I stopped by the Divergent Media booth to check out their updated ScopeBox version 3software. You might remember ScopeBox was a near $700 when it came along quite a few years ago. This newest version is going to be a totally different business model as price goes to $99.
ScopeBox was one of the only, at least as far as I can remember) software-based scopes when it came along. It was to market way before Blackmagic’s Ultrascope. It’s very similar to Adobe’s On Location in that it can be used as an on-set monitoring, quality control and capturing tool. There’s laptops all over a set these days so that’s a nice way to use it.
I looked at it more as scopes for an edit suite though. For this type of application you would need a dedicated Mac with a video card to run ScopeBox for your edit suite. The Divergent Media guys said they have lots of customers doing just that as they repurpose an old G5 with an older graphics card to run ScopeBox.
I grabbed a quick iPhone video demo of this new version:
The $99 ScopeBox 3 in action on a very glossy Apple display.
The new alerts are a particularly cool feature. Every alert can be sent over to Final Cut Pro as a marker or displayed in an HTML file:
Expect ScopeBox and its new ultra-low $99 price tag soon. Keep an eye on the website for more details.