UPDATE: We have video of the entire event and much more here.
Experimenting at the moment, having just registered [:neon:] with Talkshoe and created a podcast where I provide a very brief (2'04) update on the Apple store opening in Boston tomorrow night.
BTW and FYI, since we recorded the audio you'll hear below, the traditional television types here in Boston have been all over the story and filmed tours of the new Apple store for the 6 o'clock news and I gotta tell 'ya that it looks both enormous (floor space) and glass and chrome modern exquisite (design).
Anyway, here's the audio I did through Talkshoe, let's see if it adds anything to our multimedia mix, eh?
UPDATE: We have video of the entire event and much more here.
UPDATE: 05/13/08 )5:21 p.m. - Have been trying to edit the damn AVI that's my DV camera's default but I'm not that skilled yet in cuts and transitions using iMovie, so here goes. It's only :32 seconds, folks, but at least I kept my promise. And some of you have been asking about the facade, uh, of course you're looking @ wood paneling, but between those panels you can see a little more. Not much more, but enough to say wow, can't wait 'til Thursday. BTW, click on the time line of the video and you can post a comment that then goes directly onto the video. I already put three comments (seen as white dots) on there to point out where some special editing effects were, you know, in case you missed them? ;-) Running your mouse over a white dot, whether the video is playing or not, reveals the comment posted.
REVIEW
Last night, Mrs. Head Geek and I were walking past the new Apple store on Boylston Street in Boston, admiring its very architectually cool beautiful facade. Even at that nighttime hour of about 10 p.m., it was a stunning building for this geek to gawk @.
(BTW, I'm not at a computer that can upload the videos or pics that I took last night, so I'll add them to this post later this afternoon).
I'd received somewhat advance notice of Apple's newest store's official opening by email @ 9:04 yesterday morning, and here's what it said:
Make way for the newest Apple Store in Boston. Enjoy three floors of all things Apple, including an entire floor dedicated to personal training, free workshops, hands-on technical support, and more.
Well, considering that Mrs. Head Geek and I are now confirmed Mac enthusiasts - having unwillingly put up for too many years with Microsoft's (and Dell's and HP's and Sony's) seemingly intentional desires to piss-off their respectively loyal customer bases - we are very excited about this new addition to our newly adopted home, this beautiful city called Boston.
But as I'm writing this post, I'm thinking, why not LIVE blog from the opening with still pictures of the event as it's happening and then poof, I think, why not try to do a LIVE video feed directly from the new store and then have it available as well right here on [: neon :]!
I already know that Apple is incredibly strict on shooting anything inside their stores without substantial permission - and in fairness, it's usually that way with every retailer - but maybe we can capture the flavor of it from outside the building anyway.
Can't promise a thing, including whether it will actually be LIVE streamed or recorded LIVE, and maybe we should have just tried to surprise you, but, what the heck, Head Geek's a geek and as such, devotion to technology events should be expected.
Anyway, stand by for the pics and possible vids from last night's shoot.
Producer's Note: Recognizing that [: neon :] is currently in beta, we've discovered there are some issues that need to be dealt with in our journey to perfection, precisely the purpose of a beta. That said, here's our latest contribution to a work-in-progress diary of transparency.
We've revised our analysis from the comments we posted earlier this morning, and although there were no complaints about the visual or sound quality of our LIVE Ustream-supplied broadcast of Sunday Jazz on the Rocks®, the Ustream-supplied recordings that were embedded on [: neon :] for on-demand viewing didn't fare so well.
The feedback there was that although the embedded on-demand recordings were a great deal of fun and entertaining to watch and listen to - - - with heaps of praise for the musicians and the music- - - a persistent critical observation was that they were visually too grainy and that the audio was high-pitched tinny, not as clear as they felt it should be or the way it was when we were LIVE.
We also know that no one is responsible for our lighting issues but us, and since we had no other choice but to shoot in the natural light of the moment - - - with no spots to adjust for any weak areas - - - we cannot expect the image results to be anything but diminished.
But then what about our greatly diminished audio? We sadly and disappointingly agree with the public comments on the sound quality of the embedded, on-demand Ustream recordings as mentioned above. It was as if we went from broadcasting in CD-quality stereo all the way down to the sound equivalent of talkradio broadcast from Baltimore, heard in New York, on a middle-of-the-night skip!
Therefore, the jury is still out as to whether Ustream's (or any streaming supplier's) data compression or conversion parameters will suitably sustain the original quality of the video and its audio by the time it's been processed down to then be embedded elsewhere.
But is it Ustream's process(?), or is the problem a pandemic one across the spectrum of players involved?
At this point in our research of the ever-evolving competition in streaming video services, we now believe that there are other choices, and we are considering the alternatives.
Anyway, we're also looking for a 2nd Sound Engineer to cover for when Marc is unavailable. If you have any ideas or suggestions as to whom we should talk with here in Boston, e-mail us. It's an unpaid internship with enormous upside potential for full-time employment and a helluva good time supporting interviews with the famous and unique.
BTW, the ideal candidate must also be able to handle the pressures of a LIVE broadcast.
[: neon :]'s beta launch
We are indeed in beta, so please be patient as we move forward to bring you some of the finest original and viral content on the web.
