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36 TVBEurope The Workflow Format flexibility foremost: The Cinedeck MX 4-channel recorder


with auto-conform to finish without having to ingest all the rushes. “This is a great saving in ingest/editing time, material investment, etc,” says Bernard. “4K means a LOT of data,


perhaps far more than people realise. It means an exponential growth in recording media, computing power, storage and transfer and encoding times,” adds Gross. Young sees 4K, RAW and 120fps HD as the next big developments, but predicts that this will be over HDMI initially “as 3G SDI doesn’t cut it and 6G is too slow for the real deal,


regular basis. There is no end in sight for this growth because there is effectively no ‘End of Life’ for a file, and codec technology is constantly advancing.” There are two key needs in


the market, according to Vitec product manager, Richard Bernard. One is driven by ease of editing with the main non-linear editing software, for which ProRes/DNxHD recorders are best suited, but with the downside of large file sizes, while the other is a need for small file sizes, where more efficient video codecs are required, something that he feels “will become even more crucial” with 4K. “Also, more and more, recorders are or will be connected to the network for sharing, collaborative work, direct transfer to online video platform (YouTube, Vimeo, etc). All our recorders at Vitec have such capabilities and users are starting to embrace this new way of working on video clips.”


Beyond the DSLR DSLRs may still be a large market for external recorders, but their appeal is much broader now. For Cinedeck, “leveraging older cameras into newer file formats is still a factor. Cinedecks are commonly used in multi-camera environments where tape machines used to be king. Additionally, Cinedecks remove the restriction of single or limited format recorders allowing recording quality and format to be selected at production time,” says Ferguson. AJA has the small HDMI- equipped Ki Pro Mini for DSLRs, which supports the CF Cards used by most high-end stills cameras, but its live event customers generally choose the 1RU Ki Pro Rack, which fits easily in a flight case and allows gang recording across units for


cannot be provided using this interface (proprietary solutions exist however), you end up with a non-viable solution again,” he adds. A 12G SDI interface specification is coming, which would allow 4K60 with only one SDI cable. “This is more practical and will help the adoption. But it may come with limitations and more specifically with a limited maximal cable length between the camera/video source and receiver: that may be a showstopper for some applications,” he says, wondering if it is time to break with SDI and move to fibre.


“4K will have a huge impact on the external recorder market, and we’re already seeing that impact with the popularity of our Ki Pro Quad recorder”


Bryce Button, AJA Video Systems


Gross: “Much of the separate recorder market is in keeping alive old cameras or boosting the capabilities of modest cameras”


multiple cameras with shared timecode. Its very long record times with DNxHD or ProRes makes it a favourite for long concerts and conferences. “Much of the separate


recorder market is in keeping alive old cameras or boosting the capabilities of modest cameras,” says Gross. “There is also the need to record proxies or duplicate files. But we tend to focus on higher-level functionality. Our product’s about taking the outputs from some of the highest-level cameras available and raising them beyond their internal capabilities. RAW recording is available on very few cameras, as is 4K capture. We also add an interface with our touchscreen panel that fundamentally changes the way one interacts with the cameras themselves. We like to think that we deliver a more complete integrated camera solution.” Gross believes that 4K is a particularly interesting area for external recorders because so little has been agreed on standards for delivery. “There are some cameras and there are some displays, and then there’s a whole lot of open space in between them. We believe that


for 4K to become increasingly adopted this space must be filled with all sorts of hardware and software.” Manufacturers are already creating competing 4K formats, so “an external recorder capable of capturing and/or outputting to these various flavours will become valuable,” he says. “4K will have a huge impact on the external recorder market, and we’re already seeing that impact with the popularity of our Ki Pro Quad recorder,” adds Button. “People want to invest in technology that will work for them today, but also meet their needs in the future.” Codex has been recording 4K


for many years, going back to the use of its studio recorders with the Dalsa camera on films like Quantum Of Solace. “Currently, our Onboard S recorder is able to record 4K at up to 120fps with the Canon C500 camera,” says Priestnall. Vitec’s approach now for 4K is using a proxy workflow based around its FS-H70 recorder, with the RAW 4K/8K clips recorded in camera, resulting in huge files that are difficult to deal with. The FS-H70 stores a proxy clip in 1080p H.264 at 8Mbps (or less) for easy editing,


only doing 4:2:2 4K at 24p and QHD up to 30p. 4:4:4 60p 4K can not be done until 12G is a reality, which is probably IBC next year for products. “We will make the 4K unit


available when there are more cameras and that is probably the end of 2014 depending on take up,” he adds. “To take advantage of the


larger 4K screen, I strongly believe that 4K resolutions require 60fps to have a smooth rendering,” says Bernard. However, today 4K60p baseband video requires two 6G-SDI or four 3G-SDI connections, which he doesn’t think is a viable solution. “HDMI 2.0 for 4K60 display is available, but this is not a lockable connector. Adding to the fact that timecode


4K workflow One of the problems with working with 4K is that each camera manufacturer has a different approach. For Codex, “it’s really a case


of which companies will allow partners to develop recording solutions (ARRI, Canon) and which would rather keep recording proprietary (Sony). However, even for Sony, while we can’t make recorders that work with the F55 and F5, we do offer a workflow solution using Codex Vault to clone, archive, review and make deliverables from camera original data recorded to Sony’s media,” explains Priestnall. “If a manufacturer chooses to restrict access to their image


www.tvbeurope.com December2013


Plug and go: The Codex replacement recording module in the ARRI Alexa


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