TEDxDubaiLive : TEDGlobal Live Webcast in Dubai

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

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

A Wave in the Cloud

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.

We never stop learning

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

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

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

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

Amman wake up

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

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

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.

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.

Keynote Tip # 1

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

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

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

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...

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

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.
a
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.

Shif Jwin

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

 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

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.