360 Seconds. Broadcast News & Commentary is a weekly program on Youtube about the latest equipment for broadcasting and film. Explained by experts – practitioners directly working in the field of cinema and television.
Hosts: Philip Grossman, host and co-producer at Visionaries, and Maria Kholodova. Production – TKT1957 LLC.
Airing on April 22, 2024
Maria: This year’s NAB Show took place April 13-17 in Las Vegas. Philip, you were there—what did you see that really stood out to you?
Philip: Yes, well, of course, we all know about the Red-Nikon merger. The big news there was that they finalized it either the day of or the day before the show, so it is final—Nikon, or ‘Nikon’ as it’s actually pronounced, is now the owner of Red.
But I’d say probably the most impactful thing, potentially to the industry, was Blackmagic’s adoption of SMPTE 2110. Blackmagic, a producer of great equipment usually targeted at the middle to upper tier, as well as at educational institutions like high schools and colleges, was expected by many, myself included, to adopt the NDI protocol. However, they went full force into SMPTE 2110, which is the professional broadcast replacement for SDI or digital SDI.
They did it in some unique ways. One that really shows their understanding of the fear, potentially, of switching to something unknown is that they produced their own network switch. Now, a lot of people might wonder why you would produce your own network switch when you have brands like Arista, Cisco, and even Netgear. What they did is they produced a switch that, on the backside, has 16 10-gig ports for connecting SMPTE 2110 devices and two 100-gig ports. They’ve adopted that 100-gig infrastructure and, more importantly, when you flip to the front side, it looks like a router panel, which really simplifies how those unfamiliar with SMPTE 2110 could operate in this environment, making it feel like a regular SDI plant.
Secondarily, and I think this one’s going to take a little bit of time to see how it nets out, they’ve introduced their own sort of lightweight compression codec for SMPTE 2110, for UHD or 4K at 60p. The problem with UHD 60p in 2110 is that it’s just over the 10 gig limit; it’s like 10.3 gigabits per second. So, they’ve adopted their own lightweight codec to get them below that, and they’re supposedly going to open source it. The question will be, do others adopt it? It’s not similar to NDI, but there are other things out there like JPEG XS that is sort of the industry standard for compressed 4K. So, that will be something to watch—it could be very interesting if a lot of people adopt it, as it really will help drive 4K in the SMPTE 2110 environment.
Maria: Is there anything else? I know that you were talking to us a little bit before the show about some lenses.
Philip: Yes, I’m always enamored by lens technology. I started out in optical engineering and switched to illumination engineering, so I have a particular fondness for light. Laowa, or Venus Optics, is creating some very interesting lenses. For the personal work that I do, I’m always looking for something very fast and wide-angle. With the adoption of the RF mount for mirrorless cameras, Laowa has come out with a 10mm lens, I believe it’s an f/2.8-2.9, zero-distortion lens, and it is tiny. It’s amazing—you can tilt that lens just a little bit and there’s very little distortion. I’ve used other manufacturers’ 11 to 20mm zooms and there’s a lot of distortion unless you are straight on in a rectilinear fashion, so that was interesting.
I’ve never really considered cinema lenses for myself because I’m primarily a still shooter, but Laowa has also come out with some amazing compact prime cinema zoom lenses. They’ve completed their set of Ranger lenses with a 16 to 30mm T2.9, which is pretty impressive. I’m really looking forward to picking up one or two, although my bank account might not be as enthusiastic.
Maria: Can you talk a little bit more about the impact of this?
Philip: Yes, it’s significant because these lenses are now affordable to the up-and-coming cinematographer. You’re getting lenses that don’t have breathing, have amazing optical qualities, and the variety of focal lengths allows for unique applications. For instance, using the 10mm lens on a Red Komodo or Komodo X, which is a full-frame lens, allows for some interesting setups inside a car without resorting to a GoPro-type lens or system, which is a great advantage.
Then, of course, there are the cinema zooms. They’re very compact—their Ranger Light model, for example, is incredibly lightweight, less than a pound and a half to two pounds. Price-wise, you can get a set of these for maybe three to six thousand dollars. I think it’s close to $5,000 for a set of three. Making high-quality lenses accessible to entry-level cinematographers is really going to drive the industry forward and initiate change.
Maria: Great, many thanks to our expert, Philip Grossman, for telling us about this year’s NAB show. And don’t forget to comment on the news that we’ve discussed. See you next Monday at the same time!
360 Seconds. Broadcast News & Commentary
The weekly show, focusing on the latest products and solutions in the global TV and film industry, features insights and analysis from top experts. Released every Monday within the TKT1957 network, the program can be found on the YouTube channel, social media groups, and the tkt1957.com website.
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