All posts by Like Tangents In The Rain

Consultants

3D Event Consultants Dream…and Nightmare

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It all came together. That’s the good news. And the data gathered told some stories.

The first is that there are some oxen that might get gored…evidenced by how some people’s opinions stood markedly aligned with the equipment capabilities of their respective (and respected) companies.   

The second story is that the future doesn’t have to frighten those early projector-buying pioneers (who have enough arrows in their backs). In the case of mastering, so this author dares to say he heard almost unanimously, higher luminance is better – and up to ‘some’ level (this is where the variance of opinion took place) there was benefit to the playback regardless of the capabilities of the projector.

But those pieces of data is not what this piece is about. This piece means to tell the story of a half-dozen people pulled together a stunt that couldn’t have been done by many others, which attracted hundreds of people, and which was done for free.

The topic was brought up at a general meeting in January. A few comments were made that it sounded like a good idea, and the chairman took that as enough backing to assemble a team of volunteers…meaning really, 3 or 4 people…and a date…meaning really, 8-10 weeks. Then made shorter to fit it in before ShoWest. 

As the Chairman, Jerry Pierce, put it, “Dolor dapibus Phasellus id Aenean rhoncus Maecenas Nunc pellentesque In convallis. Porttitor fringilla sed natoque Aliquam wisi Sed tempus pretium pretium Pellentesque. Sed congue at magna nunc sociis gravida Donec elit accumsan nonummy. Lacinia mauris nunc malesuada sed laoreet elit ipsum malesuada Aenean nunc. Commodo mus nibh ac congue Aliquam orci Donec semper ipsum elit. Mattis lacus.”

Mattis lacus, indeed. 

“Pellentesque pede tincidunt tellus lorem ultrices enim”, quiped an engish engineer who has done these types of things before for the BBC and others. “Tristique tincidunt sem pretium. Mollis euismod lacinia et Curabitur orci pellentesque eget Vestibulum Duis penatibus.

It is possible that Kevin Wines knew what he was getting into, even if unpaid. “Vestibulum Donec id congue fames auctor interdum mauris auctor tellus cursus. Odio interdum Aenean interdum egestas vitae pellentesque dictum diam nec feugiat, et Modern Video est risus dui consequat commodo nibh Donec at risus condimentum Quisque.

That’s pretty consistent with Modern Video’s reputation. They did a lot of favors and did them well. One wonders if there will be an article written about volunteers like Marvin Hall and Mark Smirnoff from MVF.  

David Reisner, another of the unpaid and the keeper of the documentation and meeting notes laffed; “Rutrum tincidunt tincidunt porttitor ridiculus Vestibulum et semper vitae Vestibulum urna.”

A lot of manufacturers chipped in as well. Often they have as much to lose as to gain from an effort like this. But this is a note about the unpaid, people like Harry Mathias and Walt Orway who stood ready to act given any circumstance…and like all the others above, paying for travel and hotels and dinners away, and phone calls and hours of meetings…they made it happen and happen well. And it wasn’t the first time for any of them.

DI

The Hugh Heinsohn Report

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Net Insight: South Hall, Upper Level, Stand SU1000. Net Insight has built its reputation around the world by developing and deploying systems that enable broadcasters, production companies, post-production houses, cable systems, and IPTV services to deliver perfect pictures and sound over telecommunications networks. Net Insight’s platform supports both IP and SONET networks and provides 100% guaranteed Quality of Service with extremely high (98+%!) bandwidth utilization. They are introducing a new set of high capacity IP modules for their Nimbra platform this year that let broadcasters transport 1080p video (and any format using less bandwidth) over IP networks. 

 

Edgeware: Central Hall, Stand C1657. Edgeware makes a really interesting flash memory-based VOD server for enterprise IT, IPTV and cable applications. They’ll be showing a revolutionary new server that dramatically reduces co-location, power and rack space costs for CDNs and service providers by as much as 90% when compared to nearest competition. The Edgeware servers are truly unique and they are rapidly gaining acceptance throughout the world in major deployments. 

 

Image Systems: South Hall, Lower Level, Stand SL7713. Image Systems will be exhibiting in the Photo-Sonics stand. They have a really interesting new 2K/4K film scanner called the GoldenEye. It’s small, economical and handles 16mm and 35mm film. The scanner uses a capstan-based movement, which results in less wear of the film and perforations and allows the scanner to handle archive film that may have shrunk or have damaged perforations.

 

Cobalt Digital: North Hall, Stand N3718. Cobalt makes an excellent line of conversion products. Their new line of OpenGear products are compatible with OpenGear frames and modules from other manufacturers. Cobalt produces some of the highest quality equipment on the show floor – stuff you can really count on. They have an incredibly comprehensive line, including UDC conversion, color correction, frame sync, audio embedding/de-embedding, audio delay, Dolby® decoding, and remote control panel operation.


Hugh R Heinsohn is founder of Hughcan.com LLC, a broadcast-centric, entertainment technologies marketing/implementation and consulting group. Hugh says that he can be followed on Twitter, which is something my mother warned me about…but which a lot of people swear by: Follow me on Twitter


+1 503 360 4844    [email protected]    www.hughcan.com

 

In the News

Senate Legislation Would Federalize Cybersecurity

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[Editor] Not discounting privacy and other issues, let’s remember that all DCinema systems are private networks, by any definition…and most are or will be connected to the internet via satellite or optical fibre, or the private phone line modem.

Second, if anyone is following the conversations about the hopes of DCinema and ADA compliance for HI and VI captioning and who might wonder if the government will get involved…perhaps this article will seem interesting…and again, notwithstanding the merits of the idea that there should be standards and they should be monitored. 

Returning to the article…

Currently, government responsibility for cybersecurity is split: The Pentagon and the National Security Agency safeguard military networks, while the Department of Homeland Security provides assistance to private networks. Previous cybersecurity initiatives have largely concentrated on reducing the vulnerability of government and military computers to hackers.

A 60-day federal review of the nation’s defenses against computer-based attacks is underway, and the administration has signaled its intention to incorporate private industry into those defenses in an unprecedented way.

Read the entire article at: <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/31/AR2009033103684.html>

“People say this is a military or intelligence concern, but it’s a lot more than that,” Rockefeller, a former intelligence committee chairman, said in an interview. …

U.S. intelligence officials have warned that a sustained attack on private computer networks …

The Rockefeller-Snowe measure would create the Office of the National Cybersecurity Adviser,…

The proposal would also mandate an ongoing, quadrennial review of the nation’s cyberdefenses….

Last week, Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair told reporters that one agency should oversee …

“The taxpayers of this country have spent enormous sums developing a world-class capability…

Blair acknowledged there will be privacy concerns about centralizing cybersecurity, …

Newsources and Blogs

3D? Opera? Celluloid Junkie calls the Tune

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I wish that people would respond to their articles more, especially the ones that are single issue and filled with their opinions. People get in trouble for having opinions, so when someone is brave enough to put one out there, they should be supported </end opinion>

They recently seem…

It seems that recently they are summing up daily news in the exhibition field in one long report. We’ll see how this works.

Whatever, check them out. They are an asset. We’ll try to highlight the critical writings on our site to give you a heads up.

CelluloidJunkie – A critical link

Tangential Art and Science

Wind Basics

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In the case of the wind turbine we use the energy from braking the wind, and if we double the wind speed, we get twice as many slices of wind moving through the rotor every second, and each of those slices contains four times as much energy, as we learned from the example of braking a car.

The graph shows that at a wind speed of 8 metres per second we get a power (amount of energy per second) of 314 Watts per square metre exposed to the wind (the wind is coming from a direction perpendicular to the swept rotor area).

At 16 m/s we get eight times as much power, i.e. 2509 W/m 2 . The table in the Reference Manual section gives you the power per square metre exposed to the wind for different wind speeds. 

 

It goes on from here of course. We’ll close with the Table of Contents:

Guided tour

 

 

 

Wind

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whence wind?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Coriolis force

 

 

 

 

 

 

Global winds

 

 

 

 

 

 

Geostrophic wind

 

 

 

 

 

 

Local winds

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mountain winds

 

 

 

 

 

 

Energy in the wind

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wind deflection

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wind speeds & energy

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anemometers

 

 

 

 

 

 

Measurement in practice

 

 

 

 

 

 

The wind rose

 

 

 

 

 

 

Draw a wind rose

 

 

 

Turbine siting

 

  

 

Energy output

 

 

 

How does it work?

 

  

 

Generators

 

 

 

Turbine design

 

 

 

Manufacturing

 

 

 

R & D

 

    

Electrical grid

 

  

 

Environment
     

Economics

 

  

 

History of wind energy
     

Wind energy manual

 
Community FAQs

ASC – American Society of Cinematographers

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Since we are studying within the realm of technology, we will begin by researching the first moviemaking group who perform their magic using technology. This group was the first group who constantly and consistently asserted the concept that quality must be a primary issue in the transition to Digital Cinema. This group is known as The ASC—The American Society of Cinematographers. 

There was a lot of early excitement for dcinema, which culminated in the showing Episode II of StarWars, the first release with a big push to get many screens showing the movie. As exciting as it all was, the ASC was making certain that everyone had their eye on the future. Their belief was that the current level of technology hadn’t even reached the “good enough” stage. They kept pushing their contacts at the studios to insist that the standards would be set higher.

 

And they were right. The projectors at the time could barely light up a medium sized screen. And people in row 10 could see a jaggedly formed circle instead of a smooth path.

 

Go to the ASC website here: http://www.theasc.com/

 

Notice the tone of the site, who they are talking to, how education has a primary position in many the things they do. Read the first 3 paragraphs of The History of the ASC. Notice, in particular, the purpose in the 3rd paragraph. Now read the last paragraph.

 

Go to the website of the article named The Color Space Conundrum–Part One: Seeking Standards. You don’t have to read this article now, but we want to download it. So, the first thing to do is create a folder of your own on your computer, then create a folder inside that named DCinema Articles. Inside that folder, create a folder named ASC. Save this page of the article in that folder. 

 

There is a quote in this article that should be pointed out: “Video engineers, who are not cinematographers, “assist” the images in getting from point A to point B. However, a video engineer is a middleman who is human and therefore subjective. This fact led Arthur Miller, ASC (see image) to pen the following diatribe for the May 1952 issue of AC: “Much of the poor quality of video films as observed on home receivers is due to faulty electronic systems of the telecaster, to poor judgment of the engineer handling the monitor controls in the station, or both…. In short, much of the trouble still exists because of the lack of standardization in the television industry. Perhaps the strongest point here is the fact that a new factor enters into the telecasting of motion pictures: the privilege vested in the network’s engineering staff to control contrast and shading as TV films are being broadcast.””

 

You now hold the same responsible position as the engineers who Arthur Miller was deriding in 1952. The point of the training course is: Don’t get into the position that this will ever be said about you or your compatriots in the projection booth. Remember that you are entrusted with the material begun by the people with the ASC designation as the credits of a movie go by name.

 
This is the first section of the first course of the DCinemaCompliance Projectionists Course  
Tangential Art and Science

World Finance Affects Us All

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This week we look at the Land of the Rising Sun. Japan is going through major upheavals, and they will have consequences all over the world. And what are those wild and crazy Swiss central bankers up to? It’s time for another round of competitive devaluation. And of course I have to look at the recent Barron’s cover story, about how stocks are cheap. There’s a lot to cover.

Where Have My Earnings Gone?

Barron’s probably jinxed the stock market by stating why they think the Dow won’t fall to 5000, although we do have what I hope is the start of a nice bear market rally. Part of their reasoning is that stocks are cheap. They assign a price to earnings (P/E) ratio of a lowly 13, based upon 2009 estimated earnings of $51 in operating profits, which they suggest is historically low. And I agree that 13 is toward the low end and would represent a good long-term buying opportunity – if indeed it was 13.

Actually, if you want to get really bullish, go to S&P’s web site and look at their estimated earnings for 2009. They calculate a P/E of 10.89 on 2009 estimated operating earnings.

As I have written over the years, the long-term P/E studies all use “as-reported” earnings, or earnings that are reported on tax returns. Operating earnings are of the EBBS variety, or Earnings Before Bad Stuff (or whatever you want to designate as the BS component). Companies like to tell us to ignore all those “one-time” writedowns, which seem to happen a lot more than once these days.

Click the link for the balance of The Swiss Start Their Engines.

Video Processing

Avid Delivers Native RED Support

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In addition to handling native R3D footage, Avid DS customers will now be able to create HD RGB 4:4:4 proxies from high-resolution RED source material, which will provide real-time program monitoring and result in faster system response time – enabling artists to stay focused on the creative editorial aspects of a project.

Avid will also offer native RED support for the offline editing process via MetaFuze®, a tool that automates the conversion of formats such as RED and DPX to Avid DNxHD® media for HD offline workflows in Avid Media Composer® and HD finishing in Symphony™ systems. As a result, customers are able to take advantage of the Avid Advanced Conform workflow for RED and seamlessly move their projects from offline to online.

“We are very excited about the new Avid and RED integration,” said Ted Schilowitz of RED Digital Cinema.  “The ability to use the MetaFuze tool to turn RED files into true native MXF files at the various offline and online resolutions is a very powerful step that will enable a more streamlined workflow for the many RED projects around the world that are cutting on Avid.  The DS integration of RED files for online color grading and finishing is another important development on making offline to online very cost-effective. Fewer workflow steps and tape layoffs for finishing with RED files is the most effective and efficient way to deliver projects.”

Kirk Arnold, EVP and GM of Customer Operations at Avid said, “We strive to make the technology seamless for customers to allow them to keep focused on unleashing the creative talents that continue to entertain millions. We also understand that our customers want freedom and flexibility to work with whichever format they choose, and our effort to offer native RED support is the latest example of how we continue to evolve our solutions and meet customers’ needs.”

Native support for R3D files is available in Avid DS. version 10.1.1. For customers looking to upgrade, visit the Avid download center.  

 

For more information, like legal disclosures, go to the original story at the Avid website

Video Processing

3D Workflow for Final Cut Pro – CineForm

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CineForm Neo3D Enables Editors to Cut 3D Content on the FCP Timeline, Viewing Edits in Full 3D with Full Frame Rate Playback in Real Time

Solana Beach, CA, April 7, 2009 – CineForm®, Inc. (www.cineform.com), creators of high-fidelity compression-based workflow solutions for the post production marketplace, today announced it will unveil the industry’s first 3D editorial workflow solution for Apple Final Cut Pro users this month in its booth (#SL11605) at NAB 2009 in Las Vegas, NV. 

CineForm’s Neo3D™, a significant development in 3D post production workflows, enables Final Cut Pro users to edit 3D projects in real time with full frame rate playback to an external 3D monitor. Traditionally, 3D projects are edited in 2D as independent Left and Right eyes, with a final 3D conform after the entire editorial process is complete.  CineForm Neo3D simplifies this costly, time-intensive process by enabling the editorial team to experience the 3D story-telling process by viewing in full 3D while editing.  This technique allows many projects to eliminate 3D conform entirely and print directly from the Final Cut Pro timeline to electronic 3D distribution or projection files.

“Driven by increasing numbers of 3D film projects planned by Hollywood studios, the demand for efficient 3D post workflows has increased significantly in the last two years,” said David Taylor, CEO of CineForm, Inc.  “But using existing 2D editorial workflows for 3D projects increases overall costs due to feature inefficiencies. With Neo3D we’ve extended CineForm’s workflow innovations to 3D by enabling editors to view their work, including independent adjustments for color and convergence, in 3D while they’re editing.  This significantly reduces overall project complexity and costs.  We’re excited to demonstrate Neo3D in action in our booth at NAB 2009.”

Neo3D: How Does it Work?

Read the entire release: CineForm

Interesting, But Outside

Affleck Avid Congo Crisis – “Gimme Shelter”

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The technology allowed Affleck to view and edit footage in a hotel room each night after shooting the film in November in the North Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The short film chronicles the suffering of the Congolese people who’ve been forced to flee their homes. It was released in December to help the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees raise $23 million for clean water and emergency assistance kits for the war- torn region.

Affleck said he was able to cut just-shot digital photography in a place where the “infrastructure was as broken down as any place in the world” using equipment as simple as a handheld camera and laptop. The footage was then sent to his editor in Los Angeles.

For more: NAB365

Interesting, But Outside

SGI Sells Itself to Rackable

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“We have been working very hard to strengthen our company, and today, we’ve taken another big step in that direction,” SGI CEO Robert Ewald said in a statement that would make even the most exuberant of SGI-optimists wince. “This transaction represents a compelling opportunity for Silicon Graphics’ customers, partners and employees, who can all benefit from the emerging stronger company with better technologies, products and markets [sic] reach.”

For more, read: All Things Digital 

Connectivity

The Ultimate Guide to Maya

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The easy to navigate interface of the DVD makes learning easy as you can skip directly to a project and get your hands dirty playing in Maya. Need a little more instruction on Maya, watch Paul work through a workflow tutorial to build your foundation before tackling a project. the choice is yours, learn at your pace!

Throughout the course of this 2 DVD set, you will learn:

    * Organization of the Maya interface

    * Essentials and workflow’s within Maya

    * Workflow for modeling NURBS surfaces

    * Workflow for modeling polygonal surfaces

    * Workflow for modeling subdivision surfaces

    * Shading and texturing techniques

    * Lighting tools and methods

    * Rendering settings and techniques

    * Basic workflow’s and tools for animation.

For more information, see the Paul Conner site

Paul Conner has been creating content in graphics and computer animation for over sixteen years. He is currently a Certified Maya Instructor, and founder of the Digital Animation Center at the University of Colorado.

Some of Paul’s clients include: The Museum of Nature and Science, Warner Brothers, The WB Network, The Discovery Channel, PAX-TV, Starz/Encore, 3D Magazine, Anheiser Busch, NBC, IMAX, Sire Records and Reader’s Digest. 

Connectivity

Bright ~ 1080p ~ HDMI ~ Signage with BrightSign

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Sample image

 

o Simple Networking – automatically download content from a folder on a web server, locally or over the Internet.

o Managed Networking – With your own server or using a Brightsign Network Manager account with SSL support, you can organize, manage and update content and software remotely and securely. Units can be grouped together, creating and scheduling presentations to be deployed.

o RSS & Time – Supports playback of RSS feeds, and updating time via the Internet.

o Network Control – Send/Receive commands via UDP

• Zones & Widgets for specialized concepts. You divide your screen into multiple, distinct content zones to playback videos, images, text and RSS feeds. Each zone has its own distinct playlist, and the layout and number of zones are configurable.

o Also allows control of background color, background image, font, text color and supports PowerPoint style transitions effects between images.

• 1080p with HDMI connections.

• Some units specialized for kiosk use, some for presentation.

Check them at: www.brightsign.biz

Connectivity

Gefen Showcases New A/V Cinema Scaler Pro Solutions

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Gefen Showcases New A/V Cinema Scaler Pro Solutions for Integrating Pre-Show Advertising and Alternative Content in Digital Cinema Installations

Amsterdam, Netherlands – Gefen’s new A/V Cinema Scaler Pro I and II provide two plug and play solutions for theatre operators seeking to expand their offerings. By integrating pre-show advertising and connecting satellite television, computer, video camera and gaming systems to the digital cinema projector, operators can rent the theatre for personal parties, important broadcast events and business meetings to build revenue.

Both the A/V Cinema Scaler Pro I and II come in a rack mounted enclosure that supplies several inputs for today’s most popular audio/video formats. Each one offers robust scaling capabilities and format conversion. High definition video is output in the DVI format with accompanying audio that can be delivered as 7.1 DB25 or channeled through the theatre’s surround sound audio system.

A/V Cinema Scaler Pro I

The A/V Cinema Scaler Pro I with Analog DB25 Audio accepts up to six audio/video sources, providing two component video , one VGA , two DVI and one HDMI inputs. Audio is input in the HDMI format, in digital S/PDIF and TOSlink or analog L/R format. Audio can also be input and output as analog AES DB25 at up to 7.1 channels. The selected video is converted, if necessary, and output as high definition digital video in the DVI format, supporting resolutions to 2048 (2k). The on-screen and front panel LED displays guide users through all scaling features while the IR remote offers easy control. An RS-232 port is also provided. HDCP compliance is supported on the HDMI input.

A/V Cinema Scaler Pro II

The A/V Cinema Scaler Pro II with Analog and Digital DB25 Audio also allows the connection of six audio/video sources, outputting each selected source in the DVI format with 7.1 channels of analog DB25 audio. This unit also supports an additional digital audio input in DB25. With active analog and digital DB25 balanced audio outputs at up to 7.1 channels, the Pro II model offers a more enhanced audio option for theatres working with DB25.