With this first (and destined not to be the last) tech highlights overview, VirtualInnovations asked some technically savvy types from various areas of the industry to make their calls on the significant production technology moments from last year and to forecast the major issues of 1999 and beyond.

We sought opinion from an assortment of post/effects professionals on which facets of the vast technical arena made an impact: which products stood out (for better or worse), how the processes changed, what projects mattered and why.

Participants were also asked to provide their thoughts on what the near future of production technology holds – how the products, platforms and processes will continue to change and what it will mean to their own businesses and the industry.

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Technology continued to advance rapidly through 1998. Many new products became available including the continued development of Discreet Logic’s Fire. This product has allowed us entry into high-end commercial post-production as a companion tool to our DL Inferno.

Through proprietary hardware/software we are able to share image files between the two rooms so that the images can be manipulated by the product best suited for the particular task.

With television as we know it threatening to change (read hdtv), it is important to have flexibility with our equipment so that we do not have to completely retool when our television system evolves to its next incarnation.

The Discreet Logic product offers us this flexibility through resolution-independent architecture. With a small number of manufacturing companies vying for the business of the post-production house, there is a constant battle for product supremacy. As a result, the end user continually benefits from product improvements. It is therefore pertinent to mention the improvements that Quantel is offering through its new Infinite software.

Multiple-layer work is commonplace in high-end commercial work and Quantel is now offering infinite layers of compositing.

An important aspect of nonlinear post-production are the drives to which the material is digitized. This technology is advancing at a rapid rate. Drive capacities continue to grow and show no sign of slowing down.

Larger, faster, cheaper are positives for facility owners and artists working with the technology. This will be most appreciated when working in hdtv or film resolutions.

Interfacing to these drives is also improving significantly. Fibre channel drives are being released by most manufacturers and provide the kind of sustained throughput that is essential for realtime high-resolution work. These drives also offer much better scalability, allowing larger arrays, again essential for high-resolution work.

Computer technology continues to advance, bringing faster, better systems to the post-production workplace. Most recently, Silicon Graphics released its rendition of nt computing power. These new systems, on evaluation of their technical data sheets alone, look to be very promising. The systems are only beginning to ship now, so on-site evaluation has not taken place.

Many applications which had formerly been available only to unix users are now being ported to nt, contributing to the viability of this platform.

Also released with these nt systems was the introduction of new flat-screen monitors with a feature called Color Lock.

This feature allows a network of users to calibrate their monitors for absolute color accuracy. Color Lock then allows critical color evaluation of video elements so that it becomes possible to corroborate on creative decisions from remote locations. The success of nt will be measured based on price point versus performance.

The telecine market is about to evolve to the next level. With the need for resolution-independent film transfer, new technologies are coming to market.

Cintel, which has been the dominant player in telecine for many years, is now trying to recapture the market share recently dominated by Phillips with its Datacine.

The Phillips Datacine, with its ability to deliver standard-definition, high-definition as well as film-resolution data files, has shown many facility owners a means of future proofing their facilities while working at today’s television resolution.

Cintel’s answer to this is the C-Reality, which also offers resolution independence in the familiar flying spot methodology. C-Reality is currently in Beta test in a few facilities worldwide and should be into general delivery soon.

C-Reality has a unique feature called cvip, which is an internal color corrector capable of film-resolution color manipulation. The color bandwidth is 2,048 x 1,536 pixels.

Sony also threatens to enter the telecine fray, having shown its transport at the 1998 nab as well as at ibc in Amsterdam. Sony has also developed new proprietary mechanisms designed to improve colorimetry and image stability.

Again, since the Sony telecine has only been seen in a limited demonstration environment it has been difficult to assess its potential.

One nice feature about the Sony telecine is the fact that you can simultaneously record both hdtv and standard-definition images. This should prove beneficial while we transcend into higher resolution television.

Innovation tk continues to provide significant improvements to telecine work by way of the upgrades it develops for Cintel telecines.

This year’s product was Y-Front, which enables better color separation by decreasing the distance that the light source must travel to the sensors as well as to use a revolutionary new pickup device.

This is definitely a company to keep an eye on, having realized great success with the advent of its two earlier products, Twiggi and Scandal.

Product that has impressed me this year includes the previously described Fire nonlinear edit package. This product has done great things for keeping commercial post-production in our door after colorist Bill Ferwerda has completed color correction.

We look forward to also adding Y-Front to our telecine to bring even better images to the clients of d.a.v.e. itk is truly an innovator, and itk’s Stuart Hunt’s background as a former Cintel design engineer brings many advantages to developing telecine improvement products.

In addition to these devices, the audio world has become much better with the advent of the Tascam MMR-8 and MMP-16 removable hard-drive record/playback devices. The designers of this product have really done their homework, incorporating many sought-after features such as all possible combinations of sampling frequencies with every possible pull-up or pull-down imaginable.

Also worthy of accolades is the new Digital audio console from Studer. We look forward to the installation of this board in our new theater mixing room. The new digital consoles finally have the required resolution to emulate the entire analog waveform, and with snapshot recall, mix setup time can be drastically reduced.

For consumer equipment the fact that plasma displays may sometime be in our homes is exciting. The thought of a three-inch deep, wide-screen monitor hanging on our walls will move us out of Bedrock and closer to George Jetson.

Paul Thomas is manager of technical services at Dome Productions, Toronto.