Tag Archives: Thunderbolt

Intensity by Blackmagic Design

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Despite the fact that Apple is not present at CES 2012, it is clearly having an impact. One of the areas where that impact is being felt is with the introduction of Thunderbolt enabled devices. In September 2010 Intel showed off Thunderbolt at the Intel Developer’s Forum.  Apple introduced the first Thunderbolt enabled computer in February 2011, the Macbook Pro. However there has not been a lot of third-party Thunderbolt enabled devices appearing in the market. Well if CES 2012 is any indication the wait for Thunderbolt enabled devices maybe over.

One such device that is being shown at CES is the Intensity Shuttle by Blackmagic Design. The Intensity Shuttle uses Intel Thunderbolt technology and connects to a Thunderbolt enabled computer using a single wire. It is capable of up to 10 GB of transfer speed, which is 20x faster than USB 2.0 and 12x faster than FireWire 800. It is a full featured video capture and playback solution. It features all the video connections needed to connect video cameras, set-top boxes, gaming consoles and projectors to Thunderbolt enabled computers. This would include HDMI, component, composite, and S-Video. It uses the same high quality electronics that are available in Blackmagic Design’s high end broadcasting capture and play back solutions. You can capture live game play, archive family movies and create full broadcast quality 1080 HD video. If you capture video directly with the Intensity Shuttle it by passes the camera’s compression by recording directly from the camera’s image sensor. This allows low-end consumer video cameras to capture full HD resolution in broadcast quality.

“Using Intensity Shuttle with Thunderbolt™ technology combines the quality and speed that videographers demand”, said Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic Design. “It’s incredibly exciting when technologies come together and create new opportunities for the way people work with video. The barriers of working with broadcast quality video have gone forever and everyone can create amazing looking work!”

La Cie and Thunderbolt

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If you depend on moving a lot of data around and are looking for ways to move it faster then the Thunderbolt technology (formerly Light Peak) is something that should be of  interest to you. Companies and individuals who work in the area of video editing and transfer will be one of the first groups that will take advantage of the Thunderbolt technology. The Thunderbolt technology was developed by Intel in collaboration with Apple. The technology supports both data and display protocols simultaneously over a single cable. The Thunderbolt technology outperforms all other method of transfers by a mile.

Task that previously took a workstation will soon be performed on a consumer compact device. The new Macbook Pro is the first computer to take advantage of this technology. One of the first companies that has created a device that takes advantage of the technology other then Apple is La Cie. La Cie first show case the Thunderbolt technology at the Intel Developer Forum in September 2010. Since then it has worked even more closely with Apple and Intel to develop various storage solutions and peripherals that take advantage of Thunderbolt technology and to bring them to market. This close cooperation between La Cie and Apple  is nothing new. La Cie has been working closely with Apple for over 20 years developing innovative and cutting edge products. La Cie specializes in hard drives including desktop, mobile, network storage, Raid and Multimedia Hard Drives. Their newest product  called the Little Big Disk will be coming out summer 2011. The Little Big Disk was built to store large amounts of video and audio files. The integration of the Thunderbolt technology will allow that data to be transfer far quicker then any other technology. This in turn will speed up the process of both backup and editing.  Task that used to take hours will now be completed in minutes without any effect on bandwidth performance. Multiple Little Big Disks can even be daisy chained together to expand storage. You can also connect other peripherals like cameras or high resolution displays. The chairman and general manger of La Cie said it best:

“Thunderbolt technology is a breakthrough in I/O technology and
represents the future of mobile computing. Soon you will be able to
carry workstation-class power and functionality in compact devices,”
said Philippe Spruch, Chairman and General Manager,LaCie. “LaCie is
excited to be one of the first to deliver Thunderbolt technology with
the LaCie Little Big Disk.”

La Cie obviously sees Thunderbolt as the the transfer technology of the future. whether it is will depend on how fast other companies create products that take advantage of it.