More From NAB: Adobe CS5, NewTek Adds More Live Production Capabilities

Two product launches at NAB have interesting implications for our “less is more” theme for live production.

Adobe CreativeSuite 5 (CS5)
Adobe Story and On Location, one a service and the other a non-point product, are both part of Creative Suite 5, the new Adobe product suite launched today.

“Through integration with Adobe Story, a new CS Live online service,” an Adobe pre-release note stated, “you can develop scripts, automatically capturing key production details as you go. Then, efficiently manage your shoot and streamline logging in Adobe OnLocation by importing scripts from Adobe Story to create complete shot lists and capture production notes.”

While the launch is not in conjunction with the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show, being held in Las Vegas through April 15, its launch timing provides a good inflection point in which to consider our “less is more” theme.

Story is designed as a collaborative script-writing tool, and while it still has some bugs to work out in terms of auto-saving and tracking collaborative input from multiple users, the at-launch version shows potential. Especially in areas where it comes to adding metadata to the mix, since significant amounts of metadata are generated—and lost—through the pre-production process. Let’s face it, adding all this metadata back in during post-production is enough of a pain that it often doesn’t get done.

During a live shoot, where the raw feeds may be streamed to consumers or off-site producers, OnLocation keeps track of the metadata and portions of the script that have been shot. Content encoded directly into OnLocation—or added after the fact for acquisition from tapeless cameras—can then be imported into Adobe Premiere Pro, as a way to shorten the post-production workflow.

“Going to NAB?” a Facebook post for the Adobe Story page asks. “Here’s a chance to participate in a usability study for Adobe’s editing workflow. Sessions will last 90 minutes; if you’re selected, we’ll provide a $150 gratuity. Take the survey and we’ll contact you if you match what we’re looking for; using Premiere Pro is not a requirement.”

The link can be found at http://bit.ly/c6xN12.

Newtek TriCaster TCXD850
We’ve talked quite a bit about the TriCaster and its ability to do live video mixes, image magnification (IMAG), recording, and streaming. All these pieces are part of a “less is more” strategy where Newtek touts the ability if its TriCaster to be able to replace —or at least complement—traditional mobile broadcasting microwave or satellite trucks. On our “less is more” theme, one of the main benefits of using a product like the TriCaster—which contains still stores, graphics overlays and even disk recorders and playback—in a portable setting is the ability to trim the time it takes to move a broadcast-quality clip through the post-production finishing process.

To that end, Newtek revealed yesterday a new HD-based TriCaster that significantly lowers the entry cost into high-density inputs for live HD switching, IMAG, and streaming. Oh, and it does standard definition (SD) perfectly fine, too.

The TriCaster TCXD850, the big brother to Netwek’s 3-input HD TriCaster (the TCXD300) is a rack-mounted unit that works well for flypacks and larger HD-based live productions needs. It’s a whopping 22-channel switcher, with 8 HD or standard definition (SD) digital or analog inputs and 8 virtual/mix channels.

It also has HDMI and VGA program outputs for IMAG displays, records up to 36 hours of 1080i content at one time, but additional recording can occur by using three removable drive bays. All this fits in a 4U (7″) appliance that includes redundant power supplies.

In my work with previous SD versions of the TriCaster, I’ve found the TriCaster a very comfortable tool to use, perhaps due to the fact that TriCaster feels more like a computer—where a mouse or an external T-bar handle can be used—than an over-the-top live production switcher.

Newtek will also host an event on Tuesday, April 13 at 6:30 PM, at the Renaissance Hotel (across from the south hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center), that’s being hosted by my friend and Streaming Media magazine editor Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen.

Titled “Stream or Die: How to Capitalize on Portable Live Production,” the panel will include representatives from MTV, NBA, the NFL’s New York Giants, and it will cover topics surrounding the ideas of getting live sports and music events out to the general public in a complementary, cost-efficient way.

Tim Siglin (tims [at] braintrustdigital.com) is chairman of Braintrust Digital, a digital media production company specializing in training, corporate communication, government, historical preservation, documentary, and business marketing and development. He is a contributing editor to EventDV and Streaming Media.