HOW Design Conference 2009

Why would someone brave mid-100 degree temperatures and high humidity to visit Austin Texas in the summer? To get a dose of creative inspiration, of course. But rather than being devoted solely to graphic design eye candy, we were surprised to find that the 2009 HOW Conference was also heavily slanted toward the topics of product design and marketing - as well as numerous talks on how to keep your own creativity fresh while dealing with both clients and management.

Netflix vs Redbox rivalry shaping up

Have you seen those red kiosks at Walmart and McDonalds locations across the US? If not, you probably will soon enough. With about 15,000 existing locations in operation, Redbox is currently rolling their $1 DVD rental kiosks out at a rate of one per hour. Cinematech’s Scott Kirsner has a post about Redbox and their competitor, Netflix.

Both offer DVD rentals, but using distinctly different approaches. Netflix’s DVD title selection is extensive, with over 100,000 titles to choose from. In contrast, a Redbox kiosk carries around 200 titles at a given time. The difference is instant gratification…Redbox is an impulse purchase, made at a location you are likely shopping or frequenting. While Netflix does offer instant internet streaming options, it’s not always the same for folks who don’t have a computer hooked up to their entertainment system. I’ve used both services before, and while I wish the instant selection of Redbox was more extensive, there is no denying the price point and convenience. They also allow you to order a DVD online in advance (ala Netflix), for later pickup at your local kiosk.

I honestly did not see Redbox as that useful when I first used the service, but am finding that we use it more and more. Regardless of which you personally use, I think there is one thing we can all agree on…the good ‘ole fashioned Video Store is all but dead.

Seeing the Future - In Color

We’re still recovering from the HOW Design Conference in Austin last week, where temperatures hit 107. After the ice packs melt, we’ll post a summary of interesting things we heard there.

In the meantime, for those who have color-focused jobs (or color-fussy clients), you may be interested in the work of the Color Marketing Group: a global consortium that attempts to determine what the hot trends in color for various market segments will be in different parts of the world. Click here to see their predictions for 2009 (white for business, blue is the new green, etc.). They also have a free weekly newsletter of color trends and ideas.

Online Video Delivery with Kyte

Author and video podcaster Richard Harrington discusses online video distribution with Cody Smith from kyte.com at NAB 2009.

Live from NAB:  The Numbers Are In

According to an NAB mailing entitled “Organizers deem NAB Show a success despite tough economy”....

FTA: 

“Attendance for this year’s NAB Show in Las Vegas is 83,842 compared the roughly roughly 104,000 for the 2008 edition. But organizers called the event a “phenomenal success” given the down state of the economy. “We appreciate the strong support of both exhibitors and attendees who continue to make The NAB Show the most important annual event for the electronic media marketplace,” NAB spokesman Dennis Wharton said.

Well, it certainly could have been worse.  I actually enjoyed having less competition to see products, but I doubt that is the attitude of many exibitors.

PVC Pipeline | Distribution

This coming Monday, we’ll be releasing our third newsletter: PVC Pipeline | Distribution. As you can guess from it’s name, this one will be focused on the broad subject of alternate ways of getting your creation out into the world - from podcast production (including an insightful article from Alex Lindsay on the Pixel Corps’ experience producing podcasts for themselves as others, as well as Allan Tépper’s review of a tool he uses for his podcasts: Übercaster), to getting distribution for your independent movie (a great roundtable discussion led by the FreshDV folks, including award-winning producer/writer Jerome Courshon, and Scott Kirsner of Variety), to a tutorial by Michael Vitti on creating buttons for a custom DVD. So if you haven’t subscribed yet, do so now - it’s free, and you’ll get to enjoy these articles weeks before anyone else.

MSM on Hollywood’s Obsolete Business Model

HDFilmTools shed a little light recently on mainstream media coverage of the major upheaval in Hollywood’s traditional business model. With the credit crunch, the rise of piracy, and slacking DVD sales, the industry is in a unique position that they’ve not had experience with in the past. While these changes have not occurred overnight, it appears that they are finally seeing some major media coverage.

Data Rot

Well-known author David Pogue recently aired this interesting piece on “data rot” for his CBS Sunday Morning tech series, which has been transcribed for the New York Times web site. Aside from containing some interesting geek trivia and a renewed warning that DVD lifespans vary greatly (5 to 100 years, depending on the brand and storage conditions), the line that smacked me in the face was “well, hard disks only last five years, generally.” And that’s not Pogue saying it; that’s Dag Spicer at the Computer History Museum, who is trying to preserve these things.

I know a lot of people have migrated away from tape backups to hard drives stacked in a closet; I know I copied as many of our old Exabytes as I could read onto an external FireWire 400 drive (in addition to using redundant DVDs of more recent material). I’ve always worried about stored drives spinning up again and potential “sticktion” problems; this is the first time I’ve personally heard a time frame put on it by someone of authority. And as we know, FireWire 400 is getting dropped by some computers as well. It sounds like backing up data is no longer a save-and-forget-it exercise (not that it ever was), but instead a shell game we need to be playing constantly in order to keep backups up-to-date.

Regardless of media used, as we noted earlier still make two copies - just to be extra safe.

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