X-ChetD
Imported Account
Apr 26, 2004, 2:21 PM
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NAB 2004 Wrap-up
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Greetings all,
I believe there are members of this Forum would like to be
kept aware of Casalbanca product developments. In that
light, let me share with you some news about NAB 2004
which you may know took place last week in Las Vegas.
I cannot recall being more excited about the future of
Casablanca. These new products will bring such wonderful
benefits to those who use the Casablanca and will bring
many new users to the Casablanca family (yes, I am biased
but many others expressed the same sentiments!)
As far as what captured the attention of those who attended,
I think it is likely a 3-way tie between Solitaire, QuadCam
and CB Paint. I will share a little about each and what folks
commented on:
Solitaire
Wow! The pictures we have seen do not do justice to this
stylish new Casablanca digital editor. It is contemporary and
elegant... and, as Jorg commented in the interview, affords
the professional editor a tool that will show stylishly in their
editing suite; the customer seeing clearly that this is not just
like the computer they have at home to do their other data
tasks.
The feature sets that were so cool: the 3 Gig processor
rendered very fast! This coupled with the background
rendering function...whoa! You turn on the background
rendering function in the System Settings window, then
when you apply an effect it begins instantly to render. I then
went back to the Edit screen and was working on another
part of the project and looked up to see it was complete -
very cool!
The HD Backup function is also very useful, providing a
mirror back-up of your HD complete with effects, etc.
Affording every editor the ability to archive and protect your
important work and then restore if you find yourself needing
it!
The SCART jack provides the option of selecting either RGB
or YUV output for those who find that option useful. I love the
Disk Transfer option as well - the ability to select scenes
from your Scene Bin and export via DVD Arabesk 2 to a DVD
as an AVI file. This opens up greater levels of
communication between Casablanca and PC/Mac
computers, as well as a means to archive some important
sequences (show openers, credit sequences, company
logos, etc).
QuadCam
I am totally and truly thrilled about this new software!
QuadCam opens up a whole new world for those who use
(or would like to use) multiple cameras for event
videography. It is so amazingly easy to use providing such
great results --- this will be a very hot item!
You import your footage from two, three or four cameras of
the event into your Casablanca. Then after QuadCam
automatically synchronizes (yes, you heard that right!) these
feeds you play back the event in a pop-up menu window.
Then it is a matter of selecting which shot is 'live' by clicking
on that feed. QuadCam then builds the storyboard for you
with inserted shots from the additional feeds. You can even
go into the SB and make adjustments to the inserted shots
to fine tune your production!
CB Paint
Holy Smokes! (ok, I grew up on Batman). What a powerful
creative tool that adds so much to the Casablanca line. I
was so busy that I only was able to see some of the
demonstrations that Don was performing on CB Paint. We
had it running on a Prestige and he was showing some very
cool operations; things like taking a title and adding different
borders, wrapping the text around objects and along
specified motion paths which could then be animated. He
brought in full motion video and made creative PiPs with
those clips, adjusting those clips in a 'forced' perspective
along the 'Z' axis. A multitude of creative possibilities!
Let me also tell you about Caladan...this soon to be
released software is a great addition to the product line as
well. This launches from the Special button in the Edit
screen and provides the ability to create professional labels
for all your video projects. With templates for DVD/CD
labels; VHS, miniDV and other case/album covers as well
as photographs this will be a welcome addition to many
video producers.
You can easily select images from your Scene Bin to make
large or small images on your labels, add text and align to fit
your label needs (yes, horizontal and vertical adjustments
complete with a snap-to grid and full font attribute
capabilities).
For those who wish to print direct to disk or prepare their
files and send to printer you can export to a digital media
card and you are ready to go. Caladan will ship with an
ink-jet printer and is now compatible with the HP DeskJet
line (even more compatibility just around the corner).
We will certainly keep you abreast of these forthcoming
products as appropriate.
Regards,
Chet Davis
Dir. Education Sales
West Coast Rep
MacroSystem US
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