Tribune Interactive Launches Chicagolive.com
Chicagolive.com debuts today and features video content about Chicago, by Chicago and for Chicago giving local users a chance to share their video creations in a uniquely Chicago setting, including videos from professionals and amateurs alike. Produced by Chicago Tribune Interactive, the site provides a chance to tell stories about the Windy City in a different way.
In addition to user-submitted footage, chicagolive.com aggregates video content from professional sources like Chicago Tribune, CLTV, WGN-TV and others as well as city-centric videos collected from sites across the Internet.
Based on the experience from Boston no doubt.
Video Conference with Logitech QuickCam Pro
According to this post on the Sydney Morning Herald:
Should you buy one of Logitech’s new whiz-bang QuickCam Pro webcams? No, you should buy two. That’s not just because they’re far and away the best webcam we’ve ever used.
The reason to double-dip is that to take advantage of their superb “high quality video” mode you’ll need HQV-compatible webcams at both ends of the videochat. And only Logitech’s QuickCam Sphere AF and Pro 9000 desktop webcams, and the QuickCam Pro for notebooks, fit that bill. You’ll also need the latest Skype 3.6 for Windows (Mac owners need not apply), because HQV is purely a Logitech-Skype concoction. And a PC running an Intel Core 2 chip to handle the heavy video processing load. Plus a broadband line with at least a 384Kbps uplink speed.
HQV lets internet video calls scale up to a smooth 30 frames a second if the bandwidth is there at both ends, with a double-sized video window up to 640×480 pixels on the screen. You can immediately see far richer detail and truer colours and there’s minimal blurring during normal movement such as waving a hand.
Smells like a tech. reporter who got a couple of early xmas gifts?
Hulu Rolling with HD Web Video
Today marks an important milestone in Web video. Hulu, which is quickly becoming a favorite online video destination, has started to add HD videos to its site. The most recent release of Adobe Flash Player added support for streaming HD, using H.264 encoding. Hulu’s HD Gallery is a little bit limited off the jump, only offering nine HD movie trailers, but there’s little doubt they will be adding HD versions of other content in the future.
Via: cNet
UNESCO to Launch India Web Video Guide
UNESCO New Delhi will introduce an innovative web video encyclopedia site of India. Announcing the agreement, Minja Yang, Director of the UNESCO New Delhi Office, explained that one of the key mandates is to safeguard and promote the wealth of the world’s cultural diversity. “India is a vast country with an extraordinarily ancient and diverse cultural heritage. The unique objective behind this project is to develop an atlas of India that covers not just its geographical features but its cultural ones too.”
Confessions of a Video Pirate
There’s a whole lingo among the top tier of Internet video pirates and a Topsite is an important cog in the Piracy Pyramid, a place where often only hackers who know each other from way back congregate to chat and download. Last week, the Norwegian publication IT Avisen published a rare interview with an administrator of a so-called Topsite, and if the studios were worried before, they will no doubt be even more worried should they read the article, starting with the defiant tone of the unnamed pirate’s comments. “Nobody sees anybody,” the mid-twenties student of computer programming explains of the level of anonymity used in his circles. “The IRC OPs knows who the others are, but normally we don’t know who they are in real life. We only use nick names.”
Via: Film Stew
Guerrilla Video Site Meets MTV
Vice magazine has built a small media empire out of a raw, ironic sensibility, risqué photographs and a willingness to deal in taboo subjects. On VBS.tv, the video Web site the company runs, viewers can find short videos about independent music, extreme sports and, of course, some nudity. What’s even more surprising is the company that finances most of these projects: Viacom. Late last year, the Viacom-owned MTV Networks Music and Logo Group made a deal to start VBS, with financing from MTV and content from Vice, which also sells ads.
Via: NYT
Blurred Line Between TV and Web Video
Mark Sullivan from PC World blogging from the NewTeeVee Live Television Reinvented event today in San Francisco, a gathering of practically everybody in the business of pushing video on the Internet.
This morning’s first session lined up some key players from Turner Broadcasting, BigFantastic, MTV, as well as YouTube crossover star Lisa Donavan (Lisa Nova) to talk about the blurring of the lines between traditional TV and Internet Video.
BigFantastic’s Douglas Cheney says his company’s breakthrough moment was when TV mega-player Michael Eisner took a meeting with them after seeing their videos online. Eisner decided to go into business with the company, and was executive producer of their second video effort, “Prom Queen.” During its 12-week run, Prom Queen got more than 15 million views and was nominated for an Emmy for Best Outstanding Broadband Drama.
Sam has 7 friends video podcast ‘coming soon’ Here
Branding Yourself at 10 MPH
Hunter Weeks and his friend Josh Caldwell quit their cushy 9 to 5 job so that they could follow their dream, which was to get a sense of America and today’s American Dream. The way Hunter and Josh planned to accomplishing their dream was to travel across the U.S. (from Seattle to Boston), but instead of walking, driving, or flying, they decided to do this journey on a Segway.
Hunter and Josh did this journey with very little money and because of this they struggled. But this didn’t stop them from them reaching their dream, they kept at it and figured things out on a shoe string budget. They turned their weaknesses into strengths by leveraging the media, which allowed them to get press in outlets such Wired, LA Times, Washington Post, The Pheonix, CNet, Boston Globe, and the Denver Post. Instead of complaining and making excuses these two individuals accomplished their dream while becoming somewhat famous.
Via QuickSprout
Fora.TV Raises $2 Million Seed Round
Fora.tv, which wants to become the C-SPAN of the Web, closed a $2 million seed round from Adobe Ventures and Will Hearst. The site has about 1,500 hours of public speeches from people like Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker and neurologist and New Yorker contributor Oliver Sacks. It gets its videos through partnerships with organizations like the Aspen Institute, the Commonwealth Club, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Long Now Foundation, and, yes, C-SPAN. In fact, founder and CEO Brian Gruber once worked at C-Span as its chief marketer. He prefers calling Fora.tv the “thinking man’s YouTube.” Gruber plans to raise another $5 million in an A round within 90 days. More via TechCrunch.
Trick or Treat!
