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Bits & Pieces Post Magazine's Post Picks from NAB L AS VEGAS — Post is once again pleased to announce its Post Picks winners, representing the best of show offerings from the NAB 2012 conven- tion. Each year, Post's editorial contributors (working post pros) scour the show floor at NAB to find the newest products that will most impact their own post workflows. This year, numerous pros contributed their insight to the selection process. Our scouts included Mark Raudonis, Howard Brock, Mark L. Pederson, Jim Geduldick, Terry Curren, Tim Crean, Wally Rodriquez and Tom Baurain. There were many others, and all get a big thank you for their input. The following is the list of winners in no particular order. AJA T-TAP AKA's T-Tap is an inexpensive and compact device that uses Thunderbolt connectivity to deliver 10-bit SD, HD and 2K video and embedded audio from any compatible Mac. Its 10-bit output is superior to DisplayPort, which only supports 8-bit output. The unit also sup- ports 3D HDMI output for review applica- tions and use with stereo 3D monitors. AUTODESK SMOKE Smoke 2013 has a new, much lower price point at $3,495 and features a redesigned user interface that will make it more appeal- ing to those who might have been intimi- dated by the tool in the past. Mac users can now benefit from a fully featured editing and visual effects toolset. ConnectFX provides node-based compositing inside the timeline and color matching; and the Master Keyer for chromakeying and stereoscopic 3D editing and effects. The system will run on the latest recent generation of Apple iMac and Mac- Book Pro systems using high-bandwidth Thunderbolt storage and IO. BLACKMAGIC DESIGN'S CINEMA CAMERA The Blackmagic Cinema Camera is a digi- tal cinema camera that includes super wide 13 stops of dynamic range, a high-res 2.5K sensor, a built-in high bandwidth SSD record- er, open file format support, color correction via a full version of DaVinci Resolve and a rendering with its native layers, and eliminate the traditional time-consuming back and forth with external 3D tools. The Mercury Playback Engine in Premiere Pro now pro- vides up to an 8x performance boost for fast video editing. It also features new GPU accel- erated features like Uninterrupted Playback, a new and improved Three-Way Color Cor- rector. CS6 also includes SpeedGrade, a realtime, pro color grading tool optimized for Nvidia Quadro GPUs, and Prelude for managing footage and metadata. RED'S REDRAY 4K PROJECTOR Red's new RedRay Player provides 4K playback of up to 120fps. The solution also features four HDMI 1.4 video outputs, 7.1-channel HDMI 1.4 audio out, and the ability to download 4K content to an inter- nal hard drive. Dual Gigabit Ethernet ports are also featured, along with USB and E-SATA ports. The device can be con- trolled with a tablet too. built-in LCD with metadata entry. The unit cost $2,995 and ships this summer. The built- in SSD recorder has the bandwidth to cap- ture open standard CinemaDNG RAW, ProRes and DNxHD files. Standard jack audio connections are included, along with a Thunderbolt connection, and 3Gb/s SDI out- put. The camera is compatible with Canon EF and Zeiss ZF mount lenses. In addition to Resolve, UltraScope software is included, which can be run on a laptop connected to the camera via a Thunderbolt connection. for high-end effects and advanced composit- ing without leaving the editorial environment. Finishing tools include Action, for true 3D compositing; the Color Warper for grading 4 Post • May 2012 ADOBE CREATIVE SUITE 6 Adobe was at the show with its Creative Suite 6 Production Premium software, which is accelerated with Nvidia GPUs. Apps, such as After Effects CS6, simply and accelerates the motion graphics workflow with a new 3D compositing pipeline that employs ray- tracing. Creative pros can now incorporate extruded and beveled text and shapes directly within After Effects, integrate their www.postmagazine.com SONNET'S XMAC MINI SERVER Sonnet's xMac mini Server is a 1U rack- mount enclosure that encloses a single Mac mini and a pair of PCIe slots that connect to the mini through Thunderbolt expansion. This product enables users to employ expansion cards (normally used in large computers like the Mac Pro) from AJA, Blackmagic, Red, and others with the Mac Mini. It costs $1,299. While not everyone could be a winner, there were a ton of new products at the show. Here are our panelists' Honorable Mentions: Quantel's New Pablo, Kessler Crane's Fusion system, AJA KiPro Quad, Blackmagic's Teranex, Assimilate Scratch.Next with full 3D compositing, and Canon's Cine- ma EOS C500.