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NAB 2013 wrap-up: Sony 4K TVs, Red, Blackmagic, Thunderbolt and more!
The National Association of Broadcasters' annual event in Vegas may not offer the same blitz of high-profile gadgets as CES, but this show is hardly a quiet one. In fact, the excitement kicked off before the floor even opened, with Sony announcing pricing for its 55- and 65-inch 4K TVs. When 25 grand is the norm for these high-end sets, MSRPs of $5,000 and $7,000 seem downright budget-friendly. Blackmagic's $995 Pocket Cinema Camera also made headlines for its value proposition, with a Super-16 Cinema sensor, 13 stops of dynamic range and a Micro Four Thirds lens mount rounding out a very solid spec list. Our favorite booth, however, belonged to Red. The company was performing its Dragon upgrade on-site, giving showgoers a fascinating look at the process of boosting the sensor to 6K -- we were even able to snag an exclusive look inside the sacred space. Finally, Intel announced the next generation of its Thunderbolt interface, promising double the throughput and expanded 4K support. But those are just the highlights; check out our complete coverage after the break for the full rehash.
Hands-on with Freefly's shockingly awesome $15,000 Movi camera gimbal
One of the hottest gadgets at NAB isn't quite what you'd expect. Freefly, the company behind a series of professional-grade cinema hexacopters, is demoing its new Movi three-axis stabilized camera gimbal. We heard some rumblings about such a device last week, but the $15,000 price tag is quite a turnoff -- until you see it in action. We dropped by the company's booth at the Las Vegas Convention Center to check it out with an attached Canon EOS-1D C. Movi weighs in at just 3.5 pounds, jumping to 10 pounds once you mount the Canon camera and lens. It's a very robust system, despite the weight and footprint, letting you pull off shots that otherwise may require hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment, and a substantial crew. In other words, you can capture incredibly compelling motion scenes with just a single camera operator. Don't take our word for it, though -- join us past the break to see Movi in action, along with a glowing testimonial from director Vincent Laforet, who Freefly tapped to shoot the gimbal's very first sample reel.%Gallery-185161%
Akamai demos Hyperconnected Living Room second-screen concept at NAB
Companion apps are nothing new, but while they can serve up bonus material for a TV show or medal counts for the Olympics, they can't see exactly what you're watching and display relevant information in realtime. Akamai's Hyperconnected Living Room concept demoed here at NAB aims to enhance the dual-screen experience by both pushing out on-demand movies and other streaming content and bringing related info to your slate, exactly when you'd expect to see it. Akamai says it cooked up this demo especially for NAB "to get people thinking about the possibilities" of a second-screen experience. Those possibilities, if you haven't guessed, generally require you to open up your wallet. When Mission Impossible was playing on the big screen, pricing for a character's sunglasses popped up on the tablet. During a basketball game, we were prompted to buy tickets for an upcoming game. Depending on what you're watching, you may also see trivia from IMDB or links to players' stats. To connect an iPad to the service, an Akamai rep simply signed into the web-based interface on both the TV and the tablet (though the service is generally compatible with any web-connected device). Once linked, the tablet can function as a remote for pausing and selecting content to stream, and users can personalize what ads and info they receive by providing details such as age, location and even clothing size. If you can't watch Mad Men without wondering where to buy Don Draper's fedora, you'll be all over the video demo below. %Gallery-185146%
After hours at NAB: A closer look at Red's Dragon upgrade operation (video)
Red's clean room on the NAB show floor is typically no place for camera crews, but after adding a bit of protection, Red President Jarred Land gave us the green light to step inside the company's sacred space for a closer look at operation Dragon upgrade. (The $8,500+ sensor swap gives Epic cams the gift of 6K shooting.) The view from behind the glass wall separating spectators from technicians isn't significantly different, but we were able to get quite a bit more insight into how the process goes down, including stops at each of the workstations. The temporary assembly center that Red built at the Las Vegas Convention Center is a miniature version of the company's primary facility in Irvine, California -- while Dragon upgrades are underway in Las Vegas, a structure that's estimated to be 20 times the size of the one here in Nevada is processing the updates remotely, though admittedly with far less fanfare. Join us past the break for an exclusive look at the process, live from Red's booth at NAB.%Gallery-185072%
Sony Anycast Touch live-broadcasting system hands-on (video)
The Anycast Touch is not only a sleeker incarnation of Sony's all-in-one studio, with a slider design and a manageable-enough 6.6-kg (13-pound) body; it's also the company's first such system to feature a touchscreen interface. The machine sports two touch-enabled displays, allowing users to adjust audio controls, type via an on-screen keyboard and edit footage, among other functions. Video sources are assigned to one side of the panel, and tapping a particular input will bring up the footage in the middle preview window. It seems like an intuitive interface, especially given all the live-broadcasting controls on board -- a six-input video switcher, a five-channel audio mixer, a built-in character and title generator, and a remote camera controller, just to name a few. Aside from the touchscreens, built-in live-streaming capability is one of the Anycast Touch's most unique features. On the show floor, Sony was sharing the product's output with WiFi-enabled devices. According to the company, this functionality will be useful in educational settings, at houses of worship, corporate seminars and any other events intended to reach a broad audience. The Anycast could even help news producers scale back on their own gear, letting them trade those gigantic live trucks for live vans or sedans, for example. Pricing info isn't set in stone, but Sony says the MSRP will be less than $20,000 when the device ships at the end of summer. There's simply a ton of functionality here, so we definitely recommend checking out the studio-in-a-box in action in our hands-on video after the break for a bit more detail. %Gallery-185049%
Red details Scarlet upgrades and trade-ins: $9,500 for Full Epic-X or Scarlet Dragon
If you're pining for a Dragon Sensor but don't have an Epic-M or Epic-X in your collection, you might be in luck: Red just detailed an upgrade and trade-in path for owners of its entry-level Scarlet camera. By plunking down $9,500 and trading-in your Scarlet, you'll nab a Full Epic-X with its new black body, and have the option upgrade it to a Full Epic Dragon through the standard update process, to boot. If that doesn't strike your fancy, you could send in $9,500 instead and have your grey-bodied cam turned into a Scarlet Dragon, netting you the dynamic range and revamped color of the new sensor, replete with a maximum frame rate of 60 fps at 5k. Ready to move on up to gear that packs a bigger punch? Pre-orders kick off this Thursday, while upgrades are slated to commence in July.
Eyes-on with Sony's brilliant 4K OLED monitor prototypes (video)
The 30- and 56-inch 4K OLED monitor prototypes that Sony introduced yesterday are sitting prominently in the company's booth here at NAB, and they're really quite something. These sets offer wider viewing angles and reduced color shift compared to previous-gen monitors, and Sony is emphasizing the technology's color accuracy. We got a taste of the 56-inch, 3,840 x 2,160 model back at CES, but it looks like we can extinguish all hopes of this monitor making it to the consumer market anytime soon. Instead, it will be available to professionals working with 4K content. Even though the prototype won't make it to our living room, we couldn't help but marvel at the image quality: to say that the footage of Carnivale popped off the screen would be an understatement -- colors were just that vibrant and details were incredibly lifelike. Meanwhile, the 30-inch, 4,096 x 2,160 model is destined to hit the market sometime in 2014, and it's plenty striking itself. Like its larger sibling, the relatively petite model looked fantastic, with very sharp details and bright, vibrant colors. Sony wouldn't share pricing information -- heck, booth attendants wouldn't even let us get close enough to get a good shot of the monitor itself -- but we did manage to snag a clip of both panels in action. Granted, it's impossible to judge the quality from our compressed eyes-on video, but if you can't make it out to NAB, you'll just have to take us on our word that these really are quite stunning.%Gallery-185048%
Christie's latest 4K projector sports 60 fps output, six-figure price tag (eyes-on)
When a 48 frames-per-second version of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was released, some viewers questioned whether high frame rates necessarily translate to a better viewing experience. Whether or not you embrace this trend, it's clearly not going away. Case in point: today, Christie Digital Systems introduced two new 4K projectors capable of 60 fps -- a "world's first," according to the manufacturer. Unveiled on the NAB show floor, the 35,000-lumen and 25,000-lumen models display extremely crisp and bright images -- big-budget car commercials and surfing footage basically pop off the screen. The projectors are available for pre-order now, so it'll likely be quite some time before they begin showing up in your neighborhood cineplex. Their price tags ($125,000 for the 25,000-lumen model and $161,000 for the 35,000-lumen D4K3560), not to mention their bulky 250+ pound bodies, make them destined for state-of-the-art cinemas rather than home theaters. If you do manage to squeeze one of these giants into your den, we'd be more than willing to drop in to catch a flick or two. Take a look at the 25,000-lumen D4K2560 in action in our eyes-on video after the break -- it looks incredibly sharp and vibrant, despite the reduced brightness output.%Gallery-185037%
Intel announces next-gen Thunderbolt with 20 Gbps throughput, 4K support
Here at NAB, Intel just introduced the next generation of its Thunderbolt interface, which promises a data rate of 20 Gbps in both directions (on each of the two channels) as opposed to 10 Gbps for the previous version. Of course, the company stepped back for a moment first, boasting that Thunderbolt currently has about 200 licensees, and more compatible devices -- along with new, thinner cables -- should be coming out in the following months. Building up to the big reveal, Intel also shared some info about its new Thunderbolt host controller, (code-named Redwood Ridge), which will be built into some of Intel's upcoming fourth-gen Core processors. But let's talk about the real news: the next-gen Thunderbolt tech (code-named Falcon Ridge) enables 4K video file transfer and display simultaneously in addition to running at 20 Gbps. It will be backward-compatible with previous-gen Thunderbolt cables and connectors, and production is set to ramp up in 2014. An on-stage demo with fresh-off-the-press silicon showed the new Thunderbolt running 1,200 MBps, which is certainly a step up from what's currently on the market. Update: We've added a video of the Thunderbolt demo from Intel's stage. Hop on past the break to check it out.
Red Motion mount eliminates shutter judder, we go eyes-on (video)
Red announced its new Motion lens mount prior to opening its booth at NAB, and now we've had a chance to see this guy in action. The mount, which is compatible with the company's Epic and Scarlet cameras, is meant to fix the CMOS rolling shutter problem. The Motion includes a liquid crystal shutter that's placed in front of the main sensor and is timed to engage when the sensor is fully open. It also adds up to 8x neutral density, which can be enabled electronically through the camera UI with 1/100-stop precision. In a demo at Red's NAB booth, the camera captured every flash of a strobe -- without the new mount, some flashes would likely slip through the cracks. It's set to ship for $4,500 in the fall (or possibly this summer), and will be available with Canon EF or PL mounts. You can see it in action today in the hands-on demo after the break.%Gallery-185020%
We're live at NAB 2013 in Las Vegas!
It seems like we were in Sin City for CES just yesterday, but we're already back scouring the halls at the LVCC. This time, though, it's all about cameras; NAB 2013 promises to have plenty of fancy new equipment from big names such as Canon, RED and Sony. In fact, we already have some major news from the latter: Sony announced pricing for its 55- and 65-inch 4K TVs, and the MSRPs are well below $10,000. Meanwhile, Blackmagic outed its sub-$1,000 Pocket Cinema Camera along with the the Production Camera 4K. Can we expect other brands to announce competitively priced A/V goodies in addition to the usual mega-expensive professional gear? We're not even through day one, so we'll have to wait and see. Keep up with our coverage by visiting our NAB 2013 hub.
Red performs Dragon sensor upgrades right on the NAB show floor (video)
Well, this is a trade-show first. Red Digital Cinema has made a name for itself by pushing the limits when it comes to motion picture camera technology, but the company's "get it done" approach is even evident in the layout of its trade show booth this year. The team has constructed a full sterile lab here at NAB, where attendees can watch technicians upgrade Epic cameras with the new Dragon 6K sensor, which enables 6K shooting at 6144 x 3160 pixels and up to 100 frames-per-second, offering three additional stops over the Epic M-X. A wall of glass separates fans from the engineers in the clearly visible clean room, who are diligently going about their duties despite the constant gaggle of excited customers just a few feet away. Company spokesman Ted Schilowitz gave us a quick tour of the facility, where the $8,500+ sensor upgrades are now underway. Geek out with us in the video just past the break.%Gallery-185016%
G-Technology shows off a Thunderbolt-powered dock with dual hard drive bays
We have a feeling 4K is going to be a major theme at this year's NAB, which also means we'll be seeing a good deal of hardware that can actually handle such high-res content. Mostly, we're talking pro cameras and the like, but at least one company will be showing off some professional-grade hard drives -- after all, you're gonna need a solid storage solution to process those supersize files, right? G-Technology just introduced the "Evolution" family of products, the centerpiece of which is the G-Dock ev, a mini-tower with two hard drive modules and dual Thunderbolt connections. What you put in those hard drive slots is up to you: the company is offering both a 9.5mm 7,200RPM drive (rated for 136 MB/s transfers) and a beefier 15mm cartridge promising 250 MB/s. Once you choose your drives, you can arrange them in a RAID 1 configuration if redundancy is important, or RAID 0 for maximum speed. What's more, each of the drives has a USB 3.0 socket on board, so if you needed to you could hand it to someone else in your office and let them grab whatever data they needed off the HDD. In any case, the dock will come standard with two 1TB, 9.5mm drives -- look for it next month, priced at $750 for the bundle. If you later need some additional cartridges, the 9.3mm G-Drive ev will cost either $150 or $200, depending on whether you want 500 gigs or a full terabyte. The bigger 15mm G-Drive ev Plus will go for $350 (it'll be sold with 1TB only). Lastly, G-Technology also announced the G-Drive Pro with a Thunderbolt port and claimed transfer speeds of 480 MB/s. That'll ship this summer for either $700 or $850, depending on whether you want 2TB or 4TB of storage. All that's in the PR after the break, along with an endorsement from Vincent Laforet himself. Must be good, right?
Blackmagic announces Production Camera 4K, $995 Pocket Cinema Camera with MFT mount (hands-on)
A sub-$1,000 price tag makes any product a relative steal on the floor of NAB -- impressive specs and industry standard compatibility are just icing on the cake. If such figures are any indication, however, Blackmagic's new Pocket Cinema Camera, which leaked earlier today and ships in July, is potentially a very solid buy at $995, with a Super-16 Cinema 1080HD sensor with 13 stops of dynamic range, CinemaDNG RAW recording, SD card storage, Micro HDMI monitoring and a Micro Four Thirds lens mount. We got an early look at the shooter on the showroom floor, and the compact size is truly striking -- the body is comparable in size to any other mirrorless camera, though it definitely pushes the limits of what we'd consider pocketable. The design is very similar to Blackmagic's larger Cinema Camera launched at last year's NAB, with the same Micro Four Thirds lens mount. There's a very sharp built-in matte LCD for viewing footage and adjusting settings, and the build is quite solid -- it's significantly heavier than you'd expect. Naturally, the camera isn't as capable as Blackmagic's pricier NAB model, the Production Camera 4K, which also made its debut today and ships in July. With that flavor, $3,995 buys you a Super 35 sensor with native Ultra HD and 4K support, a built-in SSD recorder, compressed CinemaDNG RAW and compatibility with EF lenses. We spent a few minutes with that model as well, and were equally impressed. The screen was very bright, sharp and not at all reflective, and the camera includes your standard array of inputs and outputs, including dual mic jacks, an SDI port, power and control. Both models are very competitively priced, as you might expect from Blackmagic, and with this wide range of appeal, there's now a little something for everyone. Be sure to head past the break to check out our hands-on video as we take a closer look at both models. Update: B&H Photo now has both cameras up for pre-order with an expected availability of July 25th. Bearing in mind previous delays for BlackMagic Design's past model, you can place your order at the More Coverage links below. %Gallery-185012%
Red unveils the Motion mount for Epic and Scarlet cameras to eliminate CMOS rolling shutter
Red has just announced the Red Motion lens mounting system for Epic and Scarlet motion camera systems that'll eliminate one of their chief snags: the dreaded CMOS rolling shutter. Though details are scant, it seems it'll do that in a similar manner to the Tessive system (see More Coverage), where a second liquid crystal shutter is placed in front of the main sensor and timed to engage only when the camera's CMOS is fully "open." That'll help eliminate artifacts like skew / judder in pans, repeating motion artifacts (think distorted propellers) and flicker from lights or displays, among others. The mount also brings an 8x electronic ND filter adjustable to 1/100th of an f-stop, partially negating the need for a matte-box in bright lighting situations. The Red Motion's drawback is that it'll cost you a stop of speed even when the ND is off, meaning you may have to change to a classic mount in low-light situations. Red's showing it now at its NAB booth-cum-factory and it'll ship out this fall in PL-mount form (with a Canon mount arriving later) for $4,500. Check the source for more discussion.
Red Epic Dragon sensor updates start tomorrow for $8,500
Red has announced that Dragon sensor updates will start tomorrow for Epic-M and Epic-X owners and, interestingly, is letting owners (and the public) see the operation for themselves at its NAB booth. The new sensor will bring 6K resolution, 120 fps at 5K and 15+ stops of dynamic range in a slightly larger format, according to Red. Early adopters will be able to pre-order now for $8,500, while Epic owners who wait until Thursday or later will be able to grab the update for $9,500. Filmmakers hoping for a new Epic-M with the Dragon instead of the Mysterium-X sensor will be able to pre-order tomorrow for $29,000 or so. Meanwhile, there's good news for those with the more budget-minded Scarlet -- they'll be able to upgrade to the Epic directly or get a 6k Dragon sensor and ASICs, with pricing details coming tomorrow and pre-orders launching on Thursday. Red may have a tough row to hoe with recent NAB news from the likes of BlackMagic Design and Vision Systems, but how many companies will actually let you watch your camera get operated on? Check the source for more.
Phantom's latest camera blasts through 1000 fps at 4K (video)
Vision Research just upped the 4k speed barrier by a near order of magnitude with the launch of its Phantom Flex4K cinema camera at NAB. Starting at $110K, it builds on its Phantom Flex predecessor with up to 1,000 fps in 5-second bursts at 4K, 2,000 fps in 2K and 3,000 fps at 720p resolution -- speeds that'll net you almost three minutes of 4K video when played back at 24 fps. The full 16:9 Super 35 sensor-equipped model can be had with PL, PV Canon EOS or Nikon F/G mounts and will capture RAW or compressed footage in an "industry-standard," but as-yet-unspecified format. The Flex4K will also be available with a Phantom Cinemag IV, which will hold up to 2TB of data, or nearly 2 hours of RAW 4K footage at normal recording speeds. Other features include a Bluetooth transmitter and handheld Phantom RCU for remote operation, 12+ stops of dynamic range, HD-SDI video output and a camera control interface and form factor that hews to industry norms, according to Vision Research. If you're still reading after seeing the six-figure price tag, check the videos or More Coverage link after the jump for more.
Blackmagic's Production Camera 4K gets full size cinema sensor, $3,995 pricetag
No matter how hard companies try and keep secrets, when it comes to trade show floors there's always the risk that someone will snap a picture and steal their thunder. The latest casualty is Blackmagic, which will be announcing both a Pocket Cinema Camera and this, its Production Camera 4K. We're fairly sure that this will sit above its Cinema Camera, offering a bigger Super 35 sensor, global shutter and Thunderbolt connector alongside the SSD recorder, touchscreen LCD and EF lens mount we found on last year's model. When the company gets around to announcing the hardware properly, it'll be available for $3,995 -- low enough to make even the most ardent of DSLR fans think twice. [Image Credit: Danielo Garcia]
Blackmagic's $995 Micro Four Thirds Pocket Cinema Camera gets snapped at NAB
We may lament the death of the point-and-shoot, but we doubt Blackmagic's forthcoming Pocket Cinema Camera will go as quietly into the night. Whilst wandering the halls at NAB, Danielo Garcia snapped a billboard announcing the device a little before its expected arrival time. The stats in the promotional flag (in full, after the break) reveal that it's the budget-brother of Blackmagic's Cinema Camera MFT. This new unit keeps the same Micro Four Thirds lens mount, with a Super-16 Cinema 1080HD sensor, 13 stops of dynamic range, lossless CinemaDNG RAW recording and Micro HDMI monitoring. When it's officially announced, the unit will retail for $995, putting smiles on the faces of indie filmmakers and people who need their Disneyland recordings ready for the silver screen. [Image Credit: Danielo Garcia]
Visualized: Sony teases prototype 4K cameras and lenses at NAB
At its NAB 2013 press conference, Sony told us several times that it never stops thinking about the future. It's fitting, then, that in addition to announcing pricing for two 4K sets, the company gave us a taste of what's to come a few years down the line. A wide variety of lenses, including both current models and some prototypes, appeared on stage briefly -- behind ropes, no less -- and while we got no shortage of shots, specs, model names and any other particulars were strictly off-limits. Current optics included basic wide-angle and telephoto models, and of the two prototype cameras on display, one was of particular interest, due in no small part to its DSLR-like form-factor -- this could perhaps become Sony's version of the Canon EOS-1D C. Unfortunately, Sony says that these devices won't make it to market for quite some time, so photogs will have to make do with this eye candy for now.
