I  was happy to hear that Halifax is hosting its first podcamp tomorrow, and asked one of the organizers, Craig Moore, AKA Spider VIdeo, to have a short chat about the event. For you've never been in one, Podcamp is a un-conference (meaning, a gathering where all content is decided upon and created by the participants), focused on social media, podcasting, and online video. As a community oriented event, it is much more engaging than the regular smart-guy-standing-behind-a-podium-and-everyone-are-listening-or-checking-emails kind of event. I had the pleasure to attend and present in two of these events worldwide - and trust me, it is a lot of fun.

The event is organized by Craig, Ryan Deschamps e-Learning Manager, Halifax Public Libraries , and Ben Boudreau and Jon McGinley both from Revolve.

Regarding the local community, Craig described it as follows:

The climate is right for Atlantic Canada to learn more about the value of social media for business and community. Podcamps are a great opportunity to share ideas, meet new people and show what you know.

Being in Halifax and positioned where we are globally we tend to take a bit to get 100% up to speed as a community but we definitely have our international innovators. I have been waving the podcasting flag for a few years and have made several pilots for podcasts and am gaining some real traffic with SurfDonkey but there is not a great deal of podcasters locally. Jeff MacArthur is based here though and he is one of the partners in CommandN which is doing extremely well (based primarily out of Toronto, Canada). There were others with audio podcasts that have Pod-faded but hopefully this event will re-energize the podcasting juices. Others have been Bruce Murray (formerly the Zedcast) and John Bignell (EMS live podcast) but I'm pretty sure they are both on-hiatus. That being said though there are more just waiting in the wings i'm sure. We do have a very robust social media community via twitter though and they're several great bloggers (including Ben himself and Ryan.

If you are into podcasting, social media, content creation or just interested in what social media has to offer you and your business, check out this event. You can follow it on Twitter with the tag #podcamphfx, and some of the session will be streamed live via Ustream.

Stay tuned - I am looking forward to see some of the sessions online.

One of my favorite podcasts is Meet The Experts by Pixel Heads Networks. The reason is simple - the value to noise ratio here is huge. Almost every episode taught me about a product or workflow I should know about, and at least once affected my buying decision. So, I took the opportunity to interview Marcelo Lewin, the guy behind this and other shows for digital media creators.

What's Pixel Heads Network? Which shows are a part of the network and who is their target audience?

Pixel Heads Network is a Internet Media Network dedicated web shows for digital media creators. We create shows that entertain, educate and inform digital media creators. Currently we have 5 shows:

Meet The Experts, is a show were we interview experts in new media and we go indepth on topics that affect new media and digital media creators.

EXPOzed covers all the expo shows, including NAB, Macworld, CES, HD Expo, DV Expo, plus many others. We interview all the vendors with in-depth questions on their products.

Digital Media Quick Tips is focused on the "how-to" for digital media creators. We show you how use a variety of different applications and get in-depth on the topics. We usually start with a problem (e.g. How do you capture AVCHD on Final Cut Pro) and end with a solution.

Tame The Tube concentrates on YouTube and how video producers can harness its power for media distribution and marketing.

And Mac-411 which is dedicated to Mac users showing them how to use the thousands of applications that are available for the Mac.

Wow, pretty impressive. Many podcasters can't make a living out of this hobby - is this your full time job, or just a part time thing?

PHN was a part time thing (along with my full time job) until December, when it was acquired by a company called ProMAX Systems, which provides digital media solutions to digital media creators (e.g. Full systems for video editing, web development, audio engineering, etc.). Our match was made in heaven. We both complement each other and have the same customer. Now that we are part of ProMAX, we will continue to provide quality shows (and remain fully editorially independent from what ProMAX sells) to both our viewers and the ProMAX customer base. And our viewers now will have access to purchasing the best digital media solutions anywhere.

How do you gain access to all those great people in your podcasts?

It's funny because many people always ask me this. But I have one rule in life. Ask. Just ask. What's the worst that can happen when you ask? You get denied and you move on. What's the best that can happen when you ask? They say yes! Besides that, another great thing I learned is to make friends and treat PR people real well. Why? Usually, you have to go through a PR representative to get to a CEO or COO or high profile person. If you do a good job with them and then you do a terrific job with the interview, the person you interview usually tells their PR person it was great. Then the PR person usually will get back to you and offer you other people they represent. It's all about building relationships with people, treating people fairly and right.

How do you work with advertisers and sponsors? What are their main concerns? How do you address them?

Advertisers are moving away from traditional media and moving many of their dollars into new media. The target market we go after, digital media creators, are usually well educated, affluent people, so it doesn't take that much to convince a vendor that provides digital media creation tools to sponsor our shows. Our viewers are their potential (or even current) customers. It is very important, though, that you know who your audience is, and be able to define it properly and, have enough statistics to show a potential sponsor who your audience is, what they are watching, the # of views per video, etc. Also, if you can get a high profile sponsor (even if you charge them very little or even nothing), it will help you in the future get other sponsors. No one ever wants to be the first one...but if they see others are in on it, they'll jump right in.

Now that you guy(s) were bought how would your network operate?

Now that we are part of ProMAX, my title changed from CEO of Pixel Heads Network to General Manager of Pixel Heads Network and also Director of Interactive Media for ProMAX. My responsibilities will continue to be the same for PHN, but I will take on additional responsibilities managing all the aspects of interactive media for ProMAX including all eMarketing efforts. It's definitely an exciting time and I look forward to continue to bring quality content to digital media creators while at the same time, working in an environment (ProMAX) which highly values digital media creators!

Here are some of the most interesting stories I read recently:

- A report about the usage of Internet in Newspapers (we wrote about it here) (Thanks JD!)

- An overview of a major podcasting application that makes me think I should dump GarageBand

- A good overview of 10 open source apps

- An excellent article about iPlayer HD plans

Have a great Day!

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BoinxTV, a software video mixer with high end features, is about to be released in November 11th. The product, by the award winning company Boinx, is pushing the envelope in semi-pro video productions and live events.

The product enables users to mix up to three sources (pre-recorded media, or live cameras), add transitions, lower thirds, overlays, logos, and live elements to the video feed and record it as a quicktime file or upload it to Apple's podcast producer.

When you launch the software, you can chose a show template - news, hi-tech, sports, or blank template.

Based on your choice, a complex and unintuitive interface is opened, that allows you to define which overlays should be used, titles, lower thirds, transitions and logos.

Though filled with options and out of the box graphics, it took me a while to learn how to operate this tool. Having said that, it is still much simpler (and cheaper) then learning After Effects or other post production tools.

This application is very appealing to churches, local football teams, schools, and other communities looking for a cheap and easy to use tool that will give their video production a bit of a boost. The same goes for video podcasters. However, it has some major disadvantages:

1. It doesn't support live broadcasting - unlike CamTwist, BoinxTV is only for recording media, not live broadcasting. This is a major disadvantage as its live mixing abilities are impressive, and could make the life of blogtv and ustream broadcasters much simpler, and improve their production value.

2. The interface is not easy to use at all. it took me a while to get the UI concept - even though Boinx make some amazing apps.

3. Many of its features can be found in free alternative, though online, such as Mogulus.

4. And on a personal note, I don't really like applications which promise too much before they are able to deliver it. They do make post production easier, for a very specific segment of users, but this is still not a substitute for post production applications such as After Effects. Therefore, their notion of "Say Goodbye to Post Production" is a little overdoing it in my opinion.

You can follow the application's twitter account, watch an interview with the company, and read more about the application here.

]]> http://pravdam.com/2008/10/14/boinxtv-offering-low-cost-alternative-for-high-end-post-production-tools/feed/ 5 http://pravdam.com/2007/05/28/great-post-about-the-difference-between-audio-video-and-text-for-content-creators/ http://pravdam.com/2007/05/28/great-post-about-the-difference-between-audio-video-and-text-for-content-creators/#comments Mon, 28 May 2007 06:35:00 +0000 Kfir Pravda http://pravdam.wordpress.com/2007/05/28/great-post-about-the-difference-between-audio-video-and-text-for-content-creators/

My friend Chris Brogan posted a great article in his blog about the difference between Video, Audio and text for content creators.

Here are the highlights:

1. Video is good for visual information - and that's why interviews are often cut in the middle as they are boring to watch. it is an important point in my opinion especially for DIY content creators, as interviews are one of the cheapest content type to create.

2. Audio creates deeper relations between the listener and the speaker.

3. Text is a great tool to provide information as is.

Another important observation Chris is making, is that there is no one medium any more - you should use different types of media to deliver your message.

These are just the highlights - please go to the original post for more details.

Technorati Tags: Chris Brogan, audio, text, video, blog, vlog, podcast

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In the recent months we see new ways to deliver web videos to your television. Apple TV, and Tivo's new features are just two examples of this trend. With new Media Centers out there, we can assume that this trend will increase in both magnitude and importance.

How will it affect the world of independent content creators? I believe that this process is a double edge sword:

1 . We will see more exposure to independent content creators - as shows like Ask a Ninja and Something To Be Desired will be shown on living room TV sets, one of the major barriers of entry to these new media creators will be removed - people won't need to watch video online, but in their regular TV. Though seems logical, I believe that this process will take some time to happen. Though Tivo users are not necessarily early adopters I still believe that it will take some time till my mother will use media center. Therefore, it is not clear how many new users will start watching web shows, as I assume that media savvy early adopters already watch them.

2. Production quality will rise - though current production quality of indie content creators is very good, when moving from small video screen in a web site to full blown TV format, things change. In the 3D animation company I had in the past, we had a clear distinction between productions for internet, mobile, television, and cinema as the effort to create high quality show is correlated with screen size in some aspects. Small details are more apparent.

3. And it will be harder to beat the competition - today most people do not expect the same level of product from internet video as they expect from television show. When users will be able to see a web show, and a minute later another episode of Studio 60 or Prison Break, their level of expectation will change, starting with script level, through actors, and general production value. This is THE major challenge for indie content creators in my opinion - as they begin to be an alternative to regular television.

4. Indie content creators will change the type of content they are creating - from short, 5-8 minutes flicks, to longer formats. The attention span in television is longer than in the internet, and people are willing to watch longer formats there. However, it might prove to be the killer of this industry. Longer formats are usually more expensive, and complicated to produce. As production cost and complexity rise, the competitive advantage of indie content creators, the ability to create quality content cheaply, is lost. Time will tell if there are enough talented creators to face the high profile, high cost productions out there. It might be that this will be the first wave of Creative Darwinism, when only the most talented content creators will survive.

How do you see it?

More to come...

Last week Heather Green from BusinessWeek published a short post about N3, a new video startup. The most interesting quote there was from Jeff Jarvis:

"It's the first minutes of this new medium, and we don't know how this model is going to work... Like with the first wave of the Internet, The smart people got in and the dumb people stood back, you have to get in and learn."

I couldn't agree more. It is almost impossible to write a meaningful business plan for web shows. But, taking risks in early stage of the industry is crucial in my opinion in order to gain insight to the the media world of tomorrow. So, buy a camera, and start filming...