Getting out of bed this morning hungover and jetlagged wasn't easy, but I was on a mission. I would see all of Hall 7.
The sheer scale of IBC is impressive. There are 17 halls and an outdoor exhibit. Hall 7 is the main Post Production hall, and it was going to take all day to see every exhibit that sparked my interest. But by golly, I'm a woman on a mission and no amount of fun and free drinks last night was going to slow me down. That's what coffee is for, and the Dutch do a great espresso.
Full of caffeine and Advil, I took my camera and notebook and entered the Post Production hall of IBC 2012.
Many long hours later, I hit the bar with a few of my nerdy friends and rested my feet. I had collected two bags full of pamphlets, purchased a ShuttleXpress controller, and got my hands on the coolest freebie of Hall 7, Hitachi's sumo guy.
He's going on my desk when I get home.
Talking amongst ourselves, we decided pretty quickly that this show's post production buzz was about two things: Thunderbolt, and accessibility. The latter refers to companies making their high-end products available and accessible to the small company or at-home user.
The most exciting example of that, is Baselight Editions. We already have a few software-only versions of high-end grading and effects toolsets, and they are fun. But this one is a plug-in. You can now have Baselight inside your Avid, with most of the features of the full Baselight including the Truelight LUT system. Right now it's only out for Mac Avid, and you can only grade with the Avid panels. But they've announced it for FCP 7 and Nuke, with Tangent Wave panel. That should be ready within about 6 months. A single license is for one computer, so if you have Avid, FCP and Nuke all on one machine your plugin will work across all three.
Baseight Editions in Avid.
On the subject of Avid, they are showing off a new version of everything, but I can't write about it because I haven't explored it. I went to the shiny Avid stand, and asked a shiny lady if I could chat to someone, and was told that they aren't talking to anyone one-on-one. I waved my Press badge and was told someone from PR would call me. I haven't heard from them, so I suppose their shiny new line is a bit too polished to show to an editor like me. I'll scrub up and try again another day.
Boris FX has launched BCC8, and it's improved nicely. They have now put all their plug-ins into 16 well-origanized categories. They say they've tried to make their effects look more "film" but I think for the most part, they still look like BCC plug-ins. They have a proper 3D lens flare, and some nice new lights with automatic occlusion. They have added some really cool restoration tools, and some new scopes that also generate a log file of color errors in .txt format.
Blackmagic has the biggest stand at the show this year, but no racecar. They don't need one, their products are new, exciting, and clever. Resolve 9 is out now, the Beta test is over. It has about 100 new features, and a great new GUI. It's definitely improved and much less clunky. They have also embraced Thunderbolt across their line. Both Blackmagic and AJA have added Thunderbolt to their converters/extenders, Blackmagic is the only one to be certified to run Thunderbolt for Windows.
Blackmagic Mini Monitor and AJA T-Tap, Thunderbolt to SDI/HDMI.
The EMC booth had a magician, the most interesting way to demo a product that shifts data. If you want to experience the Autodesk booth from afar, they are streaming and uploading their demos and presentations to area.autodesk.com. They don't show card tricks though. The SGO, Foundry and Autodesk booths also have magicians of sorts, they have regular presentations by users and artists from post houses such as Park Road Post, PrimeFocus and Sinneszellen.
One thing that I noticed, was that almost nobody is developing stuff for FCPX. When asked why, they all say it's because nobody is using it. Companies are still developing new products for FCP7 as if the whole "X" thing never happened in the professional world.
I drooled over all the little toys and peripherals. I have a very extensive list for Santa Claus this year. I left Hall 7 with a sore head, sore feet, and a big smile.