Michael Webber

Category: Television

  • Mount Washington TV Geeks

    Picked up my copy of Marty On The Mountain at <a href="http://www.booksmusictoys.com/">The Village Book Store</a> in Littleton, NH.
    Picked up my copy of Marty On The Mountain at The Village Book Store in Littleton, NH.

    Mount Washington and Television, two of my life passions in one book.

    Marty on the Mountain is a wonderful book full of neat stories about life as a TV engineer on top of Mount Washington.  Only 157 pages, the book is a fun read over a quiet weekend.

    I’ve had the opportunity to hike and visit the mountain on a number of occasions.  In fact, I proposed to my wife after a hike up Tuckerman’s Ravine.

    I had a clear image of the location as I read about the different buildings on the summit.

    Great book, I picked up my copy at the Village Book Store in Littleton, which is always part of our family vacation trips.  I usually pick up at least one book. I know the store downsized in 2014 and is now under new ownership, known as Little Village Toy & Book Shop  but still a great place.

  • GoPro Phantom

    GoPro Phantom

    Watching and learning from New England Tech instructor Matt Morin as he pilots his Phantom GoPro rig around the college campus this morning. The stand on the left is hold up an LCD monitor with a wireless link to the GoPro.

    Weather is great today, although there were some decent wind gusts.  I was impressed with how well the on-board GPS and stabilization system handled the erratic wind.

  • FreeNAS, Twit.tv Exposes Me to Anouther Great Tool

    Not sure why I’ve not heard about FreeNAS before, but this looks great! I’m definitely going to spend some time learning more.

    Wonder if this could be a good, low-cost solution for storing archived video files, raw footage, and other large production files.

  • Canon XA25 Low Light & Video Gain Test

    A couple weeks ago I tested out Canon’s new XA25 High Definition Camcorder in low light, check to see how it handled different situations. I also turned on gain boost, which normally introducing noticeable grain or noise in the picture. I was impressed with the XA25 low light performance. I was also excited to see that gain could be adjusted in 1db increments, so the operator can add just what they need and limit the negative effects, which are minimal with this camera.


  • Final Cut 10.0.9 Update Released July 30th

    Final Cut X 10.0.9 Update Released
    Updating Final Cut Pro X workstations today.

  • List of Lighting Apps for iOS / Android

    Todd Proffitt's Lighting iOS / Android Apps List in GoogleDocs
    Todd Proffitt’s Lighting iOS / Android Apps List in GoogleDocs
    Here’s a great resource I want to pass along for my techie friends. Really, anyone who workings with lighting equipment will like this.

    Todd Proffitt, a blogger who writes about Theater lighting has compiled a massive list of iOS and Android apps designed to help with lighting and stage direction. The list is organized by category covering a wide range of subjects including:

    • Reference
    • DMX Calculators
    • Gobos
    • Remotes
    • Stage Directions
    • Knots
    • Beam Calculator

    Currently, the list is available as a GoogleDoc Spreadsheet, which you can access here: bit.ly/theatreapps


    What a great resource! I first heard about Todd's list on Leo Laporte's national radio show, "The Tech Guy". In the future Todd hopes to share this list in a different format, but I'm just happy he decided to compile and share what he has now.

  • SMPTE Presentation & WCVB Tour

    On December 14th I attended the SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers)
    New England Section chapter meeting. The presentation was titled “THE LATEST IN HIGH DEFINITIONTELEVISION MOBILE UNIT DESIGN”. Two local companies made presentations, Little Bay Communications and Thistle Communications.

    Below are photos from the event, mostly from the WCVB Station tour which followed the SMPTE meeting.


    [gallery ids="407,408,409,410,411,412,413,414,415,416,417,418,419,420,421,422,423,424,425,426,427,428,429,430,431,432,433"]

  • Camera Boot Camp

    I was turned onto these commercial spots by a a colleague, all featuring a cameraman army style boot camp. The commercial series promotes the Rugby World Cup 2011

    Second Commercial in Series – Camera Operators Don’t Speak!

    Third Commercial in Series – Announcers