Ed: Having that background in the industry, you know whatthe industry needs, and you’ve kept pace with that obviously,to be able to produce new batteries, new chargers, newequipment that really services the now television industry?

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JULY 2011 Vol 171

In my quest to find out moreabout what goes into themanufacture of the productswe all use, I visited the PAGbattery factory just south ofWimbledon in London. Alongwith Nigel Gardiner, the “showface” of PAG, I spoke with AlanLavender, CEO, owner and co-creator of PAG.

Ed: Alan, you started all thisdidn’t you?

Alan: I did yes, along with twopartners who have since movedon and changed their careers.

Ed: But like many of us,you’ve had a career changetoo. Before you startedmaking batteries, I believe youwere in a business that actuallyneeded good batteries?

Alan: Well I worked in a filmstudio – I worked for HammerHorror and I could see whatwas needed in the industry.Before that, camera batterieswere very new, and rechargingbatteries was a big thing. Wepioneered fast charging for thefilm and power tool industries. We invented the“coffee break charger.” We’ve been in it for a longtime and we’ve always computer charged ourbatteries with a system that prolongs their life.

David, Alan and Nigel.

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The PAG Battery Factory

Page

Alan: Yes we have. As a design engineer, you becomefrustrated when you go into a business you’ve alwaysloved and you see all around you things that you wantto make improvements on. That got me interested inthis area of technology. I met two partners – one wasin the television industry making TV commercials ( as Idid at that time ); the other one was a scientist.

Ed: They’re handy to have in this sort of industry Iguess?

Alan: Yes, Ken was really a chemist and a physicist.

Ed: You’ve continued that tradition with your ownfamily I understand – your son and daughter are …?

Alan: Yes, my daughter Sarah is in the sales office,Paul’s in the development side of things and of course,my very good friends who have been in the businesswith me all along, like Dave Hardy and Nigel Gardiner –they’re in it for the long term. For life!

Ed: That’s it, and you’ve established a name in theindustry and it’s through the people who you’ve gotworking with you, that you’ve been able to provide thatlevel of trust in your product and service?

Alan: Well yes, you do – the ones that are close toyou. Of course people leave and try and do their ownthing, but if you’re careful and you produce a goodproduct, you will always come through. One personcan’t do everything. It’s beyond any one person to runa multi-million pound business.

Ed: Just having a little look around the factory andseeing the processes that take place here, I think backto when I was planning this visit. Certain people said

“oh, are you going to visit a battery factory – that can’tbe very exciting.” But once you’re here and you seewhat actually goes into the battery and the charger, it’snot just a simple connection of batteries in a box,there’s a lot more to it?

Alan: There is – they only see the end result – abattery is a battery is a battery. I’ve heard that too!But when it comes down to it, there really are “horsesfor courses” – you wouldn’t run a dray horse on aracecourse would you, and it’s the same with batteries.You can now have enormous current capability from avery tiny battery that, over a period of time, will supplythat current. On the other hand, you also need abattery which will deliver an enormous current rightaway. Car batteries do that, when you crank your car,it’s virtually like a dead short across that thing. Trythat on a television battery or a mobile phone battery,and of course you’ll turn it off straight away. So forevery application there’s the correct type of technology,primary or secondary.

Ed: What’s the difference between primary andsecondary cells?

Alan: A primary cell is a cell that you can only use onceand then it’s discarded, and we’ve looked at those –primary lithiums – and we can tell its charge level.That’s something that I don’t think anyone else can do.Our military had a request for that, because they go outwith a piece of gear and they want to know that thebattery is going to continue to work. That was veryinteresting, but I’ve also always been interested in thescience side of it. Your background is science, so you

Page 2

Cells combined into batteries.

Page

can appreciate that … and so we’ve always had aResearch & Development team. In fact, it’s veryexpensive to have – we’ve got 5 or 6 people in there,and we’ve got model making and a complete draftingsystem; and then we do our own prototype mouldingsstraight from the computer.

Ed: But generally, customers don’t really appreciate

that, because what they’re after is a product that works

for a long time. Having your own Research &

Development is obviously good for the development of

your product, but it has to be seen by the customer to

have an impact in that product development?

Alan: Well you just said that the average customer isinterested in the product working for a long time; he’s

not – he’s often blind to that. He’s interested in a

cheap product and it doesn’t necessarily work for a long

time. When he’s got it first of all, he’s very happy.

Well it works alright, but whether it catches fire later on

or fails is another matter. Then he says “well I didn’t

pay much for it anyway” but when you actually put the

whole thing down on paper, you’ll find that it wasn’tsuch a cheap deal after all, because when he’s got his

third one, he would still be on our first one! So, yes,

we’ve done that – making people appreciate the true

value of our product is one of the most difficult parts of

making a sale.

Another of the key personnel at PAG is David Hardy,

technical and quality director.

Ed: David, I was just saying to Alan that the quality

seems to come in two parts – one is the robustness ofthe product, but also the other one is the quality of the

build and the components that you use inside. I see,

for example, one that’s particularly taken my fancy, is

the tape that you hold the cells together with. It might

look like Sellotape on the outside, but in fact it’s not?

David: No, we use an engineering kapton tape,

which is very strong and helps to isolate the battery

against external influences.

Ed: So why is it better than Sellotape?

David: It’s electrically insulated! It’s fireproof, it’sstrong, abrasion resistant – you can put it up the frontof a propeller on a light aircraft.

Ed: And that’s it, it’s something that I understand isspecified for the aviation industry?

David: It is actually – commercial aircraft use it inthe wiring harnesses and looms, kapton coatedsheathing and kapton tape; and of course it is a militaryrequirement and we service that field as well, so weonly use the best.

Ed: So it’s not just for the military batteries, but it’sfor all your batteries, you’re using the same highquality?

David: All our batteries use that standard of wiringand systems for keeping them together while they’re inthe process of being made, even if it’s only for holdingthings together until they’re assembled into a case.

Ed: David, you’re the first point of contact forcustomers if they have an issue – what are the sorts ofissues they have?

David: Before they even buy the product theywant to know that it will be safe – if the customer’sconducting a risk assessment for instance. Perhaps he’sa major broadcaster who will need to know that, whenhis operators go out with our batteries, they will be safeto fly; they are covered insurance-wise. They want toknow that we’ve taken steps for their safety.

Ed: Is this something that’s an EU regulation?

David: There are lots of EU regulations …

Page 4

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Ed: Yes, one’s heard! I guess some markets thatyou’re going into do require you to show thecertification that that market requires, especially withelectrical safety?

David: They certainly do, including some overseasimporters – for instance, South Africa and Australia,they need to see the actual test reports before they willallow the goods into the country. They have to sendthose test reports to the national regulators.

Alan: Technically, someone will come in and ask uswhether a battery will work in -20 or +30 degrees, andhave we tested it to that; will it work in the rain – havewe tested it, can we supply documents to prove it?Then you get the person who says “my battery is notworking” and David has to investigate why it’s notworking – is it finger trouble, is it the user, this type ofthing, and then he does a full report that goes back tothem. So it’s not just “it doesn’t work, you need tochange it” there’s an analysis of the situation, becausewe want to make sure that we’re not just fobbingsomeone off, we want to make it so that they can goback to their bosses ( locally that’s typically the BBC )with the facts. We now have their total trust and Davidsends them a report and they will then say “right we’llscrap that” or “we’ll buy another one” or whatever it is.

David: We get insurance reports as well, where ahire house will have equipment damaged, they send itinto us, and they want us to indicate how the problemcould have come about and assess the repair cost andso on, so they can pass that on to their insurers.

Ed: I’m sure the cheaper option would be just toreplace the battery but, in fact, by doing this analysis, ittells you that perhaps there’s some issue with whatyou’ve made?

Alan: We learn a lot from the service repair side and,

of course, for us the service facility is one of the major

sales outlets, because very many of our customers will

initially send their product in to us for a report first,

before then deciding to replace the product. So it’s an

important point of customer contact.

David: It builds up trust that we’re not just going

to say “right that’s no good, you need a new one”. If

the battery is 2½ years old, but in pretty good

condition, we will say that it should last another six

months or another year.

Alan: And then there’s beta testing. When we make a

product, we test it, we try and smash it, we drop it from

heights, we do all that, and we’re quite happy up to that

point. Then we put it out into the field with people who

really use that product, and we call that the “beta test.”

Those people come back with things – they’ve treated it

in a way that we’d never dreamed of treating it, or it’s

failed because of some aspect, and that’s done before

the product is brought to market. That’s very

important; one of the recent examples was the dimmer

control on the Paglight LED unit. It passed all the tests

here, but when it went into the market, people were

swiping the control knob off and we had a few

breakages. So it went straight back into redesign and it

now has a knob that is flush to the case … those are the

sorts of things you can only find out in the field.

If someone says “I’ve got an idea for a product” or can

you do this, can you do that, David will visit the

customer and maybe we’ll make a “special” because

they want it green instead of black.

David: A custom product.

Ed: I guess this is again in that area of the military or

medicine or some other specialised users?

Page 6

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Alan: Well even major broadcasters will say, “yes, Ilike that, but can we just have a variant on that”.

David: Some special holder for a disc driveperhaps … a FireStore holding device for instance, or aspecial lamp bracket specific to them, that will put thelamp to a certain height and a certain distance forward.

Ed: All of this boils down to what warranty you put onyour products, and I believe for some of your productsit’s 18 months, some it’s two years?

Alan: Yes, some products have a year’s warranty, forinstance NP type batteries, that’s one year.

Ed: That’s a very old design of battery though isn’t it?

Alan: The majority of our batteries have an 18 monthor a two year warranty. Electronic products, such aschargers, or lights, etc have a two year warranty.

Ed: So why would you have variants in warranty onbatteries?

David: The 18 month warranty is on the L95ebattery because that battery can be charged on a wholerange of chargers not made by PAG, and it’s notpossible for us to warrant allcircumstances of use; whereas the moreexpensive L95 product can only becharged on a PAG charger.

Ed: That’s so you have more controlover its lifestyle?

David: More control, yes.

Ed: And two years is pretty well theindustry maximum?

David: Two years is greater thanmost I believe – one year for many ofour competitors.

Alan: If we go back to the L95,originally, we only gave it 18 months.But after a couple of years of service, wefound that they were lasting well overtwo years, maybe getting on for threeyears, and therefore, as a marketinginitiative, we then said “well okay, we’llgive this two years warranty” which wasa year more than anybody else. One ortwo manufacturers are now catching upa little bit, and they’re looking at 18months to two years, but it was onlybecause we led the market … we weren’tprepared to give bigger warranties until we actuallyproved that our product could do that.

Ed: The cell manufacturer’s warranty, and theyobviously supply a certain warranty on their product,but you’re relying on the testing that you do?

Alan: Absolutely – we don’t want to offer somethingthat we can’t substantiate. That was exactly the samefor the LED light. We had the LED light running for 18months, 24/7, so we were very confident to give a twoyear warranty. We believe that scaling up from the 18months of continuous use, there is a minimum of nineyears life for that product.

David: It’s a very difficult subject because onmany products, the warranty will be entirely onworkmanship and materials, but a battery is aconsumable product and there’s a very great range ofconditions of use, from using them in a very hotcountry, many cycles a day, to being used in a coldclimate, with just perhaps one cycle a week. So theeffect on the calendar life of the battery is enormous.But, at the end of the day, it is a consumable product.

Page 8

Ed: Now in terms of the quality of manufacture, we’vementioned the kapton tape, but another part that Ifound particularly interesting was the case … how youput the cases together. Once you’ve assembled all thebits and pieces they go into, I guess, a polycarbonatecase. How do you put it all together Alan?

Alan: Well we use a number of processes – one isultrasonic welding and the other is a combination ofmechanical latches and a solvent. We don’t wantpeople going into these things, because the momentthey go in and tinker about inside, it’s no longer one ofour products. Once it’s been in someone else’s hands,we can’t then take responsibility for anything thatthey’ve caused by opening it. So we have mechanicallatches and solvent to join it; on another product wehave a very light solvent to seal, because some of thesethings have got to be hermetically sealed, which is veryimportant, and we also screw those together.

Now because we don’t want anyone in there – and noweveryone’s got access to these special screwdrivers thatcan do the anti-tamper screws – we put ball bearings

down in the hole and then finally seal the top with aplastic bung. We have to do that … product reliability isa very important thing, and we want to make sure thatif anything goes wrong, we don’t take the responsibilityfor someone else’s stupidity … and in the past peoplehave been stupid enough to go to a back street“abortionist” and have cells changed. These peoplethought they were very clever in this back street, byputting some used cells together, thinking they werebalancing the whole thing up – different makes of cell inwhat they thought was a similar state of chemistry wearout, and then of course things happen. The thing fails,or worse, it catches fire.

David: And they believe that it’s still a PAGbattery; they believe they can saw the battery open,take all the insides out, put different internals in therewith different workmanship, different construction – andit’s still a PAG battery … and we get criticism frompeople for the performance of our batteries and whenthey arrive it’s nothing to do with PAG whatsoever.

Alan: Apart from the plastic box.

The ultrasonic welding machine.

Page

David: But the danger is that we could, under

some circumstances, be asked to take on board the

liability for the failure.

Ed: Not a good thing. So when a device comes back

for servicing here for some reason, you have to destroy

that case and put a new one on?

Alan: We do that if we want to look at the system

inside and see, if it’s failed – why it’s failed. That’s ifwe can’t measure that from the outside, and also if

there’s something happened with a cell ( and generally

they’re fail-safe ) then we will give the person an

equivalent to a warranty with a good discount on the

replacement product. It’s a good, healthy trade-in

allowance on old product, and that means that if stuff

comes back to us, we can see how it’s fared in all ways

in the market, right down from the way the casescratches to the way people treat them is very

important. So, yes, we do have a system right here

actually, which cuts open batteries, and

we very carefully cut them open to

analyse them and see what happened in

them. Then they are correctly and

commercially recycled, so the plastic’s

stripped off and the chemistry goes for

meltdown in a special facility.

Ed: You’ve made a big investment in

that ultrasonic sealing machine so why

don’t you use that to seal all your cases?

Alan: It’s not always appropriate and it

does come with its little problems.

Because it’s at very high frequency

which melts the two parts together

under pressure in the machine, and it’s a

tune horn, tuned to the frequency thatwill melt the plastic at that size for that

particular product, but also, we worry

about it affecting other parts – especially

if they’re moving parts within the case

that you can’t see. We had a label on

one which you move to indicate “charge”

or “discharge” and we had quite a few

problems with that welding itself

Page 10

Lots and lots of circuit boards ready for action.

together during the ultrasonic process. So it doesn’t

suit all things.

David: Another consideration is that it’s notpermissible for lithium ion batteries because theelectronics inside the battery have to pass the ultimatefail-safe tests. You can’t then take that carefully testedand sealed circuit and put it under a resonator whichwill do horrific things to all the components.

Ed: Good point. Moving on, at Inwards Goods, I sawracks and racks of circuit boards. Are you buying thesecircuit boards in from somebody else?

Alan: No, we design everything here. Every part hasbeen designed here by our own electronics design teamand then the circuit boards go out to manufacture.They go into a high speed “pick and place” machine thatputs all the components down, they are flow soldered,then the boards go off for conformal coating withsomething called Parylene.

Ed: I understand that’s something thatnot many battery manufacturers do?

Alan: That’s right, they don’t and if youdon’t do that, any leakage from a cellhas a possibility of going across a part ofa board carrying enough current – only afew milliamps of current required – andthen it can actually set fire to theelectrolyte. It’s a bit like the old nitratefilm days – once you’ve set fire to it, youcan’t put it out, and I think they’vediscovered this on computers going ontoaircraft. The kneejerk reaction was toput in all this legislation abouttransportation of lithium, which they’vegot slightly wrong I’m afraid.

Ed: So in fact the Parylene coating willnegate this?

David: The Parylene coating is

fantastic, because it completely covers

the entire circuit board, including

underneath the components, and you

can in practice, immerse the live circuit

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board in the flammable electrolyte from

the cells and there is no problem at all.

Ed: But you don’t recommend it?

David: But we don’t recommend it –don’t do this at home!

Ed: I must admit that I was guilty inmy early days of opening up an old BP-90 and replacing the cells, but in thosedays, the battery was just made up ofcells, wires and one fuse. Nowadays –well your batteries, you’ve got a wholecircuit board in there?

Alan: The laws have changed as well.We said earlier, you must not undo aproduct and change the design within – Imean I’ve seen people solder to thebases of batteries and it doesn’t make aproper contact, and yet the battery sitsthere with the manufacturer’s name on itstill. Not fair.

David: Fundamentally though, themanufacturers like Sanyo and LG require many moresafeguards in the packaging of lithium ion cells and anynicad or nickel metal hydride that they make. If wewant to use Sanyo cells, we have to have their approvalof our design. If you just went to Mr Sanyo and saidlook I want 10,000 cells, he won’t sell them to you. Ifyou asked him for one million, he won’t sell them toyou. He needs to know the use, what are youpackaging them in, the whole design. And you will onlyget that shipment once they approve the design. Theyare very, very strict – extremely strict.

Alan: And for the test purposes, they want 30 of ourbatteries that we have made with their cells. They firea steel bolt through them, they short them out, theyovercharge them, and the battery has got to withstandall that.

David: This of course applies to lithium ionbatteries, this is what we’re talking about, and forlithium ion batteries it’s mandatory to have electronicsafety control systems inside the battery.

Alan: The Sanyo requirement is because it’s theirname on the cell, so when a failure happens, that’s theirparanoia – that they can’t say “well we sold them thecell; they have to take full responsibility,” and if there’sa serious issue like there was three years ago withlaptops, then it’s the cell manufacturers that have totake responsibility. So therefore, they’re saying unlessyou adhere to our rules, we are not going to sell youthe product.

Ed: And that’s pretty well what those circuits are for –it’s for safety?

David: We have three circuits in the battery, thereare three computers inside a battery, so there is thesafety backstop protection circuit; there’s the controlcircuit that looks after charging and discharge limitationand so on; and there’s the display circuit as well – all ofwhich have their own computers.

Ed: So in fact, when a battery comes to its end of life,if it’s been heavily used, the circuits will be fine and it ispossible to repower that battery?

David: The circuits may be fine, but one thing wenever do is reuse the protection circuit, because youcannot tell just what kind of a life that circuit has had.It may test okay, but you don’t know what condition it’sbeen used in, so we never, never reuse the protection

circuit. That’s always new. We can use some of theother circuits for repairs, but generally they’re all newcircuits that are used in new product.

The PAG factory visit continues in August.

To find out more about the line-up from PAG,

go to their website at www.paguk.com

or call Shane at Quinto NZ

for a personal demonstration.

Page 12

NZVN

Testing, testing, testing.

Page

rationalisation move, because you’ve been looking afterthe Kata brand in the photo side for quite a long time?

Marc: Yes we have. Kata is certainly one of ourstrongest brands and we’re very proud to represent it.Kata is under the Vitech Group who have a range ofdifferent brands that they manufacture from Manfrotto,Kata, National Geographic … they’ve recently acquired aUK company called Lastolite.

Ed: The fact that you now represent Kata issomething that you believe is going to benefit NewZealand dealers and their customers?

Marc: Yes, I believe so. Kata has certainly beenaround in the New Zealand video industry for a numberof years. The feedback we had was that it couldcertainly have been available in a wider range ofoutlets, and I think us coming to the industry hashelped that come to fruition.

Ed: And I guess also, with the industry lines betweenphotographic and video blurring, especially in thecompact camera area, it’s sensible that there’s somecrossover?

Marc: Yes, there is some crossover. There’scertainly a defined line of video bags and a fine line ofphoto bags, but there is a range where Kata havecrossed over into both video and photo, and theyaccommodate both well.

Ed: We saw a clothing line from Manfrotto at NAB –that’s also in your area?

Marc: Yes it is – that’s exciting, that’s sort of anew area for these guys and I’ve just come back fromthe conference that they held in Italy which gave us abit more insight into what they’re doing. It’s a range

that’s Italian designed, so it’s a little bit different towhat we’ve seen in the past; it’s highly fashionable andwe think it’s practical and that it’s going to suit a certaintype of customer.

Ed: And that’s just part of what Focal Holdings isdoing; you’re looking to supply quite a range ofaccessories to the photo and the video market in NewZealand?

Marc: Well we already supply 900 accessories inthe photo trade; there’s definitely some crossover thatwe’ve established in the video market as well – it’s notjust in bags. We’re also distributors for the Adatamemory, so we’re highly competitive when it comes tomemory cards and flash drives. We’re also involved intripods and heavily involved in battery products as well.

Ed: I understand Bellina had a surprise for you?

Marc: Yes she did. At the recent Kata conference,they had an award ceremony. They had all thedistributors worldwide and we were lucky enough tocome away with the Best Kata Market Presence andUnexpected Budgeted Growth awards which we wererapt about because, as I said, I’ve personally only beenassociated with the brand for a couple of years and thatwas one of only about ten awards that were handedout. So the team at Focal are very proud to have beenrecognised for the hard work that we’ve put in.

Ed: So readers, if you have a favourite supplier outthere who doesn’t have the products that Focal isoffering, perhaps you should go and talk to them andget them to talk to Marc to broaden their offer to you.What do you think?

Marc: I think that’s a great idea – fantastic. NZVN

Page 16

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Smoke &Mirrors for realWe are at the Autodeskshow with Stuart Barnabyfrom DVT and MelanieLanglotz from Images &Sound in Auckland.

Ed: Stuart, Autodesk havenamed this show “Smokeand Mirrors”. That’s a bit ofa bold move isn’t it?

Stuart: Yes absolutely, Imean that is what thisindustry is all about.Everyone says “oh, you can’tbelieve anything you see onTV or in the movies, becauseit’s all smoke and mirrors”.Today we were showing theintegration of Maya andSmoke together, how youcan create 3D objects in oneproduct and seamlesslybring them through into ahigh end compositingplatform. We are alsoshowing the new and veryadvanced lighting effects and a range of other effectsthat they’ve added into these products as well.

Ed: Now obviously Stuart thinks this is the “beesknees” because he’s the rep, but Melanie you’re actuallya user, and you have been a user of Autodesk productfor a long time I understand?

Melanie: Unfortunately I’m not anymore. I steppedaway from the box a year ago – a final decision. Butwhen I started, when I saw Flame for the very firsttime, the Beta version in October 1992, it was anabsolute revolution, very much competing with Quantelat the time.

Ed: You could probably do those applications on youriPhone now couldn’t you?

Melanie: No, not quite, that’s still a long way away –but I do have to say a lot of development has beendone since then. There was a time when I thoughtokay, what’s going to come next, because nothing newseemed to be happening for a while, but now things arereally moving forward again. There’s a new progressinto three dimensional direction, and I think that is verymuch pushed by a higher expectation from the audienceas to what they want to see – a higher entertainmentexpectation. We’re moving into a completely new areaand the systems now are expected to deliver faster,better quality and with easier tools that are easier tomanage.

When you actually look at the gaming tools that theyhave, they are not very interactive, they are still, forme, pretty Stone Age, very backwards. So I think thatis the next thing that is going to happen. The gamingtools, which are more 3D Maya, Mudbox and MotionBuilder are all eventually, I think, going to flow togetherwith what we’ve been traditionally doing on the 2Darea. I don’t think there’s really any way how you canprevent that; it will just flow together and become moreand more an interactive package that deliverseverything, and caters for everything.

Melanie and Stuart.

But I think the other challenge is that we are nowhaving such a huge range of toys and gadgets that wecan play with, from iPhones to iPads to our hometelevision system that is now connected to the internetand in stereo. That all has to be catered for. So I thinknot only the expectations from the clients to us as apost house, or to our compositors and artists is reallygrowing, but they also expect things with a fasterturnaround and a lower budget, so that is another kindof challenge that we’re obviously facing together, thesoftware developer Autodesk as much as every postproduction house or every creative. We need to be ableto produce good content, high value content with thebudgets that the industry allows for.

Ed: So really you’ve either got to be able to producewhat was done before for half the budget, or you’ve gotto come up with something new, show a new featurethat nobody else has?

Melanie: That’s right, and so I think the industry hasalways been about innovation, there is no doubt aboutit, and the artists have always been and will alwayscrave for the latest tools and finding things that givethem a faster turnaround of their ideas; because there’sno shortage of ideas, it’s just sometimes frustrating tomake them happen faster, you know meeting thedeadlines and really feeling stopped by what is possible.A lot of the new tools that have now come out with theAutodesk range – a lot of things seem or feel likecommon sense, like why weren’t they possible a longtime ago, but I think a lot has to do with the basiccomputer components, you know, and speed of thesystems, and that has improved. Everything has grownexponentially and I think we’re going to see a much,much bigger growth in the next few years in that area,and it will become easier to create beautiful creativecontent as we go along, no doubt.

Ed: You say you’ve come from using the pen, soyou’ve been a graphic artist yourself; you’re now, Iguess in management …

Page 18

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Melanie: I’m the general manager.

Ed: Well, you can’t get much higher than that! Newtechnology becomes a purchasing decision now. You’renot just looking at it from the artist’s point of view,saying “gimme, gimme, gimme”; you’re now looking atit from the “other side” to question “is this going to be acost-effective purchase?” What’s the answer?

Melanie: I think you need to look at it from twoangles. A tool can only be as good as the artist. Youfirst need to have a creative artist who is able to turnaround great ideas within the deadline and to budget.The tools are the tools you know – they are what theyare, but the main thing is that the more a tool causesfrustration for the artist to create the work, the lessgood the outcome is going to be. So we are looking fortool solutions that have a small amount of frustrationfor the artist.

Ed: Have you found them here tonight?

Melanie: Absolutely. For instance, the pixel spreadtool for the keyer is amazing. I mean, how long havewe been waiting for that, it’s really great. The lighting

in one specific area, but I think it’s going to come backto that eventually.

Ed: The brain’s got to get full at some point?

Melanie: Yes, that’s right. And there’s a lot oftechnology and knowledge that people have to have inorder to run these machines. You really can’tunderestimate the training that these guys need tohave in order to create what they’re creating.

Stuart: For so long these products been about thetechnical challenges, about supporting high definition,about doing 2K, about supporting the ARRI, RED anddifferent formats. Now with these new productreleases, they’ve moved beyond that. They’ve ticked allthe boxes on all the formats that they need to do, andthey’re taking advantage of the modern hardware toprovide creative features, and as Melanie was saying it’sall about productivity, quality and creativity. Thequality thing is now done; we can support 2K and 4Kand beyond with these tools now. So that’s not anissue. The issues are really about productivity andcreativity. We need to be able to do more in less time.A good example here today is you’ve always been able

to fake shadows in Flame andSmoke in the past. Now it justdoes real shadows – and that’sa h u g e p r o d u c t i v i t yimprovement for the artist, onethat allows them to use thatextra time to be more creative,to experiment, to try differentthings. Ultimately that willprovide a product that is ontime, on budget, and is thequality product that we’reexpecting to produce with thecreativity that they need.

Ed: But the big questioncomes down to training doesn’t

it? Are there the artists out

there trained enough in the

product?

Stuart: Well we can all buy

a set of paints, but that doesn’t

mean I’m a Picasso does it …

but that’s really where the realtalent is, and it is about

training; it’s also about experience as well, industry

knowledge about how these things work.

Ed: So is DVT getting involved in Autodesk training?

Stuart: We’ve got a number of strategies, bothfrom an educational perspective, also from a trainingperspective. There are many different ways in whichthat is being handled for these types of products.

Ed: So you’re not just buying a disc in a box, you’reactually getting training along with it?

Stuart: We have a combination – there’s excellentresources online now, both free and paid, that areavailable for these products, providing really high value.We also do one-on-one training here in New Zealand forthese products as well, with people like Rob who wasdoing the presentation tonight. He’s providing constanttraining for our customers every time he comes to NewZealand. So there are plenty of resources there to takeadvantage of to get into this. Also the number ofoperators who are around in the New Zealand market isvery freelance based, so there’s a wealth of experienceout there that people can use to draw on as well.

Page 20

and shading options are really, really terrific. I meanI’m thinking back to ’91 or something like that, whenwe first showed the stabiliser in Germany at a demo,and people looked at me and said “what are we going todo with it?” There was just no idea of what to do withthat whole concept and that’s all changed.

Now we’re looking at 3D tracking within like a 2½Dsystem that is more and more going 3D. I think thetwo systems will be merging more and more. I kind oflike see a platform happening which is a Flame SmokeLustre Photoshop sort of thing with Maya andeverything else built in it.

Ed: On your iPad?

Melanie: That’s right, on my iPad! The challenge stillfor the artist is the knowledge that these people have tohave by now, the technical knowledge as well as thecreative knowledge, and I see there will be at somestage a tipping point. At the moment I think it is goingtowards having an artist who can do everything, andthen eventually there will have to be a tipping pointwhere the artist is more appreciated for being an expert NZVN

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Pinnacle andAvid Studio

ShowAt a recent Pinnacle and

Avid Studio show, in

conjunction with ImagingTechnology, I spoke with

Peter Dudkowski from Avid.

Most of the audience were in

the consumer / prosumer

area and the majority of

those were Pinnacle Studio

users. The comments that I

had from audience memberswere that most of the users

of other products were there

because they were finding

that those products were

not advancing with the

needs that they had for new

camera recording codecs

and they were looking to

Avid for a solution. Cer-tainly, by the range that was

shown, Avid is providing that solution from the basic

setup under the Pinnacle brand to quite a sophisticated

package in Avid Studio. What I did see was that all the

products had a very simple user interface, so someone

who came off a basic editing package would find it very

easy to jump into this – but hidden behind that simple

interface were some very sophisticated tools that could

be used if one wanted, but were not obligatory.

Ed: Peter, is this product range the direction that Avidis taking in the consumer / prosumer area?

Peter: One of the things with the consumer /prosumer area is the fact that, in the past, the onlyconsumer offering that we had was based on PinnacleStudio. Now Pinnacle Studio’s been on the market foralmost 9 years and a lot of users have perhaps used theproduct to its maximum potential. They were ready tomove up to a product which offered more features suchas unlimited track editing, 64 bit optimisation, plus oneof the key things in today’s video and audio editing,asset management. Many prosumer and home usershave accumulated a lot of videos and photos and arerunning attached network storage areas at home. Oneof the key things with Avid Studio was to allow users tohave actual media asset management tools, so we haveintroduced Media Library which has a very easy tofollow interface.

Ed: Okay, so that’s the top end, that’s the AvidStudio. At the introduction end, you’ve got ...?

Peter: We have the Pinnacle Studio product line-up, because we’re still identifying a number of peoplewho are very new to video editing. They may have justbought a new HD camera, they have a lot of digitalstills, so Pinnacle Studio is covering that market for firsttime users. Traditionally, we’ve been very big onproviding online training tutorials and that has beenmaintained through Pinnacle Studio right to Avid Studio,going from introductory video editing and slide showcreation to providing for users who have already usedeither Pinnacle or comparative consumer video editingproducts and are ready to take up the next step, butare not quite ready to look at a professional solution.

Ed: In the larger Avid picture, we have MediaComposer, but really there is a major distinction andone wouldn’t imagine that you would go from an AvidStudio to a Media Composer, because it really is atotally different ballgame. Avid are deliberately keepingthe two quite separate?

Peter: Correct, yes. Media Composer, like yourightly said, is actually aimed at a completely differentmarket, so once again, Avid Studio is not replacingLiquid as such; it’s basically addressing a different usergroup that have been using Pinnacle Studio and otherevery day editing products while Media Composer,which is a professional level product is looking atstudents who are doing multimedia courses and whoare interested at taking up a career in video editing

Ed: Now you mentioned Liquid before I did, and as anex-Liquid user, I look at the product line-up, AvidStudio, I look at Media Composer, and I see that Liquiddoesn’t really fit in either category, but there certainlyare many of the features that I remember from Liquidin Avid Studio – especially all the effects and plug-ins ifyou like, which would make it to me, a very, veryuseable product. But there is no official replacement forLiquid?

Peter: In terms of the upgrade path for Liquidusers, Media Composer is the product offered by Avidand in the past we have run a special cross-gradepromotion for all registered Liquid users, encouragingthem to make the switch. However, it may be thatsome will be more comfortable with the feature set ofAvid Studio.

Ed: A key feature I noticed was that tools have asimple version in the Pinnacle and Avid Studio line. Forexample, key frames. Normally when you mention “keyframes” to people who are in the prosumer area, theyreally don’t know what you’re talking about. What Isaw in the Avid Studio demonstration was that there isa simple version of key frames that you can use, but ifyou want to go a bit further, you can delve a little bitdeeper into the software and get the full benefits of keyframes. I saw that in a number of areas which really

Page 22

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did impress me that here is a product that you can usevery simply and very quickly, or you can go into in a lotmore detail and use to do really professionalproductions?

Peter: The Pinnacle and Avid Studio products were

designed to be intuitive and easy to use for first timers.

We have also invested in substantial video tutorials for

both Pinnacle and Avid Studio. Veteran users will be

delighted to see the depth they can go into with Avid

Studio, to realise their full creative potential at an

affordable price-point.

There are also many Pinnacle add-ons that weren’t

available at the old base price, so if someone wants to

explore the full potential of the product, use all the 3D,

2D effects and transitions, they’re all available in the

product itself.

Ed: And the training is very important. Now in terms

of media asset management, you say that you’ve got all

the media there and you can easily identify it – is there

any way that you can (if at some stage you decided toupgrade to Media Composer) still have access to that

same media with the same metadata, or do you have to

start from scratch - in terms of the media’s there, but

that’s it, there’s no project linking, there’s no way of

bringing any information, apart from the raw media,

into a new Media Composer project itself?

Peter: Okay, the way Media Library in Avid Studioworks, is that it creates the link between the nativedata that sits on your computer in a non-intrusive way.So all it does, is it uses the actual data and the storage

location of the data that is on your hardware; it linksthe data and locates the data by Media Library, withoutchanging location of content of the data on your harddrive itself, without changing metadata details as well.So it creates a link between the Media Library and thedata in the assets that rest on your computer. Toanswer your question, if you want to access the samedata using any third party product, Avid Studio will notchange the location of the data, it will not change theformat. So the data is available for other programmesto use. The Media Library will simply work within AvidStudio to help you manage the actual data and assets,so you can get them ready for your projects that youcreate within Avid Studio.

Ed: I guess the main difference people would see is inthe layout of the timeline – that interface is really quitedifferent, but in terms of the actual media, the mediacaptured, the media can be used in any of those editingprogrammes because once the media is captured in aparticular codec, that’s it, it’s independent? But interms of if you did upgrade at some stage to MediaComposer, the media is there, but the projectinformation is not?

Peter: That’s correct. The project file formats andthe data file formats between Avid Studio and MediaComposer are not compatible. What Avid Studio does isthat it works with Pinnacle Studio file format. So we’vegot a Pinnacle Studio user that had their own project ina PSD file format, they can bring Pinnacle Studioprojects to Avid Studio, but right now there is no linkbetween Avid Studio and Media Composer.

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Ed: What I did notice is one special feature herewhich would make this very valuable for people who aredoing either home slide shows or slide shows forcustomers – weddings, funerals, etc – the Smart SlideShow. This appears to be a very quick and a great toolto have, but it’s not something that you would find inMedia Composer, so if you were in the professional areaand using a professional tool for your programmeediting, something like this is such a cheap purchaseyou could have it on your computer alongside any otherediting programme, and just use it for those simplequick presentations?

Peter: Actually Media Composer, being a verypowerful, professional editing product, provides the userwith the capability of creating their own presets tocreate countless possibilities, including sophisticatedslide-show-style effects. There are online tutorials onthe Avid Community forum that cover these conceptsand capabilities.

made it a lot simpler for customers to use it as well –creating the main menu and sub-menus a lot simpler.A lot of the feedback we had was to make it simple andstraightforward to use so it’s pretty much “drag anddrop” now.

Ed: Another cool feature I noticed was with thetransitions. Once you’ve “dragged and dropped” thoseonto the timeline, they have some very quickadjustments which are actually on the tab edge of thetransition. But my final comment is that people whoare current Liquid users, who are looking at Studio, thechoice is that you can keep using Liquid if you like theinterface, but don’t have any need for advancingcamera technology, but if you are using anything in thenew camera formats such as AVC-HD etc, or you haveclients who are bringing you that sort of material, youreally do have to change your editing product to AvidStudio or Media Composer or some similar product. Sothat really is a major decision one has to make –

interface versus moderncodecs?

Peter: The Pinnacle Stu—dio / Avid Studio range ofproducts were designedprimarily with the consumer inmind whereas Avid Liquid wasfor professional users. Weneed to remember that bothsets of products were designedfor different purposes.

Avid Liquid was designed at thetime when HDV was the HighDefinition standard. Users ofAvid Liquid are encouraged toconsider Avid Media Composeras a suitable replacement fortheir professional editing needs.

Avid Studio was released onlyrecently and we have madeevery effort to address allpossible modern consumervideo formats out in themarket. When we designedAvid Studio, we looked at itfrom a consumer mindset. As

the Digital Still Cameras start to be capable of shootingHigh Definition video, we ensured that Avid Studiosupported formats such as AVCHD Lite, as well as theother formats Pinnacle Studio supported. Users ofprofessional formats such as P2, are encouraged to useAvid Media Composer instead.

So it really boils down to a matter of convenience.

Users used to the Avid Liquid interface may choose to

continue using Avid Liquid as it is. Those who are

looking for an easier interface may want to consider

Avid Studio, while those looking for professional

features, should take a look at Avid Media Composer.

I’ve had a lot of people in the past using Liquid; some

of them are using Avid Studio and are quite happy with

the interface and the format support as well, because

like you said earlier on, feature-wise, in terms of

transitions that are available, in terms of actual

additional plugins that are available, there’s quite a

number which allow you to create a professional looking

wedding video or similar, in an easier way.

Ed: Now we mustn’t forget another Avid product, the

M-Audio product, and you had three on show – one for

keyboards, one for … well you tell me?

Page 28

Ed: A feature I did notice in the Studio product isadjustable windows, and the lack of this was somethingI found annoying with Liquid. It seems as though thewindows are infinitely adjustable and you can spreadthem across two screens?

Peter: Yes they are. You’ve got the option ofadjusting and resizing windows depending on the assetsthat you want to view as well. That will give customersa lot more flexibility in the interface that was traditionalin Pinnacle Studio. The only option with Pinnacle Studiowas the option of resizing the preview window. We’vetaken that a step further, where we gave customers theoption of viewing their actual assets, source window, orthe timeline, depending on what the requirements ofthe projects are.

Ed: Okay, another thing which I see that you’veimported from Liquid, was the easy DVD authoring, andyou’ve made it even easier, with the studio product.

Peter: One of the things that we’ve found withPinnacle Studio is that when one wants to do DVDauthoring, it was a bit cumbersome and because it wasdone with the main FG added option, it became reallyhard to track. By having a separate tab in Avid Studio,we clearly identified the DVD authoring timeline and

Page

Peter: We’ve got Avid Recording Studio, Avid KeyStudio and Avid Vocal Studio. The reason behindbringing these products into the consumer space was toallow customers to have both software and hardwarethat is compatible with both Windows and Mac, and alsosoftware that is simple to use. We’ve built in projecttutorials, project guides as well, but at the same time,what we wanted to do was make sure that whoeverbuys our consumer audio solution buys a completepackage. We identified that some people might want todo vocal recording, narration broadcast, so we releasedAvid Vocal Studio that consists of a condenser USB micwhich is a high quality stage mic, with Pro Tools SE. Anumber of people who are interested in guitar-recording, especially in the younger age groups, say 17-25, don’t have a lot of experience with audiotechnology, and that’s why we released Avid RecordingStudio, which includes a multi fast track recorder, aswell as Pro Tools SE.

And finally, we’ve got the 49 key keyboard, which ispart of our Avid Key Studio. Our market segment forthat particular product is actually people who areinterested in creating music using virtual instruments.So “Key Studio” will allow them to emulate variousinstruments and the Pro Tools SE comes bundled with100 virtual instruments emulations. All our hardwareworks with other software as well. So a lot of times,we’ve got customers who are running third partysoftware; they may run Karach Bantam, they may runCubase Slide where they are able to use our hardwarewith their existing software. At the same time, they’vegot the opportunity to get a first-hand Pro Toolsexperience. Pro Tools SE is based on Pro Tools, but issimplified for the consumer market. The really excitingfeature is that the file you create in Pro Tools SE is fullycompatible with the professional version of Pro Tools 9.One of the key things for us was to give users a goodand pleasant first-hand experience with the Pro Toolsproduct range.

So we have redesigned the interface to allow customersthe option of using predesigned templates. If theywant, for example, to create video tracks or audiotracks for their music videos, we’ve got a templatedesigned for it. They’re able to bring the AVI orQuickTime video files into a product, use predesignedtemplates and create music voiceover narration for theirexisting video tracks.

Ed: And that’s it, that’s what I saw, is that theproducts have the look of the Avid M-Audio professionalproduct, but there are lots of little simple tools in there,and the process is such that it takes you through thesteps when you’re wanting to do something audio-wise.Also there’s an incredible amount of training material

that’s in there. So I guess to me, it offers a solution tothe people who have come into the video industry fromthe audio side and are looking at adding pictures totheir audio, whereas many of us have come from thepicture side, and the audio is the secondary part of it.So obviously these products, being in the same Avidgrouping, work well with each other and there’s nointeroperability problems?

Peter: Well one of the things, when it comes tointeroperability with Pro Tools, Pro Tools SE is aconsumer based product so it takes video files in onlyAVI or QuickTime. You can import those files and workwith the actual audio component. Once you create yournew audio tracks for your video, you export these asWAV files and bring them back into your video editingtimeline. So unlike the professional products, wherethere is interoperability between Media Composer andPro Tools 9, Pro Tools SE was primarily aimed at theyoung audio consumer market, but will also identify alot of young aspiring musicians who want to createmusic videos and want to create actual music for theirvideo clips.

There is also the ability to mix songs because we’veincluded about 29 demo songs for people that want touse existing songs plus background music. We alsoincluded 3GB of loops including drum loops, guitarloops, hip-hop loops and jazz loops. So if you’re notactually musically inclined and don’t play instruments,you can use the 3GB of loops that come with theprogramme to create your music and create, forexample, all your clips for your videos. Another use isfor the growing number of young people wanting to trytheir luck auditioning for shows like X-Factor, Australia’sGot Talent and so forth, where they need accessible,reasonably priced tools to get started to cut their demoCD and that’s where Vocal Studio comes in. Like I saidearlier on, the file format’s compatible with Pro Tools 9,so you can cut your demo CD at a fraction of the cost,take it to a professional recording house running ProTools and have it up sampled and worked on as well.So not only video users, but also newcomers to audioand audio technology.

And that’s it, I guess right across the range, if you lookat either the Avid video editing products in the Studiorange, or the audio products, you look at it either as anentry level product or as something that you can havein your repertoire for either learning new skills in theaudio side, or doing those quick jobs that one getswhere you don’t want to tie up your main editingplatform. So certainly something well worth looking at,and come and see Chon and the team at ImagingTechnology for your own demo. NZVN

Page 30

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Page

AVerMedia Supports Studio ProductAlso part of the Avid presentation, Chon Chai from

Imaging Technology presented AVerMedia products

suitable for capturing both digital and analogue material

for editing in Adobe Premiere Pro and popular video

post-production programmes.

Ed: Chon, you’ve got two products that really fit the

editing packages from Adobe?

Chon: Most certainly. They are the HD capture

card and the C281 Video Capture HD Box. The HD

capture card is a PCIE card which comes with an HDMI

input, plus S-Video, composite and component capture

in one card.

Ed: So that’s the thing,

editing software can use

files once they are created

but, if you need to capture

off a tape deck or off a

camera directly, either

analogue or digital through

the HDMI, you need capture

hardware?

Chon: Yes, and the

really good feature with the

AVerMedia software, that

comes with the card, is that

it is standalone software, so

it is software run by itself.

You can continue editing

using editing software while

you’re capturing the next

material you need – all on

the same computer.

Ed: So in that

configuration, you’re not

using the capture codecs of

the editing software, you’re

using the capture codecs of

the AVerMedia card, and it

captures to specific codecs I

understand?

Chon: Yes, in standard def it captures normal AVIand MPEG-2 and for high definition in H.264 / MPEG-2format in your choice of 1080p, 1080i, or 720p andother popular formats.

Ed: But if you wanted to utilise the formats availablein the editing software, you could still capture normallythrough the computer’s Firewire port?

Chon: Yes, the card does not stop that ability.

Ed: Okay. And the standalone Video Capture box –this is something you don’t need a computer for?

Chon: This is standalone capture equipment. Youplug in your analogue Composite, S-Video, Componentor USB external cable into the box and push a button torecord. It records directly onto a 2.5 inch laptop sizedhard drive or a USB external one. These are up to 2TBnow so that’s a lot of recording time.

Once it’s finished, you take the hard drive out ordirectly transfer the files between a USB external harddrive and the internal 2.5 inch HDD. You can eventransfer the footage into your computer for editing.There’s also a remote control so you can record orplayback the footage from the box directly onto adisplay monitor.

Page 32

Ed: That’s pretty cool – is that recording in the same

formats that the AVerMedia card is?

Chon: No, as it has an H.264 hardware encoder

on the board, it can only record HD or SD footage in

H.264.

Ed: And these are available now?

Chon: The capture card is available now and the

video capture box will be in August.

Ed: I see that the box is powered by an AC power

supply but you could use a 12 Volt battery and get your

power that way?

Chon: Yes, we will firstly launch the model

powered by an AC power supply soon, in Aug – and it’s

going to be only about $500 without the drive. We will

see the market feedback to decide the timing of a

battery-powered model.

Which means that this becomes a very handy little box

at a very reasonable price that one can use in addition

to either the cards in your camera, or tape, basically

giving any camera that has an HDMI out a much higher

standard of recording in the field and a much longer

recording time in the field.

Contact Imaging Technology for either of these or other

AVerMedia product. NZVN

“You’ve got to be kidding”

I’ve just added Apple’s update to Final Cut Pro(Pro X) to my “You’ve got to be kidding” list -

joining Vista, RED and the 5D.

See for yourself on the Web by searching FCP Xand Conan O’Brien - great video editing! Ed.

PS Any other products you think I should add?

Page

DatavideoIt is a late entry for NABreporting but interesting, sofor Protel, we have Jack Linthe CEO of Datavideo.

Jack: Since IBC last year,Da t a v i d e o USA h asdeveloped a new S3D-1camera. It’s unique becauseit’s been designed so that itdoesn’t just create a 3Dpicture. There are manycameras out there todaythat say “hey we do 3D”.You can put them on rigs,you can do all sorts ofthings. However, whatDatavideo’s done is they’vecreated an engineeringversion where you can reallywork with the convergencepoint at a very, very highlevel. At the same time, it‘sgot a new shutter thatmeans that, even if you aremoving the camera whileyou are shooting, you don’tget sick which you can dowhen viewing other 3Dcamera pictures. As you’re panning with the camera,what happens is that your eye starts getting all chippyand choppy and you don’t feel well. Datavideo’s S3D-1camera has a unique shutter on it which is called“Global Shutter”, which makes it a really great product.

Ed: Oh, come on, you say that it doesn’t do that, buthow?

Jack: Well the shutter … you can get furtherinformation from our website, but basically, a normalCCD, CMOS sensor offloads the data from the CCD tothe recording medium line by line. This means that,when you’re seeing a picture with a lot of movement init, from the first line to the last line there’s been achange. The Datavideo Global Shutter charges a fullframe and then offloads it; and that way basically

offloads the data from the front end of the shutter, sothe media that you’re recording is in one lump of data.This means that it’s completely stable, even if you movethe camera.

“The Datavideo LIVE S3D-1 is a purpose built, small,

very adjustable S3D camera that accepts two C-Mount

lenses.

It is fast to operate and easy to use, easily mountedand easily controlled by USB or Wi-Fi via iPad app

controller.

The lenses are adjustable for both convergence angle as

well as separation. The small diameter lenses can get

closer together than human eyes.

The camera can be mounted almost anywhere youwant, advertising and other small-footprint installations. Shipping detailsto be announced.”

Ed: A great 3D tool. Now, I see you

have continued development of your

Video switcher range.

Jack: Yes, the SE-3000 is a 1ME

switcher but the added “Flex source”

built in feature is similar to having a

second M/E. The SE-3000 comes in

either an 8-input (SE-3000-8) model or

16-input (SE-3000) model. The SE-3000

has 16 inputs, but 8 inputs have an

upconverter which means you can mix

HD and SD sources – up to 8 SD sources

– that’s the difference.

Also, it provides quite a few 3D effects.

We have provided two downstream

chromakeys and up to four outputs. The

SE-3000 has dual “picture in picture”

where you can make adjustments, even

twist the angle. There is also a very

good function we call Flex source. Flex

Page 34

The 3D with a “quarter” showing the size.

Jack with the SE-3000 switcher.

Page

source means you can make a special effect of a source

and that can be transitioned with another input source.

Ed: So that’s like you’ve recorded a macro in there?

Jack: Similar, yes. There is a built-in 7 inch monitor

with a touchscreen and you can see how easy it is to

operate the mixer.

Ed: And the perfect accompaniment, a little recorder

to go along with it?

Jack: Yes, we are currently shipping the HDR-40 and

50. Both have the same function; 50 is 1U high

rackmount and the 40 is a hand carry one. Both have a

removable hard drive. They can record up to 80

Megabit 420 or 100 Megabit iframe only 422. Hard

drive capacity can be up to 320 Gig at this moment but

with a new firmware update, can be up to 500 Gig.

Recording format is standard M2T in a single clip giving

one big file for easy editing.

Ed: And, of course, what every studio needs is avectorscope waveform monitor from Datavideo?

Jack: Yes. Our new VS-100 vectorscope waveformmonitor is specially designed for use in the field whereyou want to make a very quick calibration. You need asmall handheld vectorscope and waveform monitor toshow the histogram and parade well. Also, you can seeall the audio.

Ed: So this is the VS-100 and this accompanies asmall standard monitor. The monitor doesn’t have tohave any special features built-in – this is what thislittle box does?

Jack: Yes, that’s the idea. The price is only US$800and no PC needed, just this little box. Shipping to beadvised.

Ed: Datavideo also make a little DN60, a DV/HDVfield recorder. Now Jack, there’s a lot of these littlerecorders out in the show here today, what makes thisone special?

Jack: This one we designed for the tape recorder. Youknow, the tape recording section of a camera is very

difficult to get maintenance for if yours is broken but

the camera itself is still okay. So with this, you can

extend the camera life by using the FireWire connection

from camcorder to the recorder and record all the

footage onto a CF card. This can take DV25, HDV,

Panasonic DVCPRO-50 or the recording can record into

the AVI or MOV file formats. Another unique feature –

in the DV format – you can record single frames in timelapse. Also another unique feature we call

prerecording. You can set up the recording function

with an 8 second prerecord each time you push the

record button. That’s very good for news or sport.

Ed: So you’ve always captured what’s happened

before you press the button? My goodness, and the

power supply is two-way – you can either power it off

the camera battery, or it’s got its own little slot for AAbatteries. How long should that last with some good AA

batteries?

Jack: Depending on what kind of material – basically

from 3-4 hours up to 6 or 7 hours.

Ed: Now, a very simple switcher here by the look of

it, the SE-600?

Jack: The SE600 is a special design for analoguecameras where people want to do live streamingthrough the internet. We have many customers still

Page 36

The VS-100 vectorscope.

more on page 39

New products SE-3000, SE-600, S3D1, VS-100 will be available from October of this year.

New SE-3000HD/SD switcher

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Page

looking for an analogue switcher, however, the oldswitchers have no multi viewer, no aux output or otherfeatures they may need. So Datavideo decided to usenew technology to design an analogue composite videoswitcher. The SE-600 has six analogue composite videoinputs and two computer inputs – one is DVRI includingVCA, one DVID for the HDMI source, so a total up to 8;also provided as features area 2 PiP and multi viewerand 2 aux outputs. For the audio,we built in an audio delay functionlayer, with a level control and alsoyou can select one spare function,we call the audio follow video. TheSE-600 is very good for talk showsor interview shows. The SE-600covers most of the customer’sneeds by utilising new technologywith a very low cost solution. Thisproduct will be shipping shortlyand will cost about US$2,000.

Ed: This is it – we can seethere’s no LCD monitor in here –it’s a basic but reliable switcher?

Jack: Yes – and output justthrough the DVID. You can usethe HDMI input monitor to see themulti screen view – very easy tooperate.

Ed: And if you need monitorswith it, you’ve got a nice little rackhere with monitors which I guesswould clip nicely onto the back?

Jack: Yes we have a range of monitors; this particularnew TLM-434H 4.3 inch monitor, is a 4 in 1 HD/SD sowouldn’t suit an analogue mixer. It’s 2U rack space,built within a robust steel and aluminium 19-inch rackmountable design – this bank of both HD and SD 4.3-inch (16:9 and 4:3) high quality TFT LCD monitors areperfect for integration.

Each monitor has individual adjustments for contrast,brightness and colour saturation as well an LED tallylight indication.

Connection includes HD-SDI, SD-SDI and HDMI Inputs.Embedded audio is supported on both SDI and HDMI,

with superimposed on-screen audio andtime code indicator.

All four of the SDI inputs include aseamless bypass, ensuring the monitor isan ideal companion for switchers. Theyare also perfect for integration withinsystem racks, OB vans, studios andmany more applications.

Ed: And another couple of little rackshere that obviously have a place in anOB van, power and an audio option?

Jack: Yes, because Datavideo nowprovide an OB van turnkey solution. Wehave the vectorscope and waveformmonitor and another one that we don’thave here. This is a CCU control for thehandheld commercial camera like a SonyEX1 or Canon SS 305.

Here you can see this 1U high audiomixer with 4 channels. And the other,the power supply, you can see we have 8outputs. Each power output is selected12, 14.4, 18 and 25 Volt. And this one is

feature designed for our all-in-one cable. It can deliverthe power up to 50 metre away. At the end of thecable, we have what we call a DC to DC converter. Youcan stabilise the video and provide a very stable DC 12Volt to your camera. Or if you have the handheldcamera, it can supply 7.2 Volt as well. This powersupply, DC to DC converter and all-in-one cable – that’sthe whole turnkey solution for the mobile system.

Page 39

A very versatile power supply.

Ed: So I’d say that’s a very cool solution. In the olddays cameras were all 12 Volt and so you just had tohave 12 Volt everyone, but now you could have a mixof cameras with a 12 Volt or a 7.2 Volt, and thisDatavideo designed, developed, produced powerdistribution system would certainly be ideal for an OBvan situation.

For your choice of Datavideo product,

contact Protel

Phone (09) 379 8288 or (04) 801 9494

Web http://www.protel.co.nz

NZVN

A Call To Arms!

www.panavision.co.nz

Tim (09) 3608766 318 Richmond Rd, Grey Lynn, Auckland tim.timlin@panavision.asia

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