If you’re doing video production and you’re looking for a digital video character generator with support for FireWire, you might want to take a look at a new product from Focus Enhancements — the Videonics FireWriter. The company claims it’s the first digital video character generator equipped with FireWire connections.
This isn’t hobbyist equipment — the US$2195 device has been created for TV studios, video production companies, and Web streaming companies that have a need to add professional character generation (CG) to their video work. Focus product manager Jim Steward said the FireWriter has been developed to complement the company’s MXProDV digital video mixer.
Comprised of a small desktop box and a full-sized keyboard, the FireWriter sports FireWire, Y/C (S-Video), and composite video inputs and outputs. It can either be operated locally as a standalone character generator, or remotely over a network or the Internet — it has a built-in Ethernet interface and supports File Transfer Protocol, or FTP.
Users have control over high-res, anti-aliased titles, and can adjust font, font size, color, shadow, outline, and 256 levels of transparency. Graphic designers can save company logos or bugs can also be imported as JPEG images. The FireWriter also sports more than 20 different special effects, including fades, wipes, and eight speeds for scrolls and crawls. Support for over 21 foreign languages is also included. It sports both NTSC and PAL video signal support, as well.
Focus plans to show off the new box at next week’s National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) trade show in Las Vegas, Nev. The company will be at booth number S5309.