Article 48736 of comp.sys.amiga.misc: Path: news.csos.orst.edu!flop.ENGR.ORST.EDU!gaia.ucs.orst.edu!news.cs.indiana.edu!sdd.hp.com!portal.com!portal!cup.portal.com!Harv From: Harv@cup.portal.com (Harv R Laser) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.graphics,comp.sys.amiga.misc Subject: NewTek unveils "Flyer" at NAB Message-ID: <106971@cup.portal.com> Date: Sun, 20 Mar 94 21:21:23 PST Organization: The Portal System (TM) Lines: 141 Xref: news.csos.orst.edu comp.sys.amiga.graphics:26246 comp.sys.amiga.misc:48736 (Cross-posted to the Portal System's Amiga Zone, the Video Toaster and LightWave mailing lists, comp.sys.amiga.graphics and comp.sys.amiga.misc on Usenet). ------ I attended NewTek's NAB Press reception in a large balloom at Ceaser's Palace in Las Vegas, NV this afternoon. What follows (after my comments) is one of the press releases (probably the most significant one) from the press kit I received there. (Time permitting I'll type in and post the others as well) Some of the people I noticed in attendance at this standing-room-only reception were: Brad (brother of Dana) Carvey (Toaster pioneer/hardware nice guy), Jeff Porter (Commodore Engineering), Lou Wallace & Linda LaFlamme (Desktop Video World magazine), Jim Plant (Video Toaster User), Don Hicks (Amazing Computing), Scott Thede (Axiom Software), Mitch Lopes, Tony Gomez, Ben Fuller, Arnie Cachelin, and quite a few other long-time Amiga developers, boosters, authors, dealers, and high priests. :) and, of course reporters and editors from just about every computer/video/graphics magazine you'd care to name. Toaster Guru Lee Stranahan was spotted running around in and out of the area behind the big projection screen in his trademark baggy shorts. The same presentation was given three times - first for the press, then for dealers, and thirdly for the general NAB attendee audience. Ceaser's palace has very opulent meeting/ballrooms. I can only imagine what it must cost to rent one for an afternoon, plus catering for over 1000 people. Tim Jenison, NewTek's head honcho, handled most of the duties at the microphone, describing the new products which were illustrated on a huge projection screen by a technician at the controls of a nearby Toaster system. A video was shown first, which was a parody of NewTek's typical promo tape - the dulcent tones of Ken Nordine describing how the Toaster is the most siginificant invention in the history of the universe, etc., and teasing the audience with "you'll have to wait till tomorrow to find out what this is blah blah etc." Then the voice of Penn (& Teller) Jillette took over for some humorous "that was all baloney" relief and introduced the new product: the Video Toaster Flyer, a tapeless "non-linear" editing system which integrates into and becomes part of a Toaster/Amiga. Press release follows. Any typing errors are mine. All superlatives are NewTek's :) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE contact: Jud Alford, NewTek Inc. (913) 228-8000 NEWTEK STUNS NAB WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF THE VIDEO TOASTER FLYER TAPELESS EDITING SYSTEM Las Vegas, March 20, 1994 - NewTek, Inc., the pioneers of the desktop video industry, announce the Video Toaster Flyer, the first D2 quality tapeless editing system. With the Flyer priced at $3995, NewTek once again shatters the price/performance standards for broadcast quality video production just as they did with the release of the Video Toaster in 1990. "When we originally conceived the idea for the Video Toaster it was to provide all the tools necessary to create broadcast quality television at a price almost anyone could afford." said Tim Jenison, NewTek President. "With the introduction of the Video Toaster Flyer we have made the tools even more accessible, reducing the cost of production by an order of magnitude." The Video Toaster Flyer is the result of more than seven years of intense research and development. The Video Toaster Flyer offers D2 quality video and CD quality audio editing in a tapeless, non- linear environment. The Video Toaster Flyer tapeless editor allows the user to dial in the video quality, up to lossless D2 quality. All video data is stored on computer hard drives that allow the user to access particular segments instantaneously without having to shuttle from one point to another as in traditional tape editing. The system employs an easy to use, drag and drop storyboard interface. The breakthrough technology in the Video Toaster Flyer is NewTek's revolutionary new VTASC compression algorithm. VTASC sets a new standard for hard disk based video compresson by combining D2, broadcast quality video with unprecedented compression ratios. NewTek is currently in discussion with a number of vendors looking to license VTASC and Video Toaster Flyer technology. The Video Toaster Flyer continues NewTek's tradition of providing easy to use, broadcast quality video production tools, at unbelivevably low prices.. The complete Video Toaster Flyer system provides the ability to incorporate all of the tools from the Video Toaster; digital video effects, paint graphics, titles and animations directly into productions edited from one simple interface. For Toaster LightWave 3D users, the tapeless editor will allow the blending of moving video easily and seamlessly into animated video prouctions. NewTek will be demonstrating the Video Toaster Flyer at the National Association of Broadcasters Convention, March 21-24 in Booth #11050. ### Jenison explained that the system using the Flyer should be equipped with two _large_ hard drives (at least 1Gigabyte each was his minimum recommendation). He also explained that no video tape was used in his presentation to the audience (described above) as everything was being played directly off hard disk by the Toaster/Flyer system. Among other claims, he touted their VTASC compression scheme as "better than JPEG or MPEG". By the way, 1 Gig of disk space is enough to hold about six minutes of combined video/audio using the Flyer. The Flyer interface, as shown, looks quite nice. It uses little thumbnail miniatures (similar to Toaster "croutons") which can be dragged and dropped in any order, with transitions dropped between them - basically it's as simple as mousing a little picture from one part of the Flyer's screen (storage) into another part (storyboard) - looked like something the complete video editing novice/idiot could handle. No confusing intersecting timelines or long strings of numbers to muck with. Each video or still clip's crouton also has a detail menu which can be called up to tweak different parameters, such as the start/end time of a clip if using the whole clip is not desired. Now, mind you, I've never done any video editing but this thing makes it look absolutely painless. An appx 3 minute "video clip" of LightWave scenes was shown towards the end of the presentation and it was totally impressive. To a driving rock soundtrack synced perfectly with the cuts, we viewed short samples of dozens of mainstream professional productions (Babylon 5, seaQuest, the Shasta commercial, Todd Rundgren music videos, tons of stuff from The Post Group, etc. etc.) all of which were created in LightWave. The Video Toaster Flyer, according to Jenison, should be in mass production in July '94, and be on dealers' shelves by the Fall. Lastly, for the "advocates" out there, I did not hear the word "Amiga" uttered once during the presentation. Harv harv@cup.portal.com