Ready, Set, Edit!

By: Heather Lavers, SNN Reporter
Roncalli Central High
Port Saunders, NF

Innovative, exciting, cool. These are just a few words used to describe the NewTeck Video Toaster System. This system incorporates three separate software, for dynamite video editing and was presented during BEI Communications presentation - Center Stage.

The first system used is the Speed Razor, which was developed by In'Sync. The idea of this is to cut video clips and sound bites into a feature length program for commercial or personal use. Compared to the standard Adobe Premier software, this technology is light years ahead. Bern Hammond, Service Technician for BEI Communications Systems Ltd. remarked, "It's like Premier on steroids."

NewTeck itself created the accompanying software which is Aura VT and Light Wave VT. Aura is a program to develop layered video effects that are mostly used for commercial advertising and short company promotions. Light Wave technology allows you to create your own three dimensional graphics to use in your videos. According to Mr. Hammond, this software vis being used in Hollywood and by several educational institutes, such as Sheridan College.

When asked about the benefits of this equipment Mr. Hammond said, "This is a very good system, it is the only uncompressed video system that you can get for under $150,000.00! This system is on the PC platform and anybody with a background in any similar program can easily pick up on.

Now the question that everybody was asking...why is this system called a Video Toaster? Mr. Hammond replied with a smile, "Quite simply, it is called a Toaster because back in 1988, NewTeck had a program out without editing qualities for its Comadore computers, then it came out with a editing version called the Toaster Flyer. Unfortunately back then it was too expensive to get amount of hard drive needed to do video editing, so when we came out with this version, it seemed logical to go with a name that people were already familiar with, a name that people could trust. With the ever present technology of computer editing settling into the major stations, the Video Toaster brings this knowledge to smaller companies to make everyone who uses this information on equal footing.