An Aerial Adventure

The phone rings,about a month ago.  It’s Paul, the scheduler at Wisconsin Public TV (my “day job.”)

“Hey Bruce, whatcha doing on Friday October 8?”

“Looks like I’m available.  What’s up?”

“These folks doing a documentary on Aldo Leopold need some aerials out near LaCrosse.  You want to do it?”

If Broadcast TV Is Dead, Why Do Live Shots Keep Getting Easier?

Ive been to the NAB about 13 times (including as a wide-eyed college senior in 1980) but I’ve never made it to the European version, the IBC in Amsterdam.  It is going on right now, and as a result my Email box is stuffed full of press releases.  Most of them are pretty “meh,” but as a broadcaster who is used to microwave and satellite trucks hauling signals back to stations, the demo that you can see here  from miniCASTER just makes me tingle.  It relies on several 3G and/or WiFi signals to get a broadcastable SD or HD signal onto the Net and back to…well, pretty much where ever you want it to go.  They claim latency of less than 3 seconds and IFB to the distant reporter and camera as a part of the signal.  Of course, no prices are listed on the site, so it is a little hard to tell how cost-effective it would be, but if they can deliver on the promises at a reasonable price this technology is poised to be truly game-changing.  Give it a look.

Somebody Hit David Byrne With The Obvious Stick.

Here’s the old-guy rant:

Way back in 1977 I went to a concert at Salem State College in Massachusetts (I was a sophomore at Boston University at the time) to see a pretty hot regional group called the Pousette-Dart Band.  They were great, but it was the opening act that really caught my attention.  Three guys and a female bass player hauled all their own gear out on to the tennis court that was the stage of the day and proceeded to mystify - and electrify - the very small crowd.  The lead singer looked like he was having a seizure most of the time, but the music was really good, if weird.

You guessed it, I saw the Talking Heads just before “Talking Heads: 77” came out.  And I’ve been a big fan ever since, including the Tom Tom Club and all of David Byrne’s various solo excursions.  Lately he’s been working with Web-merchandising his stuff, including a really interesting album of songs he recorded with Brian Eno.  So today I get an email from The Man Himself (actually some robot sending emails to his list) offering the first chapter of a new product, a kind of E-book called The Bicycle Diaries.  “Wow,” I thought, “this combines two of my favorite things - bicycles and David Byrne!”  So I read more of the copy.  When I got to the middle, though, a couple of sentences brought me to a screeching halt.  To wit:

“I was thinking about the kind of radio show that NPR stations do from time to time, with background music, street sounds and other ambiences that help put the listener in the picture. So, I did one chapter (“New York”) as a test, with me reading, and though it took a lot longer to assemble than I expected…”

Bam.  Jeez, Dave, ya THINK?  Wow, creative work takes TIME.  Anyone that has worked in the business for more than a few years realizes that you don’t get great creative instantly, but to hear that old trope come from David Byrne really stings.

This won’t stop me from recommending his stuff, though - you can listen to the first installment here.  But really.  If anyone should know better than this, it’s the man who gave us Psycho Killer.

Qu’est-ce que c’est?

Nature Photography Gone Wild!

Check out this behind-the-scenes video from PBS’ “Nature” series on how the producers captured ultra-close-up, ultra-slo-mo footage of hummingbirds for an upcoming show.  Absolutely fascinating!

NAB2010:  The Story Of The Number “3” And The Letter “D”

I would have posted this last night, before NAB2010 actually started, but I refuse to pay the extortionate $13/day that hotels here think is their God-given right to collect for the same (or worse) Internet access that is free virtually anywhere else.

In making the rounds of the Panasonic and Sony press conferences on Sunday, I was just dumbfounded to hear the breathless fawning over what is at best nascent 3-D television technology.  In a country (the US) where only about 40% of people have invested in HDTVs so far, the cravenness of manufacturers expecting people to rip it all up and buy new equipment already is breathtaking.  This is not to say that 3D can’t be compelling - in the right hands, and with the right content, the effect is impressive - but let’s not kid ourselves.  It is just an EFFECT, after all.  Have you have seen the recent Samsung 3-D TV ad where a dad cuts a block of water out of an aquarium, takes it home, pushes it into their HDTV and then the family is suddenly awash (ahem) in fully-immersive 3-D fish?  That spot verges on fraud, IMHO.  The 3-D effect is limited to the inside of the monitor’s bezel.  And lets face it, not all that much content out there deserves hi-def treatment, much less 3-D.

Here’s hoping that consumers recognize this latest gimmick as just that - a gimmick - and send the gear manufacturers (and their junkie enabler, the Consumer Electronics Association) the 2x4 to the head they so richly deserve.

So am I too much of a curmudgeon?  What do YOU think?

Panasonic Toughbook for $349???

Yeah, it ain’t the latest and greatest, and will need a RAM upgrade right out of the box, but if you need a really TOUGH laptop (and I’m looking at YOU, field teleprompter operators) you cannot beat this deal at Geeks.com.  Jeez, the thing even has a touchscreen!

Use the savings code TUFBOOK to lower the price to an insane $349.

This is the machine I see in police cars and the hands of all the telecom repair guys, and if THEY can’t break it, no one can!

And you thought YOU had your hands full…

One-man bands have a hard life, it’s true.  Thinking about composition, color, lighting, audio, content, and whether you are going to get your car towed from the illegal parking spot can really wear on a shooter.  However, other folks are the real overachievers here.  My buddy Mark Suzsko Suszko (sorry dude) sent me this link of a guy that simultaneously - and singlehandedly - sails a 24’ sailboat (in pretty high winds) while flying a kite with a video camera attached!

If you can forgive the egregious overuse of the Enya music, it is a pretty amazing clip.  Have a look.

What’s the craziest shot YOU ever got?  Post it in the comments!

Monsterpod: Stick Your (small) Camera Almost Anywhere

I love gadgets, especially useful ones.  That love is doubled when the device is reasonably priced.  And gadgets that are useful, reasonably priced and related to video put me over the top.  So you can imagine my interest when a fellow member of a video discussion list turned me on to the MonsterPod, which fills all three categories well.

At first glance, the MonsterPod looks like an orange and black nylon-mesh suction cup, with a 1/4” tripod screw mounted in the middle.  It’s once you flip it over that you find the magic ingredient - a large blob of what looks like orange Silly Putty, what the MonsterPod makers call “PodGoo.”  You wouldn’t think something this seemingly simple could stick to just about any surface - but you would be wrong. 

Basically, applying the MonsterPod involves shaping and bending the cup and PodGoo to conform to the rough contours of the surface you want to stick your camera to.  And the list isn’t limited to just flat surfaces - the MonsterPod sticks to poles, rocks, dashboards, cement, you name it.  As long as the surface isn’t wet, made of fabric, too greasy or too dirty, it’s a good bet that MonsterPod will adhere to it, at least for a while.  A good firm press - even on vertical surfaces or upside down - will fasten the MonsterPod in place.  The makers recommend a maximum 10 minutes of attachment at a time, but as long as it isn’t overloaded I can see the hold lasting longer.

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