Capria TV

The Disney-ABC Television Group announced the launch of Stage 9 Digital Media yesterday. Stage 9’s mission is to bridge the gap between user-generated content and broadcast network programming. (I thought that’s what Fox does.) Still, there’s quite a space between cats using the toilet and Scrubs. First out of the gate is “Squeegees,” a series exclusively distributed on YouTube.

The formula might work. “Squeegees” does have higher production values than most anything else featured on YouTube. Its lower production costs allow for more experimentation, and its web presence allows for instantaneous data measurements of audience size, length of visit, and click-through. Networks now have the means to get more young talent in pipelines. 

Quarterlife is a series about those people you couldn’t stand in college and didn’t care what happened to them afterwards. As Friends proved, that can be a successful formula. What makes Quarterlife interesting is that the series, originally rejected by ABC, began its life on the web. What makes it really interesting is that it wasn’t terribly successful—many episodes drew only 100,000 or so viewers. 

Apple’s ProRes codec is great, boasting great images and manageable files sizes, but its wider adoption is hampered by its proprietary distribution model. When Apple got into the editing business at the turn of the century it was a very different company. Avid had threatened to abandon the Mac platform, and Apple wanted to continue selling high end workstations to the professional video market. Few dared to imagine that Final Cut Pro would eventually challenge Avid as the dominant professional NLE.

While I’ve been quite pleased using ProRes 422 as an editing codec, I’ve been hampered in adopting it in a wider range of tasks. Visually, ProRes compares well to Avid’s DNxHD family of codecs, but unlike DNxHD ProRes is Mac-only. I can’t send a ProRes encoded QuickTime file to a PC for encoding, as a source for After Effects work, or import into an Avid or Premiere Pro system. Because Avid’s DNxHD is cross-platform, and Avid has a track record of supporting legacy codecs in later revisions, I have used all manner of Avid codecs for archiving purposes.

Last week Harris released the results of its survey of broadcasters making the switch to DTV. U.S. broadcasters said they expect to meet the FCC-mandated Feb. 17, 2009 deadline. That frees up a whole lot of spectrum—60 MHz in the 700 MHz band—with companies like Apple and Google, gobs of cash in hand, to grab a chunk once it hits the auction block.

This is the kind of stuff that usually flies under my radar, but it got me thinking. Should Google, Apple, or even Micro-hoo! opt to build a nationwide WiFi network, opportunities for independent video distribution will abound. Devices like the iPod Touch will make mobile video a reality as 3G operators like AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon cling to outdated broadcast models for mobile video distribution. 

Ever need to convert a puny JPEG or GIF of a client logo to EPS so you could scale it up? Adobe Illustrator’s Live Trace will do the job, but I don’t always have access to Illustrator on the client’s NLE. This handy web application does the trick quite nicely.

Update 2/27/08: Vector Magic has officially moved away from Stanford and is operating independently at vectormagic.com. It is no longer a free service, though the first two image conversions for new account holders are free.

Yesterday Avid announced the appointment of Kirk Arnold as the new Executive Vice President and General Manager of the pro video unit. Most customers won’t know Arnold. Once againCEO Gary Greenfield has hired from outside the video industry, but this is not necessarily a bad thing. A former colleague of Arnold’s at NerveWire told me, “If Avid is looking to create/expand their professional service offerings then Kirk could be a good fit.” She is known among colleagues for her energy, approachability, and leadership skills.

As NLE software and hardware become commoditized, professional services (consulting) is exactly where Avid needs to go. Of course this is also a somewhat disappointing announcement to many Avid users and customers as Arnold is taking Graham Sharp’s position. Word from Avid yesterday was that Graham is remaining with the company, but his role is to be determined. Ideally Sharp would maintain a leadership role in product development while Arnold concentrates on expanding professional services.

Farewell Xpress Pro?

Sharp’s most notable move during his year or so heading up pro video was pulling Avid out of IBC and NAB. It will be interesting to see if that remains Avid’s strategy along with other initiatives in the works by Sharp. One well-placed source recently told me that Avid was set to announce the consolidation of the Media Composer and Xpress Pro lines (a move long overdue) with the cost of Media Composer software dropping by half. Xpress Pro and Liquid customers would be given $500 upgrade options. Some hardware was also going to have price cuts, with Adrenaline HD dropping below $20,000. If Avid’s putting more of an emphasis on professional services for large installations, these moves still make sense.

The question becomes: How much development resources continue to be given to Media Composer? The upgrade offer for Liquid users leads me to believe that the Pinnacle line might sold off.