Vizrt has acquired NewTek, world leader in IP-based, software-driven live video production solutions. The acquisition creates the largest company in the broadcast space that is dedicated to enabling IT based video production. The goal is to make it possible for people to tell their story using video, whether they are a kid in a classroom or a tier-1 broadcaster.

T>he combined companies emerge as the driving force in the transition to IP video for live production with NDI® and SMPTE 2110, with each serving different needs. The company will deliver flexible end-to-end workflows for all levels of production and software-based products and services for media, sports, entertainment, education, enterprise, and esports.

“Combining our organizations allow us to pursue our joint vision of software-based video production, leveraging the power and flexibility of computing and IT-based systems.” said Michael Hallén, Vizrt CEO. “The combined business will be very well positioned to deliver turnkey systems that give creative power to any organization that has ambitions of producing content for any output platform.”

The combination is a perfect match.

• Complementary software-based technology that creates an end-to-end workflow for the growing content creation market.
• A dedication to growing the adoption, strength, and accessibility of IP technology for all markets.
• A valuable channel network in place, that will benefit from taking a wider portfolio of products to customers.

The new company combines the brilliant minds that invented the NDI protocol with the innovators that invented template-driven real-time graphics. The company will be R&D focused with the vision of providing the software-based video technology that is the foundation of the future of the media industry.

“Taking advantage of computational, software, and network technology to make video more accessible, and fun to create has always been NewTek’s mission. These changes have revolutionized the way stories are told worldwide, allowing anyone to create and share a show.” said Dr. Andrew Cross, President & CTO of NewTek. “The tools from our two companies have fueled the video revolution—from kids in classrooms, little league games, and web shows, to the highest levels of broadcasting, news and sports. The combined company represents one of the most disruptive changes for the video industry in decades, however the goal remains the same—to build a new world of IT-based video technology to grow the reach and impact for anyone with a story to share.”

Michael Hallén, current President & CEO of Vizrt, will lead the business. Dr. Andrew Cross, current President & CTO of NewTek, will assume the role as President of Research & Development of the combined company.

Both companies are holding events at NAB on Sunday 7th April in the Las Vegas Convention Center North Hall. The Vizrt press conference will be held at 11am, and the NewTek community event will begin at 5:30pm. Executives from both companies will be included in order to give further details on the acquisition.

Yamane San also thanked all Lumix Ambassadors and especially UK Ambassadors for playing key role in such big rise of compact and full frame cameras produced by Panasonic, for proposing really unique features like paid V-Log codes and video modes and for good private suggestions on how to kill any independent m43 cameras communities. Due to such huge success Panasonic will stop providing free bodies and lenses and instead will be charging 100% premium for all members of Ambassadors program, as it'll allow whole program to reach levels typical only for devoted Apple fans.

Apple is planning to use its own chips in Mac computers beginning as early as 2020, replacing processors from Intel, according to people familiar with the plans, Bloomberg News’ Ian King and Mark Gurman report.

The initiative, code named Kalamata, is still in the early developmental stages, but comes as part of a larger strategy to make all of Apple’s devices -- including Macs, iPhones, and iPads -- work more similarly and seamlessly together, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. The project, which executives have approved, will likely result in a multi-step transition.

The shift would be a blow to Intel, whose partnership helped revive Apple’s Mac success and linked the chipmaker to one of the leading brands in electronics. Apple provides Intel with about 5 percent of its annual revenue

Intel shares dropped as much as 9.2 percent, the biggest intraday drop in more than two years.

Not April joke :-)

Of course, formally MacOS will remain, but will be incompatible with all existing software, except iOS applications.
Move is expected as none of top Apple managers is interested in professional niche market anymore.

"Since passing the baton of CEO to Yoshida-san last April, as Chairman of Sony, I have had the opportunity to both ensure a smooth transition and provide support to Sony's management. I am confident that everyone at Sony is fully aligned under Yoshida-san's strong leadership, and are ready to build an even brighter future for Sony. As such, I have decided to depart from Sony, which has been a part of my life for the past 35 years. I would like to extend my warmest gratitude to all our employees and stakeholders who have supported me throughout this journey."

Rumors are that we can see two major things.

As head of imaging division now leads mobile division axing the former can be used to get rid of him.

After this we can see big reforms in imaging division, as top management is not happy with mobile sensors performance and instead prioritizing constantly small segment of mirrorless cameras. Samsung is eating Sony pie quite fast, as due to private cartel agreement they gained most knowledge from Sony.

Even bigger surprise can be move of Samsung to FF mirrorless niche in 2020 to prove that their sensors are better, kind of special exhibition.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPb_xgpKYgg7s0YEqNJ8sJbWMcZ-jNHGT

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPb_xgpKYgg6n6NEO_Hrwv1n-ZC_vvo8h

You can find donation button and sum selector on each forum page
(if you don't see it right now it means video is active and I'll enable it later)!

Some time ago they had meeting discussing possible strategies due to subpar FF bodies preorders and even worse FF lenses preorders.

Main idea during meeting had been starting offering rental service and try to reorient FF lineup and future GH6 as mostly rental cameras.

Panasonic can even make special body made for rental companies with build in NFC and special tracking abilities.

Not sure if they will act on this. Of course they also will sell FF bodies and lenses still. It is only search for a way to somehow produce more premium cameras that market can't eat.

Light, the leader in advanced computational imaging announces the agreement with Sony Semiconductor Solutions, the leader in the Image Sensor industry to jointly work on development and marketing of multi-image sensor solutions.

The agreement allows Light to use and recommend to its customers and partners, Sony’s image sensors built in Light’s computational imaging solutions and reference designs. These new reference designs combine Light’s multi-camera technology together with Sony’s image sensors to create new multi-camera applications and solutions beginning with the introduction of smartphones containing four or more cameras.

“Sony is the recognized quality and market share leader in image sensors and we are thrilled to partner with them,” said Dave Grannan, CEO and co-founder, Light. “We are entering an entirely new era of intelligent imaging applications that will transform smartphones, autonomous vehicles, and security systems. With Sony’s world-class image sensors, we can introduce new innovations in the multi-camera imaging space.”

“We are excited to be working with Light and driving multi-sensor-based products and solutions into the market,” said Hank Ochi, president of Component Solutions Business Division, Sony Electronics Inc. “Light and its technology are transforming how devices see the world. This new partnership will allow us to work together to evolve and speed up the design of today’s multi-image sensor enabled connected devices. Starting today, our jointly developed reference designs will help our smartphone OEMs to quickly and easily enhance the imaging capability of multi-camera enabled smartphones.”

For more information, please visit https://light.co/.

In reality Light is now more like Patent troll having lot of patents on multi-sensor smartphones configurations and setups.

We had been told that Panasonic is reworking the Image APP. A completely new version should be available within the next months. No specifics yet…

I can make few assumptions looking at the Panasonic general direction.

Application will have one main screen and 5 buttons over live view image.

First button will be called - "Make it all cool". Will be accessible for all cameras and owners.

Second button will be called - "Make it all even cooler". Will be available as $10 paid option for owners of new FF cameras.

Third button will be called - "Make it all posh totty". Will be available for $99.99 for very few people - owners of S1R.

Next button will be called - "Make it look smart". Will require $999 special service agreement payment and will use AI to make all faces on the photos and vides to look much smarter and less drunk than they are. Cloud AI usage cost not included in main fee.

Last button will be called - "Elite look". Will cost $10000, but will be also available for exactly 5 trial presses for owners of previous options. And it will make any of your photos to look like they are made in the elite apartments, elite beaches or elite cemeteries (depending on situation).

In addition to free FTZ adapter it is now including camera bag and XQD card.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/items/ci/42387

My talks with industry insiders tell that Z6 and Z7 sales also are very slow, much much better than Panasonic preorders state but well below Nikon expectations.

Sony Corporation announced today that it has succeed in developing Pregius S, a stacked CMOS image sensor technology that employs Sony’s proprietary global shutter function with back-illuminated pixel structure to deliver both distortion-free, high imaging performance and miniaturization. The new sensor technology is intended for industrial equipment used in fields such as manufacturing, inspection, and logistics that require higher precision and higher processing speeds, in light of the trends in industrial advancement including factory smartification and automation.

Sony will introduce the new technology at Vision China Shanghai 2019 starting on March 20, 2019.

Conventional CMOS image sensors equipped with global shutter function temporarily store charge signals in the memory area located next to the photodiode to resolve image distortion (focal plane distortion) caused by the time shift due to the row-by-row readout. In front-illuminated CMOS image sensors, there is a wiring layer on the silicon substrate forming the photodiode, and with such a structure, the benefit is that it is easy to form a light shield for protecting the charge signal temporarily stored in the memory area from leaked light. For this reason, conventional CMOS image sensors with global shutter function have adopted a front-illuminated pixel structure. However, the wiring on top of the photodiode hinders the incident light, which creates an issue when attempting to miniaturize the pixels.

In response to this, Sony has developed a proprietary pixel structure that achieves the global shutter function on a back-illuminated structure that has superior sensitivity characteristics, thereby resolving the issue of miniaturization. Normally, when pixels are miniaturized, the sensitivity and saturation characteristics deteriorate, but the new Sony technology enables a reduction in pixel size to 2.74 μm while maintaining performance of those characteristic, thereby achieving about 1.7 times higher resolution than conventional front-illuminated CMOS image sensors.1 This makes it possible to measure and inspect objects in a wider area and with higher accuracy in manufacturing, inspection, logistics and other applications. Moreover, thanks to the high degree of freedom of the wiring layout of back-illuminated pixel structures, a high speed of about 2.4 times that of conventional1 can be achieved, thereby contributing to significant productivity improvement, including shorter measurement and inspection process times. In addition, the sensor’s stacked structure makes it possible to mount various signal processing circuits, whereby it is possible to realize smart functions such as signal processing only for the necessary part of the measurement and inspection images in a smaller size compared to conventional sensors.*1 That, in turn, makes it possible to reduce the load of the subsequent processing and reduce the amount of data to be held on to, thereby contributing to the realization of highly efficient, energy-saving systems.

Going forward, Sony will work to develop products equipped with this stacked CMOS image sensor employing its proprietary global shutter function with back-illuminated pixel structure for various industrial applications and intelligent transportation systems, including development of derivatives for signal processing circuits to be mounted. Sony plans to start shipping sample units in the summer of 2019 or later.

Proprietary global shutter function with back-illuminated pixel structure delivers both distortion-free high imaging performance and miniaturization

Sony developed a proprietary pixel structure that achieves a global shutter function on a back-illuminated structure that has superior sensitivity characteristics, delivering both high imaging performance and miniaturization. By miniaturizing the pixel size from the conventional 3.45 μm to 2.74 μm while maintaining sensitivity and saturation characteristics, Sony has achieved about 1.7 times higher resolution than the conventional front-illuminated 12 megapixels CMOS image sensor, thereby making it possible to perform measurement and inspection in a wider area and at a higher accuracy. Moreover, thanks to the high degree of freedom of the wiring layout of the back-illuminated pixel structure, it is possible to deliver high-speed performance of about 2.4 times that of the conventional technology, thereby contributing to significant productivity improvement such as shorter measurement and inspection process times.

Miniaturization and high functionality made possible with a stacked structure

The sensor’s stacked structure makes it possible to mount various signal processing circuits, thereby contributing to miniaturization and enhanced functions for CMOS image sensors. Incorporating the data optimization functions (smart ROI, self-trigger, compression processing, compositing, etc.) that extracts only necessary information from the image data, it is possible to reduce the load of the subsequent processing and reduce the amount of data to be held onto while achieving a smaller package compared to conventional sensors,*1 thereby contributing to the realization of highly efficient, energy-saving systems.

Going forward, Sony will leverage the technology of Pregius S to further enhance and expand functions for new industries, including development of derivatives for signal processing circuits to be mounted.

• Number of pixels: about 1.7 times more
• Quantum efficiency (Peak QE): +20%
• Saturation signal volume (per unit area): +44%
• Dynamic range: +12%
• Incident light angle dependence characteristic (sensitivity to light with an incident angle of 20°): about double
• High speed (output data rate): about 2.4 times

Late last year Sound Devices became the North American distributor for Audio Ltd.

https://www.sounddevices.com/news/sound-devices-news/sound-devices-named-north-american-distributor-for-audio-ltd

Sound Rolling just uploaded about this:

• Orders database
  Data includes products purchased; shipping address and postcode; customer name; email address; phone number
• Payments and invoices database
  Data includes order number; payment type; payment information; email address; name; IP address
• Members database
  Data includes name; address; date of birth; phone number; email address; IP address; national ID and passport information; account passwords

They discovered 1.5+ million records.

https://www.vpnmentor.com/blog/gearbest-hack/

Someone tells that it'll be Canon who has ton of troubles himself.

Can be also Sony or Samsung who briefly looked at GoPro intellectual properly and some engineers.

Expect more news on this topic after CES.

U.S. chipmaker Intel Corp has bid $5.5-$6 billion in cash and stock to buy Israel’s Mellanox Technologies, Israeli media reported on Wednesday.

A $6 billion offer would represent a 35 percent premium to the last closing price of Mellanox on Nasdaq, the Calcalist financial news website said.

Based in Yokneam, Israel, Mellanox makes chips and other hardware for data center servers that power cloud computing.

Officials at Intel and Mellanox declined to comment.

In October CNBC reported that Mellanox has hired a financial adviser to explore a sale after receiving takeover interest from at least two companies.

You can't stop Capitalism nature.

Mellanox is very strong in 10Gbe adapters and Infiniband adapters.

We are incredibly excited to announce that the standard Model 3, with 220 miles of range, a top speed of 130 mph and 0-60 mph acceleration of 5.6 seconds is now available at $35,000!

To achieve these prices while remaining financially sustainable, Tesla is shifting sales worldwide to online only. You can now buy a Tesla in North America via your phone in about 1 minute, and that capability will soon be extended worldwide. We are also making it much easier to try out and return a Tesla, so that a test drive prior to purchase isn’t needed.

Rumors are that in 2019 development of Apple shops will stop and from 2020 we can see gradual closure of less profitable ones.

Almost all new designs will be made for FF mirrorless sensors. It will be some exceptions still, but they will be few and mostly adaptations of retro designs.

It is also expected that in second half of 2019 Nikon and Canon start reducing older lenses production themselves by around 20-25%.

With entry level consumer FF mirrorless camera coming in late 2019 and early 2020 transition will pick up even more speed.

In 2021 outside FF mirrorless we will have:

1. 1-3 m43 camera models, all of them premium with prices higher than most FF models
2. Fujifilm and some Sony APS-C cameras, but Fujifilm will also jump ship during 2021 and fully change lenses lineup
3. 1-2 Canon Pro DSLR models
4. 1 Nikon Pro DSLR model

Market size in terms of bodies sold will further drop around 50-75% from current level.

PHMSA issues this interim final rule (IFR) to revise the Hazardous Materials Regulations for lithium cells and batteries transported by aircraft. This IFR (1) prohibits the transport of lithium ion cells and batteries as cargo on passenger aircraft; (2) requires lithium ion cells and batteries to be shipped at not more than a 30 percent state of charge aboard cargo-only aircraft when not packed with or contained in equipment; and (3) limits the use of alternative provisions for small lithium cell or battery shipments to one package per consignment. This IFR does not restrict passengers or crew members from bringing personal items or electronic devices containing lithium cells or batteries aboard aircraft, or restrict cargo-only aircraft from transporting lithium ion cells or batteries at a state of charge exceeding 30 percent when packed with or contained in equipment or devices.

https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/sites/phmsa.dot.gov/files/docs/standards-rulemaking/hazmat/rulemakings/70526/lithium-battery-ifr-submitted-fr-022719.pdf

Whole thing is example of bureaucrat behaving like shits. Solving problem is simple - adding special packaging and making special cargo and parcels for them that will be packed in protective boxes.

Instead we have worldwide madness that is also sponsored by largest corporations as allow to restrict free trade of high profitable batteries.

The Camera & Imaging Products Association (CIPA) (President: Kazuo Ushida; Address: MA Shibaura Bldg. 3-8-10, Shibaura, Minato-ku, Tokyo Japan) will hold CP+ [cpplus] 2019 from Thursday, February 28 to Sunday, March 3, 2019. CP+ is an international camera and photo imaging show that presents the latest products and technologies, and disseminates the joy and extensive reach of the industry and culture of photo imaging.

CP+2019 continue to raise the profile of Japan's world-leading camera and photo imaging industry with its cultural aspects. From Wednesday, July 4, we just started calling for exhibitors on the official website. We sincerely request your continued support of CP+

The US Federal Trade Commission has successfully brought the first ever case against using fraudulent, paid Amazon reviews to falsely advertise an online product, the agency announced Tuesday evening. The company in question, named Cure Encapsulations, Inc. and owned by Naftula Jacobowitz, paid a third-party website to write five-star Amazon reviews for a weight-loss supplement called garcinia cambogia. The plant, native to Indonesia, is widely mischaracterized as contributing to weight loss, but is in fact known to cause acute liver failure.

In reality situation is same for all camera related gear also, especially for smaller sellers.
Fake, paid reviews are becoming norm with normal reviews gradually subsiding.
Same thing happened in few last years in movies reviews where it is now bots and paid for people who compete on main platforms.

Consolidated revenues are falling, while profits are surging.

CyberLink is quickly loosing video editing market to Adobe, as most their users had been beginners. They hope to make things more stable by ripping users more.

I really wish all guys who do it to go to hell.

Sony plans to hire 320 new engineers annually in Japan this year and the next, up from 250 in 2018. The figures do not include those to be hired by overseas units.

The allocation is in line with the company’s plans to invest 600b yen ($5.4b) in image sensor business over the three years through March 2021, or half of the group’s planned capital expenditures.

yet

The company already cut its annual profit outlook for imaging sensors to 130b yen, accounting for just 15% of the Sony Corp.’s overall profit, as they told - due to weakening global demand for smartphones.

It is very risky gamble. As sensors are still very profitable devices due to lack of any real competition. Especially premium smartphone sensors and large full frame sensors where margins can reach 2000%. Such situation became possible due to private cartel agreements where other Japanese companies get sensors under special terms and are allowed to take part in production and customization, forming distributed monopoly.

Healthy competition from outside Japan can put an end to this nice picture, one of the dangers is Samsung that also had been restricted by private agreement thanks to low quality management who agreed to have near time advantages and bonuses other longer term victory, but this can change due to fast fall of Samsung profits in their top smartphone niche. As and if agreement will be broke we will see full scale sensor war that can also bring second breath to consumer camera market as sensors price will drop 3-4 times and much smaller manufacturers will gain access to competitive pricing.

Aliexpress algorithm frequently exclude lot of items from results, usually it is cheapest or close to it offers from small to medium sellers. But can be also items from large sellers.

Filtering depend on your activity - if you buy a lot and not too cheap items Aliexpress will be more actively excluding cheapest offers.

Why they are doing it? Algorithm is optimizing their own income at your expense, and it is quite advanced.

So, if you are searching something make sure to include final step and use google restricting results to aliexpress.com only.

Already compacts teams are reduced to minimum, hence all newly released models are basically all same as old ones.

They can leave one 1" sensor size ultrazoom with 2 year update cycle. And axe all else.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/feb/16/bruno-ganz-actor-who-played-hitler-in-downfall-dies-aged-77

Ganz was Hitler in all the parody videos.

• Site - https://www.ces.tech/Logistics/Registration-Information.aspx
• Coverage - Our joined Main/California Team, Alan And Ramon.
• Note - we are looking for one extra team member still!
• CES 2018 Coverage - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPb_xgpKYgg4MKQE_3gQgMldgdN5hjQNS
• Media Days run January 6 – 7, 2019.
• Exhibits open January 8 – 11, 2019.

Remember to follow Telegram channel at https://t.me/personal_view

Press coverage resources

• https://ces.eetimes.com/
• http://ces.vporoom.com/
• Mobile app - https://www.ces.tech/Logistics/CES-App.aspx

Source - BCNRatings