The queues snaking down towards West Brompton underground station told the story. BVE 2011 is open and it’s clearly catching the imagination of whole swathes of the broadcast industry.
And that’s not surprising judging by the quality of exhibitors and sessions on what is still only the first day of the show. Both BVE and The Production Show are buzzing and awash with talk of major announcements.
In what is something of a coup, one of the industry’s biggest names, Avid (Stand J10) , has used BVE 2011 to introduce new versions of its flagship editing systems.
Avid Media Composer and Avid Symphony versions 5.5 and Avid Newscutter version 9.5 contains a host of new capabilities including support for AJA’s IO Express input and output interface as well as native support for Sony HDCAM SR Lite (via AMA) and a Nitris DX AVC-Intra video accelerator.
A new Avid PhraseFind (powered by Nexdia) is also included as an add-on phonetic search option that allows users to streamline clip and project management and simplify the dialogue editing and logging process.
When asked about the decision to launch version 5.5 at BVE, Angus Mackay, the marketing manager for Avid’s professional segment, said: “We could have held the release until NAB but we decided that, to show our support for UK and Europe, that this show would be the ideal place to do it. We’ve also worked very closely with Sky on the development of the Nitris DX AVC-Intra box so it seemed very suitable.”
There’s been plenty of other exciting launches at BVE too. Canon UK (Stand E34) has announced its smallest-ever professional grade handicam, the XA10, which weighs 820g and shoots 1080p HD video in H.264 and AVCHD. The company is also showing its XF105 camcorder for the first time in the UK.
Global Distribution (Stand C20) has two UK firsts at the show: the ATOMOS Ninja portable Apple ProRes recorder; and a prototype of the forthcoming ATTO FastFrame 10Gb Ethernet Adaptors which are quad, dual and single channel x8 PCIe 2.0 cards for high bandwidth network connectivity requirements such as media.
Stereo 3D is, of course, everywhere today with advice and best practise sessions in both The Production Show and BVE’s 3D Revolution Theatre.
There’s an interesting theme linking all of the sessions which is that making good quality 3D is crucial and that it is very easy to make bad 3D.
Vicki Betihavas of Nineteen Fifteen said in her ‘3D for Producers’ session said: “In 5 years, 3D will simply be a choice that the consumer makes. They might not watch the news in 3D until we get 3D that doesn’t require glasses but this will come. The thing that will screw it up is bad 3D. Nothing will turn people off faster.”
Alongside the serious stuff there are, of course, plenty of diversions too. Not least on The Bridge Training, Alias Hire and The Crewing Company stand (TPS 330) where there is a Top Gear-style virtual racing competition. It’s only day one but it looks like it is already getting competitive.
Doors open at 9:30am. If you’ve yet to register, click here for free entry to tomorrow’s show.