This is to confirm that Ian Perry has resigned from the board of BITWeb.tv ltd. Ian had tendered his resignation verbally some time ago but it only became formal after the last year's report and accounts had been submitted to Companies House and HMRC.
For the record, Ian has never been a board member of or has he been employed by our sister company, TheNewsBiz Ltd.
TheNewsBiz, NOT BITWeb, has had a contract with TIE to make videos about Edinburgh Trams. This contract is currently suspended as a result of the agreement between TIE and the consortium building the network (at present in dispute) not to say anything publicly until after mediation has been completed. By that time, the run up to the Scottish Elections will have started and, as public organisations, they won't be able to make any public comment until May.
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
Monday, 24 January 2011
Isn't Technology Wonderful!!!
It's taken a surprising amount of time but we've finally managed to get all of the audio functions of the new computer working -- and not all are even vaguely intuitive.
This machine is using Windows 7, which otherwise is a greatly improved OS from Vista. It has a RealTek High Definition Sound Card which is fabulous. However, to record anything (audio or video) from certain sources, including the Internet, you need to be able to see "Stereo Mix" in the "Recording Devices" window. In XP or the RealTek sound card in my previous PC for instance, that's there by default. It's not on the new machine. In order to find it, you have the RIGHT CLICK in any BLANK space in the "Recording Devices" window and check the box marked "Show Disabled Devices", only then will you even get the option to display it. You then again have to click on the button marked "set default" before it will work. But what THAT means is, if you are going to use the computer for any other sound or video application such as Skype, you have to change the default setting to one of the built-in microphones. As I said, not exactly intuitive.
Then there's the program I prefer to use for audio editing. CoolEdit's an old program, I know -- but it's one on which I've produced long radio documentaries very effectively so why change. CoolEdit wouldn't work under Vista, but that didn't matter as previous machines either ran XP or were "dual boot" (ie: would load under either operating system). It loaded perfectly under W7 but didn't run correctly. However, W7 offers a wide range of options under "compatibility mode". CoolEdit runs happily under XP Service Pack 2 (though curiously not SP3 for some reason). However, that didn't solve all the issues. The PLAYBACK settings under W7/RealTek HDA offer a range of settings. In order to record from the Internet (say: an interview conducted via Skype), PLAYBACK has to be set to "Digital Output"; to hear and thus edit the result on CoolEdit, PLAYBACK has to be set to "Speakers".
This may seem rather technical but I know of other people who are about to go down the same technological route. This may save them some time and frustration!
This machine is using Windows 7, which otherwise is a greatly improved OS from Vista. It has a RealTek High Definition Sound Card which is fabulous. However, to record anything (audio or video) from certain sources, including the Internet, you need to be able to see "Stereo Mix" in the "Recording Devices" window. In XP or the RealTek sound card in my previous PC for instance, that's there by default. It's not on the new machine. In order to find it, you have the RIGHT CLICK in any BLANK space in the "Recording Devices" window and check the box marked "Show Disabled Devices", only then will you even get the option to display it. You then again have to click on the button marked "set default" before it will work. But what THAT means is, if you are going to use the computer for any other sound or video application such as Skype, you have to change the default setting to one of the built-in microphones. As I said, not exactly intuitive.
Then there's the program I prefer to use for audio editing. CoolEdit's an old program, I know -- but it's one on which I've produced long radio documentaries very effectively so why change. CoolEdit wouldn't work under Vista, but that didn't matter as previous machines either ran XP or were "dual boot" (ie: would load under either operating system). It loaded perfectly under W7 but didn't run correctly. However, W7 offers a wide range of options under "compatibility mode". CoolEdit runs happily under XP Service Pack 2 (though curiously not SP3 for some reason). However, that didn't solve all the issues. The PLAYBACK settings under W7/RealTek HDA offer a range of settings. In order to record from the Internet (say: an interview conducted via Skype), PLAYBACK has to be set to "Digital Output"; to hear and thus edit the result on CoolEdit, PLAYBACK has to be set to "Speakers".
This may seem rather technical but I know of other people who are about to go down the same technological route. This may save them some time and frustration!
Change of Main Blog
For those who have been kind enough to follow this blog, I've moved my main focus to a new service and software. This one will only be occasionally updated from now on. To continue following, please look at http://www.davidcalder.tv
Thursday, 2 December 2010
Consequences of Grouse
"The Making of the Grouse Statue" video went down very well. It was the first time I'd seen one of my movies on a big screen. It looked great -- even though I would have liked to have been able to project it in full HD. It's now up on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP7bQq0kyS8
What this project has clearly proved is that my current systems, both hardware and possibly software, are being stretched to creaking point. The near-ten minute video was taking almost an hour to render and my computer is starting to insert what I can only describe as "ghost images" into the project, in other words it occasionally inserted images from another file in the same folder and there was nothing I could do to remove them. This disks have been defragged and the system subject to routine maintenance but it does seem to have reached the point where I have to upgrade.
So I'm taking delivery of a top-of-the range DELL (they say it will be delivered on Monday but in this weather who knows when it will arrive). I'm also turning the camera into a hybrid -- in other words, it will record on both tape and now compact flash cards. There's another light on the way as well. All of that should help to improve the quality of our productions.
What this project has clearly proved is that my current systems, both hardware and possibly software, are being stretched to creaking point. The near-ten minute video was taking almost an hour to render and my computer is starting to insert what I can only describe as "ghost images" into the project, in other words it occasionally inserted images from another file in the same folder and there was nothing I could do to remove them. This disks have been defragged and the system subject to routine maintenance but it does seem to have reached the point where I have to upgrade.
So I'm taking delivery of a top-of-the range DELL (they say it will be delivered on Monday but in this weather who knows when it will arrive). I'm also turning the camera into a hybrid -- in other words, it will record on both tape and now compact flash cards. There's another light on the way as well. All of that should help to improve the quality of our productions.
Monday, 22 November 2010
Video and Blogger
I have to say that Blogger is not the greatest site for publishing video. The files it's prepared to accept are too small. The video window is 4x3 when it should be 16x9 by now. It doesn't seem to like MP4 format. It can't easily embed code from YouTube despite being from the same company. I hate to say it but WordPress wins hands down when it comes to this kind of showcase.
The Grouse Statue is handed over
The Grouse Statue has been assembled, installed and now it's been formally handed over as a gift to the people of Perth. The Council had said that, to mark the city's 800th anniversary in a lasting way, they wanted a piece of public art. The statue is very much that. This is part of the official ceremony, the formal handing over of the Grouse by Edrington to the local authority. Now all I have to do is make the video to be shown on Friday!!!
Saturday, 20 November 2010
The Big Bird Arrives in Perth
The Grouse Statue has arrived at a car park near its final home -- the Broxden Roundabout. The body was driven up from Peebles first thing; the wings and came from the galvanizers in Coatbridge. The team did a great job putting it all together. The bolts were fixed with power drivers so the suggestion that some drunken jobs might climb up one night and leave one of their number trapped inside is actually impossible.
By the way, the team decided to pre-empt the idea that some other bright spark might try to put a "hat" on the bird -- so it's already been photographed with a traffic cone on its head.
By the way, the team decided to pre-empt the idea that some other bright spark might try to put a "hat" on the bird -- so it's already been photographed with a traffic cone on its head.
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