Video didn’t spring fully-formed from a media server…
[For those of us who are new to the video world by way of lighting, the entire history of the development of media servers, non-linear editing, and all the tools of the video trade are as much of a mystery as the plethora of video formats. To those of you who are new to the lighting world by way of the video world, the entire lack of knowledge about these things from the lighting side is as much of a mystery as DMX512. In this article, Paul Berliner bridges the gap for us. – ed.]
This year marked my 28th NAB, and as Rutger Hauer said to Harrison Ford in the closing scenes of Blade Runner, “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe.” Perhaps most astonishing, over the years at the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) convention, I’ve witnessed several major points where the industry has shifted in an entirely new direction. Looking back with a 28-year perspective, I now realize the importance of those breakthroughs — even though I might not have recognized them as such at the time.
With NAB 2007 behind us, we’re in the midst of yet another shift, and this one’s a dandy.
From Demo Dog to Reporter VW
My role at NAB has been varied and rich. I’ve been a demo dog for numerous equipment manufacturers, including Ampex, Pinnacle, NVision, Omneon and Ross, hawking everything from linear editors to video production switchers. I’ve written and produced hourly stage shows, such as those for Accom — where we demonstrated the wonders of virtual sets and green screen technology. I’ve been Mr. Job Hunter, seeking out new technical writing clients (and after all, where else but NAB can a video contractor make 300 cold calls to the entire industry in four days). I’ve even edited a daily NAB newsletter for the Sony sales staff, with a team of reporters scoping out the competition. And this year was yet another new experience, with the task of trying to resolve (and recommend) a complex HD workflow — from acquisition through non-linear post to playout. Amid a sea of native resolutions, codecs, formats, bit-rates and color spaces, this was one of the most confusing (yet eye-opening) treasure hunts yet.
When Video Was Analog, and Life Was Good
Back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, NAB was a relatively small trade show that alternated between Dallas and Las Vegas. Yes, there was one lonely year in Atlanta, and (way before my time), conventions in Chicago and Washington D.C. Today, based on its sheer size, Vegas is the only venue that can handle 100,000 attendees.
Back then, the show floor consisted of a few hundred booths, dominated by four giants — Ampex, RCA, Grass Valley and Sony. Ampex 2-inch quadraplex VTRs were king, such as the tank-like AVR series. There were no finer vidicon (tube) cameras than the TK series by RCA. Grass Valley’s analog production switchers sold like hotcakes to every call letter station, and Sony’s 3/4” U-Matic cassette recorders were ubiquitous. There was no digital audio or video, no software companies, no asset management, no nonlinear editors, no video servers, no Ethernet connectivity, no LED walls, no compression, no pixels and best of all — no Windows®.
We had PAL, NTSC and wonderful analog black boxes that connected together and made pictures. Compared to today, the term “workflow” wasn’t even a factor. Video systems just worked. Yes, videotape had huge dropouts that flew across the screen, but life was good.
Then things began to change — and the pace of that change has continued exponentially.
Amazing Points of Change VW
From my perspective, there are a few clear breakthrough points where the industry took a collective gasp. Based on single product introductions, there are points at NAB at which technology took a quantum leap forward and abruptly changed the ways in which we worked. True, I just missed the introduction of videotape recording (the Ampex VR-1000) at the 1956 NAB in Chicago, but here’s my list anyway:
Ampex VPR-2 and AST (NAB 1977). With the introduction of the Ampex VPR-1 in 1976, the industry left quadraplex recording behind and adopted the simplicity of open-reel 1-inch helical-scan recording. But when Ampex introduced the VPR-2 and AST (Automatic Scan Tracking) the very next year, practical slow motion instant replay was born — and sports telecasts were forever changed. (When I worked on the video crew for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, a VPR-2 was my slo-mo deck.)
Ampex AVA (NAB 1978). In the beginning, when you wanted to create original artwork for a newscast, your station’s art department drew it by hand, and you shot it with a camera. Enter AVA (Ampex Video Art), a tablet, menu and monitor system that created on-screen artwork in PAL or NTSC, with brushes, geometrics, text, and millions of electronic colors. AVA launched an entire video graphics industry, which has evolved to today’s remarkable 3-D character generators, electronic paint and animation programs, and even PhotoShop®.
Hawkeye and Betacam (NAB 1981). Prior to 1981, portable cameras weren’t so portable. Typically, an ENG (Electronic News Gathering) or EFP (Electronic Field Production) camera was connected to an external 3/4-inch U-Matic recorder via umbilical cables. Enter RCA’s Hawkeye in 1981, the industry’s first portable camera/VCR combo, and both the ENG and EFP industries changed directions. Not to be outdone, Sony introduced their Betacam product line at the same NAB and subsequently dominated ENG and EFP until the introduction of the DV format in 1994.
Ampex ADO (NAB 1981). Several companies, such as Vital (with their SqueeZoom product), had been offering digital special effects devices — essentially, a production switcher add-on that could size and position a video image and key it over a background. Enter ADO (Ampex Digital Optics), with X-, Y-, and Z-axis rotation, true perspective, a mathematically perfect 3-D coordinate space and beautifully smooth keyframe moves. Within months, every commercial had spinning cubes with perfect perspective, and every newscast had over-the-shoulder inserts. Today, almost every production switcher has built-in digital effects, with a tip-of-the-hat to ADO.
Avid NLE (NAB 1988). Editing was linear, clear and simple. Two playback decks, one record deck, and you were good to go. Several companies (such as CMX) had toyed with disk-based editing, but their proprietary hardware was not a solution. Enter Avid, with the industry’s first Macintosh-based non-linear editor, and in an instant, every linear editing company saw the handwriting on the wall. Even better, every editor intuitively realized the beauty of moving clips along a timeline. Today, three powerhouses dominate the field — Avid, Apple Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premier — and linear editing is toast.
Tektronix ProFile (NAB 1994). For years, commercial breaks at broadcast stations were played out by high-maintenance cart machines, such as the Sony Betacart, and controlled by “traffic” computers. But with the advances in MPEG compression and disk storage, Tektronix unveiled the first practical video server, the PDR-100. In an instant, stations saw that they could reduce their maintenance costs dramatically by playing out from disk, and overnight 100 used Betacarts were on the market. Today, almost every station and post house has a server infrastructure, with a tip-of-the-hat to ProFile.
Red One Digital Cinema (NAB 2007). This is the breakthrough that we’re in the midst of today, and it has caused potential HD camera buyers to stop in their tracks. As cameras evolved to HD resolutions and affordable price points, production professionals suddenly had a wide choice of HD workflows. But until today, the upper “resolution” limit was essentially 2K (1920 x 1080). Enter Red at NAB 2006, with no product, but simply a PowerPoint that teased the entire industry with their 4K camera to come, and its astonishing 4900 (h) x 2580 (v) native pixel resolution. Skepticism was rampant, but customers were 10 deep in the aisles. At NAB 2007, the Red One was clearly real, with product on display and a booth that one had to wait in line to enter. Effectively, Red has leapfrogged the entire HD world, doubled the acquisition resolution and thrown buying decisions into disarray. Today’s 2K or tomorrow’s 4K — that is the question.
A Wealth of Perspectives VW
What? No gasps in between NAB 1994 and 2007? Well, yes … but they’re all slow cross-fades, rather than distinct moments of change. Consider — the attack of the software companies, the rise of digital and the arrival of HD as a viable production format. Each one is a brilliant (but slow) breakthrough — but definitely not a gasp.
By no means is my list the definitive NAB “breakthrough” summary. Ask a dozen video professionals, and you’ll get a wealth of perspectives (and a handful of coax). But the list is instrumental in demonstrating what 28 years can do to an industry as remarkable as ours.
Today, RCA is gone, Ampex is a shadow of its former self, and both Sony and Grass Valley (a division of Thomson) remain industry juggernauts. With blessings, and the ability to rewrite this article 28 years hence, I’m reminded of a marvelous quote by the renowned science fiction writer, Arthur C. Clarke: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
Here’s to NAB, and many more years of magical breakthroughs.
Paul Berliner is President of Berliner Productions in Davis, California — a company providing video production and marcom services to the broadcast and entertainment industries. He can be reached at pberliner@plsn.com.
