[Craig Seeman]

[Manny Kivowitz] “The vendor, Sycro in NYC, used Telestream’s enteprise grade system, Vantage to do the job.
“

[Manny Kivowitz] “Episode Pro (which also wouldn’t output embedded closed captioning)”

I believe Telestream is listening.

[Manny Kivowitz] “t just seems unreal to us that in 2015, formats that have been used by broadcasters for years are not included in Pro encoding software.”

One may well do this in 2015.

[Manny Kivowitz] “we could not check the closed captioning properly without having to purchase a player like Switch”

Probably not a feature you’d find in a free player. Development involves resources and the market is small so returns on development investment have to happen.

[Craig Seeman]

Avid, one of my favorite financial subjects.

They paint a rosy picture here
https://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/avid-announces-fourth-quarter-and-fullyear-2014-financial-results-20150316-01148

But this shows Sales Revenue and Gross Revenue declining to a five year low
Net Income is up from the “red” years but looks to be in rapid decline again.
https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/avid/financials

[Craig Seeman]

You KNOW that if the update hasn’t been released by NAB the big rumor will be Apple discontinuing FCPX and Motion.

[Craig Seeman]

I believe the FPN issue was improved a few firmware releases back. It was never a big issue on the Pocket but was pretty bad on the Cinema camera I believe.

[Craig Seeman]

The BMPCC “white orb” issue was fixed with a firmware update.
The BMCC, BMP4K, URSA “black sun” issue are apparently hardware sensor related and can’t really be fixed. I’ve heard some other manufacturer’s cameras do exhibit this as well but less pronounced.

I wouldn’t be surprised that one move we may see at NAB is a change in sensor if there is a v2 of the BMCC and BMP4K (URSA has a replaceable sensor by design). Due keep in mind the value of recording in cDNG (raw) and ProRes at these price points though. Their entire lineup is certainly being used professionally as B and C cameras.

[Craig Seeman]

[Shawn Miller] “Yeah, those folks keep making their cameras better with every firmware release. Just today, we got lossless compressed raw, and more framing guides on the Pocket Cinema Camera and the Cinema Camera… for free! I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us next.”

I am so so so hoping for an “Ursa Minor.” They may be the company of “late delivery” but they’ve also shown long term commitment to their cameras with free firmware upgrades.

I know many are hoping for “version 2” hardware improvements which may well happen but they are a forward thinking company. Almost Apple like. So I don’t doubt a new camera surprise or two.

[Craig Seeman]

An “Ursa Minor” from Blackmagic that’s under 5 lbs and under $5k and shoots cDNG and ProRes 4444 XQ in 4K.
Otherwise a 3 axis gimbal along the lines of the Filmpower Nebula 4000 for DSLRs and easier to balance.

Separate from NAB but most helpful would be an FCPX update that supports cDNG directly as well as XAVC-L.

[Craig Seeman]

[Jeremy Garchow] “Hopefully, Thunderbolt isn’t going away very fast or very soon. I really like it and has been a massive productivity simplifier for us.”

By reaching for simplicity of the product they’ve now added to the complexity of adaptors.

Firewire, esata, USB, Ethernet all had methods to get into a Thunderbolt connector.
I fear that there will be no way to get Thunderbolt into USB-C
Firewire to Thunderbolt still works.
Thunderbotl to USB-C doesn’t (and may not ever) exist. Lots of legacy devices and no way to connect them.

[Jeremy Garchow] “The MacBook Air and MacBook lines don’t seem to be make much sense any more.”
But I can still connect almost anything to an Air. I can even carry a single Dock with a bunch of ins and outs to cover unanticipated combinations.

I doubt a Dock with TB to USB-C is possible.

The MacBook sort of sits in the strange place. Sort of a hybrid Tabled with USB-C and Keyboard running OS X.

The one thing able had more or less was that anything that could hook up to your highest end Mac could also hook up to your lowest end Mac. That’s no more.

In some sense this seems almost (i said almost) as radical as Apple’s move from Nubus to PCI.

[Craig Seeman]

I wonder how this impacts their relationship wit Adobe.

Looks like website is being rebuilt.
https://www.automaticduck.com

[Craig Seeman]

9to5 Mac has an interesting article speculating about both Thunderbolt and Lightning.

https://9to5mac.com/2015/03/10/usb-c-cable-gallery-compare-to-lightning-and-micro-usb-specs-and-apples-future/