There’s a bit of history surrounding “The Kit”. It all started with a presidential initiative back in 2006. We worked with a company to provide live streaming of lectures, and “boxes” that included all of the hardware needed to accomplish it, such as the computer, audio mixing board, two PTZ (Pan, Tilt, Zoom) video cameras, and a wireless microphone. It all got lugged around in a large rolling case, like something you’d see a band use on their world tour, pushing it in and out of the semi-trailer. It was huge, but it contained everything that was needed – except maybe the tripod wouldn’t quite fit.

The computer was a Shuttle PC with a Video Toaster card inside. I wrote (briefly) about it almost 4 years ago – Time to Make Video Toast.

It was a pretty sweet system in its day. Interesting how four years can seem like a generation ago when it comes to technology. This was also at a time when there was the shiny allure of recording in High Definition video. It was an upgrade for the Toaster that didn’t exist, even though HD cameras were available. Nope it was all Standard Definition video, with a composite connection to the Toaster, so the video quality was pretty low. When the time came to stream the video, a lot of the detail was being lost. For the 2009 Faculty Academy we used the Toaster with Ustream.tv. With no built in streaming capabilities (nothing cheap like Ustream anyway), we used an intermediary program called WebcamMax to get the captured video output to Ustream. It worked, and we got good feedback on the live stream, as well as exposing more people to the magic of Faculty Academy.

For 2010, my old Macintosh DNA was re-surging. I had started using a MacBook Pro in 2008, but I was using it to run Windows Vista. Pretty quickly I might add. I began making the switch to OS X in 2009, and I was beginning to investigate video solutions that would replace the Toaster. I found that the Mac platform had an interesting set of developers. There was also this strange phenomenon of bundled software deals available for Macs. In early February there was one called MacHeist. This was the third edition of this “event” and one of the programs included in the bundle was called Boinx TV. If enough people bought the bundle for $49, Boinx TV would be “unlocked”. The software normally sold for $249. I would get Boinx TV and other cool programs like WireTap Studio, Acorn, and Kinemac all for $49.

For Faculty Academy 2010 it was all Mac and Boinx TV. However, we still had the issue of using an intermediary program for streaming. CamTwist, a free program, was used to take the video output from Boinx TV and route it to the Ustream broadcasting page. It works by taking an area of the screen and making your computer think it’s just a built-in webcam (WebcamMax did the same thing). It did pretty well, but it necessitates some window juggling that adds to the interface complexity. The whole system was a general success, though the size of the iMac used was still a bit difficult  to lug around.

cc licensed ( BY NC SD ) flickr photo shared by orioles29

A month later I presented at the 2010 NMC Summer Conference. Using my laptop and Boinx TV, we were inching closer to the ideal. It was a very well received presentation as I did a live show – broadcasted to the live audience and streamed live to the world. It was titled “This Old New Media Center” and the idea was to show how DIY “sweat equity” could be applied to new technologies for someone moderately technology-able to create a live streamed presentation.

At the beginning of 2011, I began to think of creating the ideal streaming kit. It would have to be a laptop, and one with some horsepower as this live streaming/recording is quite CPU intensive. Everything else would have to be compact as well. It would all have to fit in a backpack, with the exception being a good solid tripod. At about the same time, I was asked to be involved in recording our president give a State of the University speech. While we wouldn’t have the kit ready in time for the speech, we were able to cobble together most of the pieces that would ultimately make up the kit. Much as we liked the Boinx TV software, a critical piece to streamlining the live broadcast and recording was using Telestream’s Wirecast software. It has built-in streaming to several different services such as Ustream, Livestream, and Justin.tv to name a few. It also has a relatively simple interface for doing simple shows. It can also be used for some more complex tasks like chroma-keying (green screen) to put different backgrounds virtually in a video. It certainly is the next step in simplified live streaming.

At the 2011 ACCS of Virginia Conference in March, I again did a live show to unveil “The Kit”. I was able to stream live using Ustream and also make a recording, in HD no less, to the hard drive for archival purposes. I was able to present using the Wirecast software to the local audience and also stream the identical program. My Keynote presentation integrated nicely as Wirecast supports playing Keynote QuickTime movies, so I can advance a slide at a time, or even a bullet point at a time complete with the animations and transitions. A resource page for “The Kit” has the recorded presentation as well as a list of the components.

Kit Time Lapse from umwnewmedia on Vimeo.

I have since given two more presentations with the Kit, and it really is pretty simple to set up. Thanks to the great network of individuals found in the phenomenon known as DS106, we have already seen this employed for something known as DS106 TV. When the concept of DIY technology is unleashed on talented people, great things happen.

I’m getting back on my feet after a busy live-streaming week, and a bit of a hiatus from posting in this space. Anyway, here’s a quick post about an interesting follow-up to a great video from Michael Wesch’s Digital Ethnography project.

We’re working on a new video, tentatively titled “The Visions of Students Today.” We are hoping that a few students all over the world will be willing to show us how they see their world and how they learn.

The post giving the details is a call for submissions of a two-minute video of “critical learning moments” from the students perspective. Hoping some of the “ds106-ers” will see this and run with it.

Update: Here are the videos on YouTube tagged with vost2011.

In the “how long were you going to have that feature and not tell me” category comes the ability to record in the Mac version of VLC. What it allows you to do is record segments from a DVD. You see, in the Windows version of VLC (since version 1.0 came on the scene), you have been able to record a DVD that is playing. The Windows version has a record button in the program (you need to select View>Advanced Controls to make it available). Once you do that you can hit the button to start recording, then hit it again to stop.

For almost a year now, and even during my recent NMC presentation, I have been under the assumption that this was a Windows only feature. In exploring the new version 1.1 for the Mac, I discovered in the keyboard shortcuts area a “record” option. Invoking “Shift-Command-r” starts a recording, and pressing the same key combo again, stops the recording.

This, of course, dramatically helps the workflow of using clips from DVDs on the Mac. After saving the recording, I would use Handbrake to convert it into a web ready MP4 file, then upload it to a web server. The result would look like this:

See my screencast on Recording Segments from a DVD. Insert the standard disclaimer here about copying DVDs and Fair Use.

It seems like there are 3 basic hot categories. 3D Televisions, Tablet/”Slate” Computers, and Media Set-Top Boxes. None of these categories are radically new. They are evolutionary changes of existing technology. Of the three, 3D TV seems to be receiving the most emphasis, and to me is the most enigmatic. This technology was essentially introduced at last year’s CES, and to me nothing has changed this year to indicate that it will be anything but fraught with problems. Thought you saw the last of the format wars ala HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray? Wait until you get into the 3D glasses format war. Don’t get me wrong. I saw a few 3D movies at the theater this year (Coraline, Monsters vs. Aliens, Up, and a shark movie at an Imax theater). All of them were great experiences, and really did add something. However, there is still the problem with those stupid glasses, starting with, they look stupid! They are better than they were, but what happens if you already wear glasses, or you get sick or have headaches watching the movies? What happens if you don’t have enough glasses for all of your guests over to watch your movie? While the technology is cool, it’s also gimmicky and a niche that seems too narrow to succeed with where the technology is now. One day we will have TVs with enough resolution built-in that 3D without glasses will look fantastic, but I honestly don’t know why it’s being emphasized so much this year. You will be able to buy some really cool glasses though. This story sums up the 3D problem.

Next up are the computer tablets or slates. It seems that the term slate is being used more because Apple is rumored to be announcing the iSlate later this month. It’s amazing to me that companies are announcing their “iSlate killer” when Apple hasn’t even announced theirs yet. Now that is one intimidating company, that Apple. We’ll see if any of them revolutionize the computer industry. I think the tablet/slate is compelling based on the Apple iTunes ecosystem. Imagine a device that can be a media device that plays music, complete with the iTunes LP feature (with bonus extras like videos and liner notes), and also movies that look great on a 10″ glossy screen. Add Wifi/3G, an E-book reader, the applications from the App Store and you’ve got something there. We’ll see what the price is. Lenovo seems to be somewhat scooping Apple with their device, the Lenovo IdeaPad, which is a hybrid. It is a tablet/slate that docks inside a laptop.

Last but not least is the Media Set-Top box. These are an interesting category because of the huge transition and convergence era that we are in. To briefly describe what they are, it helps to understand what they replace. I happen to have a computer (formerly a large desktop PC, now a Mac Mini) attached to my TV to allow me to play my media files through my home theater system. Most people however will not want to go to the trouble or expense to hook a computer up to their new HDTV. Enter the Media Set-Top box. For around $100-$200 you get a device that connects to the Internet and allows you to watch the likes of YouTube, NetFlix, and Hulu, see pictures from your Flickr account, and stream music from Pandora or your own music collection. You can even hook up an external hard drive filled with your own photos, music and movies. It is a device that at least begins to, and maybe completely eliminates the need for Cable or Satellite Set-Top boxes. Some people are already spending $100-200 a MONTH on Cable bills. The most successful device will be the one with the most flexibility and the best user interface. It needs to be customizable and able to add any new service that comes along. Two that stand out at CES are the Popbox and the Boxee box. Both do what I described above and both have their pros and cons. I prefer Boxee simply because it is also software that you can load on your computer (PC, Mac, and Linux). Boxee is likely to be a post in itself. We will continue to see combinations of these Internet services being built into TVs and Blu-ray players.

To round things out, here are a few products I saw that I’ve either been waiting for, or are just cool. First, and it doesn’t seem exciting at all, but it is something I’ve wished for and that is a USB key that is actually like a key. I have had other flash drives that have had a key ring, but they have always broke because they weren’t reinforced. The Lacie CooKey and Whizkey are key shaped USB drives starting in 4GB sizes and going up to 32GB.

Netbooks are popular at CES, but one of the complaints is the small keyboard. Well, Asus, which is the maker of the Eee PC netbook, decided that you could put a computer in a full size keyboard, then connect wirelessly to a video display. It’s called the EeeKeyboard PC.

Finally, coolest of all is a remote control helicopter that is (are you ready?) driven with an iPhone. The AR.Drone seems to be the most fun toy of all of CES. The video should say it all.

Happy New Year!

The International CES is not open to the general public and all attendees must be in the consumer electronics industry to be eligible to attend the show.

The show is a monstrous event (I’m told) where you literally could walk for miles to see all of what CES has to offer. So instead of going to the show, consumers rely on news organizations and “gadget” web sites to cover what’s new. Which coverage (and how much) you follow depends on how geeky you are. For my money one of the best tech sites period is Cnet, which I often recommend to faculty, students, and others for researching technology products that they are looking to buy. They have an outstanding crew of technology reviewers, so it’s not surprising that their CES coverage is outstanding as well. A steady stream of new technology posts comes from their Crave website, which is what they refers to as their Gadget Blog. Other places to get CES coverage includes Gizmodo, Engadget, PC Magazine, and ZDNet. Two other resources worth a special mention are the Live CES coverage provided by Leo Laporte’s TWIT (This Week in Tech) network, and by a site called GDGT. The TWIT coverage is kind of a grass roots approach to what is at CES. Leo and crew are attempting to do live, everyman style coverage (at live.twit.tv) of the new tech and it will be interesting to see if they can pull it off. TWIT is attempting to become a new style of network, with less of a corporate approach and more of a user-centric feel. So far it has been a wildly successful venture.

GDGT (yes, pronounced gadget) is a website that is a geeky tech guy/gal’s dream. When they are not covering CES they are a site that bills itself as a social gadget platform, where you can connect with other gadget owners and get support for the technology that you use. You actually can register for an account and add the gadgets that you own to a list and connect with others who use the same gadgets. How geeky is that?!?

Part II of this post will be a write-up of what I think will be the exciting products for the new year.

I highlight this story because I continue to be amazed at the democratization that YouTube enables. Anyone with a video camera – in this case Mr. Dymovsky and his brother-in-law – can speak their minds and, hopefully, bring about change in the world, or at least in their world. To date, this video has been seen by a million or more people, a level that certainly qualifies as “viral”. It is also on the public record that is YouTube, and if Mr. Dymovsky does indeed disappear, it makes it more difficult to explain to the world what happened. If Russia is truly willing to change its corruption problem, he could be a true hero. The world is watching, and more importantly the world is now able to watch!

So problem solved right? Just format your drive as a FAT32 drive and you can swap files all day long between Macs and PCs. Well not so fast. First, note that I said on a newly formatted drive FAT32 is faster. However, files get what we call fragmented over time. They get spread out into different areas of a hard drive as it fills up and then as files get deleted. NTFS actually is better at file integrity and reliability than FAT32.

Second, and the major problem with FAT32 formatting, as it relates to new media, is that the maximum file size is 4GB. So if you plan to do video editing, you will run into this limitation on a FAT32 hard drive. Capturing digital video, such as from a Mini-DV tape, takes up about 12GB per hour of video. Depending on what software you are using to capture the video, it may fail in an elegant, or not so elegant way. You should then convert or format your hard drive to NTFS.

Now that introduces some issues with Macs in that they can read data off of an NTFS formatted drive, but that can’t write to them. That obviously can be a major inconvenience. There is a solution in the form of freely available software known as NTFS-3G. The version for Mac OSX includes the MacFUSE software that gets installed as part of the package (it used to be something that you installed separately). The most reliable way to prepare the hard drive is to completely reformat the drive using the Disk Utility software in the Applications/Utilities folder on the Mac (after installing NTFS-3G of course).

Format the drive to use the Windows NT Filesystem (NTFS-3G) as shown above. This obviously takes a little bit of planning ahead as you will wipe out whatever is currently on the drive, so back it up! Hope this helps all you Mac and PC people to come together and holds hands – for as long as you can stand it.

pc vs mac photo by natashalcd.

Now that I’m on the Mac I have found Blogo. It allows me to do many, if not all of the things that WLW allowed, and does it in the Mac drag-and-drop way. The best feature by far is the support for sites such as YouTube and Flickr. Simply go to the site page that your video or image is on and click the “Send to Blogo” bookmarklet in Safari or Firefox (instructions on how to create the bookmarklet are simple and available from the Help menu). A placeholder image appears in the editor window. You can preview how the video or image will look by using the Preview button. You can then see exactly how things will look in your blog, and then you can make any changes before you publish.

You can also drag-and-drop text from a text editor into Blogo, and you can even add blockquotes easily by highlighting text in a web page and clicking the Send to Blogo bookmarklet (it even includes a link to the source automatically).

Blogo’s interface is designed to let you take your mind off the details and just write.

link: Blogo: The blog editor for your Mac

You can enter tags and/or categories in a post. They are entered into a single field in the editor window, and you distinguish categories from tags by using a hashtag before the category name (ex. #newmedia). It will even pick up your categories from your blog and offer them in a drop down menu.

It can publish to many platforms including Blogger and WordPress, and you can set up multiple accounts to post to. It’s not free like Windows Live Writer ($25 US), but I think it’s quicker and easier, and it produces cleaner code in WordPress. One less reason to miss Windows (that was for the Bava).

I was getting nostalgic about my blogs (as nostalgic as I can get with something that started in 2004). I wondered how I could get an easy view of my blog posts, and review where I had gone over the last 5 years. I decided to use a plugin that I used at the New Media Center website called Dagon Sitemap Generator. Anyway, I stumbled upon a post from March 2005 called GroundhogChase.com. It wasn’t the site that I had originally blogged about. It was and is a site produced by the Pennsylvania Tourism Office, but the videos have been updated (in 2006 maybe?). It’s a whole remake of The Shining, with Groundhogs! It’s brilliant!

Now go see the site Groundhog 202. Any Shining fan will laugh out loud, especially the scene where “Wendy” interrupts “Jack” while typing out his “novel”. Why didn’t this get more play. Thanks to my blog, it will now.

I did find the original videos that were there back in the day. It was a series of 8 or so videos complete with both endings – if the groundhog saw his shadow, or not. Here it is in one all-encompassing video from YouTube:

Good stuff, but the update is fantastic!