TOIA's NAB... DAY 1 - The Stand outs.

[Mark Toia]

For me NAB is a once every 2 or 3 year thing.... other wise it's same old, same old...
But this year is exceptional. So many new cameras and new fast post options... The launch of the REDONE Myth 5 years ago was the last great year.

I have to say, HD offically died this NAB. Saying HD here is like saying PAL or NTSC. 4k is here. and rocking! If you where showing off a HD camera today. (other than a GO PRO) your booth was dead.

The secret of getting through NAB successfully is to walk slow, breath slow... and take in everything as best as you can.
Because its such a mental over load for about the first 2 hours. You forget what you just looked at 5 minutes earlier and then end up back tracking to see what you just missed. Crazy crazy huge joint. Packed and pushy people racing from one booth to another like they forget there is 4 days to do it all in. FRIDAY is usually the best day.
Cool sales, special deals... half empty halls.
It quite literally takes 4 days to see all booths in all 4 1/2 halls including outside broadcast.
I covered 1.5 of the 4 halls today... Must have walked 6 miles +. my feet are aching !!!

So anyway....

The stand outs at the show so far.

Lets start with RED. (that I actually saw with my own eyes)

1. OLED BOMB EVF! Shockingly good. 5 stars *****

2. The small adapter that gives you another monitor running... (would be cool if it had a couple AUDIO plugs though) hint hint....

3. RED WIFI... hiding away in glass box shooting the back of TEDs head during interviews... Small twin aerial module on the back of the EPIC... Slightly bigger than a RED MOTE shooting full HD to a small wireless box plugged into a HD monitor across the room... SWEET!!!!

4. The 3d RED LAZAR projector... chatting with Jim today, I don't think he was very happy as the 4k mode was not ready for the show, but will be on Wednesday.. So I will be heading back to the theatre for a look at that.
Becuase I tell you this... the 2k play-out from the projector in 3d was more than impressive. Seeing pin sharp 4k play out in 3D will be simply AMAZING! GRAINLESS BLACKS!!!! (im not a 3d fan, hate it in fact) but 4K -3D might swing me

5. RCX you can now watch through a video card onto an extra monitor. (but I could do that anyway with a powered DVI amp splitter... RCX also has a quick viewer now. Much needed.

There were lots of other announcements like 6k dragon etc... But these were the stand outs for me that I could actually see and touch.
Also Jim was a real gentleman. Thanks for the VIP treatment Jim, Very nice of you...

Other things...

Shoulder mounts... I'm going to give it to WOODEN CAMERA. for simplicity, balance and price. Booth so small, I walked past it 4 times...

LEICA LENSES win the best ever lens award. Kills everything.... But not the price, FUCK ME! They are dreaming!

Black Magics new Camera is a TOY... but fun none the less. Would never be able to be used in any of my jobs, only because of its design. but still for $3000... its the best 4k Handy cam out there. Looks like alot of fun. The IPAD brigade will love it.

NEW POST WORK FLOWS :
This is the big one for me as Im on a mission to find the best LAPTOP work flow going. Since I travel the world constantly, shooting very large projects.... I'm becoming hugely dependant on a LAPTOP as my main computer..
My big machines at home are super quick and can smash R3Ds... but Laptops are becoming the force I need to work towards due to my global travel.

I sat at AUTO DESK for an hour or so today and will again tomorrow for some private lessons... Because AUTO DESK has just releases a $3500 Smoke suite. With amazing editing capabilities. Everyone with a FLAME and a older SMOKE must be angry as hell about now... because there 50K - 200K upwards investments in SMOKE and FLAME just went down the toilet. Good for people like me... not good for heavy geared post houses. A disaster in fact.

Cutting to the facts. AWESOME KEYER! ... but only really a 2k BOX if you want to work quicker. Can do 4k but clunky as hell. Render... render render... Even the demo guy was embarrassed. I did push it around a bit myself, I really needed to see how it preformed with RAW R3D's... editing, posting... I wanted to stay in RAW as long as I could... bottom line.. FAIL!!! to slow. Transcodeing in the BG all the time.. Had to go to HD PRO RES or HD DPX to get any form of speed out of it..
I want to push it again tomorrow and I'll give my final opinion. Still a great machine, but they seriosly need to fix the speed of it.

SHOW Stand out! CS6. Giant killer !!!! .. Even the Auto desk guys kept saying to me today that there suites can't match the speed of the the new CS6. (whispered to me of course) but they are right to be scared.

NEW CS6 PREMIER. I was the very last person on earth to even think of going to PREMIER. Im a AVID then FCP fan... thats it. Premier was just a render heavy slow arse toy... The latest FCPX... well.... Need I say anymore, but that just died for me today. FCP 7 dies for me today.. AVID.. well.. Avids AVid.. it's quite simple a great edit tool, but falling behind again with no sign of catching up. They are living off there name from now on in...

Premier can edit R3D's in half res.. (thats 2.5k) real time on a laptop. Editing is fast! Really fast! no need for transcoding before editing... Just drag drop and edit. DONE!!! So my cries for a 4k PRORED Module... just died.. I can now say that I will edit and post in RAW.... So the 4k PRORES Module... Dead... Dont need it. RED can stop making it now... Complete waste of time.

Premier has warp stabilisers in it, 3D trackers! You name it... its got it. But the secret to its success if you ask me is the Mercury playback engine... Absolute genius!

After effects... Just grew big boy Balls... To many upgrades to many to mention.. Better masking tools is one thing, 3d tracker is another... I run nuke myself and work in FLAME alot... It kills nuke for speed x 10...
This thing will now perform at FLAME levels. (but the auto desk keyer is better, Much better)

The thing that caught me by surprise was... SPEED GRADE!!! direct from Premier... Direct from the R3D's.... In a laptop... 4k grading. Yes you have to render at the end. but who doesnt...
I use Resolve and sit in baselight suites alot... I'm going to say that this is easier to use than those two.. but Base-light is better. It's almost as good as resolve and knowing ADOBE... it will better over time or a least as good. It's close already.
The ADOBE demo guy for SPEED GRADE was completely useless.. but the program still managed to impress me none the less... I'm going bak again and see if there is a pro there to show us.
Put it this way... I doubt I'll use my Resolve ever again once I have this new ADOBE suite loaded into my towers and laptop.

ADOBE wins the POST AWARDS for me for the first time ever (as best allrounder).... Very impressed. Didnt see it coming... I congratulate them.

Thats it for day 1...

There has been a shit load of people emailing and PM ing me asking me about what I thought about certain things at NAB... this is the only reason for this post.

Have a great day. Good night.

PS.. Got a F65 on my shoulder today. Fricking wide and huge... great pics though.

 

[noah newtown]

hehe yes our 600.000$ Flame HD and 200.000$ Avid Mediacomposer is out of date...but i see it with a smile we dont have to pay all 2-3 years 90.000 for updates

 

[stu aull]

cheers Mark -appreciate the Eyes-on-the-Ground! opinions make it more fun too.
Happily read more if you will post!!!

Stu Aull
Alaska

 

[Nook Kim]

Thanks for your generosity. Wish I was there. What a fun show.

Enjoy the rest of the days!

 

[Felipe Leite]

Toia, thanks for this! Premiere, here we go!

 

[Petri Teittinen]

Black Magics new Camera is a TOY... but fun none the less. Would never be able to be used in any of my jobs, only because of its design. but still for $3000... its the best 4k Handy cam out there. Looks like alot of fun. The IPAD brigade will love it.

It's 2.5K oversampling to Full HD, not 4K.

 

[Paul J Steinberg]

If you're looking for mobile computing power maybe take a look at the Nextcomputing folks. They have a Radius EX chassis that is the width of a 17" notebook with a built in monitor. You can run i7 or Xeon CPU's, Red Rocket, internal RAID whatever. Worth a look?

 

[Gary Paul Walker]

Im really looking forward to CS6! Nice to hear that its speed is as fast as people have claimed!
Has there been any talk of pricing? (ie, upgrading from 5.5?)

 

[Ivan Kovax]

Mate,

Thankyou so much for this report... I almost feel like I am there

A pity I couldn't go this year, but I will try to get there the year 4K dies

Ivan

 

[Scott Brown]

Thanks Mark

I appreciate you taking the time and effort to write up your post on day 1.

I couldn't make it to NAB but reading your post was the next best thing :smiley:

Time to get set now for day 2!!!!!

Best wishes

Scott

 

[Christopher Barrett]

Thanks Mark

I appreciate you taking the time and effort to write up your post on day 1.

I couldn't make it to NAB but reading your post was the next best thing :smiley:

Time to get set now for day 2!!!!!

Best wishes

Scott

Ditto! Thanks for posting. Regretfully I'm just too damn swamped to get away and green with envy. It's a helluva NAB year.

 

[luigivaltulini]

THANKS MARK

 

[Patrick Grossien]

Mark, thank you so much for your report! This is great insight... this adobe thing is killing me... I'm starting considering... oh no!

 

[Tim Lüdin]

Premier can edit R3D's in half res.. (thats 2.5k) real time on a laptop. Editing is fast! Really fast! no need for transcoding before editing... Just drag drop and edit. DONE!!! So my cries for a 4k PRORED Module... just died.. I can now say that I will edit and post in RAW.... So the 4k PRORES Module... Dead... Dont need it. RED can stop making it now... Complete waste of time.

Hi Mate

I think Jim saw that coming a long time back. That's why he is sticking to RAW and only RAW. As we all would like to have some Prores here and there but JJ is sticking to the plan. That's his vision and that's his path.

With the new CS6 the game is over. RAW is the reality and I'm a damn happy camper. Apple blew it and is late or even too late for the party.
I'm like you, I never thought to make the switch to adobe but these guys are in fact listening. Like RED does. They tell us when, how and that they are on it. What else do you want, it's like a real partnership. That's what pros need. Apple's doesn't give us ease of mind, but that's what we pros need. We need a partner that shows us a roadmap and secure our investments. Apple never does that, so f..ck them.They have about a few weeks to bring out some killer towers or I'm joining the dark side or is it more like the force today?

Anyway, thanks for your insight it's always a great read. As always I see it about 98% like you do. Maybe that's why I like you so much :smiley:

Keep on stressing the guys on the Speedgrade booth. I also want to know if I have to ditch my resolve system. Adobe is really getting it.

Rock on.
Tim

 

[Kirby Hamilton]

Thanks Mark. Leaving Florida in two hours and will be hitting the show Weds & Thurs. Keep posting your highlights!

 

[Andy White]

Just echoing everyone else in saying thanks for your thoughts and taking the time to write this all up... and only 3 days more to go! :smiley:

Your pre Epic work was part of the reason I went RED myself (the London bridge sky grade made me consider RED seriously). I'm not a youngster and have been around the block a few times (started Directing in the late 80's, done CG for 20 years etc etc) and it's good to see your enthusiasm and views on stuff as the scary technology parade jumps forwards.

Imagine jumping back in time and informing the younger version of yourself (20 years ago) that you'd be shooting the way you do and editing on a laptop. Ahh the old days of off-line/on-line linear as finally behind us )good training ground though... without it, you don't appreciate what we have now).

On Premiere, it's the one element I've wondered about with your workflow... I hated Premiere myself, but with the native R3D and the demise of FCP (and pro-res workflows), it was the only choice. I wondered how long before you went to the dark side!

Ramble over... just to reiterate, great write up & I look forward to part 2!

 

[Nick Pasquariello]

Awesome post, Mark. Amazing for anyone that can't make it out to NAB this year.

Curious to know your thoughts on Piranha and Lightworks. Both previously Linux only, both now out on Mac (or one of them is about to be on Mac . . .). Both claim Red Raw playback. I would love to get your opinion on them, since I know I can trust your opinion.

 

[Ivan G]

I was at the show yesterday and it was a Zoo. Thanks for the run down! I'll be sleeping in the Adobe, Red and Autodesk booths today.

 

[Philipe Ratton]

That was great Mark, thanks a lot !
Really looking forward for your day 2 report !!!

 

[Philipe Ratton]

Hey Mark, one more thing, did you get to see footage from the new BM camera ?