New Technology From WACOM

May16th
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Stephen Toback

cintiq-13hd-left-view

As discovered at the recent NAB show, we’ve had the opportunity to demo the new 13″ Wacom Cintiq and think this new form factor is pretty great. They’ve done away with the power brick which makes it much less complex to connect and the size works really well – especially with a laptop.

http://www.wacom.com/en/products/pen-displays/cintiq/cintiq-13hd

I’ll probably have the tablet for another week or so so email me directly if you want to check it out.

WACOM also let me know of this tablet:

Screen Shot 2013-05-16 at 3.34.54 PM

http://www.wacom.com/en/business-and-education/products/pen-displays/dtus/dtu-1031

I wasn’t familiar with it so I wanted to forward it along. Not sure of the use cases but maybe for point of sale or even as a way to have an alternate interface into a digital signage application.

If anyone has a use case and would like me to assist with coordinating a demo, let me know (oit dash its dash info at duke dot edu)

DDMC Info

New Duke Crestron Rep

May15th
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Jack D'Ardenne

Some Duke AV folks recently met with Crestron’s new Regional Education Market Manager, Ryan Berndt.  He will be replacing Brian Montini.  Ryan will be Duke’s Crestron rep from now on.

During our meeting with Ryan and Brian we learned of a new Crestron wireless content sharing technology device that they are working on.  It will allow content sharing over the network to a small footprint box that has HDMI out similar to an Apple TV.  They are claiming that several operating systems (Windows, Mac, iOS and Android OS) will be supported.  That is all we know for now but we are very anxious to learn more.

AV Integration, Classroom Technology, DDMC Info, Media Distribution

New USB PTZ Camera

May13th
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Jack D'Ardenne

makethumbnail.ashxI don’t know much about it this camera but it is nice to see more USB PTZ options.  It claims to work with built-in OS drivers so nothing to install.  It also claims to work with all major web conferencing apps including Skype and Cisco Jabber (Movi).

http://www.ivsimaging.com/Products/CostarIV-PTZHDUSB.aspx

AV Integration, Classroom Technology, DDMC Info, Lecture Capture, Video Conferencing & TelePresence, Video Production, Webcam

Interesting New iPad App – Electronic Clapper For DSLR Production

Mar13th
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Scott Wells

Screen shot 2013-03-13 at 12.47.28 PMThe app is the vision of Ian Nuttall and his team, who run a DSLR-based studio in Kingston-upon-Thames, in London, England.

Ian told RedShark:

…the App is a bit of a test to see if we (three of us, film, web, digital heads) could apply all our skills into one project and make a really easy, modern, good-looking Clapperboard App that was affordable and actually a help to our work-flow.. not a hinderance.

We’ve aimed it specifically at the semi pro DSRL shooter, still and motion shooters, student film makers and indie documentary teams..  personally I’m quite excited just to have my first App!

We’ve had over 2000 downloads form all corners of the globe since last saturday and more good feedback than we ever could of imagined.

This success will let us fund iPhone and Android versions this coming summer.

To find the app on the Apple App Store, search “clapperboard”.

Make sure to turn the sound down at first when you check out the demo here: http://youtu.be/Jkuutgfe8Hs

 

iPhone/iPad, Video Production    ,

The Glif

Feb22nd
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Todd Stabley

On the subject of cool new gadgets and accessories, my friend Joel Elliott from the National Humanities Center (who also clued me in to the Yeti, by the way), pointed out an interesting new iPhone accessory called the Glif. This one functions as a clamp for your iphone that lets you connect it to any standard tripod:

http://kk.org/cooltools/archives/9723?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CoolTools+%28Cool+Tools%29

DDMC Info

Yeti USB Microphone

Feb20th
2013 2 Comments Written by Todd Stabley

Blue Microphones (http://bluemic.com/snowball/), the same company that produces the popular Snowball line of what the company terms “professional”-sounding USB mics, has come out with a new microphone in the sub $100.00 USB category.  Called the Yeti, this microphone retails for $150, but can be found for around $100.00 (http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Microphones-Yeti-USB-Microphone/dp/B002VA464S).

The main distinguishing feature of this microphone appears to be the inclusion of a built-in headphone amp (with volume control), so that you can monitor your voice in real time, and in doing so up the quality of your delivery style.

Some additional features include (according to many reviews) significantly improved audio quality over other popular USB mics (including other Blue mics), and four different polar pattern settings (Cardioid, Stereo, Bidirectional and Omnidirectional), and a simple and solid build.  On the negative side, this is a very large microphone, at about a foot high, and one review I read noted that maybe a couple of the knobs are a little flimsy.

There is a pro version of this microphone that is 2.5x the price, but includes professional recording via analog XLR, a separate analog circuit path, and better sampling rates and frequency response.

DDMC Info

Cisco C20 VTC System End Of Life Announcement

Feb11th
2013 Leave a Comment Written by tbf@duke.edu

Cisco has recently announced the End of Life timeline for their QuickSet C20 codec and peripherals (details found here). Although this is a concern for many users, there is no need to freak out over the possibility of suddenly having an expensive paperweight. The popular VTC system will continue to receive support for the next 5 1/2 years under the SmartNet maintenance program as long as it is renewed annually.

Details on the End of Life timeline are summarized below:

  • August 6, 2013 – Last day to order new C20 codec and peripherals
  • August 6, 2014 – Last day of new software release for C20 codec
  • August 6, 2014 – Last day of routine failure analysis for C20 codec hardware
  • August 6, 2014 – Last day to order a NEW SmartNet support contract
  • November 1, 2017 – Last day an existing SmartNet contract can be renewed
  • August 31, 2018 – Last day the C20 codec can be covered under SmartNet support contract

As an alternative, the Cisco SX20 is the current model that Cisco is concentrating their development efforts on for this smaller type of conference room system. It has proven to be a very capable replacement while providing similar if not enhanced capabilities while remaining very affordable for a true HD video conferencing system. For a comparison, please take a look at Jack D’Ardenne’s blog post from last year.

As always, please contact oit-its-info@duke.edu if you have any questions concerning this announcement or other video conferencing products.

DDMC Info

Duke Digital Signage Service Announcement

Feb5th
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Jack D'Ardenne

A few weeks ago Duke Digital Signage Governance Committee and OIT launched Duke’s Digital Signage service.  Duke’s Digital Signage service is a centrally managed/locally controlled electronic sign and interactive display platform powered by technology from Four Winds Interactive.  The service is available to both Duke University and Duke Medicine.

Please visit the Duke Digital Signage webpage for more information about the service.  If you are interested in participating, please fill out the participation form which can be accessed from this page.

AV Integration, DDMC Info, Media Distribution, Monitors   

New Support System for Smaller Camera Rigs

Jan28th
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Scott Wells

Check out The Dougman Demo by its inventor Doug Monroe.

 

 

 

 

 

Needing a better tool for hand held small cameras while shooting news, documentary, and many reality television shows, Doug perfected this invention after 10 years of prototypes. Rigorous field testing and help and advice from talented and very patient engineers, tailors, artists, and camera folk has resulted in this simple but perfect tool.

Looks as if it might be a useful tool for folks using smaller video cameras for production. An interesting solution for a common production problem, especially for those of us used to the “old world” of handheld (read: “your shoulder is your tripod”) video.

Video Production    ,

A Search: Best Practices for Massive Amounts of Mysterious Images?

Dec19th
2012 1 Comment Written by sr178@duke.edu

Here’s a scenario that I imagine is not entirely uncommon: Users have been putting photos onto various shared drives for years. Probably a few thousand images, many without clear labels, a few different folder systems, and no tags. So, how do you tackle this?

I’ve had discussions with a few people on how best to handle this, some of what was suggested:
1) Leave the archive as a wild no-man’s land. Focus on making an easy system for organizing/images images moving forward.
2) Cherry pick the most useful seeming folders, organize them, forget the rest (a friend’s advice)
3) Run all public images through Picassa, tag moving forward, and tag past images when convenient with a bit of assistance from the facial recognition (my current tentative plan)
4) Bite the bullet and manually go through all the images

Was just wondering if anyone at Duke had dealt with this successfully, and/or had suggestions for tools and best practices for working through this. (Note: This was previously posted to WebCom, though I feel some folks here might have suggestions as well). Thoughts?

DDMC Info
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