ARRIRAW on Convergent Designs Gemini

ARRIRAW on Convergent Designs Gemini

RE-BLOG!

LA based DIT, Adrian Jebef, has some great info on Arriraw support coming to the Convergent Design Gemini Recorder at his excellent blog, The Digital Parade. I've been impressed with the Gemini and have always felt that Arriraw is a wonderful thing that has been unfortunately cost prohibitive to a lot of productions that could benefit from it. It will be fantastic to have another recording option for the Alexa that isn't going to add a rental onto the package that's as much as the camera. 

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Alexa High Speed Upgrade

Alexa High Speed Upgrade

I had a chance to check out the newest Alexa features last weekend and they're super cool. I also checked out the upcoming Alexa Studio which allows for an optical viewfinder as well as the EVF, true digital anamorphic, and includes the new High Speed 120fps frame rate option. As far as I could tell, the Studio is about the same size as the Alexa Plus. I was expecting it to be quite a bit bigger than the other cameras so this is good news. 

It's no Phantom but it's certainly a big improvement. 

The Alexa High Speed upgrade is a paid license but I don't recall the price off the top of my head. The new Sony 64GB SxS Pro cards are requisite to doing both 120fps shots at ProRes 422HQ and 60fps shots at ProRes 4444. Note the cheaper SBS version of SxS card with the orange plastic band doesn't have sufficient write speeds for use with the Alexa. 

The high speed option has to be turned on via the "Recording" menu in the camera and it takes about 40 seconds to load. 

up to 120fps @ProRes HQ to SxS cards

Note that when the High Speed option is turned on, you get a "HS" next to your frame rate on the home screen. While in HS mode, you cannot turn on the 4444 codec. 

up to 60 fps @ ProRes 4444 to SxS cards as well

For the work I do - commercials and episodic - it seems like it's going to be Alexa for some time to come. Now with the Studio option, 120fps, and more cost effective ways of recording Arri Raw, it's even more versatile and well suited for the rigors of production. ProRes 4444 to SxS cards has proven to be a great format for broadcast destined projects. It's definitely not the most robust or high quality image you can get out of the Alexa but as has been proven time again, good enough for TV. Not only that but if anyone saw Nicolas Winding Refn's film Drive, this was shot dual link 1080p 444 to HDCamSR at Standard Quality 440mbps. I've seen it projected digitally several times and I think it's some of the best digital cinema I've seen yet. Incredible resolution, dynamic range, and virtually noiseless images. It's stunning work and a kick ass movie to boot. The soundtrack is amazing as well. 

Gemini 444 and Arriraw

Gemini 444 and Arriraw

Hello! It's been awhile.

I got a mailer from Convergent Design that had some interesting info regarding the upcoming Gemini solid state recorder  -

Gemini 4:4:4 Progress

Volume shipments of the Gemini 444 to dealers/distributors are now scheduled to start on Oct 15.  While originally planned for August delivery, the extra time has enabled us to add a number of significant enhancements, including:

1. Redesigned the milled aluminum case to add cooling fins for better thermal management. Additionally, we redesigned the SSD trays, integrating the cover with a simple slide-out tray mechanism.

2. Developed SSD formatting techniques that eliminate almost all of the read/write performance degradations due to garbage collection and wear-leveling that occurs within the drive. All tests indicate that our SSDs will maintain full read/write performance levels over the lifetime of the drive.

3. Increased the SSD read performance to a blazing 500 Mbytes/sec, allowing users to download DPX files at 2X faster than real-time.

4. Added metadata support for scene, reel, take and camera ID, among others.

We have a considerable backlog to fulfill, so we recommend that you contact your local dealer for exact delivery details.  If you need a Gemini in the next 3-4 months, please consider placing an order soon, as we expect additional orders as soon as shipments begin.

DPX File Format Compatibility

While the Gemini natively records in 10-Bit RGB 444 DPX files, which are widely supported in compositing, color grading and NLEs, some applications require encoding to lower bit-rate (compressed) formats. Offline editing, streaming to the internet and productions that do not require the utmost in final quality, can all benefit from compression.

To this end, we are developing a number of workflows to enable DPX to DNxHD, ProRes and H.264 conversion. Our first application will encode DPX to DNxHD for use on Avid systems, but we also plan workflows for Apple Compressor and Cineform. Stay tuned for more updates, to be announced prior to actual shipment of the Gemini.

And what I find most interesting..

ARRIRAW Support Planned for Gemini

We are pleased to announce that we are planning to support ARRIRAW, in the Gemini, as an extra cost option in the future.

Convergent Design has been accepted into the ARRIRAW development program. RAW mode recording offers the highest possible quality images from a given camera. The unprocessed video data, directly from the sensor, is piped over dual HD-SDI connections (T-Link) and recorded to the SSD s in a special  .ari  file format. These .ari files are later processed on a PC (debayer, color correction, etc) using special software supplied by ARRI.

Additionally, Gemini will also support confidence monitoring and playback of recorded ARRIRAW files. Special firmware within the Gemini will scale, debayer and color correct the RAW data stream, in real time, for output in 422 or 444 over HD-SDI.

While ARRIRAW support will not be available immediately, the Gemini is still well suited for recording the uncompressed HD-SDI output of an Alexa now.

BC - It's pretty exciting news that this relatively low cost deck will be able to do Arriraw. I'm a big fan of the Codex but it's a hefty rental which has kept Arriraw out of the hands of a lot of productions that could benefit from it. It's nice to have so many options now where before there were few. While I'm loathe to spend anymore money on gear right now, the Gemini is looking more and more appealing all the time. I must say, the NanoFlash is a rock solid product so if they're able to build these to the same standards, the Gemini should be a real winner. I suppose if Arri wasn't impressed by the build quality they wouldn't have let CD into the Arriraw program. What's next? Cinedeck?