Inventions and Design
From The Transponder - various pages.
that
producing competent in-house videos and multimedia is no longer an
option
for large organizations with big budgets. Many small firms and
organizations
are now recognizing the benefits represented by the continuing
array
of low cost, high quality, nonlinear editing and broadcast-quality
recording
equipment.
"Broadcast
quality" is one of those terms melding value judgment with
technical
criteria. For our purposes, it signifies audible and visible production
features
comparable to what you are used to seeing on a commercial medium
such
as cable. The acceptable threshold, given the demands of conventional
editing
technology, was realized through Beta or 3/4-inch tape; however, many
popular
cable shows such as "Next Step" on Discovery get quality results from
Hi-8
equipment, as well as economy.
Relatively
inexpensive digital platforms are available to the trainer as well as
moderately
expensive – but powerful – tools for producing video
approximating
near-broadcast quality. There are no algorithmic -type solutions
to
what hardware and software ensemble is best for producing your training
videos.
It depends on too many factors, not the least of which is
"shelf-life."
Any
electronic equipment purchased today will be obsolete in a year or two.
However,
you can be doing incredibly low-cost quality work – fast. Moreover,
"digital"
means you can produce without worrying about time-based
corrections,
"gen-loss" and similar artifacts of the analog world of videotape
production.
The
digital tools now available give you enough freedom to create, depending
on
your budget for time and money, extremely complex videos complete with
titles,
graphics, wipes, dissolves, even a bit of animation. You can also create a
busy
sequence of eye candy that does little to accomplish your objective.
Hollywood
proves this truism 26 times a second in their productions. But let
us
assume that you have a focused training objective and working script for
your
project.
Budget
constraints formerly required that you rely on professionals who knew
what
could be done with limited resources of time, money and technology. For
example,
the time-consuming process of rendering special effects through
dedicated
electronic hardware will continue to shorten. Just as you no longer
need
to wait for your film to return from the lab to check the results of your
training
film footage, you do not need to wait overnight for a ray-tracing
program
to render your 3-D animation sequence.
It
is becoming easier to see and test the effectiveness of a concept, visually and
aurally
expressed. The gap between concept and execution will also continue to
narrow.
The promise is that trainers will have more freedom to articulate their
training
objective. The sobering corollary is that more trainers will be able to
produce
more awful videos more quickly than ever before. Let the flowers
bloom.
The
most cost-effective ensemble on the market entails a PC or Mac with the
fastest
chip speed available and at least 24 MB of RAM, and 1 MB of RAM
dedicated
to your video output. You can get by with less, but the processing
time
required cancels out any savings gained from going in-house.
Keeping
at the low end of the budget spectrum, you can now effectively
produce
useful videos with a PC computer, monitor, video camera, wireless
mike,
VHS tape decks, and storage back-up system. Useful. Not Hollywood
pretty,
but it can be professional enough that it will not detract but actually
enhance
your instructional message. The quality of the message depends on
good
ideas verbally and graphically expressed, ultimately on the screens. No
amount
of money can compensate for this factor.
While
there is a fundamental "apple and oranges" disparity in comparing
Macs
with
PC’s, the golden rule for business always entails time equals money.
Years
ago, Macs’ premium prices meant that you paid, up-front, in money
what
you saved in time by using the Mac. And for in-house multimedia
producers
who would rather be "lensing" their first video than waiting
endlessly
for technical support to find out to solve a SSCI conflict, something
like
the Performa/Video editing suite has workstation potential with a
Notebook
price tag.
Plus,
numerous peripherals, purchased separately, often conflict, requiring
quick,
often inadequate kluging. The time saved by minimal fussing with
hardware
and software compatibility alone makes the Macintosh Performa
packages
attractive. The feature shocks include built-in Apple TV system,
fax/modem,
8x CD, 16-bit sound, and integrated sub woofer. The sound
processing
component is configured to allow for multiple audio tracks; for
example,
you can add canned CD music or voice-overs to your video tape
much
more readily than with an increasingly awkward MacroMedia Director.
But
the built-in Avid Cinema board and software is the key element that could
have
you realizing your cinematic training vision quickly.
The
Avid board gives you the means to edit your video tape, add transitions
(dissolves,
wipes, etc.), titles, sound, special effects. It inputs video in NTSC,
PAL,
or SECAM formats and outputs in what they term "near VHS quality
full
screen video"– meaning useful for routine training topics, but
certainly not
ready
for prime time.
The
software helps you plan and draft a workable "shooting" script,
providing
storyboard
templates, little cartoon sketches representing the scenes to be set
up
and taped. Suggested angles for camera shots and tips for getting from one
scene
to the next will get you started even if you have no experience at
video-making.
The
Avid board provides Motion JPEG compression and decompression, so
while
you can edit frame by frame this pushes the system to the limits of its
200-MHz
processor and storage, (2.4 Gigabits sounds like a lot to most people
today,
but that is as inadequate as the 32 MB RAM). For serious digital
storage,
invest in a RAID (Random Array Information Device) a jukebox of
synchronized
hard discs providing greater randomized access for editing your
video
sequences. Planned properly, you can compose with minimal demands
on
digital storage.
The
new array of high-end multimedia notebooks also permits low-cost video
productions.
The IBM multimedia Thinkpad has NTSC and PAL input and
outputs.
For on-the-road trainers, this means you could revise and edit
sequences
in your presentation or digitized slide show on the road with as little
as
a camera, recording deck and Notebook.
Even
the scan converter proves an excellent tool for multimedia applications
beyond
presentations. An animated sequence, or simply a how-to sequence of
desktop
PC training can be quickly recorded and stored on any recorder with a
scan
converter. [See Sidebar] This is far cheaper than buying an editing deck or
video
card. Granted you will get some degradation and signal loss when you
edit
and step down, but that holds true for any analog tape session. If you have
a
video board installed on your desktop PC, you can take the board’s input,
add
titling,
graphics, etc. and then output for monitoring and storage. While the
copyright
issue may be problematic, you can record graphics and action
sequences
you designed from utilities such as found in After Dark, certainly
for
non-commercial uses.
Best
results will come from using people comfortable with digitized .
information
processing tools – PCs. Videos for training, more so than any
other
training medium employed, must have visual impact as compelling as
its
content. The digital revolution has been around long enough to create an
audience,
your viewers, who may not know what "production values" are but
who
do know what looks good on the screen. The new digital equipment will
make
your video look good; the rest is up to you.