Red's Jim Jannard Continues Feud With Cinematographer Geoff Boyle

The Hollywood Reporter

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/behind-screen/reds-jim-jannard-continues-feud-609701

Jannard addresses critics as he reveals his intention to step back as the "face of Red," and Boyle offers a response.

When camera-maker Red’s high profile founder Jim Jannard revealed on Monday that he is stepping aside as the “face of Red” — Red president Jarred Land will take over that role — he also took a swipe at his critics, notably U.K.-based cinematographer Geoff Boyle.

In response, Boyle told The Hollywood Reporter that Jannard “seems to expect unconditional love at all times, not going to happen. Nor is it for any other camera company.”

Red was a disruptive company when it launched, and as such it was both idolized and harshly criticized. Early on, many skeptics argued that the Red One’s image processing was not creating 4K images; others were critical of its marketing methods. Still, it is undeniable that the company has made its mark in the business; its aggressive pricing put cameras in the hands of many filmmakers. And its cameras have been used on such high-profile productions asThe Amazing Spider-Man, The Great Gatsby and The Hobbit trilogy.

Jannard — who previously founded Oakley and according to Forbes report in March has accumulated an estimated $2.8 billion in wealth — announced his plans to step back as the “face” of his company in a post Monday on the Reduser forum.

In a portion of the post aimed at Boyle, he wrote: “In 2006, we announced the Red One. 4K for under $20K. That was quite shocking. Sony's digital cinema cameras were $200K-plus. Apparently shocking enough that I almost got into a fist fight with Geoff Boyle in the aisle of NAB where he questioned why we would ‘scam’ people into giving us $1000 deposits for a product that could never happen. Scam? This is the first time anyone had ever questioned my integrity. Ever. In hindsight, I wish I would have pulled the trigger. Maybe I'll get the chance one day. Actually... I look forward to it. (furrowed eyes here).”

Later in the post, he again mentions the cinematographer, citing the Boyle-led forum “Cinematography Mailing List.” Wrote Jannard: “I read on CML and other idiotic forums, that I am a hypester, a scam artist. I just have to wonder what these guys are smoking. But I have to say... they have gotten to me. I don't need this. I don't deserve this. Life is short and I am tired. I can only hope that the incredibly stupid posts from people like Geoff Boyle andArt Adams (many other CML posters) do not in any way taint the work we have actually done.”

“It's storm in a teacup,” Boyle told THR. “CML has been around for 17 years now and tests cameras, and film stock when that was relevant, in a simple and repeatable way. The original RAW files are published as well so that people can check the methodology if they disagree.

“This has caused problems over the years and has upset a number of companies from Kodak to Sony,” Boyle continued, adding that Jannard “gets upset and emails me.”

Boyle claimed, "Unlike Reduser, CML does not delete messages. It's easy to go on CML and find any reference to Jim as a scam artist. There are none. We are totally open about this.  Every message ever written on CML is available to look at."

On the 2006 incident cited in Jannard’s post, Boyle responded, “There was a misunderstanding in 2006 which I though was long behind us, [Jannard] was sweetness and light to me at NAB this year. Then he drags it up again. He also dragged [CML member] Art Adams into it in his ‘final’ post on Reduser, Art’s only offense has been to ask questions.

“It will die down,” Boyle concluded.

When Red entered the market with its Red One, then-contenders included the former Thomson Viper, earlier versions of Sony’s cameras, and the former Dalsa 4K. Today Red continues to compete in a  market that now includes 4K cameras (with varying capabilities) from manufacturers including Sony, Canon, and Blackmagic. Also in the mix is Arri, which doesn’t yet offer a 4K camera but has proven with the popularity of its Alexa that cinematographers pay attention to image characteristics in addition to pixel resolution.

Is Wall TV the future?

TVB Europe

http://www.tvbeurope.com/is-wall-tv-the-future/

Within the next five years advances in display technology will make science fiction reality, with screens that are unobtrusive, frameless, ambient and Ultra HD. So claims Cisco, which will be backing up its statement at IBC with an evolved prototype of its Fresco video wall.

Demonstrated in private at IBC2012, the second phase prototype features two, as opposed to one large display in a single room and is also on the show floor this year available for all to see.

“This is a future of video that breaks out of the box in the corner of the room,” said Christelle Gental, 
marketing manager, SP Video. “Fresco demonstrates that television’s future is both collective and personal, and shows a new relationship between large screen and companion devices.

“No one has ever shown such adaptability before,” she claimed. “Our display engine, driven by user input and content metadata, automatically manages the layout of content to meet the needs of the audience, and provides web-based UIs on a range of companion devices, giving a unique combination of the collective and personal.

The prototype uses professional monitors with 5mm bezels, but OLED offers the prospect of a bezel width of near zero.

“Even with today’s widths there is the real option of creating large Ultra HD displays out of tiled arrays of inexpensive screens,” explained Cisco’s Simon Parnall and James Walker in a white paper on the technology. “While still in the research labs, transparent displays which allow the underlying environment to show through are starting to emerge as niche products. These would allow the blending of displays into the room environment.”

The viewer is able to add or remove components or re-arrange the layouts of the dual large displays via a companion device. This opens up a number of intriguing questions about the TV of the future, how it is produced, delivered, presented and interacted with.

Content challenges

“Perhaps most challengingly, we need content producers and designers to understand that their content can and will be presented in many different ways, and a complete control over this presentation is potentially very counter-productive to the viewer’s engagement,” wrote Parnall and Walker.

“Today’s television makes the basic assumption that ‘the display is always filled’ regardless of the size of display, quality of the video, or the impact of an oversized face or object; and it also effectively does only one main thing at a time. With larger, higher resolution displays this implicit behaviour can be challenged. Content need no longer necessarily fill the display, and the display can simultaneously be used for many different components.”

The opportunity theoretically opens up possibilities way beyond the limits of today’s devices through, for example, content comprising multiple visual elements that can be adapted spatially and temporally, “freeing the user from choosing a single element, or the system from having to impose overlays.”

Another opportunity lies in supporting connected applications and services operating in a more streamlined, integrated manner, reflecting and effecting changes in viewer engagement in TV content.

Immersive technology

“Immersion is key to the way that the displays are used and the way that the content is presented on them,” the white paper stated. “Put simply, the more immersed in the content the viewer is, the greater emphasis that is placed on the core video, and the less immersed they are the more emphasis comes to be placed on related content which may then be introduced. This related material could be social media, advertising, programme graphics, additional material, or virtually anything.”

In Fresco, immersion is controlled in two ways: via metadata that indicates the broadcasters expected level of immersion; and also via a control in the companion device that allows the user to modify the immersion as they wish.

“Clearly other mechanisms could also be employed, such as audio or video analysis of the room and the viewers, but the prototype shows that these two simple mechanisms work very effectively.”

The first prototype was built using a single, six-output computer (an AMD Eyefinity graphics card in a powerful PC) with software that was itself built on standard HTML5 technologies (e.g. JavaScript and CSS transitions) in functionality largely contained within a standard browser.

The new architecture is designed to support multiple large-display clients, and Cisco has been exploring how these can be combined for the presentation of a single entertainment experience.

For example, it said, in addition to displaying further content elements, to supporting a ‘watch party’ where the viewer’s couch can be ‘virtually’ extended onto the second display to give an ambient shared viewing experience with remote friends or family.

“We have also explored how the two displays can co-operate to support multiple simultaneous entertainment experiences such as sports matches or soap operas.

It continued: “The tradition of a television picture scaling up to fill the display means that an object is effectively displayed at an unknown size. With this assumption broken, it now seems realistic to allow an object to be displayed at its real size, regardless of the display (as displays report their size through the standard connectors). For instance, in advertising it could be interesting to show just how thin the latest phone really is, just as is possible in print media today.”

By Adrian Pennington

Sony’s 4K proof of concept

TVB Europe

http://legacy.tvbeurope.com/main-content/full/sony-s-4k-proof-of-concept/fr28#.VLw0CaDpBG4

The recent tests by Sony and FIFA of a 4K live production workflow at the Confederations Cup in Brazil has enabled the manufacturer’s live production expert, Norbert Paquet, to claim: “We have made a proof of concept that 4K is operationally and technically feasible.”

With Sony’s Mark Grinyer, Paquet was on hand at the Mineirao Stadium in Belo Horizonte to supervise the 4K shoot of three matches.

“We achieved a full 4K workflow,” said Paquet. “Viewing was only made in private viewing areas, not broadcast, but as far as the experience of watching the output in the truck goes I can say that it was amazing. This was a milestone for us as the first multi-camera production in 4K that was run like an HD production.”

Optical fibre ran raw baseband data from seven Sony F55 cine cameras back to BPU-4000 baseband processors in the Telegenic T25 OB truck. These are 1U rack mount units designed to debayer the RAW data and output four separate HD signals for transport at 3Gbps over Miranda's router. Importantly, the BPU-4000s were connected to 3G HDI CCUs providing power and traditional broadcast camera control functions to the F55 camera head.

“As far as the CCU is concerned it is talking to a standard camera as the processing that is done in the camera head for HD is done in the BPU-4000,” added Paquet. “When the operators rack focus and zoom it's as if they were using a standard broadcast lens. As far as the camera operators were concerned this was a totally traditional workflow using Sony BVME-170 Trimaster 17-inch OLEDs [HD monitors] to colour match with a conventional RCP (remote control panel) and no specific software.

“Whereas with 3D the cameras took a long time to set up and operators needed to relearn how to pan, the technical part of 4K live was ultimately straightforward thanks to the adaptation of the F55.” Although set-up times were quick, he admitted that “it needs engineering work to anticipate how to handle four 3G signals in a truck to ensure everything is routed and synched.”

However, while it may be feasible, there are limitations in the 4K workflow – namely the necessity to route each 4K single around the truck as 4x 1080p 60hz signals. This limits vision mixing capability among other things. The EVS server software at 4K is also not stable, with material recorded on SR1000 decks for post production. Hi-speed 4K cameras were not even tested and the full range of cameras for covering a live soccer match – Steadicams, spidercams, goalcams and other positions – will need upconverting for the time being.

FIFA are likely to greenlight shooting at least some matches at next year's World Cup in 4K glory for posterity, but if there is to be any transmission of an Ultra-HD feed there will need to be sufficient demand for it from broadcasters.

By Adrian Pennington

Grass Valley confronts the physics of 4K

TVB Europe

http://www.tvbeurope.com/grass-valley-confronts-the-physics-of-4k/

Star Trek’s chief engineer Scotty was fond of saying: “Ye cannee change the laws of physics,” but that’s what Grass Valley is intent on doing as it builds a next-generation 4K camera.

The firm’s current production cameras use three 2/3-inch sensors to record HD 1080p, but achieving higher performance means a fundamental redesign, according to Matt Allard, VP of Marketing Operations (pictured).

“We are looking at how to achieve higher resolutions for live broadcast and concluded that there are some physics limitations to doing it using 2/3-inch chip cameras going forward,” he said.

Sony is looking to get around this by not in fact developing a 4K capable camera using the conventional chipset. Instead, as highlighted in our report on the Confederations Cup trial, it is hoping to adapt broadcast lenses to the optics of its 35mm digital cameras.

“The 4K cameras that are out there tend to be single sensor which, if you are doing production one camera at a time, is fine for 4K workflow. But for live multi-camera work these cameras have limitations in focal range and depth of field,” said Allard.

“If we stay with 3x 2/3-inch chip camera and make it 4K then there are lighting issues (getting enough light to the sensor). If we go with bigger sensors we have lens issues, so we are looking at technology to come to a physics compromise. To do 4K some physics needs to change.”

He added: “This is a project in the research phase. We are investigating to see what could work in practice. We need a solution that truly matches requirements.”

Stressing that he is not knocking the advances that Sony has made at the Confederations Cup, Allard argues that all 4K live trials to date have not been true end-to-end workflows.

“4K live tests have been made in very controlled environments where the camera is only trying to do one thing,” he said. “The full range of camera coverage typically available for HD coverage of matches is not yet available. There are some interesting things you can do with 4K in terms of pan and scan or focussing on a particular aspect of a sports event, but it’s not yet a full 4K workflow. Of course, this will become practical over time, but I’m not predicting when and there are other factors, notably the business demand, which play into that.”

Grass Valley also has its eye on second screen and remote production demands from broadcasters, trends that it sees at opposite ends of the scale to high-resolution recording.

“4K will appeal to sports bars or individuals with the space to house a large screen, yet the driving factor in terms of content is on the second screen. For broadcasters the pressing issues are ‘how quickly can I create a different viewer experience on multiple different platforms? What is my second screen presence, my web and mobile presence?’ These are issues at odds with the direction of 4K.”

Grass Valley has previously stated its intent to be format agnostic, reworking technology across its product line toward IT systems that will give its customers the flexibility to work in whatever resolution they desire.

“Unlike other vendors we intend to operate across the live production equipment space. Sony is not necessarily in the server or router space and other vendors who do have that equipment are not marketing cameras or switchers. We don’t see our role as offering customers just one piece of the puzzle. So, we are performing R&D in all those areas, but I’m not going to predict whether you will see the results in 12 or 24 months time.”

Grass Valley’s editing application Edius is 4K capable in its latest version 7, being released at IBC. This is a native 64-bit application that can be powered by third-party Blackmagic Design, Matrox and AJA IO boards and features close integration with Da Vinci colour correction in 4K. The next step, also due next month, will be integrated with its suite of nonlinear production tools, Stratus and K2 servers.

By Adrian Pennington

www.grassvalley.com

Market Readies for Flood of 4K Cameras

The Hollywood Reporter

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/behind-screen/market-readies-flood-4k-cameras-599612

Still, Atomos' CEO asserts: “We know that 90 percent of filmmakers are recording in HD today and will be for the next year or two."

At least 20 new 4K cameras will hit the market between now and NAB 2014, according to Jeromy Young, CEO and founder of production technology developer Atomos. Some can be expected to be announced at IBC next month in Amsterdam.

“By early next year there will be a plethora of 4K cameras at affordable prices,” said Young. “We believe the true catalyst for 4K will come when people are using Sony Handycams and DSLRs from Nikon and Canon in 4K on a regular basis.”

The Australian vendor, maker of HD-SDI hard disk recorders like Samurai, has advance warning of release dates for the cameras in order to develop products that link with them. He did not reveal further details of plans, which are under NDA.

“Companies like Blackmagic Design have offered the earth at no cost, and it has forced other manufacturers to take note,” said Young. “I believe you will see far more activity from the more mainstream manufacturers that will blow those kind of solutions out of the water.”

That might include Sony, which previewed a prototype set of cameras last spring at NAB that seemed intended to marry high-end motion picture requirements with the design of a handheld DSLR.

“Fundamentally the market is changing from a product design standpoint,” Olivier Bovis, Sony's head of AV Media, said last spring at NAB. “From new DSLR products to cameras from GoPro, everything is up for grabs in terms of how customers want to use them.”

Despite the 4K buzz, Young expects HD to dominate for a good while yet. “We believe 4K is a niche area. We know that 90 percent of filmmakers are recording in HD today and will be for the next year or two.”

With Samuari, users can take compressed HD versions of 4K files along with all file naming, timecode and metadata tagging straight from Sony, Red and Canon cameras into editing and color correction packages for editorial before conforming with the higher resolution originals.

Atomos does not yet market a product that can record RAW 4K. “We have as much reservation about moving to 4K as people have about buying Ultra HD (4K) TVs," said Young. "Once the new raft of 4K cameras are in play we will develop system for the 4K market in a very big way.”

University makes strides in HDR development

Broadcast

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils/university-makes-strides-in-hdr-development/5058854.article?blocktitle=LATEST-TECHNOLOGY-NEWS&contentID=1151%C2%A0…

IBC 2013: Researchers at Warwick University claim to have made a significant step in High Dynamic Range (HDR) by developing a £325,000 camera system comprising two DSLRs.

HDR is the technique of capturing a far wider range of colour and lighting detail than is possible with existing camera technology.

Development in this area has been limited because of the extreme amount of data required for processing.

A single uncompressed HDR frame requires 24Mbs, which results in 42Gb for a minute of footage at HD 30fps, compared with just 10Gb for a minute of normal HD footage.

Warwick University’s GoHDR research group said it has devised the first complete low-cost HDR video solution including camera, encoder and viewing software.

It recorded a recent Florida space rocket launch in 20 f-stops and 30 frames per second.

The results of the test, and a full post processing and display pipeline, are on show at IBC’s R&D section Future Zone.

CTV orders 4K-ready truck for England cricket on Sky

Broadcast

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils/ctv-orders-4k-ready-truck-for-england-cricket-on-sky/5058856.article

CTV has ordered a 4K-ready outside broadcast vehicle to cover England’s home cricket internationals for Sky Sports.

The truck, which is planned to launch around May 2014, would be the UK’s second multi-camera 4K unit following Telegenic’s launch of T25 in June.

CTV international director Barry Johnstone said specifications would be nailed down post-IBC, when more is known about the types of cameras needed to shoot 4K live.

“We are working with Sony and Sky for the truck to come on stream in the second quarter of next year, but we have to make sure that what we put on board will stand the test of time,” he said.

The truck will be used to fulfil CTV’s ongoing contract for Sky Sports’ cricket, but it would be premature to infer that BSkyB is timing a 4K (Ultra-HD) channel launch for mid-2014.

Live Ultra-HD jobs are virtually non-existent at present and the production technology to achieve them is patchy, but OB suppliers have to invest ahead of the market.

All the main suppliers are testing kit for developers Sony and Grass Valley.

SIS LIVE sales director Simon Bowler said: “There will be a major push into Ultra-HD, but we’re not there yet.

“Broadcasters must make a significant commitment to make that happen. Ultra-HD will definitely feature in the next trucks we build.”

OB supplier Arena, meanwhile, is not committing to the format for at least six months.

“We will review that position as we believe there is work for a medium-sized truck to be added to our fleet,” said managing director Richard Yeowart.

Sony claims to have proof of concept that 4K is operationally and technically feasible following tests at the Confederations Cup in Brazil last month.