Broadcast & Podcast Gadgets 2012

Rediscovering C Crane at CES 2012

2012-01-17T10:31:00.002+01:00

I love connecting the past with the present, especially as everything is often new again. In the days when I hosted a wireless show for Radio Netherlands, we often featured medium-wave listening from the powerhouses like Radio Luxembourg to the rare stations which were only logged under very quiet solar conditions or during DXpeditions to the Arctic. If you click on either of those two links you can listen to or download those programmes right now. But I digress.

While travelling in the States I picked up the great General Electric SuperRadio II (photo above) which had a superb set of speakers on it and a great receiver inside. And all for under US$50. I paid 39 bucks for it at a discount store in Virginia.

If you have one, hang on to it. If you want to know more, check out this excellent link to David Moison's site. It was produced from the late 1980's until 1994 when it was replaced by the (less good) Superradio III. They were all made in China to a US spec, but I never saw them in Europe. Perhaps because the sets never did longwave or that the mains power was integrated into the set and was only 120 volts. But that didn't matter to me because the other thing about it was that the batteries lasted for ever. My set lasted for 15 years until the dial cord snapped out of sheer wear and tear and I didn't have access to David's site to know how to fix it properly. I hope Joe's Radio Page will forgive me for lifting their photo.

When the Superradio disappeared, the only serious contender that came anywhere close was produced by a northern Californian firm called C.Crane. They modified radios made by Sangean and came up with a series of very sensitive AM sets, which also perform well on the 2 metre ham band. I have one of the early versions. The price has come down to 150 US Dollars and they say they have tweaked the CCRadio-2 for better AM performance.

I lost touch with the company but remembered the name when they were popped up at CES 2012. Seems they are still around, operating out of an unassuming warehouse in Fortuna, in the wilds of Humboldt County, California. Leo Laporte interviewed them on his tour of one of halls and it was then I discovered their fascination with long-distance wifi.

I travel a lot and often find the WiFi in the hotel to be less than satisfactory. C Crane make a USB WiFi antenna which plugs into a Mac or PC laptop and vastly improves the reception (and therefore the throughput) of the WiFi. It hang over a curtain rail with a lanyard or you can use suction cups to fix it to a window. The antenna costs just under 110 dollars and comes with a split USB cable, so if you have two USB ports on the computer you can get even better reception by using both.

There are also circumstances where it would be useful to connect two buildings with wifi. C Crane also sell a kit which can connect buildings up to 5 km away - the range really depends on the local terrain. If the antenna's can't see each other, then forget it. Their preconfigured set up costs around 300 US dollars including the directional antennas shown above.

Help wanted in Kigali

2011-02-20T13:30:00.001+01:00

So how could this happen? A newspaper in Kigali gets a sudden increase in traffic. May be it is because they are measuring hits not unique visitors. The website is full of ads, each of which generates several hits for each visitor. The website is actually quite good. But the reasoning is faulty. Don't go into a boast about hits...it will end in tears.

KIGALI - Shortly after featuring among the most visited websites on the African continent, The New Times web portal registered 13,178,261 hits last month alone.

It literally means that readers of The New Times exceeded the country’s total population by over 2 million, as the newspaper’s online version grows by the day.
At the beginning of this week, 8,254,317 had visited the website this month.

The January statistics show the second biggest number of hits following the over 14 million hits in September and October 2010.

February statistics indicate that on average, Wednesday is the day in the week when the www.newtimes.co.rw is most visited registering 563,575.33 hits, followed by Thursday with 510, 998.33 hits and Monday with 501,337.50 hits.

The busiest time on website is between 7 a.m., and 9 a.m., 705,290 hits at 7am, 802,789 hits at 8 am and slightly dropping to 655,492 at 9am, indicating that most people in the country and region read the website first thing in the morning.

Rwanda leads the pack of countries where The New Times is widely read, registering 3,231,720 hits, followed by United States with 1,246, 607 and Canada at 647,449 in January and February.

Great Britain followed closely with 540,622, while on the African continent, South Africa leads with 164,793 hits. In the region, Uganda leads 18,216 followed by Kenya with 14,722.

According to The New Times IT and Production Manager, Jean Pierre Twizeyimana, the growing trend is a result of the improved quality in content and a redesigned website.

“Our website has continued to register a considerable amount of traffic in terms of visits and hits, whereby in December 2010 it had 12 million hits and more than 13 million in January 2011,” he said.

“The trend keeps going up by the day. We hope by the end of this year we will have moved to the top 15 of the most visited websites on the continent,” said Twizeyimana.

“The reason behind this growth is because the content has greatly improved in terms of quality and accuracy, and the new design implemented last year is more user-friendly. We are continuing to add more features to make it even better.”

The New Times emerged among the top 25 news website in Africa in a survey conducted by 4International Media & Newspapers (4IMN) of Australia, this year.

Intellgient, cheap USA charger. Unplug and it switches itself off

2011-02-20T13:21:00.001+01:00

I have a power block that closes itself down when current is not being drawn. But this is the first time I have seen the technology in a USB charger. The video seems to be an over-the-top promotion for a 13 US dollar charge, but still. When you unplug the phone, the power consumption of the charger drops to near zero.

IPad Killers - Enter LG in Barcelona

2011-02-14T20:27:00.001+01:00

I have not really been a fan of LG so far. Bought a phone a few years back and although it has great software and features, it was mechanically poorly constructed and fell apart in my pocket. Now, introducing the LG Optimus Pad designed to be a direct competitor to the Apple iPad. Sleek stuff. Curious to see how Apple is going to react with their iPad2. One point that surprises me is the fact that this iPad seems to have two cameras in it for 3D capture..if I understand the trailer completely.

For the moment I am going to wait and see. And take good note of the what the telecom guys add to the plan. The Motorola iPad likker called the 'Xoom' is still supposed to be launched in the US in a few weeks time on 24th February. Rumoured to cost 800 US dollars, look at the details of the 3G/Wifi plan. There were rumours that you had to buy a 3G plan in order to switch the wifi on! If true, its bonkers. So Xoom is off my shopping list from the start and I don't believe they are going to make the Feb 24th deadline. And the LG ...it is so fresh at Mobile World Congress that I need time to take it all in. It will live of die by the strength of the apps, not just the beauty of the hardware. LG still win the prizes for rebranding. Remember when LG meant Lucky Goldstar and it was a plastics brand that also made toothpaste? I am sure that LG hope you don't.

CES 2011 CONTOUR VIDEO CAMERA WITH GPS FOR EXTREME SPORTS, OFF-ROADING a...

2011-01-14T21:33:00.000+01:00

Now why can't audio recorders also incorporate GPS?

iPad for Presenters

2011-01-10T17:48:00.001+01:00

It is inspiring to see what's happening in live event studios and the type of technology that is now being put in front of the presenter. During live sports or elections, you now see many anchors standing up and wandering around between tables of guests. So is there a need for them to be in control of the graphics or video sequences by tapping an iPad with a special app on it? You be the judge. I actually would find it useful as an autocue or memory jogger during live stand-ups. Beats a notepad.

Fraunhofer and the Future of Radio on Vimeo

2011-01-09T16:41:00.000+01:00

Fraunhofer, the German labs that develop all kinds of coding technology are probably the best known for their MP3 audio encoding system used to squeeze lots of music onto portable music players in the 90's and 00's. They also developed a way to compress the audio onto the now defunct Worldspace satellite system. So what are they up to now? It seems from this interview on the Fraunhofer stand at the recent IBC that they are putting video and text into low bandwidth audio transmission systems. Whilst I see that they have managed to squeeze video into a very tiny pipe, I don't share the sort of Open University for Africa dream that I see demonstrated here. With the number of shortwave transmitters in the region being reduced, and few DRM capable transmitters in the region, that video option may have come too late. So what do you think?

Insights into Radio's Hybrid Future 2011 on Vimeo

2011-01-09T12:42:00.001+01:00

It hasn't been an easy path for radio to go from analogue FM broadcasting to a digital future. But the arrival of new IP based platforms has forced a rethink - and I think the path forward is now much clearer. I think broadcasters should be thinking about how to integrate the notion of apps into their programme formats. At the European Broadcasting Union in Geneva, Switzerland they are developing practical proposals to show broadcasters the kind of content that can benefit from radios with screens. That is going to be important as the 2 trillion dollar car industry starts getting rid of the FM radio as a separate device in the dashboard. That is also important because radios with screens may be devices like tablets as well as discrete radios we know and love.

Soluto Antfrustration Software

2011-01-08T18:53:00.000+01:00

I first saw this Israeli software mentioned by Robert Scoble and installed it to test it out. It's simply brilliant if you're a Windows 7 user and trying to work out what is causing your PC to slow down over time. Apparently there is more to come in a matter of weeks time. Still in glorious beta. The press room at LeWeb had this strange blue spotlight beaming in to the interview area.

Clipping the web - great tools for researchers

2011-01-08T12:47:00.000+01:00

I have no problem stumbling upon all kinds of interesting material, but Googling your bookmarks history is not the best way finding documents, videos and web pages for a second time. As part of my quest to find relevant applications for editors and researchers, I've been comparing various clipping services. There are a few out there, but only a couple that seem to be actively developing new features. I've been playing with Memonics after a chance encounter with Keren Eldad at LeWeb10. I am very impressed. I think its better than Evernote. I see that Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) is also experimenting with it, though I don't think they really explain the potential of the service very well. Memonics really starts saving you time when you're able find the stats you were looking for without resorting to a search engine. Hope they prosper. Complements nicely the features I see in Pearltrees.com

Kodak's New Camera's

2011-01-08T12:44:00.000+01:00

I have been impressed about how Eastman Kodak has embraced social media - and listened to its public of camera users. It has done a much better job than the likes of Sony, Canon and Nikon. And this from a former chemical company! I have been using the Kodak Zi8 for simple reporting work - and it turns out very acceptable video, especially if you add an external lavalier microphone. I'd put it well ahead of the Flip camera just because of the sound quality. I have also tried filimg with an iPhone, but not impressed. In Paris at Leweb10 I saw the camera that's coming next. And do download their tips for social media.

Radio DNS

2011-01-07T13:40:00.002+01:00

This is the first in a series of short videos made at IBC-2010 to explain Radio's connected future, or perhaps "hybrid" is a better description. In this segment, Nick Piggott explains the bridging function that RadioDNS will provide and the problems it will solve for the global radio industry. I think the great thing about RadioDNS is that the concept is simple, it is already implemented in some countries and it works with any kind of FM or digital radio.

To me it is the equivalent of the decision in 1963 to adopt a 19 kHz pilot tone to switch on the "stereo" indicator on an FM radio. RadioDNS deserves the same instant global hit (and therefore rapid adoption). See radiodns.org for more information.

Radio and cars of the future

2011-01-07T13:05:00.000+01:00

Leweb10 continues to surprise, becoming a sort of SxSW for European entrepreneurs. At the one just held in Paris, Renault Nissan gave away the keys to one of its new electric city vehicles, the Twizy. Delivery will be at LeWeb11 in Paris in December 2011. Chairman and CEO Carlos Ghosn suggested that there will always be a market for personal mobility. The car industry needs to adapt to maintain its position as the most desirable object for most people. That means responding to concerns about energy - but also opening up the car as a platform for application developers rather like the iPhone and Android. Hopefully the personal mobility industry, worth 2 trillion dollars we're told, will be able to agree on some open standards to avoid the developer nightmares we've seen in the mobile handset space. Sit back and watch the demo of the first in a series of new Renault electric cars. And then join me in working out what radio needs to do to be part of the application boom that is coming to in-car entertainment. Radio needs to remain part of personal mobility as the car radio disappears as a discrete device.

Camtasia, Lectures & Screen Capture

2011-01-07T12:50:00.000+01:00

At the recent Leweb conference in Paris, I bumped into two people who know more than most about capturing conversations. Many colleges and universities spend a fortune providing lectures to under a hundred students at any one time. Even some of the better learning institutions have not found a way to capture that knowledge on video so that it can not only be viewed again later but also used for distance learning. I'm surprised this isn't being given a higher priority. Techsmith certainly have worked out a lot of answers, focussing on keeping capture as simple as possible. Yes you can capture a screen with a standard keyboard action. But you can't manipulate it as easily without SnagIt. Cheap program that's saved me hours making Powerpoints or Keynotes.

Christina Fox on what's better than DSLR

2011-01-06T13:29:00.000+01:00

I need a new camera to replace my ageing HD cameras that rely on tape. I have done quite a lot of research into the use of DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) stills cameras for video work. And for that "cinema" look (shallow field of depth), I have been tempted.

Until I went to the Panasonic stand at IBC 2010.

Now that the PR hype around the show has finished for this year, time to reflect on what I really saw. I am helped in this video by Christina Fox, who is a brilliant trainer and camera specialist. She runs an excellent site at urbanfox.tv, where I see she is also changing the line-up of cameras she trains on. If you want a great briefing on video journalism, then Christina is definitely the one to hire. She's run several workshops at IBC and always manages to keep them fresh, practical and relevant.

Looks like this new breed of video cameras will turn up in January 2011. Hope my Sony lasts out until then.

Paper Li as a Production Tool

2011-01-05T12:57:00.000+01:00

Launched in Spring 2010, Paper.Li (the Li is for Lichtenstein) turns your Facebook or Twitter feeds into a daily newspaper. Currently the service is being used in over 200 countries, with the main markets being the US, UK, The Netherlands and Japan. The site currently has software to support automated compilation in English, German, Spanish and French and there are plans for Dutch, Japanese and Mandarin. They have around 130,000 daily "newspapers" and the system is growing at a rate of 1000 a day. It will be curious to see how the public copes with this sudden explosion in on-line publications. I think the idea is great - although I am being very selective on the number of "subscriptions" I sign-up for. Even though they are free, they do take up valuable attention time. So keep to measured doses and follow people with important things to share. Frankly, I find the conversations are becoming stronger on Facebook - and that's reflected in my preference for paper.li for Facebook. A couple of radio producers and I are using to get reactions to the programmes formatted in a useful way. So its become a contribution tool rather than a distribution platform.

PearlTrees - The next Delicious for collaboration

2011-01-04T12:59:00.000+01:00

PearlTrees Presentation
Originally uploaded by Jonathan Marks

I understand the rumours are still quite strong that Yahoo wants to get rid of the collaborative bookmarking tool Delicious. Frankly, after experimenting with it in about 2005, I stopped using it. I had problems with plug-ins on various browsers. It had a cutsy URL in those days which I couldn't remember. It probably wasn't the Delicious extension that kept crashing my browser, but when I got rid of a lot of them, out it went too.

Since then I have been looking for three things:

- a method to keep and sort stuff I find on the web in a logical way, especially related videos.

- a method to share those collections with others and share bits of it with others who subscribe to an alert service I run for clients.

- a method to dynamically display the results, so that any updates are also reflected. That's the problem with blogs. Once you have snagged a copy of an Excel sheet or graph and put it into a blog, it's frozen.

I stumbled upon what could be the answer at a bloggers dinner organised in Paris by a French start-up called Pearltrees.com. You first need to sign-up and sign-in, set up a free account and a simple profile. Then install extensions into your favorite browsers. Then, as you surf the web, you can bookmark your discoveries and send the links automatically to Pearltrees. Each website is a pearl and each pearl can be dragged and dropped into what I call an "interest tree". It's more like a virtual biscuit tin when you can store goodies, but also make very clear connections between the pearls rather like Mindmapping.

What struck me was the clever way in which you can then share this with other Pearltrees users. If someone else is working on a dossier about "community radio stations in Ghana", I can invite that person to collaborate on a document. That person does have the rights to change (and potentially destroy) the document rather like Wikipedia. But because you have only granted them access to that bit of your network, it is a great way to collaborate and build trust. I've found quite a few journalists and entrepreneurs working with Pearltrees - basically taking it for a ride to see what it can do.

You can also publish your trees and then embed them into a blog. Whenever you go to that entry, the website grabs the latest version of the pearltree.

Downsides? Not many. But you need to remember that what you're storing are links, not actual content. So if someone posts something like a video or a document which you capture as a pearl, it will disappear if that document/video ever goes off line. For that reason I am experimenting with downloading documents to my dropbox and then posting stuff from there.

Pearltrees was born at LeWeb2009. They have already come a long way since. It's a small team of 12 people working in Paris, but I got the impression its a tight-run ship and a brillian team of developers. I am expecting great things...(reposting now I finished the video).

Boost to the Broadcast Industry - instant mobile sites

2011-01-02T12:58:00.002+01:00

I've been following the progress of a Norwegian mobile technology company based in Trondheim, Northern Norway that keeps coming up with ideas that bridge the mobile space with creative broadcasters. boost.no have built template-based software which allows journalists and copywriters to build websites that look good on smartphones. The challenge is that most standard websites look great on a big screen - lousy on a small one. Broadcasters are finding that advertisers are interested in mobile sites (more so than banner ads) but they want to see results before they sign anything. That reminds me of the radio ad business where creatives spent hours in the studio writing dummy ads simply to impress the client. Oystein Skiri was at last year's IBC in Amsterdam and the recent WAN-IFRA conference for editors and publishers in Hamburg. I asked him to explain the problem they have solved.

Mobile Trends 2020

2011-01-01T13:06:00.002+01:00

Met Rudy at Leweb10. What a nice guy. Lives in Barcelona.

Mobile Trends 2020

View more presentations from Rudy De Waele.

My Plan for this site in 2011

2011-01-01T00:44:00.004+01:00

Happy New Year. Currently working on a new series of presentations researching into the integration of social media with traditional broadcasting. A lot of international media seems to be collapsing at the moment, but the ways of storytelling on emerging platforms has never been more exciting than now. Would like to work with more creative companies working on the next steps for storytelling... I also really enjoy organising break-out sessions (2-3 days) to come up with a media strategy for the next three years. Trying to do more of that. I am using this site to share the stories that I find on my travels. It's kind of like what I used to do on Media Network, but more visual. So what are your plans?

Looking Back at Radio

2010-12-24T13:34:00.000+01:00

I have been fortunate to be able to listen again to a great series of programmes I was involved in. The station was Radio Netherlands, the programme Media Network. I still believe it was an early "FaceBook" bringing together teams of passionate people to discuss what was happening in media and technology at the time.

I picked this recording out of the archives because it has a nice capsule summary of the major media stories from 1982. The highlight was, of course, the Falklands-Malvinas "conflict". But it was also the last programme in which Wim van Amstel appeared as RNW Frequency Manager. It was certainly not the last time he was heard on the programme, though. Again it is striking to hear some of the predictions - and how they were spot on. The call with Arthur Cushen in New Zealand is rather like making contact with the moon. Cannot believe how fast time has flown. At the time of publishing this podcast, I was also sad to hear of the passing of BBC correspondent and broadcaster Brian Hanrahan, who famous line when broadcasting under censorship from the Falklands Fleet was brilliant. Unable to reveal how many British aircraft had been involved in the conflict, he reported that after one sortie he "counted them all out and I counted them all back."

Confusions about Web Radio

2010-12-09T13:15:00.001+01:00

Paris December 2010
Originally uploaded by Jonathan Marks

There is still a lot of confusion out there about the economics of audio over the phone. I was recently in Paris for the great LeWeb10 conference and passed by ads for the Samsung Wave. First phone I have seen with a prominent menu option for webradio. That means you stream the audio via 3G rather than picking it up from FM or AM. I remember Nick Piggot of the RadioDNS.org project pointing out at IBC that if you were to stream the equivalent of a month's worth of FM/DAB listening by the average Brit, then the download would be about 2GB. That is just not going to scale, nor would I like to rely on a 3G network during a natural disaster. We had a case of that on 9 December when it decided to snow and Paris came to a standstill.

And if you're travelling abroad, as I was, I note that KPN was planning to charge me 5 Euro for a MB of data - so I would have had a monthly bill of 10,000 Euro if I had decided to use my phone as a radio.

I saw colleagues trying to buy local SIM cards, only to discover you needed a French credit card or that it took 48 hrs to activate the data account. In other words, web-radio is great as part of an audio solution. In areas with an uncapped fixed price data rate, it is fine. But the operators are rethinking what they mean by uncapped - I see examples where 250 MB is regarded as the max for fair use.

So it's a bit early to be dumping broadcast networks, although I think AM will go away quite fast. DRM has failed to attract the interest of the receiver manufacturers and the cost per listening on shortwave was decided when oil was 40 dollars a barrel. But FM and DAB+ are an important part of a hybrid mix for audio.

Web Radio on my Android
Originally uploaded by Jonathan Marks

Panasonic steals the IBC Show for me

2010-09-10T23:09:00.001+02:00

Woah - so glad I waited before picking out a new camera. Just come back from the introduction of a new flashbased camcorder from Panasonic called the AF101. They say its about 70 percent ready and will come onto the European market by December 2010 for a price just under 5000 Euro (excluding local VAT taxes). The AF101 is designed to answer back to the Canon D5 Mark II DSLR challenge. Frankly, because DSLR has not solved a lot of artefact problems and has really poor sound arrangements, I have decided to wait before chucking out what I have now and going for DSLR. I have decided not to go the DSLR route after what I saw tonight. The final model is going to look less boxy it seems, what's in Amsterdam are engineering samples.

I do a lot of interviews and I cannot keep switching cards every 12 minutes because the card has reached a 4 GB file maximum. Canon is a still's camera company, and it is only now that they seem to be waking up to the needs of the videographer. On a closer look, frankly I can't wait for Canon to get it right two or three years down the road. Those cameras were designed to shoot great stills and a bit of video on the side for Web reportages. They do a great job in that. But trying to shoot videos the way I am used to will require too many work arounds, especially as a single shooter.

In a very funny but factual presentation in the NEMO Science centre in Amsterdam this evening, Us film and Video Producer, Barry Green took us though a washing list of what DSLR's cannot do without extra attachments. The horror stories of the work arounds with DSLR, rang very true. I have been disappointed that neither Sony or JVC have stepped up to the plate. Both have very lack-lustre stands at this year's IBC 2010 in Amsterdam. So Panasonic seemed to have got it right this time.

From the Panasonic Specs

The AF101 uses a Micro Four Thirds digital single-lens or cinematic lenses such as prime lens with a conversion adaptor, as well as professional audio input (XLR), giving it the degree of flexibility that professionals require. The camera can record video in full HD (1080i/p)/720p formats including 1080/24p native mode with Full HD Variable Frame Rate (VFR)*2 function. The video can be recorded on the bigger capacity SDXC memory cards in professional high quality PH mode (up to 24Mbps). Two SD card slots allow relay recording from one SD (SD / SDHC / SDXC) card to another to give large recording capacity of up to 12 hours in PH mode or 48 hours in HE mode.

The camera recorder is equipped with professional interfaces , including HD SDI output, XLR audio 2ch (48 V phantom power source compatible) inputs. Time code recording feature is also available to deal with professional video operations, something missing on all the DSLR's I have seen so far.

Path Finder 5 by Cocoatech

2010-09-05T20:47:00.000+02:00

Got so frustrated with Snow Leopard's Finder, almost to boiling point. The Apple Mac is brilliant for video editing with Final Cut Pro, but Finder is not handy at all for building a complicated archive and combining files on several hard drives. I keep getting second windows disappearing.

So I have been playing with Path Finder 5 by Cocoatech. It offers two windows and the ability to drag and drop files and folders in a much more intelligent way. Turns out to cost about 32 Euro, but you can try before you buy to see if its worth it. It took me about 15 minutes to be briefed (video instructions included) and you follow what they do as the video plays. Absolutely no connection with this small company in California, but a lot of respect for what they code. It's going to save me hours.

Microdolly Hollywood

2010-09-04T16:24:00.001+02:00

This stuff is good, though expensive. But I note the Taiwanese competition is much heavier.Why do you need it? Makes great tracking shots - and with the DSLR cameras they can look spectacular. They need a spelling checker on the site though. The design looks straight out of 1998....rotating @ sign. Ok, so these guys are great techs and lousy designers.

The TWiT Netcast Network with Leo Laporte

2010-09-04T16:13:00.000+02:00

The TWiT Netcast Network with Leo Laporte

One of the better twits in a long time. More recently Twit has become this week in telephones. But not this one.

Wow...

2010-09-04T15:26:00.001+02:00

Not sure I need the 3D TV. This 2D is spectacular enough. And no glasses.

Getting Better Sound on Vodcasts

2010-08-15T12:33:00.006+02:00

I have been advising small community stations in Africa to use the Kodak Zi8 flash based camera. It provides excellent quality images, especially if you use a tripod or monopod to keep it steady. I prefer it to all the offerings from Flip, not only because of the video quality but because of the SOUND. The sound on the Flip cameras is truly awful. The built-in microphones on the Zi8 are OK for ambience (in mono) and emergency situations. But I remember former Kodak PR guru Jeffrey W. Hayzlett explaining at the Zi8 launch at DLD-09 that the most common request from customers was for an external microphone jack. They did that. But which mike to choose? I have seen people using two separate lavelier micophones plugged in parallel via a headphone splitter into the Zi8. But now, I believe I have found a better solution. Darren Nemeth runs an audio business called Giant Squid. He builds small microphones exactly for the purpose. I'm interested because the cost of the microphones (65 US dollars complete) is in proportion to the cost of Zi8 (around US$180 in the US). For an extra 6 dollars he puts a Neutrik Right Angled Gold Plated Plug on the end of the mike cable (bottom of the photo in the insert). I agree with him that Neutrik plugs last longer and seem to fit more snugly into the socket on the camera. The gold plating helps improve the contact quality - because dirt and dust on the plug can end up giving you crackling noises after a while (especially in Africa). Darren doesn't make excessive charges for posting the microphones overseas either, and accepts PayPal. Altogether a good deal.

Sennheiser, Beyer etc. make great stuff, but well beyond the budget of the stations I work with.

I see discussion in some groups that indicates to me confusion around the term stereo. The micrphones above are actually two separate mono microphones wired into a single stereo plug. So you clip one mike on the interviewee and the other one on the interviewer. The Kodak Zi8 puts each mike on either the left or right channel. The confusion arises because Sony makes a single point STEREO lavelier microphone, the Sony ECM-CS10 Stereo Lavalier Microphone. I have tried this but decided against it. You don't need stereo on a single lavelier. The human voice is a single source and this mike ends up adding a lot of extra atmosphere to the recording that does nothing to improve the intelligibility of the interview. In fact, in noisy environments, the internal Kodak microphone ended up doing a better job. The ECM isn't expensive (35 US dollars) but it is not what I want. If you are using a recorder without power built into the microphone socket, you may need to consider the Audio-Technica ATR3350 Omnidirectional Condenser ATR3350 which is mono but with its own small power supply in a small tube which can attach to a belt. This microphone has a really long cord (7 metres) and is powered by a watch battery. The only challenge is that you need to keep a spare battery handy. Although the battery does last quite well, when it goes it does so suddenly. There is no light to indicate the unit is switched on.

Next Steps for this Blog - Check the Urban Fox

2010-08-14T23:31:00.000+02:00

Been pondering what to do with this blog. I'd like to share some thoughts with you.

I did some experiments elsewhere with Ning, but decided to discontinue the adventure because of horrendous Chinese spam and my personal uncertainty as to where the Ning platform is going. If they can change the policy to charge for maintaing access to content I have created, then even though the initial price is reasonable, I have no idea what they will change next. So like it or leave it. I left.

But back to this space. I initially used it for posting gadgets and stuff that Caught My Eye at IBC Amsterdam. Since 2008, the amount of relevant audio gadgets has dropped considerably. So I have broadened things to include anything of relevance to the blogger, vodcaster, podcaster on the move.

I'm going to comb through previous postings and select some for updating and revising. I will also add new content, since my kit has changed recently. Some comments, such as a recomendation for the HHB range of FlashMics is hopeless out of date and my in field experiences means I have changed my mind.

But what do you think? Still a need for this particular blog?

In the meantime, do check out the excellent musings from UrbanFox. Christina and David are actively testing kit for the documentary maker and offering some candid advice on whether or not to go the DSLR route. Christina also does some excellent, affordable training courses in the UK which I highly recommend. Look out for her too at the IBC 2010. Great stuff. Honest, practical advice. All with a wry sense of humour that comes from working with stuff to a deadline.

Setting things right on Vimeo

2010-08-14T22:58:00.001+02:00

Several people have asked me why I host videos on Vimeo rather than Youtube. The truth is I have experimented with both, but has found more in common with the writers, directors and videographers that are storing their stuff at Vimeo. You definitely need to embed videos elsewhere - just leaving material on Vimeo and hoping people will find it is NOT the way forward. Vimeo has made some recent changes to make it easier to post alerts to Facebook and Twitter and they have a file size limit rather than a time limit of 15 minutes like YouTube. Personally, with 24 hours of video being uploaded to YouTube every minute, I wonder when my stuff is going to get lost in the jungle of great stuff and sheer nonsense.

There is an excellent settings page on Vimeo which gives you the settings you need for best results with your respective video editor. I migrated from Sony Vegas to Final Cut about three years ago and noticed a huge difference in quality if you get the settings right. It is very important to limit the streaming to 5000K otherwise video becomes very jerky.

This is the link you need for Vimeo. I have found it also works for Youtube since they went to HD.

Hardata Software Automation Revisited

2010-08-13T20:36:00.000+02:00

This is an updated post because I have recently recommended a couple of stations to install this set of automation software.

I first remember seeing it when I got the complete tour of Argentina's national radio station. This is my second visit - came in 1999 and interviewed people in the English service of Radio Argentina Al Exterior, the overseas service. This time I talked with the people running the various domestic networks. Studios have mothballed the tape decks and record players, now everything comes off the computer using a software package called Hardata that has been made in Argentina (I see most stations using it). Cost is around 1200 US dollars per work-station, considerably less than the European variants. There is a free download to try before you buy (Windows XP and Vista). Haven't seen versions for Windows 7 yet. I find it great because it fits the mixed music and speech formats you find at small stations in Latin America, and the software runs in a number of languages including Spanish, English and French. There's currently a deal on for individual copies at US$299. Doesn't work on a Mac.

Making Stunning Stills in Moments

2010-08-12T23:59:00.000+02:00

I must confess my software discovery of the month is the new version of Fotomagico 3.5. My records show that I have looked at previous versions, before I realised its Mac only and rejected it. Now that I have switched all my video production from PC to Mac, I have been re-assessing what I required as a basic set. I soon discovered that I needed Final Cut Pro and that time spent with Final Cut Express and iMovie was both a waste of time as well as frustrating.
Now a similar thing is happening when it comes to the production of slideshows. I use slideshows both as a warming up/countdown to keynotes – as well as for trailers to articles I have written. Stills have the ability to create mystique that is totally different to video. Besides, I have 15,000 photos that I have never printed on paper, yet want to share. Correction, I want to share them with music, as a performance or a narrative. I always felt the Photo CD failed because it had no soundtrack.

Radio with Pictures

I am also going to experiment with illustrating some radio shows, now that screens are starting to appear on some of the digital radios in the UK. I have a situation where I have done a radio documentary about a visit to Radio Prague 20 years ago. I have been back several times to Czech radio and taken pictures to show what’s changed. I found that by adding a slideshow to the audio I gave an enhanced experience, with the captions adding text without disturbing the original narration. You can’t do this quickly without the sort of cross media timeline that Fotomagico provides. Still experimenting, but the sharp pictures make the audio into a theatre experience.

Getting it done fast – building a workflow

Originally I thought iPhoto was the simple solution to making a slide show for a backdrop for a conference and awards ceremony. It worked, sort of, but the music didn’t synchronise and I was forced to use standard fades and cross-overs. I played with Apple Keynote, which was great until the sequence got out of step with the music. I was fiddling with the order as the audience was taking their seats. Been there once. Believe me, never again.

So a month ago it was time to look for something else – and that’s when Fotomagico popped up with its version 3.5. I have to say immediately that there are two versions, home and professional. The price difference is significant 25,00 Euro for the home version in Europe, 140 Euro for the Pro. You can compare the two versions on this page. But I have to say the features on the Pro version turn it into very professional cross-media editor and that was the version I am reviewing here.

I need the multiple (3) audio tracks for different language versions. There’s a teleprompter and voiceover function on the Pro, and I like to be able to break the presentation into chapters. But the home version has a lot of features too and there seems to be no difference in the quality for rendering to most platforms. Some options, like the standalone player, only work with the Pro Version. That said, this is a reasonable price for something that saves so much time which-ever version you choose. People in the US are luckier because the prices are slightly cheaper, 29 and 149 dollars respectively. But that's the case with most software.

What I do in a live situation

When I am live on stage, I simply switch to the live presentation format which means there is no waiting for rendering. I slot in a few photos I have taken of the audience coming into the theatre, drop them into pre-planned parts of the sequence, and off it goes. The impact of seeing photos a few minutes old already folded into a professional presentation adds a surprise element which works every time. I couldn’t do it as easily in other programs without worrying about messing things up. I am using JPEGs for this. You can experiment with RAW files but frankly there is not much point for projection. It just slows things down if you have a lot of transitions.

The program warns there will be quite large loss of quality if you export the slides to YouTube, a DVD, to an iPhone, AppleTv or an iPad. But if you’re using a HD-TV or want to share the slides with PC users you will have to put up with some loss in fidelity. But don’t forget the screen size on the iPhone is smaller and frankly I wasn’t too worried. It looked fine. The Pro version allows you to export to a special stand-alone player that does retain the original quality. The presentation will then play on other Macs but not on the PC platform.

Ease of use

Fotomagico is very intuitive, as its name implies. I played with it for a while, watched the demo and then read the manual to see what tips and tricks I’d missed. I like the fact that you have a lot of the 3D effects you get in Keynote, but these are much easier to combine with titles and sync to the music or narration. I found I could use the program without having to have others open – Fotomagico dips into iTunes, Garageband, iPhoto, folders without you having to have the respective programs open. The only point I would like to see in a future version is the ability to sort or filter some of the iTunes folders from within Fotomagico. So I prepare my soundtracks into to special playlist in iTunes and then open that folder in Fotomagico. You can preview tracks in a little player in Fotomagico though.

You can produce a stills sequence much faster in Fotomagico than fiddling around with the motion control in Final Cut Pro. Basically you make the sequence in Fotomagico and this is rendered dynamically into FCP. You really notice the speed saving when you make a mistake (let’s say a spelling mistake in a title) and the fix only takes a matter of seconds. Note that these links allow quick export of the video only. You lay the audio track in Final Cut Pro.

Summary:

It works. I’m hooked and can recommend both the software and support service. But don’t take my word for it. Experiment with the trial version by requesting a temporary licence from Boinx.com.

DT 797 PV - Outside Broadcast headset from Beyerdynamic

2010-08-11T20:49:00.000+02:00

Last year, I bought a pair of Sennheiser headphones HMD 280's with built-in microphone. Why? To be able to interview people with a digital camcorder and capture my questions in reasonable quality on location. I think I have only succeeded by 60%....not pleased with the microphone's sensitivity.

Two years ago I remember looking at two prototypes for broadcasters working in the field. One was the DT-790 which came with with a hyper cardioid microphone inside the gooseneck boom. That's for cameramen who want to shout commands or comments back to the studio.

But the one that interested me most, was the DT-797, which comes with a condenser microphone (cardioid) which, they say, has been developed to be used by commentators during live broadcasts (e.g. sport events) and reporters. I have since bought a pair and can say they are brilliant for work outdoors. I use it if I want to do interviews on a simple HDV video-recorder which has an XLR input. The other channel carries the signal from the wireless lapel microphone (a set from Sennheiser which still seems to perform well.

The headphones offer a frequency response of 5 Hz – 30 kHz, and the microphone boom can be used on either the left or right side or moved into standby (upper) position. The single-sided cable is available with different connectors which allow all necessary connections.

The price is around EUR 300,- (retail). The (standard) connectors for the DT 797 (the version with condenser microphone) will be a 6,3mm jack and a 3 pin XLR.

High Quality USB Mike Interface - Update & Review

2010-08-10T16:40:00.002+02:00

Two years ago I posted on this blog about a nifty little unit I saw coming onto the US market. Called the MicPort Pro, it is a small tube which allows you to connect an analogue microphone to the USB input of a laptop or PC (Mac or Windows). I still haven't managed to improve on it.

You may think that you can do that already with a Canon (XLR) to 3.5 mm cable plugged into the microphone input of your laptop. But, having used this device intensively for two years, the audio quality you get out of the external converter is vastly superior to the sound card in most PC's - even the Mac. The secret lies in the MicPort's USB microphone high quality preamp featuring 24-bit/96kHz performance. There is also a 48V phantom power inside the MicPort which allows me to connect an analogue Rode NT2 broadcast microphone (condenser) - and that wouldn't work if you just plug into the laptop. The results then are just superb, either for voiceover work or podcasting. The unit gets its power through the USB cable, so you need that connected for the microphone to get its power (if you're using phantom) and for the headphone monitor to work as well. Headphone output has no delay in it - essential if you are monitoring yourself speaking live.

The great thing about the unit is that it doesn't need special drivers for use on Windows 7 and Mac OS X™ audio applications. There's a little white LED under the Canon connector which lights when the computer "sees" the device. It really is plug and play (or more accurately - plug and record). MicPort Pro ships with a 2 metre long USB cable and a carrying pouch.

Users can download free software tools for recording and mixing from the CEntrance website. These are lite versions of professional software. Personally, I used my own software for mixing - Garageband or the Voice Over option in Final Cut Pro.
I found this unit to be ideal for a remote reporter-studio location in West Africa. That's because you simply plug this unit into the laptop and select it as the microphone source in Skype. Then you get (near-enough) studio quality contributions to live discussion programmes, providing the ADSL bandwidth is sufficient (and stable). So, as well as recording for a podcast, this unit is useful for live contributions.

The chassis is made of rugged aluminium to stand wear and tear - and being dropped a few times, and the casing will keep out the dirt and dust you find on travels. I still think it would be interesting if they incorporated a 4 GHz flash card inside the same metal housing (or slightly larger)- making it an instant competitor to the hopelessly outdated HHB Flashmic.

Stereo and multi-track recording is also possible with MicPort Pro thanks to the CEntrance Universal Driver™ that aggregates input from multiple MicPort Pro units with a very low latency (delay due to conversion) of less than 6 milliseconds. This means if you own several of these units, you can link them together on the same laptop, assuming you have enough USB ports.

So what about the cost? MicPort Pro prices, as of August 2010, show the average in the US is $149.95. I find the European dealers (in Germany for instance) are considerably more expensive at €165.41 including VAT (that's US$209 at mid 2010 exchange rates, down 50 bucks on the exchange rate two years ago, but still) and £109.99 in the UK (also including VAT). That said, I have no hesitation in recommending it.

More details on the recently upgraded CEntrance website which shows U.S. and international resellers.

Sony Portable PCM-D50

2010-08-07T18:34:00.001+02:00

In music recording circles I often see this portable recorder recorder from Sony, retailing in the USA for just under US$600. To quote from the brochure...

The PCM-D50 is a 96 kHz/24-bit recorder fitted with two-position (X-Y or Wide) stereo microphones, 4 GB of internal flash memory and a Memory Stick Pro-HG Duo™ slot (for additional storage). The body of the D50 is constructed of lightweight metal (aluminum) and it's built rugged to withstand the demands of pro applications, plus it offers long battery life using conventional AA alkaline batteries. The recorder includes a USB high-speed port for simple uploading/downloading its native .WAV format files to/from Windows® PC or Macintosh® computers. Other unique PCM-D50 features include digital pitch control, dual digital limiter (inherited from the PCM-D1), low-cut filter, Super Bit Mapping®, A-B repeat and MP3 playback capability. To complement the D50 recorder, new optional accessories include a remote commander, tripod stand, and microphone windscreen. Additionally, the D50 offers compadible mounting and use with the recently introduced XLR-1 wide-bandwidth balanced XLR microphone adapter. There is also a 5 second pre-recording buffer

Not quite the PCM-D1 , but then it less than one third of the price. This development, along with the new Marantz are putting some competition back in the market. I believe this can only benefit the consumer. Note the 4 GB of internal memory. I was really disappointed that HHB in the UK just milked their Flashmic design dry and did nothing to follow suite.

Panasonic OnLine Museum

2010-08-04T04:01:00.000+02:00

Bit off topic for this blog, but I'll mention it all the same.

In the run up to a name change on October 1st 2008 (when they dumped the name Matsushita Electric Industrial and just become Panasonic), an on-line museum of design has opened. Not sure where in Europe it is coming from, but its an interesting selection of Panasonic designs through the last 90 years. During the time that I tested radios for Radio Netherlands "Shopping List" I recall that the Panasonic short wave portables were usually robust but not at the leading edge...perhaps with a few exceptions. For a time the RF-4900 with its digital frequency readout was a great tabletop and then there was the RF9000 (1982-1985) which cost something like 3000 Euros in its day and was basically designed to show what Panasonic could do in the labs. I am a bit surprised they didn't pick that for the on-line museum. It was an amazing set - I wonder what kind of customer they had in mind? In Holland they put a few into luxury yachts.

By the way, the museum is an interesting tour, but the navigation is a nightmare - Flash design on steroids. And sadly, no search, so the content is there, but the context is often missing. Worth a short visit though.

Manfrotto 560B Fluid Video Monopod with 234RC Head

2010-08-03T14:28:00.001+02:00

First saw this at LeWeb08 in Paris (a great new media conference held in December each year), I noticed several vpodders were using an unusually monopod. If you work in hi-def as I do, you quickly realise that camera shake is extremely annoying. It is SO important to be able to control the shots - and that means some form of camera support is essential. Even carbon-fibre video tripods are heavy and bulky if you're trying to interview people at conferences. So thanks to these people who showed me the Manfrotto 560B monopod, which retails in Europe at around 140 Euro (140 US Dollars in the US!). The mini "tripod" foot at the bottom is enough to stabilize most shots out in the field during conferences. Very pleased. Small enough to collapse into the camera bag.

In Search of Radio's Future

2010-07-30T01:50:00.000+02:00

In Search of Radio's Future - the trailer from Jonathan Marks on Vimeo.

For the last five years I have been doing interviews with people around the world tracing radio's switch from analogue to digital production. These are challenging times for the medium, the future seems to be different for every single country. This documentary in the making takes some case studies explaining where radio understands it's role in society, and therefore why it's needed in the future. Interested when it's ready? Drop me an e-mail and be the first to know.

Wooden Radios

2010-07-17T20:54:00.000+02:00

It takes 16 hours to make a wooden radio by hand. That, at least, is the story from South-East Asia. I remember reading about the ultimate minimalist wooden radio designed by Indonesian artist Singgih Kartono sometime last year. I was reminded by a follow-up article in British Airways' Business Magazine this week.

The story wasn't so much about the technology inside (which was simply a good but basic analogue AM/FM circuit in the first model), but the fact that the radio uses sustainably harvested pine wood and palisander/sonokeling. There's no dial...you feel your way across the dial. Designer Singgih (photo below) wanted to revitalize local craft industries, gradually creating jobs for up to 30 people who were making simple high-quality handicraft products. The workshop is in Temanggung in Central Java.

Singgih Kartono adds more details about the sustainability side of the project in a company brochure.

As a wood consumer, I feel morally responsible towards replacing the woods that I have used. This will ensure that all manufacturing activities that I conducted would not destroy the nature. I do this by re-planting every single tree that I’ve used from the forest. The amount of wood replanted and selected is based on our yearly wood consumption, suitable age for wood to be grown and cut, and the requirement of land per tree. We estimated that for the 40 people we could employ, we could have replanted one to two hectares of land with our selected wood. Currently, Kandangan has almost no forest land. The population is about 4.000 people.If we are to employ the whole population of Kandangan, we will abolish unemployment but most importantly, for every people we employ, we will generate more woods through our forest regeneration programs. Additionally, based on our current income, we receive USD 2.500-3.000 per month; enough to sustain 10 employees.

With regards to the forest regeneration, on the top of preparing our own tree saplings, we are also in collaboration with Gunung Sumbing (Mountain Sumbing) junior high school. We work together with the school to create a practical curriculum within the field of environmental generation. Four months ago, the students from this school have helped us to grow trees from seeds. Currently, these seeds have grown into 1.000 young trees that are ready to be planted. We are planning to have these trees replanted around the school area. The students want to have schools that are surrounded by trees. All this activities are funded through a part of our sales income.

My production company, Piranti Works, has 30 employees. They are locals. We are in the process of extending our workshop so it is able to employ around 50 employees. They will use only around 50 to 100 trees per year. The remaining 2.200sqm lands that I own are used as a tree nursery, where I will distribute free trees to the villagers. I purposely distribute these trees freely as I want to teach the villagers that the right economy activity will give positive contribution towards sustainable environment.

There's a German website, based in Hamburg, that has the distribution rights for Europe. The German language version of the site goes into more detail, explaining that this model weighs 955 grams, and is 19.1 by 11.7 by 13.5 cm in size. It works off 4 AA penlights and the radios are made to order for the price of 149 Euros, plus 5 Euros postage in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The radios are sent sea mail via Singapore, which takes up to six weeks. A small stock is held in Germany.

There will be a slight modification to the radio sets as from mid October 2008. A DC input has been added for a external 3V DC power supply (not included. The new version of Magno radio also has a socket on the back which allows you to connect any MP3 player and listen to it via the radio's mono speaker. Since this is wood rather than plastic, it apparently sounds great (haven't heard it myself). The price then will be around 160 Euros.

Towards the end of the year, a new "Mango Cube" wooden radio is also due. This has two short-wave bands on it, as well as AM/FM and is supposed to start shipping around November 1, 2008. This one also has a dial - though we're not sure what calibration will be like. A site in the US is now taking pre-orders for this radio at US$250 excluding shipping. This looks like a work of art - and it is priced accordingly. I wonder what sales would be like if they made the price 175 Dollars?

UPDATE: Oliver Errichiello in Hamburg, who is the main driver behind the project in Indonesia sent me the following comment after this post was published. "I think it is realistic to say that we will start selling the Cube in early 2009 in Europe. The price will be about 180 Euros. This assumes that the testing and roll out in the USA and Canada late this year goes well.

Sony HDR-TG7VE - small video camera with GPS

2009-04-02T20:34:00.009+02:00

Sony announced today a new Handycam®, the HDR-TG7VE which they claim to be the world’s smallest, lightest Full HD camcorder with GPS. I'm looking for something light with good quality to be able to capture interviews in hd quality, often at short notice. Could this be the answer? The blurb reads...

Inside there’s a 16 GB memory that stores up to 6 hours of Full HD video and stereo sound from an on-board mike positioned at the top. If you want to shoot for even longer without downloading to a laptop, you'll need to buy an optional Memory Stick™. There’s a sensitive GPS receiver inside that plots your location as you travel. After shooting, Map Index shows where clips and still photos were taken as ‘map pins’ on the LCD screen. You can also retrace your journey when you’re back home, with exciting on-line maps displayed on your PC using the supplied Picture Motion Browser software.

Shooting controls are pared down to a minimum. It’s easy to switch instantly between video or stills mode: just press REC Start/Stop for video, or touch the adjacent PHOTO button with your thumb and you’re ready to grab 4 megapixel still photos. >These days, 4 megapixels doesn't sound like much when even my cheap cybershot has 7.

The high-resolution 2.7-inch LCD touchscreen now features a 'seamless' design, with a newly-simplified menu system. The power is ON as soon as you flip open the LCD, and start-up from standby is quicker than before, so there’s less risk of missing an important moment. Just flip open the LCD touchscreen and you’re ready to start shooting in a fraction of a second. Standby power consumption is also improved to almost zero, letting you keep the TG7VE ready for action in a pocket or bag with less battery drain. Sony doesn't say how long the batteries last if you keep the GPS functionality switched on.

After shooting, connect the TG7VE to your PC, and quick uploads to image-sharing web sites are just a few mouse clicks away. Easy-to-use Picture Motion Browser software
(supplied) lets you manage and browse your clips and still shots in a calendar view. Shots and clips can also be uploaded without fuss to popular sites like YouTube™, Facebook, Flickr and Daily Motion.

This new camera is in a different price league to its competitors from Kodak and Flip. I had hoped Sony would be different by offering an option to connect an external microphone. That option does not seem to be there, yet it would cost only a few pennies to implement.

So this camera, coming to stores in Europe for 900 Euro sometime in May 2009, whilst it has a very useful GPS facility, more and more important in many of my location based projects. However, I have my concerns about the sound quality. Since you can always shoot less than perfect video with great sound, (but never the other way round), I am curious to see and hear what recordings look like when they have been made on a city street. I will reserve full judgement until we're able to test a sample.

Handycam® HDR-TG7VE Manufacturers Specification table
Movie format HD: AVCHD, SD: MPEG2
Recording media 16 GB internal memory (increased with optional Memory Stick™)
Image Device 1/5” Exmor CMOS Sensor with ClearVid Array
Number of Megapixels (Gross) 2.3 Megapixels
Number of Megapixels (Photo) 4 Megapixels
Image Processor BIONZ
Lens Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar
Zoom 10x Optical, 120x Digital
SteadyShot Yes
Audio System Dolby Digital Stereo with Zoom Microphone
Automatic Geotagging by GPS Yes
Face Detection / Smile Shutter Yes / Yes
Highlight Playback Yes
LCD Type 2.7” Wide Clear Photo LCD plus
Body Size/ Weight *without Memory Stick™/Battery (g) 62(D) x 117(H) x 30(W) / 230g

Rose Schuman's Question Box

2009-03-31T15:42:00.001+02:00

The Question Box - Rose Schuman from Jonathan Marks on Vimeo.

I was delighted to meet Rose Schuman, a young graduate of Brown University of Rhode Island, and now travelling the world from her base in California. You don't have to travel far in India or Africa to find places where Internet access is out of the question, especially in villages where mains electricity and ADSL are in short supply. Now there's a series of practical trials to try to change that.

Rose has called it the Question Box. In the Indian villages of Ethida and Poolpur, a few hours from New Delhi, they have installed a simple system for getting information online. Now this trial is to be adapted and expanded in Uganda.

Rose explains in this interview at SxSW how they have tackled the problem of access to relevant information. As community radio starts to become more widespread in India, I can see the radio station providing the portal in local languages, and broadcasting the answers to FAQ's over the radio.

Kids Podcasting Kit for Africa?

2008-08-04T13:35:00.000+02:00

I plan to test one of these to see whether it (or something like it) could be useful for a community radio station project in Africa. The kids are looking for something cheap and easy to use in interviewing their parents. The so called "Easi-Speak" lets you record directly into the microphone. The same device can be used to playback remotely or you can download your files straight to your PC through the attached USB. I think the 128MB memory is on the small size, especially if you pick WAV rather than the MP3 format. At the same time, having a limited memory does encourage you to get to the point, rather than trying to save an interview in post-production.

The microphone (retailing in the UK for 25 quid) comes with a copy of the Audacity Music Editing Software (this is open source) and it doesn't need a battery, since that is charged through the USB.The good news is that it will record directly into the MP3 format without the need for conversion software and it would appear the buttons are large enough for young children to use.

This microphone has been around for a few months, but I see the 128MB version is only just appearing (was 64MB).

Thanks to the ever resourceful Podcast Princess, Karin Hogh, in Denmark for the tip.

HP Mini HP-2133 for the mobile audio reporter

2008-07-26T13:40:00.006+02:00

I am currently very interested in what's happening in the low-cost, light mini-laptop market. If you're reporting from the field, every gram counts against you. This useful review by Shawn Powers of the Linux Journal persuaded me to wait. The HP-2133 has now arrived in Europe priced in Holland at €465,- ex VAT including Vista Business (other configurations available, including Linux). Compared to the Eee-PC, I think HP has come up with a better built device, as well as a larger screen.

The laptop comes with a standard battery which works for around 2.25 hours. There's an extended battery as an optional extra.

The 92% key-pad means the keypad is only slightly smaller than a full-size keyboard. This is a GREAT keyboard if you write a lot. The on-board speakers are loud - useful if you're doing some sound editing and don't want to use headphones. Skype audio seems to work fine. The screen has full resolution too - better than the Eee-PC.

The Dance Powered Phone, Radio & Battery Charger

2008-07-01T22:01:00.007+02:00

The UK branch of the French mobile phone company Orange has announced the launch of a mobile phone charger prototype that is powered by dance energy! Working with renewable energy specialists, GotWind, who were also responsible for last year’s Orange Wind Charge and this year’s Orange ReCharge Pod, Orange also commissioned research into a kinetic energy portable phone charger that would harness the energy created by festival revellers dancing to their favourite bands to ensure a clean and renewable energy source.

Whilst the research of the Orange and GotWind team is still in its infancy and continues to be developed, Orange has already built fully functioning prototype models of the Dance Charge that were tested at this year’s Glastonbury Festival, taking place at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset last week.

The Dance Charge prototype weighs in at only 180 grams. It is approximately the same size as a pack of cards and the same weight as a mobile phone. The Dance Charge unit comes encased in an elasticated, black, neoprene strap with Velcro attachments which is attached over the wearer’s bicep in a similar fashion to a runner’s arm-mounted mp3 player.

As the user moves their arms along to the music – a specially designed system of weights and magnets, similar to that found in kinetic energy watches, creates an electrical current which provides a top-up of charge to a storage battery. So whilst festival goers are out dancing to their favourite bands, the charger stores dance generated power in the reservoir battery, ready for when they return to their tent each night to recharge their phone.

Ben Jandrell from Shropshire, UK founded Gotwind in 2006 with the purpose of sharing his 25 years experience in the design and making of small scale renewable energy projects, focusing in particularly on wind and solar power.

Ben launched his website http://www.gotwind.org initially as a hobby to share his passion with the world, as renewable energy has become more and more prevalent, Gotwind and its unique DIY approach has received a lot of interest worldwide.

Personally I see an application in Africa, not only for dancers but simply for people who walk a lot as part of their trade and have a need to be connected - either through a mobile phone or the FM radio inside around 25% of all mobile phones sold in that region of the world. No word on the cost.

All this reminds me that in 2001 the inventor of the wind-up radio, Trevor Baylis completed a 100 mile walk across the Namibian Desert demonstrating some electric Shoes and raising money for the Mines Advisory Group. The "electric shoes" used piezoelectric contacts in the heels to charge a small battery that can be used to operate a radio transceiver or cellular telephone. The shoes were invented by Dr Jim Gilbert, a lecturer in engineering at Hull University, who was asked to develop an idea by Trevor Baylis, But I don't think the Electric Shoe Company managed to make the idea into a commercial product.

When the Going Gets Tough, the Sansa Clip

2008-06-30T22:48:00.001+02:00

This is a small multifunction recorder/player that fits in the palm of a small child's hand! It comes with 1 GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB and 32GB Flash memory. Initially, the 2 GB version was priced at around 60 Euros, but as the new 8 and 32GB versions have come out, so the 2GB version has been dumped into special offer already for around 20 Euros. This would make an idea second or emergency voice recorder for use in the field, especially for recording long events like press conferences. You can also imagine it being used in more clandestine settings for investigative reporting. The audio quality of music playback is superb as well. It also features:

* 4-line, 2-colour OLED screen
* FM tuner with 40 channels (you can make presets or scan. There is frequency readout so you are not tuning in the blind.
* Voice recording with built-in microphone - excellent fidelity, better than you'd expect.
* 92dB signal-to-noise ratio
* Formats: MP3, WMA (including protected), Audible
* Battery life of the internal rechargeable battery: 15 hours
* Dimensions: 2.2" x 1.4" x 0.5"

Despite its small size SanDisk has included a number of extra features that distinguish it from its main competition, the iPod Shuffle and Creative Zen Stone. Most notably is the inclusion of the 4-line OLED screen that lets you browse through your audio collection and toggle settings from the player itself. Alongside the radio functionality is the ability to record FM broadcasts off the internal FM radio, and record interviews through the integrated microphone. All recordings are saved in the WAV file format.

On the format side the standard formats are supported, but no support in some of the older versions for some of the less popular audio formats such as Ogg Vorbis. The Sansa Clip was released on October 9, 2007. The player has a similar design to the second-generation iPod shuffle, but the clip is removable and a 4-line OLED screen is built-in (one line orange-ish yellow, three blue.) The Clip has an FM tuner/recorder (optional in Europe) and a built-in microphone. The flash-based player ships in capacities of 1 GB (available only in black), 2 GB (available in black, blue, red and pink), and 4 GB, 8 and 32 GB (available in reflective silver).

Firmware version 01.01.29, released in May 2008, enables Ogg Vorbis compatibility for the Sansa Clip. However, OGG comment (the counterpoint of MP3's ID3-tags) support is still buggy.

Support for Audible audio books, and protected WMA support are both notable features of the Clip. It also integrates with Rhapsody's subscription service available in the USA and lets you mark songs so they are automatically purchased next time you sync the player with your computer.

One con: The internal battery can only be charged through a USB port, or from a separate USB charger. No quick battery changes here, so keep it charged.

The new firmware is free and has various bug fixes, including key fixes listed below, as well as enhancements. Upon completion of the firmware upgrade, the device will turn off. Power on the device to complete the upgrade process. If the device does not initiate or complete, press & hold the Power switch for 6 seconds to reset the device and then release and press again to restart.

Bugs Fixed:

Rhapsody Licenses
· Rhapsody licenses expire early.

Battery Indicator
· Battery indicator is not linear with respect to the play time remaining.

Fast Forward / Rewind Long MP3
· Device will skip to next song if fast forward past halfway through a long vbr mp3 file.

Genre (Tag Encoding)

· Same file with same genre appears twice regardless of the format (mp3 or wma).

FM Autoscan
· Device does not return to FM tuner display after scanning for stations.

Custom EQ Settings· Custom EQ settings get cleared after power cycle.

Miscellaneous Deleting files on the device is not stable.

Enhancements:

* Device highlights “Play Previous” after returning to Music from FM playback
* Increased Brightness for 4 GB devices for better reading under the sun.
* Added OGG-Vorbis (*.ogg) Decoder Support in MTP and MSC mode:
• Note: PC with WMP10 will not be able to drag and drop OGG files to device under MTP mode
• Workaround: Install WMP11 to PC or use MSC mode instead.
* Audiobooks and Podcasts sorting and resume features:
• Content placed in Audiobook or Podcast Folders are now accessed separately from Music.
• Content with Genre tags of "Audiobook" or "Podcast" are now handled from any location and sorted by the UI.
• PodCasts and Audiobooks are now organized by 2 level hierarchies.
• Podcast content is sorted with newest episode first.
• Auto Bookmark: will prompt the user with "Resume?" or "Restart" option when restarted.
* Much better shuffle algorithm to maintain the sequence of up to 2000 songs. User can skip to the previously played songs without reshuffling. Sequence is preserved after power off and on.
* Handle playlists up to 1000 songs. Fixed playlists with large count taking long time to load.
• Note: Playlist limited to 1000 songs only applied to .pla playlist. For .m3u playlist, there is no limitation.
* Battery power percentage is now displayed on the “Settings > System Info” screen.
* Device auto powers off if the radio is paused / muted.
* Add support for Melon SKT (South Korea Telecom) MusicDRM v1.4 (For Korea market).
* Performs faster, more complete MTP Format operation.

Sanyo Xacti HD1000 & HD1100

2008-06-19T11:18:00.004+02:00

Jancam in action with Sanyo Xacti HD1000 from Jan van der Meer on Vimeo.

There is an even better handheld HD Camera coming out next month, the Sanyo HD1010. The new camera also has slow-motion capabilities. But these guys on the Dutch North Sea coast are doing great work for videographers.

I like the Sanyo HD cameras because they have an input for an external microphone (unlike some Sony HD handhelds for around the same price. Why don't manufacturer's understand the necessity of good sound? I understand that by using a wifi-enabled memory card, you can quickly and easily download files from the camera. No tapes needed, just a large memory card.

Boomstick 360

2008-06-19T11:08:00.003+02:00

Now this is interesting for some video reportage experiments

The Boomstick360 costs 169 dollars in its standard version (sports version slightly cheaper). It claims to be a safe, secure way to capture unique, intense and memorable video moments. Made with High Grade Anodized Aluminum with Stainless Steel Lock Pins, and flexible composite shims, Boomstick360 attaches to any round tube or shaft with a diameter of up to 2 inches. They include shims to help you attach to smaller diameters. Boomstick products will attach to any camera with a tripod inlet on the bottom. At only 2.2 lbs., this light weight durable mounting system will provide you with unlimited possibilities.

For what I hear you cry? Attaching a video camera to a bike, hang-glider, motorbike. Once positioned, the Boomstick 360 allows the camera to record angles previously impossible while riding. Perhaps the most impressive is the “handlebar looking back at rider” view. Due to the flexibility in the system, expect footage to roll smoothly even over terrain that would normally appear shaky or downright jarring. The video below comes from the manufacturer

Tascam DR1

2008-05-24T11:44:00.005+02:00

Tascam in the US have just released an interesting little portable flash recorder that uses SD-cards (1 GB included in the price). I guess designed for the music industry, but we're interested to see how it will fair for journalists and podcasters. Costs US$299 in the US, which is rather cheap in Euro land. Cannot imagine importers will sell it for that in the Netherlands. But we shall see. Below is the manufacturer's blurb...have not yet tested it independently. Thanks to Pierre-Yves Mutrux in Austria for the tip.

* Portable, Handheld Recording
* Built-in High-quality Stereo Condenser Microphone
* Variable Angle Microphone Mechanism with A/B Configuration
* 48 or 44.1kHz 24-bit Recording Resolution
* MP3 and WAVE file Recording and Playback
* Switchable Low Cut Filter
* Analog Auto Gain Control
* Analog Limiter
* Rechargeable/Replaceable Lithium-Ion Battery
* USB 2.0 Connection to Computer
* Built-in Tuner and Vocal Cancel Features
* Overdub Feature to record narration, singing or instruments over an existing recording
* 1/8" stereo microphone input with 2.3V power
* 1/8" stereo line input
* 1/4" stereo microphone input
* 1/8" stereo headphone output
* WAV recording resolution: 44.1kHz/48kHz, 16-bit or 24-bit
* MP3 recording rate: 32-320 kbps
* Battery life: About 7 hours when recording MP3 format with the built- in mic (varies with operating conditions)
* Dimensions (not including protrusions):
o 70 (W) x 27 (H) x 135.3 (D) (mm)
o 2.8 (W) x 1.1 (H) x 5.3 (D) (inches)
* Weight: 208 g (7.34 ounces) including battery

Panasonic Toughbook

2008-04-29T22:53:00.004+02:00

Its been some time since I have seen the Panasonic Toughbook range, but the latest versions have got the point that they are ideal for (photo) journalists operating in tough terrain. They are in the 3000 Euro range, which is a lot for a laptop these days, but then you can continue writing out in the rain. I once saw someone who tried to test such a computer by throwing into a swimming pool. Bit like putting it in a blender - not a good idea. It's shower proof and the various outlets are protected against moisture - but not designed to be submerged. The spec for the hard-drive is on the slow side for fast video editing, erring on the side of robustness rather than speed. The screen can be swivelled around and is bright enough to be usable in quite bright sunlight. Options exist to remove the hard-drive easily, so that different users can swap disks, complete with the Windows Vista operating system.

Edirol R-09HR Spotted

2008-04-29T22:24:00.005+02:00

The new Edirol is out but apparently heavily back ordered. Spotted this at a call-centre exhibition last week in Utrecht. This recorder was being used to record conversations between stockbrokers using mobiles - as a record in case of later disputes.

Snapper Audio Tool Updated

2008-04-29T22:14:00.003+02:00

If you edit audio on the Mac, with something like Pro-Tools then the latest version of Snapper is worth getting. It allows you to manipulate audio very quickly and send off entire files (or bits of them) as MP3 files to e-mails. A new version was released today and I like the fact that they offer a 100 day trial so you can really test it out before you part with your hard-earned cash. I'm guessing a Dutch connection from the name "Peter Bakker", though I guess they're on the West Coast of the US rather than the West Coast of Europe. Check out the 100 second demo.

Packshot Creator

2008-04-28T22:39:00.000+02:00

A French company makes this photo-studio in a box, selling it as a complete solution for people who run shops from their home (e.g. selling on E-Bay). It is a fast way to make a product shot that give enough detail and which looks professional. There's a version which has what looks like a microwave turntable inside to made 360 shots. You can't buy the light-box on its own - you have to buy the camera and the software as well....at least that's what the Dutch dealership told me. I was impressed by the quality and the compactness of the studio. Would be interested myself (to be able to photo equipment I have tested) but don't need the camera. I can imagine this might be useful for broadcasters making websites who want to photograph small objects to illustrate articles, perhaps avoiding high copyright charges on agency material.

Edirol R-09HR Update

2008-03-19T19:32:00.000+01:00

Back in 2006, Tim Locke and Engadget spotted a new recorder from Edirol. We were disappointed in earlier models which had rather insensitive microphone inputs leading to far too much hiss.

David Zantow in Wisconsin tells me Roland, who make Edirol, have just updated the R-09 digital recorder to the new R-09HR model. It was shown a few days ago at an audio show in Frankfurt, Germany. It now includes a wireless remote control and reports tell us that they have addressed the hiss and shielding issues that plagued the original R-09.

The new specs says

- 24-bit/96kHz linear PCM high-resolution, low-noise recording
- Newly developed Isolated Adaptive Recording Circuit (I.A.R.C.)
- High-grade, high-sensitivity stereo condenser microphone built-in
- Records to SD or SDHC memory card (Up to 8 GB)
- Compact, hand-held body for convenient portable use
- Wide view-ability on large OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) display
- Preview speaker built-in
- Wireless remote controller included
- High-speed file transfer via USB 2.0 connection to computer
- Cakewalk "pyro Audio Creator LE" wave-editing software included

Small enough to fit in a shirt pocket, the R-09HR has a new tactile feel that is easy to grip. It also has a user-friendly OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) graphic display for easy operation. The large display provides a wide view with easy-to-see level meters, peak indicators, and additional recording information onscreen. A built-in preview speaker allows instant playback of the recorded sounds —no headphones required. With the included wireless remote controller, transport functions can be accessed from a distance. Style wise, you either love it or hate it.

The R-09HR can connect to computers via USB for importing/exporting audio files. It supports Hi-Speed USB (USB 2.0) mass storage so file transfers are quick and convenient. Included with the R-09HR is Cakewalk's pyro Audio Creator LE software —a perfect companion for WAV/MP3 audio file editing. With pyro, the R-09HR package becomes a complete recording solution suite, from recording to CD-burning.

A wide variety of optional accessories are available for the R-09HR, including: Cover/Stand Set (OP-R09HR-C), Silicone Rubber Case (OP-R09HR-S), Carrying Pouch (OP-R09HR-P), Microphone Stand Adaptor (OP-R09M), Stereo Microphone (CS-15), Carrying Case (CB-R09S), Roland Stereo Headphones (RH-300) and Roland In-Ear Headphones (RH-iE3).

The guys from SoundOnSound in the UK, have posted a video shot at the Frankfurt Messe

Most significantly, the new device is capable of recording 24-bit WAV files at 96kHz, where the predecessor was only equipped to record at rates of up to 48kHz. But there are other improvements that make it even more appealing.

Edirol say that both the internal and external construction of the device has been improved over previous models. Externally, there's a new, brighter screen and it's got a much more robust, rubberised shell. What's more, the battery/USB socket/SD card access arrangement has changed, with the battery compartment on the back rather than on the bottom, which will come as a welcome improvement to existing R09 users.

Internally, the circuitry has been improved to lower the noise floor, and there are new, better mics fitted in the same arrangement as with the original R09. There's even a built-in speaker, which lets you listen to recorded audio without the need for headphones or portable speakers. All that is missing now is news about the final price.

David adds the he's getting along fine with his old Edirol R-1 with a 2 GB card. "I never use it portable so I prefer it on the larger side anyway."

Korg MR-1

2008-03-19T10:15:00.005+01:00

This blog already lists several MP3 players with built-in voice and line recording capabilities--but they never seem to offer everything we want in a portable recording device....usually they have a noisy/hissy performance on speech. CNET reports the Korg MR-1 (US$899) handheld audio recorder lives at the opposite end of the spectrum, offering a dedicated portable recording solution with incredible recording flexibility and audio quality.

Design
Measuring 4.75 inches tall by 2.5 inches wide by 0.8 inch deep, the Korg MR-1 has the chunky feel of a first-generation iPod. Five well-spaced buttons dot the mirrored face of the Korg MR-1, providing intuitive control over recording and playback. The left edge of the Korg MR-1 includes jacks for the power adapter and USB 2.0 connection, while the right edge features a multifunction scroll wheel, controls for playback volume, a menu button, and a power switch that doubles as a button hold. On the top edge of the Korg MR-1, above its monochrome 2.2-inch screen, are four crowded 3.5mm jacks that act as a stereo headphone output, stereo line output, and separate left and right recording inputs.

Features
The Korg MR-1 lacks many of the features we've come to expect from competing products, such as built-in microphones, RCA or XLR inputs, or flash memory expansion. Korg's golden feature with the MR-1 (and its bigger brother, the MR-1000) is a trademarked Direct Stream Digital 1-bit high-definition recording technology (documented by Korg in this PDF whitepaper). The gist of Korg's justification for the DSD recording feature (and for the MR-1), is that recordings made using DSD are versatile for stepping down into whatever format you later choose, with minimal loss in audio quality. For audio archivists reluctant to record using today's CD-quality standard of 16-bit/44.1kHz, fearing that the format may become outdated, DSD recordings offer a new recording option that may hold up better over time and meet the demands of bouncing down master recordings to mediums with different audio requirements (DVD, CD, MP3).

Once you get past Korg's DSD recording feature, there's little else the MR-1 can brag about as a portable audio recorder. The Korg MR-1's built-in battery holds a measly 2 hour charge, the internal hard drive caps out at 20GB, the audio input jacks have to be adapted for most microphones or line-input cables, the included microphone feels like an afterthought, and the power adapter is larger than the product it's powering.

However, the Korg MR-1 does have excellent recording format support, supporting several proprietary high-resolution files such as DFF, DSF, and WSD, as well as common file types such as MP3 (192Kbps/44.1kHz) and WAV (up to 24-bit/192Khz). Once your recordings have been transferred to your computer, you can use Korg's included Audiogate audio software (Mac/PC) for converting the files into your desired final format.

The Korg Audiogate software is basic and offers little in the way of editing. It's necessary, however, if you want to convert recordings made in the DFF, DSF, or WSD file format, into more useful WAV and MP3 files.

Performance
It's hard to find fault with Korg's unprecedented recording quality and file format resolution, but the MR-1's poor suitability as a truly mobile device makes it tough to recommend. Rated at 2.5 hours of battery life while recording WAV files, or just 2 hours for DSD file recording, the Korg MR-1 just isn't cut out for the demands of mobile recording. To be fair, running an audio chip at the unprecedented 2.82MHz required to handle DSD audio, must require some serious power--but if you can't take it away from a wall socket for more than 2-4 hours, then its usefulness is limited as a mobile solution. As of January 2008, Korg is now shipping the MR-1 with an extra external battery pack that doubles the device's recording time. Unfortunately, the external battery pack adds awkward bulk and still places the MR-1's battery life short of the 12 hours boasted by the Sony PCM-D50. To make matters worse, we also found the Korg MR-1's charge time to be painfully long. During our unofficial preliminary testing, it took the Korg MR-1 between 3-to-4 hours to reach full charge using the included power adapter.

The small lavalier condenser microphone included with the Korg MR-1 barely taps into the device's sonic potential. Recordings made using the microphone in both indoor and outdoor situations were riddled with microphonic artifacts caused by movement of the cable, or transference from the surface the microphone was placed on (using the included stand). If you're determined to use the Korg MR-1 for nature or concert recording, expect to shell out some money for a better microphone.

My Conclusion

Looks like a really expensive bit of kit for only medicore results - especially if you're going to need an external microphone. The Korg website does do a good job in explaining the different audio formats that are around. Wav and MP3 are fine for my purposes.(Jonathan Marks)

Solio Solar Chargers

2008-03-02T10:25:00.003+01:00

Solio Solar Charger
Originally uploaded by Jonathan Marks

One of the better portable solar chargers on the market, folds away nicely. It has a battery built in and an "intelligent" plug into to the mobile phone itself which knows what voltage to deliver. Takes about 4-5 hours to charge a mobile phone when put in the sun. One Solio unit, when full, can fully charge two phones. I think they might want to think of an option to simply charge a couple of NiMh penlights this way so you could charge your audio recorder in an emergency. Power is a serious challenge in most remote areas. Cost? Currently US$99.95 on the website.

They now offer a special Magnesium version of the Solio at US$199.95, obviously targeted at the "serious adventurer" community. This unit is also hybrid because it can accept power from either the wall socket or Sun storing this energy within Solio's internal rechargeable battery. Solio then uses this energy to power your gadgets at the same rate as if they were plugged into the wall. Solio will also hold its charge for up to a year.

Other manufacturer's stats

One hour of sun will give you enough juice to play your iPod™ for about an hour or provide up to 25 mins of additional talk time on most cell phones.*
Provides an emergency power source when away from power outlets.
Adapter tips allow you to power multiple gadgets with a single charger ( tips for most products included in pack.)
Works with multiple gadgets, including mobile phones, iPhone™, Bluetooth® headsets, smartphones/PDAs, MP3 players, portable gaming devices, digital cameras, GPS and much more.
Reusable - use it again and again.
Compact lightweight design - convenient for travel or emergency use.

More details at their website

Motorola Alternative Energy at MWC

2008-03-02T10:19:00.001+01:00

Motorola Alternative Energy Stand
Originally uploaded by Jonathan Marks

I haven't posted for a while, having been travelling a lot, but still keeping the serious gadget reporter in mind. Currently looking through a wealth of material I collected at ISE Europe in Amsterdam and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, last month. I am looking at alternative energy solutions, both for radio/TV stations as well as reporters. This Motorola project in Namibia, started last April, is generating some excellent results, literally.

Happy New Kaspersky 2008

2008-01-01T11:51:00.000+01:00

Taking Norton off all my XP computers at all the stations I work with and putting Kaspersky in its place. Been ripped off with clunky, buggy software from Symantec 1 time 2 many, a customer service desk that just tells you to re-install a newer version of the software and mysterious problems with other programs that all came back to the Norton Firewall in the end. Oh, and don't ever try to buy a symanted licence in one country for use in a different language in another. The nightmares are over. Kaspersky lets you try before you buy, so you can iron out any glitches in the first month before parting with hard earned cash. Installed it on four computers, no problems at all. Highly recommended (and no commercial connection with these guys).

Have a Great 2008 - Inspiration for All

2007-12-31T10:57:00.000+01:00

Wherever you are, whatever you're doing (to paraphrase BBC World Service radio's ident), have a great, peaceful and prosperous 2008! Lots happening in the next 12 months, Olympics, US elections, LeWeb08, DLD, LIFT, APMMediaLab, 3GSM. Fraid I won't have much influence on the first two - but I will have a lot of fun being involved with the others. Saw that someone has put a lampshade on one of the street lights in Gouda, the famous cheeze town in the Netherlands. May the light guide you to wise decisions. Keep smiling and safe travels.

Funx in Den Haag

2007-12-01T23:37:00.000+01:00

Funx in Den Haag
Originally uploaded by Jonathan Marks

Interesting to see the line-up of stuff that urban music radio network FunX uses for remote broadcasts, in this case from a room in the Hague city hall to commemorate World Aids Day 2007. Proof that analogue technology isn't dead just yet.

BBC Memoryshare - Jamming the Germans

2007-11-28T22:12:00.000+01:00

BBC Memoryshare - Jamming the Germans

The 75th anniversary of BBC WS has started some very interesting recollections - including how the BBC was prepared to jam its own network in the event of a Nazi invasion of Britain.

Marantz PMD620 Digital Audio Recorder Update

2007-11-27T18:15:00.000+01:00

Marantz PMD620 Digital Audio Recorder
Back on the 7th of OctoberJosh Bancroft

John Bancroft provided us with a shot of the new PMD620 digital audio recorder on show in the US at the Podcast and New Media expo. It takes SD or SDHC memory cards and uses 2 standard AA batteries (you can use rechargeables if you want).
It seems the Marantz PMD620 Professional Handheld Field Recorder is now retailing in the US at just a few cents under US$400. The photo may lead you to believe otherwise, but this relatively small solid-state device is only slightly larger than a deck of cards. Records either MP3 or WAV files in 16- or 24-bit rez. The display screen uses OLEDs just like many cellphones, and it has two high-quality omnidirectional condenser mics built into the top. If you don't like those, you can plug in your own external mic, albeit with a 3.5 mm jack input, not XLR (Canon). If you want to check out all the specs, there here is the owners manual.

This is obviously going to be a serious competitor to the M-audio recorder which came out last year at around the 300 Euro mark. One immediate advantage is the fact that it uses ordinary AA batteries rather than built-in rechargeable cells. I think the case is a lot more studier on the Marantz than the somewhat flimsy plastic of the M-Audio. I always seem to find that the batteries on my M-audio are empty at the moment I need the thing, especially if it has not been used for a couple of weeks.

So could this also be the end of the Marantz 670? I sincerely hope so. Everyone I meet complains about the size of the thing and that (at least early models) have problems that the software shows a dead battery when there is still life left in them. I have never met anyone who got the claimed "7 hours" out of a single charge. The PMD620 at least shows that Marantz has been thinking about the reporter in the middle of nowhere who can usually find some AA batteries before they can find a reliable electricity supply. It has an advantage over the HHB Flashmic in recording in stereo and having a removable flash card. The built-in microphone of the HHB unit though is even more compact than the PMD620, and would probably win if you're part of a press scrum trying to get a quote out of a politician. Comments?

Logging the output of 50 radio stations

2007-11-25T21:14:00.001+01:00

Logging the output of 50 stations
Originally uploaded by Jonathan Marks

What do you do if you're the BBC World Service with just over 50 feeds leaving the building at some peak periods. You log the output on hard drives from this company. Comes in models with 8, 10 or 15 Terabyte raw capacity. Those vents are indeed for cooling fans.

Radio Comuniaria, Bajo Flores

2007-11-25T00:22:00.001+01:00

Radio Comuniaria, Bajo Flores
Originally uploaded by Jonathan Marks

This station has made a terrific contribution to a deprived neighbourhood in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I have been looking at what equipment these guys use out in the "real world".

Beyer 297 headset

2007-11-25T00:03:00.001+01:00

Beyer 297
Originally uploaded by Jonathan Marks

Seeing more and more of these headphone/close microphone combinations being used in radio studios around the world...the latest siting in BBC World Service South-Asia broadcast centre. The microphone sounds great, providing it is not put too close or knocked out of the way - it needs to "look" at the mouth it is listening to. I find the response better than Sennheiser. Not sure why the data sheet says it is preliminary. Price? About 180 pounds sterling in the UK. I use one for HD-camera work when I am interviewing someone. My questions are on track 1 with these headphones, the interviewee wears a Sennheiser wireless lapel mike recorded on Track 2.

Sony USB Sticks with Microphones

2007-11-24T12:04:00.001+01:00

Sony USB Sticks with Microphones
Originally uploaded by Jonathan Marks

The Sony NW-DB105 and NW-DB103 in a shop window in Buenos Aires. The only difference is the storage capacity. In Euro the 1 GB works out at 80 Euro in BA, whereas in Europe it is 39 Euro in on-line shops. I am interested to see if such a device could be used for simple recordings by community radio stations. There would be a market for a simple "push to talk to record" device.

Snowball Microphone

2007-10-28T12:02:00.000+01:00

Let's face it, most webcams produce less than ideal sound. Loic le Meur, who is just setting up a new social software platform with video does a test here of the Snowball Microphone from the US/Latvian company of Blue. Headquartered in Westlake Village, California and with engineering and manufacturing facilities in Latvia, Blue Microphones continues to come up with cutting-edge designs. Blue is also known for its vintage microphone store and restoration services.

The Snowball USB microphone isn't all that new, but it hasn't really been discovered by the podcast community yet and it is probably the wrong shape for reporters in the field!. But it is easy to use. Just plug it in, adjust your input level and you’re up and running.

The Snowball is a condenser microphones but derives its operating voltage from the bus voltage always present on your USB port. As long as the red LED is glowing, the microphone works. The Snowball does not require batteries or phantom power.

To get the most out of the Snowball, you’ll want to have some kind of software that allows for digital signal processing and non-linear editing that will accept audio from the USB port. As long as you are using Windows XP, Vista or Apple OSX, you will not need any drivers. Not sure whether there are any compatability issues with Mac's Leopard.

The Snowball’s digital output is set to 44.1 kHz / 16-bit, just like an audio CD. The sample rate / word length are not user-definable. The mic comes with a sturdy stand and a 2 metre USB cable. The ball itself seems very sturdy. Out of the box the Snowball is set to record at low levels (fine for instrument, less fine purely for speech), but the Blue website has firmware updates that will fix that. But there is no software to control the mic reception pattern settings. This can be done manually though, using Snowball's 3-pattern switch which allows you to choose from cardioid, cardioid with -10dB pad, and omnidirectional. Cost? In the US around US$100, that around 70 Euro. In Europe, there doesn't seem to be a dealer in the Netherlands, but Thomann in Germany will ship. They charge 99 Euro for the microphone and another 8 Euro for shipping. Not often you see "Made in Latvia" on a product.

Media Professional Website Launches

2007-10-21T20:24:00.000+02:00

I have been gradually building the website which describes the "making of" a new media lab in Porto Novo, Benin. Located in the western part of the capital city, the new website explains how we managed to build a complete FM radio station in under a day towards the end of July 2007. The idea is that the "lessons learned" will be translated into local languages so that station managers are able to profit from our experiences. It costs around 25,000 Euro to build a community station of this type. If you want more range, then prices quickly climb to 40,000 Euro. The local versions of what we did will be distributed on USB memory sticks which are rapidly replacing CD's for transporting audio files around the country. ADSL is due in Porto Novo in January 2008, but it is still relatively expensive.

EBU Audio Contributions Document

2007-10-17T17:24:00.000+02:00

In the near future, if you're planning to buy some equipment to feed audio back to a radio or TV station, you might want to ask the manufacturer of that equipment if it is ACIP compliant. ISDN lines are disappearing in some countries (as soon as 2010 in some places) and so broadcasters are starting to use IP over broadband technology to get the audio back to the studio. Its obviously important that the equipment at both ends is compatible even if it is of a different make (just as your mobile phone works no matter who made the handset). I note that a group with the EBU Technical department has now published an interesting document in the hope that manufacturers will work on interoperability standards even if they are competitors in the marketplace. There is a publicly accessible website that's gone up as well.

So why is this important? For the punter in the field trying to do a decent reporting job, it's going to vital that this project moves from a well thought-out proposal into practice. Even if you're non-technical, if manufacturers get the message from reporters that compatability is important, that may help the development team squeeze the required cash out of the upper management.

HD Radio University

2007-10-16T17:52:00.000+02:00

HD Radio in trouble? I agree with Lou Josephs in Washington that the take-up of HD Radio hasn't been what observers expected. Now comes news that there are all kinds of skywave inteference problems which have prevented some stations switching it on. The backers of HD Radio have opened a sort of McDonald's Hamburger University, they call it HDRadio University to try and educate sales people. That is increasingly a challenge as discount retailers don't pay that much and staff turnover is huge.

Meanwhile, the trade journal InsideRadio has reported this week that the HD Digital Radio Alliance has set aside $230 million for marketing HD Radio. The biggest change next year will be the introduction of commercials to HD-2 channels. Stations will accept "name-in-title" sponsorships and limited sponsor mentions per hour. Programmers will also get more freedom when picking a HD-2 channel's format. So what will this mean? Great, creative, vibrant programming on a second channel? Probably not - a simulcast from AM is more likely. It is not the technology, it is the programming guys!

Cox Radio has installed HD equipment on a half-dozen AMs, but millions of wideband radios installed in DaimlerChrsyler cars, Jeeps and Mercedes are keeping them from flipping the switch. The wideband radios give better sound quality, but Cox Programme Directors have complained about hearing "a faint buzzing noise" on HD AMs. Cox has installed HD on 70 stations and they'll add another AM to that list by year's end. The engineering forums are full of polarised debate on the future of digital AM, especially as the technical roll-out has started and interference problems are cropping out. How come they didn't surface during the last 10 years of "testing" IBOC on mediumwave (AM).

Remote News Bureau?

2007-10-16T13:01:00.001+02:00

At IBC 2007, I bumped into a French company called Alden that were marketing a steerable satellite dish for people in Eastern and Southern Europe who live too far away from an ADSL hub. It is a satellite TV and satellite Internet combination. The initital outlay of around 3500 Euro involves the purchase of a self-aligning dish and 100 days of Internet access (any 100 days within a year, no limit of the day during the day). For people who are never going to get connected to cable and/or ADSL, a rather neat solution.

Vidblaster Pro

2007-10-15T22:10:00.000+02:00

Get past the intro of the Kats Cast to see excellent camera work at the Uitmarkt in Amsterdam and what "Mike" (Versteeg) is up to with a Vidblaster Pro. The price of this software is amazingly low - just under 78 Euro. Certainly made for love, not the money. No commercial connection with these guys...just admire what they have done.

MyDrive Music Disk

2007-10-11T21:20:00.000+02:00

Perhaps because my original work was in radio, I tend to pay more attention to music and dialogue in video than most video editors I know. I have collected production music for years. I note that the racks of CDs in many video studios though are disappearing - partly because they are a magnet for dust.

A few weeks back I saw an ad in BBC's Ariel magazine advertising a (free) harddrive full of music. At the moment, in Europe, it only available in the UK. JW Media Music Ltd tell me they have explored various means of getting music to clients. They offer Internet downloads and have released larger itunes based hard drives in the past; both as attempts to cut down the waste produced by sending out so many CD's.

Although these endeavors have both been received well by clients, the MyDrive has been the most universally accessible format to date. The software (originally created by an Australian library we represent in the UK, Beatbox Music) offers a really straight forward search interface. You just plug it into a Mac, PC or Avid using the USB port and there are 10,000 tracks from five top music libraries waiting to be explored.

Having auditioned the tracks you want to use, simply hit export and save the file to your computer as you would a word document. All the music rights (MCPS) registration details are saved on both the track name and the MP3 meta data, so no need for post-it notes all over the place as with CD's.

Also featuring on MyDrive in the UK are Beatbox, Standard Music, Noise Pump, and LA Post. Although some other publishers have experimented with the idea, it is a device which has so far not been matched by any other UK Libraries. JW Media say they have over 500 in circulation at present in the UK alone, with more and more requests from editors, producers and sound engineers coming in everyday. The device is free, as the music contained within it is all set rate, MCPS administered music which the user pays for either directly to the MCPS or through their broadcasters blanket license (such is the case for the BBC).

I believe it is important that if music publishers want to get producers to log the right content details, they provide a device like this to manage the metadata. In the past, I have seen so many producers either get things wrong or make things up because they didn't regard the admin as part of their production task. And since this can be automated, I agree with them.

Mayah Sporty Codec Update

2007-10-08T22:56:00.000+02:00

Saw this new version of Mayah's codec for in the field reporting at IBC 2007. In an earlier post I said I thought the price would be near 4000 Euro including tax. But Uwe Flatter from Mayah Germany reports that it will be 3350, with an introductory price of 2450 Euro for orders before November 15th. 900 Euro is indeed a huge discount.

I am not sure how long ISDN lines will be around in some countries. Some PTT's seem to want to get rid of ISDN as soon as possible - I believe Sweden is talking aboout phasing it out in 2011. Other countries, like Swizterland and Spain for instance - they have discovered quite a few customers using ISDN and have no immediate plans to migrate them. What I am finding in Spain and the US is that local operators are getting reluctant to organise ad-hoc ISDN connections and start charging a lot of money for the service.

Completely Blocked in China

2007-10-05T15:10:00.001+02:00

It would seem my comments on this, and other blogs, about firewalls in China and some problems I see ahead for the Olympic Games in 2008 (the really hot weather) have meant that all the websites I operate cannot be accessed from inside China. Firewalled but surviving! At least they are consistent. Look at the stuff 1.2 billion people are missing ;-)

Sony PMW-EX1

2007-10-04T23:04:00.000+02:00

Interested to see this HD camera at IBC 2007. It records to flash memory rather than tape. The blurb at the stand says...

The PMW-EX1 is the first in a new range of professional HD products - called XDCAM EX - which record onto memory-based SxS ExpressCard media. Designed from the ground up to exploit the ultimate high performance of SxS PRO memory cards, the PMW-EX1 combines a state-of-the-art, non-linear XDCAM workflow with simply the best HD quality yet seen in a compact camcorder. It is also the first handheld camcorder to carry the legendary CineAlta 24P brand with multiple frame rate recording capability such as 59.94i, 50i, and native 23.98P, as well being 1080i/720P switchable.

There is also a choice of a 35Mb/s High Quality mode or a 25Mb/s, HDV 1080i compatible mode. To take advantage of this high performance recording capability, the PMW-EX1 uses an all-new imaging system consisting of three ½-inch type CMOS sensors, each with an effective pixel count of 1920x1080 to produce images in full HD resolution. In addition, there's a purpose-built Fujinon Professional HD ½-inch 14x lens and a unique dual focus ring mechanism.

In fact, there are innovations in every detail of the PMW-EX1, from its IT-friendly MP4 file recording to advanced creative features, such as selectable gamma curves and "Slow & Quick Motion" capability.

To maximise recording time, the PMW-EX1 has two memory card slots which means with a pair of 16 GB SxS PRO memory cards, it can record up to 140 minutes of HD footage.

They claimed the camera would be out in November 2007. Price? a few pennies under 6000 Euro is the rumoured price. I see some UK sites are advertising a delivery date on November 1st. If so, then HDV tape is dead in the water within 2 years don't you think?

Update December 2007- I see my local Sony dealer is now advertising a Sony kit for € 6490,-- including accessories which they claim is worth another Euros 1042.

Sony BP-U60 battery
AKG CK93
AKG SE300B Power module
XLR audiokabel
Rycote so ftie
PortaBrace bag
PortaBrace rain protection
Firewire kabel 4-6
Firewire kabel 4-4
1 extra 8GB memory card

Flashman II from Mayah, Germany

2007-10-04T22:36:00.000+02:00

German company of Mayah was showing off some new 3G capable recorders for radio journalists at IBC 2007 this year. At 2500 Euro, kinda on the pricey side. But rugged. The new device also has the ability to record locally on the device, while feeding Live – now gives a reporter complete control over their material and the ability to edit it after the transmission, for subsequent re-use. (I should point out that the HHB Flashmic can do this too). And thanks to MAYAH’s unique FlashCast technology, Flashman II is able to automatically recognise, and connect to almost any audio codec & format worldwide. Ideal for on-location situations where the destination codec is not known.

HHB Line-Input Flashmic

2007-10-04T22:10:00.000+02:00

HHB in London has made versions of their Flashmics (omni- and undirectional version) which has a line-input jack at the base, so as well as the built-in microphone you can accept a line-in from another source. The price in the Netherlands for the modified version is somewhat expensive (retails at 995 Euro, ex VAT) when compared to the ordinary version. Personally, I wouldn't need it, but can imagine some situations where it could be useful. I'd like a Flashmic with more memory - 1 GB doesn't seem much these days. Seen at IBC 2007 in Amsterdam.

Another important FlashMic development implemented in response to customer feedback is compatibility with mp3 files. FlashMic wavefile or .mp2 recordings can now be converted, whilst being transferred from the FlashMic to a computer, by the supplied FlashMic Manager Mac/PC software application to provide mp3 files – the preferred workflow format for some broadcasters. Existing FlashMic owners can download the updated FlashMic Manager software free of charge at www.flashmic.info.

Handy Power Inverter

2007-10-04T21:59:00.000+02:00

Mark Eylers showed me a mini 75 watt power inverter which he bought at a supermarket in France for 17 Euro. Made in China, it converts 12 volts DC into 220 volts AC. Perfect for recharging equipment on the go when you don't have a dedicated 12 volt charger, but do have the mains adaptor. Other inverters are mentioned here in this excellent article, which seem powerful enough to run a small radio station - though considerably larger. Have not seen the Krueger brand in the Netherlands.

Webradio Success

2007-10-04T21:48:00.000+02:00

I attended a radio marketing seminar at EBU Geneva last month and was very impressed by a campaign for webradio in Sweden. It basically involves offering listeners the chance to design their own radios and send the result to friends. Christian Rauch (photo below), Deputy Head of Marketing at Swedish Radio shared some fascinating stats...

• During their campaign, four webradios were designed by the public in Sweden every second!

• 30.000 radios designed first day of campaign, 68.000 first week

• Over 160.000 radios designed so far i.e. over 10 % of the target group has made one radio each.

Studio Webcams

2007-10-04T20:54:00.000+02:00

Anybody know if someone out there (a radio clubs perhaps) has compiled a global list of studio webcams? There was a time when most music radio stations installed them for a gimmick, but then they went away when their usage dropped off. In those days there wasn't much bandwidth and the audio quality was rubbish. Now things are much better, so I wonder if its time to build a radio matrix of the "World of Radio". It would be a bit like 10x10, but then a compliation of radio webcams, like Radio Donna in Brussels.

VIZRT Mobile Reporter

2007-10-03T22:47:00.000+02:00

Saw an interesting demo of how VIZRT has developed software for the Nokia 95 which allows reporters to send video from a location over the phone. The difference with this application is that is doesn't use MMS and chops up the file if the service provider has put a limit on the size of video files. Currently being rolled out to one of the main newspapers in Bergen, Norway. Disclaimer, VIZRT is one of my clients.

Where others fear to tread.....

2007-10-02T20:41:00.000+02:00

Great to meet Mark Eylers again after many years. If you need a radio station built - plus a new management team in place, then Mark just gets on with it. He's one of a handful of people who have built community radio (and TV) stations in difficult places - like Congo, Kenya, Liberia, and Burundi. Based in Soest, to the South East of Amsterdam, Mark is brimming with practical experience about what is right (and sometimes wrong) with community media projects. Its clear that many NGO's underestimate the time needed for a radio station to make an impact. It is more than just dumping equipment and hoping a local engineer will figure it out. Unless the management is in place, and trained, the station is off the air as soon as the foreigners leave. Mark runs a company called Bestworx, still going strong after more than 10 years of travelling across Africa.

Clever Small Tripod for light Video Cameras

2007-09-14T23:56:00.001+02:00

DSC03609
Originally uploaded by Jonathan Marks

If you have 135 Euro to spare, this mini tripod is brilliant. Manfrotto showed it at IBC2007, though the staff on the stand had diifficulty finding words to explain why it's such a clever design. My Italian isn't good enough. You can use it to put the camera on a table, grip the handle or rest it against the shoulder. Brilliant.

IBC 2010 Barcelona?

2007-09-14T23:34:00.001+02:00

IBC 2010
Originally uploaded by Jonathan Marks

IBC this year was interesting from a technology point of view, but disasterous from a logistics standpoint. The IBC has outgrown Amsterdam with a shortage of hotel rooms estimated to be in the region of 4000-6000 rooms. And the city has simply reacted to the situation by putting the prices up. The RAI is also going through a "makeover" but instead of gathering support for the make-over also put its (food) prices up and made parking sheer hell. IBC is back in Amsterdam next year to muddle through again, but in the mid-term definitely needs an exit strategy.

What is going on at Blogger?

2007-09-14T22:22:00.000+02:00

Why are bits on my blog showing up in German? Software glitches in Google?

GPS Capable Laptop

2007-09-14T22:16:00.000+02:00

According to Engadget, Asus claims to have made the "world's first mainstream notebook PC with integrated GPS capability." That particular distinction goes to the company's new U3S laptop, which relies on NXP Software's swGPS system for navigation duties. Among other things, NXP's system does all the necessary GPS signal processing entirely in software, which not only allows it to be much smaller, but also opens up the possibility of fairly significant software upgrades (including support for Galileo if the Europeans gets the system going within the lifetime of the laptop). Just don't expect "mainstream" to mean "cheap," with the laptop set to run €2,300 (or $3,200) when it's released later in September.

Now if only the GPS data from the microphone or camera is automatically added to the metadata about where the script is written. Just t5hink of how this could be used for journalists working in the field - and indexing their material automatically for later searches from the archives.

IBC Radio Mystery

2007-09-11T23:28:00.000+02:00

There was a special radio station at IBC 2007 this year (although I think it was a very well kept secret. It seems some free promotional radios that were supposed to be in boxes like this at the exhibition never arrived in Amsterdam. IBC tells me the podcasts of what was broadcast are available here. Don't look on the main IBC site, you'll never find it. Not sure if analogue radio is the best medium for this...IBC Daily news should get into VODcasting. But judge for yourself.

Made the front page of IBC Daily News

2007-09-10T23:58:00.000+02:00

In 2020 and beyond we will still need public broadcasters
By Kate Bulkley

Future-gazing is always a tricky business but those who believe there should be a future for public broadcasters beyond 2020 were cheered when Duane Varan, the executive director of the Interactive Television Research Institute in Australia called the erosion of public service broadcasting "a big mistake."
In Varan's view, as audiences fragment and competition for them becomes more intense, the role of PSBs become more critical than ever, especially for news, education and information-based programming.

"Audience fragmentation pushes news to the edge - it's what I call the Fox News effect - where the idea of objectivity loses out to the need to shout to be heard in a fragmenting universe," Varan told the packed audience at Future-gazing: the Broadcasting world in 2020.

Jonathan Marks, media anthropologist, journalist and producer, said the move to an all-digital world means that PSBs have a mandate to preserve a country's heritage. "PSBs have a role to serve the citizens not consumers - 80% of the world's broadcast archives are rotting and in 10 years many of them will be gone," Marks warned.

Wendy Hall, professor of computer science at the University of Southampton, predicted that our digital personas would become increasingly complex and rich, begging questions about who owns and controls 'your' information. Hall suggested that we might entrust third parties with personal information, "much like we use a bank today."

Another potentially huge problem discussed by the panel is what we record and store all this information on so it is 'playable' in the future. "You don't want to store it for yourself because the formats may change," said Hall.

Sony Vegas Pro 8

2007-09-10T09:38:00.000+02:00

Interesting to watch the extended demo of Sony Vegas Pro 8, launched today at IBC 2007. It was the most interesting Non-linear editor I saw at the show, bearing in mind the readers of this blog. There are useful features here not in Final Cut, especially the ability to mix and mash-up video in different formats and qualities. Seems they have also cut down the rendering time and addressed an old problem - namely the titles were rather simple in version 7. Must confess I was thinking of changing platforms to Mac as the machines here are due for upgrade. Now I am not so sure.

NPR Research

2007-09-08T22:58:00.000+02:00

Interested to see that NPR has come up with the equivalent of teletekst for digital radio. Its a way to put text of a broadcast using the HD-Radio standard now being rolled out across the USA. Looks like HD Radio will be a evolution rather than an evolution. I see the Taiwanese company of Sangean now has HD Radios on the market.

Good news...

2007-09-08T22:42:00.000+02:00

Felt better wandering around Halls 1 & 2 today at IBC 2007 and seeing some excellent restoration work being in a European project for both tape and record archives. Brilliant work that will save a lot of great stories from fading into the noise.

Components arrive from Holland

2007-08-04T07:44:00.001+02:00

Components arrive from Holland
Originally uploaded by Jonathan Marks

Building a media centre in West Africa at the moment. Will be blogging my challenges in doing so a little later in the month.

Sony GV-HD700E HD Video WALKMAN

2007-07-26T09:10:00.000+02:00

Sony has finally announced a HD Video WALKMAN – a portable solution for viewing both HDV and DV tapes while you’re on the move. I say finally because a portable back-up unit for this market is long overdue bearing in mind the HDV format is already a few years old. The press release sings the praises of the new unit, due out in September 2007. But there is no mention of price, nor if the unit will play back 1080p tapes recorded by Sony's latest HDV camera. So what are the bets on the price? 1500 Euro?

Sony's story continues...

The clear, bright 7-inch widescreen (16:9) LCD offers a resolution of 1,152K (800x480x3[RGB]) dots for monitoring video and still images. An All-scan function ensures that 100% of the recorded frame area is displayed on the LCD monitor for accurate reviewing of shots. Up to six LCD panel setups can be stored and loaded at any time. The on-screen position of displayed timecode can be moved to any of six positions according to user preference. The screen folds down when the GV-HD700E is not in use for maximum portability.

The HD Video WALKMAN is generously equipped with interfaces for recording and playing HDV1080i and Standard Definition DV video from a range of sources. An HDMI output allows HD viewing on any connected HD-ready TV or monitor.

It’s also the first Video WALKMAN supporting x.v.Colour. Based on the new xvYCC standard, x.v.Colour almost doubles the gamut of colours that can be displayed accurately on an xvYCC compliant display. HDV tapes recorded with x.v.Colour can be replayed with x.v.Colour signals available via HDMI and i.LINK outputs. x.v.Colour signals can also be read via the i.LINK input, and x.v.Colour information is passed through to the portable deck’s HDMI output.

A separate HD/SD component output is provided in addition to the HDMI output. An i.LINK port allows direct recording and playback of HDV and DV signals, while analogue video and audio can be recorded and monitored via S Video and RCA input connectors. In addition, still images can be captured from tape (HDV or DV) during playback and stored onto Memory Stick.

For convenient operation, any of fourteen commonly-used functions (including search, index mark and playback zoom) can be assigned to three function buttons. There’s also a Status Check mode that gives a handy on-screen confirmation of key Audio, Output, Assign and LCD settings.

For extra versatility the GV-HD700E can be used with InfoLITHIUM L and M Series batteries. Supplied accessories include an AC Adaptor, wireless remote controller, component cable and AV Multi Cable (without S Video).

Heading totally in the wrong direction

2007-06-16T17:31:00.001+02:00

close but not really
Originally uploaded by Jonathan Marks

I used to be a fan of Archos in the days when their AV340 used to make great quality audio recordings, as well as fairly decent quality recordings. We waited for the same features, only with a better quality recording, screen and wifi. After a lot of teasing, at places like IBC 2006, Archos has finally come out with the 605 wifi. They must be mainly aiming for the French market because they have signed deals with French suppliers of content. Since it is all DRM protected, I cannot imagine purchasing a film for 12 Euro which will only play on this device in "dvd like" quality - well not on the big plasma screen I have it won't. Perfect example of technology driven products which don't understand the power social currency. Shame, but I am writing these guys off the list of innovators.

Earth TV Interview

2007-05-29T13:47:00.000+02:00

This is the company that provides all kinds of pictures for TV stations from 55 special cameras positioned around the world. They hate being called a webcam company.

Doublecam from Germany

2007-05-29T11:42:00.000+02:00

Interesting device for cameramen collecting Voxpops. Seen at MIP-Tv in April 2007. Cost? 19000 pounds sterling. Quality is excellent. Not sure if I'd want to use it in a warzone though.

Farcast Project

2007-05-28T23:11:00.000+02:00

The Dutch research organization, TNO, pops up at many trade fairs, marketing what they're up to. Kobus Smit explained to me what they're doing with the Farcast project aimed at radio and newspaper reporters.

Frauenhofer MP3 Surround

2007-05-28T22:43:00.000+02:00

The Frauenhofer Institute in Germany is best known as the place where the MP3 compression standard was developed. Now they've finalized a new compression system to put surround sound onto the mobile using DVB-H

Yahoo & Broadcast & Mobile

2007-05-27T22:44:00.000+02:00

What is Yahoo doing in the mobile world? This is what they're telling the mobile operators at the world's largest exhibition and conference called 3GSM in Barcelona. Curiously, Google wasn't there, yet 60,000 others did make the trip to beautiful Barcelona.

SkyQube

2007-05-25T22:46:00.000+02:00

Wanna beat roaming charges on the mobile phone when you're sent as a freelance reporter abroad? With a local SIM card, Skypeout account and this box you can. Although launched at 3GSM back in February 2007, I have yet to see this in (online) shops just yet.