Michael Webber

Category: Video Production

  • Installing TV Truck Microwave

    TV Truck Microwave (funny)

    #lame #tvhumor #ohboy #engineerhumor

  • Analyzing Lighting & Set Design of Election Coverage


    Hat’s off to Alex McCown (@alexm247) for his latest piece over at AVClub.com, looking at the business of set design and lighting, specifically national election coverage.

    Expending such effort to make a bar look like a TV studio would seem to defeat the purpose of leaving the studio in the first place, but MSNBC is loath to diverge from the familiar template.

    High Definition Television has had a huge impact on modern set design and studio spaces in recent years. From the wide, rectangular 16:9 aspect ratio, to the sharp image detail, to the improved color rendition…expectations are high.

    “They all use the same two designers to build the sets, who make all the stuff at the national level,” Dillon says. “The same designers, the same materials, styling.”

    But why do many of the sets look similar across networks and what’s behind the prevalence of the color blue and red in their design. Check out this article!
    Source: Why every cable news set uses the same two colors · For Our Consideration · The A.V. Club

  • 4K Footage of Foxborough Common Flag

    Here is some footage I shot recently on the Foxborough, MA Town Common using a Q500 4K Drone. You can see lots of local landmarks in the background including Bethany Church and Gillette Stadium.

    A community group was recently formed with a goal of replacing the rust-weakened flagpole. This video will be used as part of an studio interview program that will raise awareness of the flagpole condition and the fundraising effort underway.

    The online GoFundMe fundraiser can be viewed here

  • Ahern Career Day 2015

  • Using Draw.io for Video Production

    Draw.io LogoOver the past few years I’ve really embraced the “cloud” in my professional workflows. Google Drive is my primary cloud service and I use third party applications that extend the basic office tools in Drive.

    Draw.io is one of those apps that I’ve discovered, a wonderful (and free) tool that offers a web based drawing for floor plans, network diagrams, and mind maps. The documents can be saved to various cloud storage services, including Google Drive.

    Today I was able to sketch up a quick floorplan for a nine camera video production using Draw.io and I’m happy with the results. The drawing took me about an hour and half, I could spend some more time cleaning it up and color coding things better, but I’m happy with the results.

    We will be covering two musical performances over the course of one weekend inside a high school gymnasium. The gym lighting will be shut off and our crew will light and shoot both concerts for air on local community TV and for student/family keepsakes.

    The production is ultra low-budget using existing equipment resources and a volunteer crew.

    Here’s a screenshot of my draft 1.0 Draw.io camera plan:

    Draw.io TV Production Camera Plan Layoout
    Draw.io TV Production Camera Plan Layoout

  • Video Production Trade News – Week of April 5th

    Each week I share select trade news articles with students enrolled in my New England Tech video production classes. It’s critical in any field to remain current, follow emerging trends, best practices, and the various challenges that face the industry.

    Below are some articles from the past week that were discussed during class:

    1. April Fools – Having Fun & Viral Marketing

    Entertainment, fun, and a bit of viral marketing are the ingredients of most April Fools spoofs and jokes online. Google began their April 1st tradition back in 2000 and it seems to grow every year:

    2015: Introducing Dial-Up Mode

    2015: Google Actual Cloud Platform

    2. Professional Recording with Smartphone

    Screen Shot 2015-04-05 at 9.25.19 PMVideo and Audio professionals often like to experiment technology, looking for hidden gems, hacks, tricks, and tweaks that could help them in the future. Many of us wouldn’t think of using our smart phone for professional voice over work, but their are some tools available that might be a great resource when traveling or if your budget is tight.

    USB Audio Recorder PRO (Link to App on Play Store) was recently reviewed by  Allan Tépper of Pro Video Coalition , including a sample recording using a digital microphone. This app offers professional recording sample rates, 48 kHz/24-bit and is compatible with a large number of digital microphones, check out the list.

    This app would also work with an Android Tablet. There are also a number of similar apps available for Apple devices. While this might not be optimal for everyday use, it could be a great trick to know about and have available for backup or when you need to travel super light.

     3. Voice Activated Levitation Mode: Ghost Camera Stabilizer

    4. First-ever Ultra HD Phantom Flex4k drone footage

  • Video Production Trade News – Week of March 29th

    Each week I share select trade news articles with students enrolled in my New England Tech video production classes. It’s critical in any field to remain current, follow emerging trends, best practices, and the various challenges that face the industry.

    Below are some articles from the past week that were discussed during class:

    1. NABShow 2015 - nabshow.com

    Each year the National Association of Broadcasters offers a trade show for industry professionals. The “NAB Show” is held during the month of April in Las Vegas, Nevada.

    This year the show is April 11th-16th and we should expect to see countless new products, updates, and other “trade news” over the next few weeks. Many equipment manufacturers schedule big announcements to coincide with the NAB Show.

    TV Technology is already reporting on some of the new gear and product announcements that will be released during this years show:

    http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/nab–satellite–remote-product-preview/275110

    This year the hot topics of conversation will include:

    • Over-the-Top (OTT) Content Delivery
    • Progress with 4K
    • Aerial Robotics and Drone Technology and Related Legal Issues

    2. The Creativity Top 5: The Best Brand Ideas of the Week – Ad Age

    In my classes this quarter we will be discussing the extremely diverse topic, “Corporate Media”. This could include everything from training videos to advertising, employee communications, etc.

    Ad Age is a wonderful trade magazine publication and news portal offering information on the latest trends in media.

    Check out this recent video posted on Ad Age –  “The Best Brand Ideas of the Week”

  • Fun XLIX Super Bowl Stats (2015)

    Everything about the NFL Super Bowl is measured on a grand scale. Each year I enjoy looking at some of the numbers. Especially the technical, TV production-related numbers. Here are four “numbers” that stood out this year:

    $4.5M

    This number represents the average costs of a 30-second Super Bowl Commercial for the XLIX 205 Super Bowl. The chart below provides some historical context on the rise of the Super Bowl Commercial.

    12.5M

    According to the Wall Street Journal, Americans are “expected to order about 12.5 million pizzas on Sunday. Order early!

    51

    Lastly, 51… This is the number of television cameras that will be used for “Game” coverage. This does not include, the pre-game show, half time, and all the other extra productions that surround the big game.

    In fact, the full camera plan is available online, check it out here.

    ENJOY THE GAME, GO PATRIOTS!

  • Video Production Trade News – Week of 9/14/14

    Each week I like to take a few minutes and share select trade news articles with students in my New England Tech classes. It’s critical in any field to remain current, follow emerging trends, best practices, and the various challenges that face the industry.

    Below are three articles from the past week that were briefly discussed during class:

    1. NewTek Unveils TalkShow video calling production system at IBC 2014 - NewTek

    NewTekâ„¢ today unveiled TalkShowâ„¢ VS-100, a video calling production system designed specifically for television studios and live video producers. With TalkShow, any television or live video producer can easily reach 300 million monthly connected Skype users and incorporate them as guest speakers into live programs with full-frame Skype video calls.

    FROZENCHART_32. Weather Channel Owners Said to Consider a Sale – Ad Age

    The disagreement with DirecTV highlights the potential weaknesses of networks that don’t negotiate carriage contracts in conjunction with other channels. While NBC Universal owns a portion of the Weather Channel, NBC’s sales and distribution team doesn’t work on its deals, giving the network limited leverage over pay-TV operators.

    3. TiVo announces TiVo Mega, a rackmount DVR with six tuners and 24TB - Arstechnica.com

    …TiVo announced that the company is aiming big with its next DVR, the TiVo Mega. With a release date currently scheduled for the first quarter of 2015, the Mega will come in a 10-bay, 19″ rack-mount enclosure that appears to be 4U tall, judging from the PR images. The Mega’s bays will be filled with hard drives in a RAID5 array, yielding 24TB of storage.

  • Video Production Trade News – Week of 9/7/14

    Each week I like to take a few minutes and share select trade news articles with students in my New England Tech classes. It’s critical in any field to remain current, follow emerging trends, best practices, and the various challenges that face the industry.

    Below are three articles from the past week that were briefly discussed during class:

    1. Calculating the Impact of LTE Networks – TV Technology

    Drilling down into the data, social networking (such as Facebook activity) generates only 10.3 percent of all cellular data. However, of that 10.3 percent, 87 percent is attributed to video and images. In other words, approximately nine percent of all cellular data is the result of video and image activity on Facebook and other social networking sites.

    FROZENCHART_32. How Disney Has Managed to Keep ‘Frozen’ Red Hot – Ad Age

    “Frozen” just won’t let go. The Disney movie phenomenon is just nine months old, yet it’s the highest-grossing animated film of all time with more than $1.2 billion in ticket sales, a best-selling album and a hot-selling DVD — and it’s still going strong. “Frozen” is expected to sell $1 billion in licensed merchandise this year.

    3. Watch John Oliver’s Hilarious Attack on Native Advertising – AdAge

    …Afforded that freedom, he pulls no punches, taking on media execs like Jonah Peretti, founder-CEO of BuzzFeed, which gets 100% of its revenue from native advertising; Joe Ripp, the Time Inc. CEO who has been pulling down the wall between church and state as his company builds a new native-advertising unit; and Meredith Kopit Levien, exec-VP of advertising at The New York Times, which has also been enthusiastically embracing native advertising.