Starting today, Gary Adcock of Studio 37, one of the world’s best technology authorities on the ever-evolving relationship between acquisition, editing and delivery, will share his expertise with ReelChicago readers in a weekly column.
Along with more than 55,000 media and entertainment specialists from 140 countries, I attended the recent global IBC2015 Convention in Amsterdam, where more than 1,700 of the world’s key technology suppliers exhibited their latest innovations.
Here are some of the IBC highlights.
Undeniably, 4K was the focus at IBC, with content creators, broadcasters and cable providers scrambling to determine how to deliver 4K content to the home.
Industry leaders like Adobe, Arri, Dolby, Sony and Technicolor centered on the future of High Dynamic Range (HDR) content for acquisition and delivery.
Mainstays like Barco, Technicolor and even GoPro all announced new version of intermediate codecs or touted their specific H.265 or VP9 delivery codecs as alternatives to deliver 4K and beyond over IP.
The 4K HDR demo shot on the Alexa65, displayed in the Arri booth, was breathtakingly beautiful. It highlighted the power an image holds over the viewer when displaying delicacy of subtle color and contrast variations possible with HDR content.
There were 4K cameras everywhere. Surprising everyone was the sub-$6,000 Sony FS-5, the smaller, lighter cousin to the FS-7, and the updated A7RII DSLR.
RED privately talked about the new RAVEN model, announced after the show, at the same $6,000 price point as the FS-5, with the RED Raven offering 4K Raw or ProRes capture at up to 120fps.
The product that really stole the show, however, was BlackMagic Design’s URSA-Mini, starting at $2,999, with both a PL and Canon EF mount announced at NAB. It was released at IBC with a newly added B4 mount option, expanding the camera’s use in both in News and Sports environments.
With all of the focus elsewhere, Canon slipped a surprise that rocked the show. In New York, the manufacturer showed both a working 8K camera and the ME20F-SH camera that records images at an astounding 4,000,000 ISO, nearly 10,000 times faster than the average camera today.
Next week: I will talk about one of the largest issues facing filmmaking’s future: How will we handle the the massive amounts of data that will be required for working in a 4K world?
