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| Play
Rocks National Association of Broadcasters Show |
April 14, 1998, Las Vegas, NV
– Hot on the heels of shipping the highly
Kiki welcomes the revolution
of television (above) A crowd of 900 gathers
for
Play's Sunday night event
(below) |
anticipated Trinity video
production system, Play Incorporated rolled into Las Vegas with several surprises up its
sleeve. Things got started on Sunday night as a standing-room-only crowd of nine hundred
people packed a ballroom at Caesar’s Palace. The event was kicked off with a shipping
Trinity box being delivered, pallet and all, to the stage. Out popped Kiki Stockhammer,
Play Co-Founder and Chief Technology Evangelist, ready to unveil several new features to
be added to the shipping Trinity in the coming weeks. The new features, which had
been kept secret until the event, will be a free upgrade to all current Trinity owners. |
 Kiki Kicks Off Sunday Night Festivities
Kiki and Play Vice-President of Software, Steve Hartford launched into a
whirlwind demo, the highlight of which was certainly the new ClipMem RAM Recorder feature.
It was disclosed that Trinity was designed to support additional RAM that will allow the
system to capture and play back 6.3 seconds of non-compressed CCIR-601 broadcast-quality
video. Adding the extra RAM is a simple field upgrade with a widely available standard
SIMM that sells for less than $300. The ClipMem Ram Recorder allows users to capture
video that may then be resized, rotoscoped, or composited inside Panamation,
Trinity’s powerful animation system. The resulting video clip may then be saved as a
real-time Trinity effect with alpha channel. This effect can be simply dropped into the
Trinity Switcher or Preditor editing system to be composited in real-time over live video. |
|
| To demonstrate the
power of ClipMem, a scene from a commercial was rotoscoped with a perspective-mapped,
semi-transparent, full-motion video plane motion-tracked into an on-screen prop to
simulate a futuristic viewing panel. Trinity owner Todd Williamson commented after the
event, "A digital RAM recorder like ClipMem costs 5 to 10 thousand dollars. To find
out that Play made it so that I can just add a SIMM module and do the same thing is
amazing. I’ve been waiting a long time for my Trinity and a surprise like this makes
the wait worthwhile". |
Play Incorporated co-CEO's, Mike Moore (left) and Paul Montgomery
(right) take the stage to make a very special announcement |
Next
Play Co-CEOs Mike Moore and Paul Montgomery took the stage to announce that Play had
merged with 3D powerhouse Electric Image. As the announcement was made there was an
audible gasp from the crowd which turned into thunderous applause as the on-stage
projectors lit up with a demo reel featuring highlights of Electric Image-created visual
effects from the most significant science fiction and action-adventure movies of the past
decade. From Star Trek to Star Wars, from Mission Impossible to The Mask, from Terminator
to Titanic, Electric Image has been one |
| of the most popular 3D animation
systems ever to hit Hollywood. |
|
| As the lights came back up, Electric Image
Co-Founders Jay Roth, Mark Granger and Markus Houy took the stage to discuss how the
merger will move Electric Image forward by providing additional resources and an
‘explosive’ combination of core technologies. They indicated that the merger
will have a dramatic impact not only on both companies current line-up of products but on
several new unannounced products and technologies both groups have been working on. Roth
summed up |
Electric Image Co-Founders (from left to right): Markus Houy, Jay
Roth, and Mark Granger |
| his feelings by saying, "We’ve known
each other for many years and have always wanted to work together. This is a marriage made
in heaven". |
|
Play Booth Draws Largest Crowds of NAB
Monday morning the Play booth was immediately besieged by show-goers as the
doors opened. The spectacular new Play exhibit (designed and built by Play Studios), was
visible from across the hall with it’s glowing sculptures backlit in iridescent green
and 20 |
Linear and non-linear editing at Play's Preditor Demo Station |
foot high Trinity face. The demo stations in the booth were
dedicated to Trinity switcher and effects, Panamation and TitleWave, Preditor, Virtual
Sets, Electric Image and Play’s now trademark live television show produced in
real-time entirely on one Trinity. The Preditor demo station was showing linear and
non-linear editing with Digital-S VTRs hooked up alongside Play’s soon-to-ship
non-compressed Time Machine. The editing interface was being shown on a dual monitor |
| setup under Windows NT. The
Panamation/TitleWave demo station was also a hit with in-depth demonstrations of lightning
fast graphics creation. The Electric Image demo station marked a first as crowds witnessed
sensational 3D images from some of their favorite movies recreated in seconds by the
blindingly fast Electric Image renderer. The Virtual Set demo included a green screen
stage that featured the unveiling of Trinity’s multi-camera live virtual set
capabilities. Being an election year many of the sets focused on election coverage with
animating maps and transparent wall effects inter-cutting between wide angle shots and
close-ups of the same set. |
|
| As the ‘Play TV’ live stage began
it’s first show with Stewart Cheifet host of the award-winning show ‘Computer
Chronicles’ seen on PBS and CNBC, the crowds began to grow increasingly large. The
show featured Kiki Stockhammer demonstrating many of the new features of Trinity 1.0 and
Jay Roth of Electric Image |
"Play TV" with Kiki and Stewart Cheifet |
| showing the amazing visual effects created
with his software. Many in the crowd were drawn to looking over director Chris
Fenwick’s shoulder as he switched the show live on his own Trinity. Fenwick, the
veteran director of Computer Chronicles, was seen bringing animated Panamation graphics up
for the show opening as well as animated lower-third titles for each guest. |
"Play TV" spectators spill into the
aisles and adjacent booths |
By the time the second Play TV show started the
crowds had grown so large they were spilling out of the Play theater’s audience
seating area, across the aisles and well into adjacent booths. By mid-day it was
impossible to move near the Play booth and the Las Vegas Fire Marshall declared the packed
area a safety hazard, briefly shutting down the show. The NAB show management acted
quickly to assist Play in re-opening the exhibit by providing six security |
| officers around the booth to keep walkways open. |
|
| Nearby exhibitors
took advantage of the record-breaking crowds around the Play booth with Discreet Logic
providing bottled water to the Play TV audience and Nigel B Production Furniture quickly
obtaining a Trinity and displaying it rack-mounted in their production suite furniture
line. By Tuesday evening the NAB Information Kiosks in the Las Vegas Convention Center and
the Sands Expo Center were declaring the Play booth the number one most requested
location. On Wednesday the security
personnel were still needed as the crowds showed no sign of decreasing, even though crowds
elsewhere at the show had thinned by more than half. Because of the overwhelming response,
by the end of the day on Wednesday the Play booth began running out of demo video tapes
and brochures requiring more to be flown in overnight for the final day of the show.
In addition to the Play staff, the booth was
manned by over 50 dedicated Trinity dealers from around the country many of whom worked
the demo stations and assisted in crowd control and in answering questions from the
thousands of interested NAB attendees. In all, the dealers reported strong interest at the
show from broadcasters eager to get their Trinity’s as soon as possible as well as
scheduling hundreds of in-person Trinity follow-up demonstrations in the weeks after the
show.
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