Broadcast Asia 2011

Oli Laperal, Jr. filed this report from Broadcast Asia in Singapore, June 21-24, 2011.

Broadcast Asia 2011

This year’s Broadcast Asia and Communication Asia Shows saw new expanded locations at Suntec Convention Center and Sands Marina Bay Resort & Casino respectively. Both ultra modern convention centers surpass current standards, even Las Vegas’.

All day conferences included: 3D@home, All about 3D, 3D post, Future TV, DVB, TV & Technology Advancement, Asset Management, Multi-Play Content and Delivery, Tapeless Post Production, DSLR production, etc.

Miss Wilma Galvante of GMA Philippines at the Creative Content Production Conference

Worldwide manufacturers’ omnipresence was not surprising. After all, Asia’s appetite and purchasing power is rated among the best, highest and fastest growing in the world.

Island multi company pavilion clusters were held by Singapore, China, Italy, USA, France, Germany, Spain, and Korea.

Here are the new “toys” shown at Broadcast Asia 2011:

Sony showed more footage of the Sony F-65 8K camera system, and also announced an under $100K list price for a bundled Sony F-65 8K camera with an optional mechanical rotary mirror shutter and electronic version, electronic viewfinder and the SR-R4 16 bit linear raw data 4K/8K raw data recorder making the “digital negative”, remote control via iPad, Academy IIF-ACES compliant, etc. Final price will be announced at IBC 2011 in Amsterdam.

8K post workflow is for now the exclusive domain of NHK. SR memory cartridges come in 256 GB, 512 and 1 TB capacities. 4K post workflow is now available on Avid, BlackMagic Design, and Baselight, with more to follow soon. Improved software and 3D sync make the Sony PMW F-3 the ideal 3D camera. New 64 GB SxS cards were also shown. Upgrades to the Sony PMW-F3 will include 3D link, 4:4:4, RGB S log out among others. New Sony PL mount zoom lenses: 11-16 mm T3 and the 18-250 mm T3.8 delivers in Dec 2011. Sony’s private venue discussed OLED, Super 35 cinematography, Future Digital Cinematography and Stereoscopic 3D.

New Sony PL zoom lenses

New Sony 11-16 mm PL zoom lens.

ARRI showed Alexa Plus digital camera and the new Alexa 4.0 software upgrade with LUT management, color bars, audio playback, white balance, lower fans speeds, 1 KHz audio reference, etc.

The final version of Arri L7 series LED lighting in either Tungsten, Daylight or Tungsten/Daylight versions will be available soon with and without silent cooling fan. Another benefit of the Arri L7 series LED housing is the ability to upgrade the same housing for higher wattage LED from 2012 onwards. Future proofing is indeed welcomed.

P+S Technik showed the new X35 multi purpose camera which is capable of being the “A” digital HD camera, as well as the High Speed camera up to 450 fps.

Canon showed new PL mount zooms lenses for 35mm format: 14.5-60 T2.6 and the 30-300 T2.9

Arri-like HMIs and LED lighting fixtures from China were shown by the dozen.

BlackMagic Design showed and started delivery of their super value low cost “toys”. I finally took home the BMD HyperDeck Shuttle uncompressed data SDI recorder/player. I finally saw the day when the SSD cartridge (formerly know as “tape”) cost more than the uncompressed SDI data recorder (formerly know as “VTR”).

Miracube of Korea showed improved circular pola 3D monitors, and no-glasses auto stereo 3D monitors with “no dead zone” when viewing.

ABC/Movietech of Germany introduced two new jib arms: the Jib 100 with 20 Kg payload, weights 19 Kg, lift height of 2.2 meters, for lightweight cameras. Whereas the new DSLR Light Jib made of carbon graphite weights only 3 kilos, meant for 4.5 Kg cameras, and has a unique way of automatically tilting up or down as the boom rises or falls.