In this video blog entry, Robb Montgomery explains the system he designed and produced to deliver a low-cost Web video system for reporters. The system was showcased with live field reports from the World Newspaper Congress in Moscow that played in real time for delegates in the conference hall and for the rest of the world in this video blog. (He has produced a DVD portfolio that includes these and many other news films he has produced with newspaper reporters.)
View the news films we produced on-the-spot in Moscow with this system:
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The video quality is fine for the Web! I couldn’t watch all the videos for some reason…The one that I did watch didn’t have audio, so there’s still the question in my mind over whether the cameras you are using provide good enough audio quality.
Right Angela, These videos were produced on the premise of how small, how cheap and how high quality can one get with a tiny, cheap (and essentially a disposable) camera?
Audio capture on this $249 camera is useable in many circumstances - but certainly not all.
This was last year’s hot camera model - I am constantly researching the best combination of features to find the ultimate stealth camera for reporters.
Do you have any recommendations?
Rob, I’m curious about what you mean by a “system” … You’re using an off-the shelf camera (looks like a Lumix from Panasonic) and a widely known free, open source Flash video player, from Jeroen Wijering. So what is the system you’re referring to?
I agree, the image quality is fine in many of these but the audio is not. I posted about audio quality from these point-and-shoot cameras this week in my blog. Maybe the newer models do it better, or maybe it’s a Canon feature.
Thanks Mindy!
In a nutshell: “Web video is not television!” How newspapers can employ low-cost methods and critical visual editing techniques for making and distributing engaging, interactive news films” Plus: “Web video can transform a news Web site and create new niche advertising inventory.”
Apologies if that sounds like a shameless plug or a topic at a seminar - but developing and training on this is a big part of my world now.
e.g. I will be talking about these systems at a few conferences coming up. In March I have been invited to talk with journalists and media executives in Latvia, Poland and the U.K. And, in May at the Canadian Newspaper Association and at SND/Scandinavia in Stockholm. Please come! Sorry, I currently don’t have any U.S. dates on my calendar. Perhaps in St. Louis at MPI, Don’t know yet.
Certainly the equipment is part of it, but the ’system’ I am talking about is more big picture. It is about putting all the pieces together in the right way to make it easy and low cost for a typical newsroom to produce dozens of video reports a week.
This cheap camera is merely the first layer in a larger scheme to make producing short films painless and an everyday part of your reporting efforts. That’s the way forward.
I don’t use Jeroen Wijering’s app but I have tested MANY like it though. In my research, I have found that Web video conversion is almost always based on running FFmpeg open source software on a server to convert MPG or AVI video to run in a Flash container.
There’s a newspaper in Wisconsin that uses YouTube for their reporter’s breaking news interviews on video. It’s not what the NYT would do, but it works for them and has value to people in that community. It’s a start, and that is where we are - only at the beginning.
Fair enough, Robb! But in fact you are using Jeroen Wijering’s player on this very page. Just right-click and you can see that.
OK. Let’s see here. My thesis is about opportunities for newsrooms to capitalize on the types of original reporting they do. Using video. Everyday.
This is not about tech, In fact my system is all based on using non-proprietary open formats. If one component improves (like, say the camera device) then the whole system gets better.
I did a righty-click and see that my host, Blip, is indeed using this guy JW’s code. That’s great to know if you want to use it to set up your own video encoding server.
Blip, You Tube, Revver, Bright Cove, and Hipcast all running, what seems to be variants of the truly amazing (and truly open source) FFmpeg Codec on their Web servers.
Mindy, FFmpeg is a great piece of code. Have you played with it? Years ago it used to be a real pain to tackle under OS9 , but now running it in a Mac OSX or Linux environment is really slick.
If you’ve ever used Handbrake to rip DVD’s, then you have played with an FFmpeg encoder.
Okay, I will look into FFmpeg — never used it. I used to encode all my video with Sorenson Squeeze for Flash MX. Now I use the Flash 8 Video Encoder, which works great. Since I’m in Flash all the time, this is the easiest thing for me — no need to muck about with additional software, which is always time-consuming.
The FFmpeg documentation page says: “FFmpeg is a very fast video and audio converter. It can also grab from a live audio/video source.” I guess I’d better take her out for a spin, eh?
Hi Robb, just came across your site after Googling “ffmpeg”. We (at the UK Press Assocaition) have 40 news photographers using the Canon Powershot S3-IS compact digital camera to gather news video for use on our customer (mostly newspapers) websites in video reports and bulletins. We haven’t found any other consumer gadget that comes close to the S3 in terms of quality, price, usability and function.
If you are in the UK again it would be good to compare notes.
Richard - Great comment, thanks.
I’ll be sure to be passing through the U.K. again - I am supposed to be doing more teaching in digital journalism for UCLAN in Preston. So, please stay tuned and hope to see you soon.
As far as the Canon’s - how is the sound quality? Can you patch in a pro mic and or wireless lav to it (XLR jack) ?? The audio capturing realm of these consumer cameras is still in the most need of an upgrade.
For the last year or so I have been testing and filing still and video stories using a few models from the Lumix line of consumer digicams (They feature metal bodies, tireless batteries, Leica glass and Panasonic anti-vibration chips).
Mostly these small lumix things are the kinds of high-quality cams that reporters could carry around easily and come back with 6 MP stills and Quicktime 30FPS that have great clarity. My clients are very happy with the stunning image quality reporters can capture in the field with these Lumix units. The audio is still the weak spot . . . so we’re always looking out for the next upgrade or newest model . . . The one I currently carry myself on global assignments is the the 10 MP widescreen LX2.
For the dedicated news photogs shooting video - you like this Canon model as opposed to some of the HDV models from Sony or Panasonic? Please share some of the thinking.
Hi Robb, sorry, forgot to check back on this page. The audio quality on the Canon S3-IS Powershot is actually very good, but captures all environmental noise - for an interview in a busy room or street the person speaking needs to be within a yard of the camera or the sound is practically drowned out by the background noise. There is no external audio option, have to use the built-in stereo mics. We are currently experimenting with the Leica version of the Lumix (V-Lux1). The video is not as crisp as the Canon (despite having larger CCD) but the audio is comparable. Stills are way better.
We are purchasing a couple of Sony HDR-SR7 hard disc camcorders. These have external “shotgun” mics that are very directional. A couple of our stills photographers have shown a high level of skill at covering a story for video and are in geographic areas that seem to lend themselves to gathering video. It is the audio issue that requires them to have something a bit better than a “pro-sumer” digital stills camera as we need them to gather more than just “GVs” and “cut-aways”. They will be trying out the Sony HDR-SR7 in the next month or so. I’ll report back.
Richard.