A Look Back at 2013

It's that time of year again and here at Planet PC we're already getting excited for 2014 but before we get too far ahead of ourselves we thought it only right that we take a look back at 2013 in our final blog post for this year.

 

We think you'll agree that the past year has flown by and it's fair to say that it's been a busy one for us here at Planet. Throughout the past twelve months we've been lucky enough to have some great announcements from some great names both old and new, and fingers crossed 2014 will be even better.

 

It seems like ages ago since Blackmagic announced their original Cinema Camera but earlier this year patient customers finally began receiving the long awaited cameras. Blackmagic then surprised everyone with the announcement of not one but two brand new cameras at this year's NAB and while their 4k MFT Version of the Cinema Camera is still pretty much impossible to get hold of their Pocket Camera has certainly been making waves.

 

Another big deal for many this year was undoubtedly the introduction of Adobe's cloud based software in the form of Creative Cloud. Gone are the days of Adobe's boxed software and a time when it was possible to purchase a physical product, the last of which was CS6. While this was understandably frustrating for many who don't like the idea of being tied into a subscription based model fear not - there's still some great boxed software available. Grassvalley announced Edius 7 earlier this year and here at Planet we think it's definitely worth a look for anyone interested in editing.

 

Live production favourites NewTek delighted many when they announced an upgrade to their TC40 which was shortly followed by the introduction of their brand new range of pro level systems. These include the TC410, TC460 and TC860 and along with the TC8000 are all well worth checking out if you haven't done so already.

 

Fans of live production will also have been interested to see Telestream announced Wirecast 5 which is a great place to start for anybody looking for an introduction to a software based streaming/switching solution.

 

Sony also announced two new cameras in the form of their PXW-Z100 and NEX-FS700R, along with their first hard drives (Sony's first forays into the world of portable storage) and new PTZ's which include the SRG-120DH and SRG-300H.

 

Wireless favourites Teradek who have also just announced their Bolt Pro, we've had a whole new range of mini converters from AJA, a colour calibration system from Atomos in the form of their Spyder for use with their Blade and the 450 MB/s Extreme Pro from SanDisk which is the world's fastest memory card.

 

It's fair to say there's been a lot going on this year in the world of professional video - simply too much to cover in one blog post. Thankfully we'll be back in the new year to start doing it all over again and here at Planet PC we can't wait to see what 2014 brings (although we'd be lying if we said we weren't looking forward to Christmas!)

 

With this in mind we'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all a merry Christmas and say a huge thank you to all our customers old and new. We can't wait to see you all again in the new year but in the meantime we hope you all eat lots of turkey, drink lots of wine and get lots of presents!