It was the first day of the National Broadcast Association, “NAB” for short, in Las Vegas today, and as a first-time attendee, it definitely lived up to the hype (at least as far as size). For those of you who have never attended this event, imagine one and a half football fields pushed together, and then just down the hall a second football field, and next to that another football field that has been cut in half and stacked on top of itself.
It is a massive facility (one person I spoke with is up to 7 miles of walking on his fitness tracker) packed full of this year’s heavy hitting broadcast manufacturers all peacocking for the attention of the mass of people in attendance. Many booths include rotating signs or illuminated balloons bearing their names in the hopes that the patrons interested in their materials will be able to spot them amongst the mass of mood lighting and clever facades of the other booths.
The booths frequently include live human models placed in pop-up sets with lighting and production design so the observers can evaluate the camera bodies, lenses, and monitors on display. However, it is a long day which inevitably causes the models’ attention to wander occasionally. I saw models playing darts, playing cards, and once asleep while lounging on a couch. Which was… slightly odd because the attendee operating the camera on display for testing had chosen to zoom in and focus entirely on her closed eyes. It was a real testament for that zoom lens because I could tell she was asleep because the image was so sharp I could see her eyes twitching with REM eye movement. So in the end, successful test, I suppose.
Here are a couple of highlights from today for me:
Sony
Sony’s booth is huge this year and it is packed full of quite a line of gear, but I was on the lookout for the A9 which was just released recently. For a second eye, I brought along my friend who is an avid A7s shooter so I could get his first impression as well on the new camera. The A7s is a beast in low light for video, which is very good for a lot of Indy filmmakers and videographers, and is really still on the rise in popularity and use in the professional market, in my opinion. So my expectation going in was that the A9 would be aimed more towards photo first rather than video uses.
When I picked up the camera, I notice right away it is a touch larger in form factor, specifically in the width of the camera. This was a great design decision. I always find the A7 series a little too small to operate comfortably. I asked the Sony rep about it, and he told me that previously it was his opinion they were trying to see how small the design could be and still give them the image they required of it, and now with the A9 they wanted to add a bit back because they felt it was a touch too thin themselves.
But. I audibly gasped when I hit the shutter in photo mode. This thing takes photos unbelievably fast. It blew me away. I honestly was a bit intimidated by the speed at which it snaps pictures. I turned it down to its second highest shooting speed just so I could calm myself down a bit. They boast 20 images per second in its fasting setting, and I don’t doubt it at all. It’s remarkable. Also remarkable is the auto focus. It is fast and it seems to be reliable.
They had some demo footage playing overhead of footage shot on the A9, as well, and it was very… good? That totally threw my hypothesis of it being a photo camera with some video capabilities. Both my friend and I were really impressed by the dynamic range we saw in the test footage. It contained a lot of whites and elements on the higher end of the exposure range, and seemed to have kept good detail and didn’t have the over blown highlights that I’m used to in a DSLR. This thing snaps photos like some mutant crocodile, and the video demo looks good as well. I will have to see more video footage, and be able to shoot my own to test before I’m 100% on that all not being in the color grade, but it looks like Sony really made something special to me.
Btw my friend who already owns an A7 walked away from the A9 insisting he is upgrading next month.
AJA
Introducing the new AJA Ki Pro Ultra Plus. This does what I have been really hoping a manufacturer would discover how to crack as far as technology vs price point; it is capable of recording multiple video signals at once in one device and coming in right around $4,000, it is gonna be a great piece of gear for many professionals.
Today I am only going to get into some key features (and there are a couple that are huge) and not all the options and specifications. The AJA Ki Pro Ultra Plus accepts up to four video inputs (must be same frame rate and resolution) up to 4K and is capable of recording all of the signals at once in one device. It also offers a quad split output so you can monitor all signals, as well as a 4K HDMI output for one input (it’s switchable) for even deeper scrutiny in your monitoring. I am told it takes its timecode from whatever the input one signal is supplying and uses that for the other inputs it is recording.
Additionally, have you ever had a camera cut out or need to cut its image during a multi camera shoot? It can be a really big pain to sync it up in post by eye. Well get ready for this, cause if you’ve ever had to struggle with those issues, this next feature is gonna make you smile. If any of the signals experience signal loss during record, the device keeps recording and throws in an image saying “signal loss” until the issue is resolved, at which point it takes the picture back into the same file. Your timecode still is correct, and you don’t have to fix that sync problem in post. They took this one step farther, and say while you have signal loss, you try and plug in another cable or other source that happens to be a different than your recorded signal, it won’t detect the signal and will continue with the graphic until a proper source is connected again.
It has 1tb hot swappable drives for recording media, or you can use an adapter and plug into an external raid system which provides many more terabytes of storage.
Black Magic Design
Black Magic has released several new additions to their line of products this year. Da Vinci Resolve has gotten a big update specifically focusing on editing workflow and audio mixing. Outside of the software update for Da Vinci they have released a new color console. This console splits the difference between the other two models they have, as far as features and controls. This console allows for more accurate and speedy manipulation of color settings, which really feels natural. I barely had to use the mouse and only then because it was a more intuitive way to select colors on screen than using the dials alone. It’s a really solid addition to the pro editor that also does color or post house that offers basic color correction.
My favorite addition to the Black Magic family of products is the new ATEM Television Studio Pro HD. It features 8 inputs (4x-SDI, 4x-HDMI), 5 program outputs, and 1 aux output, and 2 multi view outputs (1x -SDI, 1x-HDMI) and features a full console, allowing you to more accurately and simply use all the switcher functionality. They have replaced the “T-bar” with a slider so that the physical profile is reduced and will easily fit in a case to be transportable. They also very cleverly added audio mixing controls on the surface as well, which was always one of the more difficult sections to manage during a live switch using the software controls alone. This allows they operator to control the audio as well as the cameras during a line cut. It also has built-in camera control for Black Magic cameras, that seemed to work fine in my basic testing and allowed me to control color balance, ISO, iris, focus, focus, and zoom in the actual camera directly from the switcher control surface.
The ATEM Television Studio Pro HD has 10 audio inputs, 1 upstream keyer, 2 downstream keyers, 1 chroma keyer, and 3 linear/luma keyers built in, and they have integrated built-in talkback support for the cameras from the surface itself.
With the simple form factor, and ability to control audio directly on the surface while continuing switching, this is a pretty cool new piece of gear.
