Transcript
F35. Bring it on. Bring on the pyro, the high noon exteriors, the shadows six stops below key. Sony’s F35 digital motion picture camera takes on the most challenging assignments. And shine. The PL mount welcomes your 35mm motion picture lenses. S-Gamut extends your color palette while S-LOG gamma preserves your vision from velvety blacks to piercing specular highlights.
PRODUCTION
Efficiency and economy
When Sony launched the original F900 back in 2000, we triggered a small revolution in budgeting. Film stock, developing and dailies can cost more than $50.00 per minute of exposed film. The equivalent cost per minute of HDCAM SR™ tape is about $1.09, a savings of 80%.
Affordable storage Digital motion picture acquisition can impose crushing storage burdens, greatly complicating data management on the set. In post, overweight files also penalize you in network transfers, server costs and workflow inefficiency. For example, uncompressed 1920 x 1080 4:4:4 10 bit signals require a massive 671 Gigabytes of storage for every hour of material you shoot. The HDCAM SR system can help, cutting the burden roughly by as much as 70% in SQ recording mode. The “SR Lite” mode for program exchange reduces the burden further still.
This comparison is no comparison.
Digital immediacy In olden days, the overnight processing of film and the next-day screening of dailies was your only choice. But in today’s world of tight visual effects schedules and everfaster turnaround times, film processing can be an exasperating roadblock. HDCAM SR assets are available immediately. So you can confirm that you got the shot before you strike the set. There’s no processing. There’s no need for de-Bayering, which can introduce variability with some cameras. There’s no post-production “secret sauce.” HDCAM SR decks support 2x faster than real-time ingest. And with selected studio decks, you can take advantage of automatic transcoding into DPX files plus Gigabit Ethernet file transfers.
The Gigabytes really add up. Uncompressed 1920x1080 recording can require nearly 700 GB for a single hour of material. The three HDCAM SR recording modes substantially lighten the load.
File-based workflow
Sony is making HDCAM SR recordings easier to edit than ever before. With the appropriate option board, current HDCAM SR studio decks can output footage as SRFile™ computer data using SR Codec compression and industry-standard MXF wrappers. Sony is working to establish compatibility with selected editing systems, including Sony Vegas®, Avid Media Composer® (via Avid Media Access) and Apple® Final Cut Pro® editors. The FilmLight™ Baselight™ 4.2 color correction system already accepts HDCAM SR files directly. As this initiative moves forward, it will clear away file rewrapping, transcoding and other extraneous importing steps. Speak to your NLE vendor about availability and interoperability.
Increasing post efficiency
To make your workflow faster, selected Sony studio decks offer a growing range of enhancements. 2X real-time recording and playback accelerate transfer and ingest processes. MXF and DPX file transfers over Gigabit Ethernet dovetail into today’s file-based workflows. A 220 Mbps SR Lite recording mode opens up cost-effective possibilities in program exchange. All told, Sony is giving producers more ways to use and appreciate the HDCAM SR system.
3D capabilities
Because the HDCAM SR™ format was developed in consultation with prominent Hollywood directors, Sony anticipated the need for 3D recording. It is for this reason that the format includes two recording modes, 440 and 880 Mbps. In the 880 mode, the system can record both left-eye and right-eye images on the same tape at the same time. Both channels get the same time code, use the same metadata and remain in perfect sync. This greatly simplifies 3D production and assures that the two channels never get separated.
SRMaster production platform
It’s not hard to record data onto memory cards. The real challenge is developing a solid state platform with superb data integrity, fast on-set backup, efficient post production and the headroom required for next-generation imaging. You need a system that simplifies data wrangling and minimizes sleepless nights. And in the long run, you need a system that supports master-quality recording at resolutions of HD, 2K, 4K and beyond. This is the SRMaster™ production platform. The SRMaster platform is a comprehensive, next-generation production system that includes field recorders, camcorders, studio decks, a transfer station, SRMemory™ cards and the SR codec. The SRMaster platform is built upon the same 10-bit mastering-quality codec as used in the HDCAM SR digital tape format. This is the current de facto standard, considered by professionals to be visually lossless and used throughout the industry in production, delivery master and archiving. With the SRMaster platform, you can natively access the SR Codec as a file and stay native from acquisition all the way through post production.
The SRMemory card About the size of a smart phone, the SRMemory card delivers capacity and transfer speed far beyond previous cards. Where HDCAM SR tape achieves a sustained 440 and 880 Mbps and SxS™ cards can achieve momentary bursts of up to 1.2 Gbps1, SRMemory cards go much further. Sustained transfer speed is 5 Gbps. Made possible by dedicated memory controller circuits inside each card, this speed is a vital advantage when you’re backing up your original camera masters after a day’s shoot. The maximum capacity of 1 Terabyte (1,000 GB2) exceeds any previous memory card.3 Other cards are offered in capacities of 256 GB2 and 512 GB2. 1. Read speed measured with a benchmark software. Actual transfer speed varies based upon the measurement conditions. 2. 1 GB equals one billion bytes, a portion of which is used for data management functions.
Remarkable to see on a memory card: the designation “1 TB.”
3. As of March 2011.
The next-generation capacity and transfer rate of SRMemory cards enable productions to enjoy powerful recording options. Choices include 10-bit, 12-bit, the new 220 Mbps SR Lite level of the SR codec, 440 Mbps, 880 Mbps or uncompressed DPX, and extend all the way up to 16-bit 4K RAW (and beyond in the future). SRMemory cards can record and output two data streams at the same time, enabling stereoscopic 3D recording and simultaneous, independent read/write operations. Sony is also upgrading the audio, going from 12 channels of uncompressed audio on HDCAM SR tape to 16 channels on SRMemory cards.
SRMaster field recording Productions can take advantage of SRMaster recording in two field recorders. The SR-R3 SRMaster docking field recorder (expected availability Summer 2011) features a multi-pin interface for direct docking to F35 and F23 cameras. Up to 1080 4:4:4 60 fps Selectable fps (Slow & Quick Motion) •F35: 1 to 50 fps •F23: 1 to 60 fps Supports all SRW-1 signal formats and more: •SR-Lite (220Mbps); SR-SQ (440Mbps); SR-HQ (880Mbps) •Uncompressed DPX recording oRGB 4:4:4 12-bit recording
The SR-R3 field recorder docks like a film magazine to Sony’s F35 camera.
The SR-R1 SRMaster standalone field recorder connects to any camera with industry-standard HD-SDI or dual-link HD-SDI inputs.
SRFile recording •SR-Lite (220Mbps) •SR-SQ (440Mbps) •SR-HQ (880Mbps) Uncompressed DPX recording
HD-SDI/3G-SDI dual-link In/Out •10-bit 4:2:2 or 10/12-bit RGB 4:4:4 recording •4:2:2 1080 50p/60p recording
3D stereoscopic (dual stream) recording: •1080 30p 4:2:2 3D and 1080 30p RGB 4:4:4 3D 16 channels uncompressed audio Timecode In/Out Remote Control Panel RS-422 remote control
The SR-R1 brings file-based recording to camcorders with an HD-SDI output— in this case the Sony HDW-F900R CineAlta™ camcorder.
The SR-R4 SRMaster docking field recorder is dedicated to the F65 camera. 16-bit linear RAW recording
Selectable fps (Slow & Quick motion) •4K full aperture (4096 x 2160): up to 60 fps •4K “scope” (2.35:1): up to 72 fps •2K full aperture (2048 x 1080): up to 120 fps
The SR-R4 docked to Sony’s ground-breaking F65 camera.
Smarter, speedier data wrangling
The SR-R1000 multi-channel server has slots for four SRMemory cards.
The SRMaster platform has you covered from the set, through data backup and well into post production. Sony is one of the few companies providing the entire process, end to end. To back up your precious original camera masters, Sony created the SR-R1000 deck. The R1000 is essentially a multi-channel server, with four SRMemory card slots and 12 TB4 of internal memory storage. Depending on the type of data, up to four SRMemory cards can be ingested at the same time. A 1 TB SRMemory card can store about an hour of 4K 16-bit RAW data. The SR-R1000 can offload a single 1 TB card of 4K 16-bit RAW in less than 30 minutes, moving the data into internal memory storage. This makes the R1000 ideal for efficient data management on the set and in the post production studio. 4. 1 TB equals one trillion bytes, a portion of which is used for data management functions.
The SRPC-5 transfer station features a 10 Gigabit Ethernet interface.
The SRPC-5 transfer station connects to a computer or server via 10 Gigabit Ethernet to quickly move data from the SRMemory cards and into post production. A single Rack Unit high, this component also has 3G-SDI and HD-SDI outputs, and can back up data to HDCAM SR digital tape at up to 2x real time. The SRPC-5 can also be the perfect companion to existing on-set data ingest solutions.
Tape/memory hybrid operation The HDCAM SR tape format is nearly ubiquitous in studios and high-end post houses. Sony anticipates years of synergy between HDCAM SR tape and SRMaster memory recording. For example, HDCAM SR tape users can take advantage of file-based operations with the SRW-5800/2 deck outputting tape-recorded clips as SRFile data files. By the same token, users of SRMaster memory recording can easily back up their SRFile assets on HDCAM SR tape at 2x real time speeds.
The SRFile format in post The SRFile format is based on the same SR Codec used in the HDCAM SR system. It enables you to natively access the SR Codec as a file and stay native from acquisition all the way through post. The SR Codec is already supported as a Direct-to-Edit process in Apple® Final Cut Pro® by way of a plug-in from Sony, Avid® Media Composer® v5.5 via AMA, FilmLight® and DaVinci Resolve®, to name a few, and the list is growing rapidly.
