New Release Accelerates Workflows for Color, Graphics, Animation and Audio with Adobe Sensei

The announcement was made at the 2018 NAB Show and the updates, which are now available, include powerful new capabilities for refining color, creating graphics and crafting audio, along with enhanced VR tools, improved collaboration, integration with Adobe Stock and advanced artificial intelligence powered by Adobe Sensei.

With the growing demand for video, the opportunity for content creators has never been greater, but video professionals are faced with new pressure to deliver more work in less time while ensuring content stands out and meets high audience expectations. In addition, creators must optimize for different platforms, ensure accessibility, meet required broadcast standards and deliver numerous versions of content across languages and regions. This tremendous shift in the way video professionals work requires more refined and streamlined workflows to reduce time to production, giving video creators more time to focus on their craft, Adobe said in a press statement.

“The demands and pace of video content creation are reaching levels we’ve never seen before. The time pressure on video professionals means the need for powerful and efficient creative tools has never been greater,” said Steven Warner, vice president of digital video and audio at Adobe. “Adobe video apps like Premiere Pro and After Effects give them that power which, combined with the services available in Creative Cloud, provides broadcasters, media companies, filmmakers and YouTubers a complete ecosystem to bring their stories to screen faster than ever.”

Ranging from Hollywood to Sundance, feature films to premium television channels, a growing number of industry-leading professional editors are using Adobe Premiere Pro CC to bring their creative visions to life. Projects that premiered this year include The Florida Project, The Square, Only the Brave and 6 Below; indie hits RBG, Clara’s Ghost and Search; and award-winning series MINDHUNTER and Atlanta.

Attendees at this year’s NAB Show can get a closer look at the newly available features and hear from industry experts at the Adobe booth (#SL4610, South Hall in the Las Vegas Convention Center) and at over 140 partner booths from April 9–12

According to the press statement, new feature highlights include:

·         Edit more powerfully with color and light in Premiere Pro CC – Powered by Adobe Sensei, Color Match two shots with one click, applying editable Lumetri adjustments from one clip to another to achieve visual consistency in scenes and across whole projects. Compare shots using the new split-view.

·         Create animation and graphics more quickly in After Effects CC – Stacked behaviors and effects in combination with timeline-based animation now make the creative process more visual and intuitive. Apply changes to individual effects across multiple versions of a composition with a single adjustment using new Master Properties. Also, complex motions can be made to any surface mesh with the new Advanced Puppet tool.

·         Sound even better with Sensei-powered audio workflows – Automatically adjust soundtrack audio around dialog, whether for a single clip or an entire project, with Sensei-enabled autoducking, now available in Adobe Premiere Pro.

·         Bring art to life faster with Character Animator – Animate personas more quickly and efficiently with a library of behaviors and custom triggers.Drag layers from the Puppet panel into the Triggers panel to apply and refine existing behaviors or create new ones with intuitive new drop targets.

·         Add 360 degrees of creativity with improved tools for immersive content – Adobe Immersive Environment is now available in After Effects CC, simplifying the immersive workflow to move more efficiently through clean-up and effects tasks. New support for the Microsoft Windows Mixed Reality platform offers a wider range of headsets to choose the best tools for the job.

·         Collaborate more easily in Team Projects – For the ultimate in project collaboration, real-time presence shows when teammates are online and new badges indicate when a project has been updated.

·         Get content you need with Adobe Stock – With direct access to millions of curated HD and 4K videos, select clips for establishing shots, fill in the final gaps in projects or enrich storytelling with visual variety. Add sophistication and polish to video content with professionally designed Motion Graphics templates, including animated titling and lower thirds graphics with editable effects and text.

·         Learn panel for new users – Premiere Pro beginners now have a place to start with targeted tutorials that guide them through the foundational steps of video editing. The new Learn panel is just a click away whenever it’s needed.

Dell expressed confidence that the innovations and improvements within these products are designed to improve performance, functionality and overall user experience,

“At Dell, innovation never sleeps. We’re passionate about creating technology that expands the boundaries of what’s possible,” said Anothai Wettayakorn, Vice President, Dell EMC Indo-china.

The new refreshed Latitude portfolio is developed with the mobile workforce in mind, aligned with insights from various research studies sponsored by Dell. The latest global research shared the impact of emerging technologies – 48% of global business leaders surveyed, including leaders in Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ), believe they’ll have more job satisfaction in the future by offloading tasks to machines. Thus, businesses and the workforce of today are increasingly critical about devices they need to support their work, now and into the future, Dell said in a press statement.

“We are entering the future of work where the way people work and run their businesses constantly change as technology continues to evolve. There is significant expectation riding on the positive impact emerging technologies can bring,” commented Anothai. “To do that, our customers want devices that can help them continue to be productive today and help them persevere for the future, with performance, mobility and security mentioned as the top features they need.”

Addressing a gap in the marketplace for thinner, lighter and more powerful mobile devices at work, Dell unveiled the new refreshed Latitude portfolio.

Designed for the mobile workforce, Dell’s Latitude portfolio of secure and manageable commercial notebooks and 2-in-1s has been fully refreshed with the latest dual-core and quad-core 8th Gen Intel Core vPro 15W processors delivering significant performance improvement. Productivity benchmark tests show dramatic performance uplift over products based on the previous generation processors. The additional cores and threads make a noticeable difference on company networks when IT is running encryption, malware scans and other background apps to secure and connect employees. The Latitude product line also has been updated with several exciting new hidden innovations.

Dell Latitude 7390 line-up has been refreshed with thin and light designs, excellent efficiency and powerful processing options. Latitude’s superior security, versatility and accessories empower the way people work and maintain office-level productivity.

Built with high-end materials like magnesium alloy, the Latitude 7390 combines premium design with best-in-class durability. The 2-in-1 series offer outstanding flexibility with a touchscreen that enables users to quickly access applications or use an optional active pen for fast note taking. The active pen enabled by Wacom technology creates a more lifelike pen-to-paper experience with less lag and it attaches magnetically to the 2-in-1 so it’s always nearby.

The new Latitude 13 7390 comes with processor options up to Intel 8th Gen processors and PCIe SSD for optimal performance. Dell offers a wide range of hardware and software security options including Dell ControlVault 2.0, contact and contactless smart card readers, touch fingerprint reader or infrared camera, ensuring users information is secure.

The Latitude 7490 features an exclusive Active Steering Antenna that delivers better WiFi range, speed and connection reliability, and a new Full HD super low power display that reduces power consumption by up to 50%, resulting in several hours of additional battery life.

Featuring the Intel 8th Gen processors, the new Latitude 7490 is a 14-inch business-class laptop built with premium materials for a clean, seamless exterior and superior structural performance.

The Latitude 5290 is the ultimate 12.5-inch mobility tool that empowers productivity. It offers multiple security options to meet your diverse security needs. Features include essential multi-factor authentication hardware such as touch fingerprint reader, contact FIPS 201 smart card reader, and contactless smart card reader NFC to prevent unauthorised access.

The Latitude 12 5290 navigates congested workspaces with ease with a range of wireless options, including mobile broadband. It also comes with an HD display and all-day battery life that let users work anywhere.

The new Latitude 5290 2-in-1 is thin, light and powerful, weighing less than two pounds and comes with an auto-deploy kickstand to make being productive easy.

Security is also convenient and scalable – options available include Windows Hello via IR camera, or more stringent levels including biometric card readers with Control Vault 2 and FIPS 140-2.

The Latitude 5490 is the ultimate 14″ productivity tool, designed for better security, manageability and reliability. The laptop comes with Windows Hello to facilitate facial recognition for easy and secure access while offering multiple security options to meet security requirements of users. This includes the Dell unique hardware-based security solution that provides a more secure alternative for storing and processing passwords, biometric templates and security codes.

Dell commercial client solutions come with ProSupport Plus, the most complete support solutions for enterprise customers in the industry, combining 24×7 phone access to expert technicians, onsite service after remote diagnosis, and support for both hardware and software and proactive automated support. ProSupport Plus with SupportAssist takes up to 91% less time to resolve issues with technical support and up to 72 percent fewer steps in the support process.

ProSupport Plus allows customers to get:

·         24×7 access to ProSupport engineers with deep hardware and software expertise

·         Proactive and predictive automated support enabled by Dell’s SupportAssist monitoring technology[1]

·         Self-service case management and parts dispatch via Dell’s TechDirect portal, mobile application or API

·         Coverage for drops, spills and electrical surges to protect hardware investments

·         Hard drive retention after replacement to ensure data control

·         A dedicated Technical Account Manager who serves as a single point of accountability and provides monthly reporting for customers with 1,000 or more ProSupport Plus systems.

“Three, two, one and liftoff!” said a NASA commentator as the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) soared into the blue sky atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 6:51 pm (2251 GMT).

The washing machine-sized spacecraft is built to search outside the solar system, scanning the nearest, brightest stars for signs of periodic dimming. These so-called “transits” may mean that planets are in orbit around them.

TESS is expected to reveal 20,000 planets beyond our solar system, including more than 50 Earth-sized planets and up to 500 planets less than twice the size of the Earth, NASA said.

Its discoveries will be studied further by ground- and space-based telescopes for signs of habitability, including a rocky terrain, a size similar to Earth and a distance from their sun — neither too close nor too far — that allows the right temperature for liquid water.

“The stories of these planets will continue on, long after their detection,” Martin Still, TESS program scientist, said on Wednesday.

Four eyes on the sky

“It was incredible. It was so emotional,” said Natalia Guerrero, a TESS researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in an interview on NASA TV after the launch.

She was part of a team that built four cameras that serve as the spacecraft’s eyes.

“TESS’s four cameras are tiny but mighty,” she said.

“They are only about four inches (10 centimeters) across, the lenses. They could fit in a mailbox. But they are so powerful. You could have an entire constellation, like Orion, in the field of view of one of these cameras.”

TESS will survey far more cosmic terrain than its predecessor, NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope, which launched in 2009.

Both use the same system of detecting planetary transits, or shadows cast as they pass in front of their star.

The new spacecraft will focus on nearby exoplanets, those in the range of 30 to 300 light-years away.

Kepler’s trove of more than 2,300 confirmed planets outside our solar was impressive, but most were too distant and dim to be examined further.

“One of the many amazing things that Kepler told us is that planets are everywhere and there are all kinds of planets out there,” said Patricia “Padi” Boyd, director of the TESS guest investigator program at NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center.

“So TESS takes the next step. If planets are everywhere, then it is time for us to find the planets that are closest to us orbiting bright nearby stars, because these will be the touchstone system.”

The Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled to launch in 2020, should be able to reveal more about planets’ mass, density and the makeup of their atmosphere — all clues to habitability.

The initial launch attempt Monday was scrubbed about two hours before planned takeoff, so that SpaceX engineers could perform extra checks on the rocket’s navigation systems.

On Wednesday, the rocket performed flawlessly.

Less than 10 minutes after launch, the rocket’s first stage returned to an upright landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean, marking SpaceX’s 24th touchdown of a rocket booster.