Pre NAB Editors' Lounge Looks Ahead to the Future of Post-Production

Burbank, CA, April 18, 2016 (Newswire.com) - Burbank based AlphaDogs Post Production celebrated their 13th Annual Pre-NAB Editors’ Lounge with a panel discussion on the latest trends and where the future of post-production is headed. Moderated by Journalist, Debra Kaufman, panelists included: Terence Curren (Editor/Colorist and Founder of AlphaDogs Post), Mark Raudonis (SVP of Post Production, Bunim/Murray Productions), Michael Kammes (Director of Technology, Key Code Media) and Monica Daniel (Assistant Television Editor, Minority Report, Supergirl) The panel discussion can be watched in its entirety at: http://www.editorslounge.com/videos.html

The evening kicked off with Terence Curren sharing highlights of topics discussed at this year’s HPA Tech Retreat® which he coined as the “Ted Talks of the industry” with Michael Kammes chiming in as it being “by far the best tech event to attend.” With NAB’s focus primarily on marketing new products, the tech retreat offers seminars from some of the biggest brains in the business as well as a “demo room” that showcases only future products coming down the line that no one knows exist yet.  “It’s a great experience to rub shoulders with the intellectual giants of the industry,” said Mark Raudonis. “People who have really taken the time to create the foundation and standards of what we do.”

"This is the first year where prominent people at the HPA said that after testing at their facilities, they are realizing people really can't see the difference with 4K."

Terence Curren, Colorist & CEO of AlphaDogs, Inc.

Currently, the buzz in the post community is about HDR (High Dynamic Range). HDR looks to be the future of television, offering better pixels, instead of more pixels, as is the case with 4K. While HDR workflows could be easily integrated into existing post-production facilities in HD, the television manufacturers are marketing HDR as requiring a full 4K workflow to sell more of their products to the consumer. Considering you would need to sit closer than 6 ft. from a 65- inch television to even begin to notice the difference in picture quality of 4K, the consumer is getting no real value in purchasing a 4K television. “This is the first year where prominent people at the HPA said that after testing at their facilities, they are realizing people really can’t see the difference with 4K,” said Curren. Another hurdle in getting HDR out to the consumer is OTT (Over The Top) companies such as Netflix are using 4K as a branding differentiator and are demanding that their original programming content be finished in 4K.

HDR standards are in their infancy which means there are no reference monitors on the market that post facilities can purchase in order to QC for all distribution avenues properly. Final delivery currently is based on aesthetics judgments only. However, as more consumers continue to cut the cord and consume content over the Internet, setting some sort of standard for HDR will become a moot point. Curren comments, “With the future of broadcast looking bleak, listening to broadcasters arguing over eventual HDR adoption is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.”

Storage continues to be a big challenge in post-production with cameras changing to chip based media and HDCam rarely being used anymore. Mark Raudonis explains, “There is no physical media that you can put on the shelf and send to the networks as deliverables, so you have to copy everything, and that translates to more storage.” Storage, bandwidth and render time also poses problems when it comes working in 4K with most facilities not having budgets to upgrade to all new equipment and software. “From an editorial standpoint it’s easy to say, it’s just storage and that we need to work in high resolution. I have not once worked on the latest and greatest systems at my job.” said Monica Daniel. “My laptop is faster than my work computer. My work computer bogs down when working in high resolution, especially in Avid. The renders are a real pain.” While flash would allow more room for storage, it’s not cost efficient. Post facilities will continue to use hard drives until a better solution becomes available.

Additional discussions included Virtual Reality that is still in its infancy with only a few select companies delivering content, the importance of security and encryption in the digital age and standards for post-production. The evening wrapped with a Q&A session with members of the audience and Twitter questions being addressed via the live stream.

To watch the 13th Annual Pre-NAB panel discussion video visit: 

http://www.editorslounge.com/videos.html

About the Editors’ Lounge: The Editors’ Lounge is a hands-on seminar for industry professionals. Each month, scores of professionals in the production and post-production industries exchange ideas, discuss trends and learn about new technologies; allowing editors to have their questions addressed objectively.  To learn more visit http://www.editorslounge.com

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Source: AlphaDogs Post Production