The Beeb to Broadcast from Laptops. Amateur Hour:

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The rise of mass media in the last half of the 20th Century turned us all into "consumers" and took away much of the natural human inclination to be creators, performers, singers, musicians and storytellers.

Today, the rapid proliferation of cheap professional-quality media-making tools, paired with the drastic decrease in the cost of content distribution is leading to a quiet, but quite real revolution in the quantity and quality of "amateur" content. It's the democratization of media, the "Big Flip" as Clay Shirky calls it, and we think it's going to play an increasingly important role in how we make, share and consume media. For more, read my introduction to Amateur Hour.

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December 01, 2003

The Beeb to Broadcast from Laptops

Posted by Jonathan Peterson

The BBC has been using laptop video production and live streaming software from QuickLink for coverage of the Iraq War. Interesting stuff, but hardly groundbreaking technology - back in March I wrote about Channel Storm's $999 laptop broadcast playform:

Channel Storm 2.0 allows real-time video capture, compositing, titling and rendering; streaming the result out to the web or into an analog video network. Channel Storm isn't cheap (US$999), but it's an all software solution requiring nothing more an a Mac, a DV camera or web cam with mic.

You could cobble all the peices together yourself, but putting it all in one place ensures both ease of use and continued downward price pressure. Looks like easy to do video blogging could be right around the corner.

As I just finished watching "Scratch", I'm wondering how long it will be before the "two turntables and a microphone" ethos is replaced by a "laptop and a DV cam". Let's see VJ's be what they always should have been, real-time video editor/mixologists...

Comments (2) | Category:

COMMENTS

1. QrazyQat on December 6, 2003 09:06 PM writes...

"I'm wondering how long ... Let's see VJ's be what they always should have been, real-time video editor/mixologists..."

Used to be done in Toronto ten years ago with Amigas and Video Toasters.

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2. Keith Gomez on January 12, 2004 05:47 PM writes...

I am develop a proposal to implement a laptop system to transfer video over the internet to a fixed server.
And playback the video to tape

What is the equipment required?

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