Archive for the 'Internet TV' Category

Talking with Al Gore in My PJ

Al gore giving his global warming talk in Moun...
Image via Wikipedia

I was sick last week, and that’s why I didn’t post anything lately. Now I am back to work, and this blog will be updated as usual.

Digitas produced a great event called Digital Content Newfront couple of weeks ago, as a part of NYC Internet Week.

And I was an active participant, even though I was thousands of miles away.

The event covered brand marketing strategies, and was keynoted by Al Gore, who discussed Viewers Generated Ads, a strategy that let viewers create ads for brands. Mr. Gore talked extensively about the need for authenticity in brand marketing, a tricky topic for cigarettes and oil companies.
I was interested to hear Al Gore’s take on that - so with a simple twit, I’ve sent a question to the conference, from my living room in Israel. My friend Jon Burg who was moderating incoming twitter questions, asked the question at the event - and Gore responded simply by saying that they don’t work with such companies. I was a part of the whole thing as I watched the live video feed from NYC.
The amazing part of the story is not that I was able to see a video stream of a remote event and ask a question. This was done before with ustream and blog.tv. The important point here is that these technologies are now mature enough:

  • The video feed was crisp and almost without any buffering. From urls of the event I believe it is the work of Bitgravity, an affordable HD CDN.
  • The room was covered with multiple cameras using Tricaster , a low cost video mixer.
  • And Twitter was pretty stable.

So I was in my PJ, at home, talked with one of the brightest minds, Al Gore, all thanks to usable, affordable technologies.

The Physical walls are falling. The only barrier for communication is willingness.


Morning Digest

Image representing hulu as depicted in CrunchBase
Image via CrunchBase

How wrong can a YouTube competition get  http://bit.ly/cNKdd

Justin.tv becomes more social   http://bit.ly/1aKVNF

How can I share video on Twitter?   http://bit.ly/Jecii

Concrete news about Hulu’s international expansion  http://bit.ly/18u7Aw


Choosing Camera For Online Video Production - Part 1.5

Bell & Howell 8mm home camera
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In the first post in this series I’ve reviewed the basic considerations in buying a camera for online video production. This post will cover advanced camera features, for savvy buyers (or latent video geeks like me). Understanding them can help you make better choices when buying your next video camera. Just like the previous post, I will focus on sub $1,000 cameras, as an entry level for most videographers. So let’s start: Continue reading…


With ABC In Bed With Hulu, YouTube’s life Just Became Much Harder

ABC 1946 logo
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After long negotiations, ABC are becoming a stake holder in Hulu, the Internet TV company funded by NBC, Fox and Providence Equity Partners. This deal further strengthens Hulu’s position as the leading premium online TV provider, with 27 partners, and newly extended 2 years exclusivity of the main players’ content.

Hulu is proving that great content is king. The site, that was launched a little more than a year ago, has shown meteoric growth and is the third largest online video site in the US. However, as Jeff Zucker, NBC’s President,  mentioned in his NYC Media Summit interview, the site is still not profitable.

This deal has a profound effect on YouTube, the queen of video UGC. The site, which is losing hundreds of millions of dollars annually, is facing a huge challenge, that puts it in a collision course with the TV networks’ prodigy. Continue reading…


Choosing Camera For Online Video Production - Part 1

own work
Image via Wikipedia

Recently I’ve been asked by several people which video camera should they buy in order to shoot online videos. So, instead of answering only on Twitter I’ve decided to write this post series. This post will cover key considerations, and the next one will review some of the models sold today. I will focus on sub $1,000 gear considerations, which is around the amount of money new entrants are willing to spend on such an equipment.

But, before we start, let’s put one thing straight:

No camera can save a bad script, horrible talent, or plain bad experience some great things are done with cheap cameras (1938 Media for example), and some horrible pieces of moving pictures were done in huge budget (did anyone say “The day the earth stood stil[5.6/10 rating][5.6/10 rating]l”?)

Equipment can make your life easier, make some things feasible, but that’s it. Nothing can replace talent and knowledge. in other words - IT IS NOT WHAT HAPPENS WITHIN THE CAMERA THAT IS IMPORTANT, IT IS WHAT HAPPENS IN FRONT OF IT.

Ok, with that out of the way, let’s get started:

Continue reading…