So RED just had their first public showing of their REDRay magic box. Some compression wizzardry made it possible to compress 4k video by the factor of 750 – resulting in 4k footage at a datarate that is half of standard definition miniDV. Basically you get a picture way, way, way better than HD at a fraction of BluRay’s data rate. This might just turn the whole delivery upside down, as it will enable distribution of high quality films via standard broadband. Also, digital cinema will not need proprietary distribution technology, because a feature film will fit on a standard DVD-R.

At the REDuser party in Las Vegas RED showed both uncompressed footage side-to-side with the same footage compressed with their technology. Uncompressed size was roughly 320GBs, while the REDRay version shrank down to 450MBs. Many reported as to not being able to tell the difference.

Some video footage from the REDuser party has been put online by Justin.tv.

I hope that it will only be a matter of time before 4k projectors come at an affordable price. Community cinemas could spring to life again, and small filmmakers could organize regionally to open up their own cinemas. Distribution of independent film will no longer be limited by cost.

What an exciting times we live in, my friends.

It is amazing to see how display technology is evolving. Not too long ago, tubes were the standard way of showing moving pictures. Then came the LCD/Plasma revolution. Screens are getting both bigger (42″ seems the new standard for TVs, while it was 22″ not so long before) and smaller (just see the new 2″ iPod nano or pinable video). Now you can have a film on any wall — or in any pocket.

Electronic paper seems to be coming closer to production. One day I guess we will have animated cereal boxes…

Holographic storytelling

A new, holographic technology allows to display images in thin air. While the quality is still not quite there yet, this is certainly a very exciting technology:

It will be very interesting to see if this technology requires a different format for telling stories.

Interactive

Now imagine if you could combine these two technologies – holographic movies and interactivity, and a whole new world of storytelling evolves. I imagine some sort of combination between a film storyline and computer games.

The future is certainly looking interesting.

I’m currently in Berlin, where I studied some 10 years ago. And boy, has this city changed. And boy, how it has not changed. Lots of energy, creativity, space for alternative thinking. And many new, huge, amazing buildings.

The only problem that Berlin faces, is that it is not part of Norway

More posts once I return. I might even post some pictures from the world chapionate (sic) in fireworks, which is the reason I am in this awesome town. (Oh, and our sweet brother Sweden won.)

As my regulars reader will have guessed, I am usually a big fan of everything with an Apple logo, while trying to avoid anything that starts with “Microso” or “Windo”. A short while ago, I was officially impressed by two of Microsoft’s campaigns. But today, I was short of blown away by the following glimpse from the MS laboratories:
(via)
I couldn’t help but feeling “Hey, this is Apple territory – it’s easy to use, it’s definately cool, I want one”.
Starting at USD 5.000, I don’t see why they are not targeting the (upper/geek) home market.
For more info, hop over to Popular Mechanics. Update: Doug pointed me to Microsofts website about the Surface. If you are in New York on June 9th, you can see it live. Lucky you Americans, in one month you get two cool gadgets from Apple (iPhone) and Microsoft (Surface).