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Newstips Electronic Editorial Bulletin Issue # 2008-03d
April Fools-free news
NAB: LITEPANELS 1x1 PROTO DOES SPOT & FLOOD, 5600K & 3200K
The Litepanels 1x1 is already impossible. It's a one foot square
(less than 2" thick) 3-pound 24x24 (count) array of 100,000-hour
LEDs in an open grid so a lighting director can literally look
through it while setting it up & it produces almost no heat. It
gets its power from 90-260 VAC or 18-28 VDC sources. The current
product comes 3 ways, in a 3200K flood, a 5600K flood or a 5600K
spot. At NAB (with luck), they'll be able to show a prototype
that lets a 1x1 field switch between 5600K & 3200K & between spot
& flood. Even if you don't cover video or film lighting, there
are stories here about new lighting technologies being greener &
doing tricks their predecessors never quite managed, not to
mention a compelling total cost of operation story. Come see the
light. Contact: Ken Fisher, LITEPANELS, INC. (North Hollywood CA)
818-332-3070 mailto:ken@litepanels.com http://LitePanels.com
WI-EX PROTOTYPES FIELD/EMERGENCY BOOSTER
It started with the idea that remote broadcast trucks are often
in cell dell weak coverage zones; a portable mast can mount a
zBoost antenna to give the crew the more dependable cell signals
they need. The idea quickly expanded to several other classes of
emergency responders & field operations. While there's nothing
specific to announce just yet, a few prototypes are being run
through their paces; since these don't require any new
electronics or clearances, they could be on a fast track to the
product catalog. 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
SAMSON MIKES FOR PRO-FEEL AUDIO
Radio people come to NAB, too, so here are some great
alternatives in mikes for both studio & field use beyond the
spotlight products at their booth; their NAB focus products will
include 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. Beyond that, there's a wonderful array of mike products
to ask about. In a studio, where arm mounting is de rigueur,
Samson ribbon & condenser mikes (originally designed for
vocalists & musicians) offer high levels of quality & sensitivity
at a fraction of traditional mike prices. (Ask any radio GM:
costs matter a lot these days). For those of you who close-talk
any mike from a chair or a fixed standing position, for example,
the Samson VR88 Velocity Ribbon Microphone (online $499) easily
outperforms mikes costing several times more with tonality,
responsiveness & coverage fully qualified for symphonic work, let
alone most radio needs; we suggest trying it with an SB100 Studio
Microphone Boom (online $150) with rolling base & a 6'
counterweighted boom on a telescoping stand that can reach to 12'
(though few of you will need to fully extend it). For talk shows,
separate lavaliere mikes are a good answer for the non-pro
guests, but there's a simpler solution in boundary mikes that can
sit on a tabletop & pick up everybody without echoes. For field
news, nothings handier than a Zoom H4 or Zoom H2, alone or with
another mike plugged in (more on that next time). Finally, for
segments recorded entirely in the field (like a reporter at a
trade show, for example), Samson offers the category's highest
quality condenser (showcased at NAB) & dynamic microphones that
plug directly into a USB port for fully digital recording. No
need to wait for NAB; ask Mark now. Contact: Mark Wilder, SAMSON
TECHNOLOGIES (Hauppauge, NY) 631-784-2200x142
mailto:mwilder@samsontech.com http://SamsonTech.com
UL DELAYS DRIVE EUBIQ REROUTE
While some UL approvals have come through, they don't yet include
the ones that would let their very cool power rails sell at
retail. While waiting, Eubiq will move its focus to industrial
electrical distributors & commercial furniture system
manufacturers, categories in which they are already abundantly
active outside the US. Contact: NG Kee Haur, EUBIQ PTE LTD
(Singapore) +65-6372-9393x380 mailto:keeng@eubiq.com
http://eubiq.com
HI HO EVERIO STEALING SHARE & MAKING DOUGH
It's no secret that when Everio opened up the hard disk camcorder
category, it gained a lot of fans & users; but something that may
escape your scrutiny is how much the standard-def models that
come in dressy body colors are leading that charge. We don't have
hard numbers to back this up, but anecdotally, it looks like the
new color-case Everio models are among the most popular of
camcorder sellers across all brands as Everio continues to grow
an already substantial beachhead. Contact: Chelsea Vander Groef,
JVC COMPANY OF AMERICA (Wayne, NJ) 973-317-5000x5312
mailto:cvandergroef@jvc.com http://jvc.com
KOMFORT PETS GREEN TIMES TWO
In tight economic climates, people are more likely to adjust
their thermostats into discomfort zones during the hours they're
not home, making that abode less commodious to their pets. Leave
the door open & the thermostat on for a Komfort Pets carrier & a
pet has a comfy place to go when the rest of the house gets
hostile. Because you're heating or cooling only a pet's "house" &
not all of yours, there's an energy savings. And with the price
of the small Komfort Pets carrier (19"x13"x16" for most cats but
only the smallest dogs) now down to $149, there's a cost savings,
too. Ask Bob. Contact: Bob Inello, KOMFORT PETS (Revere, MA)
781-485-0077 mailto:rinello@komfortpets.com
http://KomfortPets.com
MOGO MOUSE FREE WITH WEB FROM AT&T
Follow the Web site page-top link to read about the AT&T high
speed Internet promo that offers a MoGo Mouse & a Bluetooth
adapter free to new customers. While there, click on the link to
the very Beat Generation feeling "MogoMercial" video back on the
Web site where you started. If you've never had your hands on a
MoGo Mouse, jot a note to Jack to tell him if it's for a notebook
with a PC Card or an X54 slot or for your desk PC & if you also
need Bluetooth 2. Contact: Jack Corrao, NEWTON PERIPHERALS
(Natick, MA) 858-792-0944
mailto:jack.corrao@newtonperipherals.com
http://NewtonPeripherals.com
SPECIAL REPORT: MISSING GPS FEATURES
It's probably in our nature to notice what we perceive to be
missing as much as what we notice to be present when evaluating
products; our recent round of reviews of navigation products for
Blackberry triggered that response again. The navigation products
we regard as ready for prime time are server-based, loading all
of the navigation maps & routing data when a trip begins (so
navigation can continue independently of cell signal presence).
They tend to boast some "live" services, meaning they fetch
traffic & sometimes gas price updates several times an hour. And
they talk you through turn-by-turn directions. There's also a set
of features we recognize as coming but not yet present. These
include: syncing the phone to favorite places you define online
at your desk (in place for some, coming for some, not coming for
some); multipoint navigation (instead of just here to
tell-me-where) & aerial views. One vendor promises speech
response so you can tell it to find points of interest or perform
other chores hands-free while driving. One vendor offers the
current weather conditions as a page you can read (not something
we suggest while driving). One set of missing features involves
speed. The map data knows the speed limit & GPS knows your speed
(these things tend to display neither); it would make sense to be
able to configure an offset that triggers a gentle reminder. For
example, if you set that at 7MPH for speeds under 50 & 13MPH for
speeds over 50, it could say something like "Speed alert" or
"Your speed is 78 in a 45 zone". We didn't find that available.
(Note: in August, Uniden is coming out with a dashboard combo
navigator & radar detector). Also, while your current location is
shown on a map display, if there's an emergency, we know many
people who are not good at translating that into spoken
directions. It would be useful to have an alternate screen with a
verbal interpretation of location. For example: "westbound on
Route 871 about 3.2 miles west of Sherwood Trail" or "on I-271
northbound just past milepost 137" or when not driving "on the
north side of the 300 block of Main Street" or "in the Russell
Woods park about 300 yards north of the drive that connects to
Alvin Boulevard & about 1.2 miles from that entrance". We note a
mobile navigator from AAA that can use your location to find the
nearest roadside assistance provider & give you a screen with a
click-to-call option; clicking for help sends your location as
data so when you connect to a AAA dispatch center, your phone's
number lets them pull up your location as you describe your
problem. Another category involves additional information it
would be nice to include those several times an hour that the
software fetches traffic updates. For example: active severe
weather warnings at your current location (available separately,
we're told, in the Garmin My-Cast product, just not on AT&T) or
pending in your travel corridor; ditto for Amber Alerts; and any
delays or cancellations of flights you set up to monitor. We note
that it's easier for a Blackberry to do these extra deeds than it
is for many dashboard GPS navigators; it will be interesting to
see a value race in which the progenitors have to play
catch-up.
SPECIAL REPORT BONUS REVIEW: ALTEC LANSING SOUNDBAR
The Altec Lansing SoundBar is a powered speaker array in a single
enclosure designed to (among other things) tuck under a flat
screen TV set or monitor. It gets its power from a wall wart &
its signal from an audio mini-jack in the back. It's designed for
stereo plus boosted (but not subwoofer) bass & there's some other
trick inside that makes the sound field appear much wider than
the speaker array. Our first test was to plug it into the
headphone jack of a monaural TV set; the sound that came out was
bigger & better. So we took the stereo signal directly from the
cable box & picked some space movies we knew would have lots of
loud sound effects; we also tried it with classical & jazz cable
music feeds. The sound quality was again quite good & with the
movies, we experienced some sounds that seemed to come out of
adjacent walls. The front panel is clean, with a blue pilot light
bar & a large black push-to-mute volume control; the side
discretely hides aux & headphone jacks. There's enough audio
purist in us to state very clearly that stereophiles will not
consider this in their league, but for a lot of the things you
watch on the small screen (including PC games), it's better sound
than you'll get with the speakers built into monitors or those
small white cubes. We should also note that this is a nice way to
get bigger sound out of personal media players & other audio
sources. Bottom line: it's a good way to get a step-up level of
sound in a sleek & uncluttered package.
SPECIAL REPORT BONUS REVIEW 2: FLEXIBLE KEYBOARD
This review is being written on a keyboard wrapped around a calf.
Now it's draped across thighs. Now it's on the back of the box it
came in. The new Adesso Flexible Full Size Keyboard is more than
a punch line about workaholic latex fetishists (that's not what
it's about); it's a very clever way to carry a full-size keyboard
in just about any size notebook bag. You can fold it, roll it or
wrap it around other stuff, then put it on a hard, flat surface
(others are possible) & use it as you would almost any PC
keyboard. Beyond its flexibility, it's also waterproof,
dustproof, even washable. LEDs light to tell you when Caps, Num
or & Scroll locks are engaged. As you might expect, the touch has
to be a little firmer since each key has a bigger dimple to
depress, but it's not objectionable. It may look & feel a little
kinky, but nobody's going to get hurt & the work will get done.
Bottom line: a no-brainer to pack for travel.
SPECIAL REPORT BONUS REVIEW 3: COOL-LUX MD3000 BRACKET
Your camcorder may be as small as a butter box but that doesn't
mean you want to shoot using its front "flashlight" LED or its
built-in mikes. There are some great choices in lighting &
external mikes, each one of which wants to occupy the camcorder's
one hot shoe. You can mount your light on it, but then where do
you mount the mike? Or put the mike up there & do what to light?
One of the handiest little answers we've seen is the Cool-Lux
MD3000 bracket, cleverly bent metal that looks a bit like a
lopsided antler. Its base slides into the camera's shoe mount. Up
above, about 1.5" left & right of center, it ends with a pair of
shoe mounts, one up about 2", the other up a little less than
3.5". We mounted it on our JVC GZ-HD7 with an LP Micro light on
the shorter riser, oriented to the left (because that's the side
the LCD is on & we didn't want the mike cord there) then double
checked that even with the lens zoomed full wide, there was no
lens hood shadow in the shot. One precautionary word: torque; if
you try to mount anything too heavy, while the sturdy aluminum
arms of this mount will hold it, the plastic camcorder body
surrounding its shoe could crack. If you're reasonable about what
you want to mount, this $30 add-on is a no-brainer piece for your
travel kit. Bottom line: easy, economical, useful & desirable.
SPECIAL REPORT BONUS REVIEW 4: BRACKET 1 MINI
As soon as you start thinking beyond birthday parties, a couple
of things about camcorders become painfully obvious. One is that
it's a rare room that affords enough of the right kind of
lighting for the video you shoot to look its best; fortunately,
there are lights you can slip into your camcorder's hot shoe.
Another is that the audio you get from the camcorder's built-in
mikes never sounds as good during playback as you thought it
would when you were recording; fortunately, there are external
mikes in holders you can slip into your camera's hit shoe, or
maybe you can attach a wireless mike's receiver... somewhere. If
Stuart Weitzman made camcorders, those hot shoes might come in
pairs, but we've never owned any camera with more than one. We've
seen several solutions, like the Cool-Lux MD3000 dual shoe
adapter (but keep the weight down or torque could crack the
plastic surrounding the camera's shoe) & the StroboFrame grip
(which uses the tripod screw underneath, so there's no strain on
the camera body). There's a third solution with more capacity &
flexibility in the Bracket 1 product line, which also uses the
tripod screw; their Mini model is sized for today's
butter-box-size consumer camcorders. We mounted the Mini on the
shortest HD camcorder we've ever had - the new JVC GZ-HD6 - with
the lens zoomed all the way wide & no part of the bracket gets in
any part of the shot. There's nothing in the way of the left-side
LCD swinging open. There's plenty of room for even a porky paw to
slip into the camera's strap without scraping on the bracket's
side riser plate. The riser plate can is big enough to hold a
wireless mike receiver & has plenty of places for mounting all
the shoes you'll need. The bracket itself weights a hair over
half a pound with most of its mass centered under the camera, so
there's no sense of it trying to arm-wrestle you as you shoot. We
should mention, there's also a pass-along tripod mount
underneath, so you can put the whole thing on a tripod while
keeping the captured lighting & miking "perspectives" consistent
with your handheld shooting. This won't tuck away in a messenger
bag but it can fit easily in carry-on or gear bag, with or
without the camera & gear attached. For those of you who shoot at
trade shows or in the field using today's smaller consumer to
prosumer camcorders, this is a ticket to the flexibility &
features that are so useful on the pro cameras. Bottom line: it's
a uniquely capable carrier for accessories that's uniquely
appropriate for today's smaller camcorders.
MARTY AT THE NETWORK
One of the big-three TV networks has a guy way up the ladder in
tech management who calls on Marty to see what there is on the
consumer side that makes sense for the professional side when it
comes to gear for TV news. This guy gets pitched by absolutely
everybody on the pro side & knows what's going to be at NAB
months before the show opens, but admits a blind spot on the
consumer side where Marty is well plugged in. A few weeks ago, he
extended an invitation: pick some place in New York not far from
the network's headquarters, bring together a variety of CE
companies with appropriate gear & the network would have several
top tech people come over to have a look at it. The timing is
deliberate, with NAB just a few weeks ahead, since gear on the
consumer side costs so much less than gear on the pro side, the
network can save a bundle. We're not going to divulge anything
else in the way of details or results of this 3/26 morning event,
but we will extend an invitation to any of you thinking about
audio or video gear to ask our advice any time, now before or at
or after NAB or any time at all. 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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