How to demonstrate a tablet: Surface 2 edits RED 6K

Surfaces

What better way to demonstrate the power of a new tablet than by asking it to edit RED 6K files in real time?

Microsoft has just announced the Surface 2 and the Surface 2 Pro, the latter of which is really a hybrid laptop/tablet that can run Windows 8.1. You can stuff this new device with up to 8GM RAM and it has a significantly faster processor than its predecessor

None of which should prepare us for the surprise that it can apparently edit RED raw footage from the 6K dragon.

More than meets the eye

There is perhaps more (or, probably, less) to this than meets the eye, though, because just a few days ago, in Amsterdam, we were gawping at the sheer power required (and seemingly available) to decode 6K RED raw files in real time, courtesy of the new NVIDIA K6000 card (or multiples of it for even more streams).

So what exactly was going on with the Surface at today's press conference?

We don't think it was really playing back raw files and debayering them at the same time. More likely, it was playing back R3D files at a reduced resolution to their original size, that would still have looked impressive on the Surface.

Either way, it is an valid demonstration of a device that is more like a powerful laptop workstation under the hood than any of the other tablets out there.

More on the Surface 2 launch to follow