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Posts from ‘May, 2010’

MONOGRAM’s BCC is a portable studio that changes the rules of the game

May 14th, 2010
by Allan Tépper.
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When people first hear about MONOGRAM’s BCC (Broadcast Case) production TV studio in a box, some of them mistakenly assume that it is a copycat of existing portable TV studio systems that have been on the market for a while. However, as soon as they get closer or hear more about it, they realize that it is quite the contrary. I had never seen a touch-screen interface before on a vision mixer (“switcher”), let alone for an entire portable production studio with onboard audio mixer, character generator, 4:2:2 recorder, and H.264 video streamer. I had also never heard of one with an onboard intercom system, yet alone one that could even power the cameras over a unique combined camera cable, which unifies SDI (or HD-SDI), power, intercom, and even tally information in one very manageable enclosure. In this article, you’ll learn how unique and groundbreaking the BCC really is. Read the rest here.

Sony consumer announces APS-C camcorders with removable lenses

May 13th, 2010
by Allan Tépper.
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Sony’s consumer division has just announced three cameras with APS-C sensors and removable lenses (E-Mount), two of which look like pocket-sized DSLR cameras, and the third which looks like a Handicam, is under development. The first two are the models NEX-5 and NEX-3, and the Handicam-type model is visible in the video you’ll see ahead.

Live webinar on June 8th: How to prepare pristine mobile & web video

May 13th, 2010
by Allan Tépper.
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Pristine HD Web Video Creation: computers + mobile video for Blackberry, iPad/iPhone + Google/Android

On June 8th, live on your computer, you’ll learn:

  • How to create a single pristine, optimized video file for the web, which is playable both with a Flash player (even on Windows, without QuickTime installed), as well as on an iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberry multimedia models, and Google/Android phones.
  • How to determine the ideal bit rate for any particular video, quickly and easily: You’ll learn both the tool and the technique.
  • HTML5, H.264, and Flash: what you need to know about the present and the future.
  • When (and when not) to de-interlace your material, and at what step in your workflow.
  • Inexpensive software & hardware tools that improve quality and save time when you encode for the web, or various other SD and HD devices.
  • Legal and practical reasons why you are sometimes better off using your own web server, rather than certain popular free web streaming services like YouTube and Vimeo.
  • Discounts for all attendees on software, and on flat-rate web hosting with unlimited bandwidth.About this live webinar:
    • Date: June 8th, 2010
    • Languages & Times: This webinar will be available in two different languages on the same day:

    11:00 am USA Eastern Daylight Savings Time in Castilian/En castellano a las 11:00 am, hora ajustada del este de los Estados Unidos (Haz clic aquí vera ver la fecha/hora local en tu zona.)

    1:00 pm USA Eastern Daylight Savings Time in English (Click here to see your local date/time.)

    • Duration: ±90 minutes including questions and answers.
    • Price: US$89 or US$79 with early bird special. Save US$10 by registering today!
    • Registration/Payment: Registration and payment is to ProVideo Coalition LLC, via this link.

    Listen to Allan Tépper’s radio program TecnoTur, now available in both Castilian and English, free via iTunes or at TecnoTur.us.

Tépper’s remedy for Flash-lovers who are still in denial

May 6th, 2010
by Allan Tépper.
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Decompress and come to grips with reality in 4 easy steps.

I have been quite surprised about the comments sent to me by Flash-lovers who are still in denial, of which a few have been public on the ProVideo Coalition website, and many more have been private, sometimes desperate sounding e-mails. In the past, people used to say that some Mac-lovers were religious fanatics. I now realize that some Flash-lovers are perhaps even more devoted religious fanatics. Some of these Flash religious fanatics have made terrible criticisms about Steve Jobs and Apple regarding their position about Flash, despite both Google and Microsoft backing that position. The purpose of this article is to help Flash religious fanatics who are still in denial to come to grips with reality and get through their “mourning” period as gracefully as possible. Read the rest here…

The exodus from Final Cut Pro to Adobe Premiere CS5 has begun

May 6th, 2010
by Allan Tépper.
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Adobe’s power and market share increases while Flash wanes

On April 5th, 2010, I published the article Will Adobe’s new Mercury technology provoke a sudden exodus from Final Cut Pro to CS5?. At that point, the title was still a question. Since then, NAB 2010 came and went without a word from Apple regarding the potential future of Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Studio. Apple’s complete silence on this topic seems to indicate that Apple is much more focused on the consumer market, especially their mobile devices, and no longer on professional applications and hardware. This is further revealed by Apple’s continuing release of MacBookPro 13” and 15” models without ExpressCard34 slots, which is now offered exclusively in the 17” model… and by the complete lack of direct eSATA ports on any Apple laptop. In the meantime, Adobe has already shipped Premiere CS5 for both Mac and Windows. As stated previously, CS5’s Mercury engine can handle multi-layers of H.264 raw footage in real time very gracefully. (CS4 can also do that, although not nearly so gracefully.) Based upon private e-mails and conversations with editors yesterday, the exodus from Apple’s Final Cut Pro to Adobe’s Premiere CS5 for many began yesterday. Read the rest here…

Microsoft diplomatically backs Apple & Google’s position, favoring HTML5 and H.264

May 1st, 2010
by Allan Tépper.
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From my perspective, the issue began back in 2008, when I was inspired to write an article called Encoding web video in the age of the iPhone. Now, the situation has become as suspenseful as the final chapters of a Latin American telenovela. On April 5th, 2010, I published Tépper is glad that the iPad doesn’t support Flash. During the last week of April, Steve Jobs publishes his open letter about why he has disallowed Adobe’s Flash on all of Apple’s mobile devices, including iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. Then Adobe refutes Steve Jobs’ statements in a video interview with the Wall Street Journal. Now, Microsoft diplomatically backs Apple’s and Google’s position with a blogpost by the Internet Explorer manager, stating that the future is indeed HTML5 and H.264, which has been my position since my original 2008 article. Ahead you’ll find links to all of the mentioned incidents.