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BIG News: AVID To Acquire Pinnacle Systems for $462 Million
How to Get a Free Cow Mousepad at NAB 2005,
FREE Exhibits Only Passes to NAB, Tutorials and latest industry news
Newest Cow Forums:
Digital Photography, Macromedia
Flash, Macromedia
Dreamweaver
Grass Valley Broadcast Systems, Silhouette Roto
It wasn't that long ago that Pinnacle Systems acquired two German companies, Fast Multimedia (makers of the video systems which became Pinnacle's Liquid systems) and Steinberg Media Technologies AG (whose audio tools became Pinnacle's audio products mix). Now, Avid has ponied up what amounts to approximately $462 million for Pinnacle Systems in a move that Avid says was made to strengthen their market reach into the consumer market and add new options to their professional broadcast systems lines. Pinnacle's recent sale of Nuendo and other audio assets to Japan's Yahama now makes much more sense than it did last quarter when it was announced.
 Avid president and CEO David Krall said, "We see this acquisition as the next logical step in our long-term strategy. Just as our acquisition of M-Audio in 2004 brought us into the consumer audio business, by acquiring Pinnacle's consumer video business, Avid will be able to tap into the next generation of video editors while they are still learning their craft. This creates a very large potential customer base for Avid's future. At the same time, we believe that Pinnacle's professional broadcast offerings will fit seamlessly with Avid's business, extending our end-to-end broadcast solutions with servers and on-air graphics products. We think it would be hard to find a more complementary match for these two businesses than what this combination provides."
When Pinnacle announced in Q4 2004 that they were selling Steinberg Nuendo and some other Steinberg assets to Yamaha, it looked like Pinnacle was repositioning itself again in the face of intense competition from the recently introduced Premiere Pro and rapidly developing competition from Sony Vegas. But few suspected that the outcome of all this latest round of reshuffling would find its outcome in an acquisition by Avid Technology. In a move shrouded in a level of secrecy that rivals that of Apple, this move seemed to come out of nowhere and we know of no one who even whispered of the move.
The Cow's Avid and Final Cut Pro-related forums like the main Final Cut and Pinnacle CinéWave forums are already reacting to this latest announcement. Even the Discreet Edit* forum is hotly debating the pros and cons of this latest move in the market.
To read the official press release please visit:
http://www.creativecow.net/index.php?forumid=105&postid=111139852090787
FOR REACTION TO TODAY'S NEWS...
Visit the Cow's AVID forum, please visit:
http://www.creativecow.net/forum/view_posts.php?forumid=45
Visit the Cow's Pinnacle Liquid Edition forum, please visit:
http://www.creativecow.net/forum/view_posts.php?forumid=125
Visit the Cow's Pinnacle CinéWave forum, please visit:
http://www.creativecow.net/forum/view_posts.php?forumid=94
Visit the Cow's Final Cut Pro forum, please visit:
http://www.creativecow.net/forum/view_posts.php?forumid=8
Visit the Cow's Discreet Edit* forum, please visit:
http://www.creativecow.net/forum/view_posts.php?forumid=13
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Creative Cow's Lee Brimelow gives Cow users a two-part look at Flash Basics in this streaming Flash tutorial series
As many Cow members know, Flash is not the most intuitive or easiest thing to learn and in this video tutorial series from Lee Brimelow, Flash is unmasked and the basics are explored. Thanks, Lee! This is something that many Cow users have been asking about and we are pleased to have the Cow's new Flash forum developing rapidly under the leadership of Lee & Team who are making the Flash forum one of the hot new forums in the Cow.
Flash Part 1:
http://www.creativecow.net/articles/brimelow_lee/video_basics_1/index.html
Flash Part 2:
http://www.creativecow.net/articles/brimelow_lee/video_basics_2/index.html
Visit the Cow's FLASH forum at:
http://www.creativecow.net/forum/view_posts.php?forumid=190
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Combustion
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Getting That Old Movie Look Without Plug-Ins in Combustion
CreativeCOW.net Contributing Editor, Bimo Adi Prakoso demonstrates some techniques for
Creating the Old Movie Looks with Combustion
in this tutorial. He advises readers that, "Many plugins for creating an old movie look are available at various costs, but the challenge is creating one without any plug-in at all. Actually, it's a simple, straight forward process".
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After Effects
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Two or Three Color Effect
We've all seen the scene in which everything is black and white except one color, but what if you wanted to have a two or even a three-color special effect? Well, this tutorial from Roland Kahlenberg, which we'll call Coolsville, will show you the way.
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Maya
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Animating a Ribbon with Maya
One common request or problem Maya users stumble across is how to properly animate a ribbon that zips across the screen and is flexible enough to bend and twist in various ways. While it sounds simple in concept, it may not be as straightforward and obvious as one would think to set this up properly with the maximum animation capabilities. In this article, Chad Briggs demonstrates a solution that he came up with in response to a recent gig.
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Compositing
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How To Become a Feature Film Compositor
Have you ever wanted to contribute to building a twenty thousand man army in "
Troy
", make a mouse fly a plane in "Stuart Little 2", or launch a doomed luxury liner in "
Titanic"? You can achieve visual feats you never dreamed possible and accomplish them all through the magic of compositing. Read this article written by John Lafauce Jr, and see...
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News: Adobe to host "Ideas Conference" for today's creative professionals
Day-Long Event in New York Delivers Unique Forum For Design Innovators to Share New Directions on Creativity, Technology and Branding
Adobe Systems Incorporated announced that it will host the Ideas Conference, a day-long event aimed at creative professionals and educators working in design, advertising, publishing and professional photography. Taking place at Grand Hyatt New York on April 4, the event will include presentations and panels that involve design industry luminaries and major brands. The conference will open with a keynote presentation from Adobe CEO, Bruce Chizen and Adobe president and chief operating officer, Shantanu Narayen. MORE
 
News: Pinnacle® Liquid Edition™ enhances end-to-end HDV workflow with version 6.1
Users should be able to work within the native HDV format throughout their production process from their first day of shooting, through editing and up until final distribution.
Pinnacle Systems®, Inc., a leading provider of digital video solutions, today announced the immediate availability of Pinnacle Liquid Edition version 6.1, which offers expanded HDV capabilities that provide true end-to-end HDV workflow with the inclusion of comprehensive deck and device support for Sony’s popular prosumer and professional lines of HDV cameras and decks. MORE
News: BOXX Workstations Qualified for Blackmagic Design's Decklink HD Pro
for Television and Feature Film Postproduction
BOXX Technologies, the leading workstation company offering systems that are as powerful as they are easy to integrate, announces its 8200 series of high-performance workstations based on dual Intel® Xeon™ processors are certified for the Blackmagic DeckLink HD Pro™, a high-quality broadcast video card designed for the most demanding high-end television and feature film postproduction. MORE
ECCA 2005
News: Entone Demos Power, Flexibility of Open VOD System
Demonstrates Live VOD Movie Service over HP and IBM Servers
Entone Technologies, a leading provider of personal video content delivery solutions, today announced that it will have live demonstrations of its open system VOD solutions in stand number 38 at ECCA 05, Budapest, March 21-23. Entone’s live ECCA demonstration is based upon the Entone StreamLiner Network Video Recorder robust software architecture and the Encoding Studio content ingest and distribution workflow running on both HP and IBM servers, the cable industry’s most popular video server hardware platforms. MORE
News: Character Animation Technologies Releases Public Beta of Revolutionary Muscle Deformation Tool
Introduces first muscle deformation system that will import into game engines
Character Animation Technologies Ltd.™, a New Zealand-based developer of ground-breaking character animation software, today announced the public, beta release of CATMuscle™, its revolutionary muscle deformation system. CATMuscle adds a whole new dimension to the company's flagship product, CAT , a complete character system for 3ds max®. The muscle system allows artists to achieve full-range, realistic movement in shoulders and other difficult areas with a minimum of setup. CATMuscle is the only muscle system that can be imported directly into a game engine. MORE
News: Pinnacle Systems Delivers Pinnacle Liquid Version 6.1 for Broadcast
Advanced SD/HD Editing System Delivers “Frictionless” Broadcast Workflow
Pinnacle Systems®, Inc. , a leader in digital video solutions, announced the availability of version 6.1 of its Pinnacle Liquid real-time standard definition and high definition video editing systems for broadcast environments. Liquid version 6.1 marks the first release of the significantly improved Liquid version 6 software in broadcast editing configurations. New capabilities include true multi-stream native high definition editing, format-independent real-time effects, integrated DVD authoring, advanced audio tools, multi-cam support and a redesigned user interface. MORE
NAB 2005
News: Canopus To Unveil Canopus Workflow and New EDIUS Solution at NAB 2005
Create, Purpose and Deliver with the Canopus Workflow
Canopus Corporation, leaders in digital video technology, will unveil the Canopus Workflow and a new EDIUS solution at NAB 2005 in Las Vegas . Canopus brings together its powerful realtime, mixed editing solutions and transcoding expertise with its LAN-based video distribution technology to provide video professionals with the ultimate workflow solution, so they can Create, Purpose and Deliver video content quickly and at the highest quality for broadcast, DVD, streaming and video-on-demand applications. MORE
News: Baton Rouge Magazine Show Shot With Panasonic AG-DVX100AS
With “Brit Meets Bayou” Scenario, Baton Rouge's Most Popular Magazine Show Is Shot With Panasonic AG-DVX100A 24P Camcorders
Over the past year, The Scott Rogers Around Town Weekend TV Show, an upstart television magazine show shot on a shoestring budget, has charmed Baton Rouge, LA residents and become the market’s number one-rated cable offering. The one-hour show, airing a Saturday and Sunday edition on COX4, the regional COX cable network, presents British workplace expert/author Scott Rogers meeting up with the best and most colorful local attractions, interesting people and reviews of community events and news. A production of 1stCo Inc., Around Town is shot with AG-DVX100A Mini-DV 3-CCD camcorders used in both studio and EFP configurations. MORE
News: Media 100, a unit of Optibase, announces 10-Bit Uncompressed HD & SD editing with Media 100 HD 10.1
Media 100, a unit of Optibase and a leading provider of advanced media systems, announced the release of Media 100 HD 10.1. Version 10.1 expands the feature-rich Version 10 release to include a new Media 100 software codec and other key enhancements that make the 10-bit-uncompressed Macintosh-based system even more powerful and unique for projects that use HD, SD, or need real-time mixing of different codecs in the same timeline. MORE
NAB 2005
News: FOCUS Enhancements to Unveil Industry's First High Definition Portable DTE Recorder
Featuring Direct To Edit™ Technology, FireStore FS-4 HD Maintains a Pure HD Signal from Acquisition and Editing to Distribution and Broadcast
FOCUS Enhancements Inc. , a worldwide leader in video production and conversion technology, today announced it will demonstrate its new FireStore FS-4 HD and FS-4Pro HD High Definition Portable Direct To Edit™ recorders at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas from April 18th to 21st . MORE
For more industry news, visit the COW News & Press Releases forum at:
http://www.creativecow.net/forum/view_posts.php?forumid=105
http://www.creativecow.net/index.php?forumid=173
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One of the noted speakers and trainers at this year's NAB Post|Production World Conference is George Avgerakis (right), a contributing editor of Videography and Digital Cinema magazines and the author of the "Desktop Video Studio Bible" and "Digital Animation Bible" (both titles are published by McGraw-Hill). He has been the VP Creative Director of Avekta Productions in New York City since 1982 and before Avekta, George Avgerakis originated the Nabisco Brands AV/TV Center, produced TV commercials for Grey Advertising and designed print ads for BASF. He frequently lectures at universities and professional seminars nationwide. Many Cow members will also recall George's in-depth report on Liquid Edition for our readers.