Toolbox

Nube Studio, which provides grading services for the Indian market, has opened with a Baselight TWO grading workstation as its centerpiece. The color-driven facility is providing services for commercials, music videos, television and film throughout the region.

An important requirement for Nube as a facility aimed at the top end of production is the potential to work natively with raw files from any camera on the same timeline. The Baselight system is renowned for its ability to accommodate all professional formats, and also fully supports grading metadata of any complexity, including primaries, secondaries, keys, shapes, tracks, LUTs and Truelight Color Spaces. This allows the colorist to explore all the details from the camera, and achieve the look the cinematographer intended.

“Baselight delivers on every feature without restricting the creative process,” said senior colorist Navin Shetty, co-founder of Nube Studio. “I am able to concentrate on grading and never compromise on quality or inspiration. Even at HDR 4K, Baselight delivers real-time playback as soon as the content is in the system,” added Shetty. “Clients are not kept waiting, and with the help of the superior grading tools they can see the final result immediately. For clients, the faster system equals staying within budget.”

For FilmLight, CEO Wolfgang Lempp said, “We are proud to be associated with India’s leading colorist, Navin Shetty. He is very particular about the quality and output of his films. What he and his business head, Ranjan Karkera, have recognized is that directors and producers want to come to a post house and see great pictures just the way they imagined them.”

Lempp added, “At FilmLight we developed our core systems to provide real-time performance even when there is a multi-level grade on top of the raw image. Baselight takes away the technical constraints of transcoding, proxies and unpredictable performance and leaves the colorist to achieve the best look in the shortest time.”

Open only since June of 2015, Nube already boasts 100-plus TV commercial, with a client register including: BMW, Philips, Godrej Air, Cadbury, Flip Kart, Maruti, Amazon, Dabur, Yardley, Myntra, Pepperfry, OLX, Sunsilk, Intex, KIT KAT, Kohler, Honda, Nescafe, Britannia, Nerolac, TATA, Airtel, Grofers, STAR TV, EPSON, Mahindra, Olay, Jaguar, Lava, Lifebuoy, Renault, Mentos and Solly Sport.

FilmLight will be demonstrating the capabilities of its real-time, render-free grading approach using FilmLight’s BLG interchange format at Broadcast India on the stand of their partners, RED and Avid (Bombay Exhibition Centre, Mumbai, 15-17 October).

The PLASA Awards for Innovation & Sustainability 2015 and the Gottelier Award, sponsored by Lighting & Sound International, were presented at the PLASA Show at London’s ExCeL yesterday evening.

This year, 31 products were nominated for the Awards for Innovation & Sustainability, with eight awards presented, including a final Gold Award for Innovation.

The winners had to satisfy the judges that they demonstrate a new style of thinking, that they improve technical practice, have introduced new technologies, materials or techniques, that they feature patents or unique intellectual property, offer a new commercial advantage, or improve safety.

The eight PLASA Awards for Innovation, including a final Gold Award, were presented by Ed Pagett, chairman of PLASA’s European Regional Board. The Gold Award winner was ETC for the Eos Version 2.3. The judges said, “This product seriously impressed the Judges who felt that it is a game-changer in the approach designers may take to color control. It unlocks the potential of LEDs and matches the way that lighting designers think in terms of color. It returns color mixing and color fading back to a conceptual level rather than maths and numbers. It allows the designer to choose the way a colour changes rather than letting the control decide.”

The seven other PLASA Awards for Innovation honorees were:

Avid for the SL6 - The judges felt that this console was extremely well-engineered and thought out with improved ergonomics and workflow, coupled with scalable flexibility. This affords it versatility for different markets including broadcast and touring.

RC4 Wireless for the RC4Magic-DMXpix – The judges said, “Sometimes things are taken at face value because that’s ‘just the way it is’. This product, though, will make life much easier for many technicians as it solves the whole logistical problem in managing pixel control in long strings of LEDs. Regardless of the manufacturer of the LED string, this device will allow a significant reduction in channel count while still enabling individual LED control in all manner of applications, from architectural lighting to costumes.”

Elation Lighting for the Platinum FLX - The panel found that this was “a versatile moving light that solves a number of problems in one fixture. The spot/beam/wash hybrid design uses clever mechanical engineering that actually delivers a useable result in a manageable size and budget.”

Robert Juliat for DALIS - The judges said “the color rendering from this product is beautiful. The fixture is well designed and elegant with a very good uniform beam pattern and will no doubt be a feature of many stages in the future.”

d&b audiotechnik for the V7P and V10P loudspeaker - The judges found this to be “a well-engineered small and light point source speaker that delivers exceptional levels with good directivity. Its versatility will appeal to many sectors of the audio market.”

Milos/Area Four Industries for EXE Cell – The judges said, “This rigging product gives excellent vision indication by presenting load information clearly to users. It uses a combination of software and technology built into the motor to afford the user a great deal of real-time load information.” The Judges felt that this was “well designed with some innovative features."

And Eaton - Zero 88 for the FLX Lighting Console - This console was felt by the judges to give “a revolutionary approach to colour and movement for the tablet generation as part of a well thought out-desk package aimed at an accessible price point for entry-level and more professional users.”

Commendations went to SSE Audio for its ProSight2 and Safety Lifting Gear for DUKE, a battery-powered electric chain hoist.

The judges also gave commendations for what they described as worthy toolbox products. The first is the Prosight 2 from SSE Audio, which is a refinement of an elegant solution to the problem of quickly adjusting line arrays in arduous conditions. The second product, the Duke battery powered chain hoist from Safety Lifting Gear, is a simple manual handling solution that will find its way into many trunks to assist with rigging.

The Awards were assessed by a team of judges, which this year comprised chairman James Eade, a long-time contributor to LSi magazine and an independent electrical safety consultant; Paul Franklin of theatre consultancy Charcoalblue; Steve Moles, another long-time LSi magazine contributor and a specialist in live entertainment production; lighting and set designer Ben Rogers; London-based visual designer Tupac Martir; Nick Read, an experienced lighting and electrical specialist, from Howard Eaton Lighting; live sound engineer Jon Burton; Tapio Ilomaki, an acoustic consultant with Finland-based Akukon; EM Communications’ Ed Manwaring; Scott Burges of video solutions supplier, Creative Technology.

Lighting&Sound International will be donating £1000 (some $1,500) from this year’s entry fees to Behind The Scenes UK.

Gottelier Award
This year’s Gottelier Award winner was David Cunningham, an early pioneer of computer lighting systems who developed a number of landmark products for Strand during the 1970s and 80s, including the Multi-Q memory lighting system, the Micro-Q console, the Lightpalette and the CD80 dimming system. He went on to develop the Source Four profile through his own company, Entertec, before entering into a hugely successful partnership with ETC, with whom he went on to develop many other successful products, including the Sensor dimmer.

The Gottelier Award was introduced in 2007 to recognise those who have made sustained and significant contributions to the development of live entertainment technology.

The award is named in honor of Tony Gottelier, lighting designer, product developer, industry commentator and long-time associate editor of Lighting&Sound International magazine, who passed away in 2006.

TOHO Studios, the legendary Tokyo production house responsible for the original Godzilla and its current remake, as well as Seven Samurai, directed by Akira Kurosawa, has purchased the new Tiffen Steadicam M-1 camera stabilizer for its feature projects.

Senior cameraman Kosuke Yamada has been looking at the M-1 since its launch, and was further excited about bringing a rig to Japan after he completed the six-day SOA (Steadicam Operators Association) Classic workshop in the US with Jerry Holway and Steadicam’s inventor Garrett Brown. Assisting him on the language front during the workshop was Tiffen/Steadicam’s US sales manager Dan Ikeda, one of Tiffen’s senior workshop instructors.

Yamada’s experience as a cinematographer was gained well before the SOA workshop, with a 13 year camera assistant’s path at TOHO Studios leading four years ago to the top job as TOHO’s cinematographer.

As to why he chose the M-1, Yamads said, “The first reason was its stability. When I used the M-1 for the first time at the SOA workshop, I felt a firm sense of stability that I had never felt before. No matter how much lighter cameras become, the quality of the image largely depends on its stability in use. The M-1 can accommodate various shooting styles and equipment, and I think this is perhaps the biggest strength of it, but also very important is the ease with which you can achieve dynamic balance and smoothness of the gimbal. A further reason was the modular design.  Unlike the USA, it is difficult for us to customize our rigs here in Japan as we often do not have enough information or equipment,  but with the M-1, we can upgrade it later if it is necessary.”

TOHO’s M-1 stabiliszr is the first to be delivered to an Asia-based customer, beating Taiwan by a day. A recent showing of the M1 at Beijing BIRTV broadcast exhibition has already resulted in more systems going to Chinese broadcasters and filmmakers.

All Tiffen M-1 systems in Asia have been ordered with the Fawcett Exovest. The supportive exoskeleton design of Exovest frees the chest from constraint by providing support on the hip and shoulder. The industry’s benchmark ISO-Elastic G70X arm completes the package, making M-1 the most advanced stabiliser in feature production.

The Steadicam M1 system was supplied by Tiffen’s Japanese distributor, Gin-ichi Corp, who boast Steadicam factory support training, offering local time-zone support to TOHO and broadcasters like NHK, CX Fuji and TV Asahi who have purchased Steadicam Archer 2, Zephyr and Shadow stabilizers over the last two years.

RED Digital Cinema unveiled the latest addition to its line of professional cameras, RED RAVEN. Weighing in at only 3.5 pounds, RED RAVEN is RED’s lightest and most compact camera, making it the ultimate choice for a range of applications including documentaries, online content creation, indie filmmaking, and use with drones or gimbals. With pricing that starts at $5,950 for the camera BRAIN only, and complete packages under $10,000, RED RAVEN reflects RED’s ongoing commitment to the belief that cinema-quality creative tools should not be in the hands of a few—they should be available to all professional shooters.

RED RAVEN is equipped with a 4K RED DRAGON sensor, and is capable of recording REDCODE RAW (R3D) in 4K at up to 120 fps and in 2K at up to 240 fps. RED RAVEN also offers incredible dynamic range, RED’s renowned color science, and is capable of recording REDCODE RAW and Apple ProRes simultaneously—ensuring shooters get the best image quality possible in any format.

“RED RAVEN is a new category in our lineup,” said Jarred Land, president of Red Digital Cinema. “It’s a younger, hungrier, more ‘spirited’ member of the RED family with a bit of a chip on its shoulder, ready to take on the entire sub-$10k market with images that users will be incredibly proud of.”

RED RAVEN will begin shipping in February 2016, and deposits will be accepted beginning today. Customers will be given a choice of purchasing the BRAIN only and building a kit that best fits their needs, or choosing a complete package. The RED RAVEN Base I/O Package offers everything content creators need to take their productions to the next level of image quality and professionalism, while the RED RAVEN JETPACK Package is specifically designed for use with handheld gimbals, drones, jibs and cranes.

4 RED RAVEN BRAIN ONLY - $5,950 ($500 deposit) – ships February 2016

4 RED RAVEN JETPACK PACKAGE - $9,750 ($1,000 deposit) – ships February 2016
o   Includes a RED RAVEN BRAIN, JETPACK, Battery Belt Clip, RED MINI-MAG 120GB, 4.7” LCD, AC Power Adaptor, and DSMC2 Outrigger Handle.

4 RED RAVEN I/O PACKAGE - $9,950 ($1,000 deposit) – ships March 2016
o   Includes a RED RAVEN BRAIN, Base I/O V-Lock Expander, RED MINI-MAG 120GB, 4.7” LCD, AC Power Adaptor, and DSMC2 Outrigger Handle.