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Newstips Electronic Editorial Bulletin Issue # 2008-03c
A spring in our step into news
MORE BARS IN MORE CARS REVIEWABLE NOW
The new in-car zBoost ($300, but intro special is $239) PCS/CEL
dual-band cell bar booster is shipping now so it's very
reviewable now. The magnetic, no-holes antenna goes on the roof &
a small block inside the car keeps the cell bars inside generally
higher than they are outside. As long as you're not in a place
with any usable signal at all, you'll get fewer dropped calls,
better data transfer rates & bragging rights. Contact: Sharon
Cuppett, WI-EX INC. (Norcross, GA) 770-239-5475x6380
mailto:scuppett@wi-ex.com http://wi-ex.com AGENCY CONTACT: Deanna
Anderson 404-759-1890 mailto:danderson705@comcast.net
FREE UPDATE ADDS SCROLL TO ORIGINAL MOGO MOUSE
Now anybody with an original MoGo Mouse BT that fits in a PC Card
(PCMCIA) slot can upgrade it to add scroll functionality by
hitting the Web site for a free download. You'll be able to
configure the button, direction, speed & sensitivity & more. Pass
it on! Contact: Jack Corrao, NEWTON PERIPHERALS (Natick, MA)
858-792-0944 mailto:jack.corrao@newtonperipherals.com
http://NewtonPeripherals.com
SAMSON MIKES FOR PRO-FEEL VIDEO
Samson will be at NAB to let the broadcast pros see some
amazingly good alternatives at astonishingly low prices; we'll
share some of that with you in the next few items because some of
what they need translates into some of what you need to either
use or cover. The NAB focus products will be the G-Track & C01U
USB mikes, the Zoom H2 & H4 handheld portable recorders, monitor
speakers (StudioDock, MediaOne & Resolv) & a preview of the new
AirLine Synth wireless mike family. The Samson line goes well
beyond this, of course; first up for us here: mikes to use with
video. Lavaliere models are discrete to invisible on-camera &
deliver a great audio signal because they're placed so close to
the mouth; these can connect by wire or wirelessly both in the
studio & in the field. One handheld mike can cover everybody in a
group of people; generally, rugged dynamic mikes are used for
field work & condenser mikes for more sensitivity & tonality,
like with vocals. Condenser & ribbon mikes are booth & voice-over
choices as well as a better choice for dramatic production work
(on boom poles); sometimes an omnidirectional mike may be used to
pick up ambience, but more often, the rear rejection of a
cardioid (unidirectional) or supercardioid ("shotgun") pencil
mike provides a cleaner signal. It all comes down to what you
want to do & Samson has a strong line of answers for that; ask
Mark. Contact: Mark Wilder, SAMSON TECHNOLOGIES (Hauppauge, NY)
631-784-2200x142 mailto:mwilder@samsontech.com
http://SamsonTech.com
LITEPANELS MINI: DAYLIGHT FLOOD SELLS BEST
One step up from the delightful Litepanels Micro
48-matched-white-LED self-contained camera light ($300) is the
Litepanels Mini (online $640, kitted at $730) family. While the
Micro gets its power from 4 AA cells inside, the 140-LED Mini
takes any external 9-30VDC source, from a car lighter to a
battery pack to a pro camera's accessory plug consuming at most 9
Watts. It weighs less than 10 ounces, measures just a little
wider & shorter than a dollar bill by a bit over an inch thick.
There's a 0-100% dimmer that runs flicker-free, the lamps are
rated at 100,000 hours & it barely creates enough heat to melt an
ice cube (especially if you're in a hurry for that). It's a very
sweet light, but the info we thought you'd find most interesting
is in the choices its buyers are making. They have a choice of
getting a 3200K (Tungsten) color temperature with a 50 degree
flood spread, a 5600K (daylight) flood or a 5600K 20-degree spot.
Of these, the 5600K (daylight) flood model sells best. Ken thinks
it's because the flood lights a full 16:9 visual field & because
it's relatively easy to warm from daylight to Tungsten but very
tough to go the other way. They're reviewable now or after you
see them at NAB. Contact: Ken Fisher, LITEPANELS, INC. (North
Hollywood CA) 818-332-3070 mailto:ken@litepanels.com
http://LitePanels.com
WITH SO MANY FIRST SETS SET JVC SETS SIGHTS ON SECOND SETS
People now seem satisfied with their big-screen home theater TVs
for many reasons (not least of which: reduced viewership of lame
prime time & a weak economy), but JVC is seeing an unfading
interest in second sets. When the big set came home, it raised
the bar on the picture they expect from a second set; add that to
the February 2009 digital transition to understand why they're
willing to explore those bedroom, basement & den options. If your
coverage means you want to review a JVC LCD HDTV (or even non-HD)
versus what you're watching now, chat with Chelsea. Contact:
Chelsea Vander Groef, JVC COMPANY OF AMERICA (Wayne, NJ)
973-317-5000x5312 mailto:cvandergroef@jvc.com http://jvc.com
COOL KITTY CAN SIT PRETTY AFTER MINI CARRIER COST CUT
They cut the price of the small Komfort Pets carrier to $149,
making its electronically heated & cooled creature comforts more
accessible for more owners of toy & small-breed dogs or of any
but the largest cats. Spring weather can spring surprises on any
pet owner, given that it's not uncommon to experience almost
frigid chilly nights & almost searing hot days. The solid state
Peltier devices in a Komfort Pets carrier gives any pet a
thermostatically controlled respite from those excesses. Ask Bob.
Contact: Bob Inello, KOMFORT PETS (Revere, MA) 781-485-0077
mailto:rinello@komfortpets.com http://KomfortPets.com
EUBIQ POWER STRIP US RETAIL PACKAGE DEFINED, REVIEWABLE
Eubiq nailed down what will be in the package when it brings its
unique power strip into US retailers in about 2 months. The basic
housing (the aluminum track box with the power rails inside) will
be 2.6 feet long with a Titanium finish. It will have 2 built-in
data couplers & come with 3 of the push-to-insert,
twist-to-engage premium AC power sockets ready to mount anywhere
along its length. It will come with 2 mounting clamps for
mounting under a desk edge as a utility outlet rail or atop a
desk as a back rail; you can also skip those and just place it on
the floor. Eubiq has earmarked 10 of these for early reviews from
long-lead outlets; it just doesn't make sense to cover them yet
in other places, given the delay until people can buy them. Marty
is the gatekeeper on this, so drop him a line with your interest.
Another alternative, of course, is to do a story (that will only
require info & photos) on how the weak US dollar can complicate a
new product launch by a Singapore firm. Contact: NG Kee Haur,
EUBIQ PTE LTD (Singapore) +65-6372-9393x380
mailto:keeng@eubiq.com http://eubiq.com
SPECIAL REPORT: GREEN LIGHING TV LIGHTING
We're still a few weeks short of NAB but are already seeing an
emergence of more capable LED lights for video at much lower
prices. Lite Panels has been in the 4-digit price range but now
offers an LP-Micro model with a list of $349 & online pricing of
$295. It's a rectangular array of 5600K LEDs that can run 1.5
hours on 4 alkaline AA cells (7-7.5 hours on E2 Lithium AA
cells); there's a built-in dimmer & snap-on warming & 3200K
(Tungsten) filters; it mounts in a camcorder's shoe mount &
produces no significant heat. Vidled is a competing shoe-mount
LED array powered by AA cells, available in a choice of 3 color
temperatures (3200K, 5600K & 8000K) at $275; they're just getting
back into production after some time on hiatus. For cameras with
a shotgun mike on top (common with run & gun news crews), the Mic
Light ring from Prompter People surrounds the mike with a disk of
72 LEDs that run for hours from a trio of AA cells on the back of
the disk. Prompter people also offers a 500-LED array about the
size of a ream of legal paper that mounts on standard light
stands & draws only 40W (from AC or 12VDC) while delivering light
equivalent to a traditional 500 Watt source; it's $449. Most pro
TV operations still use a lot of tungsten lighting, both
on-camera & in-studio, despite years of newer fluorescent
alternatives (which admittedly have their own challenges).
Knowing the costs of field lighting (very expensive battery
"bricks" with limited life per charge & surprisingly limited
service life overall plus not exactly cheap or infrequent lamp
replacements), we see on-camera LED lighting as the vanguard of
that technology. These recent products are also very good choices
for more involved consumer camcorder users & for those Web site
videos that more journalists & other professionals are compelled
to use these days. Combine reasonable prices with high power
efficiency, good light output, scant waste heat generation,
reduced power consumption, reduced disposal of metals & an
overall lower carbon footprint & suddenly the conscience of the
newsroom is back in resonance with its cost constraints.
SPECIAL REPORT BONUS REVIEW: GORILLA POD SLR
The handy little Gorillapod now has two bigger siblings. The
original could only hold a little over half a pound; take
everything it was & make it all bigger for a pretty good idea of
the look of the newer Gorillapod SLR model, good for more than
1.5 pounds. (They plan to add a bubble level accessory for it,
which is an idea we applaud). The biggest beast in their line-up
is the new Gorillapod SLR-Zoom, good for more than 6.5 pounds but
a departure in head design; where the others offer slide-in clips
you can attach to the tripod screw on your gear, this one offers
only a direct screw. For anybody new to this part of the zoo,
these things are designed with connected segment legs where each
connection is a stiff, limited-movement ball & socket joint; you
can adjust these legs into shapes they'll keep. You can set them
up as tripods with very uneven feet for snug mounting on wall
tops, rocks & other uneven surfaces or you can wrap them around
pipes or tree limbs where rubber rings & rubber-bottom ball feet
will help them stay in place. We tried (though we don't recommend
this & certainly not with expensive gear attached) putting 2 feet
atop a refrigerator door & one down the front of the door & we
were able to accomplish a fairly stable, entirely level shooting
platform. We wanted to look at these things in terms of their
usefulness with camcorders & video cameras & having tested them,
we can offer some guidance. First, for those of you who travel
(to trade shows, for example) to shoot & tend not to carry a
tripod, these offer a smaller, lighter-weight option for getting
into the shot assuming there's something around to place one on
or clamp it onto. The SLR Model should be able to handle your
gear, even with accessories mounted on it, but do note that extra
weight can tend to spread the legs, so you may want to adjust
their shape to suit (practice at home). By the way, the SLR model
is also a clever way (with caution & practice) to shoulder-mount
a camcorder. We like the idea of the original model for holding
small lights (like the Litepanels Micro), since that can give you
some still-totable options for flexibly using multiple lights in
the field; the more you learn about the effects of lighting, the
more you'll appreciate adding flexibility without materially
increasing the gear you have to haul. The SLR-Zoom model
(designed for holding still camera bodies with barrel lenses up
front) may provide some usefulness for those heavier prosumer (or
smaller pro) video cameras in special circumstances, but the
sizes of those cameras limit the flexibility it can add. Note
that using any Gorillapod with video means limiting yourself to a
lock-shot because tilts, pans or camera movement can't happen
smoothly; depending on the camera, you may be able to accomplish
zooms with a remote control (unseen off the bottom of the
screen). Our recommendation for journalists shooting video with
smaller cameras: carry an SLR model now & keep track of the times
when that's enough, not enough or too much for your needs as they
arise. Bottom line: it adds utility without major wallet dents &
gives you shooting alternatives you can seldom have without it.
SPECIAL REPORT BONUS REVIEW 2: MOBILEKLEARKIT
When's the last time you had enough crud on your cell phone
camera's lens that you felt really compelled to find some way to
clean it? One of the recent incarnations of the dry carbon
micro-abrasive cleaner-tipped LensPen is the Cell-Klear (somebody
please buy them a spell checker), about 3"x0.5"x0.25". A
half-twist of the cap puts more cleaning compound onto the tip of
its 5mm diameter tip, which you then use to wipe your phone's
camera lens; the packaging says the cleaning is optimized for
fingerprints. The 4mm-diameter lens on our Blackberry Pearl
doesn't get a lot of fingerprints, so cleaning it didn't make
much difference, but no harm was done; it did do a nice job of
cleaning the little convex mirror. This came in the LensPen
MobileKlearKit along with a MicroKlear microfiber cloth, which
does do a very good job of cleaning bigger lenses, displays &
cases. If you use your phone's camera a lot & tend to be bothered
by fingerprints on the lens, nine bucks (online price) arms you
with this kit to clean it up. Bottom line: while it's hardly a
necessity, this kit does provide a convenient way to get those
small cell phone camera lenses de-smudged.
SPECIAL REPORT BONUS REVIEW 3: NAV4ALL
The best thing we can say about Nav4All is that it is, through
the end of 2009, free & worth it. This is another in the category
of mapping/navigation applications we can run on our Blackberry;
in this case, we'd rather not. The user interface is onerous, the
several downloads are bloated, the graphics are crude & the
usefulness of it as a mapper or navigator is not up to par of the
newer offerings we've been recently reviewing. The one thing it
does better than the others (for the moment at least; several of
those others are telling us that this feature is in the works) is
its ability to sync the phone to maps you save on the Web through
your desktop browser. In terms of its usefulness to reporters
when away from the office, our sense of it is that it will take
more time than it will save you. Its integration with Blackberry
contacts is flawed; in two separate attempts to find a known
contact, it searched for several minutes without finding
anything. Bottom line: an impressive list of features, worldwide
mapping, a choice of 100+ voices for spoken navigation cues but
an execution that we don't see as ready for prime time.
HELP US LOBBY MAPQUEST
In our evaluations of GPS products that can help a traveling
reporter, MapQuest Navigator on our Blackberry was the pick of
the litter, but even it could be better. We know some of the
improvements they'll introduce later this year: places you look
up & store online will sync to the favorite places folder on the
handset; you'll be able to plan routes with multiple stops (you
can only spec start & end at the moment); speech recognition; &
aerial views. That's a great start, but we're finicky & there are
other things we think they (not to mention other real-time
navigation providers) not only can do, but should. One (as we
mentioned last time) is to relay (in a way users can configure)
NOAA severe weather alerts for your location. One is to display
the posted speed limit & your current speed & to let you set
points at which you want to be reminded you're going a little
fast (for example, 7MPH too fast under 50, 12MPH over 50). When a
highway splits up ahead, tell us which lane we should try to
occupy. Mapping data already includes posted speed limits (but
they aren't displayed) & lane-split info; current speed data is a
very simple calculation from GPS position changes per incremental
time; weather alerts are immediately available from NOAA. The
product guys at MapQuest are willing to add these things to their
to-do list, but claim they haven't heard any users request them.
That's where you & those people you reach can be instrumental, if
you're willing. Contact: Martin Winston, NEWSTIPS (Novelty, OH)
440-338-8400; mailto:marty@newstips.com http://Newstips.com
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Newstips Bulletin [Novelty, OH] +1.440.338.8400 http://Newstips.com
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