Business

Get the Adobe Media Player Now!

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This is an excerpt from an article to be released in full later this week:

Adobe released the Adobe Media Player software on April 9, which allows a customizable, cross-platform media player experience. Built using as an Adobe Air application, the media player harnessed the power of Flash to create a rich media experience. To complete the experience, Adobe adds support for both RSS feeds and H.264 video, two of the open standards used by the podcasting movement.

What does this all mean? I had a chance to sit down with Deeje Cooley, who serves as the evangelist for Adobe’s Dynamic Media Organization (and formerly as the product manager for the Adobe Media Player). Cooley was tasked with bringing the product to market and he shared insight into Adobe’s motivation for the product and goals for its role in the market. Unlike competing products, the Adobe Media Player has chosen to focus on being a video-only player.

“The growth of video online, the dramatic growth of flash as the video delivery mechanism of choice… there was a ripe opportunity to take advantage of all these events around the industry,” said Cooley. “We started to build an RSS aggregator and quickly recognized that video was going to be a significant media online and so it became a video RSS aggregator. And so that’s really the birth of the Adobe Media Player.”



The Adobe Media Player is immediately available as a free download for Windows and Macintosh platforms fromhttp://www.adobe.com/go/mp.


New Podcasting Book About to Ship

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My podcasting book is now off the presses and on its way to stores.

Here's Chapter 1

The initial reviews are in:

"This guide is full of solid information from people who know online video and are in the trenches doing it. It's a must read for anyone who wants to produce professional video podcasts." – Jason Van Orden, podcasting consultant and author of Promoting Your Podcast

"Required reading.Starting with a clear analysis of the nature and business of podcasting it covers the essentials of production and finishes with the all-important topics of delivery, RSS feeds, publishing, and hosting." – Tom Wolsky, vp editorial, National Podcasting System, www.nationalpod.com

"WOW, the accumulated knowledge from 1000s of hours of planning, production, post and delivery essentials delivered in a simple, concise fashiona professional resource manual that needs to be a part of every video production library" –. Gary Adcock, digital artist and technology trainer

"Not just a book about Podcasting, but a full primer on professional audio and video production and digital publishing that is lavishly illustrated and full of practical tips." – Philip Hodgetts, president and ceo, Open Television Network openTVnetwork.com

You can order the book here.


Washington Business Journal Article on Podcasting

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If you think podcasting is just for kids, you might be missing the next big thing

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Richard Harrington looks out on the small crowd of businesspeople sitting on red plastic chairs in RHED Pixel's Falls Church studios. Dressed in black, topped by a subtle black-and-white pinstriped velvet blazer and hoop earrings, he is the epitome of geek chic.

The audience has come to hear Harrington talk podcasting. These folks already are convinced there is something to podcasting, but they are trying to determine if it can help their businesses.”

Read the full article for free at their website.


Blu-ray Wins?

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Digital Media Wire has a very interesting article about the fate of HD-DVD. Seems Wal-Mart had dropped HD DVD (along with Best Buy and Netflix).
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Toshiba "is expected to pull the plug on its HD DVD format in the coming weeks." THR noted, however, that Toshiba says no official decision has been made. "Given the market developments in the past month, Toshiba will continue to study the market impact and the value proposition for consumers, particularly in light of our recent price reductions on all HD DVD players," Jodi Sally, VP of marketing for Toshiba America Consumer Products, told THR.

Toshiba had hoped that slashing the prices on its HD DVD players last month would help bolster sales, but subsequent sales data from NPD showed that Blu-ray maintained its wide sales lead despite the move.  




GridIron Flow Demo Movie

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I saw this very cool product at Macworld Expo called Flow. It is a revolutionary workflow management technology designed to work with Adobe and Apple software. The product took Best of Show (and for good reason). You can see it in action in a video demo on their site. 

"Flow is a revolutionary approach to digital content management that dramatically simplifies the design process for creative professionals working on graphic design, web and video projects. Flow automatically tracks your work from idea to end result and manages your assets and applications for your most complex projects- all without changing the way you work."

Flow isn't shipping for a while, but GridIron is accepting sign-ups for beta testing.

An International Survey on Podcasting

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This international survey has a lot of information on podcasting. The survey size is a little small, so the numbers are skewed a bit... but it is still a good read. You can download some of the statistics at: http://podcastersurvey.com/ipcs07.pdf. Some of the interesting findings include:

  • Podfading seems to be a minor problem at the moment
  • The European podosphere is commercially less ambitious
  • Podcasting is not only attracting "techies"
  • Podcasting is about identity and relationship management
  • Most are interested in sharing information and expressing of opinions



Prediction: 40% of Video Online by 2012

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The Silicon Valley Insider has an interesting post about video distribution online. Many in Hollywood predict that within four years 40% of all video consumption would occur outside of the television set. That's according to a poll of nearly 300 media execs by Jack Myers and video tracking firm Teletrax. The short article has some interesting insight into how the "big guys" see things.

Read the full article here.





Interviewer Tips

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Becoming a good interviewer is an acquired skill that takes training and practice. For the less experienced, here are a few helpful pointers.

  • “Edit in the Camera.” Encourage short answers and come back to topics again. Better to focus on good, tight answers than trying to cobble together six takes to make your point.
  • Avoid enumeration or the phrase “Like I said before.” It is highly likely that you will use only part of the answer (such as step three, without steps one and two).
  • Ask leading, open-ended questions… being sure to ask a single question only.
  • Don’t be afraid to stop and start over. Do not let an answer ramble on. Smiles and nods encourage subjects that they are ‘on-target’ and can stop trying to talk themselves out of a corner.


European Radio Conference

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I recently had the pleasure of speaking at the 2007 European Radio Conference presented by the National Association of Broadcasters. The event was held in Barcelona, Spain and was a lot of fun. I presented two sessions and a panel along with the talented David Lawrence. For those who intended (and other interested parties) you can download the notes here.

Podcast Compression Techniques

Beyond Audio – Using Enhanced Audio and Video in your Podcast Feed


Great Piece of Freeware for Producers/Directors/DPs

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If you need to put together a storyboard, you have lots of options. But the process of laying out the pages and dealing with changes to shot order or selection can get tedious. Fortunately there is a free solution called Directors Boards which alleviates most of the challenges (no, it won't draw for you).

This great program is based on Filemaker, but doesn't need you to have the full program installed in order to run. You essentially load in information regarding the shots including the audio and video columns, shot number, and a thumbnail image. Directors Boards then allows you to organize the shots as well as create a sldieshow presentation or print out professional looking storyboards. The product is cross-platform and free... what more do you need? Well there is a more robust version called Directors Notebook, which we are putting through its paces and will have a detailed review soon.