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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

end of the (tape) world

Paul Provost

Paul Provost

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just delivered drives to mastering / QC facility for the movie we just finished color and viz efx on.
distributor wants 4 hdcamsr copies in deliverables list. facility will only allow us ONE piece of 90min hdcamSR tape stock. there is no more. (more likely they are holding stock for big studio clients.)
we are now scrambling to find more SR stock from our tape suppliers. no luck so far.
see here:
http://www.televisionbroadcast.com/article/115606

i think once everyone gets used to doing without the tape format there will be no going back. this may be the last nail in the coffin for tape delivery...
 
Even DV stock is going to get hit. Apparently there is still some SR stock in New Zealand from what I was reading on another forum.

Michael
 
try TapeResource or Peak Media here in Denver?
 
A broadcaster I work with (halfway through going tapeless ironically) is trying to find 500 HDCam tapes a day by wiping old stock. They can't get any supplies - and were the biggest consumers in the UK.
 
Wow, I didn't event think of this. When i have a chance I have to go to my storage and see what kind of HD stock I have. I had a bought a ton when I was delivering for a TV series and when it stopped, I never knew what to do with it... I think I know now. :) No clue what stock I have or in what quantities though and can't make it to storage for days, but this will be interesting. Brand new kept in the basement of a coolstorage facility so should be just fine. Wish I could remember what we were delivering on.
 
Internet comments on tape supply issues

Internet comments on tape supply issues

This is a summary of some comments from another bulletin board I follow -


.... " Sony's tape manufacturing plants have been seriously damaged by the earthquake and tsunami...."

..." As of 11:00 am, March 14 (JST), manufacturing operations have been suspended at the following affected production sites:
Sony Chemical & Information Device Corporation,
・Tagajyo Plant (Miyagi Prefecture) <Magnetic Tapes, Blu-ray Discs etc... "
http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press/201103/11-0314E/index.html

... "The Blu-ray disc and magnetic tape factory in Tagajo City, Miyagi Prefecture, suffered the worst damage..." http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2011/03/16/2003498273

... "the most immediate problem is going to be a shortage of HD-CamSR tapes since the only production facility in the world was at Sendai".


Let's hope they can recover soon, but I would not be surprised by a shift to LTO as the tape backup format if there's an extended supply disruption.
 
our tape supplier warned us not to discard any used stock we might have. they offered to buy it from us or clean/degauss/recertify for our own use (at a fee of course!).
 
LTO supplies seem to be alright and unaffected. But there's going to be a run on LTO if the other tape formats can't get production caught up. While it may not be native format, there is already a trending shift to log and capture and then archive to HDD and LTO. That will surge if HDCAM and other formats run scarce.
 
I was just offered unsolicited (50) HDCAM-SR 64 Minute Sony Tapes at $250 each.
WTF- These are $90 tapes. It seems unscrupulous people are buying up the legitimate stock to take advantage of the situation. When ligitimate users cant find stock thru their normal sources.

I find it odd that all of a sudden every dealer is out of stock. I believe they are holding onto the stock until the prices go up...or worse are selling them out the back door to assholes like the one above.

I have a $100k+ investment in a deck and cant find stock to feed it while these bastards are making 150% profit on backdoor sales...something is wrong.
 
March 18, 2011

TO: ALL AICE MEMBER COMPANIES
RE: SONY VIDEO STOCK AVAILABILITY

The following post was brought to our attention by by Craig Leffel, colorist and partner at Optimus Chicago. It was originally posted on tig.colorists.org. It is reprinted here with the author's permission. Jon Miles is a producer and editor and is currently working as a Post Supervisor at Sirens Media in Silver Spring, MD.
Tsunami Coming to the Broadcast Industry - How to Prepare

Friday March 18, 2011
by Jon Miles

As some of you may or may not know, the main Sony plant for manufacture of magnetic media, The Sendai Technology Center which made all or most of the XDCAM, HDCAM, HDCAM SR, Digital Betacam and SxS media was in Sendai, Japan and has ceased operations.

By all accounts it is toast, most particularly the first floor where the world's HDCAM SR tape was made.

Considering its proximity to the coast it's no wonder. From what is being said in the industry it will be at least 6-12 months before it's up and running if they decide to build there at all. And this does not factor additional earthquakes, lack of power and possible nuclear contamination.

Networks, dubbing houses, post and production companies have been scrambling to get tape and disks for acquisition and finishing and all the major distributors are releasing what they have to current customers on a very limited basis. Prices have already gone up and are likely to continue to climb.

The good news at this point is that HDCAM, D-Beta and XDCAM are licensed to Fuji and Maxell and both have plants outside the affected area - as far away as South Korea. However, the Sendai plant manufactured over 60% of the world's media and all the globe's HDCAM SR. Combine this with the fact that Sony's business model apparently kept only three (3) weeks worth of demand in the supply chain and it's clear that Fuji and Maxell will not be able to fill the void.

XDCAM is also Blu-ray, and professionals are not the only people using Blu-ray. It's just as likely that there will be shortages of The King's Speech, so get those Blu-rays in your Amazon cue while you can.

So what does all this mean? And how do you prepare for this coming tsunami?

Tapeless workflow will dominate because it has to. Sony EX1 and Sony EX3 systems are likely to fly off the shelves. SxS cards if available and pro level Compact flash cards will be selling at a clip. P2 cameras and P2 cards stand to gain a great deal as people grapple with what to shoot on.

Hard drives are also likely to go up in price or at least hold steady. Good ruggedized drives like the La Cie 500 gig are going to be very popular.

Systems that record ProRes and other flavors to compact flash via HD SDI like the AJA Ki Pro, and Convergent Design's Nano Flash are going to start popping up everywhere and are likely to sell out in the near term.

We might even see a resurgence of 16mm and 35mm film acquisition in television. Oh, the irony.

How will this affect you?

If you're a shooter, and have a broadcast camera with HD SDI, you'll need to buy a Nano Flash or AJA Ki Pro or AJA Ki Pro Mini pretty fast. That or move to EX1, EX3, P2 or a good DSLR system and great instructions on how to do it. If you have XDCAM cameras, expect to re-use stock. XDCAM is apparently spec'd for thousands of writes so this may be okay. There also will be a market for "evaluated" - read used - stock so keep your eyes on Amazon and Ebay as a buyer or seller.

If you're an editor, expect to go completely tapeless, getting everything in on cards of some sort, and exporting to and shipping a good drive. Yousendit will become your new friend if it isn't already. Consider selling any decks you have now.

If you're a post house, it's going to be all about education for your clients. Luckily many clients are already tapeless and expect internet delivery. But they're going to look at you dumbfounded when you have to charge them even more for tape stock - so that part of your business model is probably going to just go away margin wise. ??

Broadcast networks are likely to move to HDCAM with Bwave audio stems, or XDCAM with its 8 tracks of audio, instead of HDCAM SR, so HDCAM and XDCAM will see even more pressure on stock and availability and cost.

Short term the impacts are already being felt. Long term, this may just kill expendables as a business model for Sony and other manufacturers. No one in this industry is going to forget this event when it comes time to buy gear again, not with compact flash becoming more prevalent. Even parts availability is impacted by this disaster.

??No doubt about it, it's a mess.

At this point it's almost trite to say that the Japan earthquake and tsunami underline our inter-connectivity on this planet. Hopefully they are over as natural events, and with luck and the courage of the Fukushima 50, the nuclear reactors will be under control soon.

Whatever the case, the fallout is spreading all over the world and it's no time to shelter in place.

As the proverb goes - Fortune favors the bold.

Budget accordingly.
 
Greg M said:
I was just offered unsolicited (50) HDCAM-SR 64 Minute Sony Tapes at $250 each.
WTF- These are $90 tapes. It seems unscrupulous people are buying up the legitimate stock to take advantage of the situation. When ligitimate users cant find stock thru their normal sources.

I find it odd that all of a sudden every dealer is out of stock. I believe they are holding onto the stock until the prices go up...or worse are selling them out the back door to assholes like the one above.

I have a $100k+ investment in a deck and cant find stock to feed it while these bastards are making 150% profit on backdoor sales...something is wrong.
Click to expand...

the second people realized the sony plants were hit, everybody bought in mass trying to stock up. just like how people raid and buy up everything at a supermarket with hurricane or flood warnings.

i freelance occasionally at a dub house, the new stock is near impossible to get, and recycled used stock has double to almost tripled in price too.

to say this is gonna put the nail in the coffin for tape is a little premature, broadcast is VERY slow to change, and with all the money they've invested into decks they won't give it up anytime soon. Plus lots of producers, and editors and people in various positions know tape workflow inside and out, and the whole "don't fix it if it ain't broke" mentality kind of sticks.

but with this mass shortage, this might be a awakening to expand to alternatives in case things like this happen and expand their tapeless workflow further.

nothing is impervious to this though, if same thing happened to taiwan, korea, and china, all electronics and parts across the board will go to hell. The intense reliance on the far east in general for critical supply has been a big issue for awhile. But in the end, if either side takes a hit, the world takes a hit, that's just how it works. U.S. is scrambling for stock, so is the rest of the world.
 
I know for a fact that dealers who claim they are sold out are actually selling behind the door at inflated prices to resellers who are gouging. There are even dealers on ebay asking $500 for a $200 tape.
 
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