News roundup: Film awards and plenty of new products

This week's news roundup has a seriously wide range of news. From studio setups to film awards and firmware updates, find out everything here.

Avid MBOX Studio Desktop

Avid has launched a new MBOX Studio Desktop with a 21 x 22 USB-C interface featuring different options for inputs and outputs to seamlessly integrate the Pro Tools Studio software subscription.

The MBOX Studio Desktop is suited for studio applications such as recording vocals, mixing audio, or even creating podcasts. With eight analog inputs, users have the option to expand this setup with eight additional inputs with an outboard preamp to the ADAT optical digital input. The preamps on the four combos TRS/XLR inputs provide up to 59 dB of gain and the other four are suitable for monitors or headphone jacks with volume controls offering options for customized monitor mixes. In total with 21 inputs and 22 outputs operating simultaneously, the maximum sampling rate is 96 kHz.

The MBOX Studio Desktop is available to preorder starting from the 10th of November. The price is $899. Find out more here.

Sony Future Filmmaker Awards

The Sony Future Filmmaker Awards is a new annual program to help and find fresh talents from all around the world with the help of award-winning professionals. The impressive jury includes award-winning director Justin Chadwick, academy award-winning cinematographer Sir Roger A. Deakins, the President of TriStar Pictures, Nicole Brown, and Jeremy Barber - Partner, Motion Picture Literary and Talent.

Sony Pictures welcomes every creator with a short film to enter, and will invite a shortlist of creators to the Studio in Culver City, California, where a workshop program led by a roster of experts will help them be able to gain a new understanding of the business so that they can take further steps in their filmmaking careers.

The Sony Future Filmmaker Awards ceremony will take place on 22 February 2023 in the Cary Grant Theatre at the Sony Pictures Studio lot in Culver City, California. Thirty shortlisted filmmakers will be flown to Los Angeles to attend the ceremony and workshop program. Winners from six categories will be announced on the night and rewarded with cash prizes and a range of Sony’s Digital Imaging equipment.

HOW TO ENTER:

The first edition of the Sony Future Filmmaker Awards opened for entries on 26 July 2022. Filmmaker competition includes three categories: Fiction, Non-Fiction and Environment. The Environment category is run in association with Sony Pictures Television’s “Picture This” initiative, which tackles creativity around the positive future of the planet.

The deadline for the entries is 13 December 2022, at 07:00 AM (CT). Apply here

Nikon’s Z9 firmware 3.0 update

Nikon's new firmware update for its flagship mirrorless Z9 camera adds plenty of new features and performance to its already impressive professional full-frame system. This includes enhancements to video and photo capture, operability, autofocus, general usability, and others.

Improving its auto-focus system, Nikon adds 0.5 EV with improved accuracy in low-light and low-contrast conditions, upgraded display and operability, a new High-Res Zoom function for additional optical zoom in 4K video, and a new C60 High-Speed Frame Capture that enables 60 frames per second still shooting in DX-format. 

Nikon includes a high-frequency flicker reduction now for its video, vertical playback display for images, and timecode synchronization and UltraSync Blue that adds timecode across multiple Z9 cameras controlled by a single wireless remote control, as well as ATOMOS’ UltraSyncBlue support over Bluetooth.

Find all of Nikon's firmware updates here.

Vizrt accelerates cloud set up with Viz Now

Vizrt’s new automated deployment tool, Viz Now, reduces deployment time for cloud-based live productions from weeks to what the company says is now minutes.

With Viz Now, non-technical production staff can create end-to-end, fully pre-configured live productions in the cloud at the click of a button, including 4K switching, broadcast quality graphics, studio automation, replay/slow-motion, dedicated audio mixing, sports analysis, and intercom.

Offering an intuitive user interface, Viz Now makes it easy to select both Vizrt and third-party broadcast software elements needed for production, then automatically deploy them into the customer’s own Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud account in under 15 minutes. This same ease of use can, of course, also be extended to connect the cloud to the physical elements of a production using NDI.

At launch, Viz Now supports Viz Vectar Plus for 4K switching, Viz Trio and Viz Engine for broadcast quality graphics, Viz Mosart for studio automation, Telos Infinity VIP for intercom, Harrison Mixbus VBM for audio mixing, and 3Play by Viz Now for replay and slow-motion and Viz Libero for sports analysis.

AJA releases BRIDGE LIVE

‘AJA Video Systems released BRIDGE LIVE v1.13.2 update that expands NDI capabilities and enhancements for AJA’s multi-channel UltraHD and HD live video solution for remote production, contribution, collaboration, streaming, and delivery. 

BRIDGE LIVE is a solution for enterprises to simplify their transport of multi-channel UHD and HD video between uncompressed 12G-SDI to and from a wide range of streaming and contribution codecs, including NDI, H.265, H.264, MPEG-2, and JPEG 2000. It also supports NDI discovery servers, which streamline the detection of NDI sources within a network and operate as a centralized registry of all NDI streams. This is ideal for production environments where significant multicast DNS traffic is restricted or prohibited, commonly in many cloud computing services.

BRIDGE LIVE can also organize different NDI sources into groups to simplify the management of NDI streams. For high-raster workflows, BRIDGE LIVE enables the output of NDI streams at 4K 60fps, and for the most complex production demands, the update can support more than 100 NDI input sources.

For existing users, you can download BRIDGE LIVE from AJA’s website. BRIDGE LIVE is available through AJA’s worldwide reseller network starting at $15,999. Find out more here.

HEIPI Travel Tripod on Kickstarter – Compact 3-in-1 Tripod

Working on the road means your gear needs to be as portable as possible. HEIPI has its new HEIPI Travel Tripod that consists of three different parts that can be used individually or together for multiple modular tripod features.

HEIPI tripod has three parts: the base tripod, an inner tripod, and the ball head. You can use just the inner tripod together with the ball head or just the ball head with any existing slider or other equipment. It also comes with a phone holder, so you can attach your phone to the tripod. The ball head comes with a click-pan function that enables panoramic shots to be taken with an optional click every 10 degrees.

The whole HEIPI Travel Tripod is made of carbon fiber and metal, which makes it relatively lightweight (3 lbs / 1.35 kg and with an inner tripod: 2.6 lbs / 1.2 kg). Its size is 17.5″ / 44.5 cm in its packed form, with a diameter of 2.7″ / 6.9 cm. According to HEIPI, the maximum height is 59″ / 150 cm and the weight capacity is 24.95 kg / 55 lbs.

Find the price and more information here. And yes, we don't normally talk about Kickstarter projects, but this one has raised £471,563 pledged of its initial £8690 goal, so we think we're safe in saying it will come to market.