Found this languishing in my drafts folder. Interesting look back, at least for those who lived it. I definitely need to do a drink/gambling Sin Log the next time I’m in Vegas. Here it is, unedited:
Day 1:
In the morning, we talked to a number of folks from Apple about their new products and the Xsan, our concerns and our plans for the future. The SAN is a very good thing, and I think at this point we’re just deciding the scale of our buy-in. Final Cut Pro’s previous bugs, though, I’m not yet convinced have been totally addressed— as one engineer said, new features sell more boxes than bug fixes.
We also saw Sony’s new HDV camera, the Z1, which I’ll have to say is a pretty impressive piece of kit with a really beautiful image. Unfortunately, I think using it in our postproduction flow would be a nightmare, since it’s a different tape format entirely, and doesn’t match our video size or frame rate either. It would require a ton of processing just to get it to a useable point to work with our DVCproHD main camera.
We had lunch at Quark’s Bar at the Las Vegas Hilton (I had the “Cardassian” fish & chips), and headed back to see some more technical vendors in the South halls, like Leitch’s Videotek division for their tech monitoring solutions (waveform, vectorscopes, etc.). We also saw a nice router from Sierra and an interesting one from Blackmagic Design (infinitely cheaper, but perhaps not up to the task we have in mind). Also talked to AJA, who makes the impressive Kona2 card that will let us do High Definition SDI and monitor it properly in each room.
Star Trek closed for the evening, back to quarks for after-convention, then drinks at Nine Fine Irishmen
No Gambling
Drinks: Romulan Ale, Liquid Latinum at Quarks, (2) Dry Blackthorn ciders, a Guinness and Two shots of ______ whiskey at 9FI.
Running Total: Up $15.75
Day 2:
Breakfast at the buffet, went to North hall, saw a bunch of stuff, Panasonic (plastic camera!), JVC, maps, etc. Finally broke for “lunch” at 5pm, went to the Klingon Experience, then back to the hotel, was going to go for steak, but instead went to japanese place _____, amazing chef’s sampler. Boss & I played craps while our younger colleague lost at blackjack. As I left the craps table with $507 (from $200), wandered around, and had to play “just a little more (which is usually my downfall). I stuck a hundred in a $5 slot machine, and came out another $120 richer.
Drinks: Sake at the japanese place, a sip of a bloody mary at the craps table
Running total: Up 442.50
*the japanese place in question was Shibuya, in the basement of the MGM Grand.