Michael Kammes (.com)

Smoke for Mac 2013 Announcement

Head any good tech news lately? Smoke is changing. Everything. Smoke has had a long and illustrious career, but for many years was only available to those with deep pockets – and a willingness to use Linux. Several years ago Smoke for Mac (or as we call it, “SMac”) was released, and although it lacked some of the features it’s Linux big brother had, it gave many users the opportunity to begin the foray into high end finishing. At $14,999, it enticed many users. What the low price hid, however, was that a complete system that met the basic requirements [...]

The Post FCP Fog

On Friday night, I had the opportunity to join the 9th annual Pre NAB editors lounge panel discussion as a last minute fill in. I found myself uncharacteristically less participatory, mainly due to the experience and stature of the others on the panel. The brain power on the panel could power a small town. During the mostly esoteric discussion, one of the comments I made was along the lines of “In the post FCP 7 fog, neither Avid nor Adobe have been aggressive in pursuing those in the fog”. (paraphrased) I had been ruminating on this notion for awhile, and off-off-off record [...]

A Note to Technology Manufacturers

Part of being a technologist is getting to work with cool products and solutions. However, for every shiny and blinking device I get my grubby hands on, there is a bevvy of baggage that accompanies it. Here are some tips for technology manufacturers to reduce the baggage.

Avid Media Composer & Symphony 6.0 and You: New Features

We’ve got the purple kool-aid, and we’ve got the firehose: New. Avid. Releases. Now that the cat is out of the bag, I can share with you dear readers a comprehensive list of what is new and groovy inside the latest offering from Avid. Like what you see? Join me for a more in-depth webinar on all that is contained therein plus a huge helping of bonus material on November 22nd. More details here. Until then, let’s whet your appetite, shall we? Announced today, Media Composer 6, Symphony 6, and NewsCutter 10 will begin to ship November 15th. Lots of [...]

Choosing the right shared storage solution: Part 2 of 3: Size, Spindles, and Protection

This is Part 2 in a 3 part series on Choosing the Right Shared Storage Solution. You may want to check out Part 1: Bandwidth & Connections. Hard drives are a dime a dozen nowadays. At last check, I think Best Buy and Fry’s had them at the checkout counter next to the latest Star Magazine and Chewlies gum. Despite the seemingly over abundance of drives, not all drives (let alone a collection of ‘em) are created equal. Most hard drives, as I’m sure you know, have spinning platters in them were data resides. While spinning, they allow data to [...]

FCP X – from a unique perspective

Let’s all take a deep breath. Relaxed? On day 1, this isn’t a rant about how great or not so great FCP X is. I’m in a very unique position to be impartial. Gratefully and luckily, I work with virtually everything within the walls of Post. Thus, I’ve attacked the issue of FCP X and have decided to examine the ramifications to this creature with many heads we call workflow. I think we all need to put these 3 truths on a sticky next to our palette monitor. I believe: The good of the many outweighs the good of the [...]

Choosing the right shared storage solution: Part 1 of 3: Bandwidth & Connections

Shared Storage – the least sexy of the post production technologies. Shared Storage is not the hot chick in class. She’s the quiet librarian with glasses that you end up falling for when the unreliable hot chick loses her sheen. She’s got everything you need: reliability and stability, and flashing lights. (Maybe the flashing lights thing is just me.) In part 1 of 3 part posting, I’m going to examine shared storage for video – SAN & NAS. Many factors go into choosing the correct shared storage solution: Bandwidth & Connections Drives: Size, Spindles & Protection (RAID) Management, Permissions & [...]

Avid PhraseFind: 10 Tech Notes

Before we get into the nitty-gritty, let’s go over some of the basics of PhraseFind. *Update April 12, 2011: Avid has given some feedback on the blog post, and I have posted their comments inline in bold.Thanks Avid! PhraseFind is a phonetic matching algorithm, developed by Nexidia. It’s been wildly successful, serving as the basis of AV3’s “Get” software, which is used in conjunction with Final Cut Pro. Avid has licensed the technology and has branded it “PhraseFind”. It is available for $495, or $1295 when bundled with ScriptSync. Additional language packs can be purchased for $149. “There are some [...]

What I do as a Demo Artist

I am a Demo Artist & Post Production Workflow Consultant. WTF is that? Quite humbly, I’ve been told “Hey! You do what I wanna do!” or “I want to know as much as you!” following a presentation. This alone makes my day, if not my month. But I don’t think many people really grasp what I (we) do. Probably because the job title is a tad esoteric; it’s usage is generally relegated to the tech industry, and partly because the façade of a demo artist is one of confidence and domain expertise, when in reality, that’s nearly impossible at the [...]

Avid 5.5 new features and what they mean to you

Kool-Aid! Get your Kool-Aid here! Avid has unveiled the latest update to their editing suite family: Media Composer & Symphony 5.5, as well as DS 5.5. Below are some of the biggest features to the Media Composer and Symphony 5.5 releases. Video I/O: AJA I/O Express. Easily the biggest announcement. Avid has traditionally restricted baseband video input and output to Avid built hardware. We saw a glimpse last year of the move off this paradigm with the adoption of the Matrox MXO2 Mini. This toe in the 3rd party wading pool allowed users to output broadcast quality reference video through [...]

Play Avid MXF for Free

In the spirit of the season, I have a holiday geek treat for you: The ability to freely play Avid MXF Media. It’s all happened to us what time or another – we find our storage drives are overflowing with media goodness. This limits the amount of media we can put on the drive for another project; as well as decreasing the performance of said media drives. Avid’s ability to track media is excellent, and this ability is partly responsible for it’s pseudo proprietary format – the Avid flavor of the MXF wrapper (a tweaked Op-Atom MXF, in case you [...]

Avid is Self-Aware – Fast Import

Avid is self-aware. And while not in the Skynet sort of way, Avid is aware of it’s own. Commonly this is found in a shared user environment (Unity, ISIS). However, it can also be found in terms of raw media. A little known feature within Avid is the concept of a Fast Import. This complicated term does exactly what is says – it imports media into your Avid faster than a traditional import. However, lately I’ve been frequently asked, “well, why not use AMA? No importing is needed!” Let’s address this before we jump into Fast Importing. AMA in Media [...]

3D in Post: Avid vs FCP

Unfortunately, we’re looking at the lesser of 2 evils. No mainstream editorial platform truly understands 3D natively. Through trickery, masking, and video hide-and-seek, we can manipulate our editing platform of choice to limp along for stereoscopic editorial. I’m a firm believer in the right tool for the right job, and choosing the tool requires a fair amount of research. We’ll examine the 2 top choices in today’s professional post arena: Avid’s Media Composer and Apple’s Final Cut Pro. While Avid has a built in ability for 3D tomfoolery, Apple must rely on 3rd party products. For this analysis, I am [...]

Get your FCP Project and Media into Avid without any transcoding via Automatic Duck and Avid AMA

Gonna mix it up a bit with this post, and go video on ya. This is trick is from a recent Key Code Media event where I discussed Media Creation & Sharing with Final Cut Studio and Avid Media Composer 5.0. (see: Avid AMA, Telestream’s Pipeline, AJA’s KiPro) In this demonstration, we use a Pro Res timeline in Final Cut Pro, send it to Avid without creating any new media, and have the sequence not only open, but also utilize the same media – all using Automatic Duck & Avid’s AMA feature in 5.0 – via a hidden (undocumented) trick! [...]

3D Creation is (not quite) Consumer

This more of a tech note than dissertation. JVC, Hyundai, Sony, Panasonic, and the like – are all coming out with 3D monitors. And they’re all flat. And they’re all shiny and sleek. Other subjective features aside, many of the ones you’ve been eyeballing don’t quite cut the mustard when used in the edit bay. Here’s why: Frame Rate. Sure, if you’re in the 29.97 / 59.94 world, you’re most likely OK. But if you’re in the 23.98 realm – Be careful! Consumer and pro-sumer 3D monitors often have HDMI input. HDMI is traditionally a consumer and pro-sumer video transport [...]

Final Cut Pro 8: A Wish List

On the heels of the recent uncharacteristically Apple statement about the future of Final Cut Pro, and then a fantastic post by a fellow Hollywood Tech Neighbor Philip Hodgetts, speculation has one again fanned the flames of excitement within the collective Final Cut Pro Kool-Aid drinkers. Thus, I thought I would examine the current gaps I see in the product. A wish list, as it were. And no, not minor keyboard shortcuts and the like, but fundamental features which I believe are needed to kick ass and chew bubblegum. Admittedly, many of these keep the “Pro” in “Pro Apps.” Unfortunately, this *needs* to [...]

Avid 5.0, ProRes, and You

I’ve been getting massive web traffic and emails from people looking to use ProRes within Avid, as well as outputting ProRes from Avid. With Avid Media Composer 5.0 due to be released next month, the two playing nice with one another will be paramount. I drew up this short Q&A for fellow coworkers at Key Code Media, and I thought I’d share it here. Can Avid 5.0 on Mac or PC play Pro Res? Yes, provided you have a recent version of Quicktime (free) installed. This is required by Avid for installation. Can Avid 5.0 EXPORT into ProRes? Mac: Not [...]

Conceptual: Eliminating Bleeping of Words During Broadcast

Problem: My viewing experience is tainted by the “cleansing” of perceived foul language and/or content by network and cable censors. Issues to consider: No station is going to simulcast 2 streams of video and/or audio just for language. This will eat up satellite bandwidth and cost millions. You don’t fuck with the FCC. Thus, we are left to find a way to selectively filter out content using existing technology and infrastructure. Here is my spitball concept: During Editorial – within Avid or Final Cut Pro – a marker could be placed in the timeline at the start of the offensive [...]

When a soft whisper becomes a loud echo – Digidesign

Unfortunately folks, the post will not be back up. Despite my best attempts to keep a clear cut delineation between my fantastic day job at Key Code Media and Michael Kammes dot com; my post appears to have blurred that line and ruffled some feathers. Therefore, the post is down to keep the peace. I appreciate the support and keep reading!

POST Magazine: What everyone starting out should know

I penned a tongue in cheek article for a blog post for Post Magazine, and they decided to print it. Since I can’t seem to find it on their website, I present it here: I’m actually in a very unique position. I have the privilege of meeting editors and seeing facilities which run the gamut in terms of post production. TV, film, and new media; both back in the Midwest and here in Southern California. I was able to work as both a Creative and as a companion to the Creatives. And through all of these projects, meet and greets, [...]

DIGITAL PRODUCTION BUZZ: NAB 2010: Blu-ray

Listen to the report from the NAB BuZZ: nabbuzzshow.com; Thursday, 10am show. (apparently I’m unflappable!) Transcript: I’ve always been a huge proponent of the optical disc format, even after my ill fated investment in DVD-RAM back in the late 90’s. However, as of late, my interest was beginning to wane, after not getting nearly as much client interest in Blu-ray as I thought I would. After 2 days of searching, I was beginning to feel a bit let down. Was Apple right? Was disc dead – and streaming video was the wave of the future? Had I not gotten the [...]

DIGITAL PRODUCTION BUZZ: Trends at NAB 2010: Openness

Listen to the report from the NAB BuZZ: nabbuzzshow.com; Tuesday, 5pm show. or See my article from POST Magazine here. Transcript: There’s been an emerging trend in the post realm over the past few years and it’s not surprising that this year at NAB continues this trend…the trend of openness. While companies and their technology proved to be much more initially lucrative when they were a closed ecosystem – the backlash from dead bolting ones product proved not only to be a revenue suck, but also caused the perception of arrogance or even ignorance. The collective grumbling from the user [...]

POST Magazine: NAB 2010: Making Legacy Gear Future Friendly

Listen to the report from the NAB BuZZ: nabbuzzshow.com; Thursday, 9am show. See my article from POST Magazine here. Transcript: There are several reasons to attend NAB. 1) See where your co-workers and clients work now – because most likely they’re with some other company, doing the exact same thing. 2) Be a geek, and yet be able to party like a rockstar – because everyone else is also a geek and also trying to party like a rockstar, so it’s OK. 3) See what the latest and greatest is, and what you need to mortgage your house to buy. [...]

DIGITAL PRODUCTION BUZZ: NAB 2010: Day One Home Runs

Listen to the report from the NAB BuZZ: nabbuzzshow.com; Wednesday, 3pm show. Transcript: I came to NAB to submerge myself in all that is geek, and thus far I have not been disappointed. I thought I’d share the things that have really piqued my interest and if you haven’t yet checked them out yet– do so! 1) Cineform. I recently spent an evening demoing this software for a few hundred people and it was definitely the belle of the ball. Cineform has been a fantastic DI codec for years, but their product Neo3D takes that to a whole new level, [...]

My NAB 2010 Hit List

Once a year, us posties flock to our mecca, and plant ourselves within the bowels of sin city to suckle from the geek teet, and bask in all it’s acronym run glory. We spend too much on cheap food. We spend way more on alcohol, and desperately try and find which one of the vendors will have the best afterparty. Walking each hall and floor tenderizes our feet as if Rocky Balboa was in training. We hoard swag in the several free branded bags slung over both shoulders. We shout over the tens of thousands of other people asking the same questions, and demand specifications about balsawood [...]