it is said that the really momentous nab shows skip a year, and if that homespun theory holds true, next year’s confab will assume epic proportions. NAB 97, held April 5-10 in Las Vegas, heralded what seems to be a new era of convergence, productivity and digital technology including digital tv, and held out some irresistible shiny baubles that kiddies won’t be able to play with until next year.

The urge to be open was the overarching principle behind many of the initiatives put forward by manufacturers, with the trend toward open-architecture systems sweeping across the industry like a moisture-sucking desert wind.

The exhibit split this year between the Sands Expo and the Las Vegas Convention Centre was more than geographical. It broke out thusly: lvcc – lots of suits, big machines, mood lighting. Sands Expo – lots of long hair, small, unknown-but-not-for-much-longer companies and cheeky robots greeting weary visitors by name with an appropriate comment on the state of one’s appearance.

In perhaps an overstatement of the relative moods at both locations, one young computer upstart, displaying the particular conceit of that breed, is said to have dubbed the lvcc the ‘Rust Belt.’

But if rust never sleeps neither do canny hardware and software companies, big or small, all of which had balls in the air with new announcements and upgrades in the works, most of which will come home to roost by next year’s nab.

Advances in 3D animation architectures, high-definition tv, online editing and multiplatform solutions were held out this year as possibilities in various stages of reality, many of which will assume concrete form by next April.

Appreciable buzz was generated by Quantel’s leap into the open with its offering of platform-independent Java programming on its application-specific boxes. Continuous crowds were drawn by demonstrations of the possibilities of Java on Quantel’s high-end hardware as well as by upgrades to Editbox and Henry.

In the upper level of Quantel’s jammed booth, the company permitted glimpses into the future of its prized products, including a version of Henry with capabilities for unlimited layers, likely available next year.

But Quantel systems, although offering more price flexibility than in previous years, are not in everyone’s ‘snack bracket,’ and representatives of facilities of all sizes were scoping the show for low-cost, high-performance packages.

nab attendee Don Thompson of Vancouver’s Finale says while more equipment purchases are in the shop’s future, he couldn’t pass up a low-cost paint and compositing software package spied at the show. Illuminaire from Torrance, California-based Denim Software offers object-oriented interactive painting and animation as well as video compositing, clip animation and special effects for Power Mac, Windows 95 and Windows nt for about us$1,995, and according to Thompson, provides substantial power.

Thompson says while there were impressive developments this year, like those at Quantel, he is looking at ’98 as a big nab year.

‘What you’ll likely see next year is the evolution of server-based edit systems,’ says Thompson. ‘That is becoming a reality and that’s what we’re holding our breath for.’

‘Not quite there yet’

Many nab shoppers were on the lookout for new nt-based offerings, but many of those, like Toronto’s Dan Krech who went looking for those new high-powered packages, reported that many offerings ‘aren’t quite there yet,’ and there wasn’t an excess of mind-blowing nt packages ready to take home.

Krech is expected to make several equipment announcements subsequent to nab and meetings with partners from Atlanta’s Crawford Communications with which Dan Krech Productions recently formed an alliance. Krech says one of the technical standouts of the show was the emergence of Fibre Channel as the path of choice for networking.

The nt versus sgi dynamic also seems to have taken on a different tone, with predictions of the death of one or the other of the platforms giving way to a coexistence based on tailoring equipment and software to the specific needs of a given facility that is increasingly involving multiplatform solutions.

With many of its equipment upgrades already announced over the past several months, this year’s sgi booth focused on demonstrations and displays by third-party users. With a large array of companies announcing support for sgi’s Octane and O2 equipment as well as its StudioCentral Digital Asset management software, the company provided a showcase for the capabilities of its gear and that of its users, among them Jaleo and Montreal-based Digits n Art Software.

The company made its own announcements, including the impending release of divo and dvo boards.

Rob Engman of Toronto’s Catchlight/The Edit Sweet remarked on the trend toward nt or multiplatform software as well as toward manufacturers offering more affordable hardware and software solutions.

Engman points to the emergence of more cost-effective virtual set systems, an area which once again captured a good deal of attention at the show.

rt-set took the nab opportunity to introduce its Ibis virtual studio system, based on sgi’s O2 workstation. Ibis offers a number of camera movement options and other features for productions with moderate set requirements for under us$90,000.

Nonlinear online editing systems were another attention-grabber by their sheer ubiquity.

The Avid booth, which dwarfed last year’s enormous monument to itself, was abuzz with activity and favorable feedback on its equipment upgrades. Among other things, Avid demonstrated new features for its pci-based Media Composer, Film Composer and Mac mcxpress.

Features like intraframe editing and eight-channel audio i/o bring technology from Avid subsidiaries Parallax and Digidesign to the task of increased creative post options and online finishing of high-end broadcast properties. Avid trumpeted the growing number of u.s. shows, including cbs’ 48 Hours and Martha Stewart Living, which are edited and finished on Media Composers.

Jaleo system

The up-and-coming Jaleo editing and compositing system from Madrid-based Comunicacion Integral enjoyed a busy nab, with the company premiering Jaleo for sgi Octane at the show.

JaleOctane offers uncompressed realtime D1 video capture and playout and realtime processing of effects. Running on sgi’s O2, JaleO2 provides a high-end, cost-effective, uncompressed video editing and compositing solution.

Cam Posch from Xtreme, a Toronto reseller of Jaleo, says the systems are gaining popularity in the Canadian market, with a number of new users like ctv and Molstar Sports and Entertainment recently signing on, joining existing early adopters like dkp and Optix Post Production. Posch says the reseller has expanded its facility and is aiming at becoming the Canadian training center for Jaleo beginning this summer.

Another inescapable theme of this year’s nab was advanced tv, and although its eventual coming is over a year off in the u.s. and even further away here, the recent u.s. Federal Communications Commission decision setting out time lines for broadcasters’ initial and final conversion to dtv ensured the issue was top of mind this year.

After adopting the Advanced Television Systems Committee digital tv standard, based on the Grand Alliance consortium system, on April 3 the fcc allocated digital spectrum to broadcasters. Network affiliates are required to transmit digital broadcasts in the top 10 major markets within 24 months, although many say they will begin within 18 months, and it is estimated that tv manufacturers will make sets available to consumers on a large scale by spring 1998.

The nab show featured the first transcontinental public broadcasts of hdtv, originating at whd-tv in Washington and received at the atsc exhibit at nab.

Another hdtv demonstration featured a nature documentary shot in Africa by New York-based hdtv pioneer Rebo Studio. During the show, audible gasps could be heard from the audience at the startling clarity of some of the scenes, with close-range footage of elephants gathering at a watering hole practically leaving one with the smell of pachyderm in one’s nostrils.

With Panasonic’s standard gargantuan booth demonstrating an all-digital lineup this year, the company provided the first set of gear to allow broadcasters and producers to start investing in the future format.

The company showed products in 1125 interlaced, 525 interlaced and 525 progressive, representing three of the four major levels of atsc system video format. On show were high-definition cameras and recorders as well as format conversion equipment which allows up and down conversion of all atsc standards 1125I, 750P, 525P and 525I.

Panasonic’s Next Generation Video flag was flying over the show floor and across sin city, maintaining a high profile for the show and in the industry as a whole.

The company recently scored a big win in the form of a major purchase of dvcpro equipment by cbs in the u.s. cbs acquired more than 1,400 units, spending over us$24 million, which means not only can 13 of the network’s stations convert their news and editing operations to dvcpro, but a long-standing relationship the network had with Sony has been altered.

At nab, Panasonic unveiled its new DVCPRO50 products, offering 4:2:2 signal processing at a data rate of 50 mbps and four 16-bit 48 kHz sampled channels of uncompressed audio.

While one might assume that the throngs of nabmen gathered around the laptop editing bar were expecting some other kind of show, they were in fact enthralled by the briefcase-size field editor. The $40,000 unit was used by the cbc for its Team Canada Asian trade mission coverage, for which footage shot on location was cut in local hotel rooms before being taken to tv stations for airing.

Economics of digital TV

Panasonic BTS Broadcast Sales Department product manager Stuart Hurst serves on Working Group 2 of the Heritage Committee, a body dedicated to speed the digital tv plow in Canada. The subcommittee, headed by ctv’s John Cassaday, is looking at the economical issues surrounding digital tv on the consumer and commercial side.

Hurst says one of the issues particular to a Canadian discussion of digital tv is the large cable industry and how to handle distribution through a cable system framework. He also notes that initial feedback from Shaw Cable indicates the cable company could work within its new technological infrastructure to accommodate advanced tv.

NANBA confab

Mixing in with the general nab hoi polloi was a gathering of the North American National Broadcasters Association, celebrating its 25th year by holding its board and advisory council meetings at the Las Vegas show.

nanba secretary general Bill Roberts, who was recognized at an international dinner April 9, says a number of key decisions were made at the confab in regard to the future of broadcasting. As a result of discussions with Canadian Heritage director general Susan Baldwin, representatives working within nanba will be charged with formulating a standard, comprehensive definition of broadcasting.

In addition, subsequent to meetings with Vince Grosso, head of AT&T Digital in the u.s., Roberts says nanba will institute an Internet Project, which will pool the resources of all three nanba member countries to study the Web-based challenges facing broadcasters and for which working groups are currently being formed.

nanba’s nab meetings also saw the establishment of an annual award for broadcasting. Sponsored by Bell Canada, the award will be presented to a broadcaster or broadcast-related entity which has made achievements in the field, contributing to international understanding and cooperation in broadcasting.

Nominations will be fielded from nanba’s 26 members and the first award will be handed out at the association’s annual general meeting next February in l.a.

The organization has also undertaken to play a major role in the next World Intellectual Property Organization conference, to be held at the end of this month in Manila, as well as taking a strong position toward a single standard for high-frequency digital audio.

The organization also approved a new member, adding wic to nanba’s 25-strong member list.

Roberts says nanba, which serves on the atsc, is working with that body to ensure a high-definition standard across North America, taking the nab opportunity to speak with European broadcasting companies and atsc members on the subject.

Roberts says his take on the unfolding of digital tv events holds that there will be a single standard across North America, and on the Canadian front, decision makers have expressed caution about endorsing a ‘full-steam ahead’ approach.

Ultimately, he says, Canadians will endorse the Grand Alliance standard as it allows for the greatest amount of flexibility.

‘We can surmise that Canadians are waiting to see how (digital tv) shakes out in the u.s.,’ says Roberts, adding that a strong government stance on the issue will likely not be forthcoming until after a June election, if one is called.

In terms of NAB 97 buzz, Roberts cites the convergence mania in evidence this year and predicts that next year will see the fruits of that union and a focus on Webcasting.

In the realm of 3D animation, it was a story of current upgrades and the ghosts of nabs yet to come as Canadian and once-Canadian software companies drew large crowds with a dazzling display of the present and future of 3D software, concentrating on integrating solutions and providing increased productivity through the animation process.

As a pair of much ballyhooed comprehensive software systems continue to loom, Toronto’s Side Effects software has used the lag time to upgrade its high-end 3D product Houdini, which is spearheading the productivity push in the animation world.

High above the elbow-to-elbow energy of 100,000-plus nab enthusiasts, Side Effects demonstrated version 1.1 of Houdini in a suite in the Las Vegas Hilton. Taking cues provided by a flood of suggestions from a survey at last year’s siggraph show, the company announced it will port its Mantra renderer to Windows nt.

The nt option allows animators to render frames from sgi workstations in the background on nt machines, freeing up talent to concentrate on the creative side of the project and potentially lowering hardware costs.

The Houdini upgrade provides a user-friendly interface and integrates 3D and 2D modeling animation and compositing tools.

‘We’re trying to provide the ultimate in flexibility,’ says Side Effects director of marketing Richard Hamel. ‘It’s an environment to deliver the most productivity possible.’

Against the backdrop of a Houdini demonstration highlighting the software’s facial animation capabilities, Hamel explains Houdini 1.1’s new features, including the software Developers Kit which allows users to customize any part of the package, creating expressions and changing the software’s interface and a new set of character tools, valued at about $4,000, that will be offered during nab season, from April 1 to May 16, at no additional cost.

Hamel says Houdini works on the principle of procedural animation, pioneered by Side Effects with its Prisms 3D animation software and taken further with the Houdini upgrade. A procedural paradigm is based on building a project through a series of operator components, the building blocks of a job, allowing an animator to make changes at any point in the creative process and have those changes reflected throughout the steps.

The demonstration featured an animated face which was created in a matter of hours by an animator, and the contortions and movements of which were controlled by a series of ‘intelligent icons’ placed around the screen.

Hamel says Houdini is starting to accumulate more l.a. users and will be employed to create the Red Sea sequence in the upcoming DreamWorks feature The Prince of Egypt. Houdini will also be used in a new Sheridan College program for technical directors.

At the Alias|Wavefront booth, the theme of integration and increased productivity continued with the demonstration of PowerAnimator 8.5 and discussions of the Maya architecture in progress.

Alias also announced an nt rendering option for PowerAnimator as well as upgrades such as ToonShader, which allows animators to create in 3D while delivering the look of traditional 2D cel animation and enables the creation of 3D rendered images that can be integrated with 2D animation cels. As a ‘show special,’ Alias was offering PowerAnimator together with an SGI 02 workstation for us$15,995.

Maya, since its introduction as Project Maya at siggraph 95, has progressed to the beta stage. The product is touted as a new architecture for digital media creation and the company says it will be priced comparably to PowerAnimator.

Softimage showcased the capabilities of its new 3.7 version of Softimage 3D and 3D Extreme, currently shipping for nt and sgi Irix platforms with new features like integrated 3D paint, realtime lighting and animation controls, including Kaboom, which provides interactive control over animated effects, explosions in particular.

Softimage used an array of eye-popping projects to demonstrate its wares, including some initial work on feature An American Werewolf in Paris, which features an all-cg wolf creature created with Softimage 3D, as well as customer presentations by the likes of Santa Barbara Studios, ilm and Toronto’s TOPIX Computer Graphics and Animation.

topix technical director Colin Withers demonstrated the efficacy of Softimage Developers Kit tools in the creation of swarms of rice crisps for its Marshmallow Minis spot.

In the wings

In the anxiously awaited category, Softimage announced its Digital Studio (code name) nt-based online environment for creating and finishing video projects is now in the beta testing stage and is expected to be released in late summer. Beta sites for the system – which includes capabilities for picture and audio editing, compositing, paint special effects and content management – include Montreal-based Big Bang.

The company also says that 3D 3.7 is the first step toward Softimage’s next big thing, Sumatra, a collaborative nonlinear animation system which integrates 3D animation into other production steps like nonlinear editing and compositing.

The cross-platform system is designed to be integrated into Digital Studio or used as a standalone product. Softimage also announced its 3D, Eddie compositing and Mental Ray renderer will be used on DreamWorks’ full length all-cg feature Shrek.

Across all technological categories, ground was being broken in significant speed and productivity increases rather than in sweeping revolutionary new announcements.

Fort Lauderdale-based daVinci showed the first color corrector running on sgi’s Octane system, which brings increased speed to the color process. Resolve is part of the company’s Software Solutions Technology which aims to provide software-based, resolution-independent color correction.

daVinci’s Guy Love says the system was created to relieve the bottlenecks created when artists create compound effects using systems like Flame and allows work in the same environment as is used in the video world. While typically color correction work means a lag time between actually making the change on the machine and experiencing the results, the Resolve now provides ‘Reel Feel’ which achieves a realtime feel without reducing image resolution.

Love says working closely with sgi, daVinci has provided an almost imperceptible 500 millisecond delay for color changes, and he says with hardware advances that rate is expected to drop to 200 milliseconds.

nab response has been positive and Love says once the product has been established, the company will look at developing it further, perhaps using it to control a Spirit DataCine.