Veteran’s Day Documentary - Part 2 - Behind the Scenes
You know the reasons I believe producing a class documentary about a local veteran can be one of the most exciting experiences for students. In summary, it pushes their script writing abilities, drives them to the edge of their technical limits, and tells a story that captures the attention of the community. Having shared why we produce stories about local veterans, I thought I would take time in this article to share the nuts and bolts of how we use a collaborative workflow to create them.
Best Sound for Live Production, Shooting Indoor Sports
Because of the crowd noise that reverberates within the building, it can be extremely difficult to capture quality audio for indoor sports. The sample setups shown here are for basketball but are easily adapted to other indoor sports.
Company Profile: Conference Room Systems (CRS)
CRS (Conference Room Systems) is an ecommerce company offering a curated selection of audiovisual solutions for any organization. The parent company to CRS, Haverford Systems Inc., has been working within the audiovisual arena for more than 30 years as a Phila.-area installer and integrator. Following that legacy, CRS knew that they could also help DIY (do-it-yourself) customers across the U.S. With well-known manufacturers featured on its site, including Cambridge Sound Management, HuddleCamHD, PTZOptics and Magewell, CRS proudly offers the right balance of high-quality and affordability.
Learn How Schools Can Stream Esports Tournaments
During the 2019 StreamGeeks Summit, a three-versus-three RocketLeague esports tournament took place. The event was live-streamed by a student-run team from New York City’s S.A.R High School and broadcast to Twitch. The student-run broadcast team used a Wirecast Gear video production system, which was connected to three PTZOptics cameras via SDI and seven gaming computers using NDI. The main PTZOptics camera was a 12X ZCam connected via SDI. This camera was used to capture the play-by-play announcer team from Hofstra University. Students from the S.A.R High School also had access to two PTZOptics 20X-SDI cameras they could remotely control using Wirecast and Xbox controllers to capture various views throughout the esports tournament.
Why Can’t I Live Stream to Facebook?
If you’ve tried to stream to Facebook recently and encountered an error on your encoder, you’re not alone! At the beginning of May, Facebook started rolling out a new streaming protocol called RTMPS. As of November, the new protocol took full effect. Previously, Facebook - like nearly every other CDN - used the RTMP protocol for live streaming. Consequently, up until Facebook announced its update, most live streaming encoders were only designed to support RTMP. So, if your encoder is suddenly unable to stream to Facebook, you likely have Facebook’s streaming protocol to blame.
How AI Will Revolutionize Youth Sports Broadcasting
The director of sales at Pixellot, Charles Prichard, is convinced that there is a tendency that AI will automatically increase production to make sure that youth sports is cost-effective.
Sophomore Slump: Wait! What?
Here’s the deal. This semester, I had less than 20 students total. Before you go all “I have 348 kids in each class and only have 1 chair and 2 8mm cameras,” I am building a new program. Last year, I am fairly certain I had the highest failure rate in the southeast United States. When you have that, it’s hard to come back the next year and have a huge class load and still have kids progress through the system.
Shoot for the Edit
The first rule of shooting b-roll, BRING A TRIPOD! Yes they are bulky and a pain to carry and setup, but no one is the “human Steadicam.” Unless you have to shoot off of your shoulder, such as the sidelines of a sporting event where someone could get hurt running into a tripod and camera, don’t. Nothing says amateur like shaky video.
Get Thee to a Support Group
It’s certainly something that William Shakespeare could have taken a page from 400 years ago. Instead, he brought us characters who engaged in wicked swordplay, poisoning, spreading scandals, thwarting romance and duplicitously conniving for riches…and that was just within their own families. How very different those lives might have turned out if they could have availed themselves of a professional sounding board; specifically, a trained psychotherapist to help them sort out their feelings prior to acting on them.
Do Not Fear Color
Up thru the 1990’s TV broadcasters needed to be timid about colors because the analog TV technology produced such unreliable results. One brand of cameras produced acceptable cool colors and earthy tone but throw a yellow or red at them and the TV set would look as though the image was on fire, while another brand could tame the tearing red, but washout the remaining parts of the color wheel. But we’ve come a long way.
What Your Students Need To Know Before Leaving The Video Program
To make sure that they could leave my class at the end of the semester equipped to handle film school or the professional set, I distributed this survey and adjusted my projects as needed. This truly helped give me a better perspective into what my students had attained in earlier classes, and what knowledge needed more reinforcement. I hope it will help you improve your program as much as it helped me improve mine!
Bring Your Hockey Livestreams Out of the Penalty Box with SuiteCG
SuiteCG's latest release includes official support for ice hockey. The user interface allows for tracking goals, with automated goal animations in the free, NDI-enabled graphics package, as well as Shots on Goal, Saves, and Faceoffs Won. Players on Ice, Powerplays, and Delayed Penalties are all controlled with a few easy-access buttons. There is even an indicator for Empty Net!
Best Sound for Live Production, Broadcasting Football
The parabolic microphones will capture the quarterback signals, player collisions, the football being kicked, etc. It is becoming quite common for a lineman to have a microphone imbedded in his pads to help capture the quarter back signals. You can often hear the microphone being turned off just after the ball is hiked.
We Revisit Hoover High School After 10 Years
The Video Productions program at Hoover High School in North Canton, Ohio, began in the fall of 1998 with the purchase of two digital broadcast video cameras and one Avid Express nonlinear editing system. Today, the program is two-fold, with three levels of a Career Tech based Video Production classes and a multi-year set of Broadcast Journalism courses. Both programs are multi-award winning and are rooted in exploring the fundamentals and advanced techniques of the television and film industries.
Hands on Review of the New IDX VL-4X Charger
Our student work force operates at a very high level of production that actually competes with most local production companies in terms of quality. In order to get many hands on gear at the same time, we search for budget friendly products that can stand up to any expected abuse in the field. The VL-4X is a slim, lightweight 4-channel charger that is portable and affordable, making it a perfect fit for our needs.
Sophomore Slump - It’s Happening
Reflecting on the last 6 weeks, I realized that I made a major mistake in how I was running my live productions this year. Last year was our first year and I knew we would be taking it kind of slow. But last year was great! We did a ton of shows… a ton of GREAT shows. Multiple cameras, great audio, the whole sha-bang. So this year, I came in with the same approach… BAD idea.
Sound for Live Production, Better On-Field Sound
There are three keys to capturing better on-field audio. Using more microphones. Locating microphones closer to the action. Using more directional microphones for better isolation. While these three keys may seem rather obvious the application may not be. Let’s begin by examining how the networks typically capture audio at a baseball park.
Tricks and Tips for Chroma-Key
Chroma-Key of course, works by substituting another texture, color, background in place of a very specific color. Principally we are talking about Chroma-Key, sometimes called Digital-green. It is a very bright, chartreuse green. Chroma-key is now relatively easy to accomplish, but here are a number of things that will help you to produce the best effect.
In Plain Sight: Finding Inspiration for Set Design
I have been designing studio scenery for TV productions for a very long time, close to 2000 productions, from the grand to the prosaic. Just like any person who has ever had to put a pen to paper or a brush to canvas with a deadline clock ticking, I have my personal sources, computer folders, scrapbooks and old books. But I often find my best inspiration in the aisles of my local home center.
Veteran’s Day Project from Hoover High School
Our next documentary called “My Grandfather’s Story” and it will premiere November 8th, 2019. It is the story of William E. Pilati, who served in the 275th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, and will be told through a documentary featuring Mr. Pilati and his granddaughter Siena Pilati. Pilati fought at the Battle of the Bulge with his fellow soldiers in a halftrack vehicle.