At IBC 2025 in Amsterdam, Jason Druss of Adobe’s Premiere Pro team turned the booth into a live editing stage. His demo of Premiere Pro 25.5 showed off what happens when Adobe swallows a plug-in maker whole. Spoiler: the result is faster cuts, fewer render bars, and one button literally called Surprise Me.

Film Impact now plays natively

Druss opened a typical social-media timeline (fine, but flat) and replaced a cut with a VHS Damage transition. Instantly the edit pulsed with digital static, running in real time. No caching, no excuses. The magic: Film Impact’s entire library of transitions, effects, and motion tools now ships with Premiere Pro 25.5. Editors no longer need to install or license Film Impact separately. Everything lives in the Effects panel or via the new Film Impact Dashboard, which previews transitions before you drop them onto the timeline.

The “Surprise Me” aera

Each effect is deeply editable in the Effect Controls panel, position, hue, angle, or motion curves, but Druss’s crowd-pleaser was a big randomise button labelled Surprise Me. Click once, get a new version. Click again, get another. The audience watched him roll through styles until he hit a violet-tinted lens flare that fit perfectly. With 90 base effects and thousands of tweakable parameters, Druss quipped that you could “spend your career without repeating a single transition.” Editors can save any custom setup as a preset and share it with colleagues, useful when you finally hit something great by accident.

Real-time motion and look development

Druss then ditched footage altogether and animated two static PNGs using only Film Impact transitions. The result looked closer to an After Effects comp than a quick Premiere mock-up. He cloned and animated elements with Clone FX, layered bokeh blur and chromatic aberration, and key-framed the strength of the blur. He then toggled on Mosaic, instantly turning the piece into a dancing 8-bit animation, all running live on a 16-inch MacBook Pro, without rendering once. Other look-driven effects – light leaks, volumetric rays, halation, vignettes, channel shifts, now sit a click away from the main timeline. For many quick jobs, After Effects can stay closed.

But is this also working fine on my Lenovo ThinPad P16 ? We all have seen the “Realtime” Demos, and were impressed, only to learn later that there was a huge machine in the back. So, for really testing it in realtime, my trusty workhorse is:

Testing for real!

And I tried hard to put too many effects on my timeline – way more then look good or resaonable, just to see when the timeline would stutter. You can see the result in the intro of my tutorial. Did it work ? You will find out when you watch the realtime vMix screenrecording below.

Tl;DR: All the New Features

Feature	Description / Benefits
90+ new real-time effects, transitions & animations	Dramatic boost in motion capability — new dissolves, glitches, chromatic aberration effects, glows, vignettes, etc. All of these are GPU-accelerated and customizable.
New animation tools	You can animate text, video, graphics using drag-and-drop transitions (less need to round-trip to After Effects).
Live waveform editing	Audio waveforms now update in real time as you adjust volume, add keyframes, or perform ripple/roll edits — making audio edits more visual.
Multi-Transitions editing	You can apply, edit, and manage transitions across multiple audio/video clips simultaneously, improving consistency and speed.
Snappier timeline playback / responsiveness	Under-the-hood improvements to make dragging, skimming, and general timeline interactivity more fluid.
Hardware acceleration enhancements	• 10-bit 4:2:2 H.264/HEVC acceleration on NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs (Adobe Hilfezentrum) • Hardware acceleration for Canon Cinema RAW Light (Adobe Hilfezentrum) • Support for decoding ARRIRAW HDE (High Density Encoding)
New preferences for graphics / font defaults	You can set default fonts for text, subtitles, and captions; import wide-aspect CEA-708 captions properly; and control how graphics preferences behave. (Adobe Hilfezentrum)
Advanced Search / Media Intelligence filtering	The Search panel supports metadata-based filters to refine results.
Label colors in sequence tabs	You can show and change sequence tab colors directly in the Timeline panel to help visually organize your project.
Improved color & metadata handling	Better automatic data range application for DNxHR / DNxHD and PNG files (preserving super whites, sub blacks), improved color management workflows, and precise HDR/SDR export control.
Generative Extend (using AI)	Add frames (at the beginning or end of clips) via generative AI to smooth transitions, extend reactions, or mash up ambient room tone.
Translation of captions / multilingual captions	Automatically translate captions into many languages (over 27) to support global reach.
Import MKV (H.264/AAC) support	Premiere Pro improved its MKV import performance and compatibility.
Export with Content Credentials	You can attach content credentials (metadata about creation / provenance) to your exported videos.
Rounded corners for timeline clips	A more comfortable, modern visual design for clips in the timeline view.
Object Masking (only in beta)	This allows isolating specific areas of footage for applying effects or selective adjustments. Because it is in beta, it may have limitations, be unstable, or change in future releases.

Smoother playback, quicker feedback

Premiere Pro 25.5 also gets more responsive. Druss pressed spacebar, playback started almost instantly. Adobe claims latency below 0.1 seconds between command and action. Audio waveforms stay visible while dragging clips, and users can adjust multiple fades or keyframes simultaneously. Format handling is tidier too: acceleration for H.264/HEVC on new NVIDIA GPUs, improved support for Canon Cinema RAW Light and ARRIRAW HDE, and better import of 16-bit PNG files. It’s not glamorous, but it keeps editors editing instead of watching progress bars.

Premiere on iPhone: serious, not cute

Druss also teased Premiere on iPhone, calling it “craft-grade mobile editing.” The mobile version includes multi-track timelines, waveform display, and access to Adobe Stock assets. Generative AI via Firefly lets users create elements or sound effects on-device. Editors can start a project on the phone, then send it straight to desktop Premiere for finishing, no re-conforming required. For Druss, it’s less about replacing laptops and more about keeping creative momentum on the move.

One editor, one ecosystem

Druss’s booth demo summed up Adobe’s current direction: keep editors inside one app for everything, cutting, motion design, grading, and even sound. By baking Film Impact directly into Premiere Pro 25.5, Adobe removes a plug-in layer while giving back real-time speed and playful control. Still, production teams should test before updating. Adobe hasn’t confirmed whether every legacy Film Impact effect made the cut, and older projects might behave unpredictably. Premiere Pro 25.5 is available now via Creative Cloud. Try the new effects, hit Surprise Me, and see whether the randomness improves your edit or just your mood.

The post Jason Druss makes Premiere sparkle at IBC 2025 first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Nils Calles.

Hello from my virtual IBC studio at Musikpark Mannheim—complete with coffee, cables, and a bit of latency. For this Digital Production feature, I sat down with Victoria Nece from Adobe at their booth in Amsterdam to talk about what’s new in After Effects.

Victoria is one of those product managers who actually uses the software she’s talking about. Her demos are fast, her shortcuts surgical, and her experience in Broadcast and Motion Graphics shines through. This time she came armed with three deceptively simple tools: Quick Offset, Paste Reversed Keyframes, and Smooth Zoom. Plus a look at new 3D lighting and compositing features that make After Effects feel distinctly modern again.

Quick Offset: My Favourite New Shortcut

We started with Quick Offset, and honestly, it’s the kind of thing that makes you wonder how you ever worked without it. By holding Option + Command (Mac), the cursor switches to a new “staggered layers” icon. From there, you can click and drag directly in the timeline to spread layers or keyframes over time. No expressions. No maths. No “did I offset the null or the child?”.

Victoria demoed this with a map of the U.S. states and locators sliding in at once. Within seconds, she dragged out the timing into a clean cascade. The motion instantly looked more designed, and no spreadsheet-level calculations were involved. It’s tactile, it’s quick, and it’s one of those updates that feels designed by someone who actually animates for a living.

Paste Reversed Keyframes: Exit Stage Left

Once everything is animated on, the next challenge is getting it off the screen again. Enter Paste Reversed Keyframes. Victoria showed how you can now copy keyframes, then paste them in reverse from the Edit menu. The animation plays backwards, perfectly timed to the original entrance. She used it to make states appear, wiggle, then fade back out—all without touching expressions or timelines manually. For those of us who still remember the “calculate offset” method, this feels like closure.

Smooth Zoom: Scroll, Don’t Jump

Then came Smooth Zoom, another small fix that quietly transforms daily work. Previously, zooming in the composition viewer jumped in awkward increments. Now, scrolling in and out is continuous! Victoria scrolled through a complex comp like she was skating. You can zoom, pan, and adjust keyframes without losing context. It’s one of those features that doesn’t sell subscriptions, but saves hours over time.

A 3D Scooter, an Environment Light, and a Shadow Catcher

After the 2D fun, Victoria opened a 3D scene: a scooter textured in Substance 3D. After Effects now imports GLB, glTF, FBX, and OBJ models directly. She added an Environment Light, which uses an image, video, or animation as a lighting sphere around the scene. Her demo used a live-action plate as the light source—turning the background into illumination and reflection. When the actor walked into frame, you could literally see her reflection in the scooter’s headlight. Next came the Shadow Catcher, a transparent solid that receives shadows but hides everything else. It’s a quick way to ground a 3D object in live footage without third-party plugins. And yes, you can pick the shadow colour from the footage itself. No more neon-black shadows that ruin composites.

Beta Lighting: Spotlights, Parallel Lights, and Speed

In the public beta, Adobe is testing spot and parallel light shadows that render faster and allow more precise art direction. Performance has improved as well—playback and caching both feel snappier, although Adobe has not published formal benchmarks. As Victoria said, “After Effects is updated almost every day.” Given how often animators have begged for smaller, quality-of-life fixes, that’s welcome news.

Tested in the Booth, Try It in Production

All these features—Quick Offset, Paste Reversed Keyframes, Smooth Zoom, and the new 3D environment tools—are available now. The expanded lighting system is in public beta. I’ve seen many After Effects demos at IBC, but this one stood out because it’s not about buzzwords or “revolutionary pipelines”. It’s about fixing small irritations that slow artists down.

Before rolling these tools into client work, test them on your own setups—especially the 3D lighting features, which still vary by GPU and renderer. But if you spend your life inside the AE timeline, Quick Offset alone might make your week.

The post After Effects Gets Hands-On: Victoria Nece Shows Off Quick Offset & Co. first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Nils Calles.

With version Edius 11.40.18961, Grass Valley delivers one of the most substantial free updates since the launch of EDIUS 11. The focus is clear: speed and stability in project handling. The centrepiece is a completely reworked Bin window. The HTML5-based Bin introduced in EDIUS 11 had long-term architectural advantages but showed performance bottlenecks when handling hundreds or thousands of clips. Large projects became sluggish. According to release notes and IBC demonstrations, the Bin now uses a new, faster core engine. Clip loading, scrolling, and search are markedly quicker, with improved keyboard navigation and drag-and-drop operations.

For editors managing feature-length timelines, broadcast projects, or multi-camera documentary work, these changes translate into shorter waiting times and fewer workarounds. Project startup is faster, background jobs are more visible, and sequence creation in large projects benefits from optimised database handling. The Bin now also includes batch clip renaming, more intuitive context menus, and visual progress indicators tied directly to clips. These may sound minor, but for productions that rely on consistent metadata—think sports highlights, news agencies, or fast-turnaround event coverage—they address long-standing pain points.

Configurable projects, fewer surprises

EDIUS 11.40 introduces a default project name setting, configurable under User Settings > Application > Project. Previously, default names were handled inconsistently, leading to confusion when multiple projects were saved under generic labels. This setting now centralises control. The Restore and Transfer Clips feature has also been refined. For productions with proxy workflows or remote storage, more reliable restoration means less downtime when reconnecting assets.

AI: from speech to text, and text to voice

The update integrates native speech-to-text (STT) directly into EDIUS, reducing reliance on external BAT Server workflows. Editors can download AI models in different sizes (Tiny, Small, Medium, Large) depending on required accuracy and hardware capacity. Larger models deliver more precise results but demand more compute power. Crucially, GPU acceleration is supported, which significantly shortens transcription times for users with capable NVIDIA cards.

Output is generated as subtitle files directly compatible with VisTitle, meaning captions can be styled, edited, and timed without leaving EDIUS. This makes subtitling for accessibility or localisation less dependent on third-party tools.

The BAT Server add-on, however, is not being sidelined. On the contrary, it gains new functions: multilingual translation of subtitles, beat detection for marker-aligned editing, and an experimental voice synthesis tool. The latter allows automatic voiceovers from existing subtitles or audio recordings, with selectable voices and gender options. Early demonstrations at IBC 2025 showed real-time translation workflows. For instance, German audio automatically translated into English speech. “Foa eweryboti to bettar underzstand ze germaans” ;) At the time of writing, this feature is in preview and not independently verified for production use.

Edit as you capture

The new capture environment in EDIUS 11.40 revolves around CapIt, a tool designed not only for ingest from traditional I/O cards but also from less conventional sources such as NDI streams, webcams, livestreams, and even secondary EDIUS systems. CapIt allows overlays, blurs, and mosaics to be applied during recording, effectively enabling real-time compliance and branding. In the Workgroup edition, the headline feature is Edit-while-Capture: as soon as a recording starts, the growing file can be pulled into the timeline and cut while the ingest continues. For live productions, this means highlight reels, instant replays, or end-of-show edits can be assembled before recording even finishes. Files are written in the Grass Valley HQX codec, ensuring editability during ingest without intermediate transcoding. Together, these functions make capture in EDIUS more than just a pre-edit step; it becomes an active part of production.

Intel NPU and noise reduction

One of the smaller but technically interesting updates is support for Intel NPU hardware. Noise reduction now runs on Intel’s Neural Processing Units, found in newer CPUs, instead of occupying CPU cores. This frees system resources for playback and editing tasks. For users on Intel’s latest platforms, this may reduce the need for heavy GPU-based denoising plugins in certain cases.

Plugins and filter visibility

EDIUS finally moves beyond VST2 audio plugins, adding VST3 support. This resolves a compatibility gap, as most current audio tools are now developed exclusively for VST3. Users relying on third-party EQs, compressors, or restoration plugins should see broader compatibility going forward.

Plugin handling in general is improved. If a project contains a missing plugin, EDIUS now displays the plugin name rather than simply flagging an unknown effect. For productions re-opened years later, or in facilities where licensing lapses, this provides clarity on what needs to be reinstalled. Filter handling also sees refinements. The Information Palette now shows the preset name rather than only the base effect, and timeline filters display preset metadata for quicker identification. This helps when multiple colour correction or grading presets are applied across sequences.

The Auto Color Correction filter has gained two notable upgrades: improved accuracy when working with clips that include alpha channels, and an automatic saturation adjustment toggle. These improvements require re-analysis to take effect, but they close gaps where older builds delivered incorrect corrections, especially in compositing workflows.

Hardware acceleration: more tasks offloaded

EDIUS 11.40 extends hardware acceleration to more processes. Timeline clips with time effects, frame rate conversions, and alpha blending can now be hardware processed, provided interpolation is not set to optical flow and clip sizes match project settings. For users on modern GPUs, this reduces CPU strain and increases timeline responsiveness. For facilities, it also allows more predictable hardware provisioning, knowing that common operations like speed changes or alpha blending will not block CPU pipelines.

Stabilisation with Mercalli 6

Grass Valley has partnered with ProDAD to integrate Mercalli 6 stabilisation. Long considered one of the most reliable stabilisers in postproduction, Mercalli’s sixth generation is now faster and available as both standalone software and BAT Server integration. This allows automated batch stabilisation via presets, which can be useful in drone footage workflows, action sports, or ENG (electronic news gathering) where stabilisation is needed at scale. Existing Mercalli users are offered upgrade pricing.

Scene detection and media management

EDIUS 11.40 will also include a Scene Detection tool, released separately but free of charge. It automatically splits long recordings into shot-level clips, with options for fine-grained control. For documentary and reality TV editors, this can replace manual logging steps. Changes in Mync, the companion media manager, mirror EDIUS updates: added Canon EOS C50 support, acquisition metadata for Canon XF-AVC and XF-HEVC formats, and improved H.264 export compatibility for older Smart TVs.

T3 Pro Player/Recorder

Alongside the software, Grass Valley introduced the T3 Pro Player/Recorder, positioned as a mid-tier option beneath the T3 Elite. The Pro version offers dual-channel 4K 60p recording and playback, but omits redundant power supplies and card reader panels. While not upgradable to the Elite, it provides a lower-cost path for facilities needing robust 4K playback or ingest.

Stability fixes

EDIUS 11.40 addresses a long list of bugs. Notable fixes include:

• Crashes when opening large projects after another project is already loaded.
• Timeline export failures when colour bar clips were present.
• Black frames in certain H.264 playback cases.
• Incorrect proxy handling in XDCAM workflows.
• Undo-related crashes.
• Errors in waveform cache generation.

For studios that rely on EDIUS for long-form projects, these fixes reduce the likelihood of corrupt project states and unexpected interruptions.

Compatibility and future-proofing

EDIUS Cloud now supports Windows Server 2025, extending compatibility for cloud-deployed editing environments. This positions the software for longer-term use in facility deployments without requiring near-term OS migration.

Conclusion

EDIUS 11.40 is not just an incremental patch. It combines under-the-hood speed boosts with headline features like speech-to-text, VST3 plugin support, Edit-while-Capture, and Mercalli 6. For editors working in live event, news, or fast-turnaround environments, these updates bring measurable workflow gains.

Grass Valley calls it “the fastest EDIUS ever”. While the claim is marketing, the bin and sequence performance improvements are noticeable. As always, production facilities should test all new features, particularly AI-driven tools and Edit-while-Capture, before introducing them into mission-critical pipelines.

Get Edius HERE

The post EDIUS 11.40: Faster Bins, Smarter AI, and Edit-as-you-Capture first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

The IBC announcement

At IBC 2025, Adobe confirmed that Premiere Pro 25.5 integrates the full Film Impact transition and effect library directly into the application. The company is emphasising this as both a creative expansion and a practical elimination of a common subscription burden. Until this release, Film Impact was a standalone plug-in collection costing €15–30 per month. With version 25.5, the entire catalogue is bundled into Creative Cloud at no additional cost. Adobe is making this available to all Premiere Pro users beginning 12 September 2025.

Film Impact’s evolution from plug-in to built-in

Film Impact is a developer with a reputation for stable, GPU-accelerated transitions and effects widely used in professional editing. Adobe’s acquisition, reported earlier in 2025, was not simply a brand buyout but an absorption of a mature, commercially proven toolset. This toolset now appears in Premiere Pro without any separate installation or licensing. The effects are accessed in the Effects panel, or through the dedicated Film Impact Dashboard under the Window > Extensions menu, where editors can browse live previews of each transition.

The catalogue is wide. It contains polished versions of dissolves, blurs, and wipes—updated variants of editing staples that now render more smoothly and play in real time. It also includes more aggressive stylisation tools. Earthquake, glitch, distortion, chaos, and VHS-damage are among the more destructive transition types now standardised inside Premiere. For editors seeking more abstract visuals, the library also contains kaleidoscopic transformations and 3D transitions that add spatial depth between cuts.

Crucially, all of these tools are GPU-accelerated. In practical terms, this means an end to the familiar red render bar above transitions that once required preview rendering before playback. According to Adobe, the effects remain real-time even under heavy parameter customisation. This GPU dependence is a direct continuation of Film Impact’s engineering focus before the acquisition, where the company consistently positioned its transitions as faster to preview than comparable third-party solutions.

One unique feature of Film Impact that Adobe has retained is the “Surprise Me” button. Instead of default settings, this function instantly generates randomised variations of an effect, allowing editors to preview unconventional results and select creative alternatives without manually keyframing or duplicating effect instances.

Expanding motion capabilities inside Premiere

Adobe’s strategy is clearly to offload simpler motion design work into Premiere Pro, reducing the need for round-tripping through After Effects for straightforward graphics animation. Several of the new Film Impact tools are aimed at titles and logos. Editors can now transform static text into 3D animated lettering with shadow casting and depth within seconds. Logos can be duplicated and animated using pre-built behaviours, creating the illusion of bespoke motion graphics without building compositions. Titles can be animated using light sweeps, glow effects, wiggling distortions, bounces, and pops. While these animations remain parameter-driven and customisable, they are designed to produce acceptable results directly from their default states, speeding up editorial workflows.

Beyond motion graphics, Film Impact effects now serve grading and look-development purposes. Editors can apply glows, halation, and lens echoes, or simulate atmospheric lighting through volumetric rays. Bokeh effects generate photorealistic out-of-focus textures. Red, green, and blue channels can be shifted independently to correct fluorescent light imbalances. Chromatic aberration is available for stylistic distortion. Blend modes can be applied directly within the effect framework. Vignette tools no longer rely on simple oval shapes, but allow arbitrary warping to match composition geometry. A camera shake simulator is also included, able to add handheld movement to static tripod shots. Collectively, these tools extend Premiere Pro’s built-in grading capabilities beyond simple Lumetri adjustments.

Timeline and playback refinements

Parallel to the new effects, Adobe has targeted workflow bottlenecks in the timeline. For years, dragging a clip within Premiere’s sequence produced only an empty rectangle, requiring editors to guess sync relationships with underlying audio. In version 25.5, audio waveforms remain visible even during clip movement or when performing ripple, roll, and rate-stretch edits. This change is accompanied by markers and keyframes staying visible as well, preventing alignment errors during complex edits.

Another update addresses fading. Editors can now apply and adjust multiple fade or crossfade transitions across clips simultaneously. Combined with last year’s visual fade handles, this reduces repetitive clicking and improves batch adjustments.

Adobe has set a clear benchmark for playback responsiveness: reducing the delay between pressing play and seeing frames to under 0.1 seconds. The company states that significant progress has already been made toward this target, and that further optimisations will follow. This represents a technical focus on perceived latency—an issue that has consistently affected longform editing in earlier Premiere releases.

Codec support and GPU acceleration

Premiere Pro 25.5 introduces new codec handling and GPU acceleration. Hardware decoding of 10-bit 4:2:2 H.264 and HEVC media is now available on NVIDIA’s latest Blackwell GPUs, enabling real-time playback of formats traditionally known for high quality and low file size but difficult decoding. Canon Cinema RAW Light now benefits from hardware acceleration, providing smoother playback and up to tenfold faster exports. ARRI workflows also see support for ARRIRAW HDE (High Density Encoding). In this mode, footage is encoded at 60 percent of its original file size while retaining image data. Premiere Pro can now natively play back this optimised ARRIRAW format without relying on third-party plug-ins.

Small but necessary workflow fixes

Alongside headline features, Adobe has implemented several incremental corrections. Editors can now set a default font for captions and text, eliminating the need to manually override the long-standing default of Minion Pro. Keyboard shortcuts have been extended, making it possible to toggle track mute and solo based on track targeting without mouse interaction. A persistent bug has also been corrected in the Effect Controls panel, where adding a keyframe at the last frame of a clip previously jumped to the beginning of the following clip.

For high-end colour workflows, 16-bit PNG import is now supported, and metadata handling has been improved across PNG, DNxHR, and DNxHD formats, reducing errors when exchanging files with other finishing environments. To improve organisation, new Sequence Colour Tabs allow editors to colour-code timelines, adding a layer of visual reference to complex sequences.

After Effects 25.5

The companion release of After Effects 25.5 includes fewer features, but they target daily efficiency for motion designers. The standout is Quick Offset, a tool that allows multiple keyframes or entire layers to be shifted in time with one click-and-drag action. This eliminates the need to manually adjust dozens of layers individually in large compositions. In addition, zooming and navigation inside the composition viewer has been re-engineered for smoother response, particularly when magnifying to pixel level for detailed work. Cache handling has been refined, improving preview and playback responsiveness.

Availability and scope

Premiere Pro 25.5 and After Effects 25.5 will roll out beginning 12 September 2025, timed with IBC in Amsterdam. The Film Impact integration is included in the main install of Premiere Pro and requires no separate download.

Adobe has not published a comprehensive mapping of Film Impact’s original plug-ins against their new built-in equivalents. It remains unclear whether the entire legacy library has been preserved or whether some plug-ins were excluded. Until further documentation is available, users are advised to compare older Film Impact installations with the new built-in set before migrating active projects.

At IBC, Adobe also showcased new enterprise-level updates for Frame.io, including metadata handling on account level, low-code connectors for workflow integration, and additional sharing and security options. These developments affect collaborative workflows but fall outside the scope of Premiere Pro and will be covered separately.

As with any new release, these features should be tested thoroughly before deployment in production environments. Stability, render consistency, and interoperability with shared project files remain critical factors for professional pipelines.

The post Premiere Pro gains 90+ Film Impact effects – plug-in now built-in first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Blackmagic Design has reduced prices on its URSA Cine camera kits. The URSA Cine 12K LF kit now starts at $9,495, down from $14,995. The URSA Cine 17K 65 kit is reduced to $22,995 from $29,995. Bundles with the EVF follow similar reductions, reflecting discounts in the 22–36 percent range.

As with previous Blackmagic launches, regional price variation remains significant, driven by tariffs, taxes, and import costs. Outside the U.S., customers should expect noticeably higher pricing or lower pricing that reflects these additional charges. No change there.

The timing of the price cuts is hard to ignore: IBC 2025 in Amsterdam begins in less than two weeks. While totally and defintily unconfirmed, this could indicate that Blackmagic is clearing inventory ahead of a new release, or gently steering attention toward something fresh in their Cine line. The price reductions on existing URSA Cine kits may suggest that Blackmagic is preparing to shift focus to new variants or accessories, potentially a wider rollout of cinema bodies, storage upgrades, or immersive systems. As always, production professionals should test any new or discounted gear in real-world scenarios before committing to deployment.

The post URSA Cine Price Cut first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

5D Cyborg was there to mix-up things before unfortunately succumbing to a premature end. So let’s timewarp back to the age of the Cyborg.

Once upon a time…2001

When you look at the high-end VFX market of the late 1990 and early 2000s, there were two very distinct paradigms facing each other. On the one side you had very expensive high end turnkey systems, such as Quantel Henry or Discreet Flame & Inferno. Those did not only have a really astronomical price tag, they were also closed off systems. Quantels Henry for example ran on proprietary hardware.

On the other side you had an emerging market of software-only packages that were designed to run on off-the shelf hardware. While still pricey by today’s standards, those packages like Combustion, After Effects and Shake were only a fraction of the cost of the high-end counterparts, but they came at a snail-pace rendering speed and sometimes prohibitive limitations on resolutions and bit depth.

Enter the Masher

But, apart from the high price tag, the high-end systems had another predicament they were in – lack of connectivity. Especially Henry suffered from that and tried to find solutions to open up the system while at the same time sticking with its proprietary approach. One of these solutions was the 5D Masher. 5D Solutions at that time was a plug-in developer, supplying plug-ins for a range of hosts – this was years before OFX and basically every new point release of software on the host application required a plugin update as well. And Quantel was a special case as its proprietary hardware didn’t allow it to run third-party plug-ins. 5D came up with a very unique solution. They got a rack-mountable PC workstation – build by Boxx Solutions – with a video I/O that interfaced with the Quantel system and could basically be remote controlled from there, sending off a clip via the video I/O to that workstation, called the 5D Masher. On the masher it would be processed in the background and then be send back to the host system, ready to be inserted into your composite or timeline.

But there was a very tight bottleneck: The whole communication between the Quantel System and the Masher had to be built around Javascript. And while the processing speed of the Masher itself was acceptable, the update speed on the Quantel system to set up a plug-in was atrociously slow. Also, the artist was forced to set up only one plug-in at a time. Furthermore, plug-in setups had to be saved separately, basically undermining the whole Quantel concept of clip history. In the end, as explained in our previous look back at the Henry, the 5D Masher was a stopgap measure that was only slowing down the inevitable fall of the proprietary solutions from Quantel.

But the Masher also started something new at 5D Solutions: The British company got a lot of client feedback on the masher and that in essence was: Give us a Masher with a monitor and a User Interface so that we can put it next to our Finishing System. Now this part of the story might be a little bit of a retroactive legend building, but what we saw next from 5D was pretty much that: The 5D Cyborg.

Unleashing the Cyborg

In that first version it had basic 2D compositing capabilities and most of the 5D Monsters Plugins. In that iteration it couldn’t do much more than a Henry with a Masher attached but, wow, it could do that fast. The Cyborg system came – like Henry or Flame – as a turnkey solution. For that, 5D once again partnered up with Boxx Solutions and shipped it on a certified Windows NT Workstation with a Wildcat 3 Graphics Card by 3D Labs. Even the Sony 24” Monitor and the Wacom Tablet and Pen were part of that turnkey solution.

I started my very first employment as a junior Henry Artist at “Das Werk” in Frankfurt in the Summer of 2001. At that time “Das Werk” was a beta site for 5D Cyborg and Thomas Maier, now a respected colorist, was taking care of the beta as a student intern. Seeing how he was able to very quickly put something together that took me ages to run through the Masher really got me hooked. When he ended his internship I spent every free minute of my time in that beta suite. But unlike Thomas I was a full employee, expected to do my share of jobs. Trying to fit in my ever growing fascination with Cyborg into my daily work schedule was easier than expected. I just started to offload more and more effects work to that Cyborg system. Also, it was a gap I could jump into. I wanted to grow beyond the Quantel systems, but at that time, the only alternative would have been Discreet Inferno. Now those machines were not only expensive, but also fully booked. Also, there was a more-than-healthy rivalry between the Discreet Artists and the Quantel Artists. Back then you were either one or the other: The Quantel Artists were considered grunt workers that took brute-force approaches by the Discreet Artists. In turn the Discreet Artists were thought of as overthinking divas by the Quantel Artists. But in the end it was far easier for me to dig into the machine that nobody else cared about rather than fighting to get some precious screen time on a fully booked Inferno Workstation. Easing me into this was the fact that Cyborg was Windows-based. I knew my way around that OS as opposed to UNIX, which was back then the Infernos OS.

My interest in Cyborg didn’t go unnoticed. As a Junior Artist, I often sat in the passenger seat of client-attended Henry sessions. With my knowledge of Cyborg I could apply myself much more. It started with really simple conversion tasks. Load a file sequence into Cyborg and let it play in loop so that we can capture it into Henry. By today’s standards it is unfathomable that a seven-figure workstation was not able to do that on its own in the early 2000s. From there it continued with Rotos, Tracking and of course Plug-Ins. And the senior Henry artists saw the added value. “Das Werk” had four Henry Infinity suites at that time and it was decided to equip two of these suites with a Cyborg System.

The delivery of those two machines coincided with the release of version 2 of the Cyborg software – and this was the time where one could see that 5Ds ambitions were much higher than a simple assist workstation. EDL Conform, 3D Compositing environment and Timeline Editing truly unleashed the Cyborg. It was also at that time that 5D further defined the product line-up: There was a Cyborg S with Standard Definition I/O and just 2D compositing capabilities for roughly € 120.000 and a High Definition version called Cyborg M with all the bells and whistles for € 210.000 – an astronomical sum by today’s standard, but, as Alex Gabrysh wrote in his Cyborg v2 review in Digital Production 2002:04 “No matter which configuration of Cyborg you wish for, the price is a battle cry to competing systems and will definitely shake things up.”  

The 3D environment was blistering fast compared to all the competition out there. It really took advantage of the Wildcat 3 Graphics Card and the software utilizing OpenGL. In that regard 5D was unique – while the hardware was not custom-built like Henry nor the operating system customized like with Discreet, it was not written for generic off-the-shelf hardware either. When you ran Cyborg without that specific card, the 3D environment was much more unresponsive and more on par with the performance of Shake and Combustion at that time.

What makes a Cyborg?

The user interface took its lessons much more from the high end workstations than from the software-only solutions. The interface was clean, had no floating windows and was very clip-centric. Clips could be organized on reels and also edited there. But the real timeline, which was introduced in Version 2, didn’t live on that desktop. Rather, it was sitting right inside the compositing module – called “Create” – and it lived there as a node. This was a revelation. Neither Henry nor Flame/Inferno possessed a multi-layer timeline. Those were only privy to editorial systems at that time which in turn couldn’t deliver broadcast quality. But with a timeline as a node, artists were able to insert effects up and downstream of the edit, host multiple edits in the same compositing set up and change timings of layers while working inside their composite.

Another feature that made Cyborg unique between the two giants of Henry and Flame/Inferno was the native implementation of Primatte. At that time Primatte was so far ahead of its competition and having that right inside of your finishing system was just awesome. But Cyborg also broke new ground in other areas. Already in version 1 it had optical flow functionality quite ahead of its competition. Not only were the results pretty good, it also had a very clever approach to rendering. With Cyborg being clip-centric, the Motion estimation was rendered as a separate clip just once, giving the artist the ability to process multiple versions of a timewarp without going through constant re-Renders. Once again, this is expected behavior today, but at that time, almost all software packages were either rgb or rgba-based. Nuke was the first software to really embrace the concept of multi-channel and really utilize AOVs, and that was made available to the industry only in 2002.

The point tracker inside of Cyborg was far superior to the one in Henry and also the first one that could give the famous discreet tracker a run for its money. Also it came along with the very nice pre-tracking feature, where you could already see a HUD preview of your track while placing the tracker. And the paint module, while not being vector-based and hence destructive, introduced the ability to rotate the canvas either by shortcut or the 4D mouse that shipped with a Wacom tablet at that time. If you think that some of these features sound somewhat familiar, just keep on reading, we will get to that part of the story. 

Making an impression

To describe the impact Cyborg had onto our industry at that time one simply had to walk Hall 7 of the IBC in Amsterdam in 2001. Discreet had a huge booth with multiple workstations and Quantel’s booth doubled the discreet one in size, sporting a stage with seats for up to fifty attendees. Quantel presented its new flagship product, the iQ. While the hardware was impressive, the software was really not there yet, especially in regards to compositing. There were rumors that discreet was working on a new architecture, but it would take until NAB 2002 for Mezzo and Strata to be revealed. And then, near the south wall of Hall 7, was the 5D booth – and that one was crowded. Not for the plugins, not for the swag, but for Cyborg. Cyborg was the buzzword of that show and people talked about this machine being a potential Flame-killer. 

The two Cyborg systems were set up at Das Werk right alongside two of the Henrys. That really kickstarted my involvement in productions. What happened was that a symbiosis formed between the Senior Artist and me as a Junior Artist. While I would introduce them to the capabilities of the Cyborg and a file-based workflow, they would teach me about compositing itself and – even more important back then – the fine art of working with clients. To this day I am still grateful for all things I learned back then and for having such great teachers.

The Cyborg also broadened the spectrum of jobs I could participate in: Unlike Henry, Cyborg was resolution-independent. So when a Barilla Commercial directed by Wim Wenders came in and it was clear that the two Infernos would not be enough compositing power to finish this project in time, the Cyborgs were a welcome addition and I got my very first taste of high-resolution work. And while the crashy Paint module gave me headaches, the crowd replication work we did on that was really something for the twenty-two year old me.

However, not everything was great. With 5D still being a plug-in manufacturer, support for third party plugins was not exactly exuberant. There were no Gen-Arts Sapphire Plugins, neither was there a Cyborg version of the Tinder Tools by The Foundry – Yes, back than The Foundry was still a plug-in company. Versions of Knoll Lens Flare Pack and Digital Arnachy’s Text Arnachy were announced, but…

Stock market disasters, legal battles and new adventures

Out of the blue customers were hit by the news that the 5D closed offices on October 11th, 2002. That was only one month after IBC, where 5D announced a cheaper solution based on Cyborg called Eclypse and previewed the 2.5 version of the Cyborg software. So what has happened? A couple of years before, 5D Solutions sold a totally different part of their business, the printing division, to a company called Global Graphics for 24.7 Million Euro. Most of this amount however, was paid in stocks. During the dot com crisis, these stocks plummeted, but 5D was still liable for taxes on the original price of the stock at the time of the purchase. One could basically call this second degree murder by the stock market. The offices in London, L.A. and Miami were closed and all the assets went into litigation.

At the time I thought my time with Cyborg would now come to a very abrupt end – I was heartbroken. Little did I know that it would take another five years for me to finally part ways with that little monster of a machine. What took much less time was the liquidation of 5D itself. The people responsible for the plug-in division bought the division out of the liquidation mass themselves and founded Speedsix software. For seven years they maintained the Monster plug-in set until they eventually got bought by rival GenArts, known for their set of Sapphire plug-ins, in 2009. It should be another seven years before GenArts, in turn, is bought by Boris FX. While the monsters themselves are no longer around, some of them found their way into the Sapphire’s Suite of plug-ins.

And Cyborg itself? For two months, the user base held its collective breath.There were rumors that Quantel, Thomson, Avid, even Apple might be interested in picking up the reins on Cyborg. In the end, Discreet, by then already part of Autodesk, bought the intellectual property on Cyborg. Naturally, I hoped of course that Quantel would win the bid – but the “best of both worlds” scenario that I envisioned back then might have been a little bit biased. 

Now suddenly Discreet owned the property that was once labelled as a potential Flame-killer. They did what you would expect – kill the product. But, eventually, over the years, some of my more beloved Cyborg features found their way into Autodesk products. It would just take a couple of more years for me to find them there.

Some of the developers and management divided however that this was not the end and founded Assimilate Inc. and build Scratch – a color grading and digital intermediate solution that is still on the market today. While many of us tried to see in Scratch the spiritual successor to Cyborg, it was clearly a very different product aimed at a different task in our industry. The only ones that begged to differ in this matter was Autodesk, who sued Assimilate Inc. in 2008 on the grounds that they allegedly infringed on the Cyborg intellectual property that they purchased back in 2002. The example Autodesk gave was the functionality of a Confirm/Escape button and the concept of a pop-up calculator window. It seemed as petty back then as it does now, as these concepts even back then were not unique to neither Cyborg nor Flame. However, in 2010 Assimilate settled with Autodesk, acknowledging that Cyborg code was actually used in Scratch. 

Not quite dead yet

But the effects of companies getting into rough water and new companies emerging were not limited to software companies. In spring of 2003, while “Das Werk” itself was in chapter 11, a new company emerged, with me being one of their first employees. The company was called “Acht Frankfurt”, and started off with two Henrys, one brand-new Quantel eQ and four Cyborgs. Three of them were actually previously owned by CIS Hollywood and used on the first Season of “Star Trek – Enterprise”. This fact  thrilled me – being a huge Trekkie my whole life – to no end.

So why would a freshly founded company invest in a defunct product? Well, the answer is quite simple: By then all the Artists joining Acht were quite skilled in using Cyborg – we were able to work on these machines from day one. We couldn’t anticipate that these actually held up until October 2007. That was when Acht switched to Autodesk Flame. Up until that point we threw so much work at those machines they were not necessarily designed to do. For Lexus we did a 10:1 master, 5760×576 pixel. In 2005 we actually increased this to almost 8K for a installation for Mercedes Benz. This was something no other workstation could do at the time, most of them being limited by 4k width at the max. We also did a music promo with a runtime of three and a half minutes, containing up to nine layers of bluescreen. Comped by a single artist in nine days. This would not have been possible without the native primatte keyer.

But there were also drawbacks. Cyborg stopped being developed before it reached a critical mass in the industry – hence we had no freelancer base to scale up our workforce. And while we were able to squeeze an impressive number of years out of the system, with it being centered around the Wildcat III, we had no option to increase the performance of those workstations. As long as the jobs were predominantly SD, this was not an issue, but by 2007 it was clear that Acht needed workstations for the HD age.

For me, there was a certain irony that Acht took delivery of the Flame systems that were going to replace the Cyborgs on the very last day I worked for that company. But at my next location, Deli Pictures in Hamburg, i was finally able to get my hands on a Flame and boy, did i find some old friends. A number of features have actually made it into Flame. The concept of a timeline residing inside of the compositing environment, the rotatable canvas in paint and of course the optical flow for slow motions and many more little features showed up.

So what is the legacy of cyborg? In my opinion, it cannot be underestimated how cyborg bridged the gap between the proprietary world of the nineties and the open, networked and connected world we do find ourselves in today. Cyborg entered the scene at just the right time and dared to do things differently. In a relatively short timespan, 5D was able to put together a system that gave the two market leaders a run for their money. Also bear in mind that around that time a lot of companies tried to enter the compositing market. There was Sony’s ill-fated Soccrato, there was Tremor by Nothing real and some more tried. Even the established companies Quantel and Discreet tried to reinvent themselves with new products, and both of them failed as well. Developing a compositing, let alone a finishing application is very hard work. There is a reason why all the major compositing applications out there today reach back for at least thirty years. And for a very brief moment, there was a Cyborg out there who was about to shake all that up. One can only dream what would have been…

The post The Rise and Fall of Cyborg first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Christoph Zapletal.

Subtitle Translation

Another feature in the Premiere Pro beta is Subtitle Translation. When I recorded this interview with Anton Knoblach, I did not know that the whole Digital Production would change to English in 2025 (Nobody knew that at the time, or if so, Bela didn’t tell me!)). But with the help of this new feature I could easily translate my German subtitles to English. That worked pretty good and there were only a few words to fix in the text panel. But I also wanted an english voiceover. So I exported the english subtitles and opened them in elevenlabs. After generating the english voiceover, I imported the audio files in Premiere. After some timing adjustments I and lowering the german original voice, I had an english version with even german and english subtitles side by side. I must admit that the english voice does not sound so great, but it does the job. Other voices would have been available…

The feature supports native translation of subtitles into 17 languages, making it easier to create localized versions of projects. This significantly reduces the reliance on manual translations, which often slow down workflows and add to production costs. For more details on the Premiere Pro beta and its features, visit Adobe’s official page here.

Although the voice recordings of the DJI wireles microphones were already pretty good, I enhanced them with the Adobe Podcast online enhancement tool. That reduced the tradefair-showfloor-background noise a lot. Tip: To avoid audio artefacts and a “unnatural” sound, I usually put the amount on or around 80 % – your result may vary, but give it a try!

The post IBC 2024 Adobe AI News with Anton Knoblach first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Nils Calles.

In their very first episode, Bela Beier (Editor-in-Chief, Digital Production Magazine) and Christoph Zapletal (Compositing Artist & Instructor) talk about control surfaces for an artist’s workstation. They are joined by Angry Face founder Mazze Aderhold for an in-depth discussion of new and refurbished grading panels and the upgrades you can apply to a panel. They finish the show by discussing the latest news from IBC 2024.

For all the different ways to listen to this podcast, check out linktr.ee/letsfixitinpod – we have Spotify, Youtube, Libsyn, Apple Podcast and More!

Links mentioned in the show

https://www.angry-face.com/

https://3dconnexion.com/

https://contourdesign.com

https://loupedeck.com/

https://www.tangentwave.co.uk/

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vantablack

https://electricsheep.tv/

https://www.maxon.net/en/zbrush-for-ipad

The post Let’s Fix it in Pod 01 Control Surfaces with Mazze Aderhold first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Christoph Zapletal.

And after the beta phase of Adobe Firefly, everything is now available. Anyone who wanted to could try out the generated features directly at the stand. And as you can see from the cover picture, we still have to learn how to prompt.

So, let’s start with Premiere – the May update had “text based editing”, which worked quite well. Here you don’t edit the frames, but the text of the automatic transcription like a normal text document, and Premiere assigns this and “cuts” it to fit. This makes it very easy to sort the voice contributions and quickly either find important statements or logically re-sort the flow of speech – we all know that when we digress in an interview.

And there is now also “Filler Detection”, which automatically recognises “er”, “um” and so on. All sounds of this kind are also recognised in multi-channel audio – and can be completely deleted at once. Stoiber could have used that!(The great speech from 2002 – if you want, you can load it into the new Premiere and see what remains after 00:30)

Another cool new feature is the integration of the speech enhancement tool in“Adobe Podcast“. This automatic “audio cleaner” removes echoes, noise and everything else from the audio and improves sub-optimal original sounds, interview partners as well as the later transcription and general intelligibility. And now as a “Noise Remover” in Premiere with one click!

In addition, the timeline should react up to 5 times faster – depending on the workstation and material, of course, Auto Tone Mapping has learned three new methods (for iPhone footage, HLG material and automatic recognition of the Rec709 colour space), LUT management and LUT relinking have also been stabilised, and MetaData/TimeCode-Burn in, ProjectTemplates for quick setups and pipelines, marker batch selection and installer instructions for BRAW have been added at the request of users.

After Effects becomes 3D!

There’s a big new feature in After Effects: there’s now a True 3D workspace where you can import, animate, light, shade (and then render, of course) 3D objects. So you can mix 2D objects, motion graphics and 3D objects however you like. And all this with a GPU-accelerated render engine. So you can prepare yourself for everything flying around and spinning in future adverts.

Oh yes, and the lighting is of course also image-based – if you want, you can also generate these images in Adobe Firefly (Nils has summarised how to do this in the current DP).

Another new feature is “AI-supported rotoscoping”, which is designed to speed up and simplify cropping – and in the demo it coped with the usual stumbling blocks such as overlaps, extremities and hair much better and without long waiting times.

Firefly!

And perhaps the most “historic” update: Firefly can now also be used professionally, i.e. Creative Cloud users can generate commercially usable images. Powerpoints are finally clipart-free! Or whatever else you need. The generative AI functions are now built into Photoshop and generate three variations per prompt including history – so if you want to go back, you can relax, try things out and develop the best results.

If you haven’t played with it yet: At firefly.adobe.com you can log in with your Creative Cloud and try out text-to-image, generative fill, text effects, generative colouring, sketch-to-graphic and 3D-to-image for yourself. Caution: Once the play instinct is awakened, an afternoon like this passes very quickly! Not that we’re saying there’s nothing to do on a bank holiday, but perhaps this would be the perfect day to give Firefly a try.

And more!

As always, all further information and new features – as well as access to the beta versions – can be found at adobeeventsonline.com/IBC/. And for all those who want to see the whole thing in action and want to know how to use it sensibly: Adobe MAX is taking place again from 10 to 12 October – online and on site in Los Angeles. Registration is still open – and the line-up of speakers covers practically all trades – photography, video, 3D, illustration and much more. And we are happily waiting to see what features the next beta versions of Adobe have in store.

The post Adobe-Autumn-Update first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Digital production at the IBC – quality control, pipeline revolution and video telephony: For our autumn and winter issue, DP 06 : 2022, we were at the International Broadcast Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam! There we took a look at some great new tools – three of which we have brought along in interview form for this issue. In print, it reads like this: we spoke to Dan Tatut from Marquise Technologies about ICE Prime, a new player for quality control (“Three elements of quality control” on page 32), we talked to Jeremy Smith from Jellyfish Pictures about Hammerspace and how Hammerspace has the potential to overturn pipelines globally (“Jellyfish in the Hammerspace” on page 126), and with Gil Shefler from Riverside.fm about the perfect tool for video telephony recording: Riverside (“The better way to do an interview…” on page 82).

ACES – Academy Colour Encoding System: For our ACES focus area, nib-slash-ACES guru Christoph Zapletal has written the definitive “must-know” article on the Academy Colour Encoding System (“Putting the Ace in ACES” on page 20). In addition, Adobe – to put it casually – is thematically updating the colour workflow at SWR (and hopefully soon the other public broadcasters) with ACES in After Effects – read about it in “Modern Post in SWR” on page 38.

Hardware & software tests and project reports: Also vying for your attention: hardware tests on image stabilisation in Sony and Blackmagic cameras, inexpensive grading panels and the webcam recommendation Obsbot Tiny 4K (“Gyroscopes for image stabilisation” on page 86, “Grading panels from the midi world” on page 93, and “Follower!” on page 49). There are project reports on top, because how did the zombie episode from Love, Death and Robots, the new Disney animated film Strange World or the Netflix blockbuster Arcane: League of Legends (“Apocalypse of the mini-zombies” on page 12, “Welcome to the Strange World!” on page 54, and “Totally Jinxed: Serial Sisterhood” on page 132) actually come about? In addition, Uli Plank and Manuel Kotulla take a critical expert look at Cinema 4D 2023 and Renderman 25.

Digital Production as print and e-paper: With the publication of our previous issue, Digital Production 05 : 2022, we are also publishing digitally as an e-paper. If you would like to familiarise yourself with the e-paper version, we recommend clicking on the corresponding sample copy. In the current issue, Patrick Poti explains on page 44 how to register for the e-paper – and the advantages of paperless digital production.

Click and scroll further: the range of topics covered in Digital Production 06 : 2022 is far from exhausted – but discover for yourself (for example on pages 62 and 68, where Ralf Gliffe explains how artificial intelligence is currently revolutionising image processing). By the way: Readers can find the astronaut on the cover on page 112, where Ralf Drechsler runs his virtual production studio Hyperbowl, more precisely in the Bavarian municipality of Penzing (“Man on the Moon – Production in Penzing”). So: Click on DIGITAL PRODUCTION 06 : 2022 todiscover the entire world of topics. We hope you enjoy browsing and finding out more!

The post And here comes the new DP! first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.

In nuce: Colorfront, a developer of on-set dailies and transcoding systems for Hollywood studios, showcased the new features of its Express Dailies, On-Set Dailies and Transcoding product lines at this year’s IBC (International Broadcast Convention). The new functions mainly relate to connectivity and image processing.

In toto: Below are some of the most interesting innovations that Colorfront presented for its product lines at IBC 2022. For a complete list of the new functions, please refer to the sources at the end of this message.

• Integration into NDI and IMF component-based media workflows: The developer’s Express Dailies, On-Set Dailies and Transcoders mentioned above all offer 16-bit NDI video output. Network Device Interface(NDI) is a royalty-free software specification developed by NewTek that enables video-compatible products to deliver and receive frame-accurate, low-latency video over a local area network. With regard to IMF media-related workflows, validation tools provide important information during packing and quality testing processes. This includes incorrect Dolby Vision metadata, which is recognised, as well as volume issues or inconsistent letterboxing/frame line settings. IMF (Interoperable Master Format) “is a file-based media format that simplifies the delivery and storage of audiovisual masters intended for multiple territories and platforms.” (Source for the IMF definition: imfug.com)
• Support for AWS cloud storage (Amazon Web Services) and digital camera/audio formats: For cloud-based operations, Colorfront offers accelerated importing and faster uploading of media to AWS S3 cloud storage. Amazon Simple Storage Service (AWS S3) is used by customers to store data volumes for various use cases – including: Websites, archiving, enterprise applications. (Source for AWS S3 definition: doc.aws.amazon.com).
• Tools regarding timeline editorials and user interface: This includes an improved timeline for multi-channel audio editing, a spatial audio workflow, a hot-key editor, and an improved user experience.

Click further: Digital Production last reported on Colorfront on 2.09.2022 – at that time in connection with the release of the ColorBox from AJA Video System.

Sources: postproperspective.com, colorfront.com, YouTube video Colorfront Streaming Player – Introductory Video ( see minute 1:25 for the lead image above)

The post Colorfront presents new functions of its product line first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.

In nuce: Mark Robert Motion Control (MRMC) has announced that it will be present at this year’s IBC (International Broadcast Convention) with a selection of motion-controlled robots – including: related control software and broadcasting techniques. MRMC Chairman, Assaff Rawner, expressed his confidence in MRMC’s presence at IBC. MRMC will be on stand C30 in hall 11 in Amsterdam.

What can visitors expect? From 9 September to 12 September inclusive, visitors to the MRMC stand in Amsterdam will be able to experience the Bolt Jr Cinebot performing its automated camera movements. Visitors will also be able to take a look at a demonstration of the Flair software – among other things: The most important functions of Flair and the newly added Focus Assist tool. The following devices will also be presented: the ARC-360 PTZ camera, the QRS-1 Quiet Rail System, the StudioBot XL robotic arm and the TRH-1 rail system. According to the manufacturer, the QRS-1 Quiet Rail System is both an affordable and customisable rail system, while the StudioBot XL robotic arm was designed for automatic camera movements for news and studio recordings. MRMC will also be present with solutions that are especially suitable for the broadcasting of sporting events. In its self-presentation, MRMC states that all of the manufacturer’s robots are camera-independent and work in combination with any camera model.

Click further: To the Mark Robert Motion Control homepage and the IBC website. Digital Production last reported on IBC 2022 on 26 August this year , when it was Maxon’s 3D and Motion Design Show that advertised its presence at the trade fair this year – with many experts sharing their expertise on Maxon tools. We would like to thank our colleagues from Provideo Coalition, from whom we obtained some information for this report.

The post At the IBC 2022: MRMC with motion control robots first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.

In nuce: Maxon will be represented at the IBC 2022 (International Broadcast Convention). The IBC will take place from 9.09. – 12.09. in Amsterdam. Maxon will also be staging its 3D and Motion Design Show on site – as always, many experienced motion graphics artists will be on hand to pass on their skills to the audience. Maxon’s 3D and Motion Design Show at IBC 2022 will also be offered as a live stream – and will be available afterwards on Maxon’s YouTube channel. Event information for trade fair visitors: The corresponding presentations will take place at 10 a.m. Central European Time on all four days of the event. Interested parties can find out more about the artists who will be presenting their expertise in Cinema 4D, Redshift & Co. at 3DMotionShow.com .

Maxon at IBC 2022: Maxon will also be showcasing its Maxon One product line on stand 7.A27. With its presence at the Amsterdam event, Maxon is relying on the proven combination of product presentations and expert know-how. Maxon’s presence at the live event comes after the company behind Cinema 4D, ZBrush and Redshift appeared in realis at this year’s NAB (National Association of Broadcasters). Digital Production last reported on the 3D & Motion Design Show on 9 August 2022 , when Emmy winner EJ Hasssenfratz and C4D pope Athanasios “Noseman” Pozantzis shared their expertise on Maxon tools at Siggraph 2022 – live again. David McGavran, Maxon’s Managing Director, is delighted about the return to live events and announces his intention to kick things off with a bang at IBC 2022. Beyond that, Maxon communicates that it is pleased to be working with Lenovo and AMD.

Click further: All further information about IBC 2022.

The post Maxons 3D and Motion Design Show auf der IBC 2022! first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.

From SIGGRAPH, it’s on to IBC 2019: Blackmagic Design is presenting its new updates and products in Amsterdam today. These include the new Blackmagic RAW (1.5), new monitoring models, a new live mixer and more.

Blackmagic RAW 1.5

The new Blackmagic RAW 1.5 update finally supports editing in Adobe Premiere Pro and Avid Media Composer. In addition to support for NLEs, the update also includes Blackmagic RAW Speed Test for Mac, Windows and Linux, as well as performance improvements and bug fixes. The update is now available here.

Blackmagic Video Assist 12G HDR

With the Blackmagic Video Assist 12G, there are two new models in the monitoring product range that you can use to expand your cameras for better recording, monitoring and codecs. They each feature brighter HDR screens, integrated videoscopes, more powerful batteries, 12G-SDI and more.

The screens come in a new design with touchscreen operation and are particularly suitable for live productions, digital signage and archiving:

• 2500-nit LCD with HDR support and focussing aids
• 10-bit colour accuracy for Rec.601, 709 and Rec.2020
• Support for SD/USH-II cards, as well as direct recording via USB-C
• 12G-SDI and HDMI for recording in SD, HD and Ultra HD
• Integrated videoscopes with waveform, vectorscope, parade and histogram
• Multirate 12G SDI technology for SD, HD and Ultra HD
• 3D LUTs can be used for monitoring and during recording
• Major codecs such as Blackmagic RAW, ProRes, DNxHD, DNxHR and more
• Support for multichannel digital and analogue audio

The Blackmagic Video Assist 12G will be available from September 2019 for 795 USD!

ATEM Mini – Live Production Mixer

The new ATEM Mini is equipped with four HDMI inputs and is specially designed for live streams with multi-camera setups on online platforms and software such as YouTube, Facebook Live or Skype. Cameras, computers or games consoles can be connected to the HDMI inputs. In addition to the HDMI inputs, the feature highlights include

• USB output functions as a webcam and supports any video software
• HDMI video output for direct programme recording
• Two stereo audio inputs for connecting microphones
• Free ATEM software control application for Mac and Windows
• DVE processor for picture-in-picture effects and DVE transitions in Full HD
• Internal media memory for 20 RGBA graphics for titles, opening boards and logos
• ATEM Advanced Chroma Keyer for green or blue screens

Available for €345 from November 2019!

Further innovations

Further information: To the Blackmagic Design website

The post Blackmagic at the IBC 2019 first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.