LAS VEGAS-- It’s hard to know what to read into the lack of early announcements from NLE manufacturers about what they intend to unveil at this year’s NAB Show. Some are just fulfilling the promises of last year’s introductions, others may be waiting to unleash major surprises. Most likely, with 3D losing its luster and 4K being used for acquisition more than delivery, the captains of our edit systems are keeping their sails furled and waiting for the next new current to sweep them along.

EDITING

Autodesk Smoke 2013

Autodesk will showcase Smoke 2013 NLE boasting a new intuitive user interface, Connect FX for powerful nodebased compositing inside the timeline, a robust toolset for high-end finishing, compositing, professional grading, color matching, and one-click chroma keying, integration with Autodesk 3D applications, and flexible system requirements that allow the software to run on off-the-shelf Apple Computers.

Dalet will demo its Dalet News Suite on Dalet’s Galaxy Platform as well as the Dalet One Cut Video Editor, built on a new video engine and a new real-time editor designed to handle multiple tracks of video and audio. We’ll also see Dalet On-the-Go, a new mobile app that extends the remote capabilities of Dalet users with Read-In, Contribution and My Assignments screens.

Grass Valley will be bringing EDIUS Elite editing that eliminates the need for conversions, processes and extra components to empower quick turnaround editing. EDIUS Elite’s “field-to-site” integration capabilities give direct access to the K2 file system allowing editors to take advantage of edit-in-place capabilities for multiple edit stations. And, EDIUS XRE can render finished files in the background, away from main editing workstations, immediately and automatically.

Quantel will show off V2.0 software for Pablo Rio, taking the leap to 64-bit performance and interactivity. With V2, existing Pablo Rio turnkey systems power up to become 4K 16 bit post production powerhouses capable of playing and working with 4K images in real time. On existing turnkey systems 4K images are downsized in the GPU for output via the 2K/HD SDI outputs. V2 is a free of charge upgrade for all Pablo Rio customers.

Vegas Pro 12, the latest version of Sony Creative Software’s NLE, adds dozens of substantial feature enhancements, performance improvements and workflow innovations, significantly expanding the creative toolkit for editors and content creators at every level of the postproduction market. Sony will also exhibit the Sound Forge Pro Mac multichannel audio recording and editing application, developed from the ground up on a clean slate for OS X, and featuring an elegant interface that redefines the audio editing experience.

GRAPHICS 

Avid Motion Graphics

Avid will show its latest version of Avid Motion Graphics, now with new configuration options that increase channel count to let media producers get more high-quality graphics to air faster and more effectively.

Baron Services will unveil an interactive weather app for iOS and Android platforms. VIPIR Touchscreen brings all of the company’s VIPIR technology to the touchscreen.

Brainstorm Aston 3D

Brainstorm will mark the NAB debut of Aston 3D, its real-time 3D graphics creation and playout system. Aston 3D is a complete and comprehensive graphics system that handles everything from CG to play-out. The company will also showcase its line of products headed up by eStudio, as well as the EasySet 3D trackless virtual set solution and the OnDemand multipurpose playout application, and also BrainNews, the company’s MOS-compatible template-based graphics solution for news.

ChyronIP for NewTek TriCaster

ChyronIP will be make its debut at the Chyron booth. It’s a real-time HD/SD 2D and 3D character and graphics system specifically designed for the NewTek Tri- Caster. Because graphics data is delivered via a network connection, broadcasters can take advantage of ChyronIP for TriCaster without tying up any of the needed camera inputs that are critical to live production. Chyron will also introduce the next generation of its Axis World Graphics cloud-based graphics creation system with new features including track, order, maps, and news.

DVEO will demo its broadcast-quality, high-density, Ad Serter Telco IP/IP 20ch at its booth. Ad Serter Telco IP/IP 20ch inserts or overlays video, graphical ads, writable slates, logos, graphics, CG, scrolling text, and emergency alerts into video feeds on a schedule or via signaling like SCTE-35.

Harris TitleOne

The new Inscriber G8 and TitleOne AE realtime graphics production systems from Harris share a design philosophy that leverages next-generation hardware platforms for advanced graphics processing and increased storage performance. Both support proven, mature graphics production workflows for off-line and on-air graphics creation, graphics template and database management, and automation control.

NVIDIA GPUs are going to be shown powering Elemental Technologies’ new next generation platform for delivering rich video content on demand to a variety of devices, including PCs, tablets, and smart phones. Together, NVIDIA and Elemental will be providing flexible and powerful solutions to stay ahead of the curve as demand rises for multiscreen services.

The new version of Maestro graphics for pre-and post production from Orad will be seen with new graphics MAM system support, connection to social networks, integration to Quantel NLE, 3D transitions, support for MOS 2.8, videoEngine control, and SceneEdit2 to edit graphics during playout. Orad will also bring their real-time 3D graphics character generator that now boasts dual channel (PGM/PGM) option, 3D transitions, custom effect creation, support for object grouping inside pages, single character text effects, and connection to social networks.

A new file-based rendering system will be shown delivering Pixel Power’s world-class new Core Graphics Engine in a software-only version that runs on standard IT hardware. The new system supports a wide variety of applications including IPTV and nonlinear television, VoD and content repackaging, and news production.

Ross Video will demo XPression v5 for real-time graphics with a new FX engine and enhanced DataLinq data integration. The FX engine plug-in architecture allows users to enhance real-time 3D animation with fully key-frameable special effects, like motion blur and light rays. New lens effects enhance virtual sets and augmented reality. XPression DataLinq adds search by record and lookup key creation to populate templates with data without manually creating hundreds of pages.

Softron’s new graphics and playback engine will bring support for almost any video codec, including Apple ProRes, H.264, XDCAM HD, XDCAM EX, MPEG-2, transport streams, as well as both Quick- Time and MXF files. An animated graphical layer will also be included in order to avoid using an external CG.

The new IP-based Viz Engine from Vizrt will give broadcasters a powerful real-time composting engine that combines graphics and video into a single stream for adaption online or to any mobile device. Graphics and video are composited in real time and output as a stream that can be many formats from online, to mobile devices to live on-air.