NAB is almost here, and as always our booth will showcase the full scope of products and services that we offer. There will be a lot of new and exciting gear at NAB 2015, so be sure to stop by our booth C8008 to get an up close look a wide range products from top manufacturers. Also, be sure to follow our blogs from the show floor on CineTechnica. Below, Andy Shipsides gives a preview of everything our booth will have to offer.
Panasonic VariCam & AbelCine Accessories
Panasonic’s VariCam 35 & HS cameras take the original VariCam to a whole new level. The VariCam 35 features a Super 35mm 4K sensor, 14+ stops of dynamic range, 4K recording up to 120 fps, and the VariCam look we all love. The VariCam HS has a 2/3″ sensor with HD recording up to 24o fps. Both cameras have great workflow options with internal recording of AVC-Intra (up to 4K on the VariCam 35) as well as ProRes HQ recording. These cameras have already found a home on many productions, and they have also found their way into our booth. Our VariCam 35 will be decked out with some of our custom accessories including the VariCam Cine-Style Riser, top cheese plate, cold shoe mount, and a new power distribution box that we’ll be debuting.
Sony’s F5/F55 Documentary Dock Kit
The Documentary Dock kit from Sony turns an F5 or F55 into a full featured ENG/EFP camera. The system wraps around an F5 or F55 to improve the form factor and control options, making it more like a Sony XDCAM camera. It also adds some key features like 4-channel analog audio inputs and slot-based wireless audio receivers. The system still works with the AXS-R5 raw recorder as well. We’ll have the camera setup with a new Fujinon HA18x5.5BERM lens and our HDx1.4 optical adapter. Using the 2K Center Crop mode in the camera, the adapter allows you to use 2/3″ lenses, like the one from Fujinon, with minimal stop loss.
Arri’s ALEXA Mini & Freefly’s MōVI M15
We are very excited to have the new ALEXA Mini in our booth built up on Freefly’s MōVI M15. These two systems were built for each other. The ALEXA Mini has many of the features of its larger brother, but with a miniature form factor. The camera has the same beloved ALEXA sensor with 14 stops of dynamic range, 16:9 or 4:3 capture modes, and UHD upscaling. It records ProRes to CFast 2.0 cards at up to 200 fps in HD / 2K, or up to 30 fps in ARRIRAW. You can also output Raw to a Codex recorder for up to 120 fps recording. The camera body comes in at 5 lbs total and is just over 7″ long – a perfect fit for the MōVI M15. The M15 can stabilize a camera system up 15 lbs easily. The ultra lightweight construction of the M15 (5.4 lbs) combined with the ALEXA Mini (5 lbs) and a Zeiss CP.2 comes in at under 13 lbs total. A pretty nice combination, and that’s exactly how we’ll have it built up in our booth. We’ll also be showing the cforce mini motor, which plugs directly into the ALEXA Mini for wireless lens control.
RED EPIC DRAGON
We’re thrilled to announce our new status as RED Digital Cinema resellers, so be sure to check out our RED EPIC DRAGON outfitted with the latest accessories. We’ll be featuring the new high resolution RED Touch 7.0″ LCD, 4K Broadcast Module, the new Switchblade-M interface, and Angenieux glass. The 4K Broadcast Module unlocks the ability to output live 4K video up to 60p, while retaining the ability to capture 6K raw internally.
Canon 50-1000 Cine-Servo Zoom
Canon only has a limited supply of 50-1000mm Cine-Servo lenses available, but we secured one for the first day of the show. The 50-1000mm lens is an impressive beast, giving an amazing zoom range rarely seen on Super 35mm cameras. This lens is perfect for nature, documentary and sports work where you just need a long lens. The lens has the same servo technology for which Canon is known, and it works with standard focus and zoom demand systems. We’ll have it all setup on our VariCam 35 camera, so come check it out while we have it.
Phantom Flex4K Updates
The Flex4K is the flagship of the Phantom line of high-speed cameras from Vision Research. This impressive camera can record up to 1000 fps in 4K resolution. Beyond being the best high-speed camera available, the camera also just has a great look. Vision Research has been working hard to add new features to the camera so that it can be used for all types of production – not just high-speed. We’ll have the camera setup in our booth with the latest firmware, featuring sync-sound recording via its AES input. We should also hear more details at the show about the camera recording in a popular compressed format.
Bright Tangerine Accessories
Bright Tangerine has been making some impressive matteboxes, from the ultra low-weight Misfit Atom, to the feature rich Strummer DNA. We’ll have a variety of their products on display in our booth. The Stummer DNA will be on the VariCam 35, the Viv will be on the RED Dragon, and the Misfit Atom will be found on one of our MōVI rigs. We are also happy to say that we will have their new Revolvr Follow Focus. This follow focus has a slim, modular design with all the features that you need. The system is designed to work on either 15 or 19mm rods, and can quickly change gear ratios with different arms.
Canon’s Cine-Servo UMS & LANC Start/Stop
Ian recently made a video showing how to use Canon’s 17-120mm Cine-Servo lens on a variety of cameras, and we wanted to expand on that further at the show. The 17-120 comes in either PL or EF mount natively. Our product development team has created a Universal Mount System (UMS) to allow you to quickly flip the lens between PL & EF mounts, while still keeping all the required electronics intact. This is a great option for rental houses, or anyone wanting to use their lens on a variety of cameras. Our team has also developed a LANC stop/stop cable that can work with a simple trigger – like a handgrip – to trigger recording on a camera with a LANC port. We’ll be showing this all together on the Blackmagic URSA camera. The Cine-Servo will have our UMS mount installed, and we’ll have our LANC cable setup to trigger start/stop from the handgrip of the lens. The same setup would also work on the Canon C Series cameras, the Sony FS7, and a variety of other cameras.
Zacuto Recoil Rigs
Zacuto has been working hard on their Recoil line of products with the goal of making one simple rig that will work with a wide variety of cameras. The team at Zacuto is focused on making a shoulder mounted rig that can balance properly on your shoulder and put your eye on the camera’s viewfinder. Their VCT baseplate fits every camera and has a wide range of front to back adjustment so you can get proper balance. We’ll have both the Canon C100 Mark II and Sony FS7 rigged up with the VCT baseplate, as well as their new Gratical HD EVF. Their EVF is both solid and sophisticated, built like a tank, and full of features like scopes, focus enhancements, and even LUTs. On the FS7, we will also have their control grip and Z-motor. The control grip gives you both camera and zoom control. It can start/stop your camera, adjust iris, and zoom using the Z-motor or compatible lenses. They have a wide variety of control cables available for different cameras and lenses. We are looking forward to having these setups in our booth.
TriCaster Studio Setup & Streambox Streaming
We’ve created a small studio in our booth this year to showcase a bit of what our integration team can put together. We’ll be combining the TriCaster 460 switcher with PTZ cameras. We’ll have both the Panasonic AW-HE130 and Sony BRC-H900 running into the switcher. The AW-HE130 is a remarkably low-noise 1/3″ 3-MOS PTZ, which has new features including Power over Ethernet+ (POE+) for easier integration, and multi-stream transmission of H.264 HD video and audio (up to 1080/60p at 25Mbps). The BRC-H900 incorporates a 1/2-type Exmor 3 CMOS sensor and can be controlled over RS-232C/RS-422 or via IP control (10Base-T/100Base-TX /Auto). We’ll run a couple of other cameras from around our booth into the TriCaster to show how it can mix formats and also control PTZ cameras. We’ll have the system connected to a SNS EVO for playback of our blogs and other content as well. Finally, the output from our system will go into a Streambox Avenir Encoder, which has 5 embedded 3G/4G modems and can connect to up to 5 more via USB. It take in either SDI or HDMI inputs, and can stream to a wide variety of services or their own Steamboat cloud.
Camera Mobility
We have a whole area in our booth dedicated to camera mobility, from new aerial vehicles to underwater systems. We have all the fun new tools to get your camera moving!
On the land we’ll have an ALEXA Mini on Freefly’s TERO. The TERO combines a remote control car with a MōVI stabilization system, allowing you to create smooth but dynamic low angle shots. We’ll also have two new sliders from CamTram and MYT Works. The CamTram is a reworking of an old classic, with some great new innovations, while the MYT Works slider adds a great new option to their existing line up of sliders. And last but not least, we’ll have the new Exhauss exoskeleton system, which combines a Steadicam-like vest and arms designed to hold a gimbal system like the MōVI.
In the air we’ll have a C300 perched up high on a new aerial platform. We can’t say what it is just yet, but we are excited to have the latest and greatest UAV built for professional cinema in our booth.
Finally, AbelCine is a proud partner of Gates Underwater Products, and we’ll be featuring their Phantom Flex4K underwater housing. Gates has many great new products this year as well, like their new ALEXA Mini housing, which will be found in the Arri booth. We have also partnered with Gates to offer training on their systems. Come by the booth to learn more about these upcoming classes
Lighting
There has been so much innovation this year in terms of lighting. We’ll have some of the best new lights at the show on display at our booth. We have lights from AadynTech, BBS Lighting, Cineo, Digital Sputnik, Fiilex, Hive and Litepanels on display. We’ll have the new AAdynTech Hurricane Jr., which consumes only .85 Amps AC but outputs a powerful 650 foot-candles at 10 feet. We’ll also have Digital Sputnik LED lights that are full RGBW adjustable with a unique modular design; they can be stacked together in a variety of configurations. Each light is equivalent to a 100W HMI or 500W Tungsten output, and can be controlled over WiFi or DMX too. Also very new for us are the Fiilex lights and we’ll be showing their Q500, which gives a 750W equivalent output with a low 185W power consumption. This fresnel LED features full dimming, color tunability between 2800-6500K, and ±.25 Magenta/Green hue control.
We are looking forward to meeting you at booth C8008 and answering all your technology questions! For regular updates from the show floor, don’t forget to check our blog and follow us on social media.