SYPHAnews - 28th June 2002

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STOP PRESS!! We are in the process of spring-cleaning the DAW Buyers Guide - everything must be renewed in time for the AES Convention. If you manufacture a new digital audio workstation or tapeless recorder, including turnkey systems and card and software packages, then please let us know.

NLE news

Avid Announces Immediate Availability of New Versions of Media Composer, Symphony, Avid Xpress, Avid Unity MediaNetwork and Avid Productivity Tools
Avid Technology has announced the worldwide availability of new versions of its Meridien hardware-based editing systems: Avid Symphony v4.0, Media Composer XL v11.0 and Avid Xpress v5.0. Avid has also announced the availability of Avid Unity MediaNetwork v3.0 and new versions of its Productivity Tools - MediaManager v3.0, TransferManager v2.0, ProEncode v1.7, and Media Station XL v11.0, designed to enhance the Avid Unity environment for realtime creative collaboration and increased productivity. The list prices for turnkey systems start from: US$109,700 / Euro 121,900 for Avid Symphony v4.0; US$35,900 / Euro 39,900 for Media Composer Offline, US$59,500 / Euro 66,200 for Media Composer 1000, and US$74,900 / Euro 83,300 for Media Composer 9000; and US$20,100 / Euro 22,400 for Avid Xpress. Customers purchasing Avid Assurance will receive free software upgrades. See http://www.avid.com.

Leitch Ships dpsVelocity 8.0 Nonlinear Editing System
Leitch Technology has announced that version 8.0 of the dpsVelocity dual-stream nonlinear editing and web streaming system is now shipping. New features include multi-camera editing, realtime garbage mattes, direct DV I/O support and an array of flexible timeline and user interface enhancements, including customisable hotkeys and user-selectable A/X/B or single-track editing modes. dpsVelocity 8.0 is available as fully-integrated turnkey solutions in mid-tower and rackmount form factors, as card and software bundles for Windows 2000 or XP workstations, or as software upgrades for existing users. See http://www.dps.com.

Pinnacle Ships CinéWave Classic and CinéAcquire
Pinnacle Systems has announced the immediate availability of CinéWave Classic and CinéAcquire. CinéWave Classic costs 30 percent less than the previous entry point and provides uncompressed video for motion graphic artists and video editors using Final Cut Pro and other QuickTime-native applications. It includes one of several CinéWave I/O breakout boxes, which include a 10-bit SDI pro digital breakout box, as well as the CinéAcquire application and plug-in module, plus the same TARGA Ciné Engine available with all CinéWave products. CinéWave Classic can be upgraded to CinéWave RT and CinéWave HD configurations by attaching a breakout box or loading new software. CinéAcquire provides any CinéWave-equipped Power Mac G4 with direct, frame-accurate, machine control for video capture and record to tape. It works as a standalone application and as a plug-in module for Pinnacle Systems Commotion Pro and Adobe After Effects. CinéWave Classic has a base price of Euro 6590/GBP£3995. CinéAcquire is included with all new CinéWave systems or is available for Euro 239/GBP£149. See http://www.pinnaclesys.com.

MacroSystem Releases Power Key Automation Package for Casablanca Avio and Kron Systems
MacroSystem US has released the Power Key hardware/software package for its Casablanca Avio and Kron line of video editors. This allows every command available as on-screen buttons, menus and sliders to be controlled from the keyboard. New capabilities include the ability to switch directly between screens, such as edit, trim, transitions, sound etc, and to repeat a sequence of commands for a specified number of times. The Power Key package requires Avio or Kron system software version 1.8 or later, and costs US$199 for the software and a custom-designed keyboard, or US$175 for the software alone. See http://www.casablanca.tv.

Canopus Updates DVStorm to Support Five Streams
Canopus has updated its DVStorm realtime nonlinear editing solution to support five simultaneous video streams in Adobe Premiere. The upgrade also includes support for Microsoft Video for Windows providing DVStorm users with Video for Windows capture and video conferencing capabilities. The minimum system requirements for realtime functionality with five simultaneous video streams are a Pentium III 1GHz Dual, Pentium 4 2GHz, or an Athlon 2000+, a video storage system with a sustained transfer rate of 24MB/s (SCSI Ultra 160 RAID recommended), and 384MB RAM (512MB RAM recommended). The update is available to current DVStorm users at no charge directly from http://www.canopuscorp.com.

Matrox Announces the Matrox RT.X100 Realtime Video Editing Platform
Matrox Video Products Group has announced the Matrox RT.X100 realtime video editing platform, based on the new 'Power of X' architecture. This leverages scalable CPU power with the performance of dedicated hardware to give users a new level of realtime productivity. Key features include realtime DV output, realtime single-pass DV scan and capture, realtime MPEG-2 capture and encoding for DVD authoring, realtime advanced colour correction with 18-parameter control, realtime chroma and luma keying, realtime adjustable slow and fast motion, realtime Matrox Flex 3D effects such as 3D DVE, blur, ripple, cube etc, the ability to combine and keyframe up to 16 effects in realtime and at full quality, and accelerated batch encoding of VCD, SVCD, multimedia, and web formats. Matrox RT.X100 will be available worldwide in July 2002 for US$1099 including a full version of Adobe Premiere. See http://www.matrox.com/video.

Discreet Unveils New Customer-Focused Worldwide Organisation
Discreet, a division of Autodesk has unveiled a new worldwide organisation focused around three business units - Systems, Animation and Desktop Video. The Systems division comprises compositing and editing/finishing solutions for high-end postproduction and broadcast and includes the inferno, flame, flint, fire, and smoke products. The Animation division covers 3D high-end visual effects solutions and includes the 3ds max, reactor, character studio, mental ray, plasma and gmax products. The Desktop Video division covers streaming and compositing for Mac and PC and includes the cleaner, cleaner streaming studio, cleaner central, and combustion products. See http://www.discreet.com.

Reel One Media Releases New Motion Background Collection for Nonlinear Editors
Reel One Media has released the first volume in its BackSlaps DVD-ROM collection of royalty-free animated motion backgrounds in NTSC, with PAL and HDTV versions available by late June 2002. BackSlaps Volume 1 has 20 broadcast-quality animations, which are compatible with nonlinear editing and compositing software that can access Photo-JPEG image sequences, QuickTime movies and Flash (.swf) video files. BackSlaps Volume 1 has a list price of US$129 and single BackSlaps animations are available for US$20 each. See http://www.backslaps.com.

Camera news

Canon Announces New GL2/XM2 DV Camcorder
Canon has announced the new XM2 (GL2 in North America) digital camcorder aimed at high-end consumers and semi professional users. The XM2 offers a new 1/4 inch, 470,000 pixel three-CCD system, improved picture adjustment features and new manual controls, and audio modes also feature three new types of frequency characteristics. It is equipped with a DV terminal for nonlinear editing, a USB terminal for transferring still images to a PC, is compatible with SD Memory and MultiMediaCard and includes an 8MB memory card in the kit. The XM2 will be available from August 2002 priced at around US$2999. See http://www.canon.co.uk.

DAW news

Digidesign Releases Pro Tools 5.3.1 for Windows and Mac
Digidesign has released Pro Tools TDM 5.3.1 software, which brings full, cross-platform Avid interoperability to Pro Tools|HD on Windows XP Professional and Mac OS 9.x. Pro Tools 5.3.1 software includes both Windows and Macintosh support for AVoption|XL for playback of Avid files, FilmFrame for 24P support, DigiTranslator 2.0 for OMFI transfer, Avid Unity MediaNet shared storage, and MediaManager. See http://www.digidesign.com.

Digidesign Announces Free Update for the Line 6 Amp Farm 2.0
Digidesign has announced that Pro Tools|HD system owners can now get a free update for the Line 6 Amp Farm 2.0, or purchase the plug-in for a list price of US$595.00 at authorised Digidesign dealers or via the online http://store.digidesign.com. Amp Farm is aimed at guitarists and digital audio workstation users, and models specific classic amplifiers. Users can process live guitar inputs or tweak the amp setup for pre-recorded tracks, and can adjust amp tone right up to the final mix, with full automation of all controls. No special pickups are required so the guitar output can be recorded directly into Pro Tools. Amp Farm 2.0 adds compatibility with Pro Tools|HD systems and support for sample rates up to 96kHz. See http://www.digidesign.com.

CreamWare Offers New High-End Plug-Ins for its DSP Platforms
CreamWare has made two high-quality effects processors available for its Luna, PowerSampler, Pulsar, Pulsar XTC and SCOPE/SP DSP platforms. The Vinco vintage compressor is a high-end compressor/limiter that emulates the most popular, highest-quality, analogue compressor hardware, in software code. The MasterVerb Pro is a new reverb processor designed to meet the strictest professional requirements. The algorithm of the original MasterVerb has been revised and refined for the Pro version, with features such as authentic early reflections based on the source-image method and adjustable reverb colour and width controls. It offers controls such as X/Y control for simultaneous adjustment of reverb time and room size, and features 32-bit live processing, unlimited reverb time and a very dense, natural sound. Both DSP plug-ins are now available in the CreamWare online shop and at CreamWare dealers worldwide. The list price is Euro 198 each. Free demo versions can be downloaded in from http://www.creamware.com.

TC Works Launches Sparkle and Sparkle Plus Version 2.5
TC Works has launched version 2.5 of its SparkLE and the new SparkLE Plus realtime audio editing and authoring applications. This features enhanced editing and faster file navigation. Projects with multiple audio files now open up to ten times faster, and all major audio file formats are supported, including AIFF, WAV, SDII and all available QuickTime codecs. Sampling up to 32-bit 192kHz quality offers compatibility with DVD specs and beyond, and the realtime sample rate conversion enables audio playback and editing of high resolution files without requiring optional professional audio hardware. Both products are based on the TC Works Spark audio processing application. SparkLE includes a plug-in bundle featuring a mastering quality audio maximiser, a flexible tempo delay, a one-band EQ selectable from notch to parametric, and a master window with high-resolution metering. It also provides a realtime VST FX chain with the ability to load 4 VST plug-ins. SparkLE Plus includes all the features of SparkLE and adds more tools. It offers full QuickTime support and an extra plug-in in the form of the Native PerformanceVerb. SparkLE and SparkLE Plus require a G3 or G4 PowerMac running Mac OS X or Mac OS 9.x. The cost is US$19.95 for SparkLE, and US$49.95 for SparkLE Plus and both can be downloaded from http://www.tcworks.de.

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