Critical Skills for Streaming Producers by Jan Ozer

Jan Ozer has just authored a new publication titled, "Critical Skills for Streaming Producers" which Streamingmedia.com calls, "a mixed media resource" in the form of, "340-page PDF file in book form, complete with extensive bookmarks that allow readers to quickly find the desired material."

It includes an extensive amount of supplemental material in the form of screencam software tutorials on the standard video editing and encoding tools for Windows and Mac like Adobe Premiere Pro and Media Encoder and Apple Final Cut Pro and Compressor, along with multi-format video tutorials on "Creating a Compressible Background for On-Location Shoots" or "Setting Up Three Point lighting", videos detailing quality differences in compression and deinterlacing settings in Compressor, and illustrated software checklists.

Additionally, "The content also includes extensive market research detailing information like the video resolutions and data rates utilized by major broadcast and corporate sites, or whether these producers are publishing at 15 or 30 fps."

Here's a sample of the chapter list (click chapter title for details):

Chapter 1: The Streaming Landscape
Chapter 2: Designing Your Set
Chapter 3: Lighting the Set
Chapter 4: Streaming Related Shooting Skills
Chapter 5: Correcting Audio and Video Problems
Chapter 6: Choosing a Codec
Chapter 7: Choosing Output Parameters
Chapter 8: Production Work Flows
Chapter 9: Encoding Basics
Chapter 10: Encoding with the Adobe Media Encoder
Chapter 11: Encoding with Apple Compressor

Jan Ozer is well known in the streaming media community as a respected expert on video compression, an instructor, author and frequent contributor to Streaming Media Magazine, EventDV and Digital Content Producer. He founded Doceo Publishing Inc. in 1993 and offers advise and consultation to the streaming media community via his web site.

I've attended several of his lectures and read some of his numerous articles and I've found his information invaluable to my professional and video personal work. I've listed the resources he's made available from previous Streaming Media conference workshops which are also PDF files that you can download.

More from Jan Ozer:

• W2: Video Production for Streaming
  Download the presentation (4.1 MB PDF) (Streaming Media Europe 2007)
• Workshop 2: Video Production for Streaming
  Download the presentation (4.1 MB PDF) (Streaming Media West 2007)
• Workshop 4: Video Production for Streaming
  Download the presentation (2.8MB PDF) (Streaming Media East 2007)
• Workshop 2: How To Produce Top Quality Flash Content
  Download the PPT presentation (1.5MB)
  Download the case study presentations (300KB)
  (Streaming Media East 2006)
  
• Dare to Stream: Deliver Your Wedding and Event Videos Online (from EventDV)
• An Interview with Jan Ozer (from Indezine)

A Beginner's Guide to Internet Video Publishing

If you're looking for a comprehensive guide to online video publishing, then look no further, because Michael Pick wrote this new guide for Master New Media titled:

Internet Video Publishing: A Beginner's Guide

He did an incredible job of collecting countless resources to help you get started creating, authoring, publishing and monetizing your video content online.


He writes, "In this beginner's guide to Internet video publishing I take you through everything you need to know to get up and running. I take a look at:

• Creating your video - whether you want to make a video blog, live webcast, split screen interview, mashup or screencast
• Editing, adding effects and exporting your video using both desktop and online applications
• Where to publish your video and the differences between the services available
• Monetizing your video - how to turn your efforts to profit
• Licensing your video - the benefits of making it easy for people to share your content
• Promoting your video - what to do when once your video is online if you want people to watch it
• Additional resources you can use to find out more about publishing video to the web"

I found this guide to be extremely helpful with its numerous collection up-to-date tools and techniques. I highly recommend it to anyone involved in producing or publishing internet video.

Related article:

• Video Publishing: Fair Use and Copyright Analyzed - Recut, Reframe, Recycle

Livecastr Debuts at Davos

A new live streaming mobile phone service was unveiled yesterday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

In this TechCrunch post Michael Arrington reported that, "Amsterdam based LiveCastr, a service that lets users live stream video from their mobile phone... joins a parade of competitors that have launched over the last couple of years, including Mogulus (not mobile), Qik, and Flixwagon among others."

Qik has gained a fair amount of attention lately through Robert Scoble's jubilant endorsement. He's also in Davos and you can see his Davos video clips on his Qik page,

Arrington pointed out that, "The main difference between LiveCastr and Qik is that Qik requires a software download to the phone - meaning that only a handful of handsets can currently be used with the service... but it (Lifecastr) works with virtually all European 3G mobile phones and many U.S. ones as well, without the need to install any additional software."

I watched some of the videos on the LiveCastr web site and although the quality is very low resolution, much like its competitors, it is new technology that will improve over time. Live video streaming from your mobile phone is just one area where mobile is heating up.

Clearly, this is the year that mobile really starts taking off.

Happy Birthday Macintosh!

Wired reported that the Macintosh computer celebrates its 24th birthday today. It was first introduced on January 24, 1984 two days after the now-legendary commercial aired during Super Bowl XVII.

How many of you out there remember this cutting-edge technology?

How many of you actually bought it or used one at work?

I didn't buy one myself, and it would a few more years before I used one of its successors, the Macintosh Plus. I remember using one for many long hours at a local Kinko's copy store when I wrote my graduate thesis back in 1990.

"The Macintosh was the original Apple Macintosh personal computer. Introduced in January 1984 at the price of $2,495 US, it had a beige case containing a 9-inch monitor, and came with a keyboard and mouse. An indentation in the top of the case allowed the computer to be lifted and carried. After its successor was introduced, it was rebadged as the Macintosh 128K to differentiate it." - courtesy of Wikipedia.

If you're interested in seeing the evolution of the Mac, here's a list of Macintosh models by case type

Here's that 1984 commercial introducing the first Macintosh computer...



Whether you love it or hate it, the Mac has definitely come a long way.

Happy birthday Mac!

Have You Met Henry?

This post is a break from all the new technology and gadget blogging I've been doing lately. I saw this slide show a few weeks ago and was impressed by its simplicity and design. "Meet Henry" is a nice break from the usual boring, bullet pointed, crazy animation, text heavy, tiny font sized Powerpoint slides I see on a daily basis. This is real story telling. It was produced by Ethos3 and was a winner in Slideshare's World's Best Presentation Contest that ran last year. The contest was judged by top presentation gurus, Guy Kawasaki, Bert Decker, Garr Reynolds and Jerry Weissman. You can see the other winners and honorable mentions here.

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Slideshare's Co-Founder Jonathan Boutelle noted on his blog, "The interesting thing is that the presentation seems to have spawned it's own genre. Soon after that presentation was uploaded to slideshare, Scott Gavin uploaded "Meet Charlie". Meet Charlie is a nice introduction to Enterprise Web 2.0, told in the same style as Meet Henry. In fact, Scott credited "Meet Henry" in the description."

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If you're looking to improve your Powerpoint chops, Meryl Evans posted a long list of 70+ PowerPoint and Presentation Resources and Great Examples