Using iTunes for audio and SFX playback at live events

Hi all,

iTunes is a great music player app for organising your music library and buying tunes from the iTunes store. However with a few very simple tweaks it can be a very effective live audio and SFX playback system. Read on for more details…

Creating ‘fly-by’ videos with Google Earth – UPDATED

Here’s a rough and ready guide to recording ‘fly-by’ videos using the popular Google Earth application. This can be great as an introduction video for someone visiting an event from elsewhere around the world or as a backdrop to a phone interview etc. I have found it is much more engaging than a simple map slide.

Playing back interlaced video on computers

If you are playing back video clips directly to a projector from a PC or Mac, and the clips are interlaced video, then you have probably seen the ‘jaggies’ effect where fast moving edges take on a comb effect, due to the two fields of the video capturing the motion at slightly different times. Here’s some suggestions for how to get rid of that distracting effect.

Capturing stills from 1080i HDV

Here’s a quick tip on exporting still images from an HDV video sequence. There are various occasions where this might prove useful. The one I came across recently was needing stills to add to the cover of a DVD of an event. The HDV format makes this slightly less than intuitive, so read on for a quick guide. 

Basecamp – online project collaboration tool

Recently we have started using the Basecamp online project collaboration tool to plan live video events and it has been very successful. Here are some questions and answers about that product and how it might fit in to a live video event planning.

Split Quicktime Movies over multiple screens on a Mac

Another useful Mac app here- this one is called MaxiFrame and it lets you play a QT movie across multiple monitors or projectors from a (fast) Mac.
READ MORE for how this could be used for VLOBLIVE gigs, and how it could be improved.

Remotely control and sync powerpoint or keynote presentation on a Mac

Here’s an interesting little program that lets you control or sync multiple keynote or powerpoint presentations over a network on a Mac:
KeyShowX

READ MORE for some discussion on how this might be useful in a VLOBLIVE gig…

low level reverse camera angle

Don’t assume that the cameras always have to get the
artists from the front…

Need giant graphics AND detailed video…divide and conquer

If you are envious of the groovy picture in picture
modes used by big corporate boys to have a huge graphic backdrop with an
inserted live video then think laterally and achieve a similar effect…sort
of!

Widescreen video wall on the cheap

Do you eye up those HUGE widescreen walls of video
that are so in vogue at the moment for megabucks corporate gigs? Well, here’s
two ways to emulate that style, in a more modest way…