Daniel Pellerin is the Genie- and Gemini Award-winning director of mixing services at Deluxe Post Production Sound in Toronto, which specializes in feature films and long-form TV.

As fate would have it, the trip we at Deluxe were hoping to take to NAB2001 (April 21-26 in Las Vegas) slipped out of our grip due to unforeseen last-minute duties on the home front. This was particularly disappointing since this year’s trade show offered a significant amount of information pertinent in identifying the missing pieces of the digital puzzle as well as the network options now available to those who work in post-production sound.

These technological developments – and the way we integrate them in our studios – will go a long way in maximizing the efficiency of our facilities. The key, of course, is to complement the technology that already exists.

Luckily, Sean Cowan, senior technical engineer at Manta Digital Sound and Picture and intergalactic overlord, managed to slip undetected through the force field to attend NAB and explore the ever-expanding universe of digital media.

He returned from his mission inspired and armed with a veritable wellspring of information. So we decided to collaborate on this article to unveil the exciting discoveries he made and provide a glimpse into the future.

Pellerin: ‘What was your overall impression of NAB2001?’

Cowan: ‘At first, it was absolutely overwhelming. Being a veteran of several Audio Engineering Society shows, but never having attended NAB, I think the first thing I noticed was the size of the show. At the Las Vegas Convention Center, it was broken down into TV/video/film exhibits and radio/audio exhibits. At the Sands Expo Center there were more TV/video/film exhibits as well as satellite/telecommunications and Internet/streaming/multimedia exhibits.

The scope is so huge, it’s difficult to imagine taking it all in, and you really have to plan ahead.’

Pellerin: ‘From an audio perspective, what were the highlights of the show?’

Cowan: ‘I was sent to NAB with a specific mission: to research digital consoles, digital recorders and networking solutions. At first, because of the scope of the exhibit, it seemed daunting, but I felt up to the task.

All the major console manufacturers were present, and they have all developed to a significantly higher level of maturity. I must say I was impressed by the quality of performance of all the products demonstrated this year – there wasn’t one system crash.

The other thing that stuck out was the power and elegance of the automation systems. Each manufacturer has a unique design philosophy, but since you can now automate most or all of the console parameters, they need to be powerful and simple to use – not an easy trick.

Console highlights included the AMS Neve Libra Post (for TV mixing) as well as the Euphonix System 5 and Studer D950 (for large-format/film mixing). In order to judge the large-format consoles, one must take into account functionality, reliability, expandability and overall technical performance. The main technical criteria for console platform selection include: whether it’s Mac- or PC-based, network and transfer ability, and project interchangeability. For the person performing the mix, setup features and operating methods are major considerations.

Another priority for us was to find a suitable replacement for our linear digital technology (multi-track digital recorders). We needed to find alternative nonlinear recorder/playback technology to complement our current base, which consists of Digidesign Pro Tools and TASCAM MMR-8 and MMP-16. It is paramount to have the ability to fully and easily integrate with our Pro Tools systems, whether this means playing sessions directly or reading/writing Mac disks and SD2 files.

Insofar as its scope of network technology, NAB is vastly superior to the AES shows I have attended. The video and broadcast communities have always had to move much larger amounts of data than those do in audio, and data management solutions have really evolved.

The major networking and storage companies were proposing a variety of solutions to the growing need for network storage capacity and bandwidth. One such solution is SAN (storage area networks), where everyone on the network uses central storage in realtime.

NAS (network attached storage) solutions are also becoming increasingly popular. In this case, the local workstation uses its own storage and then backs up to and restores from a large central storage array. Also, because the speed of IDE drives is catching up to SCSI, some manufacturers are using JBOD (Just a Bunch of Drives) systems as a high-capacity, low-cost solution.’

Pellerin: ‘Did you manage to experiment with any new and exciting gear?’

Cowan: ‘One of the exciting things I saw was the Avid Unity system, which is being turned into a Pro Tools networking solution. The system will carry up to 25 simultaneous realtime (dual-stream) Pro Tools systems with up to 100 x 48 kHz audio tracks. You can attach up to 7.3 TB (terabytes) of shared storage.

TASCAM demonstrated the new MX-View software for its MX-2424 digital recorder, which will allow waveform editing using a Mac or PC terminal on a very cost-effective recording platform.’

Pellerin: ‘Any indication on the direction digital server technology is heading in the near future, in terms of choice of medium and designated standard?’

Cowan: ‘TASCAM’s alignment with fiber channel card manufacturer Driveline will allow realtime network communication between its MMR-8, MMP-16 and MX-2424 directly to SAN, eliminating the need to store the audio data on individual, local drives. I think all the pro audio manufacturers will have to follow this model to be effective: keep prices low, functionality high, and most importantly, maintain good, fast networkability.

Pellerin: ‘Did you have any revelations coming out of NAB2001?’

Cowan: ‘Probably the biggest surprise for me personally was the attention audio is receiving from the video and broadcast communities. There has always been a very large division between these disciplines.

I like to think that we are all striving to achieve the same goal: better product. I think you’ll see the amount of audio equipment product and number of audio professionals converging at NAB increasing significantly over the next several years.

The harsh reality of audio post-production is that the time frame we are given to perform our tasks has diminished, and consequently, the demands we place on our equipment and the capacity to properly process digital data has increased significantly.

It’s clear from exploring this year’s NAB that the destiny of audio post-production beyond 2001 is intrinsically linked to digital technology and the increased ability to exchange and store large amounts of digital data. We are no longer talking about megabytes and gigabytes – we’re talking about how many terabytes of storage we can hang off our servers and how quickly we can access it.’

In the final analysis, Conway’s NAB2001 discoveries point to very practical solutions that are quickly becoming available to those who have the foresight to embrace the emerging technologies. The digital revolution is in full swing.

It has become obvious, especially in light of this year’s exhibition, that there is no going back; this is the point of no return. We’re approaching warp speed, so you’d be advised to sort it out and get on board real soon, or risk being left behind in a galaxy long ago, far far away. *

-www.bydeluxe.com

-www.compt.com (Command Post & Transfer/Manta DSP)

-www.ams-neve.com

-www.euphonix.com

-www.studer.ch

-www.tascam.com

-www.digidesign.com