Brightline today announced its ZELo desktop studio light for videoconferencing is now shipping. ZELo is priced at $199 and is available at brightlines.com/ZELo. Designed for business professionals, educators, broadcasters, and social media influencers, ZELo delivers broadcast-quality results in any workspace. 

Today, Maxon announced, for the first time ever, two major new suite updates at once: Red Giant Trapcode Suite 16 and Red Giant Magic Bullet Suite 14. Updates to Trapcode Suite - a set of 11 tools for particle simulation and 3D effects for motion graphics and VFX - include new physics models, behaviors and a new type of emitter in Trapcode Particular, plus smaller updates to Trapcode Form and Trapcode Mir. Magic Bullet Suite 14 - a set of seven tools for color correction, finishing and film looks - includes new color workflows and powerful tools in Magic Bullet Looks and Magic Bullet Colorista.

disguise, the solution specialist for creative and technical professionals to imagine, create and deliver the world’s most spectacular live experiences— released r17.1, an update to its award-winning software, coinciding with the launch of a six-month free licence for its Designer software.

Built with disguise’s community of artists and technicians at its heart, r17.1 dramatically enhances the augmented reality (AR) workflow so that its community can produce incredible experiences with ease. With the release, disguise also hopes to help creative studios and production houses access the market opportunity presented by AR with the solution for delivering spectacular and immersive visuals.

The significant workflow improvements introduced in r17.1 enhance the ease of use for specialists delivering AR experiences with disguise, making it a more compelling option for use in projects for broadcast, esports and live contexts such as corporate, education, virtual environments and concert touring. As viewing figures surge, it becomes increasingly important to have the right tools available to create AR easily and efficiently and elevate ‘at-home’ viewing with thrilling visuals. 

The Future Group, provider of live photo-realistic virtual production system, Pixotope™, has revealed its key involvement in the stunning production and delivery of the NFL’s ground-breaking Super Bowl LIV, mixed reality pre-game presentation. The complex, seven-minute production combined live action from multiple moving cameras with augmented virtual stages and graphics. The 2020 Super Bowl was watched by an estimated domestic audience of 100 million people, plus international viewers.

The Future Group provided six installations of its virtual production platform, Pixotope, along with essential technical expertise to liaise with all other aspects of the multi-faceted production.

As an opener to the Super Bowl LIV, NFL planned to reveal its “100 All Time Team”. They approached fan experience company– coincidently named, The Famous Group – to design and choreograph the pre-show content. The brief was to celebrate the history of the sport and the contribution of those 100 players and 10 coaches, using graphics, historical film and live shots of attendees. The Famous Group looked to achieve this through extensive use of mixed reality virtual elements, and selected Pixotope, with expertise from The Future Group, as their technological solution.

The complexities of such a project cannot be overstated. Multiple virtual assets such as stages and screens needed to be designed to exactly match the stadium environment to which they would be augmented. Cameras needed to be tracked in real time and have their lenses aligned so that the virtual elements would be generated at precisely the right angle to accurately match real-world positions. Lighting needed to be measured so that it could be simulated in the virtual world to ensure correct shadows and highlights.

In-stadium screens, which would show the augmented content to the crowd, had to be accurately marked out in the virtual scene so that they could be blocked out to avoid visual “feedback”. All this had to take place under precise time control to synchronise with the voice-over and contributing performers in the stadium.

Pixotope product specialist, David Stroud, was part of a team of experienced mixed reality technicians, helping to specify and install the required technology, and bring together all the constituent departments. The Future Group team were involved from the outset, initially collaborating using a shared virtual project to provide technical assistance for The Famous Group creatives. Then later, the team positioned themselves at the Hard Rock Stadium, Miami FL, where the main event would take place 11 days later.

David Stroud recalled, “Although the virtual scene had been set up “offline” from scans and measurements from the stadium, there are inevitably adjustments that can only be done on site. We used our Pixotope virtual production platform to receive images and tracking data from each of the cameras, one of which was a Skycam “wire-camera”, and augment onto those the virtual elements designed by The Famous Group. This allowed everyone to see the results in real time, making adjustments and improvements as we rehearsed the show in the days leading up to the Super Bowl.”

Stroud continued, “We helped the camera operators visualise how the preshow would come together, as understandably, they were more used to following the unscripted action of a football game than reacting to very specific time cues. Pixotope has the capability to continuously output the final result, even while editing the graphics – a great tool for directors following rapid changes and updates because it’s always live.

“We also worked closely with camera tracking specialists SMT, and in fact, we were able to improve our data exchanges to further perfect the virtual camera motion. And we worked with both the broadcaster (Fox) and the companies providing in-stadium displays to ensure the very highest visual quality possible.”

Andrew Isaacson, Executive VP Business Development for creative agency The Famous Group affirms, “Needless to say, the best creative ideas rely on solid technological platforms and expertise to deliver them. This could not be truer for a live event on the scale of The Super Bowl. We needed to know, without any shadow of a doubt, that what we planned would be delivered faultlessly, accurately and to the highest quality. This is why we chose Pixotope as our platform for delivering cutting edge mixed reality for the Super Bowl.

“Having used Pixotope on previous productions, we know that the system, and expertise from The Future Group, allow our creative ideas to be unleashed to the great benefit of our clients like the NFL. We look forward to working on many more productions with Pixotope.”

All hardware was provided by Quince Imaging and camera tracking was completed by SMT. The final mixed reality sequence can be viewed online, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqXBKweKQ9U

Following the announcement that Chase Jarvis will headline the 2020 event, The Photography Show and The Video Show has revealed five more inspiring speakers who will take to the Super Stage when it returns to Birmingham’s NEC from 14-17 March. Once again commanding some of the industry’s most influential photographers and filmmakers, the UK’s largest photography and moving image co-located event is also set to welcome Susan Meiselas, Gavin Free, Ross Halfin, Juno Calypso and Brooke Shaden.

Following Chase’s talk on Saturday 14 March is renowned documentary photographer, Susan Meiselas. As a member of the prestigious Magnum Photos since 1976, Susan is best known for her coverage of the insurrection in Nicaragua and her documentation of human rights issues in Latin America. Looking back over four decades as an award-winning documentary photographer, she will share fascinating insights into her most recent projects, her approach and life through photography.

On Sunday 15 March, award-winning cinematographer and the co-creator of The Slow Mo Guys, Gavin Free, will present two sessions at the Super Stage. The popular duo have amassed over 13 million subscribers on YouTube, achieving fame with everything from viral videos of bursting balloons to in-depth explanations of how a high-end slow-motion camera works. In a rare European appearance, Gavin Free will let visitors into his life as an incredibly successful YouTuber, the career steps that he took to get there, and his passion for his subject matter. He will discuss what goes into making and distributing this kind of content, the tech involved, how he keeps the ideas coming, and what it's like to have online video as your career.

AVer Europe, the award-winning provider of video collaboration solutions and education technology solutions, today announces the UK launch of the CAM520 PRO enterprise grade PTZ (Pan/Tilt/Zoom) camera.

The CAM520 PRO is perfect for mid to large conference rooms and features SmartFrame, IP based management, True WDR (wide dynamic range) and up to 100 programmable presets. With 18X total zoom, 1080p HD and whisper-silent Pan/Tilt/Zoom, the CAM520 PRO results in crisp images for an outstanding video experience at a competitive price.

The CAM520 PRO perfectly complements AVer’s EP65 interactive flat panel featuring Zoom Rooms integration. The 65” display can transform any meeting room into a streamlined collaboration hub for both video conferencing and face-to-face brainstorming. The EP65 allows users to interact, take notes, annotate on a shared screen and enable split-screen multitasking.

The CAM520 PRO plug-and-play USB conference camera is designed for workgroups of six to twenty people that need the power of enterprise grade video capabilities and want the convenience of remote management through a web browser or centralised management software. Users can connect to live video content from the CAM520 PRO and stream to a cloud or physical network. It is compatible with all main favourite videoconferencing applications, including Zoom Video Communications, Inc.

CVP, one of the UK’s leading production solutions providers, will be providing hands-on experience with some of the latest kit to reach the UK market at this year’s BSC Expo 2020 (Friday 31st January to Saturday 1st February, Battersea Evolution, London).

Featuring a set inspired as a homage to the BSC’s 70th anniversary, the showcase at BSC Expo will allow customers to compare like-for-like options and to get hands-on with the equipment they are interested in — along with all the necessary accessories — to find out how their creative desires can be best fulfilled.

Veritone, Inc. (Nasdaq: VERI), the creator of the world's first operating system for artificial intelligence, aiWARE™, and Evolphin Software, the creator of the revolutionary Media Asset Management platform Zoom, today announced that the Football Club Internazionale Milano (Inter Milan) is leveraging a robust, AI-driven media asset management system based on Veritone aiWARE and the Evolphin Zoom MAM platform. The combination of aiWARE and Evolphin Zoom gives Inter Milan a next-generation solution for indexing, managing, and monetizing its massive library of archived and current content. As a result, Inter Milan is able to give its stakeholders around the globe faster and more efficient access to tailored content.

The Evolphin Zoom MAM ingests and transcodes the content from Inter Milan and sends media for analysis to Veritone's aiWARE platform. Veritone's aiWARE uses advanced AI techniques to generate descriptive information about the content, such as spoken words, faces, logos, or advertiser names mentioned, making the content indexed and searchable.

As part of a strategy of continuing investment to track with the latest market requirements, Finepoint Broadcast, a leading UK dry hire provider of production and OB equipment to the global marketplace, has announced the further addition of a range of Canon lenses to its hire stock portfolio.

The additions include the standard Canon CJ24, plus the Canon CJ45 and large UJ90 lenses (UHD DIGISUPER).

Finepoint Broadcast Hire Manager Clive Northen said, “Finepoint has not seen the disruptive business peaks and troughs of recent years that have been so prevalent in various broadcast sectors. To the contrary, our growth has been steady and continuous, due in part to our continual evaluation and investment in technologies, such as these Canon lenses, that provide a direct benefit to our customers.”

Finepoint Broadcast Chief Engineer Andrew Mckenzie said, “The Canon CJ24 is an acclaimed telephoto lens with a 24x broadcast zoom and a focal length of 7.5-180mm that offers 4K performance that is ideal for on-the-shoulder newsgathering. The ultra-high zoom CJ45 is packed with innovative, class-leading technology that is perfectly suited to wildlife and live-sport deployments.

And with a 90x zoom, 9-810mm focal length, and image stabilisation that's fully compatible with 2/3" 4K cameras and broadcast environments where HDTV is currently in use, the Canon UHD DIGISUPER 90 lens is perfect for expanding Finepoint Broadcast’s 4K lens range.”