In Broadcast - December 2017 - 22

22

www.inbroadcast.com | Vol: 7 - Issue 12 | December 2017

InForm

Products Of The Year
Innovations, such as 8K recording, tools for AR, advances in IP, reliance on the Cloud,
a holographic phone, are among Contributing Editor Adrian Pennington's pick of
the products and trends over the past year...

L

et's begin with a product that
hasn't launched yet, but may prove
a game-changer if even half of its
claims are true.
In July, RED Digital Cinema
announced it would make a
smartphone operating on Android OS
called Hydrogen One. This self-styled
'multi-bad' pocket PC would be a
remote control centre for RED cameras
featuring a display for viewing not just
virtual reality but holographic images.
What's more, the mysterious product
is said to be the 'foundation of a future
multi-dimensional media system...
which will include future attachments
for shooting higher quality motion
and still images as well as Hydrogen
format holographic images'. It will cost
even more than Apple's latest iPhone
X, put at US$1195, or US$1595 for the
premium 'Titanium' version.
Anyone who recalls the initially
dismissive attitude to RED's highly
disruptive and highly successful launch
into digital cinema, would be wise to
treat this ambition with some respect.
RED has the track record of changing
these things. We'll find out soon
enough if it ships to schedule in early
in 2018.
RED 8K Monstro
Staying with RED, its launch of an
improved full format 8K VistaVision
sensor for the Dragon body was part
of a wider trend toward ultra-high
resolution imaging.
The new Monstro sensor offers 60fps
full format recording, 35.4 megapixel
still capture, 300MB/s data speeds,
and simultaneous Redcode RAW and
Apple ProRes or Avid DNxHD/HR. It

also boasts of improved image quality,
with wider dynamic range and shadow
detail. More importantly, owners
of a RED camera body with Helium
(Weapon 8K S35 and RED Epic-W 8K
S35) or Monstro sensors (Weapon 8K
VV) get to work with RED's new version
of its image processing pipeline (IPP2)
in-camera. A benefit of this is being
able to monitor in SDR and HDR
simultaneously to give DPs a practical
feel for the lighting and environment
on-set or on-location when mastering
for dynamic range outputs.

Holographic: RED Digital
Cinema Hydrogen One

Future-proofed for 8K -
Sony's UHC 8300

However, anyone with any footage
shot on RED cameras can also use
the new algorithms of IPP2 to return
to their Raw files and extract more
information, not previously possible,
to yield an even sharper and richer set
of images. The mini-miracle of IPP2
applied to RED is that it might be the
only digital acquisition format that
improves over time.

RED's Monstro
sensor boasts IPP2
processing and
offers 60fps full
format recording

8K Shock Cams
Sony shocked the industry at IBC
by delivering a broadcast systems
camera for shooting 8K. Ostensibly
for Japanese broadcaster NHK's 8K
Super Hi-Vision broadcast plans, the
UHC-8300 was being promoted by
Sony executives as a future-proofed
machine since it generates 8K, 4K
and HD signal outputs simultaneously
alongside flavours of HDR.
"8K sensor technology offers
the capability to capture for 4K

Sharp's 8C-B60A with traditional
ENG camcorder styling packs 8K

production and is a leap forward in
imaging technology that will give
media companies such flexibility
when shooting 4K productions today,"
said Richard Scott, Head of Media
Solutions, Sony Europe.
Shooting at a higher resolution and
down-sampling for lower resolution
master or broadcast transmission is
one of the chief reasons offered to
record at 8K at this stage.
Fellow Japanese vendor Sharp
followed suit with the 8C-B60A
camcorder. It uses an S35mm chip
and is adorned with a PL mount for
Cine lenses but the body has been
designed with an integrated top handle
with viewfinder attachment, audio-in
XLR jacks, a SD card slot for recording
proxy files and an optional shoulder
pad all of which are more suited to
documentary style handheld work.
Switching back to digital cinema
capture and two debut cameras, from
Sony and Panasonic, put the heat on
Canon, ARRI and RED. "We really went
back to the drawing board for
http://www.inbroadcast.com http://www.red.com/ https://youtu.be/d0E1QBQAY2c http://www.red.com/ http://www.sharp-world.com/corporate/news/171107_2.html
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of In Broadcast - December 2017
