Giorgio Ungania

Apps and the Mad (Middle) Men

2010-08-29T14:54:00.008+04:00

Kevin Rose (Digg.com) posted this on his blog: "This will change everything" Apple is throwing again one of its regular "Event" this September, and aside from the highly anticipated iPod line revamp Kevin and others are speculating that Apple will launch a revolutionary product that will turn AppleTV from an hobby ( Steve Job quote ), to potentially one of the strongest revenue streams for the Cupertino company."

Apple TV is currently running a streamlined version of FrontRow, a viewing application to playback iTunes files on a home TV; what Kevin is forecasting is that the new AppleTV will instead run on a new version of iOS (currently running on iPods, iPads and iPhones ) and will introduce the concept of "product based Apps" instead of "iTunes centered playback".

This is a revolution because it will allow content producers the possibility to create their own Apps for streaming shows directly to consumers, bypassing the traditional local distributing companies. So in theory I can buy House MD episodes ( produced by Fox ) without having to subscribe to an OSN Network package. In all honesty, I don't want to pay for a bundle of channels I am not interested in. I want to decide how and where I watch my content (TV, my iPad, my computer) rather than it being restricted to my television and digital decoder.

Content producers will eventually prefer to pay a small cut to Apple (and directly interact with their audiences ) rather than selling entire seasons to local broadcasters and have them generating revenues through their advertisement. Apple is also intensely working on their iAd solution that will give Apps producers the opportunity to generate extra revenue through targeted advertisements.

Apple has already revolutionized the music industry and there is no doubt they are willing to do the same with the TV business. The main opponents to this new model are without question the local telecoms and broadcasters who are the "middle-men", "the one-stop-shops" of the industry. They have been surviving for years by simply redistributing (usually old) programs produced by principles. The only other player that can suffer from this innovation is BitTorrent, but then again, this is something that content producers will also see as a great opportunity.

Here's a simple analogy: Instead of going to Carrefour to buy groceries, you'll have a range of Apps, each specializing in its own specific product. These Apps will then give you the possibility to purchase products directly from them and have it delivered to your doorstep. It is really looking like we are moving towards an economy where big conglomerates that offered one point of sale for a vast array of products (in Carrefour I can buy onions and a big chainsaw, if I need one) to an economy where producers can go directly to consumer via an App and cut out the middle men. Mass distribution is becoming more and more accessible over the web (Just look at viral content); therefore, the added value will be in the expertise that niche providers have to offer.

The local media industry will then need to change accordingly and only FTA ( Free To Air ) broadcasters will survive either via government subsidizing ( Dubai Media Inc ) or via specific revenue generating models ( MBC ) that are still somehow sustainable because they target emerging markets with limited access to technology.

Pay per View will be strong for live events ( sport, the Oscars etc..) where the Apps model still can't work due to bandwidth limitations, but for all other content where the live component is irrelevant, consumers will prefer to purchase single programs rather than having to subscribe to a entire packages.

The App model allow independent producers to bypass the existing local media landscape and self publish themselves directly to consumer. As I type these letters, there are thousands of A list music artists that put their music on iTunes and don't pay a single cent to Virgin and other mass distribution outlets.

This is a fantastic opportunity for Middle Eastern based independent producers. No more knocking on the office doors of the VP Pf Acquisition as the only entry point.

Also this will push local telecoms to start looking into content production rather than acting as simple pipes to distribute data and I am sure Etisalat and Du are already looking into this avenue.

Some might argue why people would buy a product via an App when they can acquire it for free on file sharing platforms? In 2008, Kevin Kelly posted an entry on his blog listing eight things that are better than free, and one of them was "immediacy"; I totally agree with him.

Why we still see masses of people going to watch movies in theaters when they know that if they wait a little time they can download the movie for free (or buy it cheap via a DVD lady) ? It is not simply because we want to enjoy the experience on a big screen or share a night out with friends, it is because we want to be the first to see it so we can then share our opinion with our peers: we want to be the first to know, that's part of being human.

The same psychology will work with Apps : I am ready to pay a premium to be the first to see an episode of Dexter perfectly knowing that I will be able get it for free after two weeks. The proliferation of social media tools will also foster this behavior. I will not only be able to tell my close friends how the last Entourage episode went, but also share it with my entire extended (Facebook, Twitter) family.

So, locally who is against all this? The middle-men. Those who have centered their media business on monopolizing the distribution chain. Its time to reinvent themselves and start producing original, home made content. Either this or they will be destined to disappear while we, the consumer, become the winners of this revolution.

We will be able to buy what we like and enjoy the content on our terms.

So, Apps anyone?

2010-08-22T10:31:00.001+04:00

TEDxChangeDubai

10 years ago, in year 2000, the United Nations (UN) defined 8 major goals to reduce extreme poverty in the globe by year 2015. Those goals were named as: “Millennium Development Goals” (MDG). Which are as follows:

1 - Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2 - Achieve universal primary education
3 - Promote gender equality and empower women
4 - Reduce child mortality
5 - Improve maternal health
6 - Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7 - Ensure environmental sustainability
8 - Develop a global partnership for development

The United Nations defined for each of these goals measurable targets that are regularly visited and evaluated to ensure the progress. Those goals are essential for any nation’s sustainability & continuity. Placing those goals was very essential by the UN with so many nations being at risk because those goals were compromised at their end.

This year, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has a parallel vision to the UN’s MDG, decided to co-host with TED a TEDxChange event on the 10th anniversary of the MDG commandment. This TEDx will reflect on the MDG achievements that happened during the last 10 years and what still needs to be done. All of this will be under the slogan “The Future We Make”.

This event will be on 20th of September 2010. The speakers will be from across the community, thinkers & doers who are contributing with changes that reflect in a way or another on the MDG, and to the wellbeing of humanity.

This TEDx will be live streamed to all the TEDx partners across the globe. TEDxDubai will be partnering with TEDxChange and to shed some light on the people from Dubai’s community who are contributing in a way or another to the same causes.

Iman Ben Chaibah and Uzma Atcha will be co curating this edition of TEDxDubaiChange that will take place on September 20 in a venue still tbc.

To get involved you can contact directly Iman and Uzma at tedxdubaichange@gmail.com.

The Future we Make, September 20 2010

To register to attend TEDxDubaiChange please fill the form HERE

Please notice that only registered delegates will be able to attend

TEDxDubaiLive : TEDGlobal Live Webcast in Dubai

2010-07-08T15:00:00.010+04:00

I am off to TEDGlobal2010 in Oxford. It is the tip of the iceberg after the adventure of TEDxDubai.

After importing the TEDx brand to the UAE we succeeded in reverse engineering the process exporting two of our speakers to the main TED event: Jamil Abu Wardeh and Dr. Naif al Mutawa will be addressing the audience at TED Global and the will surely carry with them a little bit of TEDxDubai.

Here are the links to their talks at TEDxDubai2009 :

Dr.Naif al Mutawa at TEDxDubai2009

Jamil Abu Wardeh at TEDxDubai2009

Furthermore I will also have the opportunity of speaking at another TEDGlobal panel specifically tailored for all the TEDx licensees worldwide, and I will share with them the story about the passion, commitment and devotion of the UAE community making TEDxDubai2009 the global success that it has been.

TED is all about Ideas Worth Spreading and the entire TEDxDubai team is extremely proud to have contributed to spread ideas coming from the Middle East.

The TEDGlobal2010 edition runs under the the theme " And Now The Good News " and we are also very happy to share another Good News : TEDxDubaiLive , the live stream of the TEDGlobal Conference directly to Dubai.

TEDxDubaiLive is made possible by the kind support of AlAanTV, Dubai Media City and the collaboration of TEDxDubai and TEDxDuctac.

TEDxDubaiLive is a free event taking place in the Dubai Knowledge Village auditorium during the days of the TEDGlobal event.

To access the venue you will need to register here and bring with you an ID to access the auditorium.

The detailed program of the speakers is here

TEDxDubaiLive will run from the 13th to the 16th and after the registration you can come and go at your convenience.

Don't forget to register and again many thanks to ALAanTv, Dubai Media City and TEDxDucatc to make TEDxDubaiLive possible.

Please tweet the event under the #TEDxDubaiLive hashtag,

UNTOLD - NEW MEDIA | NEW STORIES

2010-06-29T10:26:00.004+04:00

On June the 30th we are celebrating the UAE Social Media Day at the Shelter in Dubai.

During this one day event UAE residents with different backgrounds will gather and explore how they are living this new revolutionary new age of communication.

There will be also a list of speakers that will address the audience on specific projects and activities they are passionate about.

On the back of my previous blog post about the UAE being a new frontier for creative content productions, I will be sharing my view with the audience and throw some ideas on the opportunities that might be worthwhile exploring.

UNTOLD is all about stories and audiences, and I am absolutely confident that we are living in a time and age where fresh and original content is highly in demand.

Can the UAE community cater for these demands? Is the Arabic mainstream media industry ready for all this? Where do we start?

If you work in media or just want to discuss your point of view please do come along; it will be a fun night , you will meet some of the most open minded people living in the UAE and you will also understand why we need to preserve our local superhero fish, the Hammour..

If you can't physically attend you can tune into the live stream here.

A big thanks to Mita and the team of volunteers for making this happen.

See you then.

Links
Meet up page
Google site
International Facebook page
UAE Facebook page

UAE : the new frontier of on line content creation

2010-04-24T17:46:00.009+04:00

A couple of weeks ago was announced that Google was working together with Sony, Logitech and other blue chips on a project under the name of GoogleTV. The new device will be powered by Android 1.5 and will "bring the Web into the living room through a new generation of televisions and set-top boxes"

Now this is by far not the first time that somebody is trying to bring the Web to the living room, but we also know that when Google decides to go towards one direction, they might be in beta for quite some time, but they will get there; furthermore as Google is the largest advertising agency on the planet there are no doubts that this move is both strategic and inevitable.

Bringing the Web on our TV sets is clearly a move generated not only by the efforts of generating more ad revenues but also a sign of the big failure of mainstream content producers and broadcasters that have "ignored " the new medium and its potentials.

Mainstream producers have experienced a constant loss of revenues due to the raise of file sharing and broadband's growth and instead of rethinking their business models they have focused their efforts in developing new controlled distribution models that could contain their losses. This is exactly the same mistake that the music industry made through the DRM ( Digital Rights Management ) model: it did not work because on a technology point of view there is always a " way around ", and once this way around is of public domain the copy protection model becomes immediately obsolete.

TV is also responsible for generating tremendously "lousy" content in a run to provide quantity and hardly never quality. The reduced costs of satellite bandwidth together with the developments of highly performing compression codecs have sparked the growth of hundreds of satellite channels; the quality of content in these channels is known to everybody with a satellite decoder.

Not long ago, the ownership of a Satellite TV channel was seen as a political and financial statement, but not anymore; the recent merge of Orbit and Showtime is another sign of the failure of the traditional model because the running costs surpassed largely the potential revenues. It is also my strong conviction that this failed model is not only a consequence of the reduced audience ( migrated on line) but also due of the failure in delivering quality content.

The Middle East has been constantly flooded with western content, mostly subtitled and poorly edited to fit the local cultural environments; media buyers never doubted that local markets will die to watch The Sopranos or Desperate Housewives, but also never hesitate in considering Dr Phil, Oprah or The Bold and the Beautiful as equally appealing products. Now quality series such as the Sopranos do have an international appeal due to its high standards in the story-line and production elements, but I still need to be convinced that local audiences are still craving for The Bold and the Beautiful.

The late nineties have also witnessed the spread of the formats where the " one size fits all " rule developed monsters such as the Middle Eastern version of Big Brother and similar decontextualized amenities. Although some of these productions were initially interesting on a social point of view they did not stand one chance compared to what I can access browsing YouTube in any given day.

Digital multi channel bouquets packages are dead, and if I subscribe to one of any given offer is simply because I am interested in "one" product, whatever that is, a sport event, a documentary or a cartoon channel whose content I cannot retrieve (still) online.

So legions of user are migrating to "random access" virtual places where content is available at any time, for free; mainstream is counter attacking by implementing 3D in any possible sauce, but this will only slow down the inevitable death of its model.

So if the future is online and Google wants to "bring the Web into the living room through a new generation of televisions and set-top boxes", what is going to happen in the Middle East where, according to many TV executives I know, " Change in this part of the globe happens very, very slowly.. "? Well, as a start, it is very entertaining to witness the "digital media convergence" plans of various Middle Eastern broadcasters that believe that attaching a Facebook page and a twitter feed to individual production will do the trick; number one it does not do the trick because digital convergence it's not at all that easy, and number two because the key word for these kind of operation is "conversation" and the only conversation Arab broadcasters are interested into are the ones with advertisers.

The game is much more complicated than this because listening is not a technique you can learn overnight and especially after decades of one way conversations such as "we know better what content you will like, we are the experts after all.. " it is even more tricky.

On the other hand I do strongly believe in a new media renaissance originated also from this part of the world; after decades of importing media goods as if they were commodities like cereals or pharmaceutical products the times has come to start exporting locally generated media contents online and towards the outer world. The internet is offering many opportunities, and couple this with the fast growing generation of young media savvy consumer - producers, it is not a blasphemy to predict that many interesting production will flourish from the Middle East and North Africa.

If we get a closer look at the internet penetration numbers ( Internet World Stats) in the Region we will understand that the UAE is at the top regardless the still costly internet access; furthermore the UAE has one of the strongest expat community in the Region making it the perfect ground for original stories to be generated and exported. If we look at the online social media scene in the UAE we will also be positively surprised by the numbers and depth of the conversations taking place every day; sooner than later one of these conversations will become a catalyst for a web series, a short movie, or a full feature film.

If mainstream media in the Region will still perceive all this simply as user generated content, produced by amateurs for amateurs without embracing the change, it will result into another nail in their coffin.

The UAE as the new frontier for on line content creation? Yes, why not? The signs are all there.

Above, Fujairah hills.

A small step for Apple, a giant leap for mankind.

2010-01-19T12:12:00.006+04:00

I have a strong feeling that after Jan 27 2010 nothing will be the same anymore.

Can't really express why I do believe so so strongly, but I have no shame in forecasting that the advent of the Apple tablet will revolutionize the way we access contents, forever.

I am also very confident that this shift will be much more impactful than the Gutenberg revolution as it will involve also a big behavural change not only on the producer's side, but most of all from the side of the consumers.

If we look back to the introduction of the iPod in 2001 we will remember that the novelty of carrying all your music library in our pocket was seen as a tremendous improvement in the music and audio usablity, but nobody did predict that it would have also changed the entire music industry. Of course the revolution was caused by combining of the spreading of file sharing with the introduction, for publishers, of a brand new outlet/competitor such as iTunes.

The iPod and iTunes have set new standards to wich every musician, studio owner, record label , music executive and shop owners had to cope with. Many jobs were lost, multimillion contracts vanished and the only really beneficiary of all this ( apart from Apple ) was us, the consumer; only considering the freedom of buying one single song instead of the whole album is a clear sign of this.

CD will also vanish from shelves, and music will be purchased and stored directly on the cloud in order for us to also have the extra freedom not carry our personal ipod and laptop around the world. All we will will need is an internet connection and an interface to access our storage.

Now let's jump ahead to January 27 and let's pretend that Steve Jobs really pulls off the tablet, and that device will become the iPod and iTunes of publishing ; can you see the shift it will cause?

Let's wear the shoes of the content producers:

Book Writers - They will be able to publish their titles on the tablet . Hardcopy will be sold in the shops, but I have a feeling that soon enough if you will be seen carry a hardcopy book in the streets of NY you will be steared at the same way as smokers are perceived now.

Also as an author, I will be able to publish the book directly on the tablet in all the possible language version. If I want to add a latest chapter I will be able to do so without going to re print.

Magazine Publishers - Sport illustrated tablet edition will have international and local news ( dected by the internal GPS feature . I will be able to subscribe to the magazine and store it on the cloud in order to retrieve it ten years from now without having to search in my cellar. The E-Copy will also embed audio and video.

Advertisers- Their will be able to place multimedia location based ads ; I will be reading my E version of teh National sitting on a JBR bench, and if I am hungry the tablet will display all the nearby restaurants, I will be able to browse the menus, compare the prices and make my decision.

Now let's wear the shoes of the end user:

I will be able to carry my entire music library, books library, magazine library office documents etc, on a 10" screen device. I can copy paste and send links with a swipe of my finger, I will be able to do everything, I mean everything as long as that I have an internet connection. Live video chats, watching a movie, buy a song, e banking etc; the entire digital experience.

There will be no looking back, it will be the change of an era.

Who loses and who wins in this shift?

The consumer will win because more options will be available, many more options.

The media movers will lose. For media movers I intend all those entities that don't create but only buy, sell, distribute content ( Record Companies, retailers etc,)

We are going toward an age where creativity only matters, and we will be able to deliver our "content " autonomously without having to give a cut to the "Middle Man" ( Dubai , ouch ! ..)

In an enviroinment like this the pure talent and the innovators will emerge due to the natural selection that the internet has get us used to; the rest will slowly vanish.

And all this, to my belief will commence on October 27 2010 : A small step for Apple..

A Wave in the Cloud

2009-05-29T10:27:00.004+04:00

Google Wave , conventional emailing and application based communication is dead, from today. A Wave in the Cloud is what we need.. Now this gets very interesting because a browser is all we need ( on the laptop , on the phone , etc ).

The timeline function in Waves is awesome and the common excuse" I did not receive your mail, maybe it was filtered by the spam firewall.." is gone forever.

Check the video, it is definetelly showing the way we are going to communicate in a couple of years time.

Illuminato

2009-05-23T22:07:00.003+04:00

Vatican City decided to embrace the new technologies to spread the Word.

So, condoms are still questionable and still in beta testing mode, but social media wow, this is something good for the people, and right here right now.

Vatican have a YouTube channel hosting among the most HD'sh moving pictures I ever seen on the platform.

Of course comments, voting and interaction is disabled but that is understandable as they are new to the medium ; the "social" add on will be included shortly, maybe within the next couple of hundreds years.

Now we are all waiting for the Twitter account.

Well done, Galileo would be very proud.

On the floor, rather than inside..

2009-05-21T01:56:00.001+04:00

40 years already, amazing.

We never stop learning

2009-05-18T22:52:00.004+04:00

Giorgio Ungania, Apple Distinguished Educator Middle East and Head of Commercial Services for SAE International introduces the The Digital Classroom Program

"Step into the future of education and learn how to create cutting edge lessons for your students"

This 4 day workshop provides educators with the skills and knowledge to develop engaging student-focused effective projects using digital resources.

Educators will work collaboratively to develop an original project that incorporates pictures, audio, video and text.

At the end of the course participants will be given an SAE internationally recognized certificate.

The New Skill Sets

Upgrade your teaching skill-set to modern standards and master the new tools to communicate and educate This training program helps teachers in fully integrate digital technologies into their classes.
The Basics of the New Language

The Digital Teaching Academy training program provides teachers with foundational technology skills and high quality integration strategies to become confident an comfortable with the technology in their classrooms.

Now running in Dubai but soon in other SAE Institutes arounf the world.

For more information go to http://www.sae-dubai.com/academy

On Line Migration

2009-05-18T10:51:00.003+04:00

Ok, we need to move all on line, documents, files, pictures etc.. Our entire life needs to find a time and place in the cloud. My company is he largest creative technology training educator in the world, so we need both to give the example and lead the way...
So here we go; we are starting with a series of podcast teasers that have the mission of getting the online community interested in our products.

This one is an introduction to audio EQ by our head of audio Pete.

Enjoy

SAE Imagine 2009

2009-03-17T18:05:00.002+04:00

SAE Imagine 2009 By Giorgio Ungania
View in HD Download 720p Version Visit Giorgio Ungania's ExposureRoom Videos Page

2008-08-28T14:51:00.005+04:00

Here is a test I am doing for my presentation of the MBC2 Two Minute Movies competition starting in a month time. Music is temp. I am just playing around at this stage. This clip is entirely produced and rendered on Motion3

TMM 08 bumper test By Giorgio Ungania
View in HD Download 576p Version Visit Giorgio Ungania's ExposureRoom Videos Page

2008-08-20T11:35:00.003+04:00

A segment from a show on Dubai One TV on the Digital DJ Curse offered at SAE Dubai

Down Under

2008-07-23T06:44:00.003+04:00

On my way to Byron Bay. Another Shift seminar, this time on the Gold Coast.

The Spotlight effect - Mouspose'

2008-07-15T11:02:00.003+04:00

I have been contacted by many readers asking how I achieved the " Spotlight cursor " effect in my tutorials. The app is Mousepose'and is produced by Boinx.

I will produce another tutorial very soon on how to utilize Mouspose to produce tutorials and walk troughs.

Stay tuned

50

2008-07-08T23:15:00.002+04:00

Hasseblad announced the release of the first 50 megapixel camera in the world !

Can't wait to put my hands on and check out the file size of the shots ( RAW).

Maybe I will need to put 8 gigs of RAM on my eight cores if I want to play around with the sliders of the RAW camera support plug in..

What Technology Wants ?

2008-07-06T19:16:00.002+04:00

A stunning speech by Kevin Kelly, a true inspiring figure.

A business that can't go wrong

2008-07-06T15:51:00.003+04:00

For the first time in many years I flew with Alitalia, Italy's national carrier. My country welcomes 36.5 million tourists every year, and Italy is the the most visited country in the world.
Despite these data, Alitalia is broke, and Italian's government is trying to put cash in the business in order to avoid bankruptcy. This is against the European Community regulations as local governments cannot fund enterprises like Alitalia , which needs to be considered as a private business.
The flight I was on was half full ( when i travel Emirates it's an headache even to find business class seats). The average age was of flight attendants was 40, food was average and there was no on flight entertainment.

Alitalia needs to be declared broke, the business needs to be reinvented, and I don t see how it can go wrong ( 36.5 million visitors a year)

In Rome still no AC/DC

2008-06-29T22:30:00.000+04:00

In Italy, AC is not as diffuse as in Rome, and I am heavily suffering this. I am sweating like a donkey and I feel really uncomfortable.
We are living in year 2008 DC, but AC is still to come , in Rome.

Apple Motion 3 - Audio Behaviors

2008-06-25T11:52:00.001+04:00

Got many readers asking me about the Pink commercial production, especially how to use Audio Behaviors within Apple Motion 3.

I put together a very simple tutorial on how to get you started using audio behaviors, and I hope this will get you started using this technology. The old time of manual keyframing is gone !

The Blogger video encoder it is not really top quality, so I use ExposureRoom to upload content.

ExposureRoom is truly amazing website where professionals can share HD material without quality compromise.

Apple Motion 3 Tutorial - Audio Behaviors By Giorgio Ungania
View in HD Download 1024p Version Visit Giorgio Ungania's ExposureRoom Videos Page

Apple Motion 3 gets Pink!

2008-06-22T21:54:00.000+04:00

Some months ago Pink came for the first time to the Middle East and preformed one concert in Dubai.

At SAE Dubai we also run a commercial division and we offer our services for clients interested in our expertise. In this specific case we have been asked by our good friends at Mirage Promotions , ( now Live Nation Middle East ), to produce a TVC to promote the concert on TV and Cinemas across the Region.

As source material we had nothing but the commercial DVD of her concert, which we got from the local Virgin Megastore. The official Digibeta tape was late on delivery and we had to release the clip asap.

Having considered that the promo had to run on big cinema theatre screens , I was a little bit concerned about using the ripped footage from the DVD as all the digital compression will show up pretty bluntly. So I decided to use the footage as simple background and to use a lot of motion graphics to " mask "it.

I used entirely Apple Motion , and created a series of animations that run all across the promotion. To sync the graphic movement with the music groove I intensely used the audio behavior feature , which allows you to analyze the rhythm of a song and create automatic keyframes that you can then use to trigger any given parameter.

If I had to do it manual keyframes matching the beats , it would have took ages!

In the commercial particles emitters are generating the flying objects creating continuos move across the screen ( distracting the eye from the background...)

The only non Apple tool utilized, is the Idustrial Revolution Volumetrix plug in to highlight the text on the end page.

We edited the music to the desired length and I could not resist in adding some guitar parts especially to reinforce the ending part.

Keynote tip #2 - look the audience in the eyes and go infrared!

2008-06-22T11:52:00.000+04:00

There is one thing that really turn a Keynote presentation in a success, and that is being able to talk directly to the audience while the slide is projected in the background. In a few word the trick is to know your presentation by heart and never turn your back to the audience while presenting.

I have been attending many presentations where the speaker was looking at the text on he slide and reading it loud.

This is non sense because the content of the slide is already there, and there is no need to repeat it twice. In my presentations I am always re enforcing the message already present on the slide using alternative information, and while I am doing so I am always facing the audience to try to see if there is any message that is not understood properly.

Of course I always have the preview of the current and next slide on my laptop screen so I always know what is projected on the main screen.

In my presentations I am always walking around , when possible. as this makes me more connected to the people listening to me.

Because of this I never use the manual slide advance ( using the space bar on the keyboard ) because I always hovering around.

The Apple remote control shipped with all the machines is not really my cup of tea as it requires that you are pretty close to the machine, when you are operating it.

It is cool to use it with Front Row but it really sucks if you are more than 4 meters away ; furthermore the remote is very very directional , so you need really to point at your laptop to make it work.

I have been using so far the Genius Wireless Pointer and I am extremely happy with it. I can go as far as 10 meters away from the laptop and the remote will always trig the desired command. The unit sports programmable keys so you can even use it in conjunction with other apps I usually run together with Keynote, such as Mouspose'.

The unit comes with an USB Infrared receiver key that you need to plug in your laptop to make the unit work.

One final tip, if you use the Genius Wireless Pointer , always remove the batteries when you are not using it, as the device does not have an on off led and sometimes you might leave it on unintentionally.

Amman wake up

2008-06-20T10:26:00.000+04:00

Just woke up in Amman. Sunny day and crystal visibility ( unlike Dubai). This is the view from my hotel room. Breakfast and then straight to SAE Amman. My keynote starts at 3.

The Importance of the “Sort by Date” command

2008-06-19T13:58:00.000+04:00

An overview on the evolution of post-production environments

Over the years, with the advent of hard disk-based post-production tools, the average distance covered by a conventional tape has fallen dramatically. Only a few years ago a tape would move from edit to graphics to sound and back to edit again.

The material would be stored onto the master tape and producers could walk down the facilities corridors knowing that the original copy of their masterpiece would be safely tucked underneath their armpit.

Now that all the resources are shared on hard disk raids, and that different facilities can access these raids, new problems are rising.

On one hand, we are entering a magic world where the time wasted shuttling through tapes is zero. On the other, we are trapped in an inferno whereby multiple versions of the same product are spread all over the network.

Let’s face it, the chances of simultaneous edits of a single project in edit, graphics and sound considerably reduces costs, and we all know that money, in post-production, is a key issue.

For example, take a look at the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the filming and production of which took place at the same time. Accomplishing such a huge task would have been impossible had it not been for the possibility of sharing the footage across multiple platforms at the same time. For the first time ever, a film director could preview CG effects and do composite movie tests while he was shooting the second episode, making it a turning point in the movie industry.

I know that the amount of post-production data in the Lord of the Rings was enormous, but we can downscale the scenario to a conventional TV company.

As an example, let’s look at the production of a generic promo for a TV program. The producer logs the source tapes and creates an EDL for the video editor. While the editor loads the material into the editing system, the producer goes to the graphics department and asks his graphics designer to come up with ideas for some text effects.

As the graphics designer sips his coffee thinking of the options, the producer goes to the sound department and explains his concept to the sound engineer and leaves 2/3 CD from which to grab some music.

At this point three different facilities are operating at the same time and on the same project with no visual references. So far so good.

What do we have 24 hours later?

The video editor has cut a 45-second promo and has saved the rendered file labeled “promo1.0” on the shared drives. The graphics designers have imported the file in their compositing system and have started rendering a couple of text effects. Now what should the graphic designer do? Save the rendered effects previously composed on the footage and call it, say “promo 1.1”, or save the file with the alpha key so that the editor can composite the effect into his system?

Just remember that today’s video editing systems are much more powerful than in the past. Some system features such as color correction, keying and tracking are really competing with traditional Graphics systems such as After effects or Smoke.

Now back to our promotion. The sound department has produced the 1-minute “promo music1”, requested by the producer basing it on the “promo1.0” low -res video from the shared drives. As it is being sent across the network, the producer pops into the room and with a smile announces: “Bad news guys, we don’t have the rights to use some of the footage so I have to re-cut the promo from 45 seconds to 30. Oh and by the way, the beats per minute in music should increase to fill that gap…

What we have now is the video version “promo1.1” and audio version “promo music 2” and possibly a “promo 1.2 “file from graphics.

After 2/3 days of work the number of files increases exponentially and just like that, we will find our shared drives and the local machines storage packed with multiple versions of the same projects.

At this point there is a computer command that has become as essential as the “copy paste” function and that is the “sort by date” function.

It is exactly like spotting the last thing on a conventional tape, but is much quicker… Regardless of the label or the file type format, the “sort by date” is the only tool that can show the most recent files produced and indicate which ones can be deleted.

Unfortunately not all the technology allows simultaneous editing on the same physical file, so for the time being we will be forced to copy files from and onto the shared storage.

The above “promo 1.0” is of course an example and all producers can overcome these file-conflict issues. At the same time drive-based file management is essential for big post-production facilities or multi channel TV stations.

Logic Studio + Apogee WOW

2008-06-19T12:56:00.000+04:00

Hi there, for all you audio geeks, producers, composers, sound designers etc.. we are hosting a workshop at SAE Dubai showcasing both Logic and the latest solutions from Apogee.

Apogee manufactures among the best A-D / D-A converters on the planet.

I will be personally demoing Logic and we will have fun making lots of noise with guitars, keyboards, virtual synts and so on.

So , if you happen to be in the Dubai area Tuesday June 24 at 14.00, call SAE Dubai at +971 4361 6173 and reserve a seat.

See ya there

Marc Shaiman is a genius.

2008-06-19T12:25:00.000+04:00

The other day I was driving back from work and I popped in my iPod and enabled the shuffle option. My iPod is stacked with thousands of songs including my son's playlists.

A tune started playing and could not recognize it immediately as it was part of Sky's playlist; I was stunned with the quality of the arrangements, sounds and vibe; checked the song name and it was a track from the movie " Hairspray" , which I saw with him on DVD a while ago.

I listened to all the tracks ( Dubai traffic at 6 is a mayhem ) and I was even more impressed. The sound was amazing, gtr riffs grooving , but most of all the quality of the vocal arrangements ( lead and backing ) is unbelievable.

Went home and googled the cd and I got to know that the guy behind the console was the same person that originally scored the brodway musical in 2002 : Marc Shaiman.

This guy is a true legend and you can get to know more about him here .

I highly suggest anybody interested in R'B to buy the cd , pump it up , and experience the true essence of the 60's.

Musically it can't getter better than this.

Firefox 3 - World record attempt

2008-06-18T11:05:00.000+04:00

Firefox 3 is released today. They are trying to break the record of the highest number of downloads in a day. The browser is very stable and cross platforms.

So, what are you waiting for? It is 16 meg only.

Go, hunt the fox here !

Keynote Tip # 1

2008-06-17T17:04:00.001+04:00

So, Keynote is probably my favorite app EVER. I do pretty much everything with it and the quality of the rendering is simply stunning. Unfortunately due to all the win pcs out there not many people use Keynote, and this is why we are obliged to experience those crappy , awful , excruciating powerpoint presentations. Many people asked me advice on Keynote and I thought about doing a series of tips tutorials on how to exploit Keynote features at its best.

Here is the first tip about using shapes to mask images.
Hope you find it useful.

( apologies for the crapy quality o the microphone but my gold plated Neuman valve u47 is in repairing....)

Keynote Tip # 1 - Masking with Shapes By Giorgio Ungania
View in HD Download 576p Version Visit Giorgio Ungania's ExposureRoom Videos Page

Two Fingers Click

2008-06-17T10:36:00.000+04:00

It is incredible how many mac users don 't know this feature on their laptops : Apple is well renown to be a leading innovator, but there are two things that they just can't make straight: iPhone earphones and mouse.

Gazillion of users have always been struggling with the lack of secondary button of the apple default mouse , until the mighty mouse was released.

Still users have problems accessing the secondary button while they are on the road using the trackpad instead of the mouse.

Now, if you spent the last few years using Ctrl-Click and cursing Cupertino for that, check this video.

Broadcast Yourself, Live

2008-06-16T13:16:00.000+04:00

Ok, YouTube changed the rues of the game ; aside intellectual property issues, the app. opened new horizons in media production and distribution. Of course there is the limitation of the frame size and internet connection bandwidth availability but now YouTube is an institution, same as brands like Toyota, Fender or KFC.

My son spends more time on Youtube than conventional mediums like TV or Dvd ( he is only 8 year old ) .

But, to be a real competitor of traditional media , YouTube misses a factor that makes programs even more appealing: live broadcasting. Live is what makes contents appealing to the audience ; it is better to watch something live, to be the first in line, rather than watching the content recorded.

Many companies tried to come up with a spiced up version of the YouTube model, but who made it big time is Stickam. You simply need to sign up and you are ready to go live on the web through your webcam. This is the real beginning of the end for traditional media. Just imagine independent producers creating original content to be distributed live over the net. No satellite fees, no on air advertisements, only web virus marketing and you are ready to become a star.

Some people produce really amazing programming, like my idol Leo Laporte at Twit TV that uses video switchers and multicams. He makes some money through advertisements ( embedded) but he does it because he understands that this is the future and he believes 100% that old media is getting another nail in its coffin.

There is no going back, try Stickam, put your program schedule as an XML and send me a link. I will put it into iCal and get my popcorns ready for your show.

Dead Strip - Dead Hope -iPhonePro

2008-06-16T09:07:00.000+04:00

Ok, some time ago I was given an Iphone as a gift; although I am leaving in a "No Iphone yet ,area" I did the whole lock unlocking jailing thing and I got it fully functional. The user experience was amazing , and even though I never get version 1.0 of anything, the device was stunning and working like a breeze.

Of course the address-calendar syncing features is the most important to me, and the phone make it happen. Suddenly though, after a month or so, I got one of the most deadly disease you can get on the iPhone : THE DEAD STRIP .

The dead strip is a known issue that affects the very first generation of Iphone and what it does is simply "burns" a portion of the touch screen making the access to that area not working. Although there is a community in the cloud trying tricks to fix the bug there is no way of getting your device to initial status. The only repairing possible is the replacement of the touch screen, that of course it is not possible"yet" in this part of the world.

While I am waiting for the iPhone 2.0 to be officially launched in this area so I can fix my 1.0 one, I created a photoshop version of my ideal iPhone. Installed are the apps I cannot leave without...

I don't drink tea I drink coffee my dear...

2008-06-15T10:00:00.000+04:00

After a long time my dearest friend and my son's godfather Eugenio Cappuccio finally made it to Dubai. I know Eugenio since the times at Orbit, where he was among the few guys launching Music Now and I was the dude behind the mixing console. Eugenio is an amazing feature film director , and started getting in the biz as first assistant director to Italian Maestro Federico Fellini .

We spent 10 days together exploring Dubai and its desert and we had a hell of a time. There are many things here in Dubai that can inspire a visionary writer director like him and I am sure that sooner or later we will see these inspiration in one of his features. Although the temperature is getting pretty tough over here now , we really enjoyed ourselves outdoors, on the beach and on the famous Ramzi's boat ( Ramzi is a good friend of mine with very good taste for modern art and speedboats). Also I took the chance to have Eugenio chairing a Q&A session with SAE Dubai film students and it went very well indeed. For more info on Eugenio check out his ( web1.0...) site here.

Missing Link

2008-06-14T12:51:00.000+04:00

Another old article that I did for DigitalStudio; it is one year old but it is still stand the time on what I think about AppleTV.

During the last Macworld exhibition in San Francisco all the spotlights where pointed at the long awaited iPhone, a product that Apple fans have been waiting for years. Two other announcements were made but far for being not as revolutionary as the new mobile phone device : the official launch of AppleTV and the change of the company branding from Apple Computers to Apple inc. This latest announcement might sound as a simple change of name but instead it is a true statement from the company from Cupertino.

Apple intention is from now on to enter the consumer electronics market as a key player; even though the personal computer business will remain one of their core businesses, Apple mission is to enter in everybody's home offering easy to use digital entertainment hardware and software solutions. Apple as already shaken the music industry with the introduction of its iTunes Music store and iPod music players, and now through the AppleTV device is planning to do the same with the video entertainment business.
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Let’s take a closer look at the technical specifications of this new Apple product : the body is a parallelogram 197 by 197 mm with an height of less than 3 cm. It weights around 1 Kg ( including the built in power supply unit ) making the device very easy to fit in any home theatre system rack. It is equipped with an Intel processor and a 40 gigabyte hard disk that can store up to 50 hours of TV contents, 9000 mp3 files and 25.000 pictures.

The unit comes with a remote controller similar to the one shipped with as the latest iMac computers. Other than the device and the remote control the only other item present in the packaging is the power lead cable and the instruction manual. On the front side of AppleTv there is only a led showing the status of the unit. On the back side are placed all the in and out connectors and the power plug. Component video and analog audio ports can be utilized if the TV system connected is not one of the latest models sporting an HDMI port. Also a 802.11n wireless networking, an ethernet port , optical audio and and a USB 2 complete the i/o bus of AppleTV.

In an ideal situation the connection through HDMI is preferable as it will ensure the highest quality of audio-video transfer. HDMI , or High Definition Multimedia Interface its a new standard that allows the transfer of uncompressed video streams and multichannel digital audio on a single cable. HDMI incorporates also digital right management technology control and therefore ideal to work together with the iTunes Store DRM.

On the pictures side AppleTV supports H.264, MPEG-4 video formats up to 720p definition. When connected to a Mac or PC, the AppleTV will show up in iTunes just like an iPod, allowing users to sync music. movies and television shows to its internal hard drive.

This product , apart from the wireless 802.11n protocol, is not a complete novelty in the consumer electronics market. The PC industry has been searching for a solution that connects the PC to the television for years. Early attempts based around Microsoft's Windows Media Center Extender program have received not a huge success due to how complicated it was to set up the system. A following attempt with the Xbox360 was more successful. Microsoft Xbox360 has been made capable of downloading and playback video contents from the internet and Microsoft announced at the CES Exhibition in Las Vegas that AT&T will start shipping Xbox360 instead of cable set top units for their services ; so what does differentiate AppleTV from all the other competitors? Well number one is the user interface, simple and intuitive as all Apple products, and then the high speed wireless capabilities. Quoting Creative Strategy analyst Tim Balarin “ Apple has the chance to revolutionize the PC-TV connection simply through a more friendly user interface. This is the simplest design I've seen," he said.

The Apple TV is entirely controlled by a small white remote control with few buttons” Through AppleTv the digital livingroom is now complete making digital lifestyle a tangible reality. The GUI ( graphic user interface ) is an updated version of Front Row, the media management software already present on the latest Macintosh computers. Through Front Row users can access all the media stored in the internal drive. Also there is the option of playing back contents directly from the PC without physically transfer them to the AppleTV internal drive. Everything appearing on the computer’s iTunes library can be played on the home TV system.

One of the most evident limitations of this system is that if a content is not appearing on the iTunes then it cannot be played on the home TV ; this forces users to convert their own made movies into iTunes video format .m4v. Once again this emphasizes how strongly Apple believes that iTunes is the real king of the ring and that the two billion songs purchased through the iTunes Store are proving them right. In this release of AppleTV there are some missing features that hopefully Apple will implement in future versions : a dvd player and DVR capabilities. The unit was never meant to replace completely all the components in a home TV system but the adding of a dvd player and the opportunity to record feeds from digital receivers would have increase the popularity of AppleTV among non Mac users.

AppleTV can internally store material syncing up with one single computer and can receive “live” streams from a maximum of 5 other computers. This opens the digital livingroom not only to its residents but also to occasional visitors equipped with laptops... The launch of AppleTV is opening a new highways for contents creators and TV networks. Even before the launch of AppleTV various TV shows and movies were purchasable via iTunes Store but consumers were forced to enjoy the downloads either on their video iPod or on their home PCs. Now that they can stream their content directly on their large home TV it is out of the question that downloads via iTunes Store will not increase dramatically.

One big add on that Apple should look into and implement soon is a renting content subscription system ; with the current version of iTunes Store it is only possible to purchase digital downloads and play them on authorized devices; in the future customers should be able to “rent” specific contents without owning their full rights , same as when you rent a DVD from a video renting store. Customers would pay a fee to own a number of TV shows and movies per month. When the customer is satisfied with the viewing of the movie or TV show episode they will delete the file from the AppleTV drive allowing them to download another show. Switching on AppleTV will be like having a TV channel that delivers requested contents accessible anytime during the day .

One subscriber might have their subscription tailored for specific SitComs or Tv Series and another might prefer horror movies or the Star Trek saga. Channels will be exactly as podcasts subscriptions that update automatically their contents at a given price. It is clear that these new capabilities on the iTunes Store will not be implemented in the very near future as Hollywood majors and TV networks are still negotiating with Apple the distribution of their products through iTunes; at the last Macworld it has been announced that Paramount Pictures has joined Pixar and Disney in making some of their movie catalogue available on iTunes Store.

Once Apple will gain a critical mass of products available, then all the rest of the content producers will follow on their digital distribution model. Another key issue will be the availability of iTunes Stores everywhere in the world. Now the service is available only in 22 countries , but the moment it will be made available in the Middle East it will change the way we can enjoy media in this part of the world. For the time being AppleTV , at 299 U$ retail price , is a very practical solution to enjoy PC contents on a big screen, with no wires and a simple 6 buttons remote control.

Euro 2008 and Lebanon

2008-06-09T11:57:00.000+04:00

Here we go, tonight my team, Italy, will start the adventure in Euro 2008. We playing against Holland. Of course we have a few chances to win the cup as we are already world champions, and it never happened that World Camps win the following Euro. It is fun to watch international matches in Dubai as there is a mixed crowd and apart from the Brits nobody takes wins and losses to seriously. On my side, I am confident as we don't have Totti who is well renown to be absolutely useless in matches that are very important. I will watch the match with Martin, my dutch friend, and some ore mixed crowd. The very very funny thing is that in Dubai you have more Lebanese sporting the Italian T-shirt than the real Italians. Problem is I can't wear a Lebanese T-shirt as they don t have a national team...

Shif Jwin

2008-06-05T14:48:00.000+04:00

This morning I delivered my keynote speech " Shift " to a mixed audience coming from the Dubai Press Club and Jwin, our Dubai based PR agency. The crowd was alive and kicking and we had a really good time during the hour and a half session. Shift is happening in any aspect of our lives and this PR crowd was particularly interested in the Avatar phenomenon and how companies like Oddcast are providing enterprises with very innovative avatar based solutions.

Connessioni - Connections

2008-06-04T11:08:00.001+04:00

Among the many things i am involved with , I am also the proud editor in-chief of Connessioni, the first Italian mag completely dedicated to domotics and home automatons. As you all know there are many ways now to integrate informatics in our day by day life, and the place where we spend most of our lives is now becoming the playground for many hi tech solutions that can make our in door experience more entertaining.

The publication addresses all the issues of converging media and offers a one stop shop for anybody looking to get more information on the status of the industrial digital lifestyle in Italy and worldwide.

We are planning to launch soon an international edition in English so stay tuned for more info and regularly check Conessioni to improve your Italian....

Radiology in the digital age

2008-06-02T12:59:00.000+04:00

The other day I was chewing on my sandwich and I crack a tooth in half; no pain but it shocked me because it was a clear sign of my seniority advancing. Went to the dentist, got a scan, and now I am waiting to get an implant. As you all know dentists are pretty damn expensive and after I got a quotation here in Dubai I asked for a copy of the scan that was emailed to me. I forwarded the mail to a relative f mine who is in Italy and is also a dentist.

Of course I will get the job done in Italy as they will give me a super friendly price, but this event reminded me something that my favorite podcaster Leo Laporte once told us in one of his shows : in the U.S. radiologists are going through tough times as many medical enterprises are now outsourcing the interpretations of xray scans to emerging countries like India. So they charge the client with the cost of the scan but they prefer to pay less somebody else to give a diagnosis of the treatments and so on. Here is another example on how jobs that are based on interpretation of data are more and more outsourced to less expensive areas of the world. Electronic version of documents can now be easily shared over the internet and are changing so many business models, including radiology. Fascinating.

For the record, here is the scan of my poor gone tooth.

Who are you listening to ?

2008-06-01T14:55:00.001+04:00

Audible is a life saver. You can purchase and download to your audio player books, articles, lessons; there are around 500.000 titles to choose among. I have a subscription and I buy one tile a month. Now instead to listening to boring radio-shows and crappy ads I listen to books while I am stuck in Dubai traffic; amazing, now between podcasts and audiobooks my ipod is becoming one of my most precious belongings. Now I am listening to The Pillars of the earth by Ken Follett. The book is 974 pages long, the audiobook 9 hours of mp3 files. Plus you get to save some trees in the Amazon. Audible

iBroadcasting ?

2008-05-31T18:29:00.000+04:00

Here is a 6 month old article I wrote for DigitalStudio Magazine . Still stands the time, I guess..

iBroadcasting ?

The future of digital content distribution.

According to Wikipedia a podcast is a “ multimedia file distributed over the internet for playback on mobile devices and personal computers”.

Podcast and Podcasting are the new hype in the media industry as more and more professionals are getting the impression that a huge revolution is just behind the door. Podcasting offers production professionals an exciting new venue to showcase their talents with a minimal investment. Podcasting started around 2003 when web radios realized that they could use mp3 technology to store their programs on a servers and give listeners the opportunity to reach the contents “on demand” trough streaming , or store the contents on their own Pc.

This was a true revolution as audiences could access an enormous amount of programming on demand , regardless their geographical position and time zone ; all it was needed was an internet connection,a web browser and and a software mp3 player.

A subsequent improvement has been the development of RSS technology that enabled users to get automatically updated to the latest podcast releases and automatically download the shows. Broadcasters understood immediately the huge potential of podcasting technology integration to their offer ; The BBC, that was already offering live streaming of most of its radio programs, started riding the new technology and produced downloadable podcasts of some of their most popular shows.

The real deal in podcasting technology is its portability ; contents can be enjoyed anywhere through portable media players. This is a massive change as audiences are not physically linked anymore to a conventional media carrier such as Tv , radio or the internet, but can access programming at their convenience as long as the content is stored in their media players.

Hardware manufacturers as well are riding the wave releasing all sorts of portable media players in any size, color and shape. Apple, through its ipod collection has started the trend; the ipod business is now responsible for the 45% of the latest quarterly total revenue of Apple Computers ; we are talking about 212 million U$ in four months. Furthermore Apple is the leading MP3 distributor with a share of 75% in the total US market. These numbers are impressive but the key to the success of the Ipod operation is not the fancy design and style of the players but the seamless integration with the iTunes Store. Started as a file management application for the ipod iTunes is now the leading platform for licensed digital media distribution. The introduction of video support in 2005 opened up a freeway for content producer to deliver programming and indeed created new markets.

Other manufacturers are not sitting on the bench and they are all looking into producing the ultimate ipod killer : Microsoft is launching its Zune player with built in wireless capabilities and radio this december; the equivalent of iTunes will be a site labeled Marketplace but no further details are revealed at this stage. Creative Technology is producing a wide range of mp3 and video players connected to their Zencast media manager ; it is not possible to purchase audio or video but users can subscribe to a vast free blogging and podcasting community service. Sony, the leading portable music company in the eighties has recently re launched its walkman line with a range of mp3 players; authorized music purchasing is linked to the “Sony Connect” web site that,same as ITunes, is available in many countries but is still far to be accessible worldwide.Many other manufacturers produce their own range of mp3 players but they are all missing the real thing, a distribution manager popular like iTunes.

Media portability is attracting content producers even more than hardware and software manufacturers. The mp3 technology has completely reshaped the music industry during the past 10 years.

The development of peer to peer technology and the file sharing phenomenon impacted heavily on the music Majors ; in 1998 the total profit was of 3 billion U$, now the numbers are less than the half. Reluctant to lose their usual cuts on CD profit, music majors battled in all the possible way the peer to peer technology, but even if they managed to shut down Napster they could not stop the file sharing evolution. They finally realized that it was a lost battle and start looking into digital right management solutions to protect their assets.

The online music retailer market is divided among five major players , iTunes e eMusic Real Rhapsody Napster and MSN music. Each company employes a DRM ( digital rights management) system to manage their on line contents : iTunes sells single tracks at 99 cents and allows users to burn the track on an unlimited number of CDs and transfer to any iPod connected to the iTunes application. The restriction is that it is possible to copy playlists only seven times and that the track can play the track on only five computers ; bottom line is that user do not “own” the song but buy the rights to access it.Napster on the other side utilizes a subscription based approach to DRM alongside permanent purchases. Users of the subscription service can download and stream an unlimited amount of music encoded to Windows Media Audio (WMA) while subscribed to the service. But as soon as the user misses a payment the service renders all music downloaded unusable. Napster also charges users who wish to use the music on their portable device an additional $5 per month. Furthermore, Napster requires users to pay an additional $.99 per each track to burn a track to CD or to listen to the track after the subscription expires. Although iTunes is the undisputed leader it is interesting to know that eMusic, the second player on the chart, gives to the end user 100% ownership of the downloaded tracks.

Apple has recently released video support in their Ipod line and started selling TV shows and movies through the ITunes store.This is the true beginning of the digital media content distribution revolution as Hollywood based production companies realized the potential of selling products digitally using the internet ; only a few big names have joined Apple’s solution so far, such as Disney , MTV and Fox, but the same dynamic took place in the music industry with audio downloads : a few companies started joining iTunes in the very beginning and then all the rest joined the platform following the huge success of the business model. The quality of video downloads is far to be DVD standard, the price is really not that appealing and the download timings can vary a lot according to the internet bandwidth, but this is just the start; in the near future the video quality will improve, the price will drop and most of all it will be possible to playback content on conventional home TV systems rather than on media players and PC screens.

If on one side big corporations and hardware manufacturers are benefitting from this revolution, on the other there is the creation of a brand new playground for independent producers. Creativity can now be showcased bypassing the traditional pathways and producers can access audiences directly. One recent example of this innovation is the LonleyGirl15 video blog on YouTube, the website recently acquired by Google: this fictional video reached the amazing number of 15 millions viewers, same as the audience of the first episode of Lost season in North America. The LonleyGirl15 blog is a typical example of the potential of these new distribution mediums ; recently video-casting has found new means even in politics when Angela Merkel, Canchelor of Germany, held her first video podcast speech and decided to use this system for her weekly talks to the nation.

The Middle East panorama seems to be a little sleepy to the phenomenon ; some publications are offering small podcasts on their on line sites; broadcasters are not offering video podcast version of their contents and maybe the only real active entity is the Dubai based Podme.org ; this site is offering to anybody with enthusiasm and passion the chance of getting hosted and become part of their creative team. The scenario will radically change soon as the Arabic speaking community is extremely vast and potentially very appealing to advertisers and producers. Of course the biggest question mark to the development of podcasting and video podcasting is that it is not a revenue-making business model yet.

There are advertisement embedded in podcasts but the earnings usually are very limited and they cover only the server hosting costs. One factor will change the system very rapidly anyway, especially in the Middle East : through the video casting and podcasting technology is possible to track down exactly how many people access a posted program; this will make advertisers life much easier as they can finally figure out the precise popularity of shows and address their investments accordingly.

Another sign of the rising popularity of podcasting has been the recent Podcast and New Media Expo that took place in California in the end of September ; the event has been a huge success and saw hardware manufacturers, pro audio and video makers and new media content creators gathering under one roof and discussing the future of the business. Information about the event can be reached at the website www.portablemediaexpo.com, and guess what.. they even have podcasts of all the seminars. The future looks bright, and it already started looking so for microphones and audio software manufacturers that found a new business segment in the thousands of podcast producers around the world looking for better sonic quality in their shows. As producers are typically producing their shows on their home PC or laptops it is interesting to notice how they are getting close to professional technologies: pod-casters are getting familiar with audio compressors, condenser microphones, multi track audio editors and audio plug ins. At the end of the day it is pretty simple to plug in a microphone on a Pc, record a speech and export it to a mp3 file but producers that are making the real difference in the podcasting arena are not the ones with simply good ideas but the ones that produce a professional sounding programs with cutting edge contents.

It will be also very intriguing to see the development of video podcasting as producing a professional looking video podcast involves much more arts and crafts than creating a conventional audio podcast. Producers will need to start “thinking for the net” as contents will need to be realized in very limited amount of time and will need to be very light in file size. It is curious to notice that similar to what happened in audio the industry was moving toward higher audio resolutions (192Khz,24 bits) while end users where making the compressed mp3 file popular; now broadcasters are moving into HD and videocast is gaining popularity.

We cannot predict exactly how the podcasting and video-casting industry will evolve but for sure this is the first time that audiovisuals can exploit the power of internet, and another thing is for sure : this is a point of no return.

Free WiFi Jungle !

2008-05-31T09:58:00.000+04:00

Just came back from a day on my friend's Ramzi boat, and I took some shots of the Jumeirah Beach Residence towers in Dubai Marina. Undoubtedly they look ugly even though they are literally on the beach. All the towers are residencies, and they hist heaps of people. While driving nearby I switched on my iPhone to check out how many hotspots where showing up, and the list was endless. All the hotspots were un-encrypted , and maybe this is the largest example of free wired town in this part of the globe. Of course this is because people here don't bother password securing their routers. Free internet for all !!

Podcasting on Emirates News

2008-05-29T11:00:00.000+04:00

Some time ago I was on Emirates News on DubaiOne talking about podcasting and how this technology will be integrated in education enterprises all over the world.

Ballmer is faithfull for the future: Vista rules! - Poor guy....

2008-05-29T10:55:00.000+04:00

Fencing over the issue of whether Apple will get to market first with desktop multi-touch features, Mr. Ballmer implied that the two companies don’t compete directly.

“We’ll sell 290 million PCs, and Apple will sell 10 million PCs,” he said. “They’re fantastically successful and so are we and our partners. But it’s a different job. Steve can flip his hand and sell a few models and I don’t take a thing away from him.”

One thing, Apple has today 66% of the market of 1000$+ computers in the U.S.

Thanks Steve B , it's all because of you... Keep on smiling.

DeviantArt

2008-05-29T07:42:00.000+04:00

DeviantArt is maybe one of my favorite sites ; here all digital artists display their artwork, illustrations and photos, to the community; all is divided into categories, and I often go there to get inspired when I need to find a theme for my keynotes. If you look well there are also my stuff. Go, get inspired : www.deviantart.org.

PromaxArabia2008

2008-05-27T09:46:00.000+04:00

After some years I went back to Promax as a keynote speaker. Promax is the most prominent association of broadcast designers and multimedia producer in the world. I already collaborated with the folks back to the times where I was in Europe but this was the first time they called me in as somebody who is not in the TV biz anymore.It was very nice to meet again many of my old colleagues and I had a lot of fun; I addressed the crowd with Shift, my speech about technology changing the world, and with a special focus on media production and distribution. For more info log on promaxarabia.tv.

Welcome

2008-05-20T11:06:00.000+04:00

Hello everybody, welcome to my space in the cloud. My name is Giorgio and I have been playing around with technology for most of my life. I have been in the music-flick-TV biz and now I am working in Dubai for SAE, the largest network of creative technology campuses in the world. Here I will talk about things that matter to me, and I hope you can find some interesting informations.Ciao