Jon Robertson is VP, Vancouver operations, of Command Post and Transfer. The Command Post/TOYBOX West facility specializes in post-production and visual effects for feature films, long-form television and commercials.

The NAB convention in Las Vegas is the single most important technology show the TV broadcast and post-production communities will attend this year. The annual event attracts in excess of 100,000 people from every region of the globe, and this year, Command Post and Transfer will have 10 representatives from our Toronto and Vancouver operations on the scene.

Command Post has developed some unique approaches to solving the daily challenges that occur as a result of the ever-changing technological requirements of post-production. We were part of the Canadian introduction to high-definition TV with the acquisition of the Spirit DataCine, an HD telecine that is capable of higher resolution data output for film resolution application. The Spirit is at the heart of the Cinema HD process, a Command Post proprietary imaging technique that affords filmmakers an opportunity to deliver film-projection quality using video-style compositing and color processing toolsets.

At this year’s NAB, Command Post will once again critique HD technology. We will evaluate no fewer than five different telecine machines that use various picture-scanning principles. Of prime importance when assessing telecines is image resolution, image stability for seamless compositing, and richness and ‘depth’ of picture with minimum digital artifacting.

Telecine manufacturers for further investigation include Philips (Spirit and Shadow), Cintel (C-Reality and Rascal Digital), ITK (the Millennium Machine) and Sony.

With HD technology comes a new philosophy for 24-frame picture editing, which has a clear advantage when delivering international program masters. HD mastering at 24-frame progressive scan, 1,080-line resolution, allows for seamless conversion to any of the 18 different proposed digital TV standards and represents the most unified post solution. There will be no shortage of products geared to the 24p environment at NAB2001. Upconverters, downconverters, rate converters and 3/2 cadence inserters are just some of the HD devices necessary to complete an HD 24p post path.

Efficient HD-quality streaming

For editing, there has been significant movement towards platforms that record and play back directly to and from hard drives, and the cost of these devices has decreased substantially in recent years. This may be the first NAB where HD-quality images are streamed at a cost-effective price point. Command Post will evaluate a new generation of devices that will allow for random access editing at full broadcast resolution for inclusion in our online editing facilities.

Worth mentioning is a brand-new nonlinear online device being introduced at NAB2001 by Sony. The machine is reportedly very powerful and cost effective.

Reasonably priced distribution of high-resolution TV images via fiber optic has only recently become a reality in post facilities. Using this technology, Command Post has successfully linked its Toronto and Vancouver operations into the Los Angeles post arena and will be using this feed for moving dailies for program producers and visual effects data for internal use.

It is safe to assume NAB2001 will introduce a number of products using compression schemes, all designed to squeeze large picture files into small data packets for transmission. Realtime MPEG2 transmission will become more commonplace in post this year and Command Post will evaluate some of these solutions.

We will pursue a fairly diverse number of technologies at this year’s show. Although it is difficult to determine the exact nature of our purchases, NAB represents the best opportunity for us to sample the wares. *

-www.commandpost.ca