E-zine emerges from woodwork

This is the link you need to download the latest edition of Critical Gossip...a compilation of projects I am working on here and in other parts of the galaxy. Enjoy...and sign-up on the website if you feel like a litle more free food for thought. About 5 times a year....there could be too much of a good thing. 

Finding the Right Tools

I am looking for the dream suite of products for the cross-media producer working in the field. I have been playing around with various products that host video on line, but not really impressed...especially about the price for hosting your final production....around US$40 a month on some places. Don't think that is a serious business model for most people. I AM impressed with an outfit called Serious Magic (mentioned first here during IBC 2004 in September). They have a product named Visual Communicator which seems ideally suited to the on-line video publishing business. The package comes in 3 versions, depending on the level of production tools you need. These guys are going places....impressed. Incidently, I have no connection with them....nor with any of the other companies mentioned here.

Be interested to know what you think if you tried this..

Geolocation of visitors: GEOLOC

geolocation of visitors:GEOLOC is a great idea in desperate need of an English language copywriter and some more bandwidth. Every time I try to sign up, there is a bandwidth full sign.

Videora Search Technology

Locating video content on the Web can be cumbersome and time-consuming. Now a new software application combining BitTorrent and RSS could makes it easier for nontechnical users to locate video files and download them to their computers, Wired News has reported.

Sajeeth Cherian, a 20-year-old communications engineering student at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, got the idea for the application, called Videora, after observing the trouble his roommate went through to find and download a file off the internet. He thought there ought to be an easier way.

BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file-sharing application that enables fast downloads of large data files. When a person downloads a video, for instance, the data arrives in chunks from different users, resulting in a faster download. Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a mechanism used by sites to automatically distribute their content — like headlines, links or video — to subscribers’ computers. RSS subscribers choose what kind of information they would like to receive.

Videora puts together an easy-to-use interface so users don’t have to worry about such details. Once a person downloads the application, the program automatically installs BitTorrent and downloads the RSS feeds. Then, users simply type in the title or keyword for a “series” they want to record, like amateur tsunami videos, for instance.

The request can be added to a “want list,” and the user can download any tsunami videos located by double-clicking the file. Or, a person can add the tsunami request to “season tickets” and the program will automatically download any tsunami video.

Cherian said they extract the BitTorrent link from the RSS feed, and if the title matches what you are looking for, it starts downloading the BitTorrent file from the RSS link.

When the search is submitted, the request goes to the open-source Videora server that includes an index of “tracker” websites — which point users to locations where digital music and movie files can be found — with RSS feeds. Anyone can contribute to the database.

Cherian developed the source code and then set it free; he has no control over the content. The site launched at the end of December. Users can download a free trial of the Videora application or pay $23 for a version with additional features.

Contributing under cover

PowerPizza is a rather expensive cardboard box designed to hide your laptop....it looks like you're enjoying an Italian pizza, when in fact you're making last minute changes to your article for the BBC Interactive website. Not sure how long it would last in Kabul, but it is a novel idea.

Tsunami Help Portal for broadcasters

I am coordinating a group of volunteers to organise an overview of how various organisations around the world have reacted to help broadcasters affected by the December 26th Earthquake and Tsunami. We all share the belief that by sharing this information on a new portal, that broadcasters will be stimulated to coordinate their efforts.

Check it out....

   

How to design a radio without buttons.    

The Mouseradio from Germany is a fully functioning radio without buttons. The idea was to use the mouse navigation and to implement it in a radio.

Moving the radio vertically changes the volume, moving the radio on the horizontal axis changes the frequency being tuned to. The radio is on, when the black speaker points up in the air.

Here's the video

Definitely the most exciting flash intro I have seen in a long while....

http://www.webfeatsdesign.com Go for the whizz bang version if you have the (broad)bandwidth

 

 

MD-21 Anniversary Edition

Apparently the MD-21 is not new...been around since the fifties. 

The almost indestructible design of this microphone was impressively demonstrated at the Industrial Fair in Hannover in 1954. "We set up a round wooden board, about 5 feet in diameter, on which we had fitted ramps at regular intervals. An MD 21 suspended on a short cable was placed on the board, which was then rotated quite fast. The microphone was dragged up each ramp and could be seen crashing down onto the board again and again," said Fritz Sennheiser describing the unusual demonstration. "It was sensational - at that time, microphones were delicate objects and had to be handled carefully." And even today, the extremely low percentage of repairs for the MD 21 - 0.4% - speaks for itself.

But even Prof. Dr. Fritz Sennheiser never expected the MD 21 to be such a bestseller for so long. "We started with a completely normal "edition", with production at that time in batches of 500." In the course of its long life, the microphone has undergone only minor modifications, including a change from the gray hammer tone to a black finish. "We also improved the transducer system in accordance with the state of the art, basically involving improvements to the diaphragm. The main issue was - and still is - eliminating partial oscillation in the diaphragm."

To celebrate the birthday of this exceptional microphone, Sennheiser electronic issued a limited edition in a light-gray hammer tone design with the signature of Prof. Dr. Fritz Sennheiser. The birthday edition was limited to 100, and the first three of these, in a special presentation package, were auctioned off in May 2004 for a good cause. Personally, I prefere the black one!

Workhorse for European Radio Reporters

Which mike do I use for audio reporting? This old faithful from Sennheiser, the MD-21. You can drop the thing out of a plane and it will still work. Very insensitve to wind noise and "plopping". Bought one in 1980 and it still sounds "fresh". Note: The Sennheiser website is a strange mix of English and Deutsch at times.  

Now for something completely different in microphones

The new Holophone H2-PRO Surround Sound Microphone is the only patented device specifically designed for capturing discrete 5.1, 6.1, and 7.1-channels of surround sound for all professional audio applications. It comes at a professional price too -US $5850.00 - and there's another US$250 needed if you want the optional light-weight hand-grip. I can understand the price for the specialist microphone...but not the 250 bucks for the handle.

The Toronto based company VF Gadgets says its flexibility, ease of use, and performance make the H2-PRO ideal for recording live events and in-studio use. It is well suited for television broadcasters (standard TV, DTV, and HDTV), radio broadcasters, music producers and engineers, film location recording crews, and for independent project studios. All surround sound recordings from the H2-PRO are discrete and in real-time, thereby very easy to bring into any broadcast or studio environment, manipulate, mix and/or encode into any/all of the standard consumer playback formats – Dolby, DTS, and Circle Surround. The H-2 Pro provides engineers and producers total control over all incoming, discrete surround sound audio signals and delivers those signals in an intuitive way.

The Holophone H2-PRO Surround Sound Microphone is entirely compatible with all standard analog and digital I/O devices that accept up to eight channels and provide phantom power including hard disc based recorders, multichannel preamplifiers, standard multichannel I/Os, and all mixing consoles.. 

What is this man doing? 

CES Show Stealer for Journalists?

The PMA400/430 as seen at CES 2005 in January 

Thanks to the Engadget guys who alerted me to the new Archos Pocket Media Assistant PMA430 launched at CES Las Vegas....the real name of what was rumoured to be AV500 at the German CeBIT tech trade show in March 04.

In Europe, the device seems to have the type number PMA400. The new PMA400/430 is a Linux-based portable audio and video player with a 30GB hard drive and an LCD touch screen that also doubles as a PDA. They’ve loaded it up with VERY useful extras: built-in 802.11b WiFi, USB host (for connecting a keyboard or dumping photos from a digital camer), a removeable battery, and support for Mophun and Qtopia games. Because it runs on Linux you can install new applications for the PMA430, and there are plans to introduce an Software Development Kit in February.

More details here.



This was the prototype AV500 shown in March 2004, later renamed the PMA400. 

Another shot of the PMA-400/430

Shot from Engadget showing the Wi-fi and USB links 

Not easy to find at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. In March this US$900 piece of chewing gum will be on the North American and European markets. Hate to lose it...worth more than the recorder it plugs into!