Drastic Technologies’ QuickClip Pro™ and QuickClip VTR™ Software Now Compatible with Bluefish444
Expanded OEM Relationship with Bluefish444 Allows Drastic® to Introduce a New Level of Powerful Video Workstations
Toronto, Ontario, April 20, 2004
Drastic Technologies Ltd. has completed the porting of its award-winning Quick Clip Pro™ software to Bluefish444’s range of HD and SD SDI video capture/playback cards. Drastic Technologies Ltd. today also announced an expanded OEM relationship with Bluefish444 Ltd. Starting in June 2004 all Bluefish444 boards will ship with fully-functional QuickClip Pro™ demonstration software.
“QuickClip™ software transforms the Bluefish444 hardware into a powerful media capture, control and delivery system. The simplicity of the user interface, the advanced control features together with the unmatched picture quality of the Bluefish444 SD and HD cards gives users an extremely cost effective and versatile digital media content manipulation solution” says Paul Cameron, Bluefish444 Application and Systems engineer.
In addition Drastic®, by combining Bluefish444’s video boards with Drastic Technologies’ custom media translation and digital disk recorder software together with industry standard creation and editing tools has created a whole new level of digital video workstations.
“Currently we are seeing a number of resellers building PCs, putting a video board in and calling it a digital video workstation. Drastic’s 10 years of experience developing and manufacturing digital disk recorders has allowed us to create the ideal machine and tool set for digital video artists,” says James Brooks, Manager Development, Drastic Technologies®.
“Initially, Drastic Technologies® will offer two Bluefish444-based workstations. The editing workstation supports Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, Eyeon Digital Fusion, Discreet Combustion and Bluefish444 Symmetry for content creation and delivery applications. The Windows Workstation features advanced uncompressed Windows Media Video file creation and delivery for IP-based or alternate media distribution applications,” Brooks explains.
The new workstations include Drastic’s advanced RS-422 serial control, VTR/DDR emulation and EDL/PlayList functionality, as well as network control, media file conversion, automated proxy creation and direct capture/playback support for native AVI, MOV, WMV, AvidDS (*.gen), Jaleo (*.js), DVS (*.dvs) and raw YUV stream (*.hdr/*.yuv) streaming formats, as well as DPX/CIN, TGA, RAW, TIFF, BMP and YUV/QNT series of stills.
“Bluefish444 hardware gives Drastic Technologies Ltd a solid yet flexible platform for our new application-specific workstations” says Bob Brooks, President of Drastic Technologies®.
Availability:
Drastic’s HD and SD output range of products are available immediately from all Drastic Technologies Ltd resellers. For details on Drastic Technologies Ltd resellers, specific configuration details or to request a quote, please visit www.drastictech.com.
About Bluefish444:
Bluefish444 is a division and brand name of Digital Voodoo (Australia) Pty Ltd. based in South Melbourne, Australia. It is a leading supplier of uncompressed video cards for the Windows operating systems. Its video cards are used by a number of OEMs specializing in broadcast solutions. By continuing to work with workstation vendors and resellers, Bluefish444 has made it easier for end-users to purchase off the shelf Windows based editing, animation and compositing solutions making sure that the hardware is optimized for HD and SD solutions. For more information on Bluefish444, its products, resellers, press images and press releases, please visit the Bluefish444 website at www.bluefish444.com.
About Drastic Technologies Ltd:
Drastic Technologies Ltd is an innovative software company dedicated to providing broadcast quality solutions for the capture, control and delivery of digital media. Drastic Technologies® is a recognized developer of DDR and video server solutions for the professional graphics, broadcasting, scientific and production markets. For more information please visit their website at www.drastictech.com.
All trademarks herein, whether registered or not, belong to their respective companies.
Drastic Technologies® Adds Advanced Media Capabilities to
VVW Series™ DDRs
Toronto, ON. April 19, 2004
Drastic Technologies® today announced that the advanced media capabilities of the VVW Series™ DDRs will be extended with the addition of several new features.
“New features AutoProxy™, advanced Network Control and the Expanded Formats greatly enhance the capabilities of the VVW Series™.” says Brett Clark, Lead Developer, VVW™. “This positions the VVW at the center of the network, providing high quality and proxy digital video with flexibility and efficiency.”
AutoProxy™ allows the creation of a secondary video file during video capture. Maintain the high image quality of the original capture, and while it is capturing, create a lower resolution video file for distribution via internet or local network. This combines the highest quality encoding with the simplicity of background encoding.
Network Control allows the user to control the VVW™ from even the most basic web browser using standard html or http protocols. For more advanced users, a Java client is also included for real-time control of all the channels available to the VVW™.
Expanded Formats bring a much wider variety of available file formats to Drastic’s VVW 5000™ (SD) and VVW 7000™ (HD) models. The original native AVI, MOV and WMV formats have been expanded to include AvidDS (*.gen), Jaleo (*.js), DVS (*.dvs) and raw YUV stream (*.hdr/*.yuv) streaming formats. Support for series of stills has also been enhanced to include DPX/CIN, TGA, RAW, TIFF, BMP and YUV/QNT. All these formats are stored directly on a native NTFS file partition and are available to a huge range of software without transcoding.
Some of these new features are also available as options for versions of QuickClip™ standalone software.
The VVW Series™ digital disk recorders/broadcast video servers are offered in Motion JPEG, DV/MPEG-2, uncompressed standard and high definition formats. Together with onboard MediaReactor™ file conversion software these units are multi-format media capture and delivery powerhouses. A limited download version of MediaReactor™ file conversion software, MediaReactor Free™, is available on the Drastic® website.
Drastic Technologies® is a leading edge developer of digital video solutions for the broadcast, sports playback, production, graphics and scientific communities. Drastic® products include standalone software, SDKs, and digital disk recorders for clip control, VTR emulation, external device control, digital media playback and file conversion.
For more information visit www.drastictech.com.
Drastic Technologies® offers a Network Control Option for
QuickClip™ Software
Toronto, ON. April 15, 2004
Drastic Technologies® today announced the availability of the QuickClip™ Network Control option. The Network Control option allows the user to remotely control their QuickClip™ software via a TCP/IP network.
“QuickClip™ software already supports advanced RS-422 serial control, but with the addition of network control, the scope of QuickClip’s functionality has been greatly expanded.” Explains James Brooks, Development Manager, DDR Technologies.
The new control mechanism is provided at three levels:
1. Web browser control via HTML transported of HTTP provides all the basic functionality without the need of an advanced client. Basic transport and media control can be achieved even from a web enabled cell phone.
2. An embedded java client provides advanced real time control of the QuickClip™ software from more advanced Java-enabled platforms. Aside from transport control and setup control, the client also supports PlayLists, real-time time code and level monitoring.
3. One QuickClip™ station may also be used to control other QuickClip™ stations via the network. All the local functionality of QuickClip™ may be applied to any station on the network. Drastic's exclusive MediaCmd™ layer makes local and network access transparent.
QuickClip™ software is available in two versions: QuickClip Pro™ and QuickClip VTR™. QuickClip Pro™ is the full-featured standalone software package for advanced capture, control and playback. QuickClip VTR™ offers a subset of the features of QuickClip Pro™ for applications not requiring controller support.
QuickClip™ software versions are available for uncompressed standard and high definition using YCbCr (8/10) or RGB (32/10) format, Motion JPEG, DV/MPEG-2, uncompressed standard and high definition video hardware. Information on supported hardware and QuickClip™ versions can be found on the Drastic® website.
Drastic Technologies® is a leading edge developer of digital video solutions for the broadcast, sports playback, production, graphics and scientific communities. Drastic® products include standalone software, SDKs, and digital disk recorders for clip control, VTR emulation, external device control, digital media playback and file conversion.
For more information visit www.drastictech.com.
Drastic Technologies® offers Advanced File Formats for QuickClip Software
Toronto, ON. April 8, 2004
Drastic Technologies® announced the release of its Advanced File Format option for uncompressed SD and HD versions of QuickClip™ software.
“QuickClip™ uncompressed already handles AVI, MOV and WMV formats natively on a standard NTFS partition.” Explains James Brooks, Development Manager, DDR Technologies. “The Advanced File Format option adds new streaming types as well as support for real time recording and playback of series of still files.”
With this option, QuickClip™ can record and play back Avid DS SD/HD media (*.gen), Jaleo media (*.js), DVS import/export format (*.dvs) and raw streamed files using a text based header file (*.raw/*.yuv/*.hdr).
“These formats are recorded and played back natively, without translation” adds Mr. Brooks, “and this provides the highest possible quality and fastest path between QuickClip™ and the target media application.”
The Advanced File Format option also supports recording and playback of series of stills including Cineon (*.cin), D-pix (*.dpx), Targa (*.tga), bitmap (*.bmp), tagged image format (*.tiff), raw YUV frames (*.yuv/*.qnt) and raw 32 bit RGB frames (*.raw). Full metadata, time code and frame rate support is provided either in file (dpx) or by a side bar XML file. Up to 8 channels of automatic sidebar audio are also supported using *.aiff, WAV mono, WAV stereo or WAV -extensible format.
QuickClip™ software is available in two versions: QuickClip Pro™ and QuickClip VTR™. QuickClip Pro™ is the full-featured standalone software package for advanced capture, control and playback. QuickClip VTR™ offers a subset of the features of QuickClip Pro™ for applications not requiring controller support.
QuickClip™ software versions are available for uncompressed standard and high definition using YCbCr (8/10) or RGB (32/10) format, Motion JPEG, DV/MPEG-2, uncompressed standard and high definition video hardware. Information on supported hardware and QuickClip™ versions can be found on the Drastic® website.
Drastic Technologies® is a leading edge developer of digital video solutions for the broadcast, sports playback, production, graphics and scientific communities. Drastic® products include standalone software, SDKs, and digital disk recorders for clip control, VTR emulation, external device control, digital media playback and file conversion.
For more information visit www.drastictech.com.
Drastic Technologies® offers Automatic Proxy File Generation for QuickClip™ Software
Toronto, ON. April 2, 2004
Drastic Technologies® today announced availability of automatic proxy file generation for its uncompressed QuickClip™ high definition and standard definition software.
AutoProxy™ allows the user of QuickClip™ software to generate a “proxy” or secondary compressed video file during an uncompressed video capture. AutoProxy™ is faster than other encoding tools since proxy file encoding occurs at the same time as the video capture.
“The AutoProxy™ add-on was originally developed to provide a solution for the compressed media quality/encode speed problem,” says James Brooks. “For the highest quality encode the codec needs more time than is available during a live capture. In order to gain that extra time, the capture must be complete before most encoding tools can begin encoding,” further explains Mr. Brooks. This problem is only exacerbated when the source is HD material.
The Automatic Proxy File Generation add-on solves this problem by capturing the uncompressed data to a standard AVI file and simultaneously encoding the same file to the compressed target. This means encoding is started within a few seconds of the start of record and continues during the entire record period. Once the record is complete, encoding may continue for as long as is required to provide the best quality encode whether single or multi pass.
AutoProxy™ supports a number of target formats, but is primarily aimed at Windows Media. It supports up to 8 channels of audio, standard and high definition video as well as 'per frame' time code and internal/external XML metadata.
QuickClip™ software is available in two versions: QuickClip Pro™ and QuickClip VTR™. QuickClip Pro™ is the full-featured standalone software package for advanced capture, control and playback. QuickClip VTR™ offers a subset of the features of QuickClip Pro™ for applications not requiring controller support.
QuickClip™ software versions are available for uncompressed standard and high definition using YCbCr (8/10) or RGB (32/10) format, Motion JPEG, DV/MPEG-2, uncompressed standard and high definition video hardware. Information on supported hardware and QuickClip™ versions can be found on the Drastic website.
Drastic Technologies® is a leading edge developer of digital video solutions for the broadcast, sports playback, production, graphics and scientific communities. Drastic® products include standalone software, SDKs, and digital disk recorders for clip control, VTR emulation, external device control, digital media playback and file conversion.
For more information visit www.drastictech.com.
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