In Broadcast - June 2014 - 30

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

WWW.INBROADCAST.COM | ISSUE 32 - JUNE 2014

N E W S

InFORM

SMPTE Technology Summit On Cinema
'Enormous Success' At NAB Show
S

MPTE has accomplished much
over the past 12 months, with
signiﬁcant achievements in the three
pillars of the Society: membership,
education, and standards.
While the Society was able to
highlight progress in standards
areas including ultra high-deﬁnition,
cinema sound and immersive audio,
and integration of information
technology into the industry, SMPTE
also showcased its ongoing work
to provide both members and nonmembers with unique opportunities
to engage with other professionals in

discussion of the technical advances
and business strategies driving the
industry forward.
Barbara H. Lange, Executive
Director, SMPTE, said: "The 2014
NAB Show was an enormous
success for SMPTE. During the show,
the buzz surrounding so many of the
initiatives and issues that are a focus
of the Society truly reinforced the
importance and value of our work."
The 2014 NAB Show's Technology
Summit on Cinema: The Future of
Motion Imaging and Sound (TSC),
produced in partnership with SMPTE,

30

The 2014 NAB Show Technology Summit on Cinema (Picture: NAB/Robb Cohen)

featured visionary technology
innovators and acclaimed creatives
from the realm of motion pictures.
The ﬁfth annual Student Ice Cream
Social was also a draw, and word
of mouth and social media posts
brought a huge crowd of students
to the SMPTE booth.
The TSC provided an in-depth
global view of the current state and
future of filmmaking innovation.
Sessions touched on the human
vision system and the potential
impact of improved motion images,
and TSC speakers highlighted
the many ways in which new
technologies are being used to
enhance storytelling. Attendees
had the opportunity to see a live
demonstration of the latest laserilluminated projector technology, as
well as examples of the effect of
high dynamic range on the cinema
experience. The latter proved to be
one of the hottest topics during the
2014 NAB Show.
One of the most anticipated
sessions of the TSC, the "Gravity
Gravitas" panel brought together
Academy
Award-winning
cinematographer Emmanuel 'Chivo'
Lubezki, supervising sound editor
Skip Lievsay, colourist Steven J.
Scott, and CG supervisor Harry
Bardak, with David Cohen, Senior

Barbara Lange,
SMPTE Executive
Director

NAB
"...The 2014an
Show was
enormous success
for SMPTE

"

Technology Editor for Variety acting
as the moderator.
During his keynote to a packed
house, industry expert and
technical innovator Chris Cookson
envisioned a future in which, rather
than acquiring images, storytellers
instead create images based on
acquired models and data.
In another popular keynote,
Elizabeth Daley, D ean at the
University of Southern California's
School of Cinema Arts, discussed
the challenge of educators as the
art of cinema continues to evolve.
She noted that, with technology
changing, educating students at
the university level has become
challenging.

Merging Technologies
Unleashes Pyramix 9
M

erging previewed Pyramix 9 at
the Prolight+Sound exhibition
in Frankfurt and showed the ﬁnal
version at NAB.
Last year's release of Pyramix
8.0 brought a host of new
recording features and full
RAVENNA connectivity. version
9 addresses performance and
operational enhancements plus
new plug-in options and interfacing
improvements.
The powerful MassCore engine -
capable of 384 discrete inputs and
384 discrete outputs, 256 busses
and almost limitless power for plugins - provides the ultimate "mix
in the box" solution. MassCore's
addition of 64-bit performance with
Pyramix 9 moves it to another level
- MassCore Unchained.
New Features in Pyramix 9 include:
64-bit MassCore Engine - With
64-bit, Pyramix's true real-time
operation is now able to span not
only hundreds of tracks, but also

projects that can contain more
edits, more automation, more
plug-ins and span greater lengths
than ever before.
New Mixer - The main addition
to the mixer is the Signal Flow view
of the metering. Now, with any strip,
or range of strips selected, the user
can instantly see where the signal is
routed to by a slight colour change
in the peak meters. Then, with a
simple click, the user can collapse
the view of the entire mixer so that it
only shows those strips and busses
being used for the part of the mix
that has been selected. Additional
updates include automation modes
per strip, peak metering in the auxes
and subgroup sends and much more
visible strip colouring.
Mixdown: Loudness Logging and
Fix Tools - You can now mixdown
multiple busses at once and create
a separate interleaved ﬁle for each
one. At the same time, users can
now enable Final Check loudness

Pyramix Signal Flow view of the
metering shows the routing path

checking and "ﬁx" to make sure that
your ﬁnal broadcast masters will
comply with loudness regulations
in your territory (such as EBU
R128 in Europe). Naturally, Pyramix
mixdown is still faster than real-time.
Now with true 64-bit operation,
Merging has qualiﬁed its application
for use with the newest EUCON 3
installers for use with the Avid S6
and other EUCON control surfaces.
Headed by a significantly
expanded range of VS3 plug-ins
from Flux, many exciting new 64-bit
programs are available for recording,
post-production, mastering and
restoration. With more suppliers

moving to 64-bit in the near future,
this list will expand rapidly.
Offering better, easier, more
robust synchronisation with all
Merging software applications.
Virtual Transport 2 is now completely
integrated into the Pyramix Chase
Synchronizer.
Merging was one of the ﬁrst of the
major mastering systems to support
the EBU recommendation for
embedding ISRC data in Broadcast
Wave Files (EBU Tech 3352) and this
is also part of Pyramix 9.
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In Broadcast - June 2014

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