The team and I are solely focused on developing appropriate plans for IBC2020. At the moment, we remain committed to delivering a successful IBC2020 this September at the RAI Amsterdam. That is our objective, provided we can deliver, first and foremost, a safe environment for everyone, and second, an audience which will deliver the level of engagement you, our exhibitors, expect from IBC.

The Covid-19 pandemic has placed specific strains on the media industry. We have the same challenges as anyone else in protecting staff and maintaining a safe working environment. But the eyes of the world are literally upon us, turning to trusted news media as never before for information and guidance, as well as entertainment while so many are confined to our homes.

IBC is organised by the industry for the industry, and so it feels the strains of the present day very keenly. However, it also recognises the need to get back to business as soon as possible, and so we continue to develop plans for IBC this September.

Working together, we believe that we can create an event that will play a vital role in helping the industry get back on track.

The IBC team is closely monitoring developments around the world. We are in daily contact with the City of Amsterdam and the management team at the RAI. They, in turn, are working with all their key stakeholders, from the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) to KLM and Schiphol Airport. Please be assured that we are not blindly heading towards an event come what may: on behalf of the whole industry IBC needs to ensure the event – if we can make it happen – is safe and successful.

https://show.ibc.org/news/ibc-coronavirus-statement

The health and safety of Adobe customers, partners, and employees is and always has been our top priority. To that end, we’ve made the difficult decision to cancel the in-person MAX event and make MAX 2020 a digital experience. And while we won’t be seeing you in person, we’re planning an immersive event that stays true to the MAX spirit of mind-blowing creativity and inspiration.

https://max.adobe.com

I see zero reason to do such events (except to keep PR department busy).

"Steptoe has secured a significant trial victory for Autel Robotics USA at the US International Trade Commission (ITC). On March 2, the chief administrative law judge of the ITC found that SZ DJI Technology Co. Ltd. and seven related entities (together known as “DJI”), the world’s largest maker of consumer drones, violated Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, by importing and selling drones that infringe US Patent No. 9, 260,184 belonging to Autel.

As a result, the chief administrative law judge recommended that the infringing products be excluded from importation into the United States, including the Mavic Pro, Mavic Pro Platinum, Mavic 2 Pro, Mavic 2 Zoom, Mavic Air, and Spark. Together these represent some of DJI’s most popular drones sold in the United States. "

NAB Show is the premier event driving the evolution of media and entertainment. It is an engine for commerce and a critical launchpad for products and services expected to revolutionize the business. The convention’s 1,600 exhibitors and 90,000 attendees rely on the annual NAB Show to raise their profile and meet business goals.

While the NAB stands firm in its commitment to hold the convention as planned, the health and safety of attendees and participants are NAB’s top priority. To that end, NAB is dedicated to providing rapid responses and assistance in support of the global NAB Show community’s participation plans. The event management team has launched a COVID-19 resource page on the NAB Show website, where updates will be provided.

Currently, NAB is:

• Adhering to all guidance and recommended safety measures issued by the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as well as state and local health organizations.
• Working with the Las Vegas Convention Center, the airport authority, and area hotels and resorts to coordinate appropriate safety procedures.
• Following CDC recommendations and protocols for heightened levels of cleanliness at event facilities.
• Making accommodations and actively encouraging attendees to take common-sense precautions and follow CDC guidelines to prevent the spread of illness.
• Ensuring medical care is readily accessible to address immediate health concerns.
• Working with China-based exhibitors and registered attendees to evaluate options for those unable to attend due to travel restrictions. Of note, NAB Show attendance from China, although growing, represented less than 2 percent of total registered attendees in 2019.
• NAB is taking COVID-19 very seriously and is fully invested and prepared to host a successful NAB Show in Las Vegas. The city of Las Vegas is maintaining rigorous cleanliness and safety standards throughout public spaces, resorts and meeting facilities, and hosts successful trade events daily. Meanwhile, NAB Show has experienced an uptick in exhibit sales, attendee registration and hotel bookings in recent weeks, and conference program speakers are confirmed daily.

• Main focus will be on new RF mount lenses
• New cinema lenses also, but prices will jump and firm want to focus on rental houses mostly
• Tight attention for Nikon Z mouns and Sony E mount, FF lenses widening
• L mount will be now left with much less attention, due to big sales drop and risk of making such lenses
• Attention for APS-C and m43 lenses will be minimal due to issues with sales, can be cheap F2.8 primes

Look back at the recession of 2008. We had Blu-ray and 1080p. Consumers did not care. They had to worry about keeping their jobs, eating, and feeding their family. Nobody cared that they needed to buy a Bluray player or a 1080p TV if they did not have one. As such, DVDs were still vastly more popular than Bluray because they were cheaper, and the video quality was better than VHS! Even today in 2020, DVD marketshare is still larger than Bluray because they are very cheap, there is a huge used DVD market, and the quality of a nicely mastered DVD is good for most TV-viewing distance.

I think it's possible this will be the same situation for 8K. The high requirements for 8K doesn't make sense for artists or consumers at this time, especially when nobody has money to spend. Most consumers in 2020 are happy with 1080p. Enthusiasts love 4K right now. Many movie theaters still project films in 4K and 6K. But the amount of people that even know about 8K is so small, I don't see it being a priority for anyone. Plus, if you shoot your indie film in 8K - how many viewers will have an 8K TV? Few or none. Not to mention you will need at least a 200mbit+ internet connection to stream compressed 8K, and even in the United States, only residents of big cities have access to that. My family outside the city still only have 30mbit - and this is in the US!

With the economic uncertainty ahead, I think 4K / UHD will remain the standard for several years in consumer products. Even in 2020, 1080p remains the standard for computer monitors, and cable TV still streams at 1080i.

So my prediction is that 1080p & 2160p will continue to remain standard for this coming decade. But 8K will not take off for consumers.

8K will be the standard for VR only (VR video and images).

What do you think?

https://pro.sony/ue_US/products/powering-creativity

Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, today announced upcoming firmware updates for several professional imaging products, such as XF-AVC 4K 30p recording on the popular XF705 Professional Camcorder. These firmware updates provide improved workflow, ease-of-use, file editing compatibility with popular NLE systems, and creative flexibility for products in the Cinema EOS, Professional Camcorder, and 4K Reference Display lines.

Firmware updates for the EOS C300 Mark III, EOS C500 Mark II, EOS C700, EOS C700 FF, EOS C700 GS, EOS C200, and EOS C200B Cinema Cameras will allow for support of the new CINE-SERVO 25-250mm T2.95-3.95 (CN10x25 IAS S) Cinema Lens. Additional free firmware updates are as follows:

• The XF705 Professional Camcorder update will include the addition of several recording formats, such as XF-AVC 8-bit 4:2:0 up to 4K 30p and MP4 8-bit 4:2:0 up to FHD 60p. Other updates include pull-down 60p signal to 24p/30p recording, browser remote use for both Wi-Fi® and Ethernet connections, and HDR high-frame shooting support.
• The EOS C300 Mark III  Digital Cinema Camera update will now show the chosen resolution and color sampling settings on the onscreen display by default.
• The EOS C500 Mark II Digital Cinema Camera update will allow for support of XF-AVC Long GOP and XF-AVC Proxy format, 3 or 5 seconds pre-recording ability, pull-down 60p signal to 24p/30p recording, "magnify" assignable button change, and user ability to give two files an identical name when recording from both card slots.
• The EOS C700, C700 FF, and C700 GS Digital Cinema Cameras will update the Slow & Fast Motion display, including changing "REC" and "STBY" notification colors from white to red and green respectively.
• The EOS C200 and C200B update will allow for support of pull-down 60p signal to 24p/30p recording and the simultaneous use of both HDMI and SDI ports.
• The DP-V1710, DP-V1711, DP-V2410, DP-V2411, DP-V2420, DP-V2421, and DP-V3120 4K Reference Display updates include support for the reading of 3D-LUT/1D- LUT files in .cube LUT file format and tracking of errors to USB memory. Other updated support includes HDR monitoring assist functions such as the ability to check XY chromaticity value of pixels, area markers will be simultaneously displayed in two locations, expansion of the safety zone/grid markers, and the ability to highlight the areas above the desired luminance range. Also, the update will support enhanced ease-of-use and workflow with third party cameras.
• The DP-V2411, DP-V1711 and DPV-1710 4K Reference Displays update will improve full-screen black level all the way down to .001 nits. This is a major upgrade over the previous specification of .005 nits.

Paid Firmware Updates Details Are as Follows:

• The DP-V1711 and DP-V1710 4K Reference Displays paid firmware updates will offer an upgrade license and will raise full-screen peak luminance from 600 to 1000 nits. Also, full-screen peak luminance is now supported by a local dimming algorithm from 300 to 600 nits. The combined updates/upgrades listed here (both paid and free) for these reference displays would completely overhaul the image quality, which would be an impressive 1,000,000:1 full-screen contrast ratio.

We know it can be tough to stay inspired during these times. Nikon's mission has always been to empower creators. Right now, we can do that by helping creators stay inspired, engaged and growing. That's why we're streaming all of our Nikon School Online courses free for the entire month of April.

https://www.nikonevents.com/us/live/nikon-school-online/

South Korean panel maker Samsung Display has decided to end all of its production of liquid crystal display (LCD) panels in South Korea and China by the end of this year, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

Samsung Display, a unit of South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, said in October that it suspended one of its two LCD production lines at home amid falling demand for LCD panels and a supply glut. “We will supply ordered LCDs to our customers by the end of this year without any issues,” the company said in a statement.

In October, the Apple Inc supplier said it will invest 13.1 trillion won ($10.72 billion) in facilities and research to upgrade a production line, as it contends with oversupply amid weak global demand for smartphones and TVs.

The investment for the next five years will be focused on converting one of its South Korean LCD lines into a facility to mass produce more advanced “quantum dot” screens.

“Quantum dot” screens are exactly LCD screens just with one additional layer (or some modern even without it!). All QD is doing is just changing led spectrum, and it is all.

Sony‘s Press Conference for NAB now Rescheduled to Monday April 20th 9:00 am PST / 12:00 EST

Sony continues daily monitoring of the evolving situation around the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) which has seen an escalation globally and, as such, is taking various precautionary measures.

As we place the utmost importance on the safety and wellbeing of our employees, partners and industry colleagues, we support the difficult but important decision from National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show 2020 (https://nabshow.com/2020/attend/onsite-services/coronavirus-update-and-resources/) to no longer hold the Las Vegas conference in April.

We are eager to share our innovations with the NAB community digitally via press conference time of 9:00am PST on Monday April 20, 2020.

Sony would like to thank the community of innovators for their understanding and ongoing support during these challenging times. Our thoughts remain with those who are suffering from this tragedy.

To stay updated, please follow @sonyelectronics and please visit https://pro.sony/event-nab for future update.

Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, announced today that they will be hosting a Virtual Press Conference to unveil the company's new professional imaging products and technologies. The Virtual Press Conference, which will be streamed on the Canon U.S.A. website at usa.canon.com/VPC2020, is scheduled to air on Monday, April 20, 2020, at 1:00 PM EDT/10:00 AM PT.

"As Canon continues to monitor the global response surrounding the spread of COVID-19, the effects of which have impacted every aspect of our lives, we would like to thank everyone for their understanding and ongoing support during this challenging time," said Kazuto Ogawa, president, and chief operating officer, Canon U.S.A., Inc "The road ahead is long and filled with uncertainty, but when the broadcast and cinema industries are ready to resume 'normal' activities, Canon wants them to know we will be there to continue to support professionals with new products and technologies that meet their needs."

The new Canon broadcast and cinema products featured during the Virtual Press Conference are aligned with the current and growing needs of the respective industries such as 4K UHD and HDR, as well as evolving technologies.

For more information and the latest updates, please visit usa.canon.com/VPC2020 and follow us on Twitter at @CanonUSAprovideo and Instagram @canonusaprovideo.

Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. has developed a technology for compressing ultra-high-definition, high-volume video data to the minimum size needed for AI video recognition applications. This technology can compress video data to just one tenth the size of data prepared using conventional compression technology intended for visual confirmation by humans. In recent years, there has been a sharp increase in demand for AI analysis of video data in various business areas. The spread of 5th-generation mobile communications system (1), in particular, is expected to contribute to an explosive increase in the number of ultra-high-definition video images captured by cameras, as well as many images captured on the street and on production lines. In developing this new compression technology, Fujitsu focused on an important divergence in the way in which AI and humans recognize images. Namely, AI and humans tend to differ in the areas of the image that are emphasized as important for judgment when recognizing people, animals, or objects in video data. Fujitsu has developed a technology to automatically analyze the areas that AI values and to compress data to the minimum size that AI can recognize. This makes it possible to analyze a large amount of video data without compromising recognition accuracy, and at the same time significantly reduce operating and data transmission costs. It is also anticipated that the technology will allow users to analyze more advanced video data by combining multiple video data stored in the cloud, sensor data, and performance data such as sales data.

Background and Challenges

In recent years, technology for analyzing images using AI has been developing rapidly and is expected to be one of the driving forces for digital transformation in many companies in a variety of industries. With the advent of sophisticated 5G mobile services in 2020, demand for AI analysis is expected to increase even further, accompanied by the increasing use of ultra-high-definition 4K and 8K cameras and large amounts of video data for applications including behavioral analysis in the manufacturing and retail industries. Despite this, the processing demands for deep learning techniques used for image analysis present considerable challenges. One effective technique for securing computing power to deal with these tasks is to process in conjunction with the cloud, but since video data is often very resource-intensive, there is a need for high-compression technology that can transmit all video data to the cloud without compromising quality so that network bandwidth does not become overburdened.

About the Newly Developed Technology

Compressing video reduces image quality depending on the compression rate, and if the area that AI is focused on is compressed excessively, the recognition accuracy decreases. Fujitsu has developed a video compression technology that automatically analyzes the area of an object recognized by AI as judgment material in an image of 1 frame of video data, compressing (2) the image with the minimum image quality required for recognition for each area (Figure 1). By applying this technology, the size of video data can be significantly reduced compared with conventional compression technologies while maintaining recognition accuracy.

Technology to automatically estimate the compression ratio without affecting AI recognition accuracy The effect of image quality degradation specific to compression on recognition accuracy is analyzed for each area. The compression ratio that does not affect recognition accuracy is automatically estimated based on the AI recognition results (Figure 2). The degree of importance of features in the process of recognition by AI is determined for all areas by aggregating the effects on the recognition results when the compression ratio of the entire image is changed and the image quality is changed. The compression rate immediately before the recognition accuracy rapidly deteriorates in each area is estimated as a compression rate that does not affect the recognition accuracy. It also feeds back the AI results of successive images to increase the compression to the maximum AI can recognize. In so doing, the technology achieves high image compression while maintaining AI recognition accuracy.

Effect

The newly developed technology was applied to video footage taken by a 4K camera of multiple workers packing in a factory. It was confirmed that the data size could be reduced to 1/10 the data size of conventional compression technology without a deterioration in recognition accuracy. This technology is expected to be used for applications that do not require strict real-time performance, as well as for the analysis of advanced video data that combines multiple video data stored in the cloud, sensor data, and performance data such as sales data.

Future Plans

Fujitsu Laboratories is evaluating this technology in a variety of cases, and is carrying out additional research and development to further refine compression performance. Fujitsu expects to commercialize this technology by the end of fiscal 2020, and introduce it into a variety of applications for different industries, including its Fujitsu Manufacturing Industry Solution COLMINA service platform .

In reality it looks like adaptive compression aimed at very tiny niches.

Sony Corporation ("Sony") today announced that it will establish an intermediate holding company "Sony Electronics Corporation" effective April 1st, 2020. Sony Electronics Corporation will incorporate the three businesses that comprise its Electronics Products & Solutions ("EP&S") segment (Imaging Products & Solutions, Home Entertainment & Sound, and Mobile Communications) and related global sales and marketing, manufacturing, logistics, procurement and engineering platforms.

Through the establishment of Sony Electronics Corporation, Sony will not only accelerate the integrated operation of the EP&S businesses, but also aim to optimize its organizational structure, talent and business portfolio, while further enhancing competitiveness and creating new business.

http://vimeo.com/nomofilms/strangetimes

GoPro is pumped to share that the small, but mighty, team behind ReelSteady, known for enabling mind-blowing cinematic effects for the FPV drone community, is joining the GoPro Family.

“The force is strong with these guys,” says GoPro Founder and CEO Nick Woodman. “WOWing our customers is core to our DNA, and Robert and Andy have been WOWing users and viewers alike with their ReelSteady products in a way we think the GoPro community is going to love. Given Robert and Andy’s passion for next-level visual effects, we’re really excited for what our future holds with them as a part of our team.”

The ultra-creative duo of Robert McIntosh and Andy Russell share backgrounds in film and video games, fostering a unique skill set that intersects the arts and technology and have a passion for enabling creators of all skills to easily make cinematic content that “looks expensive.”

In a few short years, ReelSteady has built a passionate following within the FPV drone community with the cinematic features and effects their ReelSteady products enable.

We expect their background, skills and passion will help us continue to grow our software efforts and develop more ways across our app ecosystem to help our customers create cinematic visual effects and premium editing features.

You may recognize some content that has been powered by their products—like this Longboard Freestyle video and this micro-drone video that went viral a few years back (created by Robert, himself).

“Everything we’ve done so far has had no official link to GoPro, and now as part of the team, everything we create will be embedded from within GoPro,” Andy says. “We are excited, especially for our customers, for what is to come—collaboration as part of the GoPro Team to create amazing things that will enhance the GoPro experience for everybody.”

So what does this mean for ReelSteady customers? No changes in the immediate future. ReelSteady products will continue to be sold on the ReelSteady website and supported by GoPro customer support. But what all ReelSteady and GoPro customers should be excited about is the magic that Andy and Robert will bring to the work being done across the GoPro App ecosystem to enhance the cinematic output of your content.

“Its feels kind of like we pulled the golden ticket and are going to Wonka’s factory to see how the products we’ve used for years are made,” said Robert. “We are huge GoPro fans. We built a company and product to specifically serve GoPro users and are fired up to join the GoPro Family to continue creating solutions from the inside. It is really exciting to be here!”

Probability of being cancelled - around 90%.

Madavor Media has acquired the Imaging Resource brand and website, allowing IR’s uniquely objective, balanced and always good-humored voice to continue into the future!

Madavor is a pretty unique company; their slogan is “The power of passion - The energy of enthusiasm”. That describes their publishing business very well; their strength has been how they’ve focused their mostly-print business on a range of subjects that people are truly passionate or enthusiastic about. In the photo arena, they publish the Outdoor Photographer and Digital Photo Pro magazines, and the Digital Photo and HDVideoPro websites.

IR will fit right in with those pubs, with a lot of strategic advantages on both sides of the equation.

Going forward under Madavor, the IR staff will consist of just the two main IRHQ guys, Dave Pardue and William Brawley, hopefully with some support from freelancer Jeremy Gray as well. This is a lot more supportable than the 10 people (counting employees and freelancers) that we previously employed.

After 22 years of 6.5-day weeks, it's definitely time for me to step back a little; I need some serious time to clear my brain and relax in my basement workshops (woodworking, a little metalworking hopefully to be expanded on, electronics and 3D printing).

I also want to pursue other passions, especially intellectual property consulting and expert witness work. I’ve worked as both a consultant and an expert witness on patent cases, and absolutely love it, but I couldn’t pursue that work while simultaneously continuing to run IR.

https://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2020/03/17/ir-version-2.0-is-here-madavor-media-acquires-the-brand

Most probably site won't survive this year, sadly.

Next some of T line models will be removed from market.

At the Q4 of 2020 they can have only around 40-50% of models compared to present lineup.

To survive they can rise prices from 20 to 30%. But also some mergers can follow, in this case all can change.

https://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2020/03/12/how-to-really-weather-seal-a-camera-olympus-behind-the-scenes

As department will go down, you can certainly find lot of shown stuff at auctions.

Also it shows how wrong Japanese companies are making all-in-one super expensive bodies.

And for reference - such sealing has very bad quality - rubber becomes stiff or something gets under sealing and it just kills camera by water damage in exact moment you needed it the most.