Video News

JVC surprised us with two new HD camcorders at PMA. Both these camcorders look and feel very similar to the HD3 we reviewed in our latest issue (March, should be hitting shelves in a couple weeks). The new JVC GZ-HD6 Everio Hard Drive camcorder features a 120 GB hard drive, 3 CCD progressive scanning and 1080 60p output via HDMI. The GZ-HD6 on paper appears to be quite a workhorse that rivals the GZ-HD7 yet is significantly smaller and shares a great deal of the prosumer functions that makes the HD7 so appealing. These two new camcorders are also the first from JVC featuring x.v.Color for those of you with a HDTV that supports that color mode. This means that JVC will manufacture their own HDTVs with this mode built in. The JVC GZ-HD6 and GZ-HD5 will be available in March for $1400 and $1200, respectively.

In other news (hey, WEVA is here too, ya know), ImageSpan and WEVA have partnered to produce a new online licensing site for creative professional in wedding and event videography. Non-WEVA member can jump in content-licensing fun too for $99 annually. Essentially, this new site will be a portal for creative content producers to share their content and license it among each other, while facilitating all the paper work, pricing, usage history, etc. We’re going to dig into this story a little deeper, but in the meantime you can check out the press release here.

reprinted from an ImageSpan press release:

LAS VEGAS, NV – January 31, 2008 — ImageSpan Inc., which provides an enabling infrastructure for automated content licensing, and billing, and Wedding & Event Videographers Association International (WEVA), the world’s largest trade association for professional videographers, today announced that all WEVA members now will be able to easily license their digital video locally, nationally and globally, thanks to a new, long-term agreement. The agreement provides the nearly 10,000 WEVA and WEVA Latino members worldwide with access to ImageSpan’s LicenseStream service, a new and simple-to-use content licensing service via the Web.

LicenseStream, a subscription-based content licensing service that costs non-WEVA members $99 annually, offers a revolutionary new way to license content in minutes anytime, anywhere, and drive revenues by speeding the pace of transactions. With a few mouse clicks, videographers and content creators may upload, register, describe, define rights to their work and then license that work online without paperwork, pricing hassles or middlemen. LicenseStream also helps WEVA members collect royalties while cutting traditional licensing costs by up to 90 percent.

“We are excited to bring licensing-with-a-click – an intuitive, step-by-step approach to sophisticated content licensing – to WEVA’s huge membership of professional videographers,” said Iain Scholnick, chief executive officer, ImageSpan. “By taking care of many back office tasks, LicenseStream helps videographers and other content creators focus on what they do best: create innovative, powerful content and get that content to market as fast as possible to drive revenues and profit from their work.”

The new service will be enhanced through ImageSpan’s creation of a Internet video portal, customized for WEVA members, that will provide each member with access to two gigabytes of storage where they can keep content, create license terms, review usage history, manage their licenses and track usage. The portal will provide automatic Flash previews of any piece of content it stores, enabling both videographers and their clients to quickly locate videos for licensing.

“With the demand for all types of video increasing worldwide, WEVA members will now have an easy way through LicenseStream to profit from this emerging market,” said WEVA International Chairman Roy Chapman. “Using LicenseStream, WEVA members can access many exciting and groundbreaking IT benefits, including online video marketing, content licensing, and automated e-commerce transactions. LicenseStream’s encoding also offers our members a simple way to protect their intellectual property, including their online promotional demos and digital images without additional expense. WEVA members will now have an easy way to market, license, and sell their work on a global scale.”

Cutting-edge advertisers and media companies already are taking advantage of ImageSpan’s licensing technology through CurbStream, an ImageSpan online service that provides access to WEVA members worldwide and streamlines the contracting process. WEVA members shoot local footage and upload the raw content via CurbStream’s easy-to-use interface. ImageSpan then manages all licensing and sharing of content, ensuring that it is immediately rights-cleared and licensable for use.

WEVA members’ access to LicenseStream will provide benefits that would otherwise cost individual members hundreds if not thousands of dollars. For example, photographers have long relied on stock photo licensing to earn additional income. The LicenseStream service makes stock footage licensing for WEVA members a quick and easy process.

LicenseStream provides unlimited video and still photo licensing, including standard and customizable licenses. These features allow a videographer to choose predefined licenses or define extensive licensing terms before putting content online, including geographic parameters, timeframe, purpose and fees. LicenseStream can process all aspects of the license, including billing, collections and royalty payments.

The licensing technology developed by ImageSpan uses standards created by the Picture Licensing Universal System (PLUS) that simplify the process of granting, obtaining and managing the permissions necessary to use photographs and illustrations. PLUS has been adopted as a creative industry standard by leading enterprises, groups and agencies.

Mac users are reporting a lot of problems with the latest Quicktime update 7.4.
We suggest that you not install this update on any of your production machines until it is fixed.

There have been confirmed problems both with Adobe After Effects, and Avid software.

This does not affect Windows users.

Reprinted from a Spot Runner press release:

Spot Runner, the first Internet-based ad agency, announced today that it has acquired GlobeShooter, a network of more than 1,200 independent filmmakers, professional videographers, photographers, producers and production companies throughout the U.S. The services of GlobeShooter, which will be renamed the Spot Runner Production Network, will significantly expand the company’s ability to offer highly customized ads for both TV and the Internet. The network will become part of Spot Runner’s existing and future products aimed at local, regional and national businesses, spanning television and online media.

The Spot Runner Production Network gives the company the capability to quickly deploy a local filmmaker to capture on-site video footage of our clients’ businesses — such as images of their storefronts, customer testimonials, employees at work, product demonstrations and local landmarks. This footage will be incorporated into ads from Spot Runner’s library to produce personalized, relevant, high quality local TV and online ads at an affordable price point.

“We are very excited about this partnership with the filmmaker community. The members of GlobeShooter, now called the Spot Runner Production Network, are top-notch professionals who have been hand-picked for their creativity, experience and quality of work. The acquisition of this network is a natural extension of our strategy to be a central resource for local businesses’ broad spectrum of advertising needs,” said Nick Grouf, CEO of Spot Runner. “We are the only company providing a fully integrated advertising solution that includes video production, media planning and media buying services across multiple media types.”

“Spot Runner represents a huge new growth opportunity for our network members,” said Simon Foster, founder of GlobeShooter. “The company is on the leading edge of creating effective, affordable, award-winning advertising content. I’m excited to see the new business opportunities opening up to our network members and looking forward to working with them on innovative projects.”

To ensure the locally produced video matches the caliber of Spot Runner’s ads, members of the network are selected specifically for their filmmaking skills, experience level and prior work. Once accepted in the network, they will be invited to partner with Spot Runner on a variety of local projects, including conceptualizing, writing, directing, filming and editing spots for TV and the Internet. The benefits of being a member of the Spot Runner Production Network include opportunities to:

– Build their portfolio and grow their business by having access to Spot
Runner’s clients, which include thousands of small to large national brands
– Create innovative work with Spot Runner’s in-house team of award-
winning producers, editors, writers and directors
– Market themselves as members of the Spot Runner Production Network

“Spot Runner is a nationally recognized and respected agency that advertisers trust,” said Mike Hofferth, producer at Kombine Media, a full-service video production company based in Los Angeles. “We’re looking forward to being introduced to a broad new base of clients through the Spot Runner Production Network and working on some exciting new projects.”

Foster has joined Spot Runner as director of the Spot Runner Production Network and is responsible for growing and managing the network. Foster has extensive experience in the commercial and music video production industry. He has worked with many well-known brands, such as Apple, Nike, IBM, Cisco and Chevrolet, and bands, such as Gnarls Barkley, Velvet Revolver and Dave Matthews.

Businesses interested in utilizing the Spot Runner Production Network for their advertising can call 888-851-SPOT (7760). Video professionals interested in becoming a member of the network can visit http://www.spotrunner.com/partner/network/overview.aspx for more information.

A very interesting article, on the theory of editing sound by Walter Murch can be found at transom.org. It’s a very enlightening look at sound design, with many interesting theories, and practical examples of those theories from the film’s he’s worked on. It makes you think about sound editing on a higher plane, than just music, effects, and dialog. Definitely worth a read.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Videomaker Founder Embarks on International Humanitarian Venture

Chico, California, January 16, 2008 – Matt York, Publisher and CEO of Videomaker Magazine, took his concept One Media Player per Teacher, (www.ompt.org) to the impoverished and embattled Southern Sudan area to show educators how to instruct using digital video devices.

Following more than 20 years of civil war, Southern Sudan is home to some of the poorest and most illiterate people in that region of the world. Matt spoke with several of the citizens of this region who want to become teachers. Nicodemus, one of the “lost boys” of the Sudan now in his 20s, told harrowing stories of his life and of other children taken from their parents at age 7 by the military.

“You could make a movie, just on Nicodemus’ tragic life,” Matt says, adding that through it all, Nicodemus’ attitude wasn’t one of self-pity but to help others like him to have the chance to grow and learn in a better world.

One Media Player per Teacher
Inspired by the One Laptop per Child concept, One Media Player per Teacher [OMPT] hopes to connect people to knowledge that is crucial to their every day living as they try to regain their footing in the world by educating its population on many facets of needs from better agricultural production to sexually transmitted diseases and birth control awareness.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), in cooperation with the Government of Southern Sudan, is in the process of launching new technology initiatives that will strengthen education programs through the Southern Sudan Interactive Radio Instruction (SSIRI) Project. SSIRI is administered by Education Development Center (EDC). The new resources—which include MP3 players, video production facilities, and computer centers—are being installed in schools, adult learning centers, and teacher training institutes. Matt served as a consultant to EDC.

“OMPT has a passion to encourage people, “ he says, “who are learning to produce and teach with audio and video. These teaching tools can actually be much more meaningful and effective in lesser developed countries.”

Using his knowledge base of video production and equipment, Matt York has researched the best equipment needed for their environments to help the teachers of this contentious region educate its citizens. Interactive Radio Instruction (IRI) is an educational radio system that has been used around worldwide since the 1970s, helping people in impoverished areas of the world. One Media Player per Teacher [OMPT] places the media players in the teachers’ hands so that they can teach on their own schedule.

Matthew York
Matthew York founded Videomaker magazine in 1985, and is a widely respected authority on developments in the consumer electronics and television industry. York advocates the use of video-making tools throughout society, by encouraging people to become effective videographers.

We got wind of a vulnerability in QuickTime 7.3.1 that allows the execution of malicious code on a victim’s computer. Luckily, Apple has just released QuickTime 7.4 (as well as a new version of iTunes) as a result of the newest iTunes Music Store/Apple TV/video rental-related announcements at MacWorld. Suffice it to say, Apple’s Software Update utility is your friend.

The reason, according to GNUCITIZEN, is because of an Adobe Flash issue in the wild. UPnP, or Universal Plug and Play, is a protocol that allows devices on a network to find each other, as well as to allow network clients (e.g. instant messengers, file sharing programs, etc.) to open ports on the router. The latter application for UPnP is the problem, in that a malicious piece of code can completely open the firewall of a router and negate any security that was in place.

If you have a home network in place and your video machine is hooked to it, go ahead and disconnect that machine from the network and give yourself a network security audit. First, go into your router settings and make sure UPnP is turned off to avoid any problems down the road. Then, make sure your router’s password is something other than “admin”, “password”, “1234″, etc. If all of your hardware supports it, use WPA-PSK (or even better, WPA2-PSK) for your wireless network. Also, don’t forget to check for firmware updates from the manufacturer of your router–but don’t forget that most routers require updates to be installed from Ethernet-attached computers (not over Wi-Fi).

According to TV Predictions, Blu-ray Disc titles outsold HD DVD titles by about 5:1. Combine this with the news that Paramount will likely exercise an escape clause from their agreement with the HD DVD Group since Warner defected to Blu-ray Disc, and it’s hard to see HD DVD regaining any traction.

If you’ve been holding out for a winner, we’d say there’s no need to wait any longer. Besides, we’ve been noticing how few HD DVD burners and authoring programs that are out there compared to Blu-ray Disc burners and authoring programs. (We also hope that it’s easier to author Blu-ray Disc that is compatible with set-top players. It would be nice if the proponents of Blu-ray Disc learned something from user experiences burning DVDs…)

Just got back from Macworld 2008. Here’s a round up of Video related news:

Apple Pretty disappointing product announcements for video enthusiasts. The much anticipated MacBook Air is woefully unsuited for video production, and for the price, video enthusiasts are much better served by Apple’s remarkable MacBook Pro lineup. However complaining about the MacBook Air not being an editing machine, is kind of like complaining that a screwdriver is not a hammer. Different tools, different purposes. A much more relevant announcement for our readers was actually the pre-announcement of a refreshed line of MacPro models.

Adobe continued to show off their very capable CS3 Production Premium suite. But no new products or announcements were forthcoming.

Storyist Software was showing their newest version of Storyist 1.3.5. It’s a screenwriting word processor that formats your scripts into screenplay format, but also has many unique tools to help keep track of your overall script. Features such as a virtual bulletin board with 3×5 index cards allow you to change the scenes around just like in the old days. Also interesting were the customizable story sheets allowing you to keep data on your characters, locations etc, along with your script, as well as wikki syntax linking which can turn your script into a multi-layered living document.

Vara software was showing their Videocue software. A combination teleprompter and basic video mixing console that lets the user create complete webcasts from their computer. It mixes, live webcam video with graphics and transitions that follow along your teleprompter script, letting you queue the whole show up beforehand and outputting very polished results.

Podtrac was there helping you make some advertising revenue from your podcast. They specialize in connecting podcast producers with advertisers, as well as having may free demographic and tracking services available to you so you know who is watching your show, and what they like.

mDialog gives you an easy method of both encoding and uploading your videos online. Targeted specifically at the professional producer as well as the amateur video enthusiast, Mdialog gives you the ability to get your content seen on a variety of media, including online viewing, as well as downloads to Mac’s, PC’s, iPods, and iTunes via their mNetwork channels.

Buffalo was representing the storage front, with several new models of both portable and standard external storage products, including the MiniStation which is a USB bus-powered hard drive with up to 320 GB capacity.

Dulce Systems was also showcasing it’s many storage solutions designed specifically for video editing. On display was the Pro DQ raid setup for security while maintaining fast transfer speeds, regardless of how full the array gets. It has a capacity of up to 8 Terabytes, with transfer speeds of 570 MB/s for Raid 5.

Pyro AV announced Pyro Kompressor HD, a video card the acclerates video compression of MPEG HD and h.264 HD content. Ambric, the supplier for Kompressor HD’s processor, is the heart of this device which speeds up transcoding to near realtime in h.264 and realtime in MPEG 2. It’s quite an achievement with nearly identical quality comparisons with the most trusted software compression tools. The Pyro Kompressor HD retails for $3,495.