It’s not just production any more. Over the years NAB has also become the premiere event in the postproduction industry. Here’s what’s going on this year in Las Vegas.Autodesk is launching several new products at the show, including a Linux version of its Discreet Inferno visual effects system, as well as 10-bit SD and HD versions of the Discreet Flint visual effects system and the Discreet Smoke editing/finishing system.The company is also previewing an upcoming product for Discreet Lustre—an ergonomically designed control panel for the its flagship digital color grading system. In addition, Autodesk will be showing the first technology demos of interoperability between Maya and Toxik since acquiring Alias last year.With a string of major orders for Pablo, eQ and iQ systems in recent months, Quantel is taking a significantly bigger booth this year.Pablo, the company’s next-generation color-correction system, is being demoed in a dedicated viewing theatre in the Quantel booth to show off its real-time 4K operation as well as Quantel’s new TimeMagic technology.The company will also be showing its new iQ4, built for real-time 4K digital intermediates. Also on display for the first time will be a new version of Pablo running on eQ, which brings the efficiency of the DI workflow to commercial postproduction houses.da Vinci is expanding its Resolve digital mastering suite product line with three distinct hardware configurations. The Resolve FX, Resolve DI, and Resolve RT systems are each designed to address specific postproduction applications with varying resource demands.The entry-level system, Resolve FX, equipped with a single PowerPlant image processing board, is for processing and matching short clips in a less demanding digital intermediate workflow. With two PowerPlants, Resolve DI is designed for a higher-volume throughput. Resolve RT is the top-of-the-line system, optimized for studios requiring high-volume throughput.The company is also demonstrating an improved toolset in version 4.0 of its 2K Plus, including the new ColorTrace option that enables colorists to update CDLs (color decision lists) automatically to match any editorial changes made to the program material, saving hours of manual copying and list manipulation.Adobe is showing its new Adobe Production Studio (launched in January). The Adobe Production Studio Premium includes Adobe After Effects 7.0, Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0, Adobe Audition 2.0 and Adobe Encore 2.0, in addition to Photoshop CS2 and Illustrator CS2.MTI Film is unveiling the new 2K version of its Control Dailies system—an image and audio control environment that accelerates the delivery of motion picture dailies, facilitating faster than real-time image transfer and audio ingest, complete metadata collection, post synchronization in SD and HD resolutions, and output to various deliverables.Control Dailies 2K will feature Control Color, a fully integrated primary color corrector with built-in still-store co-developed with Silicon Color, creator of Final Touch. The company will also unveil version 5.0 of its Correct DRS image restoration software, with several new tools as well as many enhancements to the current toolset.IRIDAS is introducing two new versions of its SpeedGrade color grading system: SpeedGrade HD, for HD color grading and conforming, and SpeedGrade OnSet Professional Edition, an enhanced version of the company’s look creation application for cinematographers.In addition, the company is introducing FrameCycler DI, a new application for conform, review, and remote collaboration, which features a new CollaboSync function that allows users to connect multiple FrameCycler DI systems for synchronized review sessions from remote locations.The Pixel Farm is demoing version 2.0 of its recently launched image clean-up and preparation application, PFClean. The system’s ability to automatically pre-process and clean up images of any resolution saves time in film postproduction when it comes to dust busting and rig/wire removal. It features an extensive paint, grain and effects toolset.NAB will also see the first public showing of PFTrack 3.5, which features a brand new solver that allows shots to be broken down into different motion types and solved in a single pass.The Foundry is introducing its new Furnace 3 for Shake, featuring new plug-ins for the suite of image processing tools, designed to automate many of the time-consuming processes in the creation of digital VFX. The company is also debuting its Forge system, a new standalone dirt removal application.Digital Vision is premiering its DVNR 2K system, which provides full-aperture 2K RGB processing at 15 fps over HSDL links, as well as real-time processing in the video domain. The system supports Digital Vision’s film grain and electronic noise reducer, the company’s automated film dirt, dust and random scratch concealment system, and its adaptable aperture corrector. As well, Digital Vision is showcasing its DVO software tools—a suite of resolution-independent image processing tools, including DVO Grain, DVO Dust and DVO Aperture.The company is also unveiling a new generation of 9-processor and 17-processor Nucoda workstations that deliver an increase in speed and throughput for data-centric color correction and image processing.SpectSoft is introducing RaveHD2.0, a Linux-based uncompressed DDR that aims to replace VTRs. The new version offers features that include reverse audio, slave record, deck standby, and 2K HSDL support. In addition, the existing code base has been overhauled to make RaveHD a client/server product, allowing studios to control many DDRs from a single interface. RaveHD supports uncompressed SD, HD, Dual Link HD (4:4:4) and 2K (HSDL) as well as hardware accelerated upconverting and downconverting.
Written by Scott Lehane
