igniter Family
Aurora Video Systems, manufacturer of video capture and editing cards for the Macintosh, has added a new proprietary method of RGB processing technology to its Igniter and IgniterRT products. Igniter hardware still offers native YUV video editing capabilities when used with the Apple Final Cut Pro, but its Adaptive Image Control (AIC) now allows it to take advantage of RGB applications such as Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere. AIC corrects contouring and artefacts caused by rounding errors and approximations by anticipating, sensing, and removing introduced errors from RGB to video conversions. It produces RGB images for both MJPEG-A, variable offline compression and full, uncompressed online format, and is available as a driver/firmware download. See http://auroravideosys.com.

Matrox Announces New Realtime 3D Effects for RT2500 PRO Pack
Matrox Video Products Group is offering a series of new realtime, keyframable 3D transitions and filters, free of charge to RT2000 and RT2500 PRO Pack users. The new user-customisable effects include ripples, mesh warps, twirls and more. The PRO Pack effects can be downloaded by registered users from the Matrox website as they become available. See http://www.matrox.com/video/.

Grass Valley Group Unveils Laptop-based NLE for Hard News
As a new addition to its Digital News Production Solution, the Grass Valley Group has announced the laptop-based NewsEdit LT for field journalists. Combining the functions of a record deck in a cuts-only edit bay with features common to an A/B roll suite, NewsEdit LT supports DV media, up to four channels of audio, and more than 60GB of storage. It allows users to control camcorders, ingest and review material, perform cuts or transitions, create EDLs, add audio tracks, and send the finished output back to the camcorder or to a microwave or satellite uplink. The turnkey NewsEdit LT system is priced from US12,900 and is scheduled for June 2002. When not in the field, it can be used in a networked newsroom comprising the FeedClip interactive feed capture system, the NewsQ manual playback system, the NewsQ Pro automated playback system, the NewsEdit NLE system that uses the Profile XP Media Platform for ingest and playout, the new PC-based NewsBrowse low-resolution browsing system and the new NewsShare shared storage system. See http://www.grassvalleygroup.com.

Pinnacle Introduces New Name for FASTstudio Colour Line
Pinnacle Systems is to introduce a new name for the FASTstudio colour line at NAB 2002. Having acquired the line in September 2001, Pinnacle was given the right to use the FAST name only for a limited time, and so the product family will now be referred to as Liquid Editing, and the specific products will be Liquid blue, Liquid silver, Liquid purple and Liquid field. The software will be called Pinnacle Liquid. See http://www.pinnaclesys.com.

Canopus Unveils CWS-100 Hybrid Workstation for Broadcast Market
Canopus is to unveil the CWS-100 high-performance hybrid workstation designed specifically for the broadcast market. Powered by dual AMD Athlon processors, the CWS-100 is designed to offer a linear workflow suited to newsroom-style editors, while maintaining a nonlinear feature set for more complex editing projects. Its proprietary Rextor editing software includes tools such as main track with A/B editing and realtime transitions, titles, colour correction, video filters and chroma key capabilities, and it supports professional edit controllers for precise, frame-accurate playback from professional VTRs directly into the Rextor NLE timeline. The CWS-100 supports DV, component, S-Video and composite video I/O, and balanced and unbalanced audio I/O. It also features proprietary MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 encoding technology for DVD authoring or video streaming. The CWS-100 is scheduled for May 2002 for a suggested retail price of US25,000, and an SDI option is planned. See http://www.canopuscorp.com.

Avid Plans Pan-European Tour
Avid Technology Europe has announced a pan-European tour, to take place from May to October 2002. The 'Experience Avid|naked' tour will form a key part of Avid's European marketing strategy. Stripping away the usual marketing and sales hype, every event will be tailored to the needs of each local market, focussing on what is of real value to customers. Content will include sessions from how to maximise workflow to increasing return on investment (ROI), examples of how customers are using the latest technology, and discussions around major industry issues such as HD. Information on Avid's latest product developments and plans for the future will also be included. Potential visitors may register for each event via a dedicated web site http://www.avid.com/experience_naked.

DAW news

SADiE Announces Multichannel DSD Mastering Editor
Following the presentation of a prototype stereo DSD Mastering Editor for the Super Audio CD format last year, SADiE has announced the development of a multichannel version. As with the stereo version, this new editor will be capable of full editing and mastering of the DSD signals and will incorporate full authoring facilities for the Super Audio CD format to produce both Scarlet Book and Red Book masters. It will feature DST compression tools, necessary for the production of multichannel Super Audio CD masters, and it will be capable of simultaneously recording 8 tracks plus replaying 8 edited tracks (16 streams) of DSD material, alongside required PCM streams for control of DSD processing. The system is aimed at high-end mastering applications with high throughput requirements for producing CD and Super Audio CD releases, and it will be supplied as a turnkey system including AIT drive and Adaptec SCSI bus. See http://www.sadie.com.

Cube-Tec Ships CD-Inspector Jukebox
Cube-Tec is shipping the CD-Inspector Jukebox, a new import module for the QUADRIGA Automated Audio Archival System. It supports faster than realtime import and offers fully automated, uninterrupted supervision of the import process. In addition, it will automatically recognise related data such as track number, index, pause, ISRC and UPC/EAN codes, copy mode (ok/prohibited), emphasis (on/off) and CD text, which can be exported to a connected database. With Media-Inspector-DDP, it also supports DDP-Image export of the captured CDs. A Job File contains the capturing specifications, while an Import File contains additional metadata derived from the database. This information, along with audio quality data derived from the import module, is managed by QUADRIGA and included in the BWF or DDP file. Additionally, all the metadata created can be exported to the database as an XML export file. See http://www.Cube-Tec.com.

Steinberg Beta Tests Nuendo for Mac OS X and Presents the Nuendo Professional Surround Library 'Urban Atmospheres'
Steinberg Media Technologies has announced that Nuendo Media Production system for Mac OS X will be available within one of the next major program update releases. Registered users of Nuendo Mac will be invited to join the public beta program once the beta testing cycle has delivered sufficient results. Steinberg and Wizoo have also released the first volume of a professional surround library for Nuendo - Urban Atmospheres. This features indoor and outdoor environmental urban soundscapes with city and traffic sounds, and is presented on 6 DVD ROMs with over 6 hours of total playing time. All events are several minutes long and were recorded in 5.1, 24-bit, 48kHz using an SPL Atmos surround recording console and Brauner Surround Microphone ASM 5. See http://www.steinberg.net.

Marantz and Denon to Merge Operations
Marantz Japan and Denon have announced the establishment of D&M Holdings, a joint holding company to merge the operations of Marantz and Denon. The transaction is expected to close by May 2002 and will maintain the established Marantz and Denon brands. See http://www.marantz.com.

Digigram Launches miXart 8 CN with CobraNet Capabilities
Digigram has launched the miXart 8 CN multichannel sound card. This is the first Digigram product to include Peak Audio's CobraNet interface - a widely used technology for distributing realtime audio over fast Ethernet. The card combines Digigram onboard processing with audio mixing functions, and features eight mono (or four stereo) analogue input/output paths, including four microphone preamps on its input bank. Eight channels of CobraNet input and eight channels of CobraNet output are provided, operating independently of the analogue inputs/outputs. See http://www.digigram.com.

Cakewalk Announces SONAR 2.0
Cakewalk has announced SONAR 2.0, the latest version of its Windows PC-based digital multitrack recording system. It offers unlimited digital audio and MIDI tracks, a centralised interface design for improved creative workflow, advanced audio looping and editing tools, DXi software synthesiser plug-ins, automatable DirectX 8 audio plug-ins, realtime MIDI FX plug-ins, and extensive audio loops and SoundFont libraries. New in SONAR 2.0 are the Cyclone DXi groove sampler, ReWire 2.0 support, a multi-port graphical drum editor, advanced project management, global MIDI control surface support, Yamaha open MIDI plug-in technology panel support, improved soft synth integration, ACID .WAV file export. SONAR 2.0 XL is a premium edition with advanced DXi drum sampler workstation, new 64-bit DirectX 8 audio-mastering effects, FXpansion DR-008 drum sampler DXi, Sonic Timeworks Mastering EQ and Compressor X. Scheduled for release in April 2002, SONAR 2.0 has a MSRP of US$479, and SONAR 2.0 XL has a MSRP of US$599. See http://www.cakewalk.com.

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NAB2002
Convergence is tomorrow's change agent Conferences: 6-11 April 2002
Exhibits: 8-11 April 2002
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
See SYPHA at booth L11475

The Production Show
where creativity meets technology
21-23 May 2002
Olympia National Hall, London, UK
FREE entry, pre-register online
See SYPHA at stand 213

112th AES Convention
Audio in the Era of Communication
10-13 May 2002
M.O.C., Munich, Germany