Audio Video News

New technology often debuts at the annual National Association of Broadcasters convention. This year's late April confab in Las Vegas is no different. From Monday the 23rd through Thursday the 26th, engineers, marketers, and journalists alike will get a glimpse of the world to come.

Among the most promising announcements are Lockheed Martin's plans to demonstrate satellite-based HDTV. The Houston,TX–based aerospace company will put on an "Advanced Space Communications Demonstration " that will deliver High Definition Television (HDTV) programming from a simulated International Space Station location to sites throughout the US in what company officials are calling "a real-time, seamless manner." The demo will use a combination of NASA and commercial assets, according to advance publicity.

"Not only can NASA benefit from this state-of-the-art technology, but by opening up this capability to the private sector, we open up the marketplace for high-demand K-Band applications, such as real-time global HDTV broadcasts, which can be used in a virtually unlimited number of applications," said Dan Heimerdinger, director of Lockheed Martin's Consolidated Space Operations Contract (CSOC) Office of Commercialization. The company has a $3 billion contract with NASA to help "defray costs and improve support to manned Shuttle and International Space Station missions through a variety of commercial architectures," including selling excess K-Band satellite capacity to commercial customers. One benefit will be bringing the activities of the International Space Station to computers and televisions everywhere in the world, according to Martin Skudlarek, manager of Advanced Technology for CSOC. Over $3 million in systems and services has been donated to the project by interested companies.

Hitachi America, Ltd., a subsidiary of Japan's Hitachi, Ltd., will introduce the industry's first LCD projectors with progressive scan capabilities. The CP-X980W and CP-X985W are HDTV-ready, providing "significant improvements in video quality." The projectors will be demonstrated at Booth M9963 at the Sands Convention Center.

"As the audio/visual industry becomes more sophisticated, and more accessible to the average consumer, customers have become increasingly demanding of their projection equipment—requiring not only portability and ease of use, but also professional-level image quality," said Pete Denes, national sales manager of Hitachi America, Ltd.'s computer division. "These new projectors address this need by providing the best video quality available and top-of-the-line resolution and brightness—all with Hitachi's strong feature set and tradition of quality manufacturing." The CP-X980W and CP-X985W are capable of brightness levels of 2300 and 2700 lumens respectively. Features include three RGB inputs, three video inputs, digital zoom, picture-in-picture capabilities, and digital keystone correction. Despite the advanced features, the new projectors are only about 5" tall and weigh only 14 pounds. With interchangeable long- and short-throw lenses, the projectors are said to be easily adapted for a variety of room sizes. The CP-X980W projector is priced at $10,995 and the CP-X985W is $12,995

Faroudja, a division of Sage, Inc., is debuting a "native rate digital video processor" designed to optimize mid-priced fixed-installation digital LCD, DLP, and plasma displays. The processor accepts standard video sources and upconverts them using Faroudja's patented technology to optimize the specific display. Each processor is adjusted by Faroudja to deliver the best possible image quality for each customer's Pro A/V or home theater system, according to pre-convention publicity. Scan rates can be optimized for these displays: 480p big screens, 852x480 plasmas, 800x600 digital projectors, 16:9 HD displays, 1024x768 digital projectors, 1366x768 plasmas, ALIS plasmas, and DILA projectors.

Time-base correction, chroma bandwidth expansion, film motion processing, and aspect ratio control are a few of the features built into the new processor, which will retail in the $4–5k price range depending on configuration. Faroudja will demonstrate the new Native Rate Series Scaler in Booth L4421, South Hall, Las Vegas Convention Center, during NAB.

San Antonio, TX–based NewTek, a manufacturer of video and 3D animation products, will debut Video Toaster [2], its "revolutionary" desktop video effects, editing, and live switching system at the 2001 NAB Conference, Booth S4837. The package is being touted as a "TV studio in a box," with a $5k suggested price. Video Toaster [2] boasts tight integration among all components: live switching, real-time nonlinear editing of compressed and uncompressed media, and Internet streaming of both edited productions and live events. NewTek claims it is "the fastest, most versatile, easiest to use, and highest quality video production environment available at any price." NewTek founder and CEO Tim Jenison says Video Toaster [2] is the most integrated video production tool ever offered.

MPEG-4 decoders will be in the news from Las Vegas. Sigma Designs of Milpitas, CA has announced a family of advanced MPEG decoder chips supporting MPEG-4 standards. The new EM8470 series, based on the company's award-winning "REALmagic" video streaming technology, provides "highly integrated solutions for high-quality decoding of MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4," according to a press release. One huge benefit for home theater fans is the EM8470's ability to "achieve HDTV resolution from standard DVDs, yielding up to six times the resolution and clarity of conventional DVD players on the market today." The chip will be available to OEMs at $29 each in quantity, and should begin appearing in set-top boxes and video processors later this year.

Amnis Systems of Palo Alto, CA will also debut MPEG-4 technology at NAB 2001, including new streaming video products, with support for the RTP (Real-time Transport Protocol) for IP-based network applications. "The Amnis MPEG-4 technology demonstration will allow NAB attendees to experience the next generation digital video standard in a simulated network streaming video environment," stated a company announcement. "Comparisons to existing MPEG-1–quality streaming video will be shown in the Amnis booth, emphasizing the significant network bandwidth savings using MPEG-4 video compression while preserving compelling quality video . . . ."

Michael Liccardo, CEO of Amnis Systems, said, "Our strong product and market leadership continues to propel Amnis forward in developing next generation technologies that will solve real world enterprise network problems." Amnis was formerly known as Optivision, Inc.