Anyone for Toast?
One of the Amiga's biggest strengths has always been in the 'desktop video' industry, so I thought it would be great this month to take a peek at one particularly revolutionary contribution...
TV Shows such as Babylon 5, Seaquest DSV and even Star Trek have employed the Amiga to reduce costs and improve the quality of computer generated imagery (CGI for short - not to be confused with the Web's CGI). The Amiga's rich variety of video-ready screenmodes, powerful custom chipset and ease of use have all been of great benefit to TV and movie production, but one gadget has tied everything together in a way no other platform has been able to match. Tightly integrating a video card, realtime multiple input switcher, wiper, effects unit, genlock, keyer, mixer, titler and more - all to broadcast TV quality. That's the honest truth, and the gadget of which I speak is the Emmy award winning NewTek Video Toaster.
Okay, it's an odd name, but a memorable one. If you're a fan of TV and movie production and technology, particularly in North America, you've probably heard of it. In fact, you're also likely to know it's main software partner, LightWave. LightWave is the premier raytracing system for any machine, and it all started on the Amiga. In fact, it was so tightly coupled with the Amiga and Toaster, that for a long time you just couldn't get it for any other combination of hardware. However, in the years after Commodore's demise, LightWave gradually moved over to other platforms and shed its links to the Video Toaster - mainly because the Toaster just cannot be made for any other machine.
Traditionally, the Toaster has only been available for the NTSC, 'big-box' Amiga market. Hopes of getting a PAL version are about as likely as a Video Toaster for the PC, Macintosh or even Silicon Graphics machine. However, the NTSC limit isn't too much of a problem - which is just as well, otherwise I'd never be able to watch shows like Star Trek or Babylon 5 in the UK! However, 'big-box' Amigas such as the A2000, A3000 and A4000 are in high demand, and low availability. The last remaining supplier of original A4000 motherboards, QuikPak, were hit with a hefty court case which effectively wiped out A4000 production to NewTek's annoyance (they'd just begun to bundle A4000/Toaster systems again). The QuikPak case was an extraordinary, and unexpected, moment of bad timing. Rumours about background involvement from certain major software companies are rife, but unfounded... you know how these things can start...
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