Video Assist computers FAQ - Wolf Seeberg Video

Lynx Video System
the Turkish system new in 2009
http://www.oktotech.com/Lynx_video_assist.php
Sinan SENSIVASUSA MOBILE: 323 244 3726
Manufacturing Facility Tel : +90 262 678 72 32Orion Studios
Tel : +90 212 360 37 60 - PBX (110)Mobile : +90 535 729
89 28 Web : www.oktotech.com
Mail : sinan(at)oktotech.com
Skype : sinansensivasMSN :
sinansensivas(at)hotmail.com
Adress :
GOSB Teknopark 2. Hibrid Bina 1. Kat A3 Gebze/Kocaeli/Türkiye
March 2010 Wolf note: NTSC in this system works as of today. It’s in an early state of development. You can
record 4 cameras but only play one at a time or play in a quad. Many things need development. The most
promising part is that there are Turkish government funds behind this project so there may be enough resources to
make it complete. Lot of flash on the screen but basics are not there yet. Sound is out of sync and woefully
ignored so far. Runs on 12 V. No visible database. Touch screen has to be gotten rid of (gets dirty and eats
resources). No outputs for single cameras, it’s a quad output when recording 4 cameras. Live pix is delayed 5
frames… etc…
From Britain: Posted by: "Bob Bridges" bob@bbvc.co.uk bbvcbob Sun Mar 8, 2009 From the
Yahoo group http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/VideoAssist/message/3501
Hi guys, I was very lucky to be invited for a one-to-one demo of the new Lynx Video Assist system on
Wednesday with Sinan Sensivas and Alphan Belbek of Media Technologies [from Turkey] whilst they were in
London to promote the device.
I initially contacted them after their first posting on the Yahoo forum as I was on the lookout for a portable multicamera
device for Action Unit work. Whilst I am a dedicated CinelogX user for my studio rigs, I was looking for
something that could record four cameras, was reasonably light, easy to operate and came in a single box.
Another requirement was that the video files would be of a type that were compatible with my CinelogX
produced DV-PAL .mov files. I need to be able easily transfer files from one system to the other and be able to
pass the files on to VFX and the Editors with minimum transfer time. There are other devices with 4 camera
capabilities but often they record with proprietary file formats that can't be read by any other device - or they're
coded as Mpeg2 or 4 files that suffer compression loss and can't be edited easily.
My first step was to download an example video file from Media Technologies. The file is in .avi form which
immediately opened up on my MacBook Pro as an "Apple openDML jpeg' I was able to export this from
QuicktimePro in my preferred DV-PAL .mov format very quickly and dropping the .avi file into FinalCut Pro
only needed a moment to render up to the FCP project's settings.
So far, so good. The next thing was the operation of the device. From the website blurb, the Lynx can do
everything - Record & Play up to 4 cameras, Mix&Overlay and Edit. I am always suspicious of such devices as
often they can do it all but the compromises needed to offer all the options can mean over-complex interfaces or
reduced functions in any one mode.
So to the demo: This isn't a full review, just my impressions of the Lynx system.
The first thing I noticed was that the device has changed since the website photo's were published. The joystick is
no longer on the front panel and there have been changes to some of the interface screens. The guys told me that
they are still consistently updating and modifying the system as new ideas and suggestions come in from users
and the professional VA Op's they're meeting through the demo's.
The interface has six main areas - Record, Playback, Mixer, Import/Export, Editor and Settings. The first five
are serviced by the database which organizes the shots, as thumbnails, into Scenes, Shots (within each Scene) and
Takes (within each shot) There is also a folder containing Edits. The database is navigated iPhone style by
flicking through the thumbnails.
The Video output mirrors what you see on the video overlay window on the interface - so if you are playing
back one camera in full frame on the interface or all four as a quad-split, that's what you see on the output.
When you are in single camera mode you can apply a matte around the image to match the groundglass lines
which is adjustable for size and position and has variable opacity. This is applied to the output which means that
the image is recorded clean so, if there's a question of just how close was the boom to the edge, you can dial out
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