HHB Line-Input Flashmic

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

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

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

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

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.....

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

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?

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?

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

GPS Capable Laptop

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

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

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

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

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...

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.