What Hard Drives Do I Need for HD?

http://1timstreet.com

I don't normally blog about tech products but every once in a while I come across something that I think is pretty cool and the G-tech guys have been very good to me - inviting me to parties at the Playboy Hef Suite in Vegas and making great drives that I use - so I thought I would point out two of their products that can be very useful to online video producers and editors.

I ran into Roger Mabon of G-Tech at the HDEXPO in Burbank this week and he had some new storage products that might be of interest to online video people who use Final Cut Pro and need to move large amounts of HD and SD video files around for editing.

First is the G Speed ES a 4 drive RAID that goes up to 4 TB and second the G Speed XL PCIe supports up to 24TB and is expandable up to 180TB with a 800 MB/sec throughput.

I don't personally edit HD (I have produced/directed projects in HD) but if you want to you can use these new RAID storage drives from G-Tech.

Tim, I'm an online video producer I don't care about HD video. Are you stoned?

Well, if you care about making money from online video you should care about HD and other Hi Res formats like RED. You should be doing everything you can to capture your video in the highest quality format that you can so that when people can watch online videos on their HDTVs your video looks better than everyone else's.

I'm not telling you to go shoot the best daily horoscope show on a RED camera but if you are creating video content that could live on TV, DVD or go to the big screen then you should consider how you can shoot High Resolution Video.






Do you have a tech product that online video creators should care about?

Let me know.

I'm a "Wiinner!"

CC) Brian Solis, www.briansolis.com, bub.blicio.us. Feel free to use this picture. Please credit as shown.

I've spent the last few weeks at trade shows, events and cocktail parties hanging out with lots of winners and I even managed to become a "Wiinner" myself.

At Double Click's Ad-Tech Party in San Francisco I spent a little time with two internet winners Pete Cashmore CEO of Mashable and Richard Jalichandra CEO of Technorati. Both guys are really nice guys no matter what Valley Wag says. ;)

I also attended two Revision 3 Parties. One that was co-sponsored by the Association for Downloadable Media and hosted at Kiptronic's fabulous rooftop. Another Rev 3 party with at Jillian's with Digg's Kevin Rose, Rev 3's Jim Louderback and Ask a Ninja's Kent Nichols.

Revision 3 also threw a FANTASTIC closing Key Note session at Ad-Tech with Kevin, Kent, The Ninja, Jeff Macpherson AKA Dr. Tiki from Tikibar TV and Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV. They were all very funny on the panel and the guys (Martin and Gator) from Internet Superstar produced an awesome live show that should be posted online next week. (Please post a link in the comments if you find one.)

I also took a cab ride from hell with Dr. Tiki and one mean ass cab driver to Forbidden Island in Alameda for a Dr. Tiki fan meetup. Where Scott Beale from Laughing Squid.took some photos of the coolest Tiki Bar in San Francisco (Alameda)

G-Tech's Party in Las Vegas at the "Heff" Suite at the Palms and hung out with Red Camera's "Leader of the Rebelion" and winner Ted Schilowitz got pushed in the pool by some of his co-rebels. Mark Pederson of New York's Off Hollywood Pictures and I took Ted back to his hotel still in his robe after the party.


Ted Schilowitz and Mark Pederson CC Photo By Tim Street
(This photo is licensed under a Creative Commons license. If you use this photo within the terms of the license or make special arrangements to use the photo, please list the photo credit as "Tim Street" and link the credit to 1timstreet.com. )

And when I went to listen to the biggest winner of them all, Survivor Producer Mark Burnett, speak at a NXTComm / iHollywood Forum event I became a "Wiinner" myself when I won a Wii. It was waiting for me when I got home today so I'm going to hook it up and see how much fun it is. The NXTcomm guys are also seeing if they have a spot for me to speak at the NXTcomm Show.

Speaking of speaking, if any of you that attended my session at NAB would like a copy of my slides you can find a copy of my "Lessons Learned" NAB presentation posted here.

From the Floor at NAB

I've been hanging out at NAB this weekend and spending a lot of time with my buddy Ted from Red. We drove out to Vegas in his little hybrid and only spent $20 on gas. It was pretty funny considering what we would have paid had we drove an SUV out here from LA.

Ted really enjoys beating the system and it seems that the company he works for, Red Digital Cinema enjoys doing that as well.

Today Red announced a new camera that will shoot better than HD and film and the price point is $3000. This may not mean anything to you if you are doing an online show but if you plan on showing it on Apple TV or selling or licensing your show or footage to TV, DVD or other HD formats this little camera will be a big deal.

Here are the specs:

SPECIFICATIONS:
NEW 2/3" MYSTERIUM X SENSOR
1-120 FPS (180FPS BURST)
UP TO 100 MB/SEC REDCODE RAW AND RGB RECORDING TO DUAL COMPACT FLASH
4.8" LCD
8X T2.8 RED ZOOM LENS
FULL AUTO OR FULL MANUAL SHOOTING MODES
HDMI and HD-SDI
FIREWIRE 800 and USB2
STILL MODE
COMPATIBLE WITH MANY RED ONE ACCESSORIES
WI-FI CONTROL

Another thing that Red is known for is posting these little warning lables that I really respect.

"SPECIFICATIONS, DELIVERY DATES AND DESIGN ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE... COUNT ON IT."

It's always fun to see Red go through a NAB and see what a great job Red does of bringing their products to market.

This year Red's booth has two lines. One to get into the booth to see the cameras and one to get into a theater to see footage shot on the first 100 Red cameras in the first 100 days of the Red Camera's release. The entrance to see the Red camera footage even had a pre-show video of Red footage to watch while we were waiting.

Jim Jannard, the founder of Oakley is also the founder and mastermind behind the Red One camera and he was in the NAB Red theater introducing the Red footage before each screening. It's really interesting to see a man who is independently wealthy down in the trenches demonstrating his new products. Jim is truly passionate about what he manufactures and it shows in everything thing he does. ( The even had red ropes for the cue line) It's amazing to see how proud he and everyone associated with Red are.

I’m Seeing Red.

The Red Camera that is.



All of us Independent Producers are waiting and waiting and waiting for the Red Camera to come out but I have an idea it will be well worth the wait.

I can’t really tell you what I do or don’t know about the Red Camera because I’m under Friend DA. But what I can tell you about is my best friend Ted Schilowitz who is the Leader of the Rebellion at Red Digital Cinema.

Long before there was any French Maid TV Ted and I met when we were both in our early twenties and freelancing at Cable Vision of Central Florida in Orlando. Boy, those were the days. Universal Studios Orlando and Disney MGM Studios were being built and Ted and I thought we were going to break into the movie business. One day I was editing the biggest show on Cable Vision’s local access channel, “Giovanni’s Birthday Big Top” (more about that some other time) and this long-haired surfer dude in flip flops Oakley sunglasses and a torn Inlet Charlie’s T-shirt walks in and says, “Hey I need to edit.” And I said, “Talk to scheduling and they’ll schedule you some time.” He said, “No, I need to edit now.” Well, we went around and around. I stood my ground and eventually he invited me surfing and we became friends. Ted and I went on to work on MTV’s Remote Control together and a few kids’ shows including What Would You Do? and the pilot for All That at Nickelodeon. After we both figured out that Orlando’s Studios were just lost leaders to get more tourist we both moved to Los Angeles where we worked on Crazy Careers for Kids WB and projects for E! Entertainment. We also launched a few interactive creepy stories online but I'll save those for Halloween.

One day Ted told me he had a great opportunity with a company that makes converter boxes. I asked if he was going to be producing corporate videos for them and he said, “No.” he was going to be consulting with them on new products that work with Final Cut Pro. I didn’t understand how Ted could leave the creative side and jump into some boring consulting gig but Ted went to work at AJA where he launched the IO Box and several other products and had a blast doing it. I couldn’t imagine Ted having more fun. That is until he became employee number 1 at Red Digital Cinema.

Through all this time Ted has been a great friend. He’s always been there for me through thick and thin. To see him over the last two years be involved with the Red Camera experience has been a blast for me. From IBC to the Sundance Film Festival to seeing the line around the Red Tent at NAB in Vegas for the Film that Peter Jackson shot with two of the Red Cameras, it has been amazing. Ted has created buzz without really trying to create buzz. To see Ted on the big screen at NAB, to see him on the Apple Store's Video Wall and Apple.com and seeing him on the Apple Final Cut Studio Tour has been a lark. I can hardly wait for the camera to come out.

However for most of us in the online video world with maybe the exception of Pixel Corps.’ Alex Lindsay no one will care about or be using the Red Digital camera for viral videos and video podcasts because the quality far exceeds what we need at this time but as bandwidth increases and Internet access to the best 100” HDTVs even the little Sony Bravia 52 in Flat Panel LCD TV increases we might see some online videos shot with the Red Camera. And I'll just smile and tell everyone I around, my buddy Ted worked on that Red Camera.

One last thing about Ted, with all they Hype around the Red Camera and all the people wanting to interview Ted he still takes time to talk to the little independent guys and gives them interviews when he can.