By Twain Richardson
I traveled to NAB this year to check out gear, software, technology and storage. Here are my top takeaways.
Promise Atlas S8+
First up is storage and the Promise Atlas S8+. The Promise Atlas S8+ is a network attached storage solution for small groups that features easy and fast NAS connectivity over Thunderbolt3 and 10GB Ethernet.
The Thunderbolt 3 version of the Atlas S8+ offers two Thunderbolt 3 ports, four 1Gb Ethernet ports, five USB 3.0 ports and one HMDI output. The 10g BaseT version swaps in two 10Gb/s Ethernet ports for the Thunderbolt 3 connections. It can be configured up to 112TB. The unit comes empty, and you will have to buy hard drives for it. The Atlas S8+ will be available later this year.
Lumaforge
Lumaforge Jellyfish Tower
The Jellyfish is designed for one thing and one thing only: collaborative video workflow. That means high bandwidth, low latency and no dropped frames. It features a direct connection, and you don’t need a 10GbE switch.
The great thing about this unit is that it runs quiet, and I mean very quiet. You could place it under your desk and you wouldn’t hear it running. It comes with two 10GbE ports and one 1GbE port. It can be configured for more ports and goes up to 200TB. The unit starts at $27,000 and is available now.
G-Drive Mobile Pro SSD
The G-Drive Mobile Pro SSD is blazing-fast storage with data transfer rates of up to 2800MB/s. It was said that you could transfer as much as a terabyte of media in seven minutes or less. That’s fast. Very fast.
It provides up to three-meter drop protection and comes with a single Thunderbolt 3 port and is bus powered. It also features a 1000lb crush-proof rating, which makes it ideal for being used in the field. It will be available in May with a capacity of 500GB. 1TB and 2TB versions will be available later this year.
OWC Thunderblade
Designed to be rugged and dependable as well as blazing fast, the Thunderblade has a rugged and sleek design, and it comes with a custom-fit ballistic hard-shell case. With capacities of up 8TB and data transfer rates of up to 2800MB/s, this unit is ideal for on-set workflows. The unit is not bus powered, but you can connect two ThunderBlades that can reach speeds of up to 3800MB/s. Now that’s fast.
OWC Thunderblade
It starts at $1,199 for the 1TB and is available now for purchase.
OWC Mercury Helios FX External Expansion Chassis
Add the power of a high-performance GPU to your Mac or PC via Thunderbolt 3. Performance is plug-and-play, and upgrades are easy. The unit is quiet and runs cool, making it a great addition to your environment.
It starts at $319 and is available now.
Flanders XM650U
This display is beautiful, absolutely beautiful.
The XM650U is a professional reference monitor designed for color-critical monitoring of 4K, UHD, and HD signals. It features the latest large-format OLED panel technology, offering outstanding black levels and overall picture performance. The monitor also features the ability to provide a realtime downscaled HD resolution output.
The FSI booth was showcasing the display playing HD, UHD, and UHD HDR content, which demonstrates how versatile the device is.
The monitor goes for $12,995 and is available for purchase now.
DaVinci Resolve 15
What could arguably be the biggest update yet to Resolve is version 15. It combines editing, color correction, audio and now visual effects all in one software tool with the addition of Fusion. Other additions include ADR tools in Fairlight and a sound library. The color and edit page has additions such as a LUT browser, shared grades, stacked timelines, closed captioning tools and more.
You can get DR15 for free — yes free — with some restrictions to the software and you can purchase DR15 Studio for $299. It’s available as a beta at the moment.
Those were my top take aways from NAB 2018. It was a great show, and I look forward to NAB 2019.
Twain Richardson is a co-founder of Frame of Reference, a boutique post production company located on the beautiful island of Jamaica. Follow the studio and Twain on Twitter: @forpostprod @twainrichardson
