To all of you reading this and charging to the Las Vegas Convention Show Floor, I wish you well! My spirit rides with you. Normally, I’d be joining the hordes storming the South Hall.
But not this year.
The relocation of Mixing Light Central is in mid-journey. What was supposed to be a quiet week of calm, was upended when our closing date got moved up by 10 days. So, ML Central is deep in the whirlwind and my decision to skip NAB turned out to be the correct one.
I did manage to watch Grant Petty’s feature-length video demo of their new software and hardware.I was fascinated by this year’s product mix, specifically BMD’s heavy-duty push into SMPTE 2110 IP video (over ethernet). That standard touched everything they released this year, including DaVinci Resolve’s Cut page (supporting their new Replay feature).
What’s fascinating to me is how their decade-long march into the BMD hardware/software ecosystem resulted in gear stacked onto six feet of tabletop – all of it ethernet-enabled. Plus, the rack-worth of additional disk recorders and routers would have cost millions of dollars when I started this business. All of it seems to be reaching a point of maturity SMPTE 2110 was imagining when the
Stop2110 campaign began six years ago.
Cameras, codecs, software, routers, disk recorders, and (of course) converters. If you make gear for broadcasters, you’ll walk away from NAB 2024 hearing hooves fast approaching as Grant and his army of software and hardware engineers have a target painted on your back.
But for the readers of this Newsletter, there’s really only question they want answered:
What’s new is Resolve 19?Well, and a second question: Was there anything for the Color Page??
The New Features PDF is 80+ pages. That’s a little light compared to previous years that ran double that length.
The ‘General Improvements’, ‘Color Page’, and ‘Color FX’ sections are about 30 pages long. So, yes, there are lots in there for colorists and finishers.
I have a few thoughts I want to test out on the new ColorSlice tool, but I’ll share them after I’ve spent time using and testing it. In fact, there’s a lot to explore in R19. And it’ll come in due time.
In today’s Newsletter, I’ve mostly kept to sharing excerpts from Grant Petty’s presentation. Most YouTube videos I watched offered little other than restating what’s in Grant’s presentation or the New Features PDF. So, I’m offering you the official view this week.
As serious colorists get more ‘stick time’ with this new version, we’ll start seeing thoughtful takes. In the meantime, keep in mind that Resolve is in Public Beta!
If you must try out the new tools, do so on a secondary machine. Wait until a few maintenance releases have dropped before considering moving to it full-time.
If you have the time, I recommend following one of my links to Grant’s Preso and watching the whole thing.
I feel that understanding BMD’s broader approach will be important to everyone other than the pure ‘artists’ in our crowd.
Not to mention, the cost of BMD’s no-holds-barred cinema camera had me chuckling. I was expecting price points four times higher than what was announced. I look forward to grading images produced on that camera.
That’s enough from me.
Happy Grading!
I’ll see you next Sunday.
Sincerely,
Pat Inhofer
Chief Photon Wrangler, Publisher
MixingLight.com
