Bluefish444 Cards Deliver
10 October, 2012
Tokyo V.P.R. Inc. was established in 1980. We specialise in video production for live events held in Japan. The types of live events range from musical concerts and theatrical stage performances to corporate events and multimedia content for Web distribution.
Our video productions typically involve multiple cameras and audio recordings, allowing us to capture the spirit of an event. Video editing, audio post, and additional content creation is done in our dedicated high definition post facilities.
Tokyo V.P.R. is dedicated to continually improving the quality and speed of our production and post techniques. We do this by utilising many technologies and techniques from the film and television industries.
We have been using Bluefish444 video cards for several years, as these video cards always produce the best video quality and have integrated well into the software applications we require. For this reason we decided to continue using Bluefish444 video IO devices when we
upgraded our video editing and content creation suites. Our most recent upgrade involved adding a Bluefish444 Create 3D Ultra to a new Avid Media
Composer 6 and Avid Symphony 6 Editing suite.
We also added an Adobe CS6 Suite for content creation. For this we installed a Create HD card, as we rarely need to ingest HD-SDI into this set-up.
When considering the new Avid Media Composer 6 and Avid Symphony 6 software, we had to weigh the benefits of the Avid DX Nitris hardware against what the Bluefish444 hardware and open IO plugins had to offer. After careful consideration, we decided that features that we required and the cost vs. performance factors made Bluefish444 the ideal fit. We have also had a very strong relationship with the local distributor, Crescent Inc. The support we receive from
them is second to none.
Once the Avid edit suite was installed, we put it to work on long form editing and projects that required compressed HD content being managed in the Avid’s multi-camera editing mode.
Many of the productions we work on are stage shows, live corporate events, and concerts. When the production is over, we have mountains of video and audio material; often recorded from many angles. The Avid multicamera mode makes tying these camera recordings together so much simpler, and allows our editors to edit in an almost on-air live video switching fashion.
What really surprised us, when working in multicam mode, was the quality of the picture. This mode actually makes all the video streams play back in draft quality.
As you can imagine, displaying only one-quarter of the video scaled to full HD can result in a
substantial loss of image quality. The Bluefish444 hardware scaler does a great job of minimizing the quality loss, and our editors are happy with the HD-SDI output for working quality.
Once the content has been picture-locked, we use Avid Pro Tools to finish the audio mixing.
The integration between Media Composer and Pro Tools is excellent, allowing more project data to be moved between applications more easily. This feature is extremely useful. It saves Tokyo V.P.R. time and money, and helps us deliver high quality content in a faster turnaround.
All our projects are finished in Avid Symphony 6. We re-conform from the Avid Media Composer project; batch capturing the HD video tape at 1:1 (uncompressed video). We combine the final pictures and sound, and then master to video tape and uncompressed video files. These are then used to create file-based deliverables.
Adobe Creative Suite 6 (CS6) is used for uncompressed content creation that is incorporated into video packages edited in Avid.
The main advantage that we see in the Adobe suite is seamless integration between various applications. Media moves effortlessly between Premiere and After Effects. The HD-SDI preview is provided by the Create HD video card for all the applications.
When working with Adobe CS6 applications, we rarely have to configure our video output settings. This makes for a seamless workflow within the suite of Adobe applications.
In the past, linear editing techniques had been employed. The transition to a non-linear
editing environment was simple because of the uncompressed workflow provided by Adobe
software and Bluefish444 hardware.
Overall, the integration to our new upgraded systems was very smooth and we faced very few technical difficulties. Over time, we are hoping that we can create more efficient workflows
to continue to provide our customers with professional and expedient services.
Satoshi Nishina is Head of Tokyo V.P.R.’s Technical Department.
Contacts
www.bluefish444.com
LED FRESNELS; BATTERY
Lupolux of Italy has introduced a whole new range of high quality LED Fresnels. These products guarantee a high output of light and are equipped with a completely new generation of Powerled arrays.
They are available in a range of wattages and can easily be powered through mains or 14 V batteries. All Lupolux fixtures feature high quality LED arrays of the latest generation, with high output and high CRI value. Lupolux offers its whole range of lights equipped with HMI lamps and compact fluorescent lamps. All lights are made in carbon fibre for lightness and sturdiness.
One example is the Dayled 650, which features low power consumption (50 W) and high light efficiency (650 W). It can be used as a spot or flood light, and features 0-100 dimming, 14V battery connection, DMX connection, LED colour temperature of 5600 K or 3200 K, and 50,000-hr LED life.
Also available is a battery/inverter pack for the powering of continuous lights. Compatible with Daylight 400, Daylight 800, Dayled 650, Dayled 1000, and Dayled Panels from Lupo.
www.lupolux.com
H.264 RF CAMERA
Cobham has debuted the latest version of its Solo H.264 wireless HD camera transmission system. The new product features ultra mobile video link (UMLV) communications protocol for stable and low-latency transmission. Its size and portability make it ideal for a wide range of applications including live concerts, breaking news, and close-up coverage of sporting events. The system is specially engineered to reject interference from mobile telephony and other sources and sports a latency of only 15 ms. www.cobham.com
SUPER SLOW MOTION, 1080P CAMERAS
Amongst the new Hitachi cameras making their European debuts at IBC this year were the SK-HD1500 super slow motion camera and the 16-bit SK-HD1200 1080P/3G production camera, which were shown working in combination with LGZ’s Just Replay Server system. Hitachi also showcased a number of production cameras that have been specifically developed for different broadcast applications from wireless operation to fibre system, POV, and goalmouth cameras. www.hitachi-keu.com
CAMERA-MOUNTED I P VIDEO CODEC
The LiveShot Video IP codec from Comrex is available with its Portable and Studio units, which transmit full-duplex, low-latency SD/HD video and audio over a wide variety of IP data circuits. LiveShot Portable is a small, lightweight, cameramounted video codec, which features load balancing of multiple 3G/4G devices, a full duplex audio cue channel, store and forward functionality, and the ability to be completely remote controlled when used with LiveShot Central Server. www.comrex.com
