Monique’s action shot
February 14, 2006
Hey - Monique. Thanks for the photo from Northern Voice.
That’s a transistor on the screen. For the whole story on THAT you’ll need to come and hear me speak.
Do I look fat in this presentation? Damn those wide angle lenses.
Northern Voice 2006
February 11, 2006
It was really great being on a panel today with Mark Schneider and Michael Tippett at Northern Voice 2006.
We were meant to talk about the Changing Face of Journalism, and I guess we did, but it really turned into a discussion that seemed to float around mainstream journalism, citizen journalism, and alternatives to the mainstream.
It was flattering to see the room full at UBC Robson Square, considering the panel in the other room was Music 2.0: Where It Came From and Where It’s Going with Colin Brumelle. It’s usually pretty hard to compete with those music panels!
In any event, we had great questions from the crowd that was there, and probably could have talked for hours.
Thanks to everyone who showed up, and thanks to the Northern Voice gang for putting on such a great event.
Microphone with built in recorder
February 11, 2006
This is brilliant. Forget about plugging that microphone into a fancy new digital recorder - make the microphone into a digital recorder.
From the HHB web site:
The world’s first professional digital recording microphone. Combining a high-quality, Sennheiser omni-directional condenser capsule with an inbuilt, broadcast-quality Flash recorder, FlashMic is a convenient, easy to operate and durable recorder that’s perfect for press and broadcast journalism, or any other voice recording application.
With no messy cables, just one button press is all it takes to start recording in either linear or MPEG 2 formats. Simple ‘drag and drop’ file transfer at up to 90x real time to a Mac or PC for editing or onward transmission is enabled by a ‘plug and play’ USB connection. Two AA batteries provide more than 6 hours continuous power and, with a 0 - 10 seconds pre-record buffer and 1GB of flash memory, you can be sure that you’ll never miss a word of that important interview with a FlashMic.
I’m not sure I’d like to spend a lot of time hand holding this 13 ounce baby, I’d prefer removable memory, and who knows what happens if you drop it - but this looks like a fabulous idea for certain situations.
The real issue is the price. $ 1400.00 Canadian (that’s the discounted price at Oakwood Broadcast in Winnipeg) is a pretty steep price to pay for the convenience.
For the same price, you can pick up a great digital recorder with a lot more features, a decent mic, even some pesky cables, and still have money in the bank.
Check out this close up of the function keys and display
Upgrading to v2
February 10, 2006
I’m about to upgrade to v2 of WordPress.
Past experience being what it is, this should go smoothly and all will be well.
If blog.bigsnit.com disappears for a bit, please be patient. I will return.
Hosting BC web site launched
February 9, 2006
We’re thrilled to be part of the new British Columbia Sport Event Hosting and Resort Guide.
It was launched today in Torino, Italy. We’ve been working with a fantastic team at 2010 Legacies Now, Tourism BC and the Ministry of Tourism, Sport and the Arts to create the site, the first of its kind.
The site is at www.hostingBC.ca
And here’s the press release about it.
Seattle IMA conference
February 8, 2006
Ipods (and other media devices) and on-demand content are big themes at conferences everywhere this year, including those for public broadcasters.
I’ve been invited to speak at the Integrated Media Association’s Public Broadcasting New Media Conference in Seattle, Washington Feb 21-25th.
This is an international conference featuring some of the world’s top public broadcasters, as well as representatives from software and hardware companies that work in this space.
Looks like I’ll be involved in a number of presentations and panels on the 22nd and 23rd.
I’m presenting on new models for broadcast and how they challenge existing media for audience loyalty, where I get to team up with my pal Tony Walker of DiG radio at ABC Melbourne.
Looks like I’ll also be on a panel called The Web 2.0 and Public Media which also features speakers from PBS powerhouse WGBH in Boston, the Research Channel, and university station WILL in Champaign-Urbana.
More on this conference here.
CHUM Diversity OnLine Launches
February 8, 2006
CHUM Ltd and Citytv today launched their new “Diversity Online” project. We’re thrilled to have been involved with it, and were super impressed with everyone at CHUM and Citytv. Big thanks to Prem Gill for making this happen.
The site is at diversity.chumtv.com
Here’s the press release about today’s launch.