HP Omen Transcend 32 Display

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I recently had the opportunity to test out and review HP’s Omen Transcend 32 OLED Display.  It is a 31.5″ UHD HDR QD-OLED panel, supporting up to 240 frames per second.  OLEDs are known for their deep blacks, leading to high image contrast and vivid colors.  HDR is important for future proofing video content.  While high frame refresh rates are usually not as significant for professionals, there are benefits to the flexibility they offer, and high frame rate content can be a valuable creative tool.  The display also integrates an advanced KVM solution, to allow power users to leverage its beautiful image with both their desktop workstations and their notebook computers.
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Logitech’s MX Creative Console

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Logitech recently released the MX Creative Console, a new interface device targeting Adobe users.  I got the opportunity to see it in person at the MAX conference, and have been testing one myself since then.  The device has a rather unexpected design, with two separate parts that are sold together.  There is a dial and roller, with four solid buttons, that connects wirelessly to the system via Bluetooth.  Then there is a panel of 9 LED buttons, with dedicated next and previous buttons, which connects via USB-C. They are designed to be used together, with the LED buttons displaying and controlling the function of the separate dial, but are independent pieces of hardware.  They can each be used by themselves, but they do function more effectively together, and can be set up in a variety of different ways.
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Lenovo Thinkpad P1 Gen7

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I have had the opportunity to review Lenovo’s ThinkPad P1 Gen7 laptop.  It is the first Core Ultra system I have used, built with Intel’s new chiplet design architecture.  It also has a new memory module design, and a discrete NVidia RTX GPU, in a 16″ formfactor.  And as a ThinkPad, it is a no nonsense design in a solid chassis, with a little red TrackPoint stick in the center of the keyboard.
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Adobe MAX 2024-Miami

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Adobe held their MAX Creativity Conference this week, hosted in Miami for the first time. This led to some concern due to the recently occurring Hurricane Milton, but the event was held as scheduled, a few days after the storm ravaged the state. So thousands of people from across the US and around the world descended on the Miami Beach Convention Center to learn more about upcoming technological developments in Adobe’s new software, and be inspired by the work of fellow artists and Adobe users.
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Editing Stereoscopic VR180 Content

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Canon has been creating a number of dual fisheye lens upgrades for their existing line of cameras, and they recently sent me an EOS R7 camera with Dual 3.9mm Fisheye Lens to try out.  These dual lens attachments project both sides of the captured stereoscopic image onto the large single sensor, in a side by side configuration.  The resulting recordings can then be processed via a variety of methods, and viewed in a VR headset for an immersive experience.  But exactly how to do that is worth examining, and the main reason I wanted to check out the camera in the first place.
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Shooting VR180 Content with the Canon EOS R7

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Canon has been creating a number of dual fisheye lens upgrades for their existing line of cameras, specifically their mirrorless cameras, but including the C400 which also has an RF lens mount.  These dual lens attachments project both sides of the captured stereoscopic image onto the large single sensor, in a side by side configuration.  The resulting recordings can then be processed via a variety of methods, and viewed in a VR headset for an immersive experience.  180 degree VR only offers half of the potential view of 360 degree video, but is far more practical, because you only have to fill and record half of the potential perspective, and 360 video viewers rarely look backwards anyway.  Continue reading →

IBC 2024 News

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IBC, the International Broadcasting Convention, was held in Amsterdam this week. Many media and technology vendors make new product announcements and releases at the conference, so I like to track those developments, at least the ones that are relevant to my work.  Last week’s Adobe releases were early IBC announcements, but there were numerous other interesting developments over the course of the week.
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Adobe Video Announcements

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Adobe has made a number of software announcements for IBC, primarily focused on Premiere Pro and After Effects.  The most visually obvious upcoming change in Premiere Pro is the new Spectrum UI, which offers higher contrasts at a wider variety of brightness levels.  The text labels should be more readable, and ideally things will be easier to navigate.
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My Experience at NAB 2024

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The National Association of Broadcasters held their annual convention in Las Vegas this week.  The NAB Show attracted 65K attendees and 1300 exhibitors from 41 countries showing off their products in an exhibition that spans four halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center.  The North Hall is closed for construction right now, as part of an ongoing major remodel of the entire complex.
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GTC 2024 – NVidia Announcements

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NVidia had their big GPU Technology Conference this week in San Jose.  As the third largest company in the world (by market capitalization value) NVidia’s profile has risen dramatically over the last couple years, primarily due to their position in the datacenter and AI processing world.  As such, their flagship conference becomes less “graphics” related every year, as their products push more into those other spaces.  This year had very few media and entertainment focused sessions, and even those where usually very AI centric.  Generative AI is where graphics and AI meet, and some amazing work is being done in that area, but I would still classify much of that as “art” as opposed to “storytelling” as the tools have not matured that far yet, to give the user enough control over the process to tightly steer the end result.  My friend just won an AI film festival, but optimizing for the tools available was still steering their workflow more than their story was.
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