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PRODUCTS www.postmagazine.com 25 POST MAY/JUNE 2025 WACOM REDESIGNS FLAGSHIP INTUOS PRO PEN TABLET PORTLAND, OR — Wacom's (wacom.com) Intuos Pro pen tablet recently received an updated design that features tactile controls and the Pro Pen 3 — the same technology in the company's Cintiq Pro displays. The Pro Pen 3 is designed to be custom- izable to each artist's preference, from the grip to the programmable buttons. Like all Wacom pens, the Pro Pen 3 doesn't need charging or batteries. It features two different nibs, including a rubber nib that is slip-resistant. The Intuos Pro is portable and comes in three sizes, all of which have a larger drawing area, at a 16:9 ratio to match today's display sizes. Despite the increased active area, all three sizes are smaller and slimmer than past generations. The small unit weighs approximately eight ounces and has a dimension of about 8.5 inches by 6.4 inches. The medium and large units are designed for artists who enjoy a larger canvas or who man- age workflows across several monitors. All models are Bluetooth enabled, with a wireless operating time of up to 16 hours. Artists can connect up to three de- vices, one wired device using a USB, and two wireless devices. They can toggle between devices using a mechanical switch on the tablet. A new chip-set boosts performance while slimming down the unit's form factor. To satisfy the precision needs of 3D sculptors and video editors, and to ensure accuracy by minimizing the chance for unintentional movements and input, Wacom moved the ExpressKeys and touch buttons to the top of the tablet, and added two dials to the medium and large Intuos Pro, and one dial to the small Intuos Pro. These dials offer artists tactile feed- back and can be used by left-handed and right-hand- ed users without adjustment. The tablet's dials and ExpressKeys come pre-configured and are easily customized to preferred shortcuts. The Intuos Pro works with both Windows and Mac operating systems. For those who prefer a pen- cil-like feel or thicker barrel, Wacom has partnered with several pen manufacturers, such as Staedtler, Lamy and Dr. Grip, for a broad range of styluses. In addition to the Intuos Pro tablet and Pro Pen 3, artists will receive free trials of Clip Studio Paint, MASV and Capture One software. Wacom will also include access to Wacom's own software Yuify, which is designed to secure authorship for artists. Yuify works with popular software, including Clip Studio Paint, Adobe Photoshop and Rebelle 7, and allows artists to embed a micromark in their work. The Intuos Pro, like all of Wacom's pro products, also grants access to Wacom Bridge, which facili- tates pen and touch input between local and remote machines for improved professional collaboration. The Intuos Pro is available at the Wacom eStore, Amazon, Best Buy and B&H. The three sizes cost $249.95 (small), $379.95 (medium) and $499.95 (large). NUGEN AUDIO PLUG-IN IDENTIFIES POOR DIALOG CLARITY LEEDS, UK — Nugen Audio (www.nugenaudio. com) just launched its new speech intelligibility plug-in, DialogCheck. A mono, ste- reo and multichannel dialog clarity meter, DialogCheck provides an objective measure of speech audio intelligibility. The plug-in is well suited for a range of applications, including film & television post, and game audio production. The ability for a listener to understand a piece of dialog can be affected by a number of factors, including language, dialect, enunciation, reverb, effects, loudness and back- ground noise, as well as the listener's hearing ability, listening environment and placement of speakers. DialogCheck enables users to easily evaluate their audio to identify sec- tions of speech that might be difficult for listeners to understand. The software features more than a dozen interface tools aimed at supporting engineers in their dialog editing process, including an integrated, realtime bar meter and history graph. Additionally, the distribution view and numerical statistical values provide an overview of the speech intelligibility of the entire program. This information can then be used to guide engineers to correct issues before testing again. Furthermore, the tracking function syncs the views with the audio playback in the DAW, while 'macro view' highlights the current audio sec- tion within the wider historical view. DialogCheck uses the Listening Effort Meter (LE-Meter) developed by Fraunhofer IDMT, which allows sound engineers to visualize listening effort during mixing and con- duct post-mixing checks to optimize audio quality. Designed to objectively assess the listening effort of dialog in broadcast material, LE-Meter uses automatic speech recogni- tion and psychoacoustic modeling with metrics to evaluate the intelligibility of dialog. VICON LAUNCHES ACTIVE CROWN VIRTUAL PRODUCTION CAMERA TRACKING SOLUTION OXFORD UK — Motion cap- ture developer Vicon (www. vicon.com) has launched Active Crown, a purpose-built solution for virtual production camera tracking. Vicon Active Crown transforms unreliable tracking into dependable motion data by minimizing interference. The results give virtual-production profession- als flexible, reliable tracking for cameras positioned anywhere on in-camera visual effects (ICVFX) stages. Active Crown's design fo- cuses on occlusion, a common pain point across virtual-pro- duction stages. It can also support tracking of multiple cameras across the same studio set. The announcement follows Vicon's recent launch of a markerless motion-cap- ture solution back in March.