Video News

by Alan Sheckter, Videomaker news editor

Internet Media delivery stalwart RealNetworks on Sept. 24 unveiled a new integrated media platform called RealOne. The RealOne Platform, the company anticipates, will allow Web content creators to “extending their current Web sites to create an immersive multimedia experience which features audio and video playback with contextual information.”

The RealOne Platform is expected to be compatible with a wide-range of development tools and
services that enable users to create secure,
digital media content.

At the center of the platform is the new RealOne Player, which is said to combine and reinvent
the ubiquitous RealPlayer and RealJukebox and adds to them a powerful
new media browser to give consumers “an unmatched, multi-dimensional media
experience.”

More than 150 content providers and technology partners worldwide have
already announced their endorsement of the RealOne Platform, the company
reported. They include ABC News, CBS.com, FeedRoom, MLB Advanced Media, MGM Studios, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Weather.com.

A RealOne Platform developer preview is available now for download at
www.realnetworks.com. Within 60 days, the company said, it will also launch RealOne
Service, an expanded version of its successful GoldPass media
subscription service. RealOne Service is expected to be built upon the RealOne Platform and would offer a wide range of content and services, including downloadable and
streaming major-label music from MusicNet.

Reprinted from a Pinnacle press release:

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA., and IBC, Amsterdam, Netherlands, September 13, 2001—-Pinnacle Systems Inc., a leader in professional and consumer video solutions, announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the assets of FAST Multimedia, a leading developer of innovative video editing solutions, headquartered in Munich, Germany. Pinnacle Systems plans to integrate FAST’s products into its family of industry-leading video, authoring and streaming solutions.

Pinnacle Systems will acquire all intellectual property, software rights, products, other assets, and certain liabilities of FAST Multimedia. The purchase price will be approximately $15 million and will be paid for in a combination of cash and Pinnacle Systems’ stock. The transaction will be accounted for as a purchase, and is expected to close in early October.

Mark Sanders, President and CEO at Pinnacle Systems said, “Pinnacle Systems is delighted to have the FAST Multimedia team join Pinnacle Systems. This acquisition furthers Pinnacle’s expanding family of software applications and solutions to provide higher value-add for our customers. FAST’s advanced software for video content creation fills an important gap between our consumer editing software products and our high-end broadcast systems.”

“FAST Multimedia is pleased to be joining forces with Pinnacle Systems,” said Matthias Zahn, Chairman and founder of FAST Multimedia. “Our customers and products will benefit greatly from the combined resources of the two companies.”

Reprinted from an Azden press release:

Franklin Square, NY - Monday, September 24, 2001 • Following up on the enthusias-tic reception and booming sales of its’ top-of-the-line SGM-2X, Azden Corporation has introduced a shorter version, designed specifically for use by today’s smaller professional digital video cameras. Designated the SGM-1X, it is a single barrel hyper-directional super-cardioid shotgun microphone, approximately 4″ shorter than the SGM-2X but using the same heavy-duty professional integrated shockmount, which can be attached to a camera shoe or mic stand.

The SGM-1X has a wide frequency response (80-18,000Hz), exhibits low noise and ac-cepts up to 110dB SPL input levels. It uses a single “AAA” battery that will last over 1000 hours due to the mic’s extremely low current drain. It has balanced low-impedance XLR output (no cable provided), windscreen and includes the above-mentioned pro-prietary shock-mount holder which isolates camera motor noise from the microphone.
Although it is a “wired” shotgun mic, the SGM-1X is easy to convert it for “wireless” use by attaching one of Azden’s UHF or VHF plug-in transmitters.

The SGM-1X has a suggested retail price of $200 and becomes available in mid-September.

Exclusive quotes gathered by InteractiveTV Today. Reprinted by Videomaker with permission from Tracy Swedlow, InteractiveTV Today.

InteractiveTV Today (itvt.com) recently published the following accounts of how MSNBC.com and The FeedRoom, a 24-hour Internet-driven VOD news-feed service, which enjoys strong broadcast partnerships with NBC, Tribune Media, and GBC, were able to capture the New York City crisis as it unfolded last week.

The FeedRoom - CEO Jon Klein’s account of how the company managed to broadcast its VOD service remotely:

“Until Tuesday, our office windows were filled with a vista of the twin towers.
Our staff saw and heard the first impact, then the second, then the collapses. Being news people, we immediately rolled a video camera after the first plane hit, and posted that clip within minutes of the first impact. Our building was evacuated at 11AM, because it sits atop the Holland Tunnel, a prime potential target. But five of us stayed for three more hours to make sure that
WNBC’s (the NBC-owned station in NYC) live coverage was streaming on all 26 local FeedRoom sites that we run for NBC, as well as on the main FeedRoom site.

We also had staff at each of the NBC stations around the country - enabling us to vacate the building but continue to cover the story remotely. Using the Web, our IT staff tweaked the servers from their homes, to allow the machines to shoulder the surging traffic. We’ve served tens of millions of live and VOD news clips this week without service interruptions. You can watch the latest developments on TV over your computer, while accessing through VOD the parts of the story that most interest you. And most interesting of all, I doubt that our many viewers could tell that through it all, there was absolutely no one at FeedRoom HQ-a true testament to the ability of ITV technology to increase the flow of information. This weekend we will still be working round the clock, but at least some of our employees will begin to have a little time to catch their breaths and reflect upon the awful human toll of this tragedy, a tragedy that we witnessed from our back porch.”

MSNBC.com - Michael Silberman, Managing Editor East Coast:

“On Tuesday 9/11 we played a total of 12 million video streams. Of those [streams], 6.28 million were live streams (Note: each time someone clicks the play button on our live video and
watches for a while, that counts as a stream). We also played 5.75 million ‘on demand’ streams — the total number of plays for the various cut clips we’ve got on the site. To put the video
plays in context, our previous top video day was the Seattle earthquake, with about 900,000 live video streams and 390,000 on demand streams. So, our video usage yesterday was something
more than TEN times our previous high.

As the week went on, we continued to play huge amounts of video, roughly 8-10 million streams each day. As far as the content we were streaming, we had live streams of MSNBC and NBC News coverage, press conferences and live statements by NYC officials, the president and his key cabinet officials, live feeds of rescue efforts, etc. Anything you might have wanted to see on television was available on our site, with the added advantage that you could watch it at work, and could see material on demand as well as live. For our overall traffic, we had approximately 13 million users. That compares to 3 million users on an average weekday, and is double our previous peak of 6.5 million users the day after the election last year.”

by Alan Sheckter, Videomaker news editor

As the United.States attempts to return to normalcy after recent tragedies in New York City and Washington, D.C., it’s hard not to notice the prevalence of amateur videographers.

More than ever, a significant portion of the video footage delivered to our living room TVs and streamed to our office computers stemmed from amateur videographers.

One such piece of camcorder footage that quickly emerged caught the first plane strike on the World Trade Center, before any network news teams could scramble to focus on the site. A video camera operator, making a firefighter training tape nearby, heard a low-flying jet, and pointed his lens up at the tower, catching the first impact.

Several other amateur videographers recorded high-quality footage of the second plane attack, as well as aftermath footage, including fleeing pedestrians, grief-stricken victims and proud volunteers who sifted through the rubble. Much of this video footage, some shot with consumer-grade camcorders, was later broadcast to the world.

United States astronaut Frank Culberton also contributed footage with his own camcorder – as he and two Russian cosmonauts made a pass over the U.S., one day after the tragedy.

by Alan Sheckter, Videomaker news editor

Streaming media and Internet solution provider Akamai Technologies is mourning the passing of Daniel Lewin, co-founder, chief technology officer and company board member.

A company statement said, “American Airlines confirmed that he was on board the Boston to Los Angeles flight that crashed in New York City (Tuesday). Danny was 31 years old and is survived by his wife and two sons.”

Based in Cambridge, Mass., Akamai’s FreeFlow Streaming network supports live WebCasts and streaming media on demand. The company also supports two streaming media applications.

Akamai Conference, according to the company, is a fully-automated event system that allows customers to brand and deliver high-quality, high-volume audio and video Web conferences.

Akamai Forum, an interactive Web broadcasting solution providing businesses with communication solutions, offers the ability to create and manage live and on-demand interactive programs, the company said.

by Alan Sheckter, Videomaker news editor

Canon is keeping the Mini DVs coming with its October release of the Elura 20MC. Touted as being about the size of a cell phone, the diminutive Mini DV will feature three shooting modes, FireWire connectivity, image stabilization, a 10x optical zoom lens, progressive scan CCD image sensor and digital stereo sound.

Canon says that, in extended recording mode, the Elura 20MC will deliver four hours of video on a single 80-minute Mini DV tape. It will also record still photos. To manage, retrieve and download digital photos, the Elura 20MC accepts the MultiMediaCard, as well as the Secure Digital Card.

Canon expects fashion-conscious videographers to gravitate to the Elura 20MC because of its petite size (two inches wide by four inches high), as well as its versatility, according to a company press release. With the Elura 20MC, Canon continues the never-ending quest of pushing the limits of electronic miniaturization one step further, yet still attempting to meet a variety of still, motion and multimedia image capture needs.

The Elura 20MC will carry a list price of $1,499. It’s sister model, the Elura 10MC will include all of the 20MC’s performance features, but will not contain the removable media card capabilities. It will list for $1,299.

by Alan Sheckter, Videomaker news editor

Focus Enhancements has released Videonics FireStore, which it claims is the first DV product that allows users to record footage directly to their FireWire hard disk as edit-ready files from a DV-based camcorder, without the use of a computer.

FireStore is said to give users the ability to edit immediately after shooting, eliminating the time it would take to capture video. FireStore also can allow users to record two identical versions of their footage, simultaneously to disk as well as their camcorders’ tapes.

FireStore converts any IEEE 1394 hard drive into a high-performance digital disk recorder/player. Imported, edit-ready files can be used immediately by most DV-based editing system, the company said.

To edit video clips, users can either cable their FireWire disk drive directly to their computer (via a standard IEEE 1394 card) or alternatively use the bypass mode, which allows the hard disk drive to mount to the computer through FireStore.

FireStore is said to be supported by FireWire disk drives that have FAT 32 disk volumes, making it compatible with Windows 98SE, 2000, Me and Mac OS 9 operating systems.

FireStore, the company said, is set up to allow most FireWire based DV camcorders’ record and record pause modes to be triggered by the press of the camcorders Record Start/Stop button. Upon each Record Start, FireStore creates a new clip on the disk drive. FireStore also features many other functions, including play, reverse play, stop, multi-speed fast forward and rewind, single-frame forward and backward, next track/previous track and still record.

Videonics FireStore is available now for a MSRP of $995.

by Alan Sheckter, Videomaker news editor

Pinnacle Systems has begun shipping Pinnacle Express video editing software, which it says will make it easy for users to convert camcorder tapes and digital still photos into DVD player-compatible discs.

Pinnacle says users can import video directly from a Digital8 or DV camcorders, via FireWire interface, or by dragging and dropping video file thumbnails into the Pinnacle Express application. In addition, the software includes a variety of menu layouts and backgrounds as well as the flexibility to type in a title for each scene. Finished videos can be output on CD-R and CD-RW discs or on DVD-R discs in the DVD format.

The software, according to Pinnacle, automatically creates scene-index menus for easy, pinpoint navigation. Additionally, viewers can jump to the scenes they want to see, repeat scenes or even freeze the action, all with their DVD player’s remote control. Users can also trim, split, combine, delete or re-order scenes within the menus, Pinnacle says.

In an effort to make the new software more user-friendly, Pinnacle said, it eliminated the “tricks-of-the-trade” that users in the past, had to learn in order to index, plan and layout DVD navigation.

Pinnacle Express DV, including the Express software and a FireWire card has a MSRP of $79.