Hi Tony, Thank you for speaking to AnimationXpress!Please share about yourself, your life as an artist and role at AJA Video Systems?
I have worked in various aspects of the production, broadcast and post-production industry for over 22 years now. Part of my career has been spent working for manufacturers and software development companies such as Softimage, Avid, Assimilate and AJA, where I’ve been part of the product design, sales and marketing process. The other part of my career has been as a creative/online editor and graphic artist working on commercials, live events, award shows, television and feature films, which earned me three Emmy nominations.
As a result of this dual career, I have a unique perspective on both the creative and business sides of the industry and I have used this perspective to help build communication between creative professionals and engineers to create useful workflows.
Currently, I am the Product Marketing Manager for AJA Video Systems where I am responsible for informing our end users and sales channel on the capabilities and benefits of AJA products.
Can you tell us more about your first encounter with something creative, which drove you towards this field?
I was initially drawn to 3D animation as a way of visualizing the environments and characters I had created in my mind. I was not a particularly good artist when it came to working in traditional 2D media such as drawing or painting but 3D allowed me to realize my creative vision through a more technical medium that fit more tightly with my own capabilities. From there I expanded to visual effects work and editorial, where I realized the power of being able to craft a story and control emotion through editing. It’s amazing the influence you can have just by altering the order and timing of simple shots.
Please give us an in depth insight of the projects that you’ve worked on till date.
In the early ‘90s I worked on many commercials for the American automobile industry where I was focused on creating very effects-heavy spots for the local and regional auto dealers. By using new technology, we were able to accomplish things that previously had only been available at the national level. The regional dealers were not used to having access to that level of sophistication, so it opened up a lot of new opportunities for everyone.
I moved on to working several years on the summer and winter ESPN X Games, the extreme sports competition, as an editor and visual effects artist. My work was primarily short, 15-second bumpers that teased upcoming events and action. It was always challenging to keep up the high-energy pacing of the X Games while still trying to craft some overall story in just 15 seconds.
While working on the X Games I was also editing feature films for TV and airline use. This involved removing any objectionable words or visuals from the finished feature either through editing or effects work. The challenge was in maintaining the integrity of a scene while still removing all of the objectionable material. Visual effects gave us a new level of flexibility in that we didn’t have to edit out nudity or excessive violence if we could create effects to cover that objectionable material. That was, again, something that had never been accessible on the tight budgets that were available.
From there I spent a short time working on color grading and conforming workflows for feature films. Films are particularly tricky in that there are a lot of separate departments all working simultaneously. Maintaining a consistent color profile across all those areas requires a very tightly integrated pipeline.
When did you join AJA, how has the work been since then?
I joined AJA in November 2010 as the Product Marketing Manager. It’s been an exciting 2.5 years thus far. I was drawn to AJA because of their commitment to quality and customer support, areas that are also important to me and something I always looked for when I was working as an editor and visual effects artist.
Please share on your experience at FICCI FRAMES 2013.
While this was my third trip to India in less than 18 months, it was my first time attending FICCI FRAMES, so I tried to take in as much as possible. It is clearly an important and well-respected event both within the Indian film community and abroad. I was fascinated to see all of the great exchange that is happening with regards to the various challenges and opportunities facing the film and television industry and it was exciting to be able to contribute my part to the discussion by presenting some views on the creative uses of emerging 4K technology such as AJA’s Ki Pro Quad, a new product that makes 4K workflows more accessible than ever.
What were the key insights that you presented at your session at FICCI Frames’13?
My session at FICCI FRAMES was focused on creative uses of 4K not just as a delivery format but also as an acquisition format for use in HD workflows as well. The added resolution of 4K can allow for greater flexibility in post production as well as efficiencies in production to minimize the number of setups needed for proper coverage. While not everyone will be delivering 4K productions right away, there are still many ways to take advantage of this new technology even in the HD world and I hoped to pass some of that on to the attendees at FICCI FRAMES.
Kindly inform us about the kind of technologies that AJA offers?
AJA has a large set of products that we group into three main categories; CONVERT, EDIT and ACQUIRE.
Our CONVERT products offer solutions for integrating mixed signal types and formats together. The FS1 and FS2 frame-synchronizers and converters offer a tremendous amount of power in a small, 1RU format that is ideal for broadcast installation where many different signal types need to be unified and locked together. Additionally, our extensive line of Mini-Converters provide compact, single-purpose solutions to many of the typical problems faced in broadcasting, post-production and on set such as analog-to-digital conversion, SDI-to-HDMI, audio embedding and SDI-to-fiber. And for tying everything together, we have several sizes of KUMO SDI routers that greatly expand the flexibility of post-production, mobile and event setups by allowing signals to be routed to multiple destinations easily and with the maximum quality.
Under our EDIT product line are a range of devices for getting video into and out of computers and editing systems. AJA’s KONA line of I/O cards is compatible with the widest possible range of software and work on both Mac and Windows systems with a selection of products to meet any budget and feature requirement. As editing has become more mobile, AJA has created solutions such as the Io Express, Io XT and T-TAP, which bring the same high-quality video I/O power found in our desktop cards to a more portable form for editors and graphic artists on the go so they can provide proper video output in any location.
AJA’s ACQUIRE products, consisting of the Ki Pro, Ki Pro Mini and Ki Pro Rack, defined an entirely new way of getting video into editing and graphics systems. By recording incoming video directly to removable storage devices as native Apple ProRes or Avid DNxHD files, Ki Pro devices eliminate the time-consuming task of manually digitizing footage off of tape. Since the files recorded by the standalone Ki Pro devices are in a native format understood by editing systems, they are ready to edit immediately without any transcoding or log and capture necessary. This has enabled some fantastic new workflows that were never before possible, reducing overall costs and increasing efficiency.
AJA has extended to all aspects of production, post-production, visual effects and broadcast by offering robust, reliable solutions to the problems people face every day, and that syncs well with what I’ve been doing for the majority of my career.
What is the latest happening at AJA?
AJA has several new products that we announced at the recent NAB show in Las Vegas. Ki Pro Quad is a file-based player and recorder that works in resolutions from HD up to 4K. By recording 4K Apple ProRes files, which are smaller and easier to work with while still maintaining pristine image quality, Ki Pro Quad is making 4K workflows more accessible without the need for more expensive equipment.
In our CONVERT line, we have two new products. First, the Hi5-4K converts the four SDI signals typically used in professional 4K productions to HDMI 1.4a, which carries the entire 4K signal on one HDMI cable. This allows the new breed of 4K monitors which use this HDMI 1.4a connection to be integrated easily into professional 4K workflows for more affordable monitoring options during production and post.
Next is the ROI, or Region Of Interest, converter. This solves the problem of getting computer display signals into the video world at a high quality level and without the need for more expensive solutions. ROI takes a DVI or HDMI input and converts that to SDI video. Audio embedded in the incoming HDMI signal or from the analog input jack can be passed as embedded audio in the SDI output, ensuring the audio and video remain in sync. A DVI loop through allows connection to a monitor so ROI is not a ‘dead-end’ device. But the really amazing part of ROI is the ability to select any region of the incoming computer signal and scale that to match the output resolution. ROI uses AJA’s high-quality scaling technology to ensure the highest possible picture output no matter what size region is selected. And the interface is incredibly easy to use with on-screen controls and visual feedback of the selected region and desired output size.
What are the major technology transitions that AJA will bring across in the coming time?
AJA has taken a new approach to our product announcements this year. We have seen an ongoing trend to make big announcements at major trade shows about products that are still many months from release. This year, everything at AJA’s NAB stand was real, working and available for purchase immediately. We will not talk about future products until they are ready for release, so we will have announcements throughout the year as new products are completed. The AJA website, www.aja.com, is continuously updated with the latest information.
How will the technologies by AJA bring about a revolution in the digital entertainment Industry?
AJA has already revolutionized the video industry in many ways throughout the world. Our extensive CONVERT products have enabled the smooth transition from analog to digital and standard definition to high definition in North America, Europe and Japan, to name a few.
The Ki Pro family of products has changed the workflow for file-based capture and editorial by eliminating the tedious and time-consuming task of logging and capturing footage. Ki Pro users shoot directly to Apple ProRes or Avid DNxHD files, which can be used immediately in non-linear editorial systems without the need to capture or transcode, saving hours and even days of labor.
As India moves forward with digitalization and the conversion to HD, AJA’s history and expertise in providing high quality and reliable solutions will be invaluable to ensure a smooth transition. This integrates into the animation and visual effects industry directly, as the workflows to integrate those crafts must adapt to match the changing broadcast and post production markets.
Your take on the Indian Entertainment Industry?
The overall India Entertainment Industry is an incredibly large market. As was the general theme for FICCI FRAMES, there are over a billion end users. The digitalization process is a large undertaking, but India has the advantage of hindsight and being able to look at how this transition was handled in other areas of the world and avoid the pitfalls. Technology has progressed and HD video is not as complex as it was 10 years ago. Computing technology has increased to handle the higher data rates, software has incorporated HD natively and can work with it easily and the move to file-based workflows has simplified not only the acquisition and editorial workflows, but broadcasting as well. At the core of all this, however, is the need to manage the transition. The switch to HD doesn’t happen overnight. Facilities will need to integrate analog and SD equipment into their workflows for several years.
In the animation and visual effects area, India has certainly become a great contributor to the industry. It’s a prime opportunity for India to provide the artistry and service necessary to deliver on the increasing demands of television, film and commercials for spectacular effects. Audiences are getting more sophisticated, so the need for high-quality visual effects will continue to grow and India can be at the forefront with efficient workflows and processes that provide the level of quality necessary while still meeting the budget requirements.
The key to making this happen is a focus on proper training. By providing up-and-coming visual effects artists with the right techniques and practices, they will be able to be more efficient and use their tools in new and interesting ways.