Barry_Green
Moderator
Hey, I haven't seen much talk of this on the boards, but apparently Panasonic has revamped and launched their strategy for AVC-Ultra. Previously we had thought it was going to be a new high-end codec, like 400mbps or something. Instead, it apparently turns out to be a family of codecs, or an umbrella name for their AVC codecs, based on a slideshow I saw from their press conference at IBC.
Interesting thing to me is that they're introducing Long-GoP version to the AVC-Ultra line -- which is 10-bit and 4:2:2 at low bandwidth. They say that it'll be 25 to 50 megabits. I don't know how 25 megabits would look, but 50 megabits of AVC at 10-bits and 4:2:2 should look pretty darn fantastic, and should meet all broadcaster requirements. I've been badgering them for a while for this -- I had previously referred to it as "AVCPRO" but apparently they're naming it AVC Long-G. Whatever -- just so long as it lets us use our products for all clients with no additional cost for external recorders (and it's 10-bit!) they could name it "Slartibartfast" as far as I care!
As for AVC-Intra, it's getting an enhancement to add support for 1080/50p and 1080/60p.
Then there's a new version of AVC-Intra, which is 4:4:4 with 12-bit recording, and 1080p up to 4K resolution. That, to me, was where the confusion was -- whether AVC-Ultra was a codec, which is what we thought their 4k/12-bit/etc new codec was gonna be, but apparently that new codec will be a different profile of AVC-Intra (implying, obviously, that it will be a true intraframe codec). And this new version of AVC-Intra, and the existing version of AVC-Intra, and the enhanced 60p version of AVC-Intra, and the new AVC Long-GoP codec, will all collectively be referred to as AVC-Ultra.
There's also some slides about enhanced metadata management, including stuff like automatic face recognition (how awesome would that be -- if you're looking for a clip you shot of a particular actor, you search the metadata by that actor's name, and it knows how to recognize her/his face? Wild. I don't know if that's what it truly is, but that's my guess). Also the metadata will store GPS data, have voice recognition, and (at last!) lens metadata too.
Now, none of this is going to be available any time soon, probably a year or two away before the first products start incorporating these ideas; this slideshow they presented at IBC was more of like a roadmap of where they're headed. But it looks like some fun stuff!
Interesting thing to me is that they're introducing Long-GoP version to the AVC-Ultra line -- which is 10-bit and 4:2:2 at low bandwidth. They say that it'll be 25 to 50 megabits. I don't know how 25 megabits would look, but 50 megabits of AVC at 10-bits and 4:2:2 should look pretty darn fantastic, and should meet all broadcaster requirements. I've been badgering them for a while for this -- I had previously referred to it as "AVCPRO" but apparently they're naming it AVC Long-G. Whatever -- just so long as it lets us use our products for all clients with no additional cost for external recorders (and it's 10-bit!) they could name it "Slartibartfast" as far as I care!
As for AVC-Intra, it's getting an enhancement to add support for 1080/50p and 1080/60p.
Then there's a new version of AVC-Intra, which is 4:4:4 with 12-bit recording, and 1080p up to 4K resolution. That, to me, was where the confusion was -- whether AVC-Ultra was a codec, which is what we thought their 4k/12-bit/etc new codec was gonna be, but apparently that new codec will be a different profile of AVC-Intra (implying, obviously, that it will be a true intraframe codec). And this new version of AVC-Intra, and the existing version of AVC-Intra, and the enhanced 60p version of AVC-Intra, and the new AVC Long-GoP codec, will all collectively be referred to as AVC-Ultra.
There's also some slides about enhanced metadata management, including stuff like automatic face recognition (how awesome would that be -- if you're looking for a clip you shot of a particular actor, you search the metadata by that actor's name, and it knows how to recognize her/his face? Wild. I don't know if that's what it truly is, but that's my guess). Also the metadata will store GPS data, have voice recognition, and (at last!) lens metadata too.
Now, none of this is going to be available any time soon, probably a year or two away before the first products start incorporating these ideas; this slideshow they presented at IBC was more of like a roadmap of where they're headed. But it looks like some fun stuff!
