SmartNews – IT news and product updates for business

Adobe® Flash® Player  “Square”  includes support for two new areas, namely enhanced support for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 Beta and native 64-bit support for all major desktop operating systems including Linux, Mac, and Windows.

As part of our collaboration with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer team over the past few months, Flash Player “Square” has been enhanced to directly support the hardware-accelerated graphics capabilities in the newest version of IE. Flash Player “Square” leverages the new GPU support available with Internet Explorer 9 Beta to deliver a faster and more responsive user experience.

Visit the Adobe website for more information.

Adobe  announced immediate availability of the Adobe HTML5 Pack for Adobe® Illustrator® CS5, the industry leading vector graphics software, used extensively by designers of mobile device and web content. This pack provides initial support for HTML5 and CSS3 and extends the scalable vector graphics (SVG) capability in Illustrator, making it easier to design, deliver and optimize compelling content for mobile devices and the web.

By delivering this extension and supporting open standards, Adobe empowers developers, publishers and designers to make their own choices about how to create, distribute and access content. The HTML5 Pack lets web designers and developers take advantage of the latest advancements in HTML5 through enhanced integration between Illustrator CS5 and Adobe® Dreamweaver® CS5 software. SVG generated by Illustrator can be displayed directly in compatible browsers and Illustrator can be used to generate CSS code for styling of HTML content.

Visit the Adobe website for more information.

AJA announced  3 new key products; one in each area of the company’s offerings :

Hi5-3D a new:  mini-converter that combines dual 3G SDI inputs into various multiplexed 3D formats for output on true 3D HDMI 1.4a and SDI to enable simple, flexible stereoscopic viewing on 3D monitors and projection systems.

Ki Pro Mini: a smaller, lighter version of its breakthrough portable tapeless recorder that captures to the Apple ProRes 422 codec directly from camera. The highly portable Ki Pro Mini flash disk recorder mounts easily to digital cameras and accessories, enabling it to fit unobtrusively in small spaces for on-set capture of 10-bit 4:2:2 files that are immediately ready for editing.

KONA 3G features 10-bit uncompressed video 3G/HD/SD SDI I/O, new HDMI 1.4a output for stereographic monitoring to consumer 3D displays, 8-channel AES digital audio I/O (16-channel AES with optional K3G-Box) and 16-channel SDI embedded audio I/O, real-time hardware-based up/down/cross conversion to support a range of SD and HD, dual-link HD, even 2K formats, a hardware-based downstream keyer and more.

Visit the AJA website for more information.

Introducing the world’s most advanced broadcast grade production switchers! EchoLab ATEM includes advanced technology and unique power features all built into a familiar M/E based design that’s fast and easy to use. EchoLab has been building production switchers since 1974. Decades of experience combined with the latest cutting edge digital switcher technology make ATEM one of the world’s best live production switchers.

For the highest quality video with extremely low processing delay, ATEM features a fully 10 bit digital design. This means you get the highest quality available from cameras, servers and character generators with true 10 bit video quality maintained throughout the entire signal path. Get better chroma keying and seamless layering from HDMI and SDI sources so all your video maintains that pristine broadcast quality look. Even ATEM’s built in analog video inputs and outputs feature low noise AD converters for incredible analog quality.

Visit the Blackmagic website for more information.

Receive additional software products worth up to £433 for free with every purchase of QuarkXPress 8*

1.Magic Software Bundle (worth £433/€513*)

- MarkzTools (Mac only)

• Down-save QuarkXPress files to versions 4, 6 and 7
• Repair corrupt QuarkXPress files

- ID2Q (Mac/Win)

• Open InDesign® files 1.5 – v7 (CS2, CS3, CS4, CS5) in QuarkXPress 8

- 1,000 OpenType® fonts

2. Magic Maintenance Bundle (worth £224/€298*)

-12 months maintenance

• Free QuarkXPress upgrades
• 12 months unlimited technical support
• Upgrade from ANY previous version

-1,000 OpenType Fonts

Visit the Quark website for more information.