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Users who register for purchase of the upcoming Panasonic GH5 DSLM camera between February 14 – March 20, 2017, will get warranty extension up to 5 years, and V-Log functionality for free! You need to pre-purchase the camera, get an email confirmation document from us, and register at www.lumix-gh5.eu web site. You must upload the confirmation to the web site before March 20th. Once we stock the Panasonic GH5 camera, we will notify you with an invoice. Upon payment, you will receive the camera including the V-Log code (DMW-SFU1), and you must, once again, register the camera with a proof of purchase at www.lumix-gh5.eu to receive a voucher for 5 year warranty extension by mail. Simple? No, but well worth it!

Livestream released the newest version of Livestream Studio, version 4.2. The update adds:

Hardware Accelerated Encoding

Studio 4.2 requires less processing power for PCs that have NVIDIA graphics cards, with the NVIDIA NVENC feature, and/or QuickSync-enabled Intel processors. With QuickSync and NVIDIA hardware video encoding support, Studio can operate on an expanded list of consumer laptops and PCs. Also, Studio HD31 hardware customers (existing and new) can now stream in multi-bitrate HD.

Stream Live to Multiple Destinations

This update gives producers the opportunity to send a single stream from their encoder to multiple destinations at once. A single stream to the Livestream platform can be delivered to YouTube Live, Periscope, and Twitch simultaneously. Producers can also stream from Studio to Livestream and Facebook Live simultaneously.

Graphics Support in Web Control

Web Control gives you the ability to remotely control Livestream Studio software using a WebRTC compatible browser (Safari, Chrome, Firefox). Web Control now includes the ability to fully control your Graphics module, including adding and editing data. Delegate graphics tasks to other team members while you focus on cutting the show on the main Studio interface.

You can see the full list of improvements in the release notes here.

In addition to releasing a new beta version of firmware for Scarlet, Scarlet-W, Epic, Raven, and Weapon cameras, RED Digital Cinema announced (here) that Helium Weapons orders are now only 2-3 days behind upon placing; Epic-W models are around 2 week turn-around; but new orders of Scarlet-W models are likely to arrive this summer, and new orders of RED Raven are still not accepted at this time. Therefore RED Digital Cinema is extending the RED Owner Pricing deals that were supposed to end last December.

Steinberg's newly released HALion 6 virtual instrument excels with stunning new features like the new wavetable synthesis, the Sample Recorder and the Macro Page Designer providing you with a comprehensive sound design environment. Alongside HALion 6 comes the all-in-one workstation, HALion Sonic 3, providing a 25 GB preset library expansion, a new wavetable synthesizer and 9 new effects.

The new generation of HALion and HALion Sonic are brimming with ground-breaking new tools and stunning new instruments tailored to the discerning needs of the modern composer, producer and sound designer. The new Macro Page Designer in HALion enables users to create custom user interfaces using template-based workflow: design complete user interfaces for your sound creations conveniently via drag and drop! Version 6 also adds the ability to record directly into HALion from any internal or external source and have your samples cut, mapped and ready to play in no time with the new live-sampling editor.

The new HALion Script is a powerful, fast and easy to learn scripting tool offering users to create advanced instrument behaviour and custom script modules. With the new HALion, you can also create and export VST Sound libraries of your custom instruments for HALion and HALion Sonic, conveniently and easy with the help of the Library Creator. Many additional improvements and features can be found in and around HALion 6: The new Library Manager for user libraries, AAX support, Steinberg Download Assistant, online scripting reference for HALion Script, soft eLicenser copy protection and lots more.

New HALion 6 and HALion Sonic also offer a host of new instrument libraries, including The Raven Grand, and The Eagle Grand pianos, Hot Brass brass section, Studio Strings string ensemble sample library, Skylab and Anima synthesizers, as well as HALion Combi Library. The new, innovative three-band Resonator effect allows formant-filtering for various tonal modifications for beautiful vocal, string and brass sounds. HALion Sonic additionally inherits 8 new effects from HALion including the Vintage Compressor, Tube Saturator and many more.

Panasonic has announced a free firmware upgrade for the VariCam 35 and LT cinema cameras and VariCam HS high-speed 1080p camera that includes additional ProRes codecs and HD-SDI monitor output improvements. Both firmware upgrades add ProRes 4444 XQ, ProRes 422 and ProRes 422 LT codecs for 2K and HD resolutions (VariCam 35 and LT), and for HD resolution in case of the VariCam HS model. The bit depth of Pro Res 4444 has been increased to 12-bit, with 10-bit file playback only in camera. For the VariCam LT, AVC-LongG G50/G25 recording (HD only) is now supported for the majority of frame rates.

For HD-SDI monitor outputs, users can shorten the delay of the outputs to two frames, greatly enhancing onset monitoring applications. For cinema shooters, there's a new support of 23.98PsF output, which provides native frame rate support without introducing 2:3 pulldown artifacts. There's also a new support for “Letter Box” output in 4K/2K in which the image in MON OUT will be automatically set in “Letter Box” mode. For the iPad, there's a new remote control app -- VariCam ROP -- that has a user display similar to VariCam's menu display. In the app, users can select whether they want Master control in the app or camera, a lock switch to prevent accidental operation, and dial up/down operation by screen swipe on an iOS device.

For production, a 2.0:1 aspect ratio has been added to the framing marker choices. Netflix series like Frontier and A Series of Unfortunate Events have been produced recently in the 2.0:1 aspect ratio.

Additional features the firmware upgrades include:

• Focus status can be selected in “Meter” notation, even in V-Log recording (VariCam 35/LT/HS)
• Ability to assign “VFR (ON/OFF)” to USER SW (VariCam 35/LT/HS)
• MON OUT can be selected “ANAMORPHIC DESQUEEZE” in 2K/HD mode (VariCam 35/LT/HS)
• For VariCam 35 and HS, “Image Invert” and “Surround View” can be selected independently
• For VariCam 35 and HS, viewfinder display can be selected “EE (Camera through)” even in Playback
• For the VariCam LT, “Audio Level Meter” can be selected to display on SDI OUT

The firmware upgrade (Ver. 7.0) for the VariCam 35 and HS and Ver. 5.0 upgrade for VariCam LT can be downloaded here.