Another NAB has come and gone and with it the cavalcade of new product announcements. Last month in Tech Edge, we covered three of the biggest New England companies at the NAB show. This month in Tech Edge, we are going to cover the three most surprising representatives from New England. These are the people who held their cards close to their chest and came out of NAB winners.
Glidecam
Glidecam is a Massachusetts based camera stabilization and accessories company. Founded by Martin and David Stevens in 1992, Glidecam has twenty plus years of experience in their field. Martin Stevens, filmmaker himself, was looking for more affordable alternatives to camera stabilization systems. Glidecam is now in industry leader in camera stabilization offering hand mounted units, body mounted units, remote heads, cranes and sliders. The results are buttery smooth and stable camera panning at very, very reasonable prices.
The products I found most impressive at this NAB were the Remote Heads which enable you to put your camera on a crane and remotely pan and tilt your camera. The hand held stabilizers I used were very smooth and I was astonished by the light weight of their entire product line. The offer stabilizers that can house your typical shoulder mounted broadcast cameras down to your compact DSLR camera that fits in your hand. No matter what you have for a camera, Glidecam has something that can help you. Their hardware is very robust, resilient, and reliable.
For a great example of the results of Glidecam click on the hyperlink below (or search YouTube for the video below) or visit their website at Glidecam.com
Devin Graham (SuperTramp) Ice Castles Video – You Tube
EditShare
Also based in Massachusetts, EditShare’s specialty is shared storage and tapeless workflow. They started only making storage but have expanded into a myriad of other products including video playout and ingest, media backup software, media asset management as well as non-liner video editing software. On top off all this, EditShare has its own number of “firsts.” They were the first 3rd party to offer bin sharing in Media Composer, project sharing in Final Cut Pro, and the first to offer shared storage for field based operations. Their international client list is long and prestigious and includes NASCAR, Wimbledon, the Chicago Blackhawks (NHL) and the Pittsburg Penguins (NHL) as well the recent Grammy award winning Led Zeppelin’s “Celebration Day”
This year at NAB, EditShare dazzled spectators with EditShare Storage version 7. Version 7 offers support for every major video editing software in the market. Other new features include bandwidth reservations, project profiles what will remember what workspaces are needed for each of your projects, and support for Final Cut Pro X.
EditShare Flow version 3 offers new features such as “Airflow” which offers web-based review of your assets on EditShare storage. Also new, “Flow Automation” will also augment your workflow with simple transcoding profiles to specific formats you may need. “Flow Automation” can also help you move media or updating the metadata associated with your assets. They also now support non video assets such as images and audio files.
EditShare Field 2 was also announced at NAB. The updated shared storage solution now supports solid state drives which offer you much better performance and much more quiet performance. The Field 2 also offers you Flow which was covered earlier. The best part about Field 2 is its rugged chassis meets airline regulations making traveling with Field 2 a breeze.
The last new announcement from EditShare was with Geevs Studio MC. This offers you the capability to do a live multicam edit and then export it as a group clip just about any non-linear editor where your editing application of choice and further work on the sequence. You can also just play the ISO cameras instead. This gives you complete creative control to change the program edit or to correct any mistakes made live.
For more information on EditShare, please visit their website at www.editshare.com
MOTU
MOTU is a company that has been around in the MIDI and audio space for a long time, but they are just becoming seasoned in the video space. Based in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, MOTU (formerly Mark of the Unicorn) got their start in 1980 as a MIDI program for audiophiles. A few years back, they entered the video space and immediately became a force to be reckoned with.
This year at NAB, MOTU was showing off their HDX line which enables video capture on Windows and Mac OS. They are compatible with Final Cut Pro, Avid and Adobe as well as their flagship software Digital Performer. They introduced Thunderbolt IO support for the HDX line a year or so back, and it has been one of the biggest sellers for Thunderbolt IO.
Some of the other features that make this a compelling choice are simple plug and play compatibility, 16 channels of audio(in about any format), gunlock, legacy SD IO, and it a great choice for both the field and in studio. The hardware is durable but light enough to travel easily. For more info on MOTU products, visit their website at www.motu.com
Steve McGrath is a Broadcast Sales Engineer for HB Communications. He has worked with NBC, ABC, CBS, NESN, NECN, Fox, ESPN, Pentagon, Powderhouse and many others. You can reach him at Steve.McGrath@HBCommunications.com. Learn more, visit www.HBCommunications.com.