Interview with a "Video Virgin" – Marketing
Interview with a "Video Virgin"
Marie-Claire Ross
Shani Alexander is the founder of Relocations Made Easy www.relocations-made-easy.com which produces an interactive website and CDROM tool that advises people on how to make a stress free relocation to a new city.
To create her interactive product, Shani needed camera vision of herself explaining to viewers how the product worked in front of a cityscape backdrop.
We interviewed her to find out her experience of using a video production company for the first time.
1. Why did you decide that you needed a video component in your website tool
I am selling a virtual personal service product and the video component was needed to introduce a real person from which my virtual product could springboard.
The video component showed a real person, a company owner. It gave the personal touch and introduced what the customer was going to receive from their purchase.
2. What were you looking for in a video production company
I really needed a company that could understand what I was trying to achieve. I really needed them to get inside my head and make real what I was imagining, what I was dreaming up.
It had to be cost effective with no cost blowouts. It also needed to be applied to the media I was using - the internet and CDROM. I needed clear picture quality that could be viewed across those mediums without any picture quality loss.
3. How difficult was it to compare proposals between the four providers
Everyone told me how it is difficult to compare. All the production houses said they could do the same thing, but the prices were extremely different.
When I spoke to Digicast they went to great lengths to explain the type of camera that they used. Whilst I would have liked to think that everyone could produce the same job, I realised that the big differences in prices reflected the different types of camera quality being used.
Digicast also took me on board as if I was a client already. They gave me suggestions about how to do the shoot the best way and started treating me like a client before I even made the decision to go with them. From there, we were able to develop a relationship and work together on the project.
4. As someone new to being filmed, how did you find your shoot
I found it really long, really tiring and boring! I was really surprised at how dependent you are on the weather to be right
LED video Displays – Casino
LED video Displays
Paula Jones
LED video displays give you the power to communicate, to motivate, and to entertain. Led video displays are seen to be sited for outdoor advertising, in casinos, for events like sporting events in stadium and arena, for staging and mobile display etc.
The features of LED video display include high resolution with virtual pixel technology, advanced LED video displays have 200% more pixels than traditional LED displays for LED video Displays. With more display pixels, you can show more details and information, or simply a better video quality. This advance LED has the technology of displaying 48 bit color range capable showing 281 trillion colors.
This larger dynamic range helps Act One displays show more details on dark scenes, and smoother, more brilliant colors for all videos and pictures.
Jayex Technology the leading manufacturer of LED displays has proven itself in distribution of LED video Displays with solely providing high brightness output to ensure high visibility for outdoor video displays which is very critical issue.
The horizontal viewing angle of video displays is up to 150 degrees in the daytime, and up to 170 degrees in the night time. It means with displays, you will be able to reach more viewers and broadcast your information more efficiently.
The display systems come with user-friendly software to perform remote control and management. With the software, you can remotely monitor the status of the display, as well as upload and schedule files to show.
LED video displays are modularly designed so that they can be easily maintained. They can be configured into customized sizes and width/height ratios with the combination of modules. The modular design also makes LED video displays easy to setup and dismantle, and therefore perfect for staging applications.
About The Author
Paula Jones
Jayex Technology Limited, based in London specialise in advanced information display systems. Established in 1978 we have pioneered the development of the LED display market and now have over 18,000 customers worldwide. We offer, probably the largest range of models from small single line signs to big screen Megavision screens that can display live video and action replay in stadia.
jayex.co.uk
Video Encryption – Home
Video Encryption
Alastair Taylor
Video Encryption is an extremely useful method for the stopping unwanted interception and viewing of any transmitted video or other information, for example from a law enforcement video surveillance being relayed back to a central viewing centre.
The scrambling is the easy part. It is the un-encryption thats hard, but there are several techniques that are available. However, the human eye is very good at, spotting distortions in pictures due to poor video decoding or poor choice of video scrambling hardware. Therefore, it is very important to choose the right hardware or else your video transmissions may be un-secure or your decoded video may not be watchable.
Some of the more popular techniques are detailed below:
Line Inversion:
Method: Whole or parts of the signal scan lines are inverted.
Advantages: Simple, cheap video encryption.
Disadvantages: Poor video decrypting quality, low obscurity, low security.
Sync Suppression:
Method: Hide/remove the horizontal/vertical line syncs.
Advantages: Provides a low cost solution to Encryption and provides good quality video decoding.
Disadvantages: This method is incompatible with some distribution equipment. Obscurity i.e. how easy it is to visually decipher the image is dependant on video content.
Line Shuffle:
Method: Each signal line is re-ordered on the screen.
Advantages: Provides a compatible video signal, a reasonable amount of obscurity, good decode quality.
Disadvantages: Requires a lot of digital storage space. There are potential issues with video stability. Less secure than the cut and rotate encryption method see below
Cut & Rotate:
Scrambling Method: Each scan line is cut into pieces and re-assembled in a different order.
Advantages: Provides a compatible video signal, gives an excellent amount of obscurity, as well as good decode quality and stability.
Disadvantages: Can have complex timing control and requires specialized scrambling equipment
The cut and rotate video encryption method is probably the best way of achieving reliable and good quality video encryption, an example of a good implementation of this system is in the Viewlock II
Implementing vice scrambling
The video scrambling hardware, in particular the decoder should function correctly even if there is a noisy for example having what are commonly known as snow on the screen. Snow is when there are flecks on your TV screen, often seen in poor reception areas or unstable signal. If the link to the encrypted signal should stop working then this should not be a problem. The link between the video encoder and video decoder should be regained and the decryption quickly continued.
The very nature of security camera systems is that they are often outdoors as so must be able to withstand the rigours of the weather. The video encryption hardware should be stable under or protected from the effects of rain, sunlight, extreme heat and cold. It should not be damaged if there is a power spike in the supply. In these systems the video encoder emits a wireless signal to the video decoder unit before it is viewed, it obviously must be the case that the very act of broadcasting the signal does not effect the video encoding hardware and likewise the video encoding hardware should not effect the radio transmitter.
The most important item is that the video scrambling system should be secure, else why bother It is amazing how some encryption methods can easily be cracked. For example certain cable television stations encrypt their channel broadcasts via a relatively un complex method, which can easily be decoded using a number of cheap bits of electronics from radio shack. That would obviously be illegal! The cable TVs method of encryption is very crude, they usually just dynamically alter the vertical sync signal so that your TV cannot get a proper lock on it and so it scrolls randomly.
The other extreme is to scramble the transmitted video signal too much so that it is costly both in equipment and time to the video at the receiver. Remember that this is a live video scrambling broadcast followed by a live video decryption display. ANY electronics can be copied, given enough money and time, but making this process as hard as possible is of benefit as it at least delays the time when illegal copies will be available.
Finally and most obviously each user must have a unique encryption key so that other users of the system cannot view the transmitted video by accident or purpose without the key owners knowledge. The total number of possible user keys must be such that it is highly unlikely for someone to guess the correct key.
By Ovation Systems
About The Author
Alastair Taylor
Ovation Systems - http://www.ovation.co.uk are specialists in the design and manufacture of high quality covert video surveillance equipment. Permission is given to reproduce this article as long as this bio along with its hyperlink are included.