While we legally can’t tell you some surprises yet, we can spill to you what we’re excited to hear about at the International CES 2012. 4K and 3D are two great examples. 3D for what innovations show up this year since the general public has had substantial time to test out the video medium.

Then there’s the big buzz about 4K, which company will be first to really capture the general consumer, seems like the real catch here. One of the two sides of this technology is the camera, and because Canon’s announcement about such technology came more than two months prior to the International CES 2012 – the competition is on. The other part of 4K is the display, and manufacturers are hard at work improving these super-high resolution screens, our question is how low will we see a price drop and ultimately – will consumers adopt it?

Notable innovations in technology that we already have on our radar include flexible displays and alternative computer controls. While the projected time frame on these is beyond consumers of 2012, the International CES 2012 is a prime place for advancements to show up.

Take a glance at the Consumer Electronics Association coverage of CES 2011 and you’ll notice, there’s a lot of people there. Our team is certain to make contact with some of the biggest names in video production, as well as learn something new about each other. For some of us it’ll be a brand new experience and hopefully we’ll carry some of you (our audience) and your excitement with us. We’ll be determining some awards for this specific event, so products that steal the spotlight may be recognized by us. Look to this blog for updates and our hints at the biggest news for video producers.

As much as the city would love to make such exclusive information stay in Las Vegas forever, but our trip won’t mean much to you unless we bring some stories back.

As most of our avid readers know, Videomaker has faithfully scoured the CES floor to find the world’s most interesting products to write home to you all about. This year will be no exception. In an odd twist of the norm, LG just unveiled what might be the world’s largest 4K 3D television at a whopping 84 inches. It’s hard to imagine that there would be some other television revealed at CES this year that could match the specs and size of this television but be assured that if there is, we’ll be one of the first to report it right here on our blog next week.

As of right now, there are few details about what this television can do, but we can guess that the price for such a bohemoth will likely cost more than the average person makes in an entire years worth of salary.  What we do know is that this television will feature LG’s Smart TV functionality which includes access to various 3D movies and over 1,200 apps.

Lest you get confused about what 4K exactly means, LG has already told us that their television will display images at 3840×2160 pixels. Not exactly a true 4K picture but still double what we usually get on our 1080 televisions. Of course you may be asking how much 4K really improves the television viewing experience. I can tell you as someone who’s personally seen a 4K television and a 1080 television side to side that the extra pixels are definitely worth it.

Even so, there is no infrastructure currently in place for television stations to broadcast television at 4K resolutions. That will likely be a long time coming especially since most stations have just completed their move to HD content and will probably be resistant to changing things all over again. Also, you’ll be hard pressed to find any set-top players that can output resolutions this high without completely choking. Nonetheless, it seems like 4K is going to be just as big at CES as 3D televisions were last year. RED has already announced it’s plans for 4K disc players, many camcorders can already record at 4K resolutions, and even YouTube allows users to upload 4K content. These are all strong indications that 4K television is coming – and sooner than we think. I just hope computers and graphics cards will be able to keep up.

After the big announcements from Sony and Canon this year, it’s no surprise that Panasonic, a leader in professional camcorders, decided to get its feet wet by announcing their own 3D camcorder – the HDC-Z10000.  The camcorder does have a number of great features that should make it a solid contender in the 3D world. First off, it has the ability to switch between 2D and 3D shooting, it records images in the 3D AVCHD format using the frame sequential method (meaning it records a full frame for each lens on the camcorder), can zoom up to 10X, and has a wide 32mm angle of view. The lenses have f-stops as low as 1.5 in order to capture great footage even in low light situations as well as two independent 3MOS sensors for each lens which should allow each eye’s picture to look its best.

The great features don’t stop there though. This camera also records in full 1920x1080p (which is expected) but can do so at a full 60 frames per second without any interlacing – a relief for any videographer. Like many 3D camcorders coming out on the market, the LCD display can show 3D images glasses free making it easy to see what your final result will be. However, it remains to be seen how effective their version of the technology is.

In the past, Panasonic has won over the prosumer world by having plenty of external controls on their camcorders and the Z1000 is no exception. It has a ring for focus, zoom, and iris giving it a real pro feel, and buttons for OIS, white balance, zebra bars, and many more. Panasonic also decided to include two XLR ports giving this camcorder a bigger edge than most of the camcorders being released today. Lastly, the Z10000 also has two SD card slots with relay recording making it possible to record live events for many hours without the fear of running out of card space. This is quite the improvement over their consumer model which debuted at CES last year.

With all of the amazing features this camcorder has, you’re probably thinking it costs more than $5,000. If so, you might be surprised to know that Panasonic plans to sell the Z10000 for only $3500 and will be shipping in December. With a price point this good, it’s easy to predict that this camcorder will likely be the prosumer choice for 3D shooting soon!

If you’ve been licking your chops for one of those editing suites with long lists of included programs, but you just need video and photo, make sure the Video & Photo Creative Collection from CyberLink Corp. is considered. The combination of video and photo editing software is the staple of many video producers, and both put professional level work at your fingertips. The process after production and through distribution is covered with the Creative Collection.

Fast video editing is the emphasis of PowerDirector 10 which utilizes TrueVelocity 2, a rendering engine designed to speed up editing. There are separate modes for editing including 3D, hundreds of features, professional plug-ins, free-hand paint tools, keyframing and TrueTheater enhancements.  Automatic functions and disc burning add to the host of features in PowerDirector 10. Notable additions from PowerDirector 9 are one-click audio normalizing, smart rendering technology, time-lapse and uploading to Vimeo and Dailymotion.

As for PhotoDirector 2011, those still images used in your Ken Burns effect will be well touched with features focused on manipulating camera functions. Your photos can stay as pristine as possible with native rendering of RAW files. Among the controls included are sharpness, noise, white balance and targeted regional adjustments. Both halves of the collection share well with social networking sites and connect you to upwards of 225,000 effects through DirectorZone. The supported file formats include the most popular ones such as AVCHD, FLV, MOV, MPEG, and WMV for video and for photos, MPO, JPS, RAW, GIF, BMP, JPG, TIF, and PNG.

Video & Photo Creative Collection is a complete package that is about the same cost as an upgrade for other software programs, but its features quickly add up to make it a very comparable option for consumers. Expect to get a lot done with this collection and outfit your productions to look their best with versatile and award winning software.

The Video & Photo Creative Collection is listed at $150.

Leave it up to James Cameron to shell out almost 3 million dollars on new camcorder equipment. Recently, Jim Jannard announced that the Avatar director bought 50 of his company’s Epic-M cameras for production on his newest Avatar films. This puts James Cameron in the same camp as Peter Jackson who bought 30 of the cameras for his two-part adaptation of the Hobbit and Jon Schwartzman who announced he’d be shooting the latest Spiderman movie on the Epic.

Of course, you might be asking yourself why the director of Titanic would need 50 cameras to make two films when you and I can usually make do with one? Well, it’s hard to tell for sure but he’ll be needing two cameras for every rig since it will be shot in 3D, will inevitably use some as backup camcorders, and will be most likely using the others for his motion capture needs. That’s still a lot of camcorders so unless Cameron will be shooting 25 simultaneous 3D films, it is safe to assume that his new movies will be sporting some crazy new filmmaking technology. In fact, we already know that he is thinking about filming his next two Avatar installments at 48 frames per second which breaks the coveted 24 frames per second tradition. Though most of us would agree that 48 frames per second handles quick motion and panning much better, filmmakers are primarily using 24 frames per second as an artistic tool so I don’t see this going away anytime soon.  However, it could be welcome technology for 3D movies since quick panning in 3D can be hard for the eyes to handle at 24 frames per second.

If you want to check out some of the videos we took at NAB of the RED Scarlet and Epic cameras, take a look at these two videos on our YouTube page to get a glimpse of what James Cameron will be using.

RED Epic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-2dbDj_IgI

RED Scarlet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV2YyLBkaWQ

Sony’s HDR-TD10 is the world’s first “Double Full HD” 3D consumer camcorder.  You read that right, “Double Full HD”! The camcorder employs an integrated dual lens system, which includes two of each key component – double Sony G Lenses, double “Exmor R” CMOS image sensors, and double BIONZ image processors.

The dual recording system allows 3D content to be recorded in 1920×1080 Full HD resolution and viewed with 3D active glasses on 3D-capable HDTVs or in Full HD 2D on non-3D displays. All 3D footage can also be played back without glasses on the camcorder’s 3.5-inch Xtra Fine LCD 3D touch screen. Other innovative features include, 10x optical zoom with Optical SteadyShot image stabilization with Active Mode and iAUTO are offered in 3D mode. With 64GB of flash memory, the HDR-TD10 will be available in April for about $1500. It looks like 3D might actually be here to stay with this latest offering from Sony.