I
Last
year's NAB demonstrated that HD finally hit its stride
at all levels of the marketplace. This year the trend
towards tapeless recording became evident in new
cameras from Sony, Panasonic, and Grass Valley.
The cameras that stood out at the show include:
Panasonic's AG-HVX200 1/3" 3-CCD DVCPRO HD
prosumer camcorder that records onto P2 solid-state
memory cards; Sony's PDW-F350 1/2" 3-CCD MPEG-2
HD ENG camcorder that records onto XDCAM disks; Grass
Valley's Infinity 2/3" 3-CCD multi-codec ENG
camcorder that records onto REVPro disks; and in the
stratosphere beyond 2/3" cameras lies the vision
of the Red Digital Cinema Camera. While Red is only a
"concept camera" at this time, it represents
a vision of the future as cameras evolve past HD
towards 2K and beyond.
 |
| Panasonic AJ-HPC2000 HD ENG Camcorder.
Photo courtesy of David Tamés. |
Tapeless
alternatives, another format war?
In
the 1990s format war Panasonic and Sony competed to
deliver a new digital tape format to replace analog.
Panasonic entered the race with DVCPRO (based on DV),
while Sony introduced Digital Betacam and Betacam SX.
Panasonic won the battle as event, industrial, and
broadcast users adopted DVCPRO in droves. In response,
Sony offered DVCAM, an inexpensive format based on DV.
Only a handful of users adopted the more expensive
Digital Betacam and Betacam SX formats. Today many
people are looking to upgrade their standard
definition cameras to high definition and the question
is will there be another format war? Do we have to
pick sides? Do we have to go through that all over
again?
HDV
notwithstanding, for professional HD acquisition at
high bit rates, another format conflict is brewing.
Panasonic has introduced P2 solid-state media
recording, while Sony has introduced XDCAM optical
disk recording. In contrast to the P2 and XDCAM
proprietary solutions, Grass Valley has introduced
Iomega REVPro disks as the transport medium of choice.
Will this be like previous format wars? Does it matter
what transport format we choose? As we increasingly
transfer media directly to nonlinear editing systems
and video servers that can accommodate a wide range of
formats, it may not matter this time.
Spinning
media gleams under blue-lasers
Sony's
entry into the tapeless HD camera race is their new
$25,000 PDW-F350 XDCAM HD camcorder and the PDW-F70
XDCAM HD recording deck. This camera has generated a
lot of excitement among both broadcasters and event
videographers. XDCAM records video onto optical disc
using the same blue-laser technology that's part of
the Blu-Ray HD DVD standard. These robust optical
discs cost only $30 and hold over an hour of video.
The system uses MPEG-2 compression to reduce
the HD bit rate down to 18, 25, or 35 Mbit/sec. You
can choose the bit rate depending on your image
quality vs. recording time requirements. The camera
can also record DVCAM in SD mode at 25 Mbit/sec.
One
reason the camera is affordable is Sony opted to go
with three 1/2" CCD imagers rather than 2/3"
chips. A 1/2" to 2/3" lens adapter is
available, so you need not buy new glass if you've
already got 2/3" lenses. The PDW-F350 records HD
in 1080/59.94i, 50i, 29.97P, 25P, and native 23.98P.
The PDW-F350 is able to over- and under-crank a
frame rates from 4 to 60 frames per second.
XDCAM
is a strong contender against Panasonic's P2 cards as
it offers low media cost and high storage capacity due
to the use of MPEG-2 encoding. XDCAM disks are cheap
enough to work as both a transport and archive medium.
On the other hand, P2 cards require you offload media
from the cards to hard drives or another storage
option. P2 is only a transport medium, however, it's
attractive because it supports high bit rate HD
recording (100 Mbit/sec DVCPRO HD) and unlike
videotape, can be used over and over again. There's a
third alternative which includes recording direct to
hard drive, and third-party vendors are beginning to
offer a range of hard drive recording solutions for
the new generation of HD camcorders.
Banking
on the decline of solid state component pricing
Panasonic's
first HD P2 camera is their $6,000 AG-HVX200 handheld
camcorder that records HD using the 100 Mbit/sec
DVCPRO HD format in contrast to MPEG-2. 8 GB P2 cards
cost about $1,400 each and can hold 20 minutes of
720/24P footage or 8 minutes of 1080/60i video,
therefore, they are too expensive to use as an archive
medium the same way we use videotape, they should be
thought of as a transport medium. A media management
strategy needs to be put in place for any production
using P2.
At
NAB2006 Panasonic extended their line of HD P2
offerings with the $27,000 full-size 2/3" 3-chip
AJ-HPC2000 P2 HD camcorder that records in 720p,
1080i, or 480i and the AJ-HPS1500 P2 recorder/ player.
Both the AJ-HPC2000 and AJ-HPS1500 both have five P2
card slots (in contrast to the AG-HVX200 with only two
slots). A
related announcement from Panasonic was they will
start supporting an optional AVC-Intra (H.264) codec
for the AJ-HPC2000 in addition to DVCPRO HD. The AVC-Intra
codec offers significantly better compression than
MPEG-2 and can provide DVCPRO HD 100 Mbit/sec quality
at half of the bandwidth. This represents significant
savings in terms of storage, without the compromises
of MPEG-2 compression and will double the capacity of
P2 cards. Although Panasonic has been quiet about
this, it's clear they will eventually offer this codec
in other cameras if the demand is there.
Investing
in 8 GB P2 cards at $1,400 each represents a serious
capital expenditure. Fans of P2 say they are amortized
over time and in spite of the additional labor
required in terms of media management, there are
savings to be gained from switching from tape to solid
state because media that's on a video server is more
accessible, and thus more valuable, than media that's
sitting on a shelf in the form of a videotape. Given
that solid-state memory devices are ubiquitous in the
consumer realm, the cost of P2 storage should continue
to drop. Panasonic expects to have 16 GB cards
available by the end of the year with the costs of 8
GB cards dropping by as much as 50%.
Marching
to the tune of a different drummer
Thomson's
Grass Valley has entered the tapeless camera race.
Rather than introduce yet another proprietary format,
they were demonstrating a prototype of their Infinity
camcorder (under $20,000) that records video on either
Compact Flash cards or Iomega REVPro disks with a
capacity of 35 GB. The REVPro is a professional
version of the REV consumer storage product that is
surprisingly robust. The Infinity can record a range
of video formats and standards including 525i60,
625i50, 1080i50, 1080i60, 720p50, or 720p60 using DV
25 (for SD), MPEG-2 (for HD or SD), or JPEG 2000.
The
REVPro disks cost about $60 each and can hold two
hours of video. They can be read directly by a
non-linear editing system using a $500 drive. In terms
of connections in and out of the camera, the camera
supports Gigabit Ethernet, USB 2.0 and FireWire
connections as well as HD/SDI outputs. The REVPro
drives will support multi-stream transfers so you can
read from the disk into your non linear editing system
while the camera is recording.
Maker
of shades shines light onto the future of digital
cinematography
The
most excitement of any camera demonstration or
introduction was generated by Red, a new "concept
camera" which many booth attendees were hoping
would become a reality. Red Digital Cinema Camera
Company was started by Jim Jannard, the founder of
Oakley, who also happens to be an accomplished
photographer and cinematographer with demanding taste
in gear. The story goes that his frustration with the
current state of affairs with digital motion picture
cameras led him to start the company. Jannard has put
together an impressive design and engineering team
that includes Ted Schilowitz, formerly a Product
Manager for AJA, whose official title is now
"Leader of the Revolution," while Jannard's
official title is "Madman."
The
camera they promise will revolve around an 11.4
megapixel single-chip CMOS sensor the size of a Super
35 film frame. The camera sports a PL lens mount and
will record several formats including HD, 2K, or 4K up
to 60 fps. The company is also working on storage
devices to collect the enormous amounts of data the
camera will generate. They have not yet settled on a
codec. Not only does Red plan to make cameras, they
are also designing a series of prime and zoom lenses.
The camera body will cost $17,500 (they were taking
$1,000 deposits on the floor), while lens prices are
not yet carved in stone.
Schilowitz
made it clear that they have set aggressive
engineering milestones
that
include putting cameras in the hands of
cinematographers by the end of the year, but they are
not going to make any false promises. He insists that
Red is not vaporware and quite the opposite, a very
real development in progress.
Duty
now for the future
Tapeless
cameras promise production efficiency that will be
attractive to videographers, broadcasters, and
filmmakers alike. In any situation in which you're
doing multiple takes, tapeless cameras make it easy to
review takes immediately through access to thumbnails
rather than winding the videotape back and forth.
Immediately moving media into a nonlinear editing
system faster than real-time means you can start to
edit right on the set if you want to, or have instant
access to all of the footage for continuity and
coverage purposes. In terms of news, you can edit
quickly and beam the story back to the station in
record time. Any tapeless system, and especially P2
cards, requires changes in workflow to take advantage
of the efficiency possible.
Shifting
to tapeless production represents a major shift for
videographers, filmmakers, and broadcasters and points
towards a future in which a single Gigabit Ethernet or
FireWire cable might be all you need to connect a
camera to a studio switcher or non-linear editing
system. This evolution is being driven by the
convergence of information technology and video
technology and the widespread adoption of internet
architecture, protocols, and standards throughout the
video industry.
Visit
the following URL for more information related to this
article:
www. kino-eye.com
David Tamés, a Boston-based filmmaker and media
technology consultant, attended NAB for IMAGINE.
