On the Hardware Front
Sure enough, other peripherals were on display at the Expo. Here are a few of the products that caught my eye:
Server Silencers. Noise can be troublesome to those in the digital audio-recording and digital video-editing fields. We often think of ambient noise coming from outside the studio, such as the blast from car alarms. However, it can also come from inside, from the cat, or more likely, your computer’s fan and hard drives. But it’s not always practical to locate servers and workstations in a closet.
At the Expo, Noren Products and its distribution partners showed several versions of its AcoustiLock noise-reduction cabinets for servers and workstations (see figure 2). The enclosures can reduce the sound from a computer and a pile of storage devices almost in half, from 65.5 dB to 36.9 dB, according to the company.
Figure 2: The gCab comes with a range of stylish options, such as colored finishes, hardwood doors, internal lighting, built-in thermometers, and pull-out drawers.
Naturally, there’s a heat buildup problem when placing a computer inside a box. In addition, much of the noise of the computer comes from the fans blowing air across the logic board and other heat-producing components. Placing the machine in a box will reduce the cooling efficiency. Noren’s products use a methanol-based heat exchange technology that can refrigerate the inside of the cabinet without needing a fan.
Noren’s new CoolMac Silencer Series includes the $699 gCab and $899 gCab Studio as well as several xCab models that can hold rack-mounted servers, such as Apple’s Xserve.
USB Controllers. Also aimed at the digital video studio were a pair of Contour A/V Solutions’ high-style USB controllers, the ShuttlePRO and SpaceShuttle A/V (see figure 3). The devices include a batch of programmable buttons and a jog controller with a smooth action. They come with pre-configured actions for popular Mac and PC applications.
Figure 3: Contour A/V Solutions, a.k.a. CAVS, makes the ShuttlePRO controller. In the middle of the USB device sits its jog shuttle knob, with a set of 9 programmable buttons on the top, and two pairs of mouse buttons on the bottom.
One-Pass Laser. For those interested in printers, Brother International introduced a single-pass, 16-ppm color laser printer with up to 1,200-by-1,200-dpi resolution. The $2,399 PostScript printer comes standard with duplexing; it can print the first page of a job in less-than 20 seconds.
On-FireWire On the FireWire 400 track, WiebeTech showed several product updates. The company added capacities of 80GB and 120GB to its UltraGB line of bus-powered hard drives.
In addition, WiebeTech’s Super DriveDock now supports CD and DVD mechanisms in addition to 3.5-inch hard disks. The product is an ATA-to-FireWire 400 adapter that lets you connect a bare drive externally to your computer without a case.
CMS Peripherals announced a new restore feature for its ABSplus Automatic Backup System. The package is a small FireWire hard drive that runs a backup script automatically when the unit is connected to the host computer. In addition to backup, the drive can now restore a system with a single click.
Updating its memory card reader line, Asante Technologies showed a $75 FireWire version of its USB FriendlyNET Gini device that supports six formats. It’s due in March.
Combining both storage and printing, Primera Technology offers the Bravo Disc Publisher for Mac and Windows, a self-contained drive, jukebox and CMYK inkjet printer (see figure 4). The company has lowered the bar for such duplication packages with the Bravo — it costs $1,995 and $2,495 for CD and DVD models, respectively.
Figure 4: For those tired of swapping discs in and out of drives and labeling packages, Primera’s Bravo Disc Publisher places an optical drive, robotics assembly and an 2,400-dpi four-color inkjet printer in a single box.
The Bravo can hold up to 25 discs at a time. A $199 adapter lets it hold the small business card-sized 80mm discs.
A Softie at Heart
Mac OS X was on the minds of most attendees to the Expo and as expected there were introductions of a number of new content-creation applications as well as OS X-savvy updates. At the same time, developers took the opportunity to showcase new versions of utility applications.
Riccardo Ettore showed the OS X version of his Typeit4me data entry shortcut utility. The software watches what you type and fills in words automatically. For example, if there’s text you type frequently, you can assign just a couple of letters and Typeit4me will fill out the word, phase or paragraph.
Known for its file recovery program Data Rescue, Prosoft Engineering released two new programs: Data Recycler, a $49 undelete tool; and its $49 Data Backup. The undelete utility can track internal and external drives, and lets users set various levels of protection and the size of the deletion buffer.
Insider Software introduced an update to its font management utility FontAgent, now dubbed FontAgent Pro. The $99.95 software is fully OS X-native, written in Cocoa, and supports on-the-fly font verification.
In a large booth, Micromat demonstrated its forthcoming TechTool Pro 4 hard drive testing and optimization software. The software will offer a variety of new recovery and optimization features; its release is expected in the second quarter.
SoftRAID showed the OS X version of its hard disk mirroring and striping software, due this quarter. The $149 driver software lets users create a striped volume across internal and external drives, including a mix of ATA, FireWire, SCSI, and Fibre Channel drives.
Odds and Endings
Naturally, the products above represent only a smattering of the software (and hardware) demonstrated at the show.
For any song-smiths in the audience, I mention MasterWriter’s like-named program that integrates a bunch of song writing tools, such as dictionaries for idioms, rhymed phrases, and alliterations.
Now one would expect all these text-heavy features in an application developed in the 4D database environment. However, the program also includes a built-in MIDI drum machine and digital recording system, letting you sing along with the lyrics you’ve pounded into its word processing module. And when you’re all done, you can send the entire package of files to Songuard, an online song registration service that provides a virtual notary service for your intellectual property.
I found the demonstration of Softpress’s Freeway Web-site environment compelling. It has the look and feel of a modern graphic design and page layout program. All the tools and inspectors are instantly familiar to anyone who’s ever created a job for print. Yet it produces decent HTML code, supporting standards such as CSS (cascading style sheets), Java scripts and more.
Unlike the more familiar, big-name competition — that also happen to sell separate graphics apps — Freeway integrates image-editing tools, letting users quickly manipulate their original high-resolution images and fonts. After creating a layout, the program then converts the images to the appropriate web-savvy format automatically. This process also avoids the common problem of misplacing original files, needed when changes need to be made, or when resizing images.
Perhaps this is one of the best things about trade shows: it lets you see lots of different products in action, especially those off your usual radar screen.
When it comes to trade shows, I follow the rabbinic saying: “If you sweep the whole house, you will find everything.” With an open mind and by sticking your nose into each booth, you will likely find something new and useful for your workflow.
This article was last modified on January 18, 2023
This article was first published on January 30, 2003
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