Leopard OS X 10.5 Compatible AJA Drivers Now Available

Received from AJA earlier today:

"We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of Leopard-compatible AJA drivers for all current KONA products, and for the Io HD. "

"The KONA 5.0 drivers (KONA 3, KONA 3X, KONA LH/LHe, KONA LS/LSE and KONA 2) and the Io HD driver version 1.1 are now available for download from the AJA website at the following URLs:"

http://www.aja.com/html/support_kona3_swd.html

http://www.aja.com/html/support_konaLHe_swd.html

http://www.aja.com/html/support_konaLSe_swd.html

http://www.aja.com/html/support_kona2_swd.html

http://www.aja.com/html/support_Io_swd.html

"The latest AJA drivers, in addition to Leopard OS X 10.5 compatibility, also offer Easy Setups for the 720/50p format now supported in Final Cut Pro 6.0.2, as well as various other improvements."

tl

Cooke Optics Announces Lenses for RED ONE Camera

From Studio Daily:

"Starting in January, Cooke Optics will offer four standard Cooke S4/i lenses for the Red One camera that provide focal lengths from 15mm through 100mm and are engraved with red lettering. Called the Cooke RED Set, the new digital-cinematography lenses incorporate metadata capture technology that can be read directly by the contacts of the RED camera lens mount. The Cooke RED Set includes: the S4/ 15-40mm, T2.0 CXX Zoom Lens; S4/ 50mm, T2.0 Prime Lens; S4/ 75mm, T2.0 Prime Lens; and S4/ 100mm, T2.0 Prime Lens."

More info here

tl

REDCINE and Final Cut Studio REDCODE Plugin

Resent from RED...

Two great new downloads are on RED.com/support today: Final Cut Studio 2 REDCODE Plugin and beta REDCINE!

Final Cut Studio 2 REDCODE Plugin: The new REDCODE RAW codec supports RT playback in Final Cut Pro 6.0.2 and editing of the QuickTime Reference movies generated in camera. Also, this codec allows you to play REDCODE RAW movies directly from QuickTime Player or other QuickTime-enabled application.

If you have the previous RED QuickTime Plugin (1.2.1), please make sure you upgrade to the FCS 2 REDCODE plugin (1.5.0) as it gives you the functionality of 1.2.1 along with the new FCS 2 support.

Beta REDCINE: Open RED REDCODE™ RAW (.R3D) video. Do 1st light color correction. Export to any number of output options. More information (including REDCINE tutorials) can be found on REDUSER.NET: http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=5898

Here are the direct links to the tutorials:

http://red.cachefly.net/redcine/interface_overview.mov
http://red.cachefly.net/redcine/project_settings.mov
http://red.cachefly.net/redcine/shot_settings.mov
http://red.cachefly.net/redcine/color_settings.mov
http://red.cachefly.net/redcine/output_settings.mov
http://red.cachefly.net/redcine/library.mov

tl

AJA IO HD Unboxing and Setup

We just got the new AJA IO H today. Setup couldn't have been easier.













Shipped from AJA via Fedex...













Box setup on the bench...













Software and cables--FW 800 and power













Still wrapped...













AJA IO HD...



















Connecting the back of the IO HD...













Connections on the back plane...













Next to the MacBook Pro...













Front panel...













Rear connectors













Setup with the MacBook Pro and the G-SATA from G-Tech













Added in the Panasonic 17" NTSC display...













720p24 looks great...













One monster little road system!

We currently have all systems sold. If you would like to order one, click here to place your order as we are expecting another 15-17 in about 2-3 weeks.

tl

RED ONE Rental Procedure

There has been a lot of questions about how the RED ONE rentals might work. This post will clarify everything.

All you need to get pre-qualified to rent #20 or #21 is in this packet here:

Silverado RED ONE Rental Paperwork

We need a few things before you can schedule a time:

1. Sign the paperwork and send it back to us via email or fax.
2. We need a photo ID and a company affiliation
3. We need an insurance certificate valid for the dates the camera will be used, showing Silverado as Add'l Insured and Loss Payee for $70,000 in equipment per camera.

If you don't have this insurance, call the folks at Complex Corporation here:

Complex Corporation

4. Three industry references who know your work and can vouch.

Folks--that's it. Once we have that in our possession, we can talk dates. You can "pencil" in dates at anytime, however the camera is not "reserved" until 50% deposit is made. Upon rental, 50% remainder will be due before the equipment departs the premises.

Our prices are posted in black and white on the first page of the PDF.

Interested in renting the camera? We are interested in you - call us at (916) 760-0032 or email to red@silverado.cc

Speaking of dates, our rental calendar's are listed here:

RED ONE #20 (Hobbes)

RED ONE #21 (Calvin)

AJA IO HD Confirmed to Ship September 24th

From AJA!!!

"We are very pleased to announce the target date for the first shipments the IoHD has been set for September 24th! Our engineers have been working very hard the last few weeks and are now putting the finishing touches on this exciting new product."

We have 20 IO HD's on order and you can order one here.

TL

TIFF files from Paranoid

Here are some tiff exports from the .r3d files. Allow some time for download.

The 2k files are 12mb and the 4k files are 48mb.

http://www.ericmaddox.com/media/Shooter-2k.tiff
http://www.ericmaddox.com/media/Shooter-4k.tiff
http://www.ericmaddox.com/media/FordGT-2k.tiff
http://www.ericmaddox.com/media/FordGT-4k.tiff
http://www.ericmaddox.com/media/FordGT2-2k.tiff
http://www.ericmaddox.com/media/FordGT2-4k.tiff

Courtesy of Eric Maddox at http://www.ericmaddox.com

TIFF files from Paranoid

Here are some tiff exports from the .r3d files. Allow some time for download.

The 2k files are 12mb and the 4k files are 48mb.

http://www.ericmaddox.com/media/Shooter-2k.tiff
http://www.ericmaddox.com/media/Shooter-4k.tiff
http://www.ericmaddox.com/media/FordGT-2k.tiff
http://www.ericmaddox.com/media/FordGT-4k.tiff
http://www.ericmaddox.com/media/FordGT2-2k.tiff
http://www.ericmaddox.com/media/FordGT2-4k.tiff

Courtesy of Eric Maddox at http://www.ericmaddox.com

Silverado's first RED footage from pilot PARANOID

Our test footage has been assembled into a small concept trailer that may evolve into something larger. However, for now we put a few scenes together that show daylight, sunset, interior, etc...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdnaSMNr-qw

This was a RED ONE camera test with serial #21. Shot in under two days and edited for 48 hours straight.

Mostly natural light was used. Some lighting needed for the interiors, but not much.

Kevin Haskin with KeJo Productions directed, Eric Maddox for the post work, and Brian Hamm as the director of photography.

http://www.kejopro.com

http://www.ericmaddox.com

http://www.brianhammfilms.com

We already know about the blown spots in the welder's arc and the sunlight scene... We didn't have enough time to fix them in AE before our event Friday.

Further, there are settings in the camera that would have prevented this and we know about that now.

This was posted on FCS 2, Mac Pro with 8 Gb, AJA Kona 3, REDAlert, and an eCinema DCM23 was used for critical color.

Yes--we have higher res and are evaluating where and when to post. It may be multiple mirrors, or released as a torrent. For now, you should drop by the office and see it on the eCinema...it looks AMAZING.

Also--introducing RED #3665 known as "Big Red." I know the OffHollywood guys had that cute little Dodge Charger, but check out our footage to see what a real car looks like. Ford GT40 is kinda how we roll out here...

:-)

Torrey
http://www.Silverado.cc
Blog at http://silveradosys.blogspot.com

RED ONE Availability

Got a call from RED last week...

Release dates for reservations #1-50 are tentatively scheduled for August 31st.

Once we take delivery of the units, we have our in-house testing team work these cameras over for two weeks and document everything we find.

Pending the results of testing, these cameras will be available immediately for rental.

tl

Sacramento Metro Apple Pro Video User Group meets this week

The Sacramento Metro Apple Pro Video Group will be meeting this Thursday, August 9th, at 6:00 PM in the large lecture hall at Folsom Lake College.

Networking will begin at 6 PM. At 6:30 PM we'll have an update from Silverado on upcoming new technology from RED, AJA, and Apple.

At 7 PM we'll have a few words from Larry Jordan who will be conducting Final Cut Studio training on Friday and Saturday.

Our main event of the evening will be a presentation by independent filmmaker Dent-de-Lion du Midi who is currently filming a fine art documentary named Portrait2
in San Francisco using a Redrock equipped HVX200.

Described as "a work of art about a work of art," Dandi's film details the process of creating a fine art painting from beginning to end by the artist Reiner.

Dandi will address the technical aspects of filming this piece using the Redrock and an assortment of Zeiss 35mm lenses. He will also talk about the personal sacrifices required to film this "labor of love" over the long period of time required to complete the initial production (timed to the production of the fine art piece by Reiner) and the requisite post-production.

Depending on equipment, we may also have a demonstration of the Jadoo fuel cell power system for production cameras.

We'll wrap the evening up at an eatery nearby and Silverado will pick up the tab on dessert.

Parking is free at Folsom Lake College for this event.

If you have any questions about the event, contact Torrey at tloomis@silverado.cc.

AJA IO HD available for pre-order

We have an allocation of 20 units in-bound around late August or early September.

Click to pre-order your AJA IO HD

Avid on the skids?

I've been thinking about this for some time, but recent events have made me even more certain that Avid--as a company--does not have long for this world in its current form.

Evidence Item 1 - Avid CFO resigns:

From Reuters "Avid Technology, Inc. announced in its Form 8-K that, Paul J. Milbury, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the Company, notified the Company of his intention to resign his position effective March 2, 2007, and Joel Legon, Vice President and Corporate Controller will become Acting Chief Financial Officer of the Company effective March 2, 2007."

Evidence Item 2 - Stock Guidance at NAB 2007.

Avid was so skittish about Apple's plans at NAB 2007 that they had to issue a stock guidance in advance warning about precipitous drops after any Apple announcements in Las Vegas.

Stock prices did drop almost 15% from April 26th to early May.

Evidence Item 3 - Avid CEO resigns

On July 16th CEO David Krall gave his two-weeks notice that he would step down from his position at the end of the month.

The stock--which had risen back to $38.01--traded recently around $30 representing a decline of 21% in just three weeks.

Evidence Item 4 - Avid axes 150 jobs

From the following:

http://www.studiodaily.com/main/news/8350.html

"Avid said yesterday that it would be cutting “approximately 150 positions primarily, but not exclusively, in the company’s Video business unit,” according to a release on its second quarter results."

"We are realigning the business to have a greater emphasis on selling storage, asset management, and, most importantly, services,” said Krall in a conference call yesterday to discuss the company's Q2 earnings. “Q2 was a record quarter in services, showing 38 percent growth over Q2 last year. In Europe, we more than doubled our service revenue year on year ... [but] product declines more than offset the increase in services in the U.S."

Summary

Product declines? Greater emphasis on storage and services? This sounds like the gutting of Avid's video focus and a transition to a commodity model that can leverage their storage expertise and back it up with costly services.

Put me on record--I don't think Avid has more than 3-4 years as an independent entity before they get bought up by someone else.

I don't think Apple would purchase them since they've been able to leverage other technology into Final Cut Studio over the last few years (Silicon Color, Nothing Real, Proximity, etc...) without needing any of Avid's intellectual property.

I could see Microsoft purchasing them, which would probably make Apple pretty happy since MS probably wouldn't be able to leverage the property very effectively. This could drive even more people to the Final Cut platform if users felt Microsoft/Avid wasn't going to be supported very well.

Just my opinion, but I think the writing is on the wall.

tl

Larry Jordan trains in Sacramento this weekend...

Power up your Final Cut Studio editing skills!

Internationally-renowned expert Larry Jordan is coming to a city near you with a two-day, high-voltage seminar series guaranteed to improve your editing efficiency.

The Power Up Seminars will plug you into the unlimited possibilities of Final Cut Studio with the practical knowledge you need to turn your vision into an edited masterpiece.

Three sessions are being held Friday, August 10th and Saturday, August 11th in the Sacramento Metro region.

Seminar 1 - Setting Up and Troubleshooting Your Hardware
Friday August 10th
$119/perso
When: 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Seminar 2 - Optimizing Your Editing with Final Cut Studio
Friday August 10th
$119/person
When: 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM

Seminar 3 - Mastering Final Cut Studio
Saturday August 11th
$249/person
When: 9:00 AM - 5:15 PM

All sessions are being held at Folsom Lake College in the Large Lecture Hall. This state-of-the-art facility offers viewing on two screens and seats up to 150 people. There won't be a Final Cut Studio training conducted in a better facility this year!

All attendees will receive a bonus FULL event pass to the Sacramento Film & Music Festival and a free Final Cut KB Cover for your MacBook Pro or full-size Apple Keyboard!

Here are the costs for the training:

Both Hardware & Optimize Seminars for only $219
Both Hardware & Mastering Seminars for only $349
Both Optimize & Mastering Seminars for only $349
All Three Seminars for only $449

Save 10% by using the Sacramento Metro Apple Pro Video Users Group code SMFCPUG.

Register now!

Back from Vacation...

Been off in Maui for some time (our 10th anniversary) and just got back.

Lots of amazing products are getting released soon (AJA IO HD and Final Cut Server) and we have some awesome events coming up VERY SHORTLY...more on that coming soon.

tl

Fixing Apple Color and Tangent Devices CP100 Control Surface functionality

Have a CP100 Generic Control Panel from Tangent Devices? Can't get it to work with Apple Color, but it worked fine with FinalTouch HD?

The fix is here...

tl

Update - I was a couple weeks off...

Apple recently shipped the new MacBook Pro line I first blogged about May 18th. I was a couple weeks off.

Rob-ART from Bare Feats summed up the changes nicely at his Bare Feats website:

a) faster frontside bus (increased from 667MHz to 800MHz)
b) faster GPU (from Mobility Radeon X1600 to GeForce 8600M GT)
c) greater memory expansion (from 3GB to 4GB)
d) bigger 7200rpm hard drive (from 100GB to 160GB option)

The LED option on the 15" is great, but the 17" high resolution display (1920x1200) is even better.

We've updated our MacBook Pro pages to reflect the new changes.

tl

OK...I was wrong

Sorry about the tip on the MacBooks--my two sources were pretty certain that MacBook Pro's were coming out last Tuesday, but evidently they were wrong, too.

But, since we aren't in the rumor business anyway, c'est la vie

So, it looks like new gear will be headed out during WWDC--not sure, however, if the iPhone is going to get released then or if Apple is going to have a separate release.

From Steve Jobs' comments to Walt Mossberg at D, Apple may take the entire month of June to ship the iPhone--all the way up to the 30th.

tl

Silverado at NAB...

I'll be at NAB starting Sunday at 7:30 AM representing our company, Silverado Systems.

SUNDAY

On deck for Sunday is the Apple NAB event at 11 AM. Speculation has it that Apple will be releasing a new version of Final Cut Studio. There are also rumblings about a version called Final Cut Pro Extreme that may include hardware support for 4k and goes head-to-head with the higher end offerings from Avid.

New displays have been talked about, too. Apple's current crop of displays don't have HDCP--which is required for digital display of encrypted content from both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs.

So, if new Blu-Ray burning capabilities come out at NAB for Mac Pro towers, you won't be able to watch commercial Blu-Ray discs unless you have an HDCP-compliant monitor.

Also, there may be announcements regarding Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, but I don't think NAB is the likeliest of venues for this.

One wildcard to watch is how Apple has integrated technology from Proximity (Artbox) and Silicon Color (FinalTouch HD) into Final Cut Studio--or if they did at all. Shake has always been a separate product when it was acquired. Its possible that Artbox and FinalTouch HD will also be distributed as separate products, too.

AJA has an event planned for 2:45 PM later that day. Looking forward to seeing some new gear from them, too.

FYI--Apple and AJA usually exhibit right near one another. However, this year RED Digital Cinema is also right next to them. I am hoping the proximity isn't coincidental, but portends a high degree of cooperation in developing a compelling workflow for RED's new 4K camera.

Going to hit Adobe's NAB reception at 6:00 PM that night before retiring to the hotel room to answer what will probably be a zillion e-mails...

MONDAY

We'll be hitting the show floor on Monday to check out the goods from all the vendors and meeting with clients.

We have RED Digital Cinema reservations #20 and #21, so that will probably be the first booth that we hit to check on the status of delivery. I anticipate it will be fairly soon based on comments made recently by Jim Jannard regarding the first 100 cameras (on deck by June?)

Lunch with a great client from Dallas who is with a new company and talking about a really cool new product doing storage differently than I'd ever heard proposed before. We'll see what happens on that front..

I'll be working at AJA's booth SL6113 from 2:00 PM to 4:30 PM talking about Kona, IO, and other products. Our friend Eric Maddox will also be hand at the booth to talk about the workflow he just used on a video recently released to MTV.

Apple has a reseller event Monday night at 6 PM that we need to attend as well.

TUESDAY

We have a client from the mid-west that we are showing around on Tuesday. We'll be traveling to Ross, Miranda, Tektronix, Apple, and Panasonic--among others.

Also on deck for Tuesday are meetings with our strategic business partner Marmins Group LLC who will be on-hand to review the pro video market.

WEDNESDAY

At the AJA booth again--this time from 11:30 AM to 2:00 PM.

Then, meeting with a filmmaker from the Bay Area at the RED booth to go over workflow and a possible project going forward this summer.

Later that night, the FCPUG Network is hosting the Sixth Annual FCPUG SuperMeet. Doors open at 5:00 PM and we'll be there through about 7:45 PM.

I am going to scoot early from the SuperMeet because our good friends and professional associates Matt Geller and Scott Murphy at Meta Media Creative Technologies have graciously extended us an invitation to dinner that night. It will be the highlight of our week.

THURSDAY

Back at Sacramento International Airport by 8 AM that morning...

If you would like to meet with me at the show floor to talk about systems or workflow, I'll have my cell with me at (916) 806-7189. I will also be checking e-mail's nightly at tloomis@silverado.cc

We'll also have all the new products released for sale posted up at our website.

I look forward to seeing everyone there!

Adobe kuler

Great new color theme application based on Web 2.0 principles. From the kuler site:

"With kuler, anyone can construct completely individual color themes that resonate both publicly and personally. The public aspect derives from users' ability to share and download swatches as well as comment on them and rate them. Users can quickly view the most popular, the highest rated, and the most recently created themes in the kuler community."

"Just as intriguing is kuler's personal aspect. Artists have long asserted that color preference and emotional response to color are completely individual and undeniably psychological. American artist Andrew Wyeth confessed that the very thought of the true colors of nature could drive him mad. Monet wrote that his all-day obsession with certain colors gave him intense joy."

"The personal aspect of kuler is the user's ability to choose the base color and the color rules to create themes, such as analogous, monochromatic, or complementary. Adding to this individuality are the objects and people who inspire the color themes: an old friend, a beloved piece of clothing, a memory of a 1960s kitchen. Just as surprising are the original names that users give their themes, such as Evil Monster's Day Out, Cubicle Monotony, Whore of the Baskervilles, Robot Skin, Overwatered Plant, Flying Octopus, Freshalicious, and a 1970s trio of gold browns called simply Dad's Clothes."