http://provideocoalition.com/index.php en jshafer@adobe.com Copyright 2008 2008-04-24T23:35:00-08:00 http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/adobe/adobes_nab_sneak_peaks/ http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/adobe/adobes_nab_sneak_peaks/#When:23:35:00Z Another NAB has come and gone and it appears everyone at Adobe survived the crazy/great week. Well, I’m at home nursing the traditional post-NAB cold, and my feet took days to get their feeling back, but that’s all just par for the course. It was a great show for us--while overall attendance was definitely down, our booth was packed. I had the opportunity to get to know a lot of customers and partners all at once, which is the ultimate point of going at all. During the show I had an opportunity to share a little sneak peak of some of the things Adobe is working on in our technology labs. We wanted to pull back the curtain just bit and show a little of what we are working on because it’s important for you to know where we’re going. You obviously choose the tools company you want to work with based on what they have available today. But because you invest a lot of time, energy, and money into adopting a toolset you’re also interested in where they’re going tomorrow. And so when you look at Adobe, you want to know we’re not just committed today, but that we’re thinking about the challenges you’re just starting to face, or will be facing soon. If you weren’t able to make NAB, or were at NAB and missed my presentation, no worries. We just posted a bunch of our theater demos to the new Adobe TV site and my technology preview can be found in the video pro section. I won’t give away everything I show, but if you’re an editor at least watch until I get to the speech analysis part. Good times. Then again, the last thing I showed was definitely the most popular. How’s that for a tease? Enjoy! Business, Distribution, Editing, Interactive, NAB 08, Post Production, Production 2008-04-24T23:35:00-08:00 http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/adobe/skillfully_talented_or_talentedly_skillful/ http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/adobe/skillfully_talented_or_talentedly_skillful/#When:00:36:00Z The video industry historically has been driven by technologists. I’m not referring to the technologists who have invented and developed all the products that allow those waves of light to be converted into electronic signals formerly and now bits, manipulated, and ultimately delivered to a growing number of different screens. I’m thinking more about all of the individuals who produced the content we consume today. Where am I going with this? Why am I being so cryptic? Do I get paid by the word to write this blog (NO I am not paid for those who don’t know my sense of humor). Get to the point, Steve! What’s this got to do with skills and talent? Well first lets define what my understanding of the differences are. This is probably an oversimplification (need to save on word count somewhere), but talent is something one is born with and skills are something that are not innate but you can learn. Back in the early days and as late as 1981-82, your ability to work in the television industry was primarily driven by your skills, talent was a secondary consideration. If you couldn’t learn to “operate” (there’s a reason they were called Chyron operators and not artists) the equipment and all the buttons, knobs, and dials, if didn’t really matter what your sense of typography aesthetics was. For a video editor who didn’t have the luxury of having a “tape operator” at their disposal, not only did they need to figure out how to “operate” the edit controller, but they also need to figure out how to thread typically a Sony BVH-2000 series or an Ampex VPR. Betacam cassettes solved that part of the skill set in the pro video space in 1982 (I don’t consider 3/4” cassette was generally considered industrial quality). Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure a lot of these skilled operators were also very creative and talented, but without the technical chops, a lot of talented people were sitting on the sidelines unable to participate in expressing their creativity using video. What happened in 1981-1982? Well, Quantel introduced the Paintbox. While it was a technological marvel, for me it was the first piece of video equipment that was designed to be appeal and be accessible/approachable to “artists” not “operators” (sadly when the Harry came out - users who mastered this piece of gear more than not were called Harry Operators). Everything from the pen based UI, tasteful use of colors, and UI metaphors were designed to be comfortable and familiar to artists. Talented people were allowed to flourish and express themselves, and the “skills” aspect was de-emphasized. Designers just want to design. When Photoshop 1.0 appeared on the scene in 1990 it brought talent even further to forefront. Because even though the Paintbox enabled artist to participate in the video creation process more directly; with a price tag of several hundred thousand dollars - it was unlikely an individual was gonna set up shop in their garage. And while I’m reluctant to make generalizations - I hope it is not too contentious to say, artists/designers do not come to mind as prototypical “Organization Men” and are more likely to be independent free spirits who would prefer not to work for “da man”. The desktop video revolution unshackled artists from having to work in a structured environment and to define work to a large degree on their own terms. But it also reduced the “skill level” requirement a notch further as software products in general adopted common UI metaphors and computers (especially the Mac) were considered even more user friendly than sitting in front of a proprietary UI running on a big “black box”. That said, in all fairness, when I look at how complex Photoshop CS3 has become as result of all the features added over the years and the diverse set of users and applications it is used for, I would venture to guess that there are almost as many opportunities for “skilled” Photoshop users as there are “talented”. If we fast forward to the world of video and interactive content creation today, I see some parallels. While Flash and After Effects are incredibly powerful products there is a “learning curve” associated with those products that may make artists/designers who do not spend the bulk of their time working in the video or interactive design space hesitant to make the investment required to use these products to their full extent. Don’t assume this is an aptitude problem. In some cases it may be (drawing with a pen and writing AS3 are 2 very different disciplines/mindsets), but I believe it is as much an issue of time. Our lives are more complex than ever and there is still only so much time in the day. So in the minds of these artists/designers the ROI on diving into these products isn’t justified - so once again we are in a place where many talented designers/artists are sitting on the sidelines waiting for the day when they can participate in the interactive rich media revolution. Food for thought.... 2008-03-21T00:36:00-08:00 http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/adobe/avid_express_rip/ http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/adobe/avid_express_rip/#When:10:45:00Z I would be remiss if I didn’t post a quick something about Avid’s Monday morning announcements. First, it is always a little sad to see the end of a product. Thousands of man hours of work are being gently laid aside, and I feel for that team. On a broader level, this is just one more step in the democratization of video that Adobe and others have been driving for many years.  2008-03-18T10:45:00-08:00 http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/adobe/adobenetworks/ http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/adobe/adobenetworks/#When:05:39:00Z I’ve always been a fascinated by the Internet’s ability to facilitate social relationships. No other medium has the power to bring distant people together as easily as the Internet. It has even changed the way we think about the meaning of community— from a bond of common location to a bond of common interest. I’m particularly impressed with the latest generation of social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. Nowadays, you can find Adobe-related user groups and professional connections on these and other social networking sites. (I’m a member of both, by the way.) Never to be outdone, ProVideo Coalition has built a community section upon the Ning platform. Very cool. What’s more, your Adobe tools are evolving to reflect the power of personal digital connections. Within Acrobat, you can start a virtual meeting centered around the document you’re reading. Adobe Kuler has been attracting designers in an amazing way. I like to think of Kuler as the Flickr of color schemes. And Adobe Soundbooth CS3 has a cool new built-in feature called Resource Central, which allows audio editors to keep in touch with fresh content, musical goodies and just the right kind of news. I think it’s safe to say we’re just scratching the surface about how we see the power of digital connections making you as creative and productive as possible. Good stuff, but what about networking the old fashioned way? You know—in person. It’s alive and well; thanks for asking. I have a three part update from the world of Adobe-related user groups those who want to get away from their computer and meet people in real life (sacrebleu!): First, the gold standard of user groups evolves. The famous and long-lived MGLA (Motion Graphics Los Angeles) has been thriving under the leadership of Chris & Trish Meyer since 1997. The organization has recently transitioned to new organizers (Ko Maruyama and Warren Heaton) and has a new name: DMA LA (Digital Media Artists Los Angeles). At over 2000 members, it’s monthly meetings are always excellent. Find out more at http://www.mgla2.org. Second, a vibrant community celebrates a one year anniversary. Drawing from the rich broadcast and design communities of New York City, AENY (After Effects New York) has regular meetings now drawing hundreds of participants—amazing considering the group has formed just one year ago. Way to go and thanks to Aharon Rabinowitz, Jim Geduldik & Dennis Radeke for their fantastic support of the Adobe community! Check them out at http://www.aeny.org. Lastly, a hotbed of design forms a new group. This Thursday, March 20th marks the first meeting of a brand new user group, San Francisco Motion Graphics and VFX User Group, also known as SFMOGRAPH.  Thanks to the hard work of Matt Silverman, Brandon Grande and Marcello Grande, this surely promises to be a veritable cornucopia of state-of-the-art presentations. Among other activities, the inaugural SFmograph meeting features at several visitors from the Adobe After Effects team. Stop by and introduce yourself! The first meeting will be held at the Adobe office in San Francisco. Get the details at http://www.sfmograph.com. As you can see, there’s never been a better time to connect with other video professionals—either virtually or in the real world. And there’s a pretty good chance you’ll run into one of us Adobe folks in one of these places. See you around, both in the real world and the virtual one! Michael Coleman Product Manager, Adobe After Effects 2008-03-18T05:39:00-08:00 http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/adobe/creating_interactive_web_video_with_a_tool_you_already_know_and_use/ http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/adobe/creating_interactive_web_video_with_a_tool_you_already_know_and_use/#When:22:27:00Z (now with an example at the bottom) Encore CS3, Premiere Pro’s trusty DVD authoring sidekick has a few new tricks up its sleeve to help give you a competitive edge.  I’ll talk more about high definition Blu-ray disc authoring in another post.  This post is for those of you in the traditional video workflow who want to be able to create interactive web video experiences, BUT you don’t want to have to learn a new tool.  Encore CS3 can now export a version of your existing DVD project for use on the web.  Here’s how - 1. Author your DVD or Blu-ray project as you normally would using Encore’s intuitive interface and integration with Photoshop and After Effects.  2. In the Build panel choose “Flash” 3. Select your quality preset 4. Click “Build” - you’re done! Encore encodes all your videos to .flvs, creates a .swf that provides all the DVD-like interactivity, and creates an .xml file that ties the .flvs to the .swf.  Encore also embeds the .swf in a template .html page.  The result is a DVD-like experience on the web complete with features like main menu and chapter menu navigation, motion menus, slideshows, extra features, and the ability to skip to chapters.  When compared with the typical web video experience where the only control you have is play and pause Encore’s Flash export is a significantly better experience.  It allows you to create the design and chapter navigation viewers are used to on DVDs.  Give it a try and let me know what you think.  Thanks for reading, Nate A little bit about me.  I’m the product manager for Adobe Encore and Visual Communicator.  Additionally, I am also working on developing community related features for our DMO products. Here is an example of a project one of our customers sent me created with the Flash export feature in Encore.  http://www.theatreofillusion.com/online-dvd/ Editing 2008-03-16T22:27:00-08:00 http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/adobe/tomorrow_finally_comes/ http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/adobe/tomorrow_finally_comes/#When:00:15:00Z The infamous “Last Ten Feet” problem in a nutshell is that no matter how much effort we put into lovingly capturing high quality HD video, gingerly compressing it and then shoving it down newly obese fiber pipes - the TV screen in most homes is as maladjusted as Britney Spears in a Taoist monastery. We want serene hues that coexist in harmony and balance but instead we get garish, neon-saturated colors that practically bleed through the screen. It’s all the more painful because this is an unnecessary tragedy. Unlike the old days of analog-driven CRT tubes, today’s digital screens are more capable than ever of staying accurately calibrated. Sadly, this video crime is premeditated. The manufacturers realize that their TVs are sold in one of two ways; either drop-shipped sight unseen in the carton or lined up at a big box retailer alongside all the competition in a beauty contest. Unfortunately, this isn’t a respectable beauty contest like the Miss America pageant of 1949. Nope, there are no points for congeniality and customers don’t get the benefit of a talent show, essay contest or evening gown competition to help them select the partner they’ll be spending 4-5 hours a day with for the next five years. Riding my already tired analogy farther than I should, the TV line-up at a big box store is more like a no-holds-barred, 90 second wet t-shirt contest at a biker bar, t-shirts optional. In such a, shall we say, “shallow” environment old-fashioned things that used to matter like grace, poise, refinement and character aren’t at the top of the “must-have” list (or so I’ve been told). TV manufacturers have learned the hard way that victory goes to the biggest, brightest and brassiest, so that’s how they calibrate every screen as it leaves the factory. Oh, and it’s not just the default settings, on some models ALL the presets are getting the same over-the-top, photon-blasting treatment. If this continues, some of these Chernobyl-vision TVs should seriously be bundled with radiation-proof eye protection, and while you might consider CopperTone UV-blocking sunscreen with 50 SPF, there’s also my new signature line of Bars’nTone YUV-blocking TV lotion with -50 IRE. Most regular humans, you know, the ones who don’t get that the difference between 59.94 and 60 is a lot more than six hundredths, leave their TV sets on the defaults exactly as they came out of the box. Even more frightening, I’ve seen first-hand evidence in my relative’s homes that the big box “professional installers” who deliver these TVs are stricken with debilitating color blindness! Or perhaps they just hang out in all the wrong kind of bars. I’m not saying I expect an ISF certified technician on every home installation but is a quickie 3 minute ‘eyeball-only’ screen calibration too much to ask from a $200 drive-by “installation”? Personally speaking, I’ve earned my way onto the spousal do-not-fly list for my answer to the in-law question “How do ya like our brand spankin’ new $4,000 All-Digital HD TeeVee featuring Deeluxe TurboBright and Ultra MegaBass Plus?” Exercising more honesty than intelligence, I woefully under-achieved in the art of dad-in-law diplomacy with my reply, “Um, why does it look like Walt Disney threw up all over your screen?” Well my phosphorus friends, I have seen the solution - and it is us. Tune in to my spine-tingling wrap-up where you’ll learn that it’s easier than you might think. And there’s a better than snowball’s chance I’ll finally, somehow find a way to work in an actual reference (no matter how vague or tenuous) to a real… hmmm, what was it again?  Oh yeah, an Adobe product - thereby reducing the systolic distress of the nice Adobe marketing folk who are already regretting inviting me to join this group blog. 2008-03-16T00:15:00-08:00 http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/adobe/the_last_ten_feet/ http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/adobe/the_last_ten_feet/#When:02:04:00Z People in the cable and telephone industries talk a lot about “the last mile problem”. This term refers to the fact that between their central and local offices they have massive bandwidth, yet that bandwidth-spewing fire hose narrows down to a tiny soda straw in the last mile (or couple miles) between the nearest local office and most homes. To fix this problem they are spending billions of dollars to dig up streets and lay high capacity fiber optic cable over that ‘last mile’. That’s a lot more than Happy Meal money but the payoff is big. Really big. All that extra bandwidth will result in more channels and services to sell to us, the viewers. The silver lining to this silver cloud is that the digital video we watch will also be less compressed and more of it will be in high definition. This is a very good thing, particularly for those of us in certain technological backwaters where the infrastructure is so antiquated that standard definition channels are over-compressed to the point where any decent morse code operator hopped up with an IV drip of Red Bull could keep up with the data rate. However, that’s not the problem I want to talk to you about. Why? Well because that problem is already being solved by a large herd of fiber-laying backhoes. It’s a beautiful thing. Just like grazing mastodons used to turn prehistoric vegetation into, um, post-mastodon “by-product”; these bit-bearing backhoes eat up your monthly subscriber fees and turn them into fiber by-product that they leave behind. And they’re even nice enough to dig a hole for the fiber and cover it back up as neatly as a cat with OCD. Trust me, mastodons didn’t do that last part. Ok, I’ll admit it’s not absolutely perfect. This fleet of backhoes does manage to annoy the living, um, by-product out of motorists and they move with a slothfulness that can make the public works department look downright efficient by comparison but bottom line, they’re going to deliver 100x the bits per buck to your doorstep in short order. Ok, then what am I rambling on about? Well, there is the OTHER problem. The one for which there currently is no solution, however I may just have a way that we, the readers of PVC, can help solve it. You see, on that glorious day when all those billions of bits are shining their way right up the backside of every TV, we still won’t have solved the image quality problem for a lot of viewers. The reason is what I call “the last ten feet problem”. I’m talking here about the ten feet between the front of the TV and most couches. Tune in tomorrow(ish) when I’ll wax all poetic about this strange phenomenon and explain how you and I are, in fact, uniquely equipped to solve it. 2008-03-11T02:04:00-08:00 http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/adobe/audition_3_on_a_mac/ http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/adobe/audition_3_on_a_mac/#When:20:37:01Z The latest release of Adobe’s flagship professional audio tool, Audition 3, supports both Windows XP and Vista natively.  You can also run Audition 3 on OSX using Leopard’s Boot Camp or virtualization software from VMWare or Parallels.  Here’s a link to a recent post on our Inside Sound blog discussing the various options for running Audition on a Mac. http://blogs.adobe.com/insidesound/2008/02/audition_3_on_a_mac_1.html 2008-03-06T20:37:01-08:00 http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/adobe/wine_futures/ http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/adobe/wine_futures/#When:18:53:00Z To borrow from Mark Twain, “rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated”. So now that you know I’m still here at Adobe; the next question(s) that come to mind might be: 1) what am I up to these days?, and/or 2) What exactly is a Product Manager of Interactive Futures? (what a mysterious sounding job - wish my business card said that). Well, for the moment I’m still in super secret squirrel mode working on a new project here at Adobe for creative professionals. I like to think of it as a blend of some of Adobe’s best technologies (and people - excluding myself) in the areas of interactivity, video, and motion. If you want me to say more, you’ll either need to tickle it out of me (or ply me with expensive tequila). Or who knows maybe a glimpse (if you blink, you might miss it) of the future will be revealed at a trade show that you happen to be at. When I worked on After Effects, I used to playfully say; “If doesn’t move it’s dead”. I think I need help with a new mantra; If it isn’t interactive, it’s_________. I could use help filling in the blank. Anyway, just wanted to take this opportunity to say hello and that I look forward to starting a dialog with y’all here in addition to my ”Official Adobe Blog” which has been on an unplanned hiatus. Steve Kilisky 2008-03-06T18:53:00-08:00 http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/adobe/tapeless_a_paradigm_shift/ http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/adobe/tapeless_a_paradigm_shift/#When:18:29:00Z The introduction of tapeless workflows in our industry represents a paradigm shift in the way that we acquire, edit and deliver content. The ability to eliminate the capture process means that edited content can be turned around faster than ever before. Tapeless workflows offer us an opportunity to reinvent the editing workflow. While the old process of ingesting from tape doesn’t apply, there are many other areas of the process that can be streamlined. For example, rather than logging a small amount of information for each segment of a tape as part of the capture process, we can now take care of all the information in a single session. And the whole idea of “export to tape” becomes less important, with delivery mechanisms going tapeless as well. With these opportunities come challenges. The rigid production process imposed by the tape-based paradigm ensures that there is at least some consistency from facility to facility. With tapeless, freedom could mean chaos. Editors need fast, efficient ways to log their content and to add additional metadata. With the increasing importance of metadata in workflows from broadcast to videography, getting that information into the editing workflow is important. I don’t think any one editing application has solved this problem, yet. At Adobe we believe that true native editing is the best workflow wherever possible. In a tapeless world, true native editing means that you can start editing immediately without having to wait for rewrapping or transcoding. This enables extremely quick turnaround on content because you can edit directly from the camera without even transferring to the edit station. From a quality perspective, keeping the source around means the highest quality results because you’re always rendering from the original frames. And from a metadata perspective, it’s possible to add metadata to the original source files, which helps immensely when the assets are managed centrally. The next few years are going to be very exciting in the editing world. We’re committed to finding new ways for you all to work more efficiently and productively! Giles Baker Group Product Manager, Editing Workflows. Dynamic Media, Adobe. 2008-03-06T18:29:00-08:00