APRIL 2015
Vol 212
Bigtime Streaming the Traditional Way We are with Nick Haines, engineering manager, at the Auckland offices of OSB, Outside Broadcasting … is that correct? Nick: Yes, it used to be Onsite Broadcasting but when Sky bought OSB, we changed the name. We wanted to retain the initials, so we became Outside Broadcasting. Ed: And you’ve been engineering for a long, long time? Nick: Yes, I’ve been around a little bit too long probably. I’ve been here from Super 16 News footage through to what we’re at now, with HDTV. Ed: Now Nick, it’s been quite difficult for me to get to talk to you, because you’ve been a very busy man rushing around with the crews in New Zealand. You’ve got a very busy season I understand?
Nick with a nearly empty garage – they are all at work.
Nick: Yes. We started off doing something like 160 OBs a year and now we’re somewhere in the 500 mark, so the growth has been exponential. We’re basically running a similar amount of gear and a similar number of crews and just all working harder with more contract support at the moment. Ed: Is this going to continue, or do you see the whole industry tailing off? Nick: No, live sport is a thing that’s very hard to cover. People want to see it “live”, they want it now, they want it as it’s actually happening. You only get one shot at it, so it’s critical that you have good gear in the right place, at the right time and we manage to do that.
Fantastically, this year New Zealand’s doing well in every sport, so you know we’re going right through to the finals. We just won the basketball, we’re at the top of the soccer tournament, the cricket’s going well, rugby’s just kicking off and we’re probably not doing quite as well as we’d normally expect there, but I’m sure that will come into play as well. Ed: I’m sure a lot of this is due to the relationship you have with Sky … well Sky owns OSB, so you are getting all their work, but it’s not only that, you also hire yourself out to other broadcasters who want an outside broadcasting service?
Trucks and dishes.
Nick: That’s correct. We are a Sky department. Our core work is for Sky so they get first call on all our services. But yes, we have people coming from all around the world to use our services … we’ve got the Auckland triathlon coming up – that’s an independent production company which is hiring our services as an independent provider; we’re doing the world mountain biking series in Rotorua and on the same weekend as it happens, again from an overseas company needing OB resources in New Zealand. And it just continues on. Sky realise that New Zealand fans want their sport and they’re very keen to have that out there in the best quality and the best way to do that is to do it ourselves, which we do. We have a fantastic production team which makes sure we get the coverage of those sports. Ed: we?
We’ll put the sign-up number in later on, shall
Nick: Yeah, yeah. Ed: So the broadcasters must be happy with the configuration that you’ve got in your trucks to be able to supply the full HD material that they want both in New Zealand and overseas? Nick: Yes that’s correct. I suppose there are certain threshold moments and technology developments that you have to be ready to jump onto. The Rugby World Cup for us kicked off HD and made us jump into HD in a major way. The world has gone HD and everybody expects HD now. A case in point is what we’re doing now, the Cricket World Cup, which is probably one of the more demanding jobs that we’ve done insofar as the amount of equipment we have in the field and timelines. There’s always new technology coming on-stream that we have to be aware of and be ready to adopt as soon as it becomes in demand, or try and be there ready for it when it is in demand. Ed: Now in terms of coverage of the Cricket World Cup here, you’re not actually working for Sky in this particular job are you? Nick: No, the Cricket World Cup Host Broadcast rights went to I think Star Sports, and they contracted a
company called Broadcast Solutions out of Singapore to supply the hardware and infrastructure for them. They had trouble providing enough kit to do all of Australia and all of New Zealand at one time. We’re providing one truck and one crew – that’s one technical crew – to go around the countryside and fill in the gaps for them when they need it. We did the opening game, we’ve been to Nelson, and Eden Park which was a big one. Ed: So that’s a big job and you certainly do big jobs, what about the little jobs … are you capable of local sport activities? Nick: That’s a really interesting one because it’s now become quite topical that, to cover all the events you want to cover, you can’t always roll out a big truck. So yes, we’re looking at putting a small truck on the road to cover the smaller events. It’s also to compete with the small companies that are streaming things to the internet, so that we can produce a rig that is cost-effective to do those jobs that don’t have the big budgets. There are a lot of sports out there that don’t get the multimillion dollar contracts like NRL and Super 15. Ed: I can imagine that’s like the swimming that we covered in the last issue – that was an OSB job? Nick: Yes. There’s a fair bit of work goes into a job like that even though it’s a mid to small job – there’s another level smaller than that again. We pulled a full size trailer, which needs a lot of space and a lot of power, to the Westwave pool. What we’d like to do is get a rig that can run out there, plug it into a 10 Amp outlet or a small generator and be up and running in half an hour. That’s probably where our target will be for our next kit. Ed: And you mentioned streaming – obviously with the rise of streaming solutions ( and some are very easy ) and the low cost of it all, is this something that you see as a major competition to what you do, or do you think that the expertise you have in all of the workflow of the cameras and the setup and that delivery makes that big difference that OSB can offer? Nick: I think the infrastructure we’ve put behind our outside broadcast is what’s critical. It’s not so much the delivery. We can put streaming delivery on the output of any vehicle we like, so the content and what you see on the screen is more important than the delivery mechanism. But obviously, like we were saying before, a small event – you’ve got to be cost-effective and satellite time is expensive. The rollout of Ultrafast Broadband means that you’ve got more options available to you, to stream at lower bandwidth and a lower quality, which is perfectly acceptable to somebody watching on their iPhone or on their laptop, or even some events where you bump up the bandwidth a little bit more and go to
Go www.finnzed.co.nz and follow the link to NZVN for more news. P 9 JVC and Streamstar P12 Roland M-5000 in town P14 Livestream demo at Protel P17 Nuclear Fission P22 Production in Thames Page 2
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your full size TV replay still. For some people, it’s more critical to see the sport than it is to have the full bells and whistles with it. Ed: So that is an option, that you could put together a package that would be just a streaming package? Nick: There is no reason why we can’t do that, and we’ve done jobs like that in the past. Typically, we don’t handle the linking out of the OB; we subcontract that out to somebody. We either use a streaming company to do that or, in the future, I think we’ll see more of us doing that our-selves. Typically, Sky use Kordia for their linking back to the studios. Kordia have an infrastructure that suits us quite well at the moment, so that’s one less headache we don’t have to worry about. But obviously the streaming solution, it’s not so suitable to have a third company there all the time, you know another party
involved, so I can see us taking that more and more on board in future. Ed: You must spend a fair bit of time and brain power working out how you could use the next technology that comes along to its best advantage. I mean, everyone’s now talking 4K so it must be something you are looking at? Nick: Yes 4K is a real interest to us at the moment; it’s an exciting thing and new technology coming on. Unfortunately, 4K has developed more around cinematography and single camera usage. To do multi-camera 4K work is very expensive and the lenses and things that we use on normal sports coverage – typically like 70, 80, 100 to 1 type lenses – they just don’t exist in the 4K domain. So we’re waiting for the technology to mature a little bit and hopefully there will be something in there that we can use in future. They’re doing some of the cricket in 4K at the
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moment as an experiment, but I believe they’re only using something like 10 cameras. If we’re on the cricket, you’d often have up to maybe 30 cameras involved, but for 4K they just can’t do it. The infrastructure that’s required is just too large. Even the latest truck that’s just been built in Australia which is 4K capable, I think it’s capable of something like 30 cameras, but when they run it in 4K, I think they can only run 12 cameras. Ed: Well there’s a downside to most things … and I understand you dabbled in 3D or certainly dipped your toes in it? Nick: We had a look at it; again round the Rugby World Cup time there was a request or requirement to do some 3D coverage. Similar to the 4K argument, the setup time of 3D cameras and the complexity of the processing of the signal and things like that made it very unattractive to us. So in that case, we looked at bringing in a third party from overseas to do the coverage, and I think at the end of the day they didn’t do it at all. I think it fell over. Ed: Well that seems like the story of 3D doesn’t it – falling over. But one technology that you have embraced is the super slow cameras. Now we certainly see good results here, and they had a super slow camera at the swimming, but my favourite – MotoGP – I see some really, really slow stuff. Is that something you’re looking at too?
Nick: Yes, we’ve had super slow cameras from the SD days, from 2001 onwards, and they’re typically 3x speed. Some of the footage you’re talking about, that you see on MotoGP and boxing and things like that, where you get some really lovely “hyper motion” shots we call them. That’s typically 300-600 frames a second. The drawback with hyper motion is you need daylight; you need lots of light because you get much less light in the lens. A lot of our sports coverage is done at night time and the lighting situation is absolutely minimal. So
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3x speed is about what we can do. There are options on cameras – there’s 2x cameras and there’s 6x cameras and there’s a 10x camera out there as well – together with the phantoms and things like that, that go really high speed. We find that there are great shots to be had with the hyper motion; we used it on the tennis, daylight coverage and good footage and very interesting shots, but it is a different look and a different purpose to what you’re using it for and you’ve got to remember the limitations of that camera and what it can do. OSB doesn’t actually own one; we rent them in as we require them for the jobs we need them for, and there’s a supply of them in New Zealand so that’s great. Ed: That’s new technology, but I understand that you have some technology that’s been around for quite some time and one that’s dear to my heart, and that is in your archiving process? Nick: We’ve discussed this many times, how to archive stuff effectively and efficiently and there’s still a fair bit of tape going on. It’s a good common interchange format; everybody understands what it is … Ed: What was that again? Nick: A good common interchange format and everybody understands it! If you tell them that you want an HDCAM tape and you need it in PAL or 50Hz format, that’s what you’ll get. You ask somebody to provide you with a file based format and there are about a million different types of file format; there’s all sorts of different little traps and foibles into using file based transfer, and unless you have the time to experiment and make sure you’ve got a working scenario, there are a lot of pits to fall into. So it’s horses for courses for us. Long format, we tend to go to tape; shorter format, we tend to be on a hard disc. Hard disc is definitely faster and quicker to take from a live scenario into an edit system and start using it straight away, so that some of the light entertainment shows we have been doing, turn around overnight effectively. They go into edit as soon as we’ve shot the show and the next night they’re on air; that’s something that can only be done using file based transfer. Ed: But all of this is really at the client’s request isn’t it … you obviously sit down with the client before the job and go through the processes and give them these options and let them decide do they want a tape archive, do they want it on hard disc, or how do they want it? Nick: That’s correct and a lot of them do “belt and braces.” They’ll have a line cut on tape and they’ll do a file archive onto hard disc. The big advantage of the file archive is they get every single camera angle that they want and that’s only limited by the amount of hardware we put into the truck. So typically up to 10 camera angles recording every single minute of footage that comes off those cameras and that can be completely reconstituted and recut back in the studio in edit, or they can take the line cut and just drop in the shots they need to cover up the soft shot. Ed: And how far back does your file based archive go? Nick: We don’t actually retain it; it’s up to the client to retain it. We’re very much about providing the hardware and the services on the day and the ownership is taken by the client of any of the material. We don’t own any of the material that we shoot. That’s
critical and we have to be very careful as to who owns the footage and who gets the footage onsite. It’s particularly prevalent for our own Sky work and customers like MediaWorks and TVNZ. They don’t want their shows going out to somebody that shouldn’t have it. Security over the footage is critical to us, so the customer owning the hard drives and the tapes is much more secure for us; they have control of it, not us. Ed: So you’ll never see any of your footage on YouTube? Nick: I hope not. If it does, it will have a timecode window in it! Ed: Nick, I’m sure you remember the old days of TVNZ and the broadcasters taking on apprentices to teach them the trade because there weren’t any schools around. Those were good times and I’m sure you went through some sort of apprenticeship? Nick: Yes definitely. I remember those days; I came up through TVNZ’s training centres and training schools with Ray Handisides and a great facility, a great concept and brilliant, but there’s no one out there really doing that anymore, so we’re finding it harder and harder to find good technical people. Ed: Are you offering anything like that with OSB? Nick: Yes, we do take on people – we’re involved with a lot of broadcasting schools and we look for interns from them every year and the successful intern then usually has the option to take on a job here. We have about four different technical positions … Ed:
You don’t start them as director though do you?
Nick: No, no – generally they all come in thinking they’re managing director and then they change it down to producer or director and stuff like that. The hard facts of outside broadcasting work are that it’s hard, heavy, hot, dirty, wet, nasty work a lot of the time. You get the odd good day when you’re sitting out in the sunshine and there’s a beautiful game of cricket or something like that going on, but it’s generally pretty hard work. So it takes a special kind of person to take on that roll … the person starts as a rigger, and they’re responsible for all the equipment that goes on and off the truck. Anything that comes off the truck is the rigger’s roll and they look after that. We’ve got some very skilled riggers here and they’re hugely valuable to a job. A job with a good rigger will run smoothly from start to finish with no hiccups. So after that we’ve got a position we call a T2 or field tech, and they are responsible for everything outside the truck that’s technical, so setting
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up wireless cameras, connecting trucks together, connecting to the venues, connecting up our phone lines, our internet connection – everything like that, helping out with graphics problems, because they tend to be either in a different truck or close by. If T2s show promise and are good, they work as apprentices or to help out the guarantee engineer. The GE role in the OB is all the technical infrastructure inside the truck, making sure that all the signals are going to the right place; the sound operator’s got all the signals needed, recording the right things on the right discs, the tape machines are working properly, the cameras are all working properly. Ed: So it’s a progression, but you need people to learn this on the job, it’s not something that any training school could teach the huge variety of work that is involved in an outside broadcast?
I guess someone knows where they all go.
Nick: No, hands on is best. I think the training schools could do a little bit better for technical staff because they tend to be very production orientated. But there’s a few people who come through those schools who have a technical bent and want to be involved in the technical side of television and production and that is easier to be learnt on the ground. There is no one with the training that we’re aware of,
that we used to have through TVNZ and people like that. Ed: And you take girls too? Nick: Absolutely. Anyone with the basic skills and lots of drive is welcome to come and talk with us anytime. Ed: There’s a challenge television people.
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JVC and Streamstar We’re here at a live streaming demonstration at the invitation of Pete Fullerton from Quinto Communications. Ed: Pete, we’ve just heard from Rado Toth, the CEO of Streamstar, that there is a very close synergy with JVC and, in fact, there’s been a big agreement signed because … well, there’s something special about JVC cameras that Streamstar really likes? Pete: Well we first saw Streamstar at NAB 2014 when JVC showed their interest in streaming technology. They had multiple partners on the stand and Streamstar was one of those partners. Ed: And it is a very good synergy? Pete: Oh it’s brilliant. It’s another piece of the streaming puzzle – you have the ability to stream live video directly out of the JVC cameras, without any other heavy technology. The Streamstar product line works at the receiving end. We have the ability to stream easily out of the JVC camera married with technology that can receive that video stream and can create a high production value product. Ed: And that’s either IP or over a cable? Pete: Yes, you can go “SDI in” if you get the SDI in product; you can go “HDMI in” if you have the HDMI in product; or you can go live streaming. The live streaming ability all of a sudden means that you don’t have to be in the same room … Ed: Or in fact, on the same continent? Pete: You don’t even have to be on the same continent, no, you can be literally anywhere there is wireless internet access ( WiFi, 3G or 4G.) The classic example that I gave was, when I was involved with post -budget Breakfast broadcasts in the 90s, if you wanted to marry five centres together, you needed OB vans, you needed technicians, you needed microwave links … it was an expensive product. Now you can pick up a JVC camera and wander into a room somewhere and instantly have all these centres which are geographically isolated from each other easily linked together. Ed: And at the same time you can be recording full HD 1080 on the camera’s recording system? Pete: Yes, the JVC cameras can be their own ISO records. You can record a full high resolution version of your live stream to the cameras’ SD cards – you can also be recording an SDI version out on an AJA Ki-PRO for example. The options are pretty good.
Pete with JVC camera streaming options.
you have the opportunity to provide this product to your customers? Pete: Yes, we have the opportunity to put together packages with this technology. I think one of the advantages of Quinto is our high engineering value. We like to work with our customers to provide good solutions that are well engineered and that are robust. Ed: So in terms of just buying a box, you obviously can sell these boxes to people who are interested in the Streamstars, but really, the combination of the JVC cameras and the Streamstars is something that you see as a winning combination? Pete: Absolutely. We’re not box shifters as a rule; we sell solutions to our customers. So we’d want to first of all find out what our customers wanted to do, what their needs were, and then present a complete solution – whether that’s the overall excellent features as well as the streaming ability of the JVC cameras, so that they can go wirelessly remote into the Streamstar, or whether that’s some other solution. For example, on the Streamstar unit with the SDI out, we might add say, an AJA Ki-PRO or similar recorder, to provide a broadcast quality recording facility. Ed: And obviously through Quinto, you have access to other streaming solutions? Pete: Yes, there are many other options that might suit our customers. Streamstar have a very good option for a particular customer base and we’re excited to be representing this product in New Zealand … and there are other options! Going back to our article…
Ed: And from what I’ve seen of the Streamstar presentation here today, it looks like it’s a very easy option. A lot was made of the ease of use of it. Is that something you’ve noticed? Pete: Oh look, if you know how to use an iPad you can master the Streamstar production mixing software within minutes. It’s been made to be as easy to operate and as uncomplicated as possible. Not so long ago I watched two engineers trying to remember how to get a certain display feature out of a production switcher – just trying to remember which sequence of buttons to press. With the Streamstar, I can do basic keying off the system just with one press of a touchscreen or one keyboard shortcut. It’s very much ease of use, that’s a major benefit of this technology.
Ed: You mean the February issue cover story with you there prominently on the cover, along with me on the beach?
Ed: Now this product is coming into New Zealand through Adimex Australia via a number of resellers and
If you are wanting to stream video, live or otherwise, you should be talking to us. NZVN
Pete: Yes, that would be me. I wasn’t with you on the beach that day, but ( quickly changing the topic of conversation ) we have talked about the future of television, that the future of television is IP. Quinto has always been strong in leading the industry into future technologies and IP is a field in which we are particularly strong. We have a number of streaming solutions, we have Streamstar and we have products like Zixi, for example, which is a software system that allows users to deliver broadcast-quality video globally over the public Internet and private IP networks.
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Roland Launches M-5000 Digital Mixing Console in NZ OHRCA (Open, High Resolution and Configurable Architecture) Gencom Technology this week hosted the New Zealand debut for Roland’s next-generation digital audio mixing console, the M-5000. next month and Gencom will be getting a demo unit in-country shortly thereafter. New Zealand list price has been set at $31,000, and Gencom is offering special package deals for customers interested in adding one or more as-new, exdemo digital snakes currently in their store. We could list all of the specs and tell you all of the features and benefits, but would recommend you check the unit out on the Roland Website at proav.roland.com/OHRCA, and watch the demos. While you’re there, be sure to check out Roland’s full range of portable AV mixers, vision switchers, matrix switchers, and converters. And contact the folks a Gencom if you’d like any further information or to schedule a demo. NZVN Product experts from Roland Systems Group in Australia were on hand to provide live demonstrations and answer all the tough questions. With morning, afternoon, and evening sessions, there was plenty of opportunity for guests to give it a hands on try! This live audio console is perfect for front of house, monitor mixing and broad-cast applications. The Console has up to 128 Channels, 28 Faders, 12" Touch Screen Display, and 24-bit/96kHz Resolution. The M-5000 marks the introduction of Roland’s new OHRCA (Open, High Resolu-tion Configurable Architecture) design, which gives you 128 configurable audio paths at 24-bit/96kHz instead of a fixed number of input channels, aux sends, mix buses etc. These audio paths can be assigned as input channels, matrices outputs, mix minus busses … whatever is required for a particular application. It has built-in I/O for small format mixing and REAC for larger shows, plus two expansion ports for Dante, MADI, Sound Grid and more. As all of Roland’s current digital snakes are already fully 96kHz capable, existing Roland customers can upgrade to the new system and unlock new potential from their existing gear. John Lancken, Pro AV Division Manager at Roland Australia, believes this console will be stiff competition for all other, higher ticketed, mixers in the market. “This console is the only system in its price range to offer this level of capability in terms of I/O, processing, configurability and resolution. Its nearest competitor costs four times as much.” At less than a meter wide, it will even fit in a smaller OB vehicle. Whilst this pre-release console had to be sent back to Australia, the first production units are expected to ship Page 12
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Livestream Close Up at Protel We’re at Protel and we’ve just been given a Livestream demonstration by Mark Hall from Corsair Solutions in Australia. To start us off, we’re going to have a wee chat with Ken Brooke. Ed: Ken, I guess it’s really important with a product like this to have a local agent. It is really very easy to operate once you know the steps, but it does take a little bit of explaining and setting up and that’s where the expertise that the Protel team can offer comes in. It’s important to have local support for Livestream in New Zealand? Ken: Yes, and the reason we’re exclusive agents in New Zealand is because we do hold local stock and support the product. If we get stuck or need clarification, we can always ask for assistance support from Corsair and they’re very helpful. The Livestream Studio range has many features built into the software and so it requires a level of computer competency to make it work for you, that’s the arena we are in. There are plenty of settings to cater for just about every eventuality, a lot of things you can do with it. Ed: But let me say, in the Livestream range, there are some simple solutions and you’re holding one of them right now.
Ed: What I find very useful is that Livestream has its own CDN and the services that they offer directly. You can start off with a free option and go up to one that they call an Enterprise solution. But it’s all run by Livestream; it’s all connected and it just works? Ken: That’s the difference – it enables you to get up and running easily. The first thing I did when we were offered Livestream was set up my own Livestream account just to see how it worked. Anyone can set up a free account … you could have your friends look at your children’s streamed birthday party or something like that. You can stream it to the cloud; as long as you’ve set up your own account, you and your friends can view your stream. If you don’t want to use Livestream, with the production studios, you can stream to other CDN’s if you wish but make sure you take a good look at the different costs associated with each provider. And now Mark Hall’s turn. Ed: Mark, I have to say, a great demonstration and what really blew me away was the Livestream platform as the content delivery service. It just makes it easier for someone who is not really used to streaming product, to know that there is this platform there that you can connect to and it’s going to work – it’s a safety net?
Ken: This is the little Broadcaster box – a very simple streaming solution. We have sold a few of these to cameramen who have wanted to do a streaming event and didn’t want to go to a lot of expense. It’s an immediate solution – you just plug an HDMI output from your camera into it and you can configure the Broadcaster up to your local WiFi network or you can plug it in via an Ethernet cable or plug a modem stick in it and stream out via your local cell network. Ed: And it goes on from there. There’s lots of different levels that Livestream offer right up to, well, what a Broadcaster might want to use? Ken: Yes many TV broadcasters worldwide use Livestream Studio, including some radio stations. We’ve got a customer based on the East Cape who uses a combination of Studio and Broadcaster for their Kapa Haka recording and for Maori Television productions so they can record live cultural events and Live Stream at the same time. Ed: So really it is a mini TV station that you can set up with Livestream? Ken: There are many applications, live events, television … yes, you could also use it for an OB as well. It’s capable of ISO recording the camera feeds individually and, with this particular unit, there are four ISO recording off-camera feeds, so very useful. You will notice today we are also showing the Chroma key capability now as a full feature of the Studio range. We have a Canon C100MkII and Reflecmedia Kit connected to the Studio input one to show you it working.
Ken and Mark from Corsair.
Mark: Well that’s right, that’s why products like Livestream broadcaster enable you to stream to one or 10,000 people without additional costs. They make it very easy to stream, and for those who want to get more advanced, go to the Livestream appliances or the software and stream to your pick of CDN, Livestream or YouTube live, Zixi or Akamai for example. We can also take Zixi or Remote stream feeds that can be brought in as a live source. There’s a lot of flexibility in what you can do. Ed: Also what I noticed is the range that you offer – there is the smaller Broadcaster camera only streaming devices right up to something that a broadcaster would use? Mark: That’s right, it’s incredibly flexible. So apart from all the free software that’s available for Mac and PC, we can send free streams out, you’ve got the studio software that works with Blackmagic devices or Magewell capture cards or even the webcam from your PC … it’s very flexible and you’re not really locked into
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Export recordings as MP4 files for quick sharing on the web and social networks.
Cut or transition sources between Preview and Program. Preview your GFX overlays before transitioning them into Program.
Switch live sources in frame-accurate HD, with up to 2 multiview displays.
Insert advertisements directly into your program with the click of a button. Sourced from Google DFP.
Mix audio with accurate ppm displays, volume adjustment, monitoring and track grouping.
Utilize up to five live inputs via webcams or Blackmagic Design devices, plus 2 remote camera sources, 2 media tracks and 3 GFX tracks
Convert different input sources in realtime to match your project format.
Create a wireless, multi-camera production using mobile devices or desktop computers as video sources.
Import any popular media format or add recordings as clips in the Media Player list. Scrub your video to find the ideal moment, trim in/out points and set clips to autoplay with your transitions.
Create powerful, layered broadcast graphics using editable layers of text, images and video. Connect multiple external data sources to add text from places like Google Spreadsheets and Twitter feeds.
Studio HD510 Ultra-portable all-in-one switcher, with integrated touch-screen. Studio HD510 is the ultimate portable live production switcher. With a built in touch-screen display and unique form factor, the HD510 will give you flexibility and performance on the go. Studio HD510 can even be carried on a plane using the provided carry on bag.
Learn more at : new.livestream.com/studio/hd510
AUCKLAND 76 Paul Matthews Road, Rosedale 0632, Auckland, Tel +64 9 414 0477, Fax +64 9 415 3117 WELLINGTON 15 Walter Street, Wellington 6011, Tel +64 4 801 9494, Fax +64 4 384 2112 POSTAL ADDRESS PO Box 303107, North Harbour 0751, Auckland New Zealand
specific hardware. They just make it very easy to stream. Ed: I noticed in your demo that you indicated a lot of Blackmagic integration. Is there a reason for that? Mark: Well Blackmagic is what Livestream started with, but they have integrated with other products like Magewell cards now for example. There’s a lot of Blackmagic devices available, they’re easy to get … like we can easily plug in here additional Blackmagic output devices and USB3; we could have maybe 4 auxiliary SDI outputs including the main programme output, so there’s a lot of flexibility in what you can do, and it’s just something that’s easily accessible. Ed: And from the story that we did at iHeartRadio, I was impressed by your training solution – that you were able to provide training to a group at Protel’s offices via the internet?
Garry was trying to tell me something but I clicked a moment too early - or not?
Mark: I think that was done via stream and we also did via Skype and a few other things, but Livestream, since we’ve been doing it, has been immensely popular and it’s just growing … all market segments, medical, corporate, sports, education. There are lots of different areas and there are many people who are after it whether it’s a public stream or whether it’s a closed stream. Everything’s flexible about it, we can make this as simple and easy to operate or as complex with a lot of different things running into it. So we’ve got the 510 here which is a very simple portable unit, with a touchscreen display and you can operate it straight from the unit by just touching on it and starting and stopping the stream and switching cameras. Ed: So I guess the ultimate step is that somebody will set themselves up as a broadcast channel using the streaming services of Livestream? Mark: There are a lot of people already doing that. The events of Ferguson, Missouri are testament to that with, I think, nearly 2 million viewers on one of the streams; the events were happening there and that was rivalling CNN in their viewership. It’s a growing market. Ed:
Any streaming channels in Australia?
Mark: Well it depends – you just jump onto livestream.com and you can see some of the public ones on there. Ed: Okay, so rather than give an example, there is the opportunity to go 24 hours broadcast? Mark: Oh definitely. You can click on straightaway now and, I know there’s not many in Australia doing it, but if you go to the US for example … Ed:
There’s WDTN Dayton?
Mark: That’s a live 24 hour stream and there are many more you can find on the Livestream website. At www.livestream.com/news you get a map of the world and you can go and pick stations from anywhere and watch them live. Ed:
Phew, what next for Livestream?
Mark: I don’t know … we’ll see what they’ve got at NAB. They’ve just released their two new Broadcaster Mini and the Broadcaster Pro which have had quite an immense reaction to them – you know 1080p at 4MEG streaming from a device that’s below $500 is quite amazing and yet again it’s nice and easy to get it and just have a full turnkey system ready to go. Ed: We will all just have to wait for May’s issue of NZVN NZVN to see.
Page 16
Nuclear Fission
throughout my time at Unitec, not just in the film industry, but I also did AV design for theatre … I like embracing as many of the forms of entertainment technology as I can, just so I can give people the solution that fits them best. Ed: So you must have had a lot of exposure to Avid stuff, otherwise Richard wouldn’t have been interested? Theo: Exactly. Unitec’s been using Avid as their core training programme for editing since I first started there 10 years ago. When I first met Richard, they’d just installed some Unity’s so the management of that was handed over to me. Then we upgraded to ISIS and I managed those and I installed one of the first licence servers for Avid in the country … or maybe the second I think it was. So you know I’ve had a good use of all that technology at the time.
We are at the Auckland offices of Atomise – I repeat, the Auckland offices of Atomise with Richard Kelly and Theo Gibson. Ed: Richard, you’ve decided to move to Auckland finally – you’ve had enough of Wellington and all its Hobbits – you’ve come to a real city at last? Richard: No, no, no – I care deeply about those Hobbits in Wellington Grant, and I know some of the people who are going to read this care about the Hobbits in Wellington, so … no, I’m not moving to Auckland. Obviously, a lot of my time has been spent in Auckland over the last year, but things were right to open an Auckland office with Theo Gibson who has just joined us. It’s been a very, very busy last 18 months for us in Auckland. We’ve obviously done a very major second project for TVNZ with their nationwide news solution, which is just in the process of going live, and we’ve got a significant amount of other work with some very good core customers here in Auckland – and that’s let us take advantage of the opportunity to expand our operations permanently and have a site here. Ed: I guess the issue for you has always been that your business has been so personal – it’s been so “Richard Kelly” and people who work for Richard Kelly … everyone knows that it’s a quality and a class act, so to find somebody who can work at that same level, Richard and Theo with plumbing task to do. that must have been a hard search? Richard: Absolutely. Actually that was a real Ed: What do you think you’re going to bring to consideration – finding someone who wasn’t just skilled Atomise in Auckland that somebody else couldn’t? in a particular part of our industry but who could also Theo: Well I think I’ve dealt with a lot of students have good communication skills and understand what’s and staff and creatives and … going on in production so that they could add value. So Ed: Oh you mean difficult people? yes, it was a challenge and I’m very pleased to say, I Theo: You can word it however you like! But I’m really believe we’ve found the perfect person. Theo is used to handling artistic people and I am very mindful an Avid certified instructor and has a great amount of of making sure that they’re aware that nothing’s a technical expertise, working both in the Avid realm and problem when they’re dealing with technology … in all the associated parts that make up a production everything’s solvable and there’s always a solution. environment. Don’t panic, we can solve it. I think I’ve had a lot of Ed: Well let’s hear from Theo. So Theo, that’s a experience with professionals and students in conveying glowing recommendation from your new boss – tell us that, and also working in education means that I can your background? help expand Avid’s reach into the education industry. I Theo: I studied in Australia as a sound designer think that would be really beneficial. Half of the on Fairlight – which we didn’t have any of in New students I trained are now in the industry so I have a Zealand as I found out on my return! I did a bit of 3D lot of connections through Auckland. I think it will be animation for a while and a few other things around the good for Atomise to have that reach. film workplace. Then I started at Unitec where I Ed: Well that sounds pretty good – Richard you’re worked for 10 years as technical co-ordinator, basically obviously happy – but what did you do before Theo; managing all their workflows from computers to AD how did you manage Auckland? workflows to anything I could come up with, they were Richard: Auckland was a lot of time for me in basically implemented in their workflows at Unitec. aeroplanes coming here, but also we had a good group Ed: So this wasn’t just in the video side of it – I guess of contractors that we were using often here in you were involved in their networks? Auckland. We’re still going to keep using contractors Theo: Yes, I worked closely with their IT team, for particular tasks … you know, if someone needs a because the IT team had no idea when it came to rack cabled up or bits and pieces, we still have some dealing with film and TV workflows, so I was the very good experience that we can call on. But the specialist for the department. I’ve done multiple things time’s just right to have our own feet on the ground in more on page 20
Page 17
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Atomise Auckland is open for business. We are very pleased to announce that Atomise now has an office in Auckland and welcome Technical Sales Engineer and Avid Certified Instructor Theo Gibson to our team. For sales and support queries you can contact Theo at our office: Level 1, 59 Maurice Road, Penrose, Auckland E | theo@atomise.co.nz M | 021 863 324
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this market, dedicating a resource to the Auckland market. Obviously it’s very, very busy up here in our niche market at the moment, and the response so far from our customers has been very positive. People are welcome to keep on calling me too of course, that’s not a problem at all. Theo and I will be working together. Ed: Now I guess one of the other reasons that you do have to change, and have to have somebody here, is that the nature of your business has changed. In the old days, it was a case of a customer buying the software, Media Composer, plugging it into a computer and a little support by phone is all it took. But nowadays, even though Media Composer is the base of it all, the enterprise side has undergone a huge growth? Richard: Absolutely – even though we’re still doing a lot of Media Composer licence sales, it’s become very noticeable over the last 18 months that a large part of our business now involves many more complex integrated solutions with Avid ISIS and Interplay and lots of third party hardware and software working in very large workgroup environments. Ed: Is that because the price of collaborative hardware has come down, it’s become much more cost effective for people to get involved in that enterprise arrangement? Richard: Absolutely. It was very noticeable in our market. Obviously, we are a small market in New Zealand, and a relatively price sensitive market, and the moment ISIS came down in price, the uptake became quite massive. It’s been a very successful product and we’ve installed a lot of sites in the last 18 months especially. People see it working at production house A and decide “well, hey that works really well there, we should get it here” and it just is a really nice product to build a workflow on and it is now the core of what we do. We pitch ourselves as the best support for ISIS solutions and Interplay solutions in this country and that’s what we continue to work with. Ed: But you will sell the odd Media Composer on its own, won’t you? Richard: We definitely will sell Media Composer – anything anybody needs, after it leaves the camera until it heads off to a transmitter, we can do. Ed: Now educational institutions especially are in a bit of a tricky position because there are so many variations of software. They need to train their students in what the industry’s using which is why they need to have more than one brand in their product range? Richard: Absolutely. We’re working with quite a major installation at the moment, where that is their core focus. They have a very broad course, but they are specifically looking at what tools the industry uses for what parts of the process and choosing to go Avid and ISIS for their storage and having that layer of exactly what they can walk out of as a training institution, and obviously walk into a job at TVNZ, TV3, Park Road Post, Weta Digital – you know all these core – NHNZ … Ed: And of course all these people have jobs going now don’t they? Richard: Yes, all these customers are very busy and, for the most part, expanding, so it’s a really good time for educational institutions to have people coming out with the skills that are directly what the industry requires. Ed: Now, as to your choice of office space, we are in this fairly Spartan room here in Penrose; the decorators are yet to appear and put in the Jacuzzi, but you’re not expecting people to just turn up here are you? There was a specific reason why you’ve come to this place in Penrose?
Theo with an installation.
Richard: Absolutely. We’re very lucky to be upstairs at the UPS Power Solutions building. UPS Power Solutions are a company that Atomise has a great deal of synergy with. They supply a lot of facility level infrastructure for the majority of our customers, so the beauty is that we are at a site that we knew, from day one, was very accessible to our customers, because they’re already being serviced from here. There’s also the great advantage of having a fantastic warehouse out the back here and room to grow. This is day two of being onsite here, so when you come back next it will have a few more things on the walls. Ed: Well I see you’ve got a sink but actually nowhere to plug it in? Richard: I’ve just noticed that too – but thankfully, there is a working sink in the bathroom. Ed: But you’re not expecting people to come here are you; this is really just a base for Theo and a place for keeping a few spares and landing some of that product that’s coming in? Richard: Atomise has never really been setup as a retail operation, so yes, we will get some people coming here, but our methodology is very much out-bound and it really is to provide a base for our operations here in Auckland. The intent wasn’t to set up a retail showroom because most of our clients don’t work from a retail perspective. Ed: And Richard, I’m heading off to NAB shortly. Am I going to find something exciting from Avid there? Richard: I’m sure there’ll be huge and very positive announcements on the Avid stand. We’re all looking forward to NAB this year. I’ll actually be quite deeply involved in the “go live” of a project over the NAB time, but I’m sure Ren at Avid will be looking forward to assisting you with an interview and giving you all the latest information. Ed: I’m excited. NZVN
Page 20
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Production in Thames We are in Thames and we’re in a gold mine, but we’re not looking at the gold; we’re here to talk with Eric Gosse. Ed: Eric, you have a hobby interest in the Thames gold mine here but we’re here to talk about what you do for a day job. Obviously, you’ve been doing this for quite some time, and that’s camerawork with a nautical connection. Eric: Pegasus Cruises is my company and my ambition now is to take my boat from being primarily an underwater photography and adventure vessel to being a videography vessel. Ed: So you didn’t start out having any video ambitions at all; it was about underwater adventure charters? Eric: Well it grew, and once you’re up the Islands and you’re going down on some World War 2 wrecks and things like that, recording what you encounter has value. In those early days, the footage was pretty rough from one of the very early Sony underwater units, a Handycam in a sealed case – like a Box Brownie effectively. It did record some of the adventures and where we were going inside ships. In the engine room, you find a hole in the floor where the bomb went down beside the engine and blew the bottom out. Ed: So you started out as a charter operation; that was the business, or did you have the idea well, if I’ve got a charter, I’ve got to have some photography as well? Eric: Yes, exactly. I bought a Nikonos, an underwater camera from Nikon, in 1967 and ended up with a 15mm lens for it, a prime, and got some marvellous shark stuff and things like that. One grows from the other. In our club, photography became quite important and we formed an underwater club in 1964, we hired vessels and the master of that got overworked and he said “Eric why don’t you go and get your ticket and give us some relief sometimes?” So I did that and followed on by buying my own boat, the Pegasus, which is 50 ton, 55 foot and it’s an oceanic vessel. It’s heavy and slow. Ed:
And you sail that out of Thames?
Eric: Now, yes. I was based out of Marsden wharf for about 17 years, but Auckland’s become very expensive for other than tax dodge charter boats. My people were heavily into video and I’ve slowly realised that people love to pass on their stuff and of course, for myself, I ended up getting a Z1P because I thought well if I get one of these exceptional bits of footage, it would be nice to pass it on. The camera had come from Panavision and that’s where I got the Sachtler tripod to go with it. Ed:
So you’re not skippering the boat?
Eric: Oh yes, I’m the master and engineer. Ed: But when you’ve dropped anchor, you pop on the scuba gear and you’re over the side? Eric: Oh yes, once we’re in a safe spot. I’ve always got my off-sider to look after the boat because, for example, at the Auckland Islands, or Campbell Islands, those places have got hazards. Ed:
Big whites I understand?
Eric: There’s that … personally I haven’t met one, but Mike a young weatherman who was on Campbell Island, he’s the one who got his arm ripped off by one down there. I knew him first as a weatherman up on Raoul
Eric at the mine building.
Island. That was when I was there with a TVNZ team – Kurt Sanderson and Network News … Peter Thompson was the chief cameraman. I dived as his lightman because I understood what he would want, and he would give signals, and we had a 6 KVA light-bank which was all old locomotive light(s) that had lost one filament, either high beam or low beam, a 32 Volt locomotive thing. Ed:
That’s it, you made do in those days?
Eric: Oh yes, I mean people look into the engine room of a boat like mine and there’s switchboards and there’s engines and generators and things like that and “Oh how do you know that?” I can fix a hay baler or tractor, I’m a farmer, that’s what I started out at 50 years ago – farming, but I had share-milkers helping and I could get away with the boat. Ed: So your main passion is the boat and the diving and that sort of water side of it, but you’ve seen the value in recording this – either still photography and now video? Eric: I think there are terms “vocation” and “avocation”. If I understand the English right, avocation means that’s what you really, really want to do and like to do; and the other thing is what you do to make a dollar. And so you could say that farming was the vocation and the other was the avocation. Ed:
But alongside the boat was the camerawork?
Eric: Oh very much so. We were photographing underwater with the Nikonos and it was manual everything and you had to estimate your light exposure
Page 22
Eric: No, though it could be if I had $20/30 K for a housing! Ed:
So what are you using this for?
Eric: Basically I’ve used that mainly out of a helicopter for DOC jobs. There was a project for a tourist venture in wetlands and I did that when it was in flood to show what it’s like. A lot of those types of jobs are being replaced now by the drones, although friends have just bought a drone which could carry this camera at about 4½ kg and I said “Well, I wouldn’t like you to release it to save your drone!” Ed: So you’re doing corporates around Thames and the odd wedding? Eric: I’ve done a few weddings. The Pegasus.
for your small bulbs or your big bulbs and your timing and so on, so you rapidly learnt that because every shot was … what was it, 25 cents per shot to be developed, and you had to wait 2-3 weeks. Even as recently as 1989, I had National Geographic from New York onboard and we were putting David Doubilet down every day with 13 F3 Nikons in his hand in underwater housings. Each one had 2 flashguns on it – we counted one night, along with torches and everything else, in his cabin on the big shelf in there, he had an underwater caddy to follow him around underwater to handle all this stuff, but at night-time there would be 75 items on charge. Four dive rigs each for 4hrs down. Ed: Let’s move onto the video side, so you started off with your Sony fixed camera but you’ve progressed since then? Eric: Well I bought a VX2000 – it’s the forerunner to the Z1. That was okay, it was a great thrill for me, but I didn’t have an underwater housing and I still don’t. So that’s the next thing on the list. You can make a temporary underwater housing out of an old dive bottle and you slide it in and you have a six inch ship’s compass bowl on the front of it for a dome face. You need the dome face to get away from the four three shrinkage in the image from being a water to air interface.
I’ve done a dairy farm for a fellow out of a helicopter the other day and a wedding over at Great Barrier which was on the ground. I’ve done a safety film for a car factory. But I’ve done quite a few videos for singers just so they have something to get onto YouTube to associate with their new CD that they’ve just put out. Really I guess that’s a form of advertising in a sense. And Santiago Valencia, a famous Cellist. Ed: So after the Z1, you then went to the PMW-300. What was the reason for that move? Eric: Well the Z1 was in a car accident with me and it had some acetone that went through it and it got condemned. Ed: It wasn’t the case that it was a tape machine and you wanted to go away from tape? Eric: No I was quite happy with it. It wasn’t until I got offered this as the replacement because, at the time,
Ed: What was the camera that you had a proper underwater housing for? Eric: Basically borrowed ones, anything I could lay my paws on. I’ve got the underwater housing for the HERO 3 GoPro. The early Sony HandiCam had an oval, yellow housing with full sound. Ed: Yes, we’re coming onto the GoPros because that really must have made a big difference to what you could do? Eric: Well I’ve acquired that since I pulled my boat from the water and I haven’t actually been to sea with the thing other than little stuff around Great Barrier. But I’ve been experimenting … we recorded a lot of the construction of this building with that, this gold mine. Ed: Is that because you could put it up on a pole, or get it places where you couldn’t …? Eric: Very much so. You can in fact put it just about anywhere. You can have threatening or dangerous items close to it and so long as it’s screwed down tightly you’re okay. Ed: Now you’ve got yourself the Sony PMW-300 – this is obviously not an underwater camera? Page 23
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the insurance company couldn’t see any new Z1s on the market and they said “Would this suit you?” and I gulped and agreed that it would.
several free converters … MXF is just another sort of AVI as I understand it; it’s just got a different skin on it suited for Avid and those things.
Ed:
Ed:
You said “Oh, all right then.”
Eric: Exactly. But I am impressed with its colour. It’s 422 as against 420 on the other – and I thought the other was great. It certainly was razor sharp. This one is sharp but it’s got a bit more depth to the colour. I paid quite a bit extra because I bought other gear with it. Even the cards are expensive – you’ve got to have the SXS PRO 64 gigabyte to be worth having. When the boat goes back into the water, it will have a crow’s nest up the forward mast which will have a frame … I like to film sometimes out of a helicopter and if it’s going to be a lot of swinging around I like to have 4 bungy cords coming into a ring of bungy cord in the centre; shove the camera through the bungy cord, it gives you partial support, but it still allows you total freedom of movement. And that’s how we’ll do it from up in the crow’s nest. I can’t yet afford it but I may later, if I get onto something good, go for one of these gyroscopes that fit on the bottom … Ed: You had better start saving now. So tell me, how was your transition from tape to card? Eric: Very favourable. You open it up and there it is, you just transfer it. The only thing is, if I want to pass it (.MXF files ) on to some people – one had Vegas in his laptop and it wouldn’t open them. It’s 2 years old, so I had to line him up with a converter and there are
Okay, but you’re editing this on what?
Eric: EDIUS 6.5. Ed:
How did you get into EDIUS?
Eric: Well I went to an Avid course because I had an Avid Xpress that had cost about $3000 and that was only DV. I decided that I wanted to get into HD with this new camera, and they wanted to charge me another $3,000 to changeover. I thought “no crikey, that’s terrible” and so I went and looked into EDIUS. I found that it had good reports and you could drop whatever you liked onto the timeline and it would work. I got what was called Broadcast and I think I got it for about $1,800. Ed:
How are you getting support for EDIUS?
Eric: Just through the forum. Quite often, if I want to ask a question, I’ve found that on the EDIUS forum the search bar doesn’t work very well, so I just drop the question into Google and bingo, it brings up one of the EDIUS forum answers better than what the EDIUS search bar does. I’m not the only one who complained about that either. Ed:
But are you getting any local support?
Eric: No. If I’m having trouble, I end up in the Help Desk until about 2 or 3 in the morning. Ed:
Page 25
Okay, so where did you get your PMW-300 from?
would have a pretty good depth of field and a respectable autofocus. Well of course, for any moving live-view target, a 5D has got no autofocus. I bought another new set of glasses to try and rectify my perception and quickness … actually I’ve got a rig for it and when I put it in a rig, I’ve got a follow focus with a flexible handle, so I put someone else on that and I run HDMI down to the laptop. I had someone else just doing the focus only … that was alright up to a point, but the trouble was in the bright sunlight outside, you couldn’t see the laptop screen. It’s a lousy screen on my little Toshiba. So I put it inside a large cardboard box and I cut holes in it for their face and in the end they were complaining bitterly about being choked to death with heat, and I thought well I’d better not fry my Toshiba.
Eric with EDIUS.
Eric: That was from Mike Symes, because he’s close to where I keep my big caravan and I go gliding at Omarama and I like to film gliders in the air and so on.
Ed: Also I can imagine the clients wouldn’t be too enamoured by the professionalism of a large cardboard box with holes cut in it?
Ed:
Eric: Well these were sort of a hippy bunch doing a big outdoor musical, so they thought it was normal!
So you’ve got another base in Christchurch?
Eric: Yes. I’ve got a friend who lives in Christchurch and survived the earthquake without any damage and I can always call in and I stay there when I’m south. Ed: You know that Mike is a big proponent of EDIUS don’t you? Eric: I do now – and he’s told me about his man who does training and so on, so the next time I go down there I’m going to make a point of getting some of it because I’ve got a little notebook with a list of questions that I seem to have difficulty with. I have essentially used it for the basics, sorting out the rubbish, putting clips in a nice order, putting some music or something under it. For example, a lady that I recorded for her CD, she swapped me use of her music for doing her video. One of the things I want lessons from him on is the Titler part which I’ve found confusing. There are a lot of things I don’t understand about editing unfortunately. There were things that I liked very much – the picturein-picture that was in the Avid and so on – I want to do these things. I use BluffTitler because it’s keyframing and layers are really easy. Ed: I’m sure it’s there, it’s just a matter of finding it. Now somewhere along the line, I understand that you had a dalliance with a 5D3? Eric: Yes. I still have it and I use it for all my photography … Ed:
All your still photography?
Eric: Still photography, yes. Ed:
But you tried it for video?
Eric: Yes. I now relegate it to use strictly and only as a fixed camera when I’m doing a show … for example, our local theatre players. What I found in the slightly poor lighting which they had, was that the depth of field was about 4 cm and it was dreadful. My eyesight is not razor sharp any longer so I have to take all the help I can get. Consequently, I’ve acquired a strong aversion to large single chip cameras, which is why, in spite of other cameras being suggested to me, I read all the reviews I could by the people and the users, and I wanted something that I could be pretty sure
Ed: So it has its place and you can see the value in short depth of field, but for what you do …? Eric: Yes, for what I do, it actually gives a beautiful picture if it’s fixed and you get the focus right and it runs. You only need the sound to be good enough so that you can synchronise it with the other sound, so it gives you the ability to do a two camera shoot when you haven’t got a second video camera. If I’m shooting a person like that on a video, I’m not one of those doing super high speed or with 20 cameras going and everybody’s dancing round getting every possible angle; I’m just doing two. Ed: Now Eric, with your choice of the PMW-300, obviously one big point of value in it is that it has interchangeable lenses. You were able to take lenses that you had and put them on as well as the standard zoom lens that it came with? Eric: Yes that’s right. I’ve got a Canon 300 prime and I’ve also got the 1.4 extender. This is just to pull something in that’s really distant with the tripod weighted and everything else. From Thames up to the far ridge, just when I was testing it, I could fill the frame with a pine tree that was like a flea on an elephant’s back in the distance. It was at least 6 Km away and I was amazed, filled the frame! I haven’t actually worked out how to calculate the multiplication of that, but I know it’s a lot. It means more fiddling because it doesn’t just adjust automatically, you’ve got to get your exposure etc right, and preset it. Ed: Now, for the future, I understand you’re doing something pretty spectacular with your boat in terms of setting it up for groups to work? Eric: Two years ago, when I was looking into it, they were saying $30,000 for a video server and holy smoke, I can’t afford that, a decent NAS box might do, there’ll be gigabit to all bunks too. I’ve spent about 300 on the overhaul of the boat anyhow … Ed: That’s $300,000, not $300. Eric: Yes, that’s dead right and it just goes like water so I’ve got to stay within the realms of common sense. I’ve had National Geographic from New York around New Zealand – then flew them around New Zealand in a turbo-Centurion; I once leased the boat out and I had
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scientists who did the first ever survey of the Palauan Archipelago east and south of the Philippines; I said to the lady boss of Greenpeace San Francisco “How come a bunch of hippies like you got a red neck cowcocky like me?” “W’aaaal, red neck aah understand, we got them, but what’s a cow-cocky?” Hmmmn ... such sweet ignorance. I’ve done many other trips, and we do see some spectacular stuff. One of the things I often want is to be able to have some height on and until I take a friend along with his drone, coming into offshore coral reefs and so on, there’s a beautiful turquoise, and to get elevated shots would be something. At least coming up close to the reef, the reef entrance and the turquoise blue, I can do that because I’m putting a crow’s nest up the mast. Ed:
But drones would add just that little bit extra?
Eric: It would indeed. I’m quite happy to risk my GoPro in my friend’s drone; I’m not too sure about the 300 though. Ed:
Safer on the ground I would say.
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