It seems like Apple is weaving it’s way into the fast these days. As announced last year, NASCAR Media Group is preparing for a transition to HD, which will include a move into a new 40,000-square-foot facility in Charlotte North Carolina. The transition will also mark NASCAR Media Group’s move to an all Apple ProRes workflow. NMG is the primary television production company for the sport of NASCAR, is using Macs and 16 AJA Kona 3 cards for ingesting the 150 hours of multi-camera footage shot at each race. An additional 18 Kona 3 cards are used for editing playback in NMG’s 10 edit bays, as well as to handle duplication and new media, and to support field operations for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series. This polishes their existing DIVArchive System by adding this new Apple Interface.
“Bringing DIVArchive and Apple together in a unified environment will make it easy for producers and editors working in Final Cut Pro to restore content from anywhere within the system including the datatape library,” said Jeff Lowe, managing director for media and broadcast technology at NASCAR Media Group. “The flexibility of DIVArchive and our close partnership with Front Porch Digital are key to simplifying our production process and helping to secure our valuable media assets while at the same time supporting higher quality new programming by giving our staff even easier access to thousands of hours of historic clips in our archive.”
familiar with 3D animation have probably been through the arguments with colleagues about which software you prefer, Maya, 3D Studio Max, Lightwave or perhaps the very popular Cinema 4D. But a new player has arrived, one that boasts a new interface, simple and innovative controls and all the while providing the features one expects from a professional, animation program. “Just arrived…” is a bit of an understatement, in fact the software has been around for a few years now, but has only recently started to gain some real traction. Although I’ll admit first off that I haven’t had the full chance to explore all the functions and formalities of this little gem, I will say that it is steaming with features in both modeling and customizations. But the real kicker here is the learning curve and word on the street is that animation houses are testing this little program and reporting back that it’s ease of use if by far the most stream lined in the business. This is the first piece of software to come from Luxology, a company founded recently by former Lightwave 3D stalwarts Allen Hastings, Stuart Ferguson, and Brad Peebler, and they clearly have a winner on their hands. It seems they listened to both seasoned vets and newbie’s when designing this program and have come up with something that appeals to both. Stewards of the business can just right in and feel right at home, while the newcomers will not have to become insomniacs just to find out how to properly spin a cube. The one thing that is lacking with this software is creation of tutorials. No matter where you experience level is, everyone needs a good tutorial and unfortunately the lack of such documentation or video’s is a regret for the time being, that said, it does of course come with the standard documentation that we’ve come to know, but it’s simply not enough. 
Ok, after working in the business now for many, many years I have come to the conclusion that although a lot of editors / cameraman seem to want to ‘leap’ onto the newest technologies out there, very few actually know how to use it. Take for instance the EX camera, which these days seem to be one of the premiere choices for production shoots, along with it’s versatility on the set. it displays an impressive image. However, as good as the camera is, when the footage comes to the editing room, most editor’s have no idea how to actually bring the footage into the editing room properly. So here we go.
