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Kona LSe?
Are we gonna see a Kona LSe (or a replacement card) anytime soon? I was dismayed that yesterday’s announcement did not include a PCIe LS. AJA Sales: What’s the plan/timetable here for an SD only card? Or are you planning to keep dropping the price on the LHe and calling that your SD card? Please don’t give this market to Blackmagic; the LS is a far better card than the BM Extreme.
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3 Replies
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Hi Shawn:
This is just me speculating but why would AJA want to keep working on developing new products for a dead end standard since the world is being forced to go HD?
If I ran AJA, I would try to calculate how many customers would just buy the LHe instead of putting the development money into porting over an SD product only for PCIe. I can tell you, 2006 really, finally is the year of HD/HDV, it seems that unless you shoot for a closed, internal world like a corporation, almost everyone seems to want to be at least shooting HD, even if delivering NTSC/PAL.
It would be very interesting to know how many LS AJA sells versus LHe.
To me, it just doesn’t make a lot of business sense to be investing in anything NTSC right now. We have a DSR-45 that needs a new board, it still works but exhibits ghosting. We were going to fix it until we realized, why put money into fixing this when we need to be buying HDCAM and D5 decks? Same with one of our DVX-100s, it needed repairs from some sand getting into the camera. The estimate was well over $1,500.00. Same end result, we are buying three HVX-200s and our DVX-100s, sadly, are antiquated now (we shoot content for all of the movie studios). We have been shooting only HD for the past 6 months between Cine Alta and Z1s even though we have yet to actually deliver more than two projects in all of 2005 in HD.
I am not saying “screw NTSC” at all, but you do have to look to even the near future and it is FCC mandated to become digital/HD very soon. Since plasma and lcd prices are rapidly dropping, SED is coming in, HD is becoming a reality. People will need something to hook their PS3s, Blu Ray and HD DVD players up to. It makes good business sense to at least shoot and edit in some form of HD, even HDV, even if you are delivering NTSC/PAL for the time being. NTSC and PAL for most professional video markets is dying a quick death.
Just my .02 worth, your mileage may vary 😉
Dan
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Dan,
SD is not dead and gone by any means the same applies to “the death of film”.
Alot of corporate clients I have seen are using HD to shoot on but post in SD via FCP thereby allowing them to pan and scan the image for shot changes etc.
There will always be the need for SD as not everyone will jump onto the HD bandwagon just because your neighbor has a six foot HD plasma.
I speculate that AJA’s goal to fulfil SD needs is via the IO products since they currently do not work in HD.
Tony Salgado
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Hi Tony:
“There will always be the need for SD as not everyone will jump onto the HD bandwagon just because your neighbor has a six foot HD plasma.”
As I stated, I am not bagging on SD nor do I think SD is really dead (yet) but it will be soon for broadcast and direct to video applications (we do work for all of the studios and by the end of 2006, no studio will accept SD material, they are all going HD), except in closed SD situations like corporations who will not be replacing all of their SD equipment soon. As far as broadcast, yes, the FCC keeps on moving the mandate date but it is coming soon.
From a business standpoint, unless you can pay off the equipment almost immediately, if you can afford to, investing in HD equipment is a smarter move as SD is basically dying a rather quick death for most professionals doing broadcast/direct to home video. The only people I can see that SD equipment may be a good move for are people producing ONLY for close-end SD systems but even if I was doing weddings and events, I would still be trying to go HD, even if my clients can only accept or want SD today, it could be a nice business to offer your clients their shows in 6 months or a year in HD for a nominal charge. There is some truth to that “futureproofing” equation of shooting HD and delivering SD. Almost all of the HD systems and cards can downconvert to NTSC/PAL easily.
We had a meeting yesterday with chief technologist for a huge worldwide conglomerate and he had some interesting things to say about how new technology like HD presents completely new opportunities for content creators. The entertainment and media business is going through it’s biggest change since the advent of color and with all of the new media and delivery platforms, I feel that we had all better be prepared to increase our skills as storytellers as well as we had better be on the cutting edge of technology because those who aren’t will be left wondering what happened as the wave of Viiv, Google, IPod video, cellular video, video on demand, day and date release of HD DVD content, etc. sweeps over us.
Best,
Dan
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