New Nikon D90 does video!
Nikon today announced the D90, which does 720p video.
Will record up to 5 minutes of 1280×720 MJPEG AVI video at 24fps with mono sound. No external audio. No audio controls except on and off.
Supposed to be available in October for around a grand. The new Canon 50D also announced today doesn’t do video.
The Nikon official info: http://www.nikonusa.com/Find-Your-Nikon/Product/Digital-SLR/25446/D90.html
FCC bans wireless mics in 700mhz range
A Broadcasting & Cable story notes that “The Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously to prohibit the use of wireless microphones and other devices in the 700-megahertz band after the transition to digital.”
A Washington Post story says that the FCC is going to crack down on wireless mics used by churches and karaoke bars, as well as ban wireless mics in the recently sold spectrum.
“The Federal Communications Commission is proposing a ban on certain types of wireless microphones and has begun an investigation into how the industry markets its products,” the story says.
I am very unclear on what all this means to existing mics, but it looks like some frequency ranges of wireless mics may be in trouble (particularly the Sennheiser block “c” mics and others in the 700mhz range — guess which ones we use?) and they definitely won’t be sold anymore.
Florida Today LIVE from the center of the storm
Florida Today, a 94,000-circulation Gannett paper in Brevard County, has been streaming live video from crews driving out in the middle of some of the worst flooding from tropical storm Fay. They’ve had a live video player from Mogulus.com on their web front for three days showing the rain and flooding. Wednesday afternoon, they had two crews out in the thick of it and were able to switch between the two cameras, making it a much better experience than when I first saw it with only one camera.
Florida Today’s Tom Kehoe, director of staff development, tells how they did it:
“This is real low tech. We’re using MacBook pros with 2GB of memory and the Sprint Novatel U720 usb EVDO cards. We attach the cards with a usb cable and get the best reception by wedging the card up under the sun visor. The camera we’re using is the Sony HVR A1U, and we connect by firewire.. We shoot in 16×9. We mount the camera using an old Video Innovators dash mount, which has suction cups that attach to the windshield and a brace that goes to the floor. We put a cushion under the brace to help soften the bumps. We stream it all through a web service called Mogulus.
The first time we tried it was on Tuesday, as Tropical Storm Fay was blowing in. This was supposed to be a minor storm with low winds that would dissipate quickly. But it stalled over top of us and just grew stronger and stronger. When we sent out our video stream team, we weren’t sure how long we could keep it going, or how the public would respond. We ended up keeping it going for more than five hours, and viewership built steadily until we had about 1,500 viewers – and it stayed at that level for hours. Our two person-crew was Chris Kridler and Tim Walters. Both are converged journalists – they can do print as well and video — and Chris is an avid storm chaser, who has tracked tornados around the midwest for years. That experience really helped.
They toured the county and simply described what they saw, as if they were talking directly to the viewers. They panned and zoomed to show trouble spots and generally give Brevard County viewers a look at what the rain was doing to their neighbors. We pulled them in as it got dark, and before the worst of the storm hit. It was so effective that we ramped it up the following morning, with the tail end of Tropical Storm Fay still sitting on top of us. By this time, Brevard had three days of rain: Rain that came down in sheets so thick that visibility was practically zero. Flood waters were rising all over the county. When you live in Florida you expect the occasional flood, but no one was ready for anything like this. Homes were being breached in towns scattered all over Brevard. Entire neighborhoods were cut off, folks were stuck in their homes, unable to leave.
By afternoon, with rain still falling, we had put two video stream teams out. Using Mogulus, we switched from one to the other, depending on which crew had the most dramatic footage. We used a lower-third label to alert readers to the location of the crew, and then posted my email address and an invitation for viewers to tell us where they wanted us to send our units. Within minutes, we had two dozen emails, some from folks on the other side of the country worrying about their homes. Viewership went over 2,000. Technical problems were constant – loss of audio or video, and occasionally of cellphone service. We directed the teams using cellphones and text messages. The teams were alternately talking with us, a TV station and the viewers themselves.
And while the flooding made for great video, it also made for dangerous reporting conditions. Many of the roads they were traveling were so flooded that just staying on the road was major concern. You often couldn’t tell if you were about to drive into water that a foot deep, or a yard deep. Some of the highlights of that coverage: Police rescuing a couple of kids kayaking who got into trouble because of the intense currents in the flood waters; several accidents; residents trying to cope with flooded homes; and a couple of characters who were surfing the violent currents in a storm swale.
During those first two days we produced more than 13 hours of streaming video, and we’ll be doing it again tomorrow.”
Here’s some of their live footage, edited down:
New Panasonic HMC150 uses SD cards
Videomaker magazine did a live review of the new Panasonic HMC150 AVCHD camcorder and they have it looping at http://www.videomaker.com/video/live/
The HMC150 is the new dvx100 but shoots high def on SD flash cards.
They’ve got some files from the camera on the same page, but Final Cut 6.03 crashes for me when I try to log&transfer the clips.
The camera is going to be $3500 and looks like the new newspaper news camera
if anyone can figure out a way to edit the files.
What do you expect? It’s internet video….
More video ads in our future…. if we produce content professionally.
In a press release, eMarketer says online video ad spending will be $505 Million this year, down from their original estimate of $1.4 Billion. The new number, they say, represents a 55.9% increase from 2007.
The $505 Million is 2% of total internet ad spending, they say.
They also claim that 129.5 million people will see online video advertising at least once a month.
From the release:
“The majority of video consumed online today is clips rather full-length TV episodes or movies. The most popular online video content, watched by more than 40% of the US online video audience, is clips of 5 minutes or less. They consist of news, jokes, movie trailers, music videos and TV shows.
“Even as video becomes the great growth area for Internet advertising, there’s a major disconnect between the amount of time people spend with short-form video, especially user-generated, and the ad dollars that accompany such video content,” says eMarketer senior analyst David Hallerman. “However, as media companies change their business model, putting more and more professionally created video content online, the audience—and related ad dollars—will increase dramatically.”
(Take it for what it’s worth. Near as I can tell, eMarketer is an aggregator of different research firms and doesn’t do any research itself.)
No live truck? How about a motorcycle?
From a Link Research press release (they’re from the U.K.)
Link Research is showing a Newsgathering Motorcycle system, a new concept designed to provide news teams with the fastest possible response to breaking news stories.
Used in conjunction with Link’s city centre cellular receive system, the bike can be deployed instantly, giving live pictures from its on-board cameras as soon as it leaves the garage.
In today’s congested urban areas, it can beat the traffic and arrive on-site often before the police have closed the area.
There are none of the parking issues which can slow down camera crews and SNG vehicles, even when they have arrived at the scene.
Once on site, the bike can continue to provide live video and sound from its on-board cameras, or it can instantly deploy a radio camera (carried in the pannier) which links back to the bike, allowing the operator to get as close as possible to the action, and even take the camera inside buildings.
Features include full audio and video monitoring, 4W RF output for minimum 6Km range and automatically switched external video/audio input (for tape feeds etc). The system will power from the bike alternator or two detachable camera batteries (run time approx 1hr 30mins) which means that the bike can be left running inside a police cordon to provide vital coverage until the SNG/TNG vehicles are in place.
Other uses for the News Bike are: quick live 2-ways into news bulletins and as a repeater system for wireless cameras. The bike can often park where cars and trucks cannot and can link a camera from inside a building (press conference etc) back to base. It can also relay to helicopters or become a helicopter receive point.
CNN using “all-platform journalists” to double their presence in US.
from a Turner press release:
CNN Doubles U.S. Newsgathering Presence with Expansion into 10 Cities:
CNN plans to double its domestic newsgathering presence with new operations in 10 U.S. cities, resulting in an aggressive expansion of its newsgathering in the United States, it was announced today by Nancy Lane, senior vice president of newsgathering for CNN/U.S.
The new operations will be based in Columbus, Ohio; Denver; Houston; Las Vegas; Minneapolis, Minn.; Orlando, Fla.; Philadelphia; Phoenix; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; and Seattle. This expansion will also allow CNN to build stronger partnerships with affiliates in new and existing locations across the country. CNN already has bureaus in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
The newly expanded newsgathering operation will be staffed with a mix of traditional general assignment reporters with CNN’s current roster of “show-based correspondents,” who are attached to many of CNN’s daytime and prime-time programs, and newly designated “all-platform journalists.” All-platform journalists will combine new technologies with traditional journalism skills to gather news from the heart of America for all CNN’s networks and services, especially CNN’s growing digital platforms.
“CNN’s rapid adoption of new technology over the years put us in the enviable position to be able to expand at a time when others are cutting back,” Lane said. “Our technological innovations allow our reporters to be at the center of more breaking news events and developing stories across the United States, with greater independence and mobility than ever before. This expansion is a critical component of CNN Worldwide’s overall strategy for increased content ownership.”
By creating and harnessing the latest award-winning newsgathering and broadcast technology, CNN has consistently outpaced its rivals domestically and overseas. CNN’s most recent development of technology in newsgathering includes the use of lightweight kits that combine cameras, editing tools and advanced satellite and Internet communications technology into a laptop-based system. This suite of technologies enable CNN’s journalists to employ immediate live and video FTP submissions, real-time content monitoring, editing and voice communication from anywhere in the field.
More here from the New York Times.
And yet more from Broadcasting & Cable says they’re staffing by using people from their existing bureaus, and they’ll be using Samsung Blackjacks to transmit with.
Newspapers still worth the bucks
Cablevision Sytems completed its purchase of Newsday yesterday, reportedly for $650 million.
In contrast, the Post-Newsweek deal to buy Miami NBC station WTVJ was only $205 million, considerably less than pre-sale estimates. WTVJ was the NBC Universal owned/operated station which built (for mega millions) a new facility a few years ago which handled feeds for many other stations.
Post-Newsweek already owns WPLG in Miami, the #1 station; WTVJ is #6. Consolidation is planned, but TVJ will stay NBC albeit at WPLG’s new facility under construction.
Wonder what Cablevision will do with Newsday?
Wouldn’t a live truck be cheaper?
Gannett just sunk $10 million into Mogulus, the live video streaming service that the Argus Leader used to capture Hilary Clinton’s campaign remarks about the RFK assassination.
If you haven’t tried it, Mogulus is a free, easy to use live broadcast web service. It works even over cell phone slow connections. (I’ve done it.) They also slurp up rights to everything you put on it.
Presumably, Gannett’s 90 dailies and 23 television stations will be using it a lot.
Mogulus blogs about the investment here.
