OK...one week and counting until the National Association of Broadcasters tradeshow in Las Vegas and things are already starting to look interesting...
GoPro buys CineForm.
I own 5 GoPro POV cameras which I originally bought for automotive work, then started to use them for various other things...I really like them and they are an incredible piece of equipment for the money.
I use CineForm Intermediate codecs for many purposes within various HD post production workflows and have for years. It's an excellent, efficient, and very high quality video compression system that has in the last few years, also become one of the industry's truly useful metadata management systems. One benefit of using CineForm's workflow is the ability to use their primary color correction system along with the rest of the metadata management tools in their application called "FirstLight", including the ability to do alteration of visual stereo (3D) settings on CineForm's industry-leading file structure which puts the right and left eye video clips inside the same video file.(Disclaimer: I wrote the current manual for FirstLight as well as use the application regularly...I will not claim complete objectivity...though there are almost no competing tools to compare it to...)
GoPro has been selling their cameras to almost every conceivable user at every level of video production from a teenage BMX racer or skateboard performer to professional video production. CineForm has been focused on several professional production markets as well as video enthusiasts to some extent, but with the CineForm RAW format being used in the Silicon Imaging SI2K camera (and therefore figuring prominently in the production of the movies "Slumdog Millionaire" and more recently "127 Hours") and also providing a convenient post path for the RED camera, CineForm's sweetest sweet spot is probably higher end more than anything.
So who saw GoPro's purchase of CineForm coming? Not me. I've been working withn CineForm products and even working with the company for a number of years and with 5 GoPro cameras and additional GoPro mounting widgets for nearly any circumstance, I can at least characterize myself as a loyal customer on that end of the spectrum, and I would not have guessed this one.
GoPro's upcoming stereo (3D) offering was shown in prototype form at NAB 2010 and I am sure that CineForm's elegant handling of visual stereo figures prominently into the general landscape of the situation.
A couple things are certain. GoPro's business track record speaks for itself. A product line that has only recently really had any marketing push beyond us users pointing other users toward the product has built an impressive enterprise which seems to have a very clear view of their market's needs and expectations. CineForm has been cranking out impressive technical innovations for a number of years now and their video codec and workflow plays a quiet role in many little known but high-stakes workflows.
The possibilities for this unlikely marriage boggle the imagination...hopefully the realities coming are just as tantalizing...
TimK
