Shooting a feature on XDCAM in 10 days

Transcription

Sony XDCAM
A Newsreel magazine supplement
a u t u m n 2 0 0 5 • w w w. n e w s r e e l . t v
Shooting a feature on XDCAM in 10 days
CAMERA TEST
Full test: Sony PDW-530
POST PRODUCTION
Editing with Sony Xpri
HIGH DEFINITION
PDW-F330 launched at IBC
ISSN 1748-6688
welcome
A very versatile disc…
There’s no doubt that in the world of
fast-turnaround ENG and sports
coverage,anything that can speed up
the workflow is a great bonus.When
our sister publication Showreel first
tested the XDCAM system over a
year ago,that’s the angle they
approached it from: a file-based
acquisition system that, because of the
potential it had for speeding up time
to air, was particularly suited to news.
This still makes sense, but you can
see by the variety of articles in this
supplement that XDCAM is being
used for far more than just ENG. The
improved workflow can be
advantageous in any situation, which is
why I have opted to use the PDW510
on an indie feature I am about to shoot
– a feature I intend to photograph in
10 days.
Although Sony has supported this
supplement through advertising, the
company had no say over the content
and was not invited to read the articles
prior to publication. I and the other
writers are honestly sharing our
experiences of working with XD –
which means that, while I clearly like
the system, I won’t gloss over
anything I think could be amended.
Simon Wyndham, supplement editor
Publisher
Denise Haskew
[email protected]
Supplement editor
Simon Wyndham
Editor-in-chief
Steve Parker
[email protected]
Advertising
Vince Matthews
[email protected]
Contributors
Clive Collier, Richard Dean
Jeremy Torrie
Showreel Publishing Ltd
49 Westbourne Gardens
Hove BN3 5PN United Kingdom
Tel: 01273 227048
www.newsreel.tv
contents
5
XDCAM goes high
Richard Dean speaks with Olivier Bovis, product
marketing manager for Sony Broadcast &
Professional Europe about Sony’s XDCAM HD.
8
XD marks the spot
Clive Collier tests the PDW530 XD camera..
16
16 Winning awards
Jeremy Torrie explains how the system
performed on an ENG-style shoot for the 2005
Juno Awards.
20 XD goes into the woods
Simon Wyndham is testing XDCAM’S speedsaving workflow on his most ambitious project
yet: shooting a feature film in 10 days.
24 Seeking the filmic look
Jeremy Torrie tested out the camera’s progressive
mode on a recent channel branding assignment.
25 Editing your XD footage
Simon Wyndham investigates which NLEs offer
the most extensive XDCAM support.
31 Keeping it in the family
Sony’s Xpri offers support for XDCAM, as well
as Sony’s HDCAM format. Clive Collier assesses
which users will get the most from this high-end
NLE package.
Copyright 2005 Showreel Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be copied or reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form
or by means electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publishers. While every care has been taken in the compilation
of this publication, the publishers cannot accept responsibility for any inaccuracies, or for any other loss, direct or consequential, arising in connection with information in this
publication. The views herein are not necessarily those of the publishers. Acceptance of advertisements does not imply recommendation by the publisher.
issue 1 autumn 2005 | newsreel supplement
3
xdcam technology
The Sony high
definition XDCAM
PDW-F330, launched
at IBC 2005.
XDCAM goes high
Richard Dean speaks with Olivier Bovis, product marketing manager
for Sony Broadcast & Professional Europe about the PDW-F330,
Sony’s high definition incarnation of its disc-based XDCAM system.
hey always said it was on the road
map, and most industry watchers
were convinced that the longawaited HD version of Sony’s
optical disc-based XDCAM
camcorder would be unveiled next year
at NAB in Las Vegas, where the format
first made its debut in 2003. Instead,
Sony has taken the unprecedented step
of launching a new worldwide format at
T
this year’s European IBC show in
Amsterdam. Whispers that XDCAM
HD would need new discs and data
compression scheme, or both, have
also proved to be wide of the mark.
The new shoulder-mount PDWF330 XDCAM HD uses the same
Professional Disc media as the type used
in today’s XDCAM machines, costing
about €20 each. But there are plenty of
‘firsts’ on the features front – the camera
is the first to use half-inch HD CCD
sensors and has the first 1/2in autofocus
lens, which is interchangeable with
those on other half-inch camcorders.
Operators have the choice of
recording at three different quality levels.
The middle setting allows 90mins of
footage to be stored on each disc, either
in the standard definition DV format or
5
sony xdcam
The PDW-F30 deck for
XDCAM HD.
the high
definition HDV format. Strictly speaking,
it’s not called HDV, as this format implies
tape. But the principle is the same – with
the
bonus of four
uncompressed
audio channels compared
with the two compressed channels on a
tape-based machine.
If you’re wondering why the running
time is the same when you’re shooting
HDV-style as it would be for regular DV,
it’s because HDV manages to squeeze
HD into DV’s fixed 25Mbit/s bit rate by
using MPEG-2 compression between
frames as well as within them, a trick
borrowed from digital broadcasting.
The result is a string of master frames
interspersed by updates, known as a
long group of pictures (long GoP).
This used to be a problem for editing
equipment – Sod’s Law says that you’ll
want to cut on an update, whereas cuts
can only be made on complete frames.
That’s why NLE kit has traditionally used
compression only within each picture by
using a type of shorthand to repeat
information appearing more than once,
such as parts of a sky or grass. Doing the
same between frames was avoided to
make cutting easier. But since the
meteoric rise of HDV, virtually all NLE
systems now have the wherewithal to reconstitute cut-able frames at any point.
This is how all the existing tape-based
HDV camcorders work.
So, you may be thinking, Sony has
managed to transfer the facility currently
available on tape to disc. But there’s
more to it than that. The two other
shooting modes use a technique that
can only be done on disc.
Variable bit rate
It’s called variable bit rate (VBR)
sampling, where the data rate varies
according to the level of changes
happening between frames. The PDWF330 offers two VBR shooting modes,
one sampling at a nominal 18Mbit/s for
up to 120mins per disc, and the other at
35Mbit/s for up to 60 mins of recording.
VBR isn’t practical with tape, as the
mechanism has too much momentum
to be capable of rapidly speeding up or
slowing down according to the amount
of data. That’s why VTRs have to use a
constant bit rate calculated to be high
enough for fast action scenes, even if
most of the time this isn’t actually
needed. Inevitably, the slower-moving
scenes are captured in higher quality, as
they are described in disproportionately
more detail.
VBR on the other hand produces
constant quality, as data is allocated
according to need – a talking head
6
newsreel supplement | issue 1 autumn 2005
xdcam hd
The portable XDCAM
HD deck, the PDW-R1.
sequence
for instance
will be given less
bits than an all-action
sports scene. The upshot is
that the best possible quality is
achieved for a given storage capacity
or bit rate. This is why VBR is popular
on – and indeed was developed for –
high-efficiency server storage and the
‘statmuxing’ (statistical multiplexing) of
co-existent channels in digital
broadcasting.
Although the proof of the pudding
remains very much in the eating, the
technique promises to wring the last
ounce of quality out of shots
committed to disc. Nobody is
suggesting it will replace a top RGB
cinematographic format such as
HDCAM SR – or for that matter plain
HDCAM – anytime soon. But
performance at the top sampling rate is
claimed to be somewhere between
HDV and HDCAM – and even pictures
shot at either of the lower rates are
better than normal HDV, as the
sensitivity and specification of the
camera itself is higher, claims Sony.
Other XDCAM features remain the
same. Low-resolution proxies recorded
during shooting can be transferred to a
laptop NLE at between 30 to 40 times
real time – taking about two mins for an
hour of footage – and the subsequent
EDL used to directly drive full-resolution
playback in the field. In fact, Sony claims
that the proxies, which by using the
highly-efficient MPEG-4 compression
offer above-VHS quality, may even be
considered
good enough for
‘emergency’ broadcasting alone if the
news value warrants it. A mini-timeline
allows simple cuts-only proxy editing on
the camcorder’s LCD display.
So why didn’t Sony use MPEG-4
compression on the full-res files? The
answer is to maintain compatibility with
existing editing equipment, which
overwhelmingly use MPEG-2.
Another application of proxy files is
to send an approval copy before
transmission, which is especially useful
when the approving authority and
broadcaster are in different locations.
This is likely to play well in fastexpanding China which, despite its
relentless pursuit of laissez-faire
economics, still operates a policy of
centrally controlled broadcast clearance.
One obvious bonus of using discs is
of course swift access to shots
compared with tape. XDCAM already
notes points of change during
shooting. As well as the start of each
recording, these include such things as
changes in white balance, luminance
and audio saturation, plus manually
triggered marks. Importantly, the start
point can be manually offset, to
prevent a
series of auto fade-up
shots appearing as a row of
blank images.
None of these ‘essence markers’
consume disc capacity, but instead are
stored as a trivial piece of metadata –
the corresponding images are generated
only when the operator selects review
mode. Sony quotes a maximum time of
just one second to access the actual clip.
A likely future development is
automatic marking by time, so that
users would be able to review stills
taken from the footage every few
minutes as a ‘flip book’ style graphical
summary of the action.
Output from the camera, which
shoots 16:9 aspect ratio 1080-line
pictures in native 50i or 25p, can be
sent as an MXF file over iLink FAM
(Sony’s name for firewire in File Access
Mode), or streamed as video over a
built-in HD SDI link or iLink TS (for
HDV-style transport stream output).
Two decks support the camcorder’s
launch, one outputting DV/iLink TS and
iLink FAM and the other adding topend HD SDI connections. Both are
capable of recording.
Sony says that each Professional Disc
can withstand more than 10,000 rerecording cycles – a claim which, with
daily use, would take XDCAM users
nearly 30 years to verify.
Richard Dean is a
London-based
freelance journalist
specialising in audio,
video and TV
broadcasting
technology. Starting
with professional audio
more than 25 years
ago, he has written
extensively about
professional and
consumer video and
edited several magazine
titles in the field, more
recently looking at
video’s expanding role
at both the low bit-rate
and high resolution
ends of the spectrum.
7
sony xdcam
Clive Collier tests Sony’s disc-based ENG system, centred
around the XDCAM, and asks what it offers to the ENG
organization looking to make the switch from tape systems.
rofessional camera manufacturers
are trying hard to get
professionals around the world to
take the next steps in definition,
format and quality. Perhaps one of
the biggest markets is the international
ENG, EFP and live OB event industry,
which relies heavily on reliable
P
8
technology that produces dependable
quality when needed. Living in a 24hour news culture, the demands are
high and stressful. Unlike film and
documentary, where image quality and
fidelity are king, workflow is the
undoubted lord of the ENG world. In a
competitive media circus, the race to be
first with the latest breaking story is the
only race that
counts. Sony,
pdw-530 test
XD marks the spot
IMX. More about this later.
Using the-top-of-the-range MPEG
IMX camera yields 68 mins recording
time at 30Mb/s, 55 minutes at 40Mb/s
and 45 minutes at the top rate of
50Mb/s. DVCAM mode gives 85
minutes. Bear in mind that you can only
use one data rate on one disc, which
eliminates dropping quality half way
The disc
The XDCAM range is based around through a shoot to conserve disc space
‘The Sony Professional Disc’. It is when you’re out in the middle of
a standard 12in disc capable nowhere.
The disc specs are impressive, but
of storing 23.3Gb of data
when handling a disc for the first time,
using blue-violet laser
the overriding feeling you have is how
technology encased in a
plastic protective cartridge. fragile it looks in its plastic cartridge. If
Sony is aiming this at the rigorous
This should should not be
confused with the new blu- worlds of ENG and EFP, which are
ray consumer DVD format, notoriously tough on delicate hardware,
it would certainly have a massive
which is completely
problem with a storage mechanism that
different. One of the pivotal
aspects of the disc is not only wouldn’t survive rough treatment.
There was nothing else for it: we took a
its ability to record data files and
disc and dropped it. Then we dropped it
allow random access, but that it can
transfer the data at 72Mb/s or 144Mb/s again. We dropped it three times to be
on a dual-head deck, such as the PDW- exact, each a metre drop with one
1500 or PDW-3000. This allows higher attempt on carpet and the last two on a
concrete pavement angled deliberately
image quality, such as 50Mb/s MPEG
being a major player in this market, has
developed a new disc-based format that
it hopes will become the industry
standard. With Panasonic pushing the
rival solid state-based P2, what does
XDCAM offer those tempted by the
move against tape?
to ensure impact on the side of the
cartridge. OK, we didn’t get an angry
mob to charge over it, but we have to
say it survived perfectly and didn’t affect
any of the footage contained on the disc.
The range
The XDCAM range consists of two SD
cameras. The top-of-the-range PDW530 (our review model) features both
MPEG IMX recording at intervals of 30,
40 and 50Mb/s and DVCAM mode.
The PDW-510 drops the IMX capability.
Added to these is the HD/HDV model
launched at IBC 2005, the PDW-F330.
Three decks make the standard def lineup complete, offering three distinct
levels of acquisition. First, you have the
PDW-V1 field mobile deck, then the
compact PDW-1500, and finally the fullsized PDW-3000. High definition decks
include the PDW-R1 field deck and the
PDW-F30 studio deck. Sony is also
offering NLE solutions in the form of the
PC-only Xpri range, split again into
three areas. Xpri MobileStation covers
laptop-based field editing, MetaStation
covers mid-range in-house work,
leaving the Xpri NLE as the top level
finishing package. Since its launch,
support for the format has been added
to other third-party NLEs (see Editing
your XD footage, page 26).
The clever bit
Workflow functionality is at the very
heart of the XDCAM range. By using
the pro disc format, the XDCAM range
is able to record two streams of data.
On the one hand you have the full
resolution MPEG IMX or DVCAM
footage, but it is joined on the disc by a
subsidiary Proxy AV MPEG-4 lowresolution clone. This clone is
synchronized in timecode and has been
designed to provide fast off-line abilities.
This could be to upload via FTP to your
newsroom, for instance, so they can
start scriptwriting, cutting and editing
while you travel back with the full
9
sony xdcam
resolution shots.
These low-res recordings are also
the basis for the thumbnail facility built
into the entire XDCAM range. Working
in exactly the same way as DVD
chapters, a thumbnail is created every
time you stop and start recording. You
can easily flick through shots to review
footage without having to wait for a tape
to wind. However, this can be at the
expense of battery life.
This low-res proxy data can be
accessed via IP address-style connections
using a 10 or 100base-T from the
cameras or decks, which can each be
assigned there own address. The
supplied PDZ-1 software allows the
viewing and transferring of the proxy data
via LAN/WAN to FTP accounts too,
which facilitates the EFP workflow model.
Setting up the IP and subnet mask
addresses is via the menu settings, and
can either be carried out automatically or
you can specify your own numbers.
Accessing this area in the menu on the
mobile PDW-V1 is a fiddly affair of
multiple button pushes to access the right
menu, but once there it’s fairly painless.
Official figures say that transferring
the low-resolution proxy AV material is
30 times faster than realtime on the
mobile player and up to 50 times faster
on the studio compact and full-sized
decks. High resolution drops down to
between 2.5x or 5x, depending on
whether you’re using DVCAM or
MPEG IMX. Of course, there are
always going to be variations in these
times due to any number of factors that
can slow down the process, such as
dodgy cabling or larger sized, highly
colour-saturated or fast-motion files.
The second method of obtaining the
data is via an iLink firewire connection.
This can also be used to digitize the
main footage off the disc using the
PDW-V1, for example, although any
footage shot on MPEG IMX is downconverted to DVCAM.
switches are sturdy and well designed.
A noticeable addition is a fairly
obvious ‘Turbo gain’ button, which
bumps up the gain by a whopping
+48dB. For many ENG and even
documentary DoPs, this will be a
welcome inclusion.
A useful feature is the 2.5in colour
LCD screen housed on the left side of
the camera. This can be used for
checking through the proxy thumbnails
representing the clips on disc,
monitoring what is being shot in colour
or viewing a data screen with audio VU
meters and timecode. I was not entirely
happy with its position on the camera,
though. When the camera is shouldermounted, it’s not easy to see the LCD.
In many respects, the 16:9 aspect black
and white viewfinder image is the
primary monitoring device, but to
monitor colours or the detailed audio
The camera
and timecode data, I would have
On first impressions, the camera is
preferred the screen to be just below
slightly more compact than DigiBeta
the viewfinder so that a DP needing to
models, but it still fairly weighty. The
design follows the standard Sony theme, keep the camera on their shoulder
wouldn’t have to move in such an
allowing experienced camops to ease
awkward way.
into using it. All components from the
An unusual aspect of the PDW-530’s
rubber BNC cover caps to main
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pdw-530 test
performance was a very noticeable
quarter of a second lag in the
responsiveness of the audio VU meters
in the LCD data screen and even on the
smaller LCD underneath. Although not
massively mission critical, it was a
surprise nonetheless.
I also found that changing image
quality within the menu was difficult,
given the two levels of menu options.
Having to access the maintenance
section by holding down the rotary
menu knob and pressing the menu
button at the same time, then having to
scroll down quite a way to get to your
desired setting appears a little
cumbersome. Another slightly odd
feature is that when the camera battery
is running low, the tally lamp and
warning lights start to flash in the
viewfinder. This is fine; however, I found
you lose the ability to see whether the
camera is still recording. I needed to
move my head around to the LCD
screens behind my ear to see whether
the timecode read-out was moving.
The strange thing is that the camera
continued to record for quite a while
considering the warnings. What also
surprised me was that the camera
seemed to eat through the battery
supplied fairly quickly.
There are one or two other nice
features included. Firstly there is a freeze
mix function which superimposes a
frame from the last shot over the
current video. This enables the user to
line up to match a previous shots
framing for example. Then there is the
interval record timelapse function which
can do some marvellous things when
combined with the slow shutter. There
is also the ability , though I do not use it
myself, of being able to select an area of
skin and warm up or cool down that
particular range of colours specifically.
This is an extension of the multi-matrix
which allows similar isolation of
particular hues. A bit gimmicky perhaps,
The compact PDW1500 XD deck.
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11
sony xdcam
Clive Collier is MD of
post facility Storm
Creation based in
Brighton and technical
editor of Showreel.
Between working on TV
ads, 3D animation and
online projects, Clive
completes tests on
systems pertinent to
the industry today.
Previously, Clive
worked in production
for many years and as a
software trainer with
clients such as Fox Kids
and Pearson TV, after
making the move
from professional
audio engineering.
12
but I know of a few US news guys who
sometimes use such functions.
The two main settings most people
will be concerned with are the top
MPEG IMX 50mb/s (IMX50) and
DVCAM. The IMX50 offers an 8-bit
digital 4:2:2 intraframe compressed
image. Both cameras employ 16:9 and
4:3 switchable PowerHAD EX CCDs
with a signal-to-noise ratio of 63dB (PAL).
On first appearances, the picture is
clear and strongly reminiscent of
DigiBeta, which it’s positioned just
below in the quality rankings, but in
some circumstances definition is lost.
When shooting a neon-style sign, for
instance, I noticed some curious
diagonal striping in the area of the light,
which seemed odd – especially as
adjusting ND filtering and iris made little
difference. Opening the iris improved
matters overall, but areas of darkness
and shadow caused grain that was
noticeable. DVCAM works at 5:1
compression and really didn’t say
anything new. The image was fresh and
balanced in light and tone.
If there was a concern about the
discs themselves being fragile, the same
could be said of the laser being displaced
during recording, causing jumps or
dropout. Being an ENG camera, it is
reasonable to expect it will be battered
and shaken at some point in its life.
Therefore, while recording, we shook
and banged the camera fairly vigorously.
The result was no effect whatsoever on
the recorded images. Equipped with
four rubber dampers on the drive
mechanism, it appears Sony has done a
great job of ensuring that performance
doesn’t falter in push-and-shove
environments.
The decks
The two decks supplied worked well
when digitizing footage into Final Cut
Pro. Being able to jump quickly
backwards and forwards to find shots
made the whole digitizing experience
quick and easy. However, in the days of
cheaper and cheaper video I/Os, I
would have liked to have seen a
component connection on the midrange compact PDW-1500. However,
full standard component is present on
the larger PDW-3000 deck.
The PDW-V1 was really impressive
in terms of both its abilities and
responsiveness when jog/shuttling
through footage. It was light and highly
portable, with the added bonus of
working with the same chargeable
batteries as the camera, making EFP that
much easier. As with the camera, I
prefer more intuitive system menus. It
should also be mentioned that the
PDW-V1 is not an editor and can only
take in footage via Ethernet.
The XDCAM vision is powerful and
well defined. Since we have all become
so accustomed to tapes in all shapes and
sizes, it does feel unusual to suddenly
have all the benefits of CD-ROM and
DVD combined with broadcast video.
Being Sony, it does all come at a price,
but the quality is dependable, and when
you need to achieve results under
sony xdcam
Winning awards
Jeremy Torrie has used XDCAM on various types of project.
Here he explains how the system performed the first time he
used it on an ENG-style shoot – for the 2005 Juno Awards.
ne of my first major tests for the
PDW530 XDCAM was at the
annual major music celebration
for Canadians, The 2005 Junos
in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
I had previously used the camera in
EFP and dramatic situations, so this
was the first opportunity for me to see
how the PDW530 performed in the
real world of ENG newsgathering.
That said, I operated in 24P mode at
50 megabit IMX resolution (I see no
value in recording in any lesser
resolution if the client is willing to pay
for the discs), with a preference to
shoot in an aesthetic that would make
the viewer feel that the footage they
were seeing was both filmic and
exclusive.
As a hired gun my job was to
capture as much of the actuality of the
event as possible within the strict
security guidelines of an overenthusiastic security force, and with a
specific focus on three very different
artists: Oscar-winning artist Buffy St
Marie, music phenomenon K-OS, and
the soulful Ron Sexsmith (former
Winnipegger Neil Young had cancelled
at the last second as the result of a
brain aneurism) over the period of two
days in a variety of lighting situations.
First on the checklist was the red
carpet event for the Songwriter’s
Circle at the Burton Cummings
Theatre. One handy feature I was able
to make use of was the pre-record
function, which allows a camera
operator to capture a person’s image
up to seven seconds before you
actually hit the record button (known
as picture cache). This happened on
the red carpet, where limo after limo
O
16
live events
pulled up and you never knew who
was getting out and when, so framing a
sequence based on live events was not
the ideal situation. But I wasn’t hired to
be cinematographer.
Sure enough, I had framed the start
of my shot when I noticed with my left
eye that a limo was pulling up and I
needed to pan – right now. I hit record
the very instant I realized that
something was happening, and as a
result I was able to get the padding for
the shot that the editor would
ultimately want to begin with.
Inside the intimate (and dark)
venue, Buffy St Marie presented an
award and performed two songs. Even
with limited white light and a lot of
black, the footage stood out when I
played it back from the camera during
an intermission. In 24p mode, the
opportunity to capture this footage in a
less newsy look was a great touch for
my client. While sound is often
discarded in discussions of camera
performance, I was solo and mike’d
Buffy with a wireless (sent to the builtin slot in front of the battery mount)
and a stereo split hardwire feed from
the sound booth at the back of the
venue, from where I was permitted to
shoot. So not only was the picture
pristine, so were the audio options in
post.
Next up was the Juno Gala itself
inside the brand new hockey rink
known as the MTS Centre. While my
primary focus was on capturing
footage of St Marie, K-OS and
Sexsmith, legendary Canadian rockers
The Tragically Hip had been inducted
into the Music Hall of Fame. They
were about to take the stage in the
interview room for media and I rolled
for the entire interview, expecting
something profound and/or worthy of
preserving, but the media in the room
were more like lapdogs than anything
and were acting more like slobbering
fans than journalists. So when the rock
stars left the stage, I simply went into
my thumbnail viewer and deleted the
entire 14 minutes of footage. This was
an incredible experience, because I
knew I could conserve disc space and
limit what we’d ultimately transfer to
DVCam via SDI.
In the media pit we waited as comic
Brent Butt embarrassed himself on
Canadian television with some very
lame comic bits. It would be some
time before the artists would receive
awards, so it was a case of ‘hurry up’
and waiting.
I gradually found myself surrounded
by camera operators who were very
curious about the silver XDCam thing I
was sporting. Many asked politely to
have a look at the menus and through
the viewfinder. I got the distinct
impression by the grins on their faces
that they liked it and would have gladly
given up their ancient SP cameras for a
chance to work with the unit.
The evolution of Sony’s camera
design is evident in the flippable
thumbnail LCD on the side of the
camera, but also simple ergonomics
with respect to the position of certain
dials and knobs. I used a Canon digital
zoom, which lent itself nicely to the
rock’n’roll feel of the event.
The camera does run hot, and I
don’t know how Sony plans to address
this in the future. We’ve now had
chance to look at the spec of the HD
version, and it’s going to be very
interesting to see it in operation.
As President of High
Definition Pictures,
Chaotik Kreative and
Digital Motion Picture
Co, Jeremy divides his
time between writing,
directing, shooting,
and producing
commercials, feature
films, movies of the
week and
documentaries.
17
sony xdcam
XD goes into the woods
Simon Wyndham has used XDCAM on a number of shoots,
but is now testing its speed-saving workflow on his most
ambitious project yet: shooting a feature film in 10 days.
t was with some trepidation that I
suggested to a colleague, Lynn Davies
of Kayelle Productions, that it may be
possible to shoot a high quality digital
feature in the space of 10 days. It is
well known that Hong Kong filmmakers
have produced high quality features in a
similar timeframe – Young and Dangerous
starring Andy Lau being one prime
example. So with the Hong Kong
filmmaker-style mentality in mind I
suggested that we could create a quality
feature in a similar vein. Quality and
speed? Am I mad, you ask?
Creating a feature of any kind is a
difficult venture, even for seemingly
simple productions. However, I had an
inner confidence that our project
would be feasible due to a certain
weapon in our armoury: Sony’s new
XDCAM system.
XDCAM is new on the video scene,
but it has already won over many
companies with its ease of use and
workflow-improving features. My own
decision to buy into XDCAM was born
out of a desire to rid myself of endless
tape logging and footage transfer
sessions. If there was one thing that
could kill my enthusiasm for video it was
this process. XDCAM promised the
ability to perform direct transfer of
footage from the disc, much like one
would copy files from a hard drive. The
temptation was too much to resist.
I decided to go with the PDW-510P,
the DVCAM version of the system. After
deliberation I found that buying into the
IMX version would require me to
upgrade my current editing system quite
substantially, as the IMX codec is not yet
common on mid/low-level editing
systems. I have heard nothing but great
things about the 530, but for
cost/performance ratio, the 510 suited
my purposes perfectly.
I
USEFUL LINKS
www.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs
/whp/whp053.shtml
www.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs
/whp/whp034.shtml
20
Much of my bread-and-butter work
involves shooting corporate productions
and videos relevant to the local
community. This invariably involves
recording people who are not used to
being on camera, thus on any tapebased system I usually end up with a
quagmire of useless takes, or having to
shoot in less than ideal lighting
conditions. The XDCAM makes
working in such situations much easier.
Useless takes can be deleted
immediately and footage can be played
back instantly – and its very high
sensitivity means that it handles low light
levels in its stride.
The camera also offers one or two
bells and whistles, including an onboard cache. One of the cache options
is a timelapse function. I have now used
this function countless times and have
found it to be extremely useful. When
combined with the very low shutter
speeds that the camera is capable of,
the effect can be stunning. A side-effect
of this is that the function may well
become overused. The low shutter
speeds give this camera some
incredible lowlight capabilities. It is
quite feasible, for example, to shoot a
nighttime landscape where motion isn’t
present using the lowest 2/3 (16
frames) shutter setting to obtain a
completely noise-free picture in which
the stars and dark blue graduations of
the night sky are perfectly visible.
However, while these new functions
are helping me out immensely by adding
a bit of extra spice to otherwise rather
mundane projects, the camera needed
to be suitable for other much more
grand ideas. Making movies is where my
real interest lies. Having completed one
digital feature previously, Insiders, and
working alongside Neil Oseman on his
special effects extravaganza Soul
Searcher, I was keen to see how the
camera could improve general
workflow on such productions.
One of the first outings for the
camera was on the Phoenix-i
production, The Silencer, a very low
budget guerrilla indie feature with a
DVD release in mind. The camera
proved its worth in sequences where a
motorcycle rider clad in black had to be
recorded riding through a town at night.
Street lighting was present, albeit fairly
sporadic, but the main problem was
with the dark clothing of the rider. With
the iris fully opened there still wasn’t
quite enough exposure. With this
camera I had two options. I could have
switched the shutter to 1/25, giving a
stop or two extra sensitivity. This would
result in the picture looking slightly more
smeary and video-like. It can be used
well in situations where there is not
much motion, but in this case I decided
against it. Instead, I used +6db of gain,
which on the 510 does not introduce
any perceptible noise at all. Usually I
would avoid this option like the plague,
but in this case it did the trick.
I also used the camera on several of
the film’s fight sequences. One of the
drawbacks of having an instant preview
is that it can invite cinematography by
committee. However, the feature can
be incredibly useful in illustrating to
actors exactly what is required in a
scene, as well as letting them evaluate
their performance. In the case of the
action sequences in The Silencer, we
were able to show the stunt team the
takes immediately after they had been
shot. Fight movement for motion
pictures, especially Hong Kong-style
choreography, is extremely demanding.
Being able to preview the footage
straight away allowed us to illustrate
where more extension during
disc-based movie production
John Fashanu gets
taken for the ride of
his life during one of
the Kangaroo Kid
shows. The XDCAM’s
12-second cache
helped to ensure that
none of the action was
missed, while at the
same time saving disc
space usage.
movements were needed, as well as
making doubly sure that hits actually
looked like they connected.
Currently, XDCAM support is still
under development in many NLE
packages. My editing software of choice
is currently Sony Vegas 6. XDCAM
support for the system’s MXF files,
allowing them to be dragged straight
onto the timeline from the camera or
hard disc, is being announced at IBC
(see Editing your XD footage, page 26).
In the meantime, I use the freely
available PDZ-1 software from Sony. I
use this software to edit down the proxy
files of the footage that I need, cutting
out any useless parts. This is especially
useful for live show recordings where
you only want to extract the good bits. I
then create cliplists and copy them back
to the camera. I can transfer those
cliplisted segments via firewire into
Vegas, thus saving me a huge amount of
hard drive space.
Some have asked me why I do this
when hard drives are so cheap these
days. Why not just ingest all the footage
and sort it all out in the editor? My
answer is that I like simple efficiency.
Purchasing more hard drive space, no
matter how cheap, still eats into profits,
as well as taking its toll on the
computer’s power supply and cooling
requirements. So I like to use the space
and power that I have available in the
most efficient way possible. I feel that
these days a lot of efficiency is lost on
bloated systems and processes. The
XDCAM system can make the process
of ingest and clip organization an
enjoyable and quick one.
Into the woods
It is this system of being able to organize
cliplists and save on computing and
editing requirements that is at the heart
of Into The Woods, our project to
complete a feature in 10 days. Quite
often on a digital production there is the
temptation to shoot countless takes of a
shot. This eats up both principal
photography time as well as editing
periods. With Into The Woods the
watchword will be ‘efficiency’. We will
be shooting most scenes in the order in
which they appear in the script. In fact as
much as possible we will be keeping
everything in order. This is because we
not only wish to complete the shoot in
10 days, but we are also aiming to have
an assemble edit performed alongside
shooting. Another factor we can
eliminate as much as possible is the
need to shoot safety takes. The
XDCAM system doesn’t suffer from
dropouts in any way or form. Any error
on the disc or system will immediately
trigger a warning. The fact that a shot
can also be previewed instantly means
there is no need to set up again for
another take unless it is needed.
The PDZ-1 software will be used
extensively for the process of
preliminary editing, allowing us to very
roughly assemble scenes at the end of
21
sony xdcam
Glenn Salvage shows
that he means
business in The
Silencer. At the end of
each shooting day we
were able to construct
a working edit of the
various action
sequences to show to
the crew using the
PDZ-1. Being 250 miles
from base on a lowbudget shoot meant
that the software
enabled us to ensure
that the scenes were
going as intended.
each shooting day on a low-powered
laptop on location. This will allow us to
see if anything needs adding or changing,
as well as giving us a general idea of how
the production is flowing. With the
speed at which we will be shooting,
such a facility will be invaluable in
ensuring we do not overlook anything.
The footage from the cliplists will then
be ingested later into Vegas 6 to be
assembled into a much tidier edit.
Before any of this can take place, the
footage has to be shot, of course. There
is no substitute for skill when it comes to
camera usage. However, with regards
to set-up, XDCAM has another ace up
22
its sleeve. The set-up menus in the
PDW cameras are based closely on
their high-end cousin the F900
HDCAM. As a result they have many of
the same adjustments available for
tweaking the picture.
Most new cameras are far too sharp
and edgy out of the box. This is fine for
reality TV and general news
programming, but for fictional works,
and indeed some forms of
documentary, I find this look to be far
too harsh. In addition to this, the
cameras are not set up for the
maximum contrast range that the heads
are capable of recording. If one wishes
to reach into the shadows as well as not
blowing out highlights too easily, then
adjustment to the cameras menu
settings are a must. Luckily, the PDW
cameras have an exceptionally good
head on them and are capable of an
extremely wide range.
Creating wider latitude in the picture
is not a crutch for bad lighting. However,
it does allow much more room for
tweaking in post production. When one
is shooting in natural environments such
as a fairly dark forest interior, which may
have areas of bright sunshine, having a
wide contrast range available is a must.
Tweaking the camera in this way does
disc-based movie production
One of the grittier
sequences from The
Silencer. XDCAM’s
instant playback
helped with
demonstrating to the
actors what was
required in each shot.
create a flatter looking picture, with
slightly grey-looking blacks, but
remember that we are aiming for a
picture that gives us all the elements to
play with in post.
It can be argued that because there
are so many different filmstocks out
there, setting the camera up in this way
can be fruitless. However, on a project
such as Into The Woods, I would like to
keep as much latitude as possible for any
creative decisions to do with overall
picture style to be made in post.
Setting up the picture this way is also
very handy for a filmout process, which
naturally adds contrast to the picture. To
this end Sony has supplied the PDW
series of cameras with five different
preset gamma curves that replicate
various film stocks. Note that these
presets create the slightly flatter looking
picture that I have mentioned, and are
not to be confused with Cinegamma
settings on cameras such as the Z1,
which try to replicate what an engineer
thinks film looks like after it has gone
through various processes.
Most digital-to-film transfer houses
will recommend such settings as the
PDW FLM gamma as a matter of course.
It is quite amazing how much more
highlight detail is preserved using these
gamma settings. Try turning the knee
circuits off and adjusting the White Clip
to 109. Then shoot, for example, a
landscape. By switching between the
standard gamma and film gamma one
can see that the standard setting
completely blows out the sky at a certain
exposure, whereas the film setting
retains much more of the detail due to a
much smoother highlight roll-off. Of
course, one would not expose like this
normally, but it illustrates an advantage of
using the film gamma presets on the
PDW series cameras, especially if you
are after that elusive ‘film look’.
I will also be using the detail and
sharpness settings recommended by the
Swiss Effects transfer house. These
settings drastically reduce the artificial
enhancement that the camera comes
with out of the box, without making the
picture appear soft. For projection onto
a larger screen, or indeed showing on
most modern television sets, reducing
artificial edge enhancement should be
one of your top priorities. This is not
only because any artificial edge detail will
stand out more on a larger screen, but
also because most modern televisions
add quite a lot of their own edge
enhancement to the picture. Thus on
most standard set-up televisions you
may find that the edge enhancement is
being edge-enhanced!
There is another reason why one
would want to reduce the overall detail
settings. Into The Woods will be aiming
for a very cinematic look. As a result I
will of course be shooting the
production using the camera’s 25-frame
progressive scan mode (PAL) and a
1/50th shutter to replicate the motion
characteristics of celluloid as closely as I
can. Many people do not like this mode
as they find it strobes too much. Some
will say that pan speeds and general
camera movement needs to be very
carefully regulated, and up to a point
they are correct. Although this doesn’t
account for the fact that progressive
video does in fact appear to strobe
more than film anyway. This is because
of the way the video and film handle
different edge frequencies.
Film is not so good at the midfrequencies, but handles high
frequencies very well. Video is the
opposite. As you may imagine, the midfrequencies make up the majority of
every picture we see and, as a result,
heavily influence the way that we view
motion. To more closely replicate the
film motion characteristic for Into The
Woods, we need to reduce the midfrequencies by judicious adjustment of
the PDW-510’s many detail settings.
The Swiss Effects settings perform
exactly this task. The result is a picture
that looks more natural, but also one in
which the ‘judder’ is not so much of a
problem anymore.
The Into The Woods project would
not be possible without the speed
increases and ease of use that XDCAM
brings forward. Certainly, we hope that
the project will be a very good illustration
of how a non-linear workflow from
picture acquisition to editing can benefit
all types of production.
Simon Wyndham is a
freelance cameraman
and director based in
the Midlands. His
website can be found at
www.simonwyndham.co.uk
23
sony xdcam
Seeking the film look
Jeremy Torrie recently shot the new branding for the Aboriginal
People’s Television Network in Canada, which was looking for
something filmic. He chose to use the 24p mode on XDCAM.
e were recently approached by
the Aboriginal People’s
Television Network, a national
broadcaster in Canada. Their
promotions manager wanted
an ambitious look to their network
branding and gave me a DVD of NBC’s
2003 Fall Campaign and asked if we
could pull off something similar on a
two-day shoot for Can$100,000, which
included flying talent and hosts from
across the country (including the Arctic)
to gather at our set – an airplane hangar
30 minutes outside of Winnipeg,
Manitoba – and get it all shot in time. No
problem, right? Maybe if our province’s
tax credit applied to such shoots.
Money issues aside, we had an
ambitious production shoot.
Storyboards provided by the network
called for an Inukshuk, teepees and
totem poles merged with a massive
playback screen that rolled elements
from the featured programmes in the
background while key personalities
posed for the audience in the
foreground.
Our award-winning DP Brian
Rougeau has never been afraid to
experiment with digital. When he asked
about the gig, we described it and he was
immediately interested. Given the budget
restraints, it was impossible to afford the
F900 package and HD downconvert to
digibeta. So it was of great interest to me
that Sony had released its PDW530
XDCAM to address the needs of the
independent filmmaker by introducing
into the SD camera market the 24p
board that it had had previous success
with in the F900 CineAltas. The 24p
emulation has meant the ability to take
cine-like images without having to shoot
on film and transfer to tape. For us, it
seemed like the appropriate solution,
W
As President of High
Definition Pictures,
Chaotik Kreative and
Digital Motion Picture
Co, Jeremy divides his
time between writing,
directing, shooting,
and producing feature
films, commercials,
movies of the week and
documentaries. In
pursuit of the story
Jeremy has travelled
the world, including
Iraq, Taiwan, Bosnia,
Greece, Italy, France,
London, Ireland, New
Zealand, Australia,
Hawaii, Mexico and
virtually every corner
of North America.
www.highdefinitionpictures.com
24
given the fact APTN’s plant is Beta SX
and therefore broadcast would only
happen in the SD world.
Our tests for the PDW530 included
setting up the camera to test dynamic
range, and found it to be impressive.
One particular indoor shot against two
French doors to a balcony outside found
detail and colour inside, and to our
surprise there was blue in the sky
outside without the severe blow-out
one might expect. With some tweaking
on the RCP-721 paint box in the gamma
and knee menus we made it a very
likeable picture (we made sure the
DCC circuit was off). The four-stage
ND filter wheel was a nice addition.
Another test included simply recording
various exteriors in 24 frame to
determine whether the 2:3 emulation
was good enough to pass for the everelusive film-look on video.
We accessorized the camera with
our rods, matte box and follow focus,
and used our Canon HD cine zoom.
We recorded everything in 24p mode,
50-bit IMX codec to ensure the best
quality. Using the SDI out of the camera
to an SDI monitor (previously scoped)
was a great asset, because the DoP and
gaffer were able to see exactly what
they were getting. The gaffer was so
impressed with what he saw, he put
away his light meter.
The set dressing included the
previously mentioned elements, a wet
down on the concrete and adding
atmosphere (smoke) to an airplane
hangar with a 13m ceiling, a depth of
160m depth and which was 30m wide.
The playback screen was framed by a
number of two-bank Kinos, which in my
experience with HD and SD seem to
love 24p video. Taking this all in proved
to be quite an impressive picture. It was
no NBC, but it looked great once we
started on our dolly and 10m jib moves.
One of the great features we used
on set was the thumbnail review option.
After a take we could watch full-colour
playback and determine whether we
could move on. It helped us with
making our days, and we had the
confidence of the key creative.
All in all it proved to be a successful
shoot. The word of mouth travelled fast
among the crew, and as a result people I
know who previously would have
considered the F900 are now booking
the XDCAM for their shooting needs.
sony xdcam
Editing your XD footage
Simon Wyndham examines the NLE systems offering
support for XDCAM from some of the major players
to check out just how far that support extends.
o you have your brand spanking
new XDCAM camera equipment,
the decks and perhaps one of the
new portable XDCAM disc
readers, but you still have to
decide on an editing system. Being a
relatively new release, it has taken a
while for many of the NLE
manufacturers to catch on to the full
benefits of a nonlinear camera system.
Both P2 and XDCAM use MXF files and
because of this one would expect much
more support across the board. As it
stands, the MXF file type used by
XDCAM is different from the one used
by Panasonic’s P2 and as a result there
are two MXF types for programmers to
contend with (in some respects, MXF
can be seen as merely a wrapper).
XDCAM is currently used by video
businesses of all types. From industrial
and corporate, all the way through to
broadcast work. As a result many
solutions may be overkill for some
users. But for full XDCAM workflow
operation we would generally expect
most of the following basic features:
S
Hardly surprising,
Sony Xpri was the first
NLE to offer XDCAM
support.
26
• The ability to copy the XDCAM
MXF video files straight onto the
editing timeline, either directly from
•
•
•
•
the camera itself or by copying the
files onto the hard drive first.
The ability to edit the low-resolution
proxy files and then conform the
timeline using only the highresolution footage required. Doing
this saves a lot of hard drive space
and reduces project clutter.
The ability to read both DV25 and
IMX format video.
The ability to import cliplists onto the
timeline from the camera, thus
enabling preparation in the field using
the PDZ-1 software. This would
allow clips to be grouped more
easily, again reducing project clutter
when footage is placed in relevant
clip bins in the NLE.
The ability to read metadata from
XDCAM clips.
These are some of the basic
functions to look for when it comes to
XDCAM NLE usage. Some
manufacturers have added their own
spin and additional functionality to their
software, while others have gone for a
much more bare-bones approach. With
the basic features list in mind, let’s take a
look at some of the contenders in the
XDCAM NLE world.
Sony Xpri
Xpri was the first editor with XDCAM
compatibility. This comes as no surprise
as the system is Sony’s flagship editing
solution. As one would expect, Xpri
embraces the entire XDCAM workflow.
MXF files may be dragged right onto the
editing timeline before they are
automatically converted to the system’s
own propriety format on the fly. The
only drawback here is that Xpri only
handles IMX formatted files, although it
is unlikely that anyone using XPRI would
be shooting on anything less than the
IMX50 mode on the PDW-530. This is
still an odd restriction, regardless, as
newsgathering operations would
probably use DV25 most of the time for
more disc space and faster file transfers.
Xpri fully supports both network
card footage transfer as well as FAM (File
Access Mode) via the camera or deck’s
firewire interface. The system allows
editing of the low-resolution proxy files
along with automatic conforming of the
footage to the high-resolution versions
in the background while you are still
editing. Xpri also allows the import of
cliplists onto the timeline. If you are in
the field and only had time to perform
basic organization of the shots in-
editing xd
camera or with PDZ-1, this should
allow for very quick and easy clip bin
sorting. The clips in each cliplist can also
be batch copied over to the system’s
hard drive for faster access.
Canopus Edius
Canopus is the second of our
contenders. Edius is a widely used NLE
in all aspects of video production.
XDCAM support in Edius is an optional
extra costing £499. While this may
seem at first to be a little on the steep
side for an I/O module, it does add a
similar degree of XDCAM workflow
options as you’d get with Xpri.
Like Xpri, the module will enable the
dragging of MXF files directly onto the
timeline. In addition, Edius suffers a
similar limitation to Xpri in that it only
allows the import of IMX formatted
MXF files. Such limitations are rather
inexplicable, especially when the price
of the add-on is taken into account.
Edius supports both network card file
transfer and FAM. So far so good.
Unfortunately, the good news stops
there. The XDCAM add-on module for
Edius does not support the import of
cliplists, nor does it allow the editing of
proxy files. The automatic transfer of
MXF files to the computer’s hard drive
is also not supported.
It is nice to see Canopus supporting
XDCAM; however, when other
XDCAM modules are in development
for other NLEs for no extra charge and
with more functionality, it would be
good to see extra XDCAM features
added to this system.
Final Cut Pro
Top: Canopus Edius
offers some, if not
total support for
XDCAM. Above: Final
Cut can take in MXF
files with the addition
of Telestream’s
Flip4Mac.
Like Edius, Apple has taken a modular
27
sony xdcam
Below: Avid
Newscutter, part of a
range of NLEs from the
manufacturer offering
good support for
XDCAM. Bottom: Grass
Valley claims Newsedit’s
implementation makes
it extremely fast.
approach to XDCAM functionality,
albeit a third-party one called Flip4Mac.
This piece of software, costing $425,
works as a plug-in and converts MXF
files from XDCAM and P2 to Quicktime
format for editing within FCP.
Flip4Mac is merely a system for
bringing in MXF files into FCP for
editing, and as a result many of the
automatic aspects of the XDCAM
workflow are lost, such as automatic
conforming of high-resolution footage,
proxy editing and cliplist import. Much
more functionality would be welcomed
in the future. As XDCAM and P2
become more prolific, I would expect
extra support to be more forthcoming.
Avid
After a slightly shaky start Avid is now
implemented the full gamut of XDCAM
workflow features into its NLE range,
from Xpress Pro upwards. The Avid
system supports both FAM and network
card file transfer methods, although the
Avid Transfer Manager add-on is
required for the latter. MXF files can be
dragged into the bins, and both proxy
files and high-resolution files are
supported. Automatic conforming to the
high-resolution footage from proxies is
available. Not only that, but the Avid
systems only import the high-resolution
footage that is needed rather than the
entire file, thus saving space.
Avid NewsCutter XP, Avid
NewsCutter Adrenaline and Avid Media
Composer Adrenaline editors all
support IMX 30,40 or 50, DVCAM and
proxy (MPEG 4) clips natively, while
Xpress Pro can import DVCAM MXF
and proxy files only.
Vegas 6
As part of an IBC update to Vegas 6,
Sony plans to release a full-resolution
MXF reader for XDCAM. I have been
testing a pre-release version of the
program and I have found it to work
extremely well. Because this is a letter
update to the program, the full
implementation of XDCAM workflow
features are not there yet. However,
the update allows the editing of both
DV25 and IMX MXF files, something
that cannot be said for many of our
other candidates.
The update allows the dragging of
MXF files straight onto the Vegas
timeline, and it can also read essence
marks and timecode correctly. This will
be a boon for many XDCAM users
who currently use Vegas, but have
been waiting in hope for an update
such as this that allows them to use
much more of the XDCAM system’s
time-saving abilities. It only remains to
be seen what might be in store in
future versions of Vegas.
Grass Valley
Synonymous with high-end video,
Grass Valley was one of the first
supporters of the XDCAM format. It
claims its system is much faster using
traditional firewire footage streaming vs
the file-usage approach used by Avid.
This remains to be tested, as the latter
has now improved its own support for
the system.
As per any decent XDCAM-capable
editing system, the Grass Valley
Newsedit system allows the user to
drag MXF files right onto the timeline, as
well as allowing only portions of the
MXF to be transferred. The Grass Valley
28
editing xd
Sony Vegas extended
its support for the
format at IBC 2005.
team has omitted the ability to edit the
proxy files because they say this slows
down the workflow due to file transfer
times. They do plan to add proxy
support in later versions of the software,
however.
The Grass Valley system does not
support cliplist import as yet, although
it claims this will be added along with
proxy support. FAM (File Access
Mode) is the only file transfer method
supported at present.
Conclusions
We have covered here are some of the
main NLE supporters of XDCAM.
Obviously systems such as Xpri and
Grass Valley are the domain of very
high-end users. Avid has catered for a
wide range of prices and appears to be
the most versatile among the group
looked at here. However, there are still
some much smaller video production
operations in existence that use
software such as Vegas 6. For sheer
price/performance ratio this software
has to take top billing. While it does not
yet support all the XDCAM features,
the new update will come as a very nice
surprise to the many XDCAM
operators who use this software.
This article has only been an
overview of one battle for support of
nonlinear camera systems. With HD
XDCAM around the corner, it remains
to be seen how quickly these suppliers
can adapt to yet another format.
Simon Wyndham is a
freelance cameraman
and director based in
the Midlands. His
website can be found at
www.simonwyndham.co.uk
29
sony xpri
Keeping it in the family
Sony’s Xpri offers extensive support for XDCAM, as
well as its HDCAM format. Clive Collier assesses which
users will get the most out of this high-end package.
ew companies other than Sony
can offer you the equipment to
shoot and edit a blockbuster
movie, while at the same time
having such a dominance in the
mass market. If the company is not
always first in the market, when it does
make an entrance, it is usually in a
commercially considered and detailed
way. It can provide the equipment to
produce a feature film, pay for the
production of that film, stick it on DVD
and provide you with the DVD player
and TV on which to enjoy it.
But, as I said, it is not always first in
every market. And in the case of
broadcast quality NLEs, it has had to
enter an already mature marketplace.
Although it has been around since 2000,
the Xpri system has had a fairly
lukewarm reception. Although probably
the best known name when it comes to
cameras and decks, brands such as Avid,
Discreet and Quantel have always had
greater kudos in the post market, added
to which Xpri was launching into a fairly
F
depressed market.
Developed in Japan, with heavy US
focus group involvement, Xpri didn’t
make many waves outside of topflight
broadcasters. It then received a new
injection of life courtesy of the exDiscreet Edit development team, which
remained together as a satellite entity
until Sony re-tasked them to give Xpri
mouth-to-mouth.
The most striking feature of Xpri to
first-time users is that its look and
functionality appear to have been
engineered squarely to coax Avid
customers into a cushioned migration to
HD editing. Indeed, consider this line
from the Xpri brochure: “Designed to
widely accepted industry standards,
Xpri’s reassuringly familiar user interface
ensures that users can benefit from the
system’s awesome capabilities without a
steep learning curve, saving time and
staff training costs from day one.”
Sure, the Xpri interface is not
identical to Avid, but the resemblance is
striking. The reasoning behind the
design and functioning should be quite
apparent: whereas Avid has a
dominance in the SD NLE market, the
HD market is largely still up for grabs.
And as it happens, due to the historical
coming together of companies and
parallel development strategies, Avid’s
HD-capable Nitris system is designed
around the Softimage DS interface,
rather than the traditional Avid design,
so true SD Avid editors are not offered a
completely identical upgrade option.
There are two ways of assessing
Xpri: as a rival to Avid and other systems
in long-form feature or documentary
work; or as an editor for broadcast
facilities and production companies
involved in quick-turnaround news,
sport and studio-based programming. It
is this latter scenario we’ll consider in
detail here. Xpri is an extremely
powerful and impressive editing system,
which exudes detailed control over the
intricacies of top-flight editing. But its
integration with Sony acquisition formats
makes it particularly suited to the upper
31
sony xdcam
Top: Xpri’s FX Project
Manager. Below:
multicam mode.
echelon of the post-production and
broadcast industry, not necessarily at
smaller post facilities.
Native Sony editing
One of Xpri’s biggest selling points is
that it is a native HDCAM and XDCAM
editing solution. With the inherent
hardware costs in editing uncompressed
HD in a practical realtime manner, the
3:1:1 140Mbps HDCAM compression
format currently poses the most viable
solution for long-form editing in HD,
and at a quality threshold higher than
DVCPRO HD (although in many
respects this is a taste issue every bit as
much as a technical issue). As a biproduct of Sony’s camera division,
HDCAM is a massively attractive
proposition for broadcasters and post
facilities engaged in predominantly HD
output – as long as serious postproduction stresses are not placed on it,
such as heavy digital intermediate-style
colourization work, which may –
depending on the shots – expose the
artefacting issues inherent in any
compressed video standard.
For many, this will be enough to
consider Xpri almost automatically –
and for good reason. From a support
and conformity point of view, the
thought of shooting on a Sony camera
32
bought to help out with number
crunching. These renderfarm machines
can be configured to run on Windows
XP if preferred.
When we asked about the choice of
Windows 2000 for the main Xpri PC
operating system, Sony’s response was
that, even though there could be speed
advantages with rendering if hyperthreading were used (hyperthreading is
available with XP, but not 2000), the
majority of the processing is handled by
the Cobra boards in the machine.
Therefore, any speed enhancements to
the program as a whole would be small,
although the renderfarm PCs could
enjoy the benefits of hyperthreading in
straightforward rendering tasks.
Xpri can handle uncompressed SD
and XDCAM Mpeg IMX 30/40/50. In
HD, it deals with progressive or
interlaced 1080 at 24, 25 or 29.97fps,
including HDCAM of course. Note that
it has no built-in ability to conform to
native DVCPRO HD or HDV, but it is
possible the latter will be included soon.
onto Sony HDCAM tapes, which are
then played out of a Sony HDCAM deck Xpri also deals with MXF metadata to
ensure full network compliance,
into the Sony Xpri system, has huge
especially with media search functions
advantages, which many broadcasters
and background digitization. Though
have and may see fit to buy into. But
requiring some initial set-up, Xpri can
rather than Sony making upgrade
capability almost automatic, the arrival of also be used with Adobe After Effects
and Pinnacle’s Commotion by exporting
the HDCAM SR (for ‘superior
the timeline for compositing, despite a
resolution’) format will require a costly
long list of built-in Xpri FX.
upgrade to Xpri, not to mention
As mentioned, Xpri also comes with
changing the entire acquisition path,
four USB peripheral control panels. The
including cameras.
buttons and function of each can be
customised completely, although their
What you get
design and intention is fairly selfAt its core level, Xpri is currently a
explanatory. As a side note, each comes
proprietary dual 3.06Ghz Xeon rackstyle PC manufactured by Sony running with extra USB ports for additional
on Windows 2000. This comes with an hardware to be added should you wish.
assortment of USB-based control panels In general, I found these control panels
a great extension to Xpri’s workflow,
which include jog/shuttle, motorized
audio fader, track ball and colour-coded although they took a bit of getting used
to at first.
media bar. More about these later.
Options include SDTI, SAN and fibre
channel boards in the machine, together File management
with external hard drive arrays for
Xpri’s file management abilities are
uncompressed HD editing and the
extremely detailed and powerful, if in
choice of ‘Cobra Jr’ or ‘King Cobra’
need of a few tweaks. One neat feature
realtime FX processing boards.
is the ability for different editors to
Each Xpri comes with a rendering
umbilically link their Windows user loglicence for a PC to act as a renderfarm
in with their custom Xpri preferences
so as not to interrupt workflow. Of
and layout. This is a boon to editors in
course one machine may not be
SAN environments.
enough, so additional licences can be
A very practical enhancement to
sony xpri
project file data is the ability to store the
undo history per project rather than per
session. A feature that would be
universally welcomed on any software.
The ‘Project Manager’ uses a
Windows-style tree directory to help
users find their projects and source media
quickly and efficiently. You can view clips,
sequences and maintain your file
housekeeping relatively painlessly. One
immediate cause of confusion was finding
a way to drag and drop or copy and paste
clips from different projects into each
other. Not a common requirement, but
useful to have. At present, the ‘Project
Manager’ has an autonomous nature to
it, in that no other window can be
accessed while it is open. I can see the
logic, but there were times when this
became annoying. One explanation for
this is that the Clip Explorer looks
identical to the Project Manager, so not
being able to use the two at the same
time might avoid confusion.
With the Clip Explorer you can
digitize and lay back to tape, create new
sequences and access all your media in
your open project. One practical area of
customization in the Clip Explorer is
choosing whether a double click on a
clip in the explorer opens it in the
source viewer or as a self-contained
floating window viewer. Presumably
‘user’ level request that will be
welcomed with open arms.
In use
Most buttons and functions are
positioned and grouped where you’d
expect them to be, making ergonomics
no problem, with the added bonus of
full button and controller customization.
A small point that threw me was that the
timeline bar that enabled scrubbing was
at the bottom of the window rather
than in the usual position above timeline
tracks. In fact, there were many
interface similarities with the old Fast
Silver system, especially the functionality
and layout of the task bar.
Digitizing was effortless, with the
added advantage of complete Sony deck
compatibility. To be difficult, we tested to
see whether the supplied HDWM2000P deck’s ability to uprez digibeta
SD to HD would throw off the system
in anyway. In short, the answer was no.
The digitizing interface is comprehensive,
with a cute ability to choose your clip
picon on the fly during capture. Nice
touch. Using the optional SDTI
interface, Sony’s stable of formats come
together in an extremely efficient
acquisition process. For example, Sony’s
XDCAM IMX Mpeg format can be
digitized in at 2x realtime at any
resolution together with a 30x ability to
take in the low-resolution IMX proxies
used to offline XDCAM. Sony also says
that Xpri can take in two streams
simultaneously which, in theory (we
only had one deck), could be a lifesaver
in ultra-time-conscious broadcast
acquisition situations.
Xpri is capable of generating internal
bi-level sync at present, but has no
provisions for 24p tri-level. Sony did say
this was on the ‘coming soon’ list, which
might appear strange for a system
lauded for supporting CineAlta 24p from
its inception. If you’re used to using
external generators, this may not be a
massive issue, but it could represent an
additional outlay if you’re not so
equipped.
Working with HDCAM footage on
the timeline, Xpri’s responsiveness was
sharp and stable. All attempts to throw it
off the plot by introducing masses of
quick cuts didn’t phase it in the slightest.
The system’s playback did seem slightly
hesitant at times, introducing a little
variability in performance which made
me suspect Win2K rather than Xpri.
Nothing too intrusive, although having
fought with Win2K’s dire RAM
management and retention problems
working in 3D software, it still suggests
that porting to WinXP should also be on
the wishlist.
As you would expect, Sony’s
concentration on its own formats means
a degree of resolution-independent
timeline workflow is there. The official
line is that uncompressed HD, HDCAM
and/or compressed/uncompressed 60i
Mpeg IMX can be edited in any
combination.
Grouping and multicam
Xpri’s grouping and ‘multicam’ option
has to be one of the highlights of the
system. Essentially, grouping gives you
the option of nesting up to nine clips by
highlighting them in the Clip Explorer,
right-clicking and selecting ‘create
group’. The clips can be aligned with
each other from a variety of points, such
as timecode or ‘start point’. The big
advantage of grouping is that the group
can be edited at any time, allowing new
clips to be digitized and added to the
group. Once this nested group clip has
been created, the single track on the
timeline can be expanded to show all
the clips nested in the group.
By activating the ‘multicam’ mode in
the interface, the purpose of grouping
becomes apparent. Now, the left-hand
source viewport changes into a split
screen mosaic, showing thumbnails of all
the clips in your group. Simply select the
edit points you require on the single
group track on the timeline, then
choose which shot from the thumbnails
you want at each point. Extremely
simple to use, very effective, and a
massive time saver for sporting events,
studio recordings, documentary or any
application that uses simultaneous multicamera recording setups.
One current downside, however, is
the inability to apply FX while in multicam
mode. This could be limiting, although
there may be workarounds, such as
rendering or freezing FX on clips and then
regrouping prior to multicam editing.
The trackball – one of
a selection of USB
peripheral control
devices that come
with Xpri.
Xpri FX
As with every NLE now being shipped,
Xpri comes with a dizzying array of
cheesy ‘made for American TV’ DVEs.
Of course, the mainstays are present
and correct, such as dissolves, wipes,
etc, alongside 3D FX, warps, blurs and
various FX generators. If equipped with
the realtime HD ‘King Cobra’ card, 12bit colour correction, realtime
downstream key track, motion tracking
and chroma/luma keys, among others,
are available. Some may find these
useful, although I would hope that those
33
sony xdcam
Clive Collier is MD of
post facility Storm
Creation based in
Brighton and technical
editor of Showreel.
Between working on TV
ads, 3D animation and
online projects, Clive
completes tests on
systems pertinent to
the industry today.
Previously, Clive
worked in production
for many years and as a
software trainer with
clients such as Fox Kids
and Pearson TV, after
making the move
from professional
audio engineering.
34
requiring more detailed FX control
would use the Xpri After Effects or
Commotion export timeline feature.
The only exception to this would be if
you had multiple Xpris on a network,
allowing someone to work solely on this
form of FX work, especially if large
project file format conformity is
important.
A nice feature of the FX bin is a
colour-coding system that enables users
to figure out what kind of FX they are.
FX with a green picture icon denote
realtime application, red picons mean
the requirement for rendering and
yellow point to After Effects-compatible
plugins. Application of FX onto clips is a
simple drag and drop affair, which then
creates a small square picon on the clip
in the timeline. A notable absence is an
FX list window showing each effect with
a simple mute function that updates as
you click on each clip on the timeline.
Instead, each effects option can be
accessed by double-clicking on the small
picon within the track. Although this
workflow is OK, I found it a little
restrictive. For example, in order to
differentiate between each effect, you
have to squint to figure out which is
which from the small picons, which
don’t seem to enlarge if you make the
track view larger in the interface.
Value changes for some FX are linked
to the colour-coded ‘media bar’ control
panel. This means that, within the FX
editor window, some of the different
value entry points have a coloured box
corresponding to a twisty knob on the
control panel. Again, not everyone’s cup
of tea, but there were instances where it
came in handy and it really emphasised a
particular point about Xpri. When
referencing FX previews on an HD
monitor, the level of accuracy in
movement and pixel definition is amazing,
allowing for greater overall control. Here,
one of the main advantages of Sony’s
natural ability to implement its own
HDCAM format comes into play: offering
such pixel fidelity.
I found many of the green realtime
FX needed a surprising amount of
rendering, especially when working with
HDCAM footage, perhaps showing a
saturation point on the ‘King Cobra’
card. Of course, this is not an exact
science, as the combination of multiple
FX can lead to the need for rendering,
either after passing a specific threshold
or almost immediately upon application.
This is where Xpri’s background
network rendering capabilities kick in. As
standard, a single rendering licence is
included, although to maintain optimal
rendering performance, the threshold
would be around seven to eight render
node machines. These machines can be
WinXP boxes linked together over a
Gigabit network.
Colour correction
As of version 7, Xpri includes its first
‘Advanced’ colour correction tool as an
integrated core component of the
system, and not simply as an option
from FX Explorer. Using the track ball
control panel, accurate colour value
adjustment was pretty simple and
immensely flexible. Giving control over
HSL, curves, secondary correction and
colour matching, all areas are pretty
much covered, although caution is
required to avoid HDCAM or IMX
artefacting. On deactivation of the tool, I
noticed a small glitch returning to the
main layout, showing that further
refinement is still required: a fact well
known to Sony and no big deal.
Motion speed adjustments
The use of variable speed control in
editing has become more and more en
vogue of late, and has been used to
great effect in programmes such as The
Green Room and even Top Gear. Using
Bezier curve control, Xpri’s ability to
create complex and artistic variations in
clip playback speed was extremely
good. The manipulation of keyframes
and curves was a little muddled, but I
got there in the end. The result was
very impressive, if after a fairly lengthy
rendering time. Options to deinterlace
or even render the result in another
compression format are given, which
gives added value to the whole speed
control process.
Potential market
Given Xpri’s abilities, who should really
consider it as a viable option? If you look
at Xpri’s core values, it really becomes
clear that it has been designed with
broadcasters firmly in mind. The speed
and optimization of digitizing, the
detailed compatibility with Sony decks,
the native handling of HDCAM and
XDCAM and the inclusion of timesaving features such as multicam all point
in this direction. For many broadcasters
who have brought their acquisition
methods in line with Sony’s highly
capable camera range, Xpri as a
partnering editing platform could be
seen as a no-brainer. In this environment,
where cost and outlay for upgrade paths
are perhaps of lesser importance, Xpri
scores extremely high.
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