Possible Google-Sirius venture?

Here is an interesting article on Google potentially buying out Sirius radio.

Firefox Drag and Drop

I found this extension a month or two ago and it is awesome! It allows you to drag and drop files into Gmail to attach them, just like you can in other programs such Outlook or Entourage, etc.

Twitter neighborhood

So I had seen a little while back that Twitter was adding an ‘Explore’ function, but I finally got around to checking it out and I have to say it is a novel way of displaying who you follow on Twitter and who the people you follow, follow. Did you follow that?

Photoshop- an online app?

Adobe previewed Photoshop Express a new online photo editing software. The software isn’t meant to replace CS3 or anything like that, but it seems aimed at making basic Adobe technology available to a wider audience. This is an interesting twist to the now Google Docs- which is an almost fully functional online version of your typical Office apps.

Sunday service to web

Yesterday I got a call from two guys at Barefoot Community Church asking about how our process of putting the service on the web. I had been planning on writing this post for awhile, but one thing after another kept pushing it to the back burner.

Let me start out by stating that this is not the only way to this, there are certainly infinitely more ways to go about taking a service and putting it on the web, this is simply the way that we are doing it at this time and it works for us. Yes, capturing to DVDs is not the highest quality nor the most reliable way, but for the sole purpose of rendering out a streaming flash file to post on the web it is a much cheaper alternative to buying 5 Mac Pros or 5 tape decks to capture to. Please note that the settings that I use may not work for you depending on your editing software and your streaming video host’s player settings, so adjust accordingly.

Equipment list:
-Cameras: Sony DXC-D50WS w/ CCU-TX50
-Switcher: Ross Synergy 100 
-DVD Recorders: Panasonic DMR-ES15
-Edit Computer: Apple G5
-Software: MPEG Streamclip, Final Cut Pro, Adobe CS3 Design Premium
-Streaming Video Hosting- Lightcast Media


For other gear download our Production FAQs(.pdf).

Process:

The feeds from our 4 cameras are sent to both the Ross switcher as well as each feed is sent to a separate DVD recorder. In addition to the 4 DVD recorders for the cameras we have one more DVD recorder that recieves our program feed- the same thing that is shown on the screens in the auditorium (it has any kind of DSKs (down stream keys), videos or motionbacks played off the DVRs and any full screen graphics). At the end of Sunday Perry lets me know which message he thought the preaching was best in and Justin lets me know which one he thought the worship was best during. I am glad that I don’t have to make that call because Perry and the band deliver with excellence each and every service.

I then take the program feed DVD(s) from that(those) service(s) and rip the video back off of them using MPEG Streamclip to convert it to a .mov. Here is a screenshot of the settings that I use. This takes on average about 45 minutes per disc and the resulting .mov is usually between 15-20GB. I then take the .movs into Final Cut to edit them, removing anything that needs to be taken out such as transitions that may seem overly long for people not in viewing the service in person. E.g. if Lee has to switch from guitar to piano- if you are in the auditorium even though the lights are down, you can still see him putting down the guitar and moving to the piano, but on the internet you would not be able to tell anything, all you would see is a black screen and may think that the video is over.

Once the video has been edited I then export the service using the Quicktime Conversion option in Final Cut to a .flv using the Flash CS3 encoder. Here is a screenshot of the settings that I use. The final .flv takes about 7 hours to export and is usually between 300-350MB. This is then uploaded to LightCast via their web upload interface.

If you have any questions feel free to contact me either via comment here or via email will.rodes@newspring.cc.

CS3

In case you were wondering what you were getting when you upgrade to CS3, CreativeTech Tips has 3 .pdfs explaining what’s new in InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop.

Pownce Invites

I have 6 Pownce invites for anybody who wants them. I honestly haven’t really tried it out, but if you want to try it leave a comment with your email address and I will send you an invite and we can try it out together.

Apple evolution

Ugly

I know this is an ugly photo, but I had to download the trial version of Parallels in order to have Windows on my Mac while I was in Panama City due to the fact that you can only edit NewSpring’s website content using Internet Explorer, maybe Windows will make a version of IE for Mac just like Mac made a version of Safari for Windows…

Thought of the day: Improved workflow fuels creativity.