Time Is Money
The LE-2000 was designed to speed up the editing process by simplifying editing chores and by shortening the learning curve, without giving up any of the power and flexibility of the system. Production operations, Sports, News and Promotion departments…
Many of you have already made the transition to non-linear editing, but are now confronted with the need to add or bring back linear editing to support your everyday workload.  Well, the LE-2000 will control virtually every analog, SD or HD VTR in your facility, as well as edit directly with many servers such as the Abekas Mira, the EVS XT2 and the Grass Valley K2 and Profiles.

Upgradeable & Flexible
The LE-2000 is available in a 2-VTR cuts-only configuration, a 4-VTR plus mixer & switcher configuration, an 8-port model, and the top-of-the line 16-port, 10-VTR version…with upgrade paths available for all versions. 

Familiar Control Panel
The LE-2000 Series editors use a familiar Sony BVE style Control Panel with direct keystroke access to upper level functions. Lower level options are then displayed in a multiple-choice format on the edit screen for direct selection, lessening the need for the operator to remember all the features of the editor or where they reside.

High Definition Editing
Upgrading to HD? The LE-2000 switches from NTSC or PAL to HD editing at any frame rate, including 24P, without a fuss, and controls all Manufacturers’ HD VTRs and Switchers. The LE series also comes with 12-channel audio record capability as a standard feature.

Product Overview

• Features
• Specifications
• Dual Boot System
• LE2000 System Manual – pdf

Come to Booth C12124 to see the “Fastrack K2-H”.  With the Fastrack based K2-H application, you can edit directly onto the Grass Valley K2 server using both linear and non-linear functionality.

This allows you to benefit from all the features that make linear editing so flexible, as well as the immediacy of our non-linear “virtual” capabilities…it all combines to create a win-win situation for the editor, the broadcaster and your clients.  You have to see it to believe it.  New pricing has now made it perfect for any budget.  Here is what some current users of K2-H have to say about it:

“Editware and Grass Valley worked together to interface the Fastrack Hybrid Editing Controller and the K2 Video Disk Recorder to handle Entertainment Tonight’s unique and challenging Hi Def workflow. ‘ET’ and ‘The Insider’ shows could not be delivered on time, every day, without the combination of the Fastrack and the K2 systems. The number of changes to the stories is massive and on-going until minutes before the shows playout, and the unique and challenging fast pace workflow leaves the operators, the Fastrack and the K2 Systems with no time for error.”

Dan Henry, Executive In Charge of Production, ‘Entertainment Tonight’ / ‘The Insider’

“The Fastrack K2-H saves us an incredible amount of time.  Our many show compilations make use of Fastrack’s impressive hybrid capability by allowing us to create complex audio and video effects in real time using our existing peripheral equipment, while simultaneously inserting pre-existing clips and pre-edited segments to the Program instantly and non-linearly. This combination of technologies makes our production process as efficient as possible, and provides us the quick turn-around we require.”

Kevin Quinn, V.P. of TV Technology, World Wrestling Entertainment

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Editware has also partnered with Prime Image Inc. to create another award winning Fastrack application; the amazing TimeTailor™, which can be seen nearby at the Prime Image booth # C10720.

As your show time is always limited, email bobl@editware.com to reserve a demo time for yourself or your group, and be sure to ask about an invitation to our Hospitality Suite on Tuesday, April 21.

If you can’t make it to NAB this year, don’t worry, you can always visit our website www.editware.com or contact us at any time for additional information or for a product demo.

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The award winning EditSet.HD consists of a functionally integrated editor, video switcher and audio mixer from industry leaders Editware, Ross Video and Renegade Labs. This package is tightly interfaced and priced to get you into HD linear editing at a fraction of what you would expect to pay for such exceptional interoperability and functionality.  The EditSet.HD will be shown using the Abeka Mira server as both sources and recorder.

Don’t let the compact size or the low cost of this system fool you. It’s packed with everything you need – a real stimulus package. The mixer has 8-output busses, virtual faders, and the ability to accept multiple formats including SD and HD SDI inputs and outputs. It has all the effects you could possibly use including 16 frames of dial-up audio delay, and you can even control the audio levels from the editor.

The switcher has 6 or 12 multiple format SD/HD inputs with full preview, the superb patented UltraChrome chroma keyer, 2 or 3 keyers, dual animation stores, 2 channels of 2D DVE, 4 up/down converters, a compact 2 RU chassis and 3 SDI, one down-converted analog and 3 AUX outputs.

The editor can optionally control up to 10 VTRs and, being a hybrid system, many video servers also.  It includes NTSC, PAL and 24p standards, and is 12-channel audio record capable. 

Call +1 530 477-4300 x11 or email bobl@editware.com for more information on all of our exceptional products and how you might best integrate them into your workflow.

Visit our website www.editware.com.

Prime Image’s Time Tailor Post is a feature rich, fully automated system designed for cable-programmers, broadcasters, content providers, and post-production facilities for editing program and/or segment times to fit into new time slots.

• Frame accurate time-reduction
• Deletion of unwanted “black-holes”
• Creation of new “black-holes” for commercial overlays
• Time-reduce specific segments & leave others unaltered
• Maintains closed-caption information
• Frame accurate control of Source & Record units

Prime Image Digital Time Tailor

The Time Tailor system makes use of a patented technology to remove frames from material. Time reduction from 3 to 5% or more is achieved in a way that is virtually undetectable to the viewer/listener. Up to 8 channels of audio are processed along with video, with no pitch correction needed, and there is never a problem maintaining synchronization of audio and video. Closed captioning and other vertical interval data is also maintained. The Time Tailor is available in SD and HD (1080i) versions.

Typically, a first-run broadcast time slot allows 22 to 23-minutes for the actual show, with the remaining time used for commercials, promotional spots and public service announcement. When these shows are broadcast as reruns, or in syndication by local, cable or satellite channels, they must run in a 21-minute time slot. Old ways of reducing the time needed to play out a show included editing out scenes, racing through the credits, and playing out the show at a higher than original speed.

Based on Prime Image’s Time Tailor’s patented time-reduction process and the Fastrack TT system, Time Tailor Post removes video frames automatically and undetectably without compromising the integrity of the program. Time Tailor’s “micro-editing” provides a faster and less expensive method of this type of content processing. Plus, the final output is a higher quality of media than that which is modified by current methods.

Time Tailor Post offers SD support for 525i, 625i, 1080/29.97, and 720p/59.94 standards.

The Fastrack TT Controller

The Fastrack TT is based on Editware’s Fastrack Hybrid Editing Controller.  It provides a simple user interface and the control capability to fully automate and synchronize the Time Tailor process. Source VTR, Record VTR, Time Tailor and switcher are all controlled frame accurately.  The Fastrack allows for additional control for editing tasks which may go beyond the Time Tailor compression process.

The Process

The operator provides the following data to the Fastrack, then clicks on the “Start” button, and the fully automated time compression process proceeds to completion.

• Record VTR start time
• Source VTR start time
• Amount of time by which the show will be shortened
• Start and duration of up to 30 insert edits, normally to insert black, slate and bars/tone.
• Start and end of up to 30 delete edits
• Start and end of up to 30 “holds” (sections of source where no reduction is to occur)

Operator intervention (patch or router control) may be required once or twice during the first two minutes if bars and slate segments are recorded during the Time Tailor process.

Click here for more information on Time Tailor.

The first step in Fastrack’s development was to incorporate a full graphic user interface. This was accomplished through a partnership with Lift GmbH of Germany. The GUI modernized Fastrack beyond the use of timecode numbers, making editing a more intuitive process. Due to the GUI, Fastrack provided device control and linear/nonlinear editing from a single channel of video to as many as 80 channels from multiple servers, VTRs and other peripheral devices.

The next development step was to become format friendly, allowing for editing with uncompressed or compressed media, including JPEG, I-Frame and long-GOP MPEG, DV25, DV50 and all tape formats, while supporting NTSC, PAL, 1080i, 24p and other HD standards. As Editware strived to meet the industry’s various format needs, they continually added protocol partnerships for switchers, mixers, servers and CGs.

Finally, Fastrack needed to maintain synchronous relationships among 80 media tracks, each with multiple clips or scenes, and up to eight individually controlled audio tracks. Media had to be played out in realtime with frame accurate effects from external switchers, mixers, graphics and effects devices.

By far the toughest challenge came this past year from Prime Image of San Jose, CA, with their mission to meet an industry need to control time.

Prime Image first introduced the analog version of their Time Machine in late 1990. Time Machine was quickly installed by many broadcasters for use in an on-air environment to occasionally fit in an extra 30 second spot or two into an otherwise-full schedule. Eventually, some broadcasters received negative attention from networks, content creators, advertisers and the public for what was considered improper usage of the technology, which led most users to curtail use of the earlier Time Machines.

Today, the latest version of Prime Image’s Time Machine, the fully digital Time Tailor, is purchased for a desirable and acceptable use of this technology. The Time Tailor provides a powerful alternative to the standard procedures used to fit feature films and television programming into broadcast timeslots.

Often the timeslots available for a show in syndication are slightly shorter than those for the original, first-run broadcast. Typically, the content owner will use a combination of methods to fit programming into available slots, including shortening or editing out entire scenes.

Also commonly used is the “varispeed” method, where a source machine is played at, say, 103% of play speed in order to shorten the final show. This yields the extra time for a commercial or promo, but results in decreased quality of the broadcast image and sound. Pitch correction built into the playback machine helps with audio, but missing frames of video cause jumps in motion that are often apparent to the viewer. Also, if the original material includes closed caption data, it must be recreated as a separate step after the recording is completed.

Prime Image’s Time Tailor system makes use of its patented “micro-editing” technology to remove frames from the material. Time reduction from 3-5% or more is achieved in a way that is virtually undetectable to the viewer/listener. Up to eight channels of audio are processed along with video, without pitch correction requirements, and always maintaining synchronization of audio and video along with other vertical interval data such as closed captioning.

Time Tailor checks a sequence of frames to find those which essentially duplicate the information of adjacent frames. These frames are then edited out. Of course, it is not always possible to find duplicate frames, so Time Tailor “blends” the images in frames adjacent to the removed frame to make the change virtually undetectable to the viewer.

A typical theatrical release movie may run 100 minutes; a two-hour (120 minute) television timeslot typically breaks for commercials every 10 minutes (totaling 12 for the two hour slot) with each break consisting of two minutes (4x :30) for a total of 24 minutes. Subtracting these 24 minutes from the 120-minute timeslot leaves 96 minutes for a 100-minute movie. What happens to those four minutes?

Some facilities run the movie at a variable play speed nearing 105%, which yields a vertical wobble in any text on the screen along with a significant pitch change in the audio, which may or may not be fixed with a pitch correction device. Advanced facilities spend valuable time and resources editing out portions, sometimes affecting plot or content, in order to make the program fit the timeslot.

Time Tailor offered a better way to remove those few minutes without affecting content, without the varispeed artifacts and without the need to recreate the closed caption data. However, the Time Tailor’s user interface required realtime manual control, and offered no way to synchronize with the source and record VTRs or to automate the process.

Prime Image contacted Editware to discuss interfacing Fastrack and Time Tailor to meet their need for an easy to use GUI interface and to fully automate and synchronize Time Tailor’s time reduction process.

Editware returned to the lab to create a special user interface now known as Fastrack TT. Through this interface, the operator provides all parameters necessary to perform a complex Time Tailor process in one pass of the source tape. The control process allows specification of every element of the process before it begins, including source timecode, record timecode inserts of black, removal of material, insertion of slate, bars/tone, and the amount of time to be removed from the original show.

The job can be broken into as many as 30 segments, each with an independently specified number of frames to be removed. It can also be programmed for an overall reduction for the entire show, which is applied to all segments proportionately to the size of the segment. In addition, the operator can add up to 30 insert edits (normally to insert black) along with slate and bars/tone, up to 30 delete edits, and start and end of up to 30 “holds,” which are sections of source material where no reduction is to occur. The operator then presses the “Start” button, and the fully automated time reduction process proceeds to completion.

As the application of Prime Image’s Time Tailor system continued to evolve, more complex requirements arose, such as source material with Dolby E audio. Even though the audio decode and encode process requires a digital delay to keep the A/V in sync, the Time Tailor system processes it in a single pass and keeps all steps frame accurate.

Often in the Time Tailor process, there is a need for additional editing capability. Sometimes shows are edited for content or to meet the ratings requirements for certain broadcast timeslots. With its full editing capabilities, Fastrack can seamlessly change between its Time Tailor mode and full editing control.

Jay Coley is co-founder and president of Editware and can be reached at jayc@editware.com.