Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium suite is a major mid-cycle update to the software for video and post-production for delivering content to virtually any screen. Performance and workflow have been imporved while powerful new audio editing capabilities have been added.
New component software receiving major updates include Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5, Adobe After Effects CS5.5, Adobe Flash Professional CS5.5, Adobe Flash Catalyst CS5.5, Adobe Story, Adobe Media Encoder CS5.5, and Adobe Device Central CS5.5.
New to the suite is Adobe Audition CS5.5, bringing its audio-for-video multitrack editing environment to both Mac OS and Windows for the first time.
Estimated street price for the Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium suite is US$2065. It is one of five suite editions of the Creative Suite 5.5 line of software.
Greater Productivity
Productivity enhancements promise to enable video and audio professionals to dramatically accelerate their workflows. The powerful Adobe Mercury Playback Engine, introduced in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5, broadens its graphics processing unit (GPU) hardware support to include laptops and more supported cards, and allows users to open projects faster, get real-time feedback for more GPU-accelerated features, and work more smoothly at 4k and higher resolutions.
Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 boosts performance by providing a smoother editing workflow, enabled by new trimming and editing tools that provide more precision and control.
Dual-system sound support from the new Merge Clips command in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 lets users quickly sync video with high-quality audio recorded on separate devices like location recorders, ideal for DSLR or RED workflows.
Leveraging an integrated workflow with Adobe Audition, Adobe Premiere Pro users can save time by sending individual clips or sequences, including reference videos, directly to Adobe Audition for audio editing and restoration. File-based workflows see enhanced support for RED and other tapeless cameras, including improved RED Source Settings dialog in Premiere Pro and After Effects CS5.5 and native support for up to 5k media from RED Epic cameras via an extension available on Adobe Labs.
As it is a truly native editing solution, users saves time time and eliminates the need to transcode or rewrap footage.
The new 64-bit Adobe Media Encoder CS5.5 has been completely redesigned to deliver Adobe Premiere Pro video sequences, After Effects compositions, and Adobe Encore projects to multiple screen formats quickly, while doing the encoding in the background.
Adobe Media Encoder CS5.5 also introduces new format support such as AVC-Intra and DPX, and watch folders so users can encode a single clip to multiple destinations with a simple drag and drop.
New features
After Effects CS5.5 introduces new features such as the Warp Stabilizer, Camera Lens Blur and Light Falloff to enable users to enhance footage in post-production.
The Warp Stabilizer eliminates unwanted camera movement by steadying shaky footage, making handheld footage appear as smooth as a camera mounted on a mechanical stabilizer.
The Camera Lens Blur effect mimics the properties of physical lenses offering more realistic depth of field blurs. The Light Falloff effect enables users to simulate natural illumination falloff to mimic how light behaves in a 3D scene and can be used to create other light intensity effects.
Video professionals can use the new Adobe Audition in CS5.5 Production Premium on both Mac and Windows platforms. The completely re-written audio engine in Audition offers a robust toolset to record, edit, mix, master, and sweeten audio. With its professional editing and multitrack mixing tools, powerful noise-reduction and effects options, Adobe Audition CS5.5 will be able to handle a wide range of tasks quickly and efficiently.
Improved Collaboration
Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium enables users to collaborate with existing workflows, even if they use a variety of tools. Enhanced project exchange support for Final Cut Pro users provides maximum flexibility for video editors, while new or enhanced OMF support in Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Audition makes it possible to export high-quality audio projects to Avid Pro Tools, facilitating more efficient collaboration between audio editors, remixers and sound designers.
Access to the new version of Adobe Story, an Adobe CS Live online service, improves collaboration between users with email notifications of new script edits and a faster method of tracking changes through script elements and filters.
The ability to import Adobe Story script data directly into Adobe Premiere Pro further strengthens XML-based metadata support found throughout the Production Premium suite, which is critical for everything from file-based workflows to media asset management.
The metadata-driven workflows, plus the ease and flexibility of communicating with Adobe applications with critical third party solutions from news management systems to playback servers, is a key selling point for broadcasters and other organizations around the world.
The iPad 2 was unveiled as anticipated on 2 Mar at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Specifications were in line with virulent speculations prior to the event. What was more uncertain was whether Steve Jobs would helm the launch.
With 350,000 apps on the Apps Store, with 65,000 dedicated to the iPad 2, the tablet will hit US shelves on 11 March and ship internationally on 25 March. The $499 starting price is the same as the original iPad when it was first launched in Apr 2010.
1. Wi-Fi only versions:
The XZ-1 is a 10-megapixel high-end compact with 4x optical zoom from 28mm to 112mm (35mm equivalent). It records HD movies, has a 610k dots OLED display and features 6 Art Filters that can be applied to movies recorded. The camera comes in black or white and retails at S$748 (incl GST).
For complete beginners, there is the usual everything-automatic mode (iAuto) that takes care of all shooting settings for you. There are also 18 scene modes with pre-canned settings catered for specific photographic situations from the usual portrait and landscape modes to more unusual modes like e-Portrait, Underwater (Macro or Wide), Multi-Exposure, Cuisine, Pet etc.
Together with its relatively large 1/1.63” sensor, it provides image quality and depth of field that I found comparable to some entry-level DSLRs that I’ve used in the past. The image processing engine – TruePic V – is the same one used in the Pen series of cameras.
Shooting HD video is a cinch with a dedicated record button. No need to fumble through complicated on-screen menus. Recording movies using Diorama mode is pretty cool, like a video on fast-forward.
The control ring around the lens is a pleasure to use. It is tactile and responsive and provides immediate adjustments to the main setting for each shooting mode (eg. aperture setting in Aperture Priority mode).
Areas to improve? I wished there is a more direct way to access ISO and White Balance settings, rather than using the menu. I also found the wheel controller (around the arrow navigation keys on the rear panel) too slow when making large adjustments, say of the shutter speed. But this is highly subjective and I suspect it’s because I’m spoilt by the more tactile lens ring.
