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Curious, what’s Next?
I’m sure all video I/O manufacturers have asked themselves this to plot their future, but as a consumer/editor I have to ask what’s next for these companies?
It is likely that the need to interface with multiple video standards will be around for some time to come, but as we move towards a pure disk-based workflow it seems as though these companies futures will change dramatically. It is likely a/v data will flow through the shared storage pipelines vs. video cables and a product like HDLink takes care of the monitoring path. These will continue to improve.
The current cards themselves are impressive and it is sometimes hard for me to imagine fully exploiting a Multibridge Studio. How do they top that? Does it get a whole lot better than that, since mostly the host system’s power determines performance beyond I/O? I know resolutions are moving way past HD specs, so will these companies have to focus on accelleration and codecs solely?
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6 Replies
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I can tell you exactly what is next. Every company, from Sony to Blackmagic has one concern. TO SELL YOU NEW EQUIPMENT. Blackmagic is a crazy company, and they provide FREE SOFTWARE UPGRADES for years, even on outdated products. You won’t find that from Sony and Panasonic. Simply observe the recent history of standard def video – Quad, 1″,3/4″, Beta, Beta SP, D2, D1, Dig Beta, Beta SX, IMX – and now HD – and HD has rapidly evolved from HDCam to DVCProHD, HDV, P2 format, Sony SR dual link 4:4:4, and now 2k, and soon 4k.
Do you know what this all means. It means that you CANT FUTURE PROOF your purchases. You will be screwed financially for the rest of your professional career if you stay in the professional audio/video business. If you buy the Multibridge Studio with a MAC G5 Quad, it will be outdated soon (certainly, the MAC G5 Quad will probably go away in December 2006).
You need to JUMP IN NOW. If you were to do nothing other than to buy a Blackmagic Multibridge Extreme, you would be buying an excellent, superior product, that will allow you to do top professional work, at a fraction of the price of most other companies (ok, all other companies). But like everything else in our business, you will look at this product in 4 years, and say “what a piece of crap”. Because Blackmagic will have all the new 8k products out then (I made that up).
It is my stupid opinion that Apple will try to squash Blackmagic, AJA, Aurora, AVID and everyone else, and try to have a “direct connect” method – like Firewire – but faster – to show everyone that “anyone can be a film makers, and do 4K work, while doing their highschool homework”. In the mean time, “the rest of us” need to make a living, so we go out and buy products like the Multibridge Extreme, which lets us do all the SD, and HD work we need to. And if we can’t make our money back from the $2500 investment, many times over, then we should get jobs at Burger King, becuase we have no business being in this business.
When you say “how will they top that” – it’s easy. They went to 2k support in 2006, and you will probably see 4k support by 2008. Does this mean that 90% of this forum will even do any 4:4:4 work – probably not.
If you are going to purchase a Blackmagic Multibridge product, you have made an excellent decision.
Bob Zelin
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I’d like to see a Decklink (or seperate PCI card like Physix) released that could hardware accelerate effects and rendering for Premiere Pro. A sort of Axio LE for Decklink.
Peter Corbett
Powerhouse Productions
Australia
http://www.php.com.au -
I agree 4K is next, and that most of the products that are out are really great. I came from CineWave, so something that does way more for less is always great. Most FX and general accelleration are delegated to the CPU(s) – GPU(s) and OPEN GL. So, my question more pointedly is, if I/O is taken care of via a file-based workflow – say Super-FireWire/8GB Fibre/100G Ethernet or the like, where does that leave the I/O board manufacturers, despite the need to support legacy video connectivity? If the GPU manufacturers are making inroads into their market, like NVIDIA Quadro 4500 SDI then will they become marginalized?
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[Bob Zelin] “If you are going to purchase a Blackmagic Multibridge product, you have made an excellent decision.”
Indeed. My work has been made so much easier by this fantastic product.
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So, my question more pointedly is, if I/O is taken care of via a file-based workflow – say Super-FireWire/8GB Fibre/100G Ethernet or the like, where does that leave the I/O board manufacturers, despite the need to support legacy video connectivity?
REPLY –
When this becomes a reality, my career as a video engineer is over. There won’t be any more video facilities and post rooms, just IT departments. Hopefully, I will be dead by the time this happens.
But by the time 100 Gig ethernet rolls around, AVID, AJA, Blackmagic, and others will be long out of business (and so will you, because the local high school students will be doing shows with their 8megapixel CEL phones, and emailing them to MTV).Stop being so curious, and get back to work.
Bob Zelin
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[Bob Zelin] “Stop being so curious, and get back to work. “
from my point of view
there is a lot of headroom for improvements within the current specs:– teranex quality up/downconversion during capture and playback (hd<>sd, letterboxed<>anamorph, etc..)
(maybe even in a ‘loop throug’ way to playback/convert/record on the same host in one pass)
– noice reduction during capture
– at least 8 channel audio output in all digital&analog formats with adjustable delay to compensate sync drifts of different monitoring paths (monitor vers. projector, dolby processor etc.)
– capture from firewire via high quality scaling to uncompressed sd/hd
– TC overlay, TC > audiotrack, audiotrack > TCthese are just some features that would make my work easier, faster, reduce some additional boxes from my setup (including mikeymouse power supplies)….. and maybe even reduce total costs of ownership.
and to LaCie:
give me a rackmountable FW800 hub/switch for at least 6 drives
and with one! power supply build in for all these drives.
-> no more in need to route FW800 signal through different disks (in different conditions) of different clients,
no more cables and power boxes on the table/floor, all of them produceing unnecessary heat.kurt
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