April 9, 1995, NAB Las Vegas╤NewTek Inc., today announced a portable, standalone Video Toaster for Windows NT and Windows 95. NewTek is known for developing the Emmy Award-winning Video Toaster, the product that launched the desktop video industry.
╥The original Video Toaster established itself as the standard for desktop-based video production," said Tim Jenison, inventor of the Toaster and president of NewTek. "With the Video Toaster for Windows, we're opening our doors to millions of Windows-based video producers." The new Video Toaster utilizes NewTek's proprietary video compression technique, VTASC, for real-time recording, playback, and non-linear editing. The unit features a built-in time base corrector and utilizes off-the-shelf computer hard drives for recording video. In addition, you can work with a total of 8 tracks of 16-bit, CD-quality audio. The Video Toaster serves as both a Record Deck in the field and an A/B Roll Edit System in the studio.
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The original Toaster is known for its video effects, color processing, character generation, paint, and 3D graphics. It changed the face of the video industry by being the first video device to incorporate all of the major production tools in one box at an incredibly affordable price. With the standalone Toaster, NewTek has added non-linear editing, CD-quality audio, and portability to the equation. Now you can record video, capture freeze frames, add titles, design graphics, edit scenes, insert 3D animations, and put together a complete video program using a single, sensible "drag and drop" interface.
Pricing for the standalone Video Toaster begins at $7995.00, and the system is expected ship in the third quarter of 1995. A professional model, which includes a built-in control module with 5.6" LCD monitor screen and front panel buttons, will also be available for $9995.00. Both models ship complete with the ability to run Video Toaster software when connected to any computer running Windows NT or Windows 95. In the field, the professional model can be operated entirely from its front panel LCD controls. It can even perform basic editing on the fly.
The control panel with the LCD monitor was added primarily for electronic news gathering and electronic field production users, "But everyone will love it," says Jenison. "It's very sharp and clear. You can shoot and play back anywhere, anytime, without the need to be hooked up to a computer." In the field, this will allow the cameraman to control the Toaster via his camera cable. During the ride home from the shoot, the producer can review the footage on the LCD front panel button. Back at the studio, the editor can control the entire system via SCSI cable control from any Windows NT or Windows 95-based PC.
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"Over the last few years, we've had thousands and thousands of people beg us to release the Video Toaster for other computer platforms," said Donetta Colboch, NewTek's Director of Marketing. "Now, the world's most popular and affordable video production system is available for the world's most widely-used personal computers. We listened to their requests, then we added a digital disk recorder and audio DSP (digital signal processing) system." The system has also been given new versatility. "You can record and play back at the same time, so it's a natural as a commercial insertion system or for the new cable-on-demand providers."
Video Toaster for Windows includes the tremendously-popular graphics package LightWave 3D, a full-featured 3D animation system renowned for its easy to use interface and powerful features. The new Toaster can even function as the animation recorder for LightWave so that artists can create flying logos, animated spots, scrolling credits, and more, direct to disk, with the ability to play them back immediately.
NewTek has given careful consideration to its existing user base. The heart of the new Video Toaster is the Flyer non-linear editing hardware. The Flyer's operating system has been completely rewritten to act as the brain of the new Toaster. At the same time it remains fully compatible with the current Flyer hardware, which will allow Video Toaster Flyer owners to convert their present Video Toaster system into the new Video Toaster easily. The new Toaster not only works with Windows NT but also with present Amiga Toaster systems.
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NewTek will make available a Video Toaster Bay (essentially the new Video Toaster package minus the Flyer) to current owners so they may enjoy the expanded capabilities of the portable system while retaining all of the abilities of their current system. The cost of the Video Toaster Bay for current Flyer users will be $2995.00. The professional version will be $4995.00.
NewTek will be demonstrating Video Toaster for Windows and LightWave 3D at the NAB Convention April 10-13 in the Las Vegas Convention Center, Booth #15171 and in the Video Toaster User Pavilion in the Multimedia hall.
For more information contact NewTek Inc., customer service at 1-800-847-6111.
