The Render Booster is a new device that is designed to enable the current generation of the Casablanca video editor to perform certain intensive processing tasks at a much more rapid page -- thus the name render booster.  Though I have heard from some colleagues who were thinking by the name that this product is going to speed up or boost all render activities in their Casablanca... no so. Perhaps a better name for the device would be Export Render Booster - as it goes to work when you are exporting video from your Bogart Casablanca either as a video file or as a Blu-ray DVD project.  Though it also supposedly provides quality and quicker down-conversions from HD (High Definition resolution) to SD (Standard Definition video resolution).

At time of this article (December 5, 2012) the device has been announced but not released in North America. It has been available for some time in PAL - though it was my understanding that there was more demand than there were/are products. 

The device connects to your Casablanca Next Gen editor by plugging into one of the read USB ports (a short UDSB extension cable is provided for convenience). It does require it's own 12-digit Casablanca software activation code (so you can trade one of the devices around but must have one separate code for each unit if you have multiple Casablanca editors)

Even though it looks like a thick USB thumb drive, it's not a 'dumb' device - it's actually more like a mini-computer that is USB powered. It's primary job in life is to boost the performance of the video processor circuitry during file conversion in certain stages:

• Additional options & higher quality performance exporting video files via the OPT Export Button (Edit Menu)
• Additional options & higher quality performance exporting both SD and HD video files via the Project Settings Archive Function
• Encoding of project with higher quality performance & increased speed when compiling Blu-ray DVD projects
  

According to the company website - the device provides encoding that is 1.4 to 1.6 times the duration of the length of the video clip being processed.  That means a 1-hour video would require between 1-hour 24 minutes to 1-hour 36 minutes to process -- that's compared to hours that it takes now. In fact the company suggests this device will improve rendering of HD material 12-times faster than we see now on the Casablanca S-4000.

With the increased efficiency and quality performance this device offers Macrosystem touts some impressive new benefits "This allows a new quality mode for Arabesk HD projects - 90 minutes of footage to fit in full HD resolution on a conventional dual-layer DVD media. A 25GB Blu-ray Disc has enough space for about four hours of material, and., A 50 GB disk even for eight hours Even a low-cost single-layer DVD "creates" 45 minutes."

The Render Booster can be ordered now through your Casablanca reseller - the list price in North America is $429.00

 NOTE:  According to a document from Macrosystem "RenderBooster does not currently support 1280 x 720 projects".I do not see this as a big problem, but one should know about before thinking about/beginning to use the new Render Booster device.