The setup is pretty simple. Our master edit suite MacPro workstation houses an AJA Kona card that then outputs its main HD-SDI spigot to three main destinations; a Sony PVM-20L5 CRT monitor, a Samsung 55” LED client monitor, and a Blackmagic Design Ultrascope (the Kona’s secondary HD-SDI output is down-rezed to NTSC SD to a Tektronix WVR-610A rastering waveform vectorscope, and a Sony PVM-20S1WU 16×9 CRT secondary client monitor. Yes, the client has two client monitors… what can I say, I like to spoil them).

Here in our master edit suite with so many display types, there's bound to be a snag at some point with compatibility. That snag came and has been fixed.

The 55” LED client monitor is consumer based, so it requires an SDI-to-HDMI converter. Being the big AJA fan that I am, I bought an AJA Hi5 converter for just this task a few years back. Worked great, except that I always got an “incompatible source” error on the Samsung if I tried running in native 24p. Figuring it was the display’s fault, I always had the Kona output set to 60i so that the Kona would in turn perform a real-time 2:3 pulldown insertion from the timeline’s 24p source.

So for years, this has worked great in Final Cut Pro. But fast-forward to now with our AVID Symphony conversion, and welcome an old problem become new again.

The “problem” is that AVID Symphony only allows real-time 2:3 pulldown conversion using its own Nitris DX hardware, even though the AJA Kona hardware is more than capable of performing this task on its own. I actually would have been willing to buy Nitris DX hardware (which is actually AJA hardware!), but the problem is that it’s a bit of a desert island; it doesn’t work with a multitude of other software solutions including Adobe After Effects. Alternatively with the Kona card, I can use it in Avid, Final Cut Pro, Premiere, After Effects, Smoke, Color, just about everything except for Resolve (but that’s another peeve for another day).

So that means Nitris DX hardware is out of the picture. I need to get this output to work with 24p sequences as that’s 99% of all our work these days.

As mentioned, I thought it was my Samsung display that caused the 24p source error, so I routed the Kona output from the machine room to our conference room where we have a similar LG 55” LED monitor in there. Looking at the LG’s product literature, it specifically said it displayed 24p material. I was hopefully that it would work, even though it might have meant needing to swap 55” displays… not a fun task.

It turns out the LG display didn’t work either. I then researched the differences between the AJA Hi5 SDI-to-HDMI converter and the Blackmagic Design SDI-to-HDMI converter. Turns out the AJA Hi5 doesn’t perform 23.976pfs output (only straight 23.976p and 24p). What?!! Interestingly, I also read that the BMD converter does 23.976pfs, but not straight 23.976p and 24p. Wanting to so if the BMD converter would do the trick, I ordered one for over-night delivery.

Two SDI-to-HDMI converters, two slightly different results.

So here I am today and UPS delivered the BMD SDI-to-HDMI converter. In both AVID Symphony and Final Cut Pro, the BMD converter actually ended up playing all 24p formats (24p, 23.976p, and 23.976pfs), despite what some sources about the BMD product mentioned. Success! This was really great to see, even though it broke my heart a little that the AJA Hi5 converter does not perform 23.976pfs. Note that my Hi5 converter is a couple of years old, so there’s a chance that AJA may have updated this product since then. The “problem” though is that the AJA box doesn’t have a USB port on it like the BMD converter does, so any updating to the AJA unit would require it being sent back to AJA, whereas the BMD unit can be upgraded on your own thanks to the USB port.

And for what it’s worth, the Kona Control Panel doesn’t seem to output a change for Symphony when you change the 24p format from “pfs” to “p”, so that didn’t help the AJA Hi5 unit to work.

Unfortunately changing the progressive format from "psf" to "p" (outlined in the red box) didn't allow the AJA Hi5 converter to function properly.

Here’s the breakdown in 24p output compatibility from both SDI-to-HDMI devices:

AJA Hi5 – 24p (yes), 23.976p (yes), 23.976pfs (no)
BMD - 24p (yes), 23.976p (yes), 23.976pfs (yes)

So in short, if you want to run native 24p output from your AVID Media Composer or Symphony set up (under version 6) with your third party output hardware, then you’ll probably be better off getting a Blackmagic Design SDI-to-HDMI converter for those consumer LCD/LED/plasma monitors. This will allow you to run in native 24p without 2:3 pulldown insertion.

So I’m glad to say that all my monitors, professional and consumer, can once again play back all formats I throw at it under AVID Symphony using my AJA Kona hardware. This is a relief and only cost me $300 to fix.

EDIT May 15, 2012: Unbeknownst to me, it appears the AJA Hi5 unit I’ve used all this time is an early version, mainly due to the fact that the most recent versions of the Hi5 does in fact have a USB port on one end (unlike mine) for updating firmware. Although I do not have a newer version Hi5 (3G or 3D) to test my scenario on for verification, Michael Kammes did tell me that he is able to output standard 23.976p from a Nitris DX 23.976pfs output using the newer Hi5 3G model. I’d assume the same would be true when using AJA Kona hardware for output as well as is the case in my scenario. So final food for thought: either get a new USB-based AJA Hi5 (3G or 3D), or get a Blackmagic Design SDI to HDMI converter counterpart. In other words… DON’T get the older non-USB AJA Hi5 like I’ve been using!

Amazon product listings of these devices:
Blackmagic Design SDI-to-HDMI converter
AJA Hi5 SDI-to-HDMI converter
AJA Kona hardware
AVID Media Composer and Symphony

Newly installed RAID with final testing before putting the lid back on.

Building your own RAID is a lot easier than in year’s past, and quite affordable too. Not to mention it’s fun to get your geek on. I’ve been using HighPoint RAID hardware on Mac OSX and so far it’s been 100% completely rock solid. Oddly enough, some of the product info on HighPoint’s website doesn’t reference Mac OSX support alongside their Window, Linux and FreeBSD info. But rest assured, it’s been working flawlessly on our MacPro systems (at least on Snow Leopard, and am now just getting it installed on Lion).

Loading up the drives from the bottom up. Triple fan bay at the bottom to help with airflow.

I’m using a standard, off-the-shelf 9-bay hard disk drive tower that you can just about get anywhere (just make sure it’s got a Centronics Mount Compliant hole to fit the storage controller board). It uses a standard 300-watt power supply, which is enough power needed to run the eight Seagate drives, all of the fans, and the RAID controller card. The only “mod” I did to the case was to replace the rear screws that keep the outer casing on with blue-anodized thumb screws for easier/faster disassembly.

For this setup, I’m using 2TB drives, but it’s compatible with 3TB drives as well. I’m using RAID 5, which in the end gives me 14TB of storage from 16TB space of original space. The RocketRAID card I’m using supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, and JBOD. It also supports two physical array units (each unit supporting a maximum of eight drives), so you could have 16 drives at 3TB each for a total of 48TB. Even though the RAID 5 setup gives me some protection, I still keep any media I want on a backup/archive Drobo Pro system.

To setup your RAID, HighPoint supplies a little app that basically launches your web browser to a local URL on your workstation. The browser is basically the interface to setup and modify your RAID. It works well, but is a little sluggish to refresh in my opinion.

Here’s a breakdown of all the parts I’ve accumulated to get this together. Note that this setup is derived from an old setup that once housed eight 300GB drives, so I’ve added a few things along the way (not just the drives themselves).

• 9-bay hard drive tower with 300-watt power supply.
• Eight 2TB Seagate Barracuda hard drives (also supports 3TB drives).
• HighPoint RocketRAID 2722 PCIe controller card.
• HighPoint EJ220 storage controller device board.
• Adaptec internal mini-SASX4 SFF-8087 to 4-SATA fanout cables (X2).
• External mini-SAS to external mini-SAS (SFF-8088 to SFF-8088) cable.
• Quick-release trayless mobile hard drive rack with bottom fans
• Triple-fan hard drive cooling kit
• Six blue anodized computer case thumbscrews.

Here are some iPhone snapshots of my build along the way. I didn’t plan on writing a blog about the process and taking pictures of it, so these will have to do!

The original image that started the interest and turned this into a blog post! Bare Seagate hard drives in their trayless caddy holders. Much easier to replace bare drives like this than to screw them in and out.

Inside of enclosure looking down at EJ220 storage controller board

Rear view of the trayless hard drive enclosures. Two drives installed so far.

Our break room doubles as our RAID installation room! All eight drives are loaded and ready for testing.

Hidden amongst the cabling is the HighPoint RocketRAID 2722 PCIe controller card beneath the AJA Kona card in the MacPro tower.

After initial testing, the enclosure was easily sealed back up with the thumb screws (can't recommend these enough!). Note the large fans to dissipate the heat (I recommend as many fans as you can fit in your enclosure to prolong hard drive life). The SFF-8088 cable is plugged in. Above that are a pair old eSata connections that are no longer used.

OneRiver Media's audio control room, which houses a 40-channel ProControl console with 5.1 surround support.

So what’s the catch? Your story has to be good. Reeeeally good. But don’t blindly send me your stories just yet. I run an honest operation and I’m not looking for stories to steal and call my own or use elsewhere. Tease me with something, be creative, but don’t give up the farm if you’re not comfortable doing so. I want to make this fair, ethical, honest, and most importantly, enjoyable for everyone on board with this.

Also, understand this is for the pure satisfaction of starting, and more importantly, completing the project. This is for fun; it’s meant to stir ideas, enjoyment, and an outlet of creativity that we don’t always get when working on client-related projects.

At this point, I’m mostly interested in working on a project that is 2D and/or 3D based, unless you have a story that is live-action based and doesn’t require actors (one actor might work), and doesn’t require crew. Otherwise, if we roll talent and crew into the mix, we’re delving into a project that requires synching of schedules, locations, and cash. If we can stick to 2D and/or 3D animation, it keeps logistics and money down to a bare minimum, as well as being able to pretty much collaborate on everything in a virtual manner. Note that we can still use voice-over talent for characters if we go the 2D/3D route. Best of all, we do everything in-house so we do not need funding for outside services.

One of many large 3D city scape scenes we've done in Lightwave 3D.

I’m open to any genre. Sci-fi is always a favorite of mine. Comedy is also fun, but it’s really tough to properly nail comedy without it being cheesy and lame in the end. I’d be open to something informative (i.e., documentary), but it would still need to be entertaining. Action/adventure is also fun, but if the story scenes are too complex, it means our production will also be overly complex, which I’d like to try and avoid (I don’t want to spend a month setting up an army battle scene that lasts 10 seconds). I’d really like to adhere to the keep it simple stupid motto. I want the story to be the focus, not the technology that got it there.

Okay, now some formalities. Your roll in this project is not one of a director and/or a producer. Your main objective is to write and develop a creative story with a hook. If you’re able to collaborate further in the project (character design, location scouting, etc.), then all the better, but directing, producing, and project management will be performed on our end.

Here are some key parameters I want to outline first, so there are no surprises from the start. First, you will be fully credited for any involvement you proved in the project. You will not be financially compensated by OneRiver Media for your involvement in this project (nobody is getting paid for this, as this is a for-fun project). This project will be a OneRiver Media Production. Although we will outline a timeline of events and goals, these will surely change since our clients with paid projects will always take a front row seat (expect delays in completion). OneRiver Media ultimately owns the rights to the finished video. You will always be able to use the finished video as an example of your story-writing talents.

Marco Solorio doing his thing in the master edit suite.

Bottom line, we want to have fun with this, show off everyone’s talents, and work on something that is our own. If you do not agree to these terms, or if you’re not an easy-going, fun person to work with, then this isn’t the right opportunity for you.

If you DO want to seize this opportunity and want to see your story transformed into a high quality work you can be proud of, then contact us to get the ball rolling. Bare in mind, there’s a chance we may get bombarded with emails from those that want to grab the bull by the horns, and because of this, I might not be able to reply to all emails. Any emails that are more to the point that include story ideas may get a quicker reply than emails that are just asking questions. But again, I will do my best to reply to as many emails as I can.

Please send all correspondence for this opportunity to stories [a t] onerivermedia [d o t] com. Do not send your ideas as a posted comment on this blog post!

Okay, let’s have fun with this and make something we can all be proud of!

About OneRiver Media
OneRiver Media is owned and operated by Marco Solorio. We are located in Walnut Creek, California in the San Francisco Bay Area. Our 3000-square-foot facility houses ten rooms which includes a super high-end edit suite (where we cut videos, color grade, composite, etc. using Avid Symphony, FCP 7, After Effects, etc.), an audio control room (fitted with ProTools HD3 version 10 with a 40-channel ProControl console and an enormous collection plugins, virtual synths, sounds, etc.), an audio booth (tracking vocals, instruments, effects, etc.), a shooting room, a machine room, a conference room (dedicated 7.1 surround and 55” LED monitor), and several other rooms for working and equipment storage. We have a host of production gear that includes cameras, lenses (many fast primes and zooms), lights, and an assortment of hardware (jibs, dollies, tripods, stands, filters, etc.). Marco Solorio has been working continuously in the industry since 1991, is a published writer for many print magazines, has published DVD tutorials, has won countless awards, and has been a longtime Creative Cow leader and contributing editor since 2002. Check out his most recent article, previewing the new Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera.

Marco Solorio of OneRiver Media dissects Blackmagic Design’s new Cinema Camera to see if it is in fact, the much-anticipated HDSLR-killer everyone’s been waiting for over the years. But with a comparatively smaller sensor size and radical body design, does it fit the bill as the killer we all want?

So I’ve been shooting video with the Canon 5D Mark II since late 2009 when the camera was initially released. I can’t believe that was over 3 years ago. For many productions, I still choose it over our other HD camera options. Aside from its setbacks, the images you can pull from that camera can still be breathtaking.

I’ll be the first to admit that I was a little heart-broken after waiting three years for the 5D Mark III successor, only to find that the HD video feature-set wasn’t anything to write home about. Don’t get me wrong, the improvements are definitely there, but in many cases, Canon lost out on “Revolution Part 2″ with the Mark III, that they captured so well with the Mark II…

To read the FULL article, head over to CreativeCOW.net and check it out!

Some of the combined skills we’d like to see are the following:

On location on a OneRiver Media production shoot. Marco Solorio hidden behind the camera rig.

Pre-production:
Research, database population

Production:
Camera assist, audio assist, lighting assist, teleprompter assist, slate assist

Post-production:
Video editing, assistant video editing, motion graphics, compositing, audio editing, media encoding

Not required but added bonus skills:
3D modeling, 3D animation, still photography experience, audio recording.

This is the most-used software we use on a regular basis:
Final Cut Pro 7 (not “X”), Avid Media Composer, After Effects, Newtek Lightwave 3D, Color, Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, Pro Tools HD, QuickTime Player 7 (encoding), Compressor, Adobe Media Encoder, Cinema Tools, Dreamweaver, Flash.

General requirements:

• Friendly, easy-going personality, trustworthy, professional
• Creative, patience for quality, problem solving skills
• Willing to work on a production crew in studio and on location
• Experience in Final Cut Pro 7 (transition to Avid Media Composer is good)
• Experience in After Effects and/or motion graphics production
• Must be local with access to Walnut Creek, CA
• Prefer someone with availability to work Monday through Friday.

What we need from you at this point
We’ll need to review examples of your work. This is required. YouTube, Vimeo, and/or Flickr links are fine.

We’ll also need to know what you’d like to expect in terms of financial compensation, based off your available time and skills set.

Please answer the following bullet points when responding to this inquiry:

• What is your name, email address, and current city of residence?
• What is your strongest suit from the “general requirements” listed above?
• What software are you strongest in? How many years?
• What production skills do you have? How many years?
• What post-production skills do you have? How many years?
• What kind of audio skills do you have? How many years?
• List links to your demo material we can review.
• List an example of a problem-solving skill you’ve experienced in the past.
• What hours during the day can you work? Which days during the week?
• Please list any awards or extra info about your work experience.
• If you’ve worked with OneRiver Media in the past, please note the project description.
• Please list any appropriate references.
• How did you hear about or know of OneRiver Media?

Please do not call us regarding this inquiry. All inquires for this position should be emailed directly to jobs [a t] onerivermedia [d o t] com. Feel free to attach a résumé to your email as well. And to be clear, this position is not for remotely based freelancers.

About OneRiver Media
OneRiver Media is located in downtown Walnut Creek in the San Francisco Bay Area. Our 3000 square-foot facility has a dedicated edit suite, audio control room, sound booth, shooting room, two offline editing rooms, machine room, conference room (with white board, 55” LED, and 7.1 surround sound), and other rooms to help facilitate our production and post-production needs.

Multicam shoot for Saba Software

Our projects mostly consist of high-end corporate work, medical, and commercial, but are not limited to these market outlets. It’s not uncommon that we will provide “all services” to our clients under one roof, ranging from production shooting, video editing, visual effects, CG, music composition, audio mixing, and digital media encoding for final deployment. Our vast range of combined media production services (all at high quality standards) allow for lower overall costs to the client, with faster turn-around times, while maintaining error-free crosstalk between services rendered.

OneRiver Media's main edit suite

Our color-controlled, noise-free edit suite uses AJA Kona hardware, dedicated waveform/vector scopes, 5.1 surround sound integration and control surface interactivity. We currently use Final Cut Pro 7 and Avid Media Composer 6. Our edit suite is bar-none and trumps many edit rooms we see used for Hollywood editorial.

OneRiver Media's audio control room

Our audio control room is based on Avid/Digidesign Pro Tools HD|3 version 10, controlled by a spacious ProControl control surface desk with 40 dedicated channel strips and Edit Pack section for added control and surround sound support. We have an ever-growing list of software synths and effects plugins to really help each project sound creative, unique, and fresh. The room is also equipped for sound-for-picture with LCD monitoring as well as projector monitoring with an electronically operated screen that comes down for each use. The audio control room can fit seven people comfortably. Our sound booth is big enough for about three people and plenty of I/O for discreet micing and monitoring. We normally pick from our Neumann microphones, but have several others to choose from as well (AKG, Sennheiser, EV, Sony, CAD, Shure, Crown).

From the outward appearance, our audio control room looks the same. It's what you can't see that has been greatly updated!

Our audio control room at a glance:

• Pro Tools HD|3 Version 10 (Updated)
• ProControl mixing console with 40 physical channels and 5.1 surround sound Edit Pack control section (Same as before)
• MacPro with 32GB RAM, 16TB sound library (Updated)
• Dozens of software synth packs and effects plugin packs (Updated)

Sound Libraries/Synths (new additions to existing library)
East West Hollywood Strings Diamond collection
East West Hollywood Brass Gold collection
East West Deep Impact – Cinematic Atmospheres & SFX
East West Dark Skies: Cinematic Ambiences
East West Perception Cinemascapes
East West Symphonic Orchestra Platinum Plus CCC License
East West Pianos Gold
East West Symphonic Choirs Bundle
East West Goliath
East West Stromdrum 2 Bundle
East West Voices of Passion
East West Ra
Propellerhead Reason 6
MOTU MachFive 3
Native Instruments Komplete 8
Native Instruments Heavyocity Damage Percussion Instrument
Native Instruments Heavyocity Evolve Mutations Bundle
Native Instruments Heavyocity Evolve 1.5
Novation V-Station Synthesizer
Ilio Spectrasonics Symphony of Voices

Plugin Library (new additions to existing library)
Waves SSL 4000 Collection
Waves L3-16 Multimiximizer Bundle
Waves Vocal Bundle
Waves Dorrough Meters (we love our real ones too!)
Waves GTR3 with hardware input model
Focusrite Forte Suite Channel Strip
Antares Auto-Tune 7
Antares Mic Mod EFX
Nomad Factory Analog Mastering Tools.

Our audio control room is based on Avid/Digidesign Pro Tools HD|3 version 10, controlled by a spacious ProControl control surface desk with 40 dedicated channel strips and an Edit Pack section for added control and surround sound support. Our ever-growing list of software synths and effects plugins really help each project sound creative, unique, and fresh. The room is also equipped for sound-for-picture with LCD monitoring as well as projector monitoring with an electronically operated screen that comes down for each use. The audio control room can fit at least seven people comfortably.

Looking to the rear of the audio control room at OneRiver Media.

Our sound booth is big enough for at least three people and plenty of I/O for discreet micing and monitoring. We normally pick from our Neumann microphones, but have several others to choose from as well (AKG, Sennheiser, EV, Sony, CAD, Shure, Crown). All of the audio hardware (computers, hard drive arrays, expansion units, fans, etc.) is isolated in our machine room to keep the audio control room quiet and noise free. A few minor updates have been installed in the sound booth as well, including better timecode monitoring integration.

The sound booth at OneRiver Media.

Click to enlarge

And in case you missed our holiday card from last year!

Click to enlarge

Happy holidays to all!

It took longer than expected to arrive here at out facility (ordered back in August, and arrived here mid-November), but the wait was worth it. After some initial A/B testing with and without the filter, I’m thrilled with the results. The science behind this device is amazing, and it works, and it works extremely well.

Looking around the facility, I tried to find something I could shoot right away to really put this filter to the test. After going through all the rooms in the facility, I stumbled on something that was perfect: an Ampeg bass amp cabinet. The interwoven silver mesh covering of the cabinet creates all the aliasing, moiré and rainbow effects you could ever hate. The aliasing is so bad in fact that it causes the Canon encoder to pulsate on the aliasing portions. Without the VAF-5D2 filter, such footage would be completely useless. With the filter, it’s as clean as a whistle. I’m still shocked at how well this filter works, especially since looking at the filter with the naked eye doesn’t reveal any optical characteristics that make the filter work (it just looks like a clean, clear piece of glass).

I shot the footage handheld to further amplify the aliasing problems with the native 5D Mk II. I also pushed the camera in and out so that the focal plane (where aliasing is most present) would also be more noticeable. The first comparison was shot at an angle so that the focal plane was most obvious (causing DOF blur behind and in front of the focal plane). The second comparison is flat against the amp cabinet so that the focal plane covers the entire face, causing an aliasing nightmare, again pushing in and out to see how the aliasing reacts.

I used our Canon 50mm f/1.2L at f/2 to keep the lens sharp. I also shot at 160 ISO for least sensor noise, and 1/50th shutter speed to replicate what we normally shoot at.

Viewing at full 1080 HD resolution (the is important to really see the comparisons), you can easily see the difference in quality. With the VAF-5D2 installed, the image is completely clean of any aliasing or moiré effects. It’s like having a new camera by Canon! Converting this test footage to ProRes and outputting to our HD monitors (CRT and LED) REALLY shows off the hideousness of the aliasing without the filter installed, and the clarity of the footage with the filter installed. Just amazing.

Installation and removal of the VAF-5D2 is quick and easy. They give you a little puller tool to remove it from the sensor housing area.

The VAF-5D2 does have some drawbacks (crazy, I know). For one, your focus distance changes slightly, which wont be a big deal for many, including myself. Some wider lenses, 24mm and below may causing some vignetting or softness at the corners. I found that I did get some slight vignetting at the corners with my 24mm f/1.4L II, and my 16-35mm f/2.8L II between 16-24mm. Our 35mm f/1.4L seemed fine, as well as anything at higher lengths. Personally, the vignetting is minimal and I’d rather fix that in post (very easy) with no aliasing and moiré than the other way around. Also, if you take still photos with your 5D Mk II, you need to remove the VAF-5D2 for optimal still photo quality (only takes a few seconds to remove it).

Okay, well, so much for a short “first look” review. I love this new filter so much that I guess I went into full review mode. At any rate, the sooner you order your VAF-5D2, the better as it took mine almost three months to get here. But again, well worth the wait. For a three-year-old camera, I feel like I have a new camera again. I can’t recommend the VAF-5D2 enough.

Check out the comparison video we shot here on Vimeo:

All product still photos on this blog post from Mosaic Engineering’s website:

http://www.mosaicengineering.com/products/vaf-5d2.html

Marco Solorio at Paramount Pictures for the big Canon event.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in this industry over that past 20 years is that no matter how much I think I might know what new technology is coming around the corner, the fact is, there’s always a few surprises when new stuff actually is announced.

Last Thursday (November 3, 2011), there were three major announcements from industry players, in this order: Avid, Canon and RED. To my surprise, none of the announcements played out as I would have expected. This is neither good or bad, it just caught me off guard.

Avid in the morning — Media Composer 6
Avid started the day out with its “live” video stream of their Media Composer 6 announcement. Let’s get one thing out of the way first; the Media Composer 6 update by Avid release is huge. It’s awesome. It’s a home run. I’m extremely looking forward to upgrading. The biggest thing for me is AJA Kona 3 hardware support. The refresh to 64-bit is nice too, although it’ll be a short while for any plugins you have to upgrade to 64-bit as well.

Okay, so what was so surprising about Avid’s announcement? It wasn’t the Media Composer 6 update itself that was so weird, it was how Avid announced it. You had to pre-register on Avid’s website to watch the live feed of this announcement. So me, like many others, was expecting to see a live broadcast from a stage somewhere in the world showing off all the cool new features of Media Composer 6. Instead, it was a pre-recorded, edited soapbox snoozfest on boring marketing slop, which included testimonials of people that most people don’t even know.

Avid finally adds full third-party hardware integration into their Media Composer 6 update.

To make matters worse, they never even showed the Media Composer 6 interface at all or any of its features. This was a huge failure by Avid. I think most viewers, myself included, felt as if we’d been had. Almost a bait-and-switch move where Avid had all of us glued to our computer screens, only to switch gears and tell us how awesome they are. Seriously Avid, you don’t need to “sell” us Media Composer 6… the software itself will sell us. All you had to do was show us live interactions with the new features, and everyone would have been tickled. What we saw instead was something that could have been uploaded to YouTube. But considering how boring and useless Avid’s video was, I guess they would have known everyone would have ended up watching singing cats instead.

The irony is, Avid ended up uploading video of the new MC6 features on their website. Why the hell didn’t they just do this from the get-go and call it a day? Urgh! Anyway, for in-depth coverage of the Media Composer 6 update, here are some useful links:

Avid’s own Media Composer 6 video examples
AJA’s hardware integration with Media Composer 6 on Vimeo
Walter Biscardi’s review of Media Composer 6 on Creative Cow
Michael Kammes’ review of Media Composer 6
Stu Maschwitz’s review of Media Composer 6
Shane Ross’ review of Media Composer 6

Canon in the day — C300 and Cinema Lenses
So we flew down to Hollywood for the big Canon event thanks to an invitation by my friend, Donald Berube (Boston FCPUG). Now let me first say that, unlike Avid, Canon pulled off a PR masterpiece. They literally couldn’t have done it better; right down to staging the event in Paramount studios. The main theater (full size, full projection) played short films created by well-known people in the industry that were shot exclusively using the new C300. For me, Vincent Laforet’s “Möbius”was the most engaging of the four short films. Another film, “Max is Back” by Richard Crudo, ASC was played back on a 35mm film print so you could really see how the film looked in true 35mm film playback. Each film also had its own dedicated behind-the-scenes film, which was really nice.

Vincent Laforet looking over the many Canon lenses on display at the Canon event.

Canon had ALL the goods on display, even the newly announced camera rigged out from different manufacturers, including Redrock Micro, Letus and Zacuto, all of which could be picked up and handled (all cameras were fully functional). They had lens displays, a couple small stages for speaker presentations, technology stations, a ton of Canon people to answer questions, plenty of food and drinks and security up the ying-yang. In short, Canon pulled all the stops on this event and had to have cost millions.

Marco Solorio gripping the new C300 with 24mm cine prime outfitted in Redrock Micro rigging hardware.

So what was the problem? The product itself. Yep, you read that right. So Canon’s flagship product to enter themselves into the cinematic production market is a camera that only records at 1080 HD resolution (wasted from a full 4K sensor), and if you want to over-crank for slo-mo effects, you have to resort down to 720 HD. Then there’s the fact that the camera will only record internally at 50 Mbps compression MPEG-2 at 8-bit quantization. A partial saving grace is that it does have “clean” HD-SDI and HDMI outputs (full 1080 HD output without overlays), but even those outputs are 8-bit. Forget about any dual-stream 4:4:4 options on this unit. This is a cinema camera? With an MSRP of around $20k USD for just the body? What are you thinking, Canon? Oh and did I mention that if you want to use PL-mount lenses, you have to use a completely different C300 body (the “C300 PL” to be exact). Canon didn’t design it so that a simple mount could be swapped between EF and PL mounts. What a shame.

A non-rigged C300 in basic form, with a mounted 85mm f/1.2L lens. On a DSLR, this lens looks huge. On the C300, it looks miniscule.

Spec sheets aside, the image does look pretty good on the silver screen, although my impression was this: it basically had the look of a clean HDSLR image (and without the issues of aliasing and rolling shutter). That’s neither good nor bad, but I didn’t get the “wow factor” of Arri Alexa latitude gloriousness. From viewing from the silver screen, some shots were nice and sharp with great detail in fine hair elements, while some shots were quite soft. One shot burned into my memory was an external shot that was horribly soft, and almost degraded looking. I did notice that some other shots did have some clipping in the highlight detail. The 20k ISO rating is pretty impressive however, and the examples on the silver screen did seem to hold up. You saw the noise (or “grain” as Canon likes to say) but it did seem to have a slight organic look to it. Definitely wasn’t bad looking, so positive marks there.

Marco Solorio and Donald Berube hanging out at the Canon event.

Honestly, I see this as a $6000 or $7000 camera, max, but definitely not a $20k camera. I’m not really sure what market is going to buy this camera; surely not the Arri Alexa or Sony F65 market. It’s way too expensive for HDSLR shooters to buy and justify. And those that can afford RED, will, well, go with RED (more about that in the next section).

Canon also showed off three brand new cinema prime lenses, along with two previously announced cinema zoom lenses. These lenses are dressed to the nines. Man, are they beautiful. All lenses are fully geared, have large diameters, have long throws, and more. The primes (24mm T1.5, 50mm T1.3, 85mm T1.3) are set for an MSRP of $6800 USD each and the zooms (14.5-60mm T2.6, and 30-300mm T2.95-3.7) for an MSRP of $47k USD each. The primes are quite a bit more costly (about $2600) than the comparable Zeiss CP.2 cinema primes (comparable due to both manufacturers offering EF mounts, the only to do so for cinema lenses). The Canon primes are a bit faster than the Zeiss counterpart (T1.3 versus T2, respectively), so the added cost might be worth it for some. But here’s the kicker: The 30-300mm Canon cinema zoom is NOT constant aperture like other cinema zoom lenses in its class. It really makes me wonder why anyone would spend $47k on a Canon cinema zoom that is not constant aperture over a competing cinema zoom (Arri, Zeiss, Cooke, Panavision, etc.) that is constant aperture. To me, having constant aperture should be a requirement if labeling the lens as a cinema lens.

Canon's assortment of new cinema lenses. Two zooms, three primes.

I’m a HUGE Canon fan. Been using Canon 35mm film SLR cameras and lenses since the late 1980’s, and my 5D Mark II professionally since the day I got it, and still running strong with it (for both still photo production and HD video production). But in a way, I’m pissed off at Canon. They have the technology and manufacturing to build a truly historic, competitive and amazing cinema camera, but they missed the mark. They had the whole world watching and pulled off an event in Hollywood that truly gave them the spotlight they wanted. All for a “cinema” camera that shoots 1080 HD resolution, with 8-bit MPEG-2 compression.

Surprisingly, Canon did announce a future DSLR camera they’re working on that will record 4K resolution, but why not now with the C300? It just doesn’t make any sense and left a lot of people scratching their heads. Canon did build a new website around their new cinema line though:

http://www.cinemaeos.usa.canon.com

Canon's "C" prototype DSLR that will be video-focused, shooting 4K resolution.

RED in the evening — Scarlet X
So Avid announced a great product but did so in a horrible way. Canon announced a buzzkill of a product but did so in the best way I’ve ever seen done. So where does this leave RED? Interestingly enough, RED missed the mark as well, much akin to Avid’s mistake. The announcement of the Scarlet X itself is huge; now this is the camera that Canon should have made! It’s basically the same $40k RED EPIC camera, but with different frame-rate options and slightly more compression. And the kicker? It starts at $9750 for the body. But here’s where RED didn’t seize the moment: they should have capitalized on all the flock of invited attendees that went to the Canon event, and left their doors open for the weekend for people to come and see the new Scarlet X in person. I tried to hop over to RED to get an in-person demo on Friday evening, but my contact at RED had to fly back home. I know there would have been a ton of overflow people from the Canon event that would have seriously liked to see the Scarlet X and visual examples of it, had RED’s doors been open for this.

RED's new Scarlet X with a mounted Canon EF lens. What the Canon C300 should have been?

Okay, so PR aside, the Scarlet X is definitely a winner in my book. I’m looking forward to seeing some footage, although it probably wont look different than an EPIC for the most part since the sensor is the same. Units are supposed to be shipping by December 1^st (yes, 2011). Unfortunately RED is known for their botched announcements, timelines, and price-points, but I think they might stick to their promises this time around. I’m tempted to put down my 10% on the Scarlet X, but I might just wait a little before I do, so I can see RED’s promises come to fruition. If they do, I think this is the next camera we’re going to invest in. Scarlet X info and specs here:

http://www.red.com/products/scarlet

In a nutshell:

-       Avid’s update to Media Composer 6 is a winner. Too bad the announcement itself sucked. Regardless, we’ll upgrade to MC6 for sure.

-       Canon’s Hollywood event was a fantastic gathering of product and people. Too bad the product itself was a buzzkill. No thanks on the C300. The cine primes might work for some. The cine zooms seem priced too high.

-       RED’s new Scarlet X looks to be a grand slam. Too bad they didn’t have their own event for people to come check out product and footage. If all goes as RED claims, we’ll be buying one—our first investment with any RED product.