After 20+ years, Max Headroom is available on DVD. Yes, I know there were some shit-quality bootlegs because I paid good money for one. It’s great to be able to watch Max, Edison, Fiona and the gang again.
Gas Station TV
July 13, 2010 by
My first look at GSTV (Gas Station TV) was at a Phillips 66 station on I-55. It probably took me no longer than 3 or 4 minutes to fill up and I guess there really isn’t much to do with that time, so why not. There were these really short sports/weather/news segments with commercial messages between each [VIDEO]. Really can’t imagine someone paying for these but they obviously do.
I foresee a time when we pay a premium to AVOID being hammered by ads. Ransom Ads.
Why lawyers should never do their own TV spots
July 13, 2010 by
I found this little gem on the J-Walk Blog. More here.
TV station gets iPads, saves on paper and looks hip
April 24, 2010 by
Last week, news anchors and producers at Barrington Broadcasting Group’s WFXL Albany, Ga., replaced their paper scripts with electronic versions displayed on the iPad. They project the move will save nearly $10,000 a year in paper costs. From the original story:
“Newscast scripts are composed as usual. But rather than printing to paper, the final version is formatted as a PDF file and transmitted to each iPad via e-mail. The PDF translation is handled by iAnnotate by Aji.LLC, a $7 program sold and downloaded via Apple’s App Store.
Although WFXL doesn’t employ iPads as teleprompters, it could if it chose to. Apple’s App Store already offers two third-party applications for scrolling copy on the iPad: Nairo Techology’s iPrompter for $2.99 and Bombing Brain Interactive’s Teleprompt+ for $9.99, which allows any iPhone to double as a remote controller.
In addition, hardware vendor Bodelin Technologies offers a new version of its through-the-lens ProPrompter HDi display, which mounts the iPad as a prompter monitor on both studio and field cameras. The $850 device includes “professional” display software, which is also controllable through an iPhone or iPod Touch.”
And they look pretty cool. No small thing in the world of TV news.
I predict it will become common practice to cover the Apple logo with the station logo.
Steve Safran on RTDNA@NAB 2010
April 14, 2010 by
“The future of broadcasting” is the title or subtitle or subtext of nearly every panel here. But I’m not seeing a lot of the future. I’m seeing and hearing people who want to keep a hold onto the past. They want to do it in some futuristic ways, sure, but using a template that has passed its expiration date.”
“…as the RTDNA winds down its relationship with NAB, I’m a little sad. When I first started coming to this convention in the early 2000s, the discussions were about “the future.” The discussions are still about “the future” except it’s all Back to the Future. 3D. Protecting journalism from the hoards of camera-toting iPhoners. Broadcasting television in a slightly different way. Fundamentally, the discussion may be about the future, but it’s not nearly futuristic enough.” – Full post here.
iPad product placement
April 1, 2010 by
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBJW1mT613s
American sitcom Modern Family ran an entire episode about the iPad this week. A character’s birthday is April 3 — the same day the iPad launches — so his wife decides to try and get him an iPad. [Mashable]
Loved the line: “I said I didnt’ care but I DO care!”
Assembly line
March 9, 2010 by
Seth Godin uses a classic clip from the old I Love Lucy TV show to illustrate one of the key themes in his latest book, Linchpin. What happens when the factory goes away?
It brings back not-so-fond memories of the college summer I spent a couple of weeks working on an auto assembly line in St. Louis.
Generic news
January 29, 2010 by
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpVTUdfcEMg&hd=1
Thanks to David Sprague for sending this gem our way.