Quantel took the stage at the NAB Show earlier this week to announce an upcoming upgrade to its Pablo Rio color grading and finishing system. The software improvement will support 8K Ultra HD. “According to Quantel, its software upgrade allows colorists to work and playback their material in real time and at resolutions up to 8K and frame rates up to 60 frame per second, allowing them to complete today’s requirements and, possibly, future requirements,” notes The Hollywood Reporter. Continue reading NAB 2015: Quantel Upgrades Pablo Rio System with 8K Support

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences used the NAB Show as the launch for the Academy Color Encoding System (ACES) — a free, open, device-independent global standard for color management and image interchange that targets digital production, mastering and long-term archiving of motion pictures. The Academy also announced the support of 22 leading companies that will participate in the ACES Logo Program, which was developed to “encourage consistent, high-quality implementations of ACES concepts and technical specifications throughout the industry.” Continue reading NAB 2015: AMPAS Launches Global Standard for Color Encoding

At this week’s NAB Show in Las Vegas, Vision III Imaging has an impressive demo of a technology that adds parallax to professional camera images when displayed on normal consumer displays. Through the company’s patented process of rotating an iris inserted behind the lens at 4.3 cycles per second (e.g. parallax induction), they are able to enhance both 2D and 3D images. 2D images take on an almost 3D quality, while 3D images maintain a sense of multiple dimensions even when the viewer tilts his/her head to a full horizontal position. Continue reading NAB 2015: Vision III Imaging Demos Parallax Visualization Tech

We are past marketing and stunt VR, and now need to move quickly to paid live action VR experiences for the media to succeed, Ted Schilowitz, Fox’s Futurist said during the NMX panel “Why Content Creators Should Care About Virtual Reality” at the NAB Show in Las Vegas this week. Tim Street, board member of the International Academy of Web Television, moderated the panel that also included Cosmo Scharf, the founder of VRLA, Ikrima Elhassan from Kite & Lightning, and Michael Kintner, CEO of 260 Heroes. Continue reading NAB 2015: Why Content Creators Should Care About VR (Panel)

In an email to its YouTube Partners sent last week, YouTube confirmed its plans to launch an ad-free monthly subscription service. A YouTube subscription service free of interruptions has been long talked about and will reportedly move forward once the terms on YouTube’s Dashboard Creator have been updated. YouTube has described the service as yet another opportunity for the company and its creators to monetize their video content and provide YouTube users with additional options. Continue reading YouTube Readies its Anticipated Ad-Free Subscription Service

BitTorrent’s peer-to-peer Web browser endeavor, Maelstrom, is now in beta. Since its limited alpha release back in December of last year, the browser has reportedly seen as many as 3,500 publishers and more than 10,000 developers sign up to work on its platform. The beta release will make the browser available to more people and help gauge interest in a torrent-based service built on a decentralized, P2P architecture. For now, the beta version of Maelstrom is only available for Windows users. Continue reading Maelstrom: BitTorrent’s New Browser Built on P2P Architecture

AMC and Dolby are offering moviegoers the best of laser projected-images, immersive sound, and vibrating seats in their new brand of theaters, “Dolby Cinema at AMC Prime.” The new premium theater will show movies in high dynamic range (HDR) and a wide color gamut accompanied by Dolby’s Atmos immersive sound system. The power reclining seats will also vibrate with the on-screen action. The two companies hope to install 15 of these new theaters by the end of the year. Continue reading AMC Partners with Dolby to Offer Premium Cinema Experience

Technicolor and Sinclair Broadcast Group have successfully tested a live broadcast in 4K resolution with high dynamic range through the proposed ATSC 3.0 system. “There’s been a lot of attention on new Ultra HD (4K) TVs, which have the potential to display four times the resolution of today’s HD; and HDR, a feature that increases the range between the whitest whites and blackest blacks for a more realistic picture,” explains The Hollywood Reporter. “But currently, there isn’t a system in place to broadcast these images live and over the air.” Continue reading Technicolor and Sinclair Test Live UHD Broadcast with HDR

Audio technology company DTS will join Dolby and Barco in bringing object-based immersive sound systems to cinemas. The company already offers its DTS:X system for home theaters, but now DTS is delivering its tech to commercial theaters with a lower entry cost than rival systems. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the DTS:X system is lower in cost since theaters can start with just a few additional speakers and a supported server. About 350 DTS:X system installations are scheduled for this summer in Asia. Continue reading DTS:X is a New Immersive Sound System for Movie Theaters

With the Apple Watch release date only weeks away, the reviews for the new wearable continue to roll in. The Watch, Apple’s first new product in nearly five years, is already being coined by many as the best smartwatch on the market. While reviews have been largely positive, there also seems to be a steep learning curve. Some early testers have said it takes time to get familiar with all of the Watch’s functions and features, but that eventually it becomes as simple to use as any of Apple’s other devices.  Continue reading Apple Watch Not Perfect, But Some Say Best New Smartwatch

In a deal worth $1.5 billion in cash and stock, LinkedIn has agreed to acquire popular online learning service Lynda.com. With this new acquisition, LinkedIn gains another resource to push content to users and promote interaction (LinkedIn already encourages users and influencers to provide content to its site). Originally founded as a service to learn Web design skills, Lynda has become the go-to destination for e-learning and professional development at a starting subscription cost of $25 per month. Continue reading LinkedIn Acquires E-Learning Service Lynda.com for $1.5 Billion

The anonymous developers behind Popcorn Time, one of the fastest growing torrent platforms in the world, have figured out a way to get their new app on iPhones and iPads without going through the Apple App Store. Apple’s security team will not approve apps that facilitate copyright infringement, so the developers have created a new software called iOS Installer for Windows. This software will allow people to download the Popcorn Time app without jailbreaking their phones. Continue reading Popcorn Time Circumvents Apple App Store with iOS Installer

Canon has released one of the first “convergence” cameras that can take both high resolution photos and videos. The XC10 can take 12 megapixel stills or 4K video with a one-inch CMOS sensor. The XC10 can also shoot video in 1080p and 8MP still photos can be taken from the video. The photos and video save to an internal CFast card, and the built-in Wi-Fi makes it easy to get photos off the device. Canon is marketing the product to journalists and other multimedia professionals who need different types of media. Continue reading Canon’s New XC10 Camera Shoots Still Photos and 4K Video

Oyster recently announced it plans to start offering customers the option to buy select books that may not otherwise be included as a part of the company’s all-you-can-read subscription service. With its new offering, the company hopes to compete with major e-book retailers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Despite having deals with three major publishers, Oyster’s e-book subscription service has been missing key titles from publishing companies such as Random House and Hachette.  Continue reading Oyster Boosts Subscription Service with Digital eBook Store

A group of scientists at Stanford University has developed a sustainable, high performing aluminum battery that is supposedly safer and less expensive to produce than the alkaline and lithium-ion batteries commonly used today. Chemistry professor Hongjie Dai and his Stanford colleagues claim that with improvements to cathode material, lithium-ion batteries have the potential to be of commercial use to power devices such as smartphones and other widespread battery enabled products.  Continue reading Scientists Develop Aluminum-Ion Battery for Commercial Use