Friday, September 26, 2008

Welcome to Web Video & Beyond

Chris Meyer | 09/26- 11:01 AM

Opening discussions on alternate forms of distribution.

As we mentioned earlier, we are in the process of launching a series of “themed” channels on PVC. One of the new channels we’re most excited about is Web Video & Beyond.

The advent of cable and satellite television had a big impact on the industry, as they created a demand for more content - content that had to look as good as any “national” feed, but produced at a lower cost. This was fuel to the fire for the desktop video industry, highlighting the economic advantage desktop production brought.

Today, we are still in the early stages of another large explosion in content distribution: web video, and other alternate outlets such as cell phones, PDAs, intelligent multimedia gaming devices, and beyond. Even while the business models are still being built up, the demand for cost-effective content is as strong as ever. (I’ve talked about this before.)

But there are new challenges as well: the technology (Flash has a huge installed base - but it’s not in iPhones), new program formats (an attention span closer to a 5-minute podcast than a 30 or 60 minute network program), the impact of increasing bandwidth (the movement from SWF to FLV means traditional editors and motion graphics artists can use their current skill sets, rather than learn how to animate sprites), and the question of just how much production value is needed in this Web 2.0, user-generated-content, YouTube world. It’s confusing; it’s evolving; it’s exciting. We hope to learn together with you up here.

Speaking of learning together: We are always on the lookout for good writers for PVC, and this new channel is a new opportunity to share what you know. If you already have a blog and want to repost some of your “classic” articles here (as well as new content, of course), or previously wrote for magazines or other web outlets and now want to be part of PVC, let’s talk! I can be reached at cmeyer @ PVC’s web domain above. Writers share in PVC’s ad revenue based on their traffic.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Allvoices.com

Richard Harrington | 09/10- 08:53 PM

A New Site for Distribution

At New Media Expo ‘08, Richard Harrington talks to Amra Tareen from allvoices.com, the first open media site where anyone can report from anywhere.

Sunday, September 07, 2008

TED Talk: The Web and TV, a Sibling Rivalry

Chris Meyer | 09/07- 09:37 AM

Peter Hirshberg gives a history lesson on the parallel development of computers and TV over the past 50 years.

A parallel conference to TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) is the EG (Entertainment Gathering) conference, whose goal is “making information entertaining & entertainment informative.” This talk from last year’s EG gives a history lesson on the development of both television and computers, which are of roughly the same age. Although it gets bogged down at times (you could skip ahead from the 5 minute mark to 11 minutes, unless early computers gets your geek up), it does contain numerous interesting nuggets, such as the interview with tweeners where they explain why thing think television is “optional” in their lives, parallels between the tech and messianic movements, how TV was supposed to kill radio, how crayons were used to create a proprietary media platform, Microsoft’s initial pooh-poohing of the information superhighway, and other amusing anecdotes as well as important lessons in the different business models between the web and television.

(While blogging on a web site about media creation, I can’t help but note technically that they failed to removed the interlacing from the video reference materials, and that the audio equalization is fatiguing to listen to. Plus not all technologists understand pacing in entertainment. Fortunately, the medium isn’t the entire message.)

Monday, August 25, 2008

QuickTime Quickies

Jay Rose | 08/25- 08:02 AM

A couple of non-intuitive hacks for QuickTime audio

I’m a soundie. So I frequently have to send music samples, progressive mixes, and other pieces of track to directors or clients for approval. Since I’m also a lazy soundie, I’ve discovered a couple of ways to speed up the process… and save my clients a lot of download time.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Vacuum Packed

Jay Rose | 08/19- 05:13 PM

Compress audio files without losing quality? You can, if you measure them the right way.

My last two blog tutorials discussed neural masking, and how an mp3 or AAC can be good enough for broadcast or film sound when you do it right. (If you followed the link to my website, you even got proof.) But sometimes, even AAC’s tiny losses can be too much: you might be sending elements that will be processed or compressed more, or be saving an archive. While most non-audio files can be successfully squeezed with Winzip or Stuffit, those processes behave strangely with audio.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Living with (Data) Loss

Jay Rose | 08/16- 02:19 PM

mp3 and its cousins are a fact of life… here’s how to get the most out of them

If you do audio for the Web, broadcast, or movie theaters, sooner or later you’ll have to deal with some form of lossy data compression. But you don’t have to buy into the mp3 myths and hype. If you understand how those algorithms actually work - how they decide what data to lose - your tracks can sound a lot better.

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