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Newstips Electronic Editorial Bulletin Issue # 2008-04c
News that falls to Earth Day
SAMSON TO BROADCASTERS: TRY THESE
There was a lot of buzz around Samson at NAB & no reason not to
keep it going. Here are a few suggestions not just for those of
you in broadcasting. For voice work in a radio or TV recording or
announcer's booth, or in prepping audio content for a Web site,
consider the combination of a Samson CL7 large-diaphragm studio
condenser mike (online $100) with its companion SASP01 spider
shock mount (online $40), PS01 pop filter (online $25) & SB100
boom stand (online $150). This mike connects to an XLR input
(supplying phantom power) on a studio mixer or recorder, but
there's another alternative: the Zoom H4 ($400) handheld recorder
also has an XLR input that supplies phantom power; isn't it nice
that the recorder can be smaller than the mike or the stand! The
Zoom H4 or H2 ($200) are also handy for recording in the field or
(because they also have line inputs) from standard audio sources
for grabbing snippets of quotes in the news or late-night top ten
lists that you can't already find in digital form; don't forget
that either Zoom recorder can do field recording with either its
built-in mikes or with any mike you want to use (the available
connections are different, so ask first). Next time you have to
cover a group of people around a table, check out the Samson
CM10B (unidirectional) & CM11B (omnidirectional) boundary mikes
(online $99 each), capable of making everybody at the table sound
more on-mike than you'll hear with most shotguns. Note there are
no budget-busters here, which means already tight replacement
budgets don't get stretched to the breaking point. Not only that:
these mikes have many business & personal applications beyond
broadcasting, which gives everybody good reason to think about
reviewing them. Ask Mark. Contact: Mark Wilder, SAMSON
TECHNOLOGIES (Hauppauge, NY) 631-784-2200x142
mailto:mwilder@samsontech.com http://SamsonTech.com
LITEPANELS MICRO MOSTLY VIDEO BUT STILL CAN HELP STILLS
You've probably had club sandwiches bigger than the 48-LED
Litepanels Micro ($300) camera light, with its ability to provide
a consistent color temperature, dimmable intensity & up to 7
hours of full-blast light (with Energizer E2 Lithium) on a set of
4 AA cells. It's an absolute natural (heck, it's drool bait) for
any camcorder, but those aren't the only things with a hot shoe
this can slip into. If you shoot with a DSLR, this adds a lot of
lighting flexibility that's tough to accomplish with flash alone.
Ask Ken. Contact: Ken Fisher, LITEPANELS, INC. (North Hollywood
CA) 818-332-3070 mailto:ken@litepanels.com
http://LitePanels.com
DEF OF A SALESMAN, EVERIO EDITION
While other departments or even other brands may be having a hard
time getting people to buy their electronics gear, JVC Everio
camcorders are still rocking. Most consumers, of course, tend to
favor the SD (standard definition) models, though you may be
surprised that they seem to respond more to the color of the case
than to the size of the imager or the hard drive. The guys on the
other side of the counter love to see how surprised they are when
a couple of these tiny camcorders turn out to be 3-chip high def
models like the GZ-HD3 & GZ-HD6. Summer's a very busy time for
camcorder shooting; let Chelsea know which SD or HF Everio models
you need for your coverage. Contact: Chelsea Vander Groef, JVC
COMPANY OF AMERICA (Wayne, NJ) 973-317-5000x5312
mailto:cvandergroef@jvc.com http://jvc.com
EUBIQ POWER TRACKS BETTER KNOWN OUTSIDE US
While awaiting UL approvals, we've had to treat Eubiq power
tracks as a coming attraction, but it's important that we don't
leave you with the impression of them as vaporware. Scores of
countries outside the US are already buying & using these (having
passed relevant agency clearances in those countries). Let the
Web site be your guide; we can also get units sent to long-lead
opportunities (for others, it makes more sense to wait until the
people you write for can actually get them, too). Contact: NG Kee
Haur, EUBIQ PTE LTD (Singapore) +65-6372-9393x380
mailto:keeng@eubiq.com http://eubiq.com
DAPTER & SPECS & VIOLENCE
Our mention of the 2-shot of a penny & a Dapter ($30) BT2 USB
dongle reminds us that we owe you a run-down on its specs. Dapter
plugs into a USB 2 port to deliver Bluetooth 2.0 +EDR (enhanced
data rate) connectivity at 3.0Mbps (asymmetrical data rate) over
a 30-foot range to as many as 7 BT2 "slave" devices (phones,
cameras, printers, headsets, mice, speakers, VOIP gear, etc.). So
much for specs, now let's talk violence: Unlike those dongles
that crack cases if they're left plugged in, a Dapter is small
enough to dodge that danger. Ask Jack. Contact: Jack Corrao,
NEWTON PERIPHERALS (Natick, MA) 858-792-0944
mailto:jack.corrao@newtonperipherals.com
http://NewtonPeripherals.com
CELL PHONE REMOTE REAL TIME VIDEO
So many business applications can get enabled by Droplet's
amazing technology, it's tough to know where to begin. An
insurance claims adjuster with nothing more than a cell phone
(with a still camera & a data plan) can send live video of damage
that can be viewed, reviewed & settled immediately, with the
bonus of keeping that video attached to the claim record.
Disaster response forces can originate multiple video views of a
scene to help command & control leaders more quickly asses a
situation & dispatch whatever's needed to address it. It's not
hard to think of more; ask John. Contact: John Ralston, DROPLET
TECHNOLOGY (Menlo Park, CA) 650-688-5762
mailto:ralston@droplet-tech.com http://droplet-tech.com Agency
contact: Evan Kennedy (Terpin) 310-821-6100x116 evan@terpin.com
SPRING CLEANING DROPPED BARS
Around now, many chores bring us from cabin fever to spring
fever; one chore we can now choose not to ignore is to clean up
cell coverage in the house. Before the weather gets wicked hot,
walk your phone around your garage or attic & find those places
where your cell phone shows the most bars. Plant the
signal-fetching half of a Wi-EX zBoost ($399) PCS/CEL dual-band
cell bar booster there & run its thin cable to somewhere central
to where you & family members are most likely to make or take
cell calls. Presto, you have more bars, a more solid signal &
better data transfer rates. The premise is more than a promise as
you can assess & address by getting a zBoost to review. 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
NO SWAPPING SPIT WITH BACTRACK
Not to be indelicate, but if you use a breathalyzer that makes
you blow into a tube, whose lips have been there before yours &
what germs may they have carried? Sure, there are sleeves & other
measures available; how sure are you that the one presented to
you is clean? This isn't an issue for the BACtrack blood alcohol
content breathalyzer ($80) because your lips never touch it; you
do a 5-second open-mouth exhale from half an inch away. This
deep-lung air sample helps assure accuracy, too. Ask Keith; also,
don't be bashful about asking to review one. Contact: Keith
Nothacker, KHN SOLUTIONS (San Francisco CA) 415-693-9756x113
mailto:keith.nothacker@khnsolutions.com http://bactrack.com
EXPLAINING PELTIER
The solid state module that actively heats or cools a Komfort
Pets pet carrier is a Peltier device, a solid state heat pump.
When you apply a Voltage, one side gets colder & the other
hotter; reverse the polarity to swap which side does which. They
don't need refrigerant or compressor pumps. In Komfort Pets
carriers, an array of Peltier devices conduct their heating or
cooling through a metal plate (because dogs & cats are best
heated or cooled from underneath) while a small fan circulates
some similarly cooled or heated air through the carrier. Open
vent slots allow fresh air through but tend not to make the
animal uncomfortable (because of their fur. Contact: Bob Inello,
KOMFORT PETS (Revere, MA) 781-485-0077
mailto:rinello@komfortpets.com http://KomfortPets.com
SPECIAL REPORT: WEATHER WARNINGS IN THE WORKS BUT YEARS OUT
In an e-mail to Marty, the National Weather Service acknowledges
that it is working on ways to push weather emergency alerts into
cell phones, but that implementation is still several years away,
in part because of several issues getting in the way. One of the
challenges lies in mapping the locations of cell towers into the
counties or polygons that are integral to current NWS warning
products. Another is in developing message content & formats that
will be compatible with the changing spectrum of handsets.
Another is a selective opt-in procedure that will let people sign
up for only the alerts they want to hear. They are also concerned
about sending text messages to cell phones within jurisdictions
where drivers are prohibited to sue handheld devices. Our
response to them was a suggestion to focus only on delivering a
system to respond to geographically (latitude/longitude) tagged
queries with coded alert status responses (a few bytes each).
"Live" traffic (etc.) information updaters serving automotive
navigation products could query the system with geo-data from
along the mapped travel corridor. Cell carriers can configure
each tower's gear with its (fixed) location info for fetching
weather status on an also very-automated basis; that gear can
also ping other resources to pick up other kinds of warnings,
from Amber Alerts to volunteer fire calls. A tower can send the
exact same packet of current alert status bytes to every handset
it "touches", leaving it up to the handset makers & third-party
application developers to come up with clever ways of making
users aware of alerts in safe, non-intrusive but absolutely
assertive ways. If the NWS defines & publishes the query &
response data formats by summer & can prototype a test system by
fall, we might be able to see both tower & handset gear capable
of using (or being field updated to use) this kind of alerting
service by CTIA next year. We know why we have not yet seen this
kind of application; no one figured out how to make money with
it. We also know why that won't matter if the scenario we just
outlined should unfold; it becomes a competitive selling point
that hurts any competitor not incorporating it. Of course, not
even NOAA can predict which way the wind will blow on all this.
SPECIAL REPORT FOOTNOTE
Marty was only at CTIA for a day but it was enough time to bring
up several of the issues involved in issuing location-based
warnings & alerts to companies at all three levels of needed
involvement (information sources, tower middleware & handset
applications). Weather information issuers already format alerts
for non-push applications; the same is true for most other kinds
of alerts. The gear already in the towers needs only a minor
tweak (plus working out some standard way to deal with simple
query & response strings to & from both information issuers &
handsets) to be able to offer alerts in its coverage area.
Several of the companies writing handset application were puzzled
at first by the challenge of push applications as well as
concerned about what they would do to battery life; when they
recognized that it could work like the e-mail model (not really
always on, just checking frequently enough that it seems like
it), most seemed eager for involvement. (There was no thrill over
the WARNA model for issuing all the alerts via SMS). We don't
want to forecast a "when" here; if they feel a lot of demand from
the public, it could be 90 days & if not, 90 years. Perhaps now
that you know it's a not-so-remote possibility you'll find it
worth writing about & we can see it on something much closer to
the former timeline than the latter. One interesting addendum to
this footnote: so many of those parties that need to be motivated
live so far from serious weather that only a few understand that
these alerts are a more than avocational interest to us.
SPECIAL REPORT BONUS REVIEW: MAGMIC SUDOKU
Sudoku is the name of an addiction we share & turn to in idle
moments to prove that brain death has not yet arrived. At the
desktop, we play the Flash version on newspaper Web sites.
Relaxing, we play on a $14 handheld toy we got at Target. It's
been on our to-do list for a while to find a Sudoku game for the
Blackberry that would be a challenge to our puzzle-solving skills
but not to our aging dexterity. The answer we found was on its
home page (http://mobile.blackberry.com) as a free download.
Magmic Sudoku uses the trackball to position the cursor on the
square you want to solve & the number pad to enter your answer
(or delete one). It offers 4 skill levels: easy, medium, hard or
genius (with decreasing numbers of squares filled in when you
begin). There's nothing not to love here (except our own limits).
Bottom line: satisfying, challenging & fun; recommended.
SPECIAL REPORT BONUS REVIEW 2: ROYAL WRIST 2-WAY WATCH RADIO
Three quarters of a century later, we can finally try out a
chunkier & less feature-packed version of the 2-way wrist radio
that comics scribe Chester Gould imagined for his strip star Dick
Tracy. The Royal 2-Way Watch Radio lists at $90/pair & really
does serve both as a walkie-talkie & an LCD watch. We can't
promise you won't look like a geek wearing one of these,
especially if you flip up its little stubby antenna, but there
are times when function outweighs fashion; anybody who ever
climbed a roof to point a TV antenna while somebody at the set
reported results can affirm that. There are more contemporary
applications, like keeping track of a spouse or offspring when
shopping agendas separate you, or keeping in touch with
companions when hiking or camping, or having a lookout warn you
when Prune Face (no derision of any actual Mother-in-Law
intended) arrives. Back to the gear: a rechargeable LiIon battery
(a charger plugs into the side of each unit) keeps them running
for about 18 hours with the battery condition displayed on the
watch face. The range under ideal conditions is 1.5 miles; under
most conditions you should be able to get a quarter to half mile
or more. You can set them up on any of 22 channels (we assume
GMRS), in case you're so enthralled that you want to coordinate
large groups individually. You can send a call tone to let others
know you want to talk or just start talking; the package comes
with ear bud headsets you can jack into the side to keep half the
conversation more private & there's a VOX (voice-operated
exchange) feature you can switch on so the sound of your voice
can automatically transmit without pushing the PTT (push to talk)
button under the watch face. You might think this is a quirky
product category, but we checked & found that there are
competitors in it (XACT, Audiovox, Bellsouth & Omnizel, for
example, though the similarities suggest a single underlying
OEM). So what do we think? Just as you own a socket wrench set
though you don't use one every day, these offer a tool for 2-way
communications that will fit well enough & inexpensively enough &
effectively enough in a variety of special situations. Should you
& a colleague wear these to keep in touch on the floor of the
LVCC? They're good for that, but we won't promise not to make fun
of you. Bottom line: As a walkie-talkie alternative you're
unlikely to drop, lose or leave behind, or for those times when
you don't have a spare hand to hold one, these really work & work
well enough to be taken seriously (but again, for function, not
fashion).
SPECIAL REPORT BONUS REVIEW 3: VAMOOSE
A fine cigar has a flavor all its own, but those around the
person who smokes that cigar may not favor that flavor & the
potential to offend has a life of its own. The smoke that emerges
from any cigar or cigarette is a mix of chemical vapors &
suspended particulates that readily deposit themselves on
surfaces, coat walls & leech into fabrics. Get into a car with a
stranger who smokes & you'll know it immediately because the
aroma penetrates seat & ceiling fabrics in a way that aroma masks
can't hide. When we got a press release about Vamoose, we were
very skeptical about its claims to eliminate tobacco odors,
especially given the come-on tone & language (like, "Contains
Revolutionary Novexium Active Deodorizing Technology"); it needed
testing. In the first test, Marty braved freezing Northern Ohio
temperatures for the full length of a Rocky Patel Vintage 1999
Torpedo, making sure to blow the smoke under his jacket & onto
his shirt; the family provided a chorus of confirmation of their
resultant stink. Almost immediately after spraying (using the
Vamoose Fresh Scent variety; it also comes in Leather & New Car
Smell), the cigar aroma was dramatically reduced & in a few
hours, disappeared from treated areas while remaining in
untreated control areas. We kicked things up a notch. Just 2
miles away (in Chagrin Falls), there's a cigar shop that
encourages customers to enjoy its wares in an area of couches &
chairs. In the first test, half a dozen smokers contributed to
the local penetration; a few sprays in the air & a few more on
the furniture had so immediate an effect that several patrons
declared the cigar smell gone; we didn't believe them to be
correct. A few days later, there was an evening gathering of
about 40 smokers in the store; we left the bottle with the owner.
The next morning, it was actually difficult to smell any
remaining cigar smoke. The product seems to work by chemically
interacting with some of the elements within tobacco smoke
(especially tar & nicotine) with both an immediate effect to
reduce their presence & a longer-term result (hours, from what we
can tell) of continued efficacy. Vamoose also involves a masking
scent separate from the working ingredients; accidentally
breathing any of the spray will quickly lead to the belief that
whatever the working ingredient may be, its natural "naked" aroma
is unpleasant. Bottom line: Vamoose seems to be an effective
antidote to the stink that tobacco smoke leaves on fabrics.
SPECIAL REPORT BONUS REVIEW 4: YAHOO! ONESEARCH
Yahoo! has become a lot more aggressive about its offerings in
the mobile space. Some, like Yahoo! Mail on a BlackBerry, are
almost too easy to mention. The Yahoo! Go has an interesting
trackball-control interface with a bonus of configurability that
puts a strong collection of things you really want to see or know
at your fingertips; even with our limited collection of widgets
for weather, maps & searches, it's useful (a gear icon lets you
add from the ever-growing library in its widget gallery at will).
The really promising new addition to this catalog of mobile apps
is Yahoo! OneSearch with Voice (BlackBerry only for now) but like
many voice applications, it's a promise that's easily broken. For
example, when we said "wired stereo over hear headsets for
BlackBerry" its interpretation would, if we were to reproduce it
here, get us trapped in way too many spam filters. One nice
feature is that many key words in its search phrase have
drop-down alternatives available & the search string is editable.
The system is supposed to be adaptive to a user's voice over
time, eventually offering improved recognition; we haven't used
it long enough to know for sure, one way or another. Under the
user interface, the search returns are on a par with most handset
search engine overlays. We remember how clunky early desktop
computing was & how when change came, it came rapidly (even if it
seemed like we waited forever for that); we see the same thing
here. The promise of convenience & usefulness makes their pursuit
worthwhile & these are important advances that, while imperfect,
give us more & better choices than we had before; we expect &
perhaps demand that they will improve. Bottom line: these are
significant extensions of the power of the handset plus the power
of Web search & presentation technology & we very much like being
able to tap into them now.
NAB: A DAY TOO LONG, A YEAR TOO EARLY
This year's NAB became an ill-fated event the moment the WGA went
on strike because the lack of prime time dramatic series
"destination" viewing made for a slump in viewership & a slump in
ad revenues was right behind it. In the top 100 markets, we note
a 17% hit to station revenues (which could have been worse but
for fountains of political campaign spending). So with budgets
slashed, heads long off the job chopping blocks & little good
news in the future (especially with a SAG strike of actors
looming in June), the vendors at NAB were peddling to people with
little or nothing to spend. Nervous was up; excitement was down.
The show tried to make the best of it by citing a record number
of international (stronger than the dollar) visitors but it
wasn't enough to pop the bubble. Most attendees went home early;
intersections in South Hall aisles that saw more than 100
passers-by per minute on Monday saw fewer than 20 in 5 minutes on
Thursday. By Thursday, some of the exhibitors had turned surly.
The product mix was interesting, with a little more innovation in
compression products than elsewhere. It was interesting to see
demo satellite gear mounted on significantly smaller vehicles, a
sensible salute to the need to address higher fuel costs. In many
ways, NAB reminded us of a yesteryear NetWorld with tons of
competition for drive interfaces, drive arrays, network storage,
backup systems, routers, etc. We were less moved by the absence
of some of the larger "island nation" traditional exhibitors than
by the absence of interest in most of it among attendees. For
those who note such things, this year's NAB had only one
helicopter & no acres of big remote trucks. The booth babe head
count was down & their average age was up. The bars were also a
lot quieter; our favorite haunt at The Venetian actually got
busier when the RFID show hit town later in the week. We think
these doldrums should clear by September. On the bright side, we
think there will be some innovation on the low-cost side that
will help drive that, some of which may be enormously useful to
people (like many of you) in TV news. As always, we'll try to let
you know about that here. 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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