Last night I went to a local awards ceremony. We sat there and watched as each winner was called off, came up and received their award. But what was cooler was how the presentation as a whole has changed from even 2 years ago.
You walk into the theatre and you saw the curtain with a screen attached to it. As the presentation started, the curtain rose and the band was playing. Behind them was the video of that band playing.
Band ends, curtain goes down and the Master of Ceremonies comes out. The first award is getting ready to present and they flash all the nominees on the screen in a Multimedia spectacular. The winner is announced and another presentation is displayed.
All of this is getting taped for television. Not for Major network release, but for local access channels. Best part is it won’t look like a recording coming from a VHS tape that was used and erased about 50 times – it will have the feel and look of a major awards ceremony.
I remember a few years back when we were going to re-do some videos at work. These were training videos that were first recorded in 1977 or something like that. Plaid jackets and video that was falling apart. We replaced that antiquated video production unit with a nice Sony DV camera.
Even some of the YouTube videos shot with a webcam have better production quality than a few years ago. We recorded SDRNews video of the CMSExpo last week with a Quickcam Pro 9000. What was even more interesting, that Saturday I stopped at Bucketworks – a community club for geeks in Milwaukee, WI – all their video was being shot and uploaded to uStream using the exact same cameras.
It’s what made the CES videos work so well. We were lugging around a big bulky camera, but the smaller cameras were giving just as much production. We also produced 3-4 times more content than just from one camera. You even got to see what it was like in the hustle-bustle of CES in Las Vegas.
All you need is 1-2 cameras, a Mac with CamTwist and you can produce a great show. Heck, you can even use a PC with SuperWebCam.
By the Way – I shot a Backchannel style channel using my AIPTEK HD camera, so you can get a feel of what it was like at the event. Gotta love the new age of Media.
BTW – The even was the Madison Area Music Awards. I did recieve an award last night for Unique Song of the Year with local artist Art Paul Schlosser.
