Posted by Brian Steel

Last night, I experienced my first introduction to Silverlight. I finally had the opportunity to catch up on some of the Olympic games that I had missed. So, I figured what the heck, why not check out the games online? After a simple Google search, I found NBCOlympics.com. I clicked through the site in order to watch some Olympic events only to discover that I must download the Silverlight plug-in software before proceeding. Silverlight is Microsoft’s cross-browser, cross-platform and cross-device plug-in software solution for embedded streaming media player technologies, which happens to be .NET compatible. Although I anticipated my experience to be much worse, I was pleasantly surprised. One click and a minute later the .DMG file was on my desktop. I do not know why Microsoft software runs so much smoother on Macintosh?

Anyway, upon completion of the software install, I was back on NBCOlympics.com watching Olympic programming such as Women’s Archery, Softball and Kayaking. You know all the extremely important ‘mainstream’ Olympic events. It was great! The Silverlight player was easy to use and the streams were like watching the real event on a really small screen with the option to enlarge. However I do not recommend the enlarge feature it is not so great, the playback becomes ‘blocky,’ ‘distorted’ and difficult to watch.

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posted by brian

Last night I decided to seek out one of my former bass teachers, Andrew Pouska, to discuss my recent purchase. Andrew is also the best bass teacher I ever had and I wanted to reconnect. After executing a simple Google search, I found this site he has created: www.studybass.com. WOW! Read more…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/technology/newsid_7408000/7408215.stm

posted by brian

To follow up on the tapeless HD camcorder discussion, I recently set out to buy my first HD consumer camcorder. First, I created a list of features that I must have on my consumer HD camcorder such as: hard disk or flash memory recording format, both 24p and 30p frames per second capturing rates, 3ccd color, Leica or Carl Zeiss lens, image stabilization, back light, etc. What can I say I expect to get the most bang for my buck. After a week of online research, I narrowed my choices down to four cameras:
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A client of mine recently asked me to build a green screen. Immediately ideas of DIY media production flooded my ahead. So, I proceeded to Google to search for green screen construction ideas (see links on the next page). Questions in relation to portability, durability, type of fabric, indoor or outdoor use, etc. began to arise. I shortly realized all the aforementioned factors need to be considered for the construction of this green screen. Read more…

Welcome to my post on basic audio tools and theory. Keep in mind introduction to audio in media is a year-long course. In this post, you will learn some rudimentary audio theory and some tools to help you begin the editing audio process. In order to accommodate the blog format, I have broken this post down into four separate posts (see Audio Posts 2 through 5).

Continue reading if you dare… I will attempt to discuss three tools Equalization, Filters and Compression in relation to audio theory. If these tools are used correctly, they will enhance our audio content significantly.

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Equalizers

An equalizer (EQ) is used to boost or cut the volume of certain frequencies. Most equalizers have multiple bands, which enables the user to boost or cut volume across multiple frequencies, or bands. An equalizer that contains high, mid and low frequency controls is referred to as a three band EQ. Equalizers are used to shape sound of recorded content, correct poorly recorded audio, create a new sound out of an existing sound, and to blend multiple instruments into a well-balanced audio mix. It is highly important to monitor your audio on high quality flat (as in no volume boosts or cuts between 20 Hz to 20 kHz) speakers or headphones while working with EQ. I tend to use EQ sparingly unless I am attempting to salvage poorly recorded audio.

There are several types of equalizers the most common EQs you will see in most video editing software are: Graphic EQs, Parametric EQs and Shelving EQs. These three types of EQ are important to know, because they are common to video/audio production software, as well as recording studios or post houses.
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A filter is a type of equalizer that sharply attenuates frequencies above or below a certain frequency. Filters are used to remove noise, undesirable frequencies and bleed from other sounds/instruments above or below a specified frequency range. There are two types of filters that will be most beneficial to our project the high-pass and the low-pass filter.

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