Autodesk have appointed DVT to sell and support Smoke 2010 for Mac, Autodesk’s first finishing product designed to run on the Mac.

From commercials to broadcast design to long-form episodic television shows, Autodesk Smoke finishing effects software is a comprehensive visual effects and editing toolset that can save you time while expanding your creative capabilities. Autodesk Smoke benefits from many of the advanced visual effects tools in Autodesk Flame software, as well as the ability to conform from EDLs, AAF, and Apple Final Cut Pro XML files, giving you the flexibility to finish faster, with more streamlined content delivery. Smoke is now available as a software-only application for Apple Mac OS X operating system or as a complete solution from DVT including the latest Apple MacPro, AJA KONA 3, storage, monitors, wacom tablets and accessories.

Whether you're an artist looking to expand your creative capabilities or a facility owner looking to differentiate your business with effects-centric editorial finishing, stand out from the competition with Autodesk Smoke video editing and finishing software.

For more information on Smoke on the Mac please contact Stuart Barnaby at DVT.

Introducing the updated PMW-EX1 and the all new PMW-350 Cameras from Sony.

The The XDCAM EX PMW-EX1R is the direct successor to Sony’s first entry into memory recording – the PMW-EX1. The PMW-EX1R features a range of ergonomic enhancements of the EX1, including an improved hand grip, a one-push S & Q switch and a one-push Auto Iris button. Other enhancements include SD recording in DVCAM, a Cache Recording Function, an Image Inversion Function and an IR remote control receptor on the rear of the camcorder’s handle allowing remote control from both the front and the rear of the camcorder.

The XDCAM EX PMW-350 is the first Sony memory shoulder-mount camcorder, equipped with the cutting edge imaging technology of three 2/3 inch-type Exmor™ full HD CMOS sensors. These sensors, each with an effective pixel count of 1920 (H) x 1080 (V), give the camcorder an excellent sensitivity of F12 and a remarkable signal-to-noise ratio of 59 dB. Additionally, the large 2/3 inch–type sensors can capture images with a shallower depth of field, giving users more freedom of creative expression. The PMW-350 is studio-configurable, with timecode in/out, genlock in, HD/SD SDI and HDMI out, and also features a DVCAM recording option. The PMW-350K model offers customers a Lens Package, equipped with an HD lens with 16x zoom and a standard 2/3-inch bayonet lens mount.

The all new iMac 27" Core i7 Quad Core workstation sets new standards for elegance and power. It packs a complete, high-performance computer into its all-in-one design. With its anodised aluminium frame and glass cover, it’s striking to behold. The glossy widescreen display - makes digital video editing, compositing and grading come alive with rich colour. The use of recyclable glass and aluminium makes iMac friendlier to the environment, too. The latest Intel Core i7 Quad Core processor with advanced technology means that the iMac has all the power to run your applications faster and more efficiently than ever before.

The recommended systems specifications for running Final Cut Studio 3 are;
* 2560 x 1440 27-inch glossy LED Backlit widescreen LCD
* 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 Processor
* 8GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 4x2GB
* 1TB Serial ATA Drive
* ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
* 8x double-layer SuperDrive
* Airport Extreme
* Bluetooth
* Apple Magic Mouse
* Apple Wireless Keyboard and User's Guide

* $3,490+GST

Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard is now shipping! Snow Leopard builds on a decade of OS X innovation and success with hundreds of refinements, new core technologies and out of the box support for Microsoft Exchange. Snow Leopard is available as an upgrade for Mac OS X Leopard users for just $50+GST.

Apple have announced a significant update to Final Cut Studio, offering more than 100 new features and new versions of Final Cut Pro, Motion, Soundtrack Pro, Color, and Compressor. Final Cut Pro 7 expands Apple’s ProRes codec family to support virtually any workflow and includes Easy Export for one step output to a variety of formats. At $1,770+GST, the new Final Cut Studio now represents even more value and and is also available as an upgrade for just $495+GST.

HD broadcast is now on air in New Zealand! Although we are a little late in getting off the ground this has resulted in us making the decision to use the H.264 format which is easily the best option for encoding broadcast material and gives New Zealand one of the world's best HD platforms.

TVNZ have decided to broadcast 720 50p on all of their channels and TV3 have opted to broadcast in 1080 50i. Watch out for the HD logo to watch your favorite show in full HD. Rove looks great in full HD, what a mile stone for New Zealand!

Sky is now broadcasting in HD via their MySky HDi platform. SkyMovies HD and Sky Sports HD show crisp detailed content that really shows just what a HD television screen is capable of.

While it was interesting to watch the Blu-ray / HD-DVD war rage it was very good of the HD-DVD guys to see the light and withdraw the HD-DVD format from the market.

Fortunately for us the Blu-ray format is technically superior by far from the HD-DVD format. Blu-ray video disks support various video codecs including traditional MPEG2 (as used on DVD), VC1 (aka Windows Media) and H.264 (aka MPEG4 and AVC). The H.264 codec is our recommendation for making Blu-ray disks as it will enable you to get images that are twice the quality of MPEG2 at the same data rate.