FILE-BASED RECORDERS FOR HIRE

AJA Ki Pro Pro Res Recorder

The AJA Ki Pro is a tapeless video recording device that records high-quality Apple ProRes 422 QuickTime files onto computer-friendly media. Because it features SD/HD-SDI, HDMI, and analog inputs, you can interface with virtually any type of camera you might own or rent. Enjoy monitoring flexibility through Ki Pro’s numerous simultaneous outputs, connecting to both professional and consumer monitors.

The Ki Pro is portable and rugged; designed for real production environments. With the optional exo-skeleton it can sit below your camera-out of the way of your battery adapters, wireless mics and other accessories. Integration with your other production gear is seamless.

Ki Pro is intuitive to operate. Alongside the camera, the familiar VTR-like buttons provide immediate controls for basic operation. From a distance, use a web browser via ethernet or WiFi to control operations from a laptop or iPhone.

Comes with one 250GB storage module

NAB 2012 Product Launches

Well it’s been an exciting NAB show so far! There’s been some great new broadcast product launches, notably from AJA, Blackmagic Design and Panasonic.

Here’s a few of the NAB 2012 product launches that got us talking.

AJA

The T-TAP (yes an odd name) is a fantastic little bit of kit. Thunderbolt to HD SDI / HDMI. That’s all you need to say. And it’s only £160. Fantastic.

The Ki Pro Quad – a chunkier looking Ki Pro Mini – ups the ante in the 2K and 4K world and comes complete with Thunderbolt connectivity.

Here’s the AJA Ki Pro Quad brochure

The Ki Pro Rack is also a nice addition to the Ki Pro family – it’s essentially the Ki Pro as we know it and love it – but it’s in a 1RU 19" rack-mount form factor. There’s some options already out there to rack-mount the Ki Pro but the Ki Pro Rack – with it’s dual storage docks – is perfect for flyaways, OBs and studio installs. The Ki Pro Rack also supports DNxHD as well as Pro Res.

Here’s the AJA Ki Pro Rack brochure

Blackmagic Design

The HyperDeck Studio has been granted the all-important and long awaited Apple Pro Res codec. A sigh of relief from every HyperDeck owner out there!

Blackmagic have also released a new version of the HyperDeck Studio – the HyperDeck Studio Pro – a 4 channel version with Thunderbolt connectivity. Interesting stuff.

And last out of the Blackmagic Design press department – and no doubt a product that wil garner much publicity – the Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera. Yes, Blackmagic Design now make cameras! We hear they’re also designing a new solar powered jet ski and a range of white goods – all with Thunderbolt connectivity. Ok that was a joke, but they really have launched a new camera!

I think the new Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera has to be seen to be believed but the specs read well and as usual, the Blackmagic price tag is extremely competitive.

Panasonic

Panasonic have announced some interesting upgrades and enhancements, including microP2 cards – a P2 card in an SD card form factor – and a new version of the HPX250, the HPX255 which can be controlled via Panasonic’s AG-EC4 RCP – good news for us multi-camera types.

Panasonic also announced the new HPX600 camera – a big brother to the HPX371. Panasonic say it’s future proof, so when AVC-Ultra is finally rolled out, the HPX600 will be one of the first cameras to support it.

What was your highlight of BVE & TPS 2012

So BVE & TPS 2012 is over for another year. Trickbox had a great time exhibiting – it was great to catch up with some old friends and clients, plus meeting some new ones too – thanks to everyone who stopped by our stand. Head to our faceboook page for some photos from the show

So what was your highlight of BVE & TPS 2012?

The buzz on the AJA stand was all about their new Io XT with all it’s thunderbolt goodness. Plus there was a timely release of the new software version 3.0 of the AJA Ki Pro. Version 3.0 includes – amongst other features – ExpressCard/34 support (slot 1) and data transfer via LAN.

Panasonic featured their new compact vision mixer, the HS410. An upgrade of the popular HS400 mixer, the HS410 features 8 SDI inputs as standard – upgradeable to 12 with optional boards. See this Panasonic HS410 brochure for more info.

Also on the Panasonic stand was their new AW-HE120 PTZ camera. It’s a grown up version of the HE50 series camera and features the same sensor in the HPX371 camera.

It was interesting to see that this year at BVE saw a greater focus on media storage. The file-based and tapeless revolution has forced companies to rethink their data storage and archiving solutions.

The Canon C300 seemed to be on every stand at the show, plus thoase pesky GoPro‘s were hiding everywhere! The Atomos Samurai with it’s new optional AVID DNxHD codec upgrade also turned a few heads.

On our stand, as well as demo’ing our multi-camera portable production unit (PPU), The Trickbox®, we were showing our multi record Blackmagic HyperDeck Studio flyaway unit, featuring 5 HyperDeck’s for multi-camera recording, plus our new dual AJA Ki Pro record station with built in monitoring and networking.

We also featured ikan’s Elite Prompter iOS iPad app and their complete PT-Elite iPad teleprompter system. A nifty device for location teleprompting.

So BVE & TPS 2012 was a great show, however there was a slightly upsetting incident – for us at least – two mugs were ‘taken’ from our stand! Duh duh duh… Ok they may have looked like they were free promotional gifts to visitors but they were actually our mugs – we’d only just bought them too! On one side they look like normal company branded mugs but on the other, they were personalised with our names on! I think they may have even been dirty when they were taken!?

The missing Trickbox mugs

As soon as the ‘incident’ had been discovered, an immediate twitter campaign ensued to try and track down the little fellows but alas, no one knew of their whereabouts. The best we got was a cheeky twitter gag thrown back at us – "you’ve been mugged" by @rgale - thanks Rich…

So the case is still open – if anyone has any information on our missing mugs, please call this special ‘missing mug’ number – 0207 193 97 22 – as soon as possible. Or email missingmugs@trickboxtv.com. All contact will be treated confidentially. Safe return of the mugs will see a reward to the mug returnee.

Forgot where we were going with all that – back to BVE… So who’s going to BVE & TPS 2013 next year at ExCeL??

We’re exhibiting at BVE and TPS. Visit us at STAND 320. 14th – 16th Feb 2012

We’re exhibiting again at the Broadcast Video Expo and the Production Show 2012, Earls Court – 14th to 16th Feb.

Visit us at stand 320 in the Production Show area where we’ll be demonstrating our flyaway multi-camera portable production unit (PPU), The Trickbox® plus we’ll be demonstrating some of the best file-based and tapeless external recorders on the market including, the Atomos Samurai, the Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Studio and our new flyaway AJA Ki Pro multi record station.

If you can’t make it to BVE & TPS 2012 this year, follow us on twitter and facebook where we’ll be updating throughout the week

All-nighter at ExCeL London – Live Multi-cam Music Festival

We provided a 5 camera flyaway PPU setup for an all night music festival at ExCeL London recently. We used a mixture of Panasonic HPX371 and HPX500 cameras and recorded the live cut on an AJA Ki Pro whilst streaming live.

Here’s a few pics from the night: