As I was leaving the Object Matrix booth, I met Paul Phillips, the U.K. Managing Director for Active Storage.

When Apple decided to get out of the RAID business a few years ago, Active Storage hired many of the engineers from Apple’s team to create a new RAID system designed specifically for the Mac.

In this interview, I talk with Paul about what Active Storage has done and how they’ve optimized it for the Mac.

Click here to listen to the interview. (TRT: 5:46 — 2.4 MB — QuickTime)

Larry

As I was walking the aisles of the Broadcast Video Expo in London last week, I discovered a company called Hocus Products. They make a wireless lens focus puller for smaller cameras – everything from a Canon 5D to a Sony EX3.

In this audio interview, I talk with Pete Hoare, the developer of the product, to learn more.

Click here to listen to the interview: (TRT: 3:43 — 1.5 MB — QuickTime)

Larry

Tools on Air describes itself as “A TV Station on a Mac.” Currently, they are only distributed by NMR in the UK and have only been shown at the Broadcast Video Expo in London in February. However, they will be attending NAB 2010 in Las Vegas in April, so those of us attending that show will have an opportunity to see them.

This product has the potential to completely alter the options for live video production on the Mac. Prior to this product, QuickTime limited the number of live video streams it could record to one. Tools on Air has found a way to increase that to sixteen HD cameras or video feeds, plus the ability to switch between video feeds live, add graphics, and create multiclips for Final Cut Pro.

Listen to this interview with Neil Anderson, Business Manager for NMR, about what Tools on Air can do and decide for yourself.

Click here to listen to the interview (TRT: 6:20 — 3.0 MB — QuickTime movie).

Larry

They were displaying a prototype of a camera mount that allows two cameras to be mounted on a single-tripod to shoot 3D. Nick Rose is the inventor, and managing director of TeleTest. In this audio interview, I spoke with him on the show floor to learn more about his new gear.

There are several points to listen for during our conversation:

• Shooting 3D is more than putting two cameras side-by-side
• Adjusting the distance between the cameras (intra-ocular) distance is needed to create a 3D effect.
• Toeing is used to enhance the 3D effect.
• Aligning both cameras needs to be done to make sure the shots match.
• Existing gear is really expensive and requires a large crew to setup – BinoRig is an alternative to this approach.

I found all his comments very informative and wanted to share them with you.

Click here to listen to the interview. (TRT: 7:37 – 3.6 MB – QuickTime)

I discovered several other small, but fascinating, companies at BVE, which I’ll share with you over the next couple of days.

Larry

This is the UK’s largest show focused on video production gear. If you listen to the Digital Production Buzz tonight (www.digitalproductionbuzz.com) you’ll hear reports from Scotland and the BVE show.

However, after I finished recording this week’s show, I discovered two interesting products at the show that I want to share with you.

First, is Gridiron Flow. This software tracks what files are used in your projects, the amount of time you spend working on a project, and helps you backup and archive the elements in your projects — all, essentially, automatically. While I can see how it can be a tremendous timesaver for Photoshop and digital still artists, I’m still pondering its usefulness in a Final Cut workflow. However, Apple is talking about it recently, so this is definitely worth checking out.

Second, is: Tools on Air. Basically, this is a TV Station/broadcast facility on a Mac. This is brand new, from an Austrian company. NMR is their sole distributor and they are looking for US distribution. This puts the power of multi-camera ingest, switching, recording, and playout in a Mac. A single MacPro can handle up to eight cameras and two MacPros connected together can handle up to 16 cameras.

If you were looking at the Newtek Tricaster, this was announced two days ago and is worth a look. Pricing and distribution are still fluid – this is brand new and likely to get US distribution quickly. (Thanks to Jonathan Tyrrell for pointing me to both these companies.)

More soon, I’m off to explore. (I also have some new audio interviews with new products for 3D and RED that I will post as soon as I get them edited.)

Larry