I'll have to play with this some more but, at first look, here are my options: If I want the ease and quality of the YouTube capture mode on the Casio, I have to go with 4:3 and get the vertical black panels in the new, wider YouTube player.
The Casio has an HD/wide-screen setting, but it's not YouTube ready. I'll have to jump through all of the encoding hoops to get anything like the same quality. Easy choice.
Hmm. Not too bad. I'll be curious to see if I lose anything by running the video through iMovie, which will be 99% of the time. But if someone wanted a camera that output files you could upload straight to YouTube, this is pretty good.
I was really surprised by the quality of the audio on this test. The camera was sitting 3 feet away and the audio sounded damned good to me.
I'll get some still in coming days and see if I can tell the difference between the previous model (3 megapixel ?) and this one (10).
They've also made some subtle but nice improvements in button placement and size. A very nice camera. Casio has done it again. More at Casio.com.
Ana Marie Cox interviewed Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty. I was wondering why she posted the audio-only interview to YouTube when slides started started flashing up. Sort of like sub-titles of what she was thinking as she asked and/or he answered.
It would have been tempting to throw up some stills but not doing so was more effective. I can't recall seeing something like this before. I cross-posted from politix because I found the approach intriguing.
US president-elect Barack Obama is to make the first YouTube address to the nation on Saturday, recording a talk not just on radio but also on video. The weekly radio address will be posted to Change.gov. First time a president/president-elect goes multi-media (or knows what that is?). AP
Not likely, but wouldn't it be great if O just recorded the video on his MacBook Pro and uploaded himself? Sure, not a good use of his time but talk about going directly to the people.
UPDATE: It's now Saturday morning, the video is up, and I've been thinking some more about this...
I don't recall which president started the weekly radio address (or when), but I'm pretty sure we aired it occasionally on KBOA back in the 70's. Strictly filler for a slow Saturday morning.
I always assumed this was a radio address because none of the TV networks were going to air a 15 or 20 minute speech by the president, and radio stations might. Ironically, I don't ever recall hearing it on the radio (except at KBOA). And the network newscasts frequently feature a few seconds of the audio, usually with a graphic of an ancient microphone or VU meter.
This week's Democratic response to President Bush's weekly radio message will --as noted above-- be YouTube'd. I have to wonder for how much longer this will be described as the president's weekly "radio" address.
One final footnote... Back in August of 2005, the White House began podcasting the president's weekly radio address. YouTube was created in February of that year but was still too new for anyone to think about using for the weekly address.
Thanks to the Heater Man
I love Gmail (Google's free mail service). I use lots of Google tools: Calendar, Google (RSS) Reader; and Google Chat, to which they've recently added video. Just tried it out with David and it works great.
While waiting for David to install the little app, Scott pinged me from his hotel room in Cancun. He was doing the same thing, looking for someone online with the new app installed. A little latency on his video, probably due to hotel wifi.
But this is a nice addition to Google chat. If you don't have a webcam on/with your computer, get one. And the next time you buy a computer, please consider a Mac.
These folks got their boxes early.
If this doesn't do it, nothing probably will. [This post dedicated to AGS fanatic David]
Speaking of streaming live video... Chris Pirillo shows us what streaming video from the iPhone might look like.
I'm still holding out but it's getting more difficult all the time.
A few months ago I got a call from Brian Slawin. Someone told him I fooled around with streaming live video and he wanted some ideas on how to stream his daughter's softball games so family members could watch her play. He gave Qik and Kyte a try but wasn't happy with the results but he kept at it. This past weekend he packed up his laptop, webcam and Sprint cellular card and headed for the ball field.
"Initially, I was concerned that a wireless cellular card wouldn’t allow enough upload bandwidth to actually stream the signal, but it turned out that even at 100kbps upstream, the signal was rock solid and remarkably clear. My gear includes an HP Pavilion PC, the Sprint card, a Logitech QuickCam Vision Pro, a power strip with 1400 joules filtering and some other cables, etc…
Watch live video from Airshowguy @ Work on Justin.tv
"Turns out I got lucky…my Sprint signal was 5x5 and there was power right at the backstop plus an angled desk/bench that made for the perfect setup. I used the Justin.tv streaming system and it was tons of fun to have about a dozen parents/friends watch each game and join in the chat with Justin’s embedded chat feature. I made like a play-by-play narrator typing out what was going on…and every now and then playing “Joe Buck” for fun."
"I’ll need a better setup than just hanging the web cam from a couple of lanyards and a bag…when it got windy, or when there was a foul ball, the camera shook and I had to reposition it numerous times. Likely a tripod or perhaps a platform that is more securely attached to the fence and would allow for a higher angle is what I’m going to experiment with next."
Brian's company has some big plans.
"I can see a time where we’d actually hire broadcast teams (students in broadcasting programs in local high schools or colleges) to broadcast the games. We’ve already begun working with a softball tournament company on the East coast and are going to try and bring this forward for next summer’s tournaments in the New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey area."
"But for now, I’ll continue to enjoy traipsing after my daughter this fall and into next summer as we travel to Junior Olympic softball tournaments throughout the Midwest. Be sure to visit Warcats18Gold.com for more information about the team and if you’re nearby, be sure to come by and say hello at the Eleventh Annual St. Louis Softball Showcase in Chesterfield, MO Oct 31 – Nov 2."
During my early radio days ('70s) there was tremendous pressure on the radio station to broadcast high school football and basketball games. We did some high school baseball but I don't know that we ever found air time for girls softball. There just wasn't enough time, staff or advertising support. And if one of the local radio stations didn't broadcast the game... you had to be in the stands.
No more.
While waiting for my flight from St. Louis to Tulsa last Friday, I captured a little video of some WW II vets heading out on a little trip. A year ago in Las Vegas, I witnessed a hauntingly similar scene featuring Marines returning from Iraq.
A tree house is a frivolous thing. No practical value (unless you're living in the African bush). But if you can recall that childhood rush of climbing to the top of a tree for absolutely no reason other than the joy of doing it, you can appreciate what brings four good friends (and friends of) together every year to re-experience that feeling.
Three House III (this is the third year of the project) is in the middle of the Prairie GardenTrust, which is managed by my friend Henry. He invited me to to come and be part of TH3 this weekend, which was perfect in every way.
The project was well-blogged (with minimal help from me) with iPhones, cameras and MacBooks everywhere you looked.
We finished the day yesterday by climbing up to the third level (about 30 feet up) to enjoy the view and reflect on project.
This video was brought to my attention because the "reporter" is a former Learfield intern, Tyne Morgan. Some of you might remember Tyne from a little speed-texting video I posted a while back.
Big companies like Monsanto have always had the wherewithal to produce videos like this one. But then what? You buy time from a bunch of TV stations to air them? Pretty darned expensive.
Today? You create your own YouTube channel and hire someone like Tyne and you're off and running. You can bet Monsanto has one bad mamma jamma of a database/mailing list that can be sliced and diced to target exactly the people that might want to see this.
So, when companies can control their media/message from A to Z... what is the role of what we used to call "the media?" [via Journamarketing]
We see lots of adult Box Turtles in our neighborhood but rarely (never?) see the babies. Rick Thom --long time employee of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources-- lives just down the hill from us and called a couple of days ago to report finding one of the little guys. Video runs 3 1/2 min.
Shawn Wolfe (via Boing Boing):
"This is what happens when an annoying asshole (Wall Street) loses everything in a casino (the stock market) and desperately begs the house (Congress) to "correct" their little mistake (massive bail out), and the house (Gary Marshall) ain't havin' it.
I think it is also instructive here that this scene takes place at 4am. Albert Brooks is in his bathrobe. His pants are basically down. The owner of the Desert Inn is granting him a sit-down and happens to be dressed in a suit and tie and oak desk."
The thing I love most about this video is that anyone with a video camera could have created it. If they could have written the script. If they had two good actors. If they had a kitchen table.
The Iowa Department of Public Health is using a "spooky" video -- which looks a bit like the movie "Cloverfield" -- as part of a new anti-smoking campaign designed to appeal to teenagers.
The premise is that everybody in the eastern Iowa town of Springville disappears. Springville population = 1200. Number of people that die each day from tobacco use = 1200. The message of the campaign is that a town of the size of Springville disappears everyday because of tobacco use." [Radio Iowa]
The annual Labor Day Parade was underway as we left the Coffee Zone this morning. I whipped out my little Brownie for a minute-and-a-half of video.
It occurred to me that the new, digital economy doesn't lend itself to parades. How do you make a float for Web Developers Local 69?
It has become something of a tradition to swing by the Sport Operations Center at Learfield on the first big football weekend of the season. [90 sec]
On the way to dinner on our final evening in Seattle, we discovered a team of artists finishing up what I would describe as a graffiti piece. They'd been spraying away all day and looked a little pooped. We chatted with what appeared to be the boss artist and learned he was a graphic artist and this was a paid gig.
We also learned they don't use any old paint from the hardware store. It's special spray paint created for this kind of art. Costs about nine bucks a can and comes from Germany. There were a lot of cans strewn about but the company apparently gives it to them for promotional purposes.
I mean no disrespect in using the word faux to describe their work. I've always liked the raw, bold look of graffiti art but suspect the owners of the building would like for passers-by to assume some talented street urchins and done this in the wee hours with back-packs full of Krylon.
UPDATE: Received email from one of the artists, asking me to pull the images from flickr. At least the ones that showed the artists faces. While this piece was commissioned by the owner of the building, sometimes these guys get creative without being asked. I was happy to yank the images. It never occurred to me that a tagger (?) might do a legit job by day while still answering the call of the wild. The artist offered to send me a photo of the finished wall. I'll post it if and when.
UPDATE: Here are some more photos by one of the artists who did the wall we saw in Seattle. Sneke, Myth, Hews and Kel 1st who is one of the original NYC subway writers from the late 70's - mid 80's.
Local troupe of indentured belly dancers forced to perform at the Coffee Zone. [Thanks to Official Zone Eunuch & Videographer Kevin]
If you watch any TV or cable news, you hear references to this or that video on YouTube. It reminds me of the days when the big three networks referred something on CNN. YouTube is starting to feel like another network. NBC doesn't want to cover my speech? No problem. I'll just post it to YouTube.
My next thought was the similarity to public access TV. Let the record show I know almost nothing about public access TV. I think it works something like this:
The local cable company (or someone) sets aside a channel for the public to produce programming. I assume there is a local board or committee that manages the channel and decides what programming to air and when.
Putting Tivo aside for a moment, the public access channel is limited to 24 hours of programming each days. And to keep the math simple, let's say every program is an hour long and airs once a week. That's 168 programs a week. And many of those would "air" in the middle of the night.
I think it would be difficult to fill that much time. And what if I had something that was only 5 or 10 minutes long?
Here's my question: Why won't YouTube (and similar services) make public access television obsolete? [This is where I show my ignorance of PATV] If local relevance is the raison d’etra of PATV, why not just invite the people of your community (or people who visit your community) to post their videos to YouTube and tag them with the name of the city/town?
But wait, what about our live coverage of the weekly city council meeting? It runs 2 hours or longer and YouTube limits videos to 10 minutes.
Hmm. I guess I'd stream it on Ustream and then pull "highlights" and post those on YouTube.
I expect the Big Question would be, "What about all the people who don't have computers and access to the Internet?" For the answer, see: "What About People Who Don't Have TV Sets?"
Don't misunderstand. I'm not suggesting for a moment that public access TV isn't a good or necessary thing. There must be people who watch it or it wouldn't exist. It just feels like one of those things --like classified adds-- that would work better and cheaper online.
My friend Jeff knows a LOT about public access TV and I encourage him to comment and help me understand how technology is evolving in this area.
From Ars Technica article: "A political spat erupted in Washington, D.C., earlier this month over rules governing how members of Congress may use the Internet. House Republicans argued that proposed changes to the rules amounted to "new government censorship of the Internet," while Democrats said the charges were exaggerated. Whichever side is right or wrong, the fact remains that current rules governing official communications prohibit members of Congress from using video-sharing or social networking sites like YouTube, Flickr, or Facebook. As a result, many House members, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), are currently in violation of the rules.
Rep. John Culberson (R-TX), a pioneer in using new media to communicate with constituents, sounded the alarm over the new rules via Twitter. Culberson has made a name for himself twittering from the House floor, broadcasting live video from the White House using Qik, and hosting regular "town hall" meetings using live video-streaming and chat on Ustream.
In a later statement, Culberson argued that new media should not be treated any differently than old. "When I am interviewed for a newspaper article or a television story, or have a conversation on a radio show, my interview/conversation is going to appear in the same publication/broadcast as a campaign or commercial ad," he said.
Is there any greater power than being able to control information? The first order of business when staging a coup d'etat is take over the newspapers, radio and TV stations. Well, first you kill the president... then you take control of the media.
It bums me that the Dems seem to be the sand in the gears on this one but it doesn't surprise me. And that stuff about "we don't want commercials next to videos from Congress" is pure horseshit.
A Real Ninja Turtle - Watch more free videos
When we last saw Ninja Turtle, he was fleeing from the Giant with Digital Camera
Thanks to the Heater Man for pointing us to this clip from the Tonight Show. A speed test pitting Morse Code against text messaging. We'll never know, but I think former Learfield intern Tyne Morgan would have put some whupass (video) on the Morse Code guys.
I stopped by the Learfield Sports Operations Center last night and walked in on training of new board ops for the coming football season. A recorded play-by-play broacast (from last year) is used to train the noobs. Fans (from the word "fanatical") have a low tolerance for mistakes. Broadcasts are expected to be error free. I don't have the nerves for it. Rather sub as air traffic controller.
We got all of our dogs as puppies so I have a great appreciation for this little trick. Now take your insulin injection and go back to work. [via Planet Nelson]
I had a feeling Henry might enjoy making a few videos. He's a gifted digital artist (that's a photographer who doesn't have to take assignments) but has always focused on still images. The video above (4 min) is a walk around the lake at the Prairie Garden Trust with Pete, Sam and Boots.
I think this is only Henry's second video and I predict we'll see some very cool stuff once he gets the hang of a different medium.
My favorite part is when Sam stops to take a leak.
I might be the last person to figure this out but, based on this trailer, Stone appears to tackle two questions: "How in the hell did George W. Bush ever become president of the United States?" And, "What happened to him before he got to the Oval Office that made him so inept once there?" Or maybe that's one question.
I started fooling with putting video online 5 or 6 years ago. It was extremely primitive back then. YouTube and embedded players were years down the road. I was doing everything on Windows (Studio 9) and the idea of a live video stream was science fiction. But I never doubted figuring out how to do this would come in handy.
On Monday, we're going to stream live video of a sales meeting, including a role-playing session. The sales reps in our "outer offices" will watch in (almost) real time and then take part in a discussion by conference call.
Not sure what my point is here, but whether it's Photoshop, or blogging or podcasting or video streaming... you have to play with the stuff BEFORE you have a practical application.
"So how'd you get that pussy blogging job, smays.com?
"Well, I started spending every spare moment online in 1996... and the rest was just dumb luck."
Oh, yeah. We're not using some six figure video conferencing set-up on Monday. Just a cheap camcorder and a MacBook Pro.
Co-worker Roger is on holiday with family in Colorado. This video --shot with his new ATC3K Action Cam-- shows him biking down the mountain. Note that about half-way through he goes AROUND the jump instead of over.
Yes, I know I misspelled tortoise. It's called creative license, okay?
"ABC.com users watched a record 815 million minutes of full-length
episodes during the month of May — 37 million episodes in all — a 53%
increase over the previous month and an increase of nearly 110% over
the previous year. It appears this online video thing is catching on." [Lost Remote]
I came across this delightful/horrible story on a blog called And I Am Not Lying. It's about an encounter at a coffee shop in Arlington, VA. You can read the post for yourself, which included this classic Jack Nicholson scene from Five Easy Pieces:
This is the kind of stunt I always wanted to pull but didn't have the balls. Instead I'd say something so mean it would make the other person burst into tears. I am now working toward enlightenment but still love the clip.
Oh yeah. It's kind of inspirational, too. I sure hope this isn't a hoax.
One of the more interesting tours I've taken was of the Missouri State Penitentiary here in Jefferson City, before the inmates were moved to a new facility in 2004. KETC (St. Louis) producer Patrick Murphy took a tour and produced this excellent video.
By 1935, the penitentiary it was the largest prison in the United States with 5,000 inmates. I can't explain my fascination with prisons, but as a result of my tour of the prison here in JC, I created MissouriDeathRow.com.
A flicker user with the handle SLOWLORIS was shooting some video of a rain storm when she was struck by lightning. But it's cool 'cause she's okay and got the video.
"From what i understand, it went through my left hand holding the camera, crossed my back and exited out of my right hand holding onto the metal railing. No entry or exit wounds, just a really good zap! "
I'm assuming she also crapped her pants. [from the flickr blog]
The sales staff of our company's news division held their annual retreat this week. Your basic training/planning/role-playing/drinking/cheer leading get-away. I've attended a lot of them but not this one.
With video getting easier to shoot and edit, they decided to record some of the role playing sessions for evaluation purposes. Super Intern Jon Allison was put in charge of AV chores and he was MORE than up to the task. Check out his 5 minute mash-up (produced in iMovie HD).
In a pre-YouTube world, we would have posted a few still images on the company intranet or sent around some lame-ass PowerPoint (a couple of weeks after the event). Jon had this ready to watch before they came home.
Here's my question for managers: Do you have someone on your staff that can produce something like this? [Photo: Jon with Learfield Kahuna Roger Gardner]
Crazy Driver Nearly Killed By Train - Watch more free videos
I've just received the green light to publish the new sales training video we use here at Learfield. Part I above and Part II here.
And for those of you pressed for time in your lives, just skip smays.com and go directly to The J-Walk Blog.
More at TVinJapan. [via Boing Boing]
That was part of a promo I heard on MSNBC tonight. First time I noticed the phrase, "embed video." Even the networks are figuring out it's a good thing to have your video embedded in millions of blogs and websites.
I'm sure there is still a lot of "...no, no! We want them to come to OUR website!" But the web IS the network now and your affiliates are are all those blogs.
Reporters for our ag radio network (Brownfield Ag News) were recently issued Casio digital cameras. They've been using them for still images for the most part but Dave Russell got a minute-and-a-half of first-rate video showing flooding and erosion in an Indiana corn field.
Dave is new to the world of hand-held point-and-shoot video but notice how he gets in a few questions (recorded on the Casio) while panning across the field. I have no doubt we'll be seeing more good video from Dave and his fellow reporters.
