Following the appointment of Matthieu Straub as the company’s technical and operational consultant to France and the Benelux countries in the summer of 2019, FilmLight is delighted to announce that it has now established a permanent presence in Paris. By sharing premises with ARRI France, FilmLight is developing a strong hub for creative and technical knowledge and events.

The hub will host the first of FilmLight’s Colour Day workshops in 2020, on 28 January. One of the advantages of sharing the centre with ARRI is that it underlines the seamless workflows from camera to finish, using the BLG format for render-free viewing and creativity. The BLG grading metadata is stored in the ARRIRAW and QuickTime headers, ensuring the content and its look are permanently linked.

The Paris Colour Day on 28 January, aimed at creatives and technicians in production and post production, will see FilmLight’s workflow specialists, Straub and Thomas Eberschveiler unveil new FilmLight tools. Attendees will also hear from guest colourist Stéphane Azouze about his collaboration with directors Anastasia Mikova and Yann Arthus-Bertrand on the recent award-winning documentary ‘Woman’. Finally, colour scientist Florine Bel will share her image expertise and discuss her work developing film aesthetics, colour spaces and conversions.

The shared space has already hosted successful events, including a workshop day for DITs. Led by Straub, with guest speakers from Netflix and from post house Mikros, the group discussed the latest developments in colour space management and workflows. ARRI’s presence allowed the discussion to include ARRI Looks and how they can be incorporated into FilmLight BLG post production. In the demonstration area, they featured an ARRI ALEXA camera feeding Prelight and Daylight software, allowing the delegates to experiment with look development and make comparisons between standard and high dynamic range colour spaces.

Explaining the importance of bringing together creative artists and technicians, FilmLight’s Matthieu Straub said “My background is as a digital image technician, and I know how directors and cinematographers are increasingly relying on DITs to find technical solutions to their demanding creative requirements. “Our intention is to use our demonstration and meeting space here on the Rue René Boulanger to be a place where we can encourage the sharing of knowledge and experiences, to help the French cinema industry achieve ever greater things.”

CVP, one of the UK’s leading production solutions providers, will be providing hands-on experience with some of the latest kit to reach the UK market at this year’s BSC Expo 2020 (Friday 31st January to Saturday 1st February, Battersea Evolution, London).

Featuring a set inspired as a homage to the BSC’s 70th anniversary, the showcase at BSC Expo will allow customers to compare like-for-like options and to get hands-on with the equipment they are interested in — along with all the necessary accessories — to find out how their creative desires can be best fulfilled.

Camera Hire, a well-established Australian rental company and a leader in industry camera support solutions, recently purchased 10 CiNX 3 Fluid Heads and 10 Sprinter II 2 Stage Carbon Fibre Tripods from Miller Tripods. For over a decade, Camera Hire has provided professional cameras and supporting equipment for a large range of productions including commercials, documentaries and feature films.

As a long-time customer of Miller Tripods, Bevan Dally, managing director of Camera Hire, knows he can always turn to Miller to provide top-of-the-line solutions for his customer base. “We’ve been using Miller’s ArrowX series for some time now and the fluid heads are excellent,” he says. “The payload range and versatility are very beneficial considering the various types of jobs we support. With the CiNX line, our customers are able to mount a variety of cameras, including Sony’s FS7, Canon’s C300’s, and ARRI’S Alexa Mini and Amira, with ease.”

Thanks to Miller’s CiNX 3 Fluid Heads, Camera Hire can provide its customers with a solution that significantly improves cinematographer’s workflows. “Upgrading to the brand new CiNX series was a no brainer for us, especially because of its ability to mount ARRI dovetail plates directly on the head,” Dally says. “We can now easily provide our clients with a Sony VCT or ARRI dovetail system using the same fluid head, without the need to swap back and forth between multiple plates. With CiNX fluid heads, cinematographer’s can easily and quickly change from one camera to another with a seamless transition.”

Sony has announced that the Sony BRC Series PTZ remote cameras have been chosen to capture unique close-up footage of the heart-warming story of beautiful lynx cats in the high-end TV wildlife series, Snow Cats & Me.

Produced by Oak Island Films and Hello Halo TV, the two-part series pushes creative and technical boundaries to present an intimate portrait of animals in the wild. With the producer Ted Oakes, Managing Director of Oak Island Films commenting: “This was a tricky challenge: the Sony BRC cameras helped us capture amazing footage that expresses the unique character of these beautiful animals in their natural environment.”

Blackmagic Design today announced that live production workflows, featuring its products for acquisition, control and delivery, have been used on some of this year's biggest music festivals and concert tours.

Artists and events included Little Mix, Billie Eilish, Elton John, Fall Out Boy and Andrea Bocelli, as well as Festival Beauregard, Rocking the Daisies, Aftershock Festival and Sweden Rock.

As broadcast and AV workflows continue to converge, more and more rental and staging companies are now standardizing their video offerings to festivals and touring artists based on hardware solutions from Blackmagic Design. Not only has the amount of video demanded by the entertainment market increased in 2019, so too has the amount of 4K production for IMAG.

AVer Europe has announced the launch of the M17-13M, its new mechanical arm visualiser, to the UK market. Boasting a 13-megapixel camera, 35.2X total zoom and full HD quality, the M17-13M offers one of the highest visualiser specifications available to education institutions to transform teaching and learning practices.

Operating as a document camera with impressive angle control, the M17-13M visualiser enables users to capture the best image clarity and detail. The onboard annotation capability provides users with the opportunity to add notes, highlight important information or add captions to presentation material easily, making explaining a tricky concept or a key point to a classroom simple.

Designed with a fully adjustable neck and head, the M17-13M visualiser can rotate, swivel, expand and collapse for the perfect angle to display presentation materials, including paper or 3D models. Its versatile compact design means it can be neatly folded away, making it ideal for quick storage or sharing between classrooms and practitioners. The product is bundled with AVER’s A+ Suite classroom software for visualisers and comes with a five-year warranty.

Videosys Broadcast, a leading supplier of quality camera control systems, RF links and camera backs to outside broadcast providers has announced that it has supplied two DTC 4K AEON-CC digital video transmitter systems to Cloudbass, a leading provider of broadcast solutions.

Specifically designed for high-quality wireless camera applications the AEON-CC uses DTC’s next-generation HEVC encoder technology facilitating UHD images. The system consists of one single 4K transmitter unit from DTC coupled with a built-in Videosys Camera Control system. The advantage of the AEON CC with Videosys’ camera control receiver built into the unit is a reduction in the equipment count and the complexities that come when managing 4K transmission and camera control simultaneously.

Cloudbass have been successfully using the systems on UHD, 3G and HD setups across a variety of live Outside Broadcasts, including both SKY Boxing and BT Speedway in UHD, on the British Touring Cars for ITV Sport, and The Lord Mayor’s Show for BBC Events.

Marshall Electronics, a leading provider of cameras, monitors, and accessories for professional broadcast video and A/V applications, introduces a new line of 8.5 Megapixel IP Cameras with smooth 30x Optical Zoom and triple-stream H.265/H.264/MJPEG capabilities.

The CV420-30X-IP model delivers up to UHD (3840x2160p) resolution at 60fps through simultaneous HDMI and IP streams, while the CV355-30X-IP delivers up to HD (1920x1080p) resolution at 60fps through 3G/HD-SDI (BNC), IP and HDMI. Both models start with a high performance Sony 8.5 Megapixel 1/2.5” sensor and 30x optical zoom block, providing flexible integration in networked HD and UHD workflows where image quality, reliability and versatility are of utmost concern. The 30X optical zoom range offers a flexible 4.6mm to 135mm focal length range, providing 68° horizontal angle-of-view (AOV) at its widest through 3° when fully extended, maintaining image crispness in both wide and tight shots from longer distances.

The IP ethernet I/O port supports triple stream H.265/H.264/MJPEG video with MPEG-TS support, common IP control protocols, and power (PoE) over a single Ethernet cable with stereo audio embedding through a 3.5mm input on the rear panel. The CV420-30X-IP and CV355-30X-IP utilize common control protocols including Visca over IP, Onvif and Pelco, and are compatible with the new Marshall VS-PTC-IP IP Camera Controller.

Sony has announced that its next-generation motion picture camera system, VENICE, was used for principal photography on the new ‘Downton Abbey’ movie, directed by Michael Engler, and produced by Gareth Neame and Liz Trubridge.   

With its forward-thinking full frame sensor, impressive colour science and user-friendly operation, VENICE was chosen by Director of Photography (DOP) Ben Smithard to scale the TV series’ drama onto the big screen through impressive picture quality and greater detail.    Real emotion in every frame “VENICE was the only camera system that could deliver a larger and more detailed image to match the movie’s enthralling storyline on the big screen,” explained Ben Smithard. “When it came to shoot challenging frames for the film, the VENICE never let me down. It performed well without any issues, wherever it was put – from being rigged on camera dollies, tower cams, cranes and even helicopters.” 

VENICE, the versatile next-generation full frame motion picture camera, has been created for and with modern cinematographers in mind. It allows creatives to capture stunning visuals in almost any format, including full frame 24x26mm, Super35 and Anamorphic, with a maximum resolution of 6048 x 4032. At the same time, its usability, reliability and flexibility allow it to seamlessly match any filmmakers’ shooting requirements and support them in bringing their creative vision to life. 

The Peli™ Air Case range has been expanded with the launch of the new 1745 case; designed for long equipment, such as tripods. Peli Air cases are waterproof and crushproof and offer additional sizes to the Peli Protector and Peli Storm case lines.

The 1745 case features press and pull latches to keep the lid firmly closed during transit but to open easily on arrival. Stainless steel bearing wheels are built in for easy transportation of heavier loads. The 1745 is 1118mm long x 426mm wide and 206mm deep (internal measurements) and is available with Pick n Pluck™ foam for protection against impact, vibration and shock.

The Peli Air range has been hugely popular and there are now twelve sizes available. They are all engineered to maintain the same level of durability as the classic Peli cases, but reduce the weight of each case by up to 40 percent. The Air case range is constructed of premium lightweight HPX2 resin, the next generation of Peli’s proprietary formula that rebounds from stress without breaking.

Peli Air cases carry the legendary “You break it, we replace it” …forever.™