Tag: Real player

Stretching The Internet

“AFL players have the best hair.” That’s a direct quote from Helen Razer who is hosting the overnight talk show from the Australian Broadcasting Company. AFL, in this case, refers to the Australian Football League.

I’m listening to their station in Darwin, Northern Territory, but at this hour of the morning (it’s past 3:00 AM in most of Australia), the broadcast might be coming from anywhere. Helen keeps referring to “ABC local radio,” followed by a ‘canned’ ID for the Darwin frequency. My guess is this show isn’t local radio as much as it fills in for local radio while most of the country is asleep.

Normally… no, even now… I’ve got no interest in “footy.” I’ve come to listen to coverage of Tropical Cyclone Monica. Obviously, it’s not much of a concern, except possibly as it relates to players’ hairstyles.

At the bottom of the hour, ABC switched to a few minutes of news. Monica was the lead story. It’s a big storm and very close to ‘the top end,’ as the Northern Coast was called. Monica is attacking a desolate, inhospitable area. In the bullseye is Jabiru with 1,200 people – built entirely within a national park.

I grew up on a block with over 1,200 people. Really.

Monica will threaten Darwin tomorrow. Darwin is more substantial, over 100,000 people. By then the storm should be greatly diminished, haing spent a day over land.

Trust me – from listening, it’s obvious this station isn’t meant for anyone outside Australia. It’s not interesting or exciting, but it’s there. It is available via the Internet, as are all the warnings and advice from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.

That’s part of the unexpected power of the Internet. Much of the web is optimized for disseminating information to the widest possible audience. Other nooks and crannys, like this ABC broadcast, are there for a small but needy audience.

This afternoon, from half a world away, I’m eavesdropping on them.

Blogger’s note: As much as I’ve wanted to stay away from the Real player, ABC’s Windows Media feed wouldn’t stay up for more than a few seconds. I’ve been listening using Real for nearly an hour, flawlessly.

No Real On This Computer

With my new motherboard and configuration, this computer is doing just fine, thanks. There is one thing I realized a few days ago, and was reminded of this morning. I don’t have the Real player installed.

Sorry Real – I’m not sure you’re necessary anymore.

Back when Real was the only game in town, they made their video/audio player a huge pain in the ass. Though there was a free player, it was difficult to find. Once you installed the player, you got unwanted pieces and shortcuts scattered about.

Real has changed their ways, I hear. Maybe so. But, right now, with no necessity to install it, I’m going to stand my ground and remember the good old days.

Unfortunately for them, life changes when you’re no longer the only game in town.

Almost Forgot To Mention

In the previous blog entry, I talked about playing with video on my computers. But, I forgot to tell you what video I was playing with.

About a dozen years ago I made my first appearance as a fill-in, doing weather on Good Morning America. During a cut-in, seen by a tiny fraction of the country, I was fresh meat for Joan and Charlie as they filled four minutes of otherwise dead time.

Here’s a look at what I did – and what was only seen in the country’s smallest market. (Video requires REAL player and broadband access).

This is one of my alltime favorite moments on TV. Even as it was happening, it was difficult to believe it was happening to me.

A Quick Glance At The Future

I went out to dinner last night with Noah Finz. He’s our sports director at the station, a very nice and smart guy, but a technophobe.

We got to talking about where technology is going, especially as it concerns communications. I was surprised at how interested he was… or how well he feigned interest.

With that in mind, I thought I’d write a little about where I see things going. Please remember, the past has taught us it’s really tough to accurately predict the future. This is even tougher than weather prediction because this part of the future will not replicate past events. And, remember these predictions are coming from someone who loves technology. I’m trying to hold back my bias.

To me, the key to the future is not in speedier processors nor more memory and storage, though certainly those things will enter the picture. The big deal is bandwidth. It is the 500 pound gorilla in the room.

Bandwidth limitations is why you ‘only’ receive 150 TV channels. Bandwidth bottlenecks are why your computer often waits while it is plucking data off websites or the Real player takes so much time caching those first few seconds of video before it starts to play.

With enough bandwidth, television can become a one to one medium – unlimited video on demand. Any show or any video source can be run when you want it. Desperate Housewives Tuesday at 8:41 AM. Why Not?

Already, even if you’re not in their home market, you can still watch your favorite baseball team play, because nearly all the games are available over the Internet. CPTV, here in Connecticut, sells a package of UCONN women’s basketball games for out-of-towners with high speed Internet access.

The radically changes the paradigm of commercial television. Without a mass audience watching the same commercial at the same time, television begins to lose its unique sales appeal. There will have to be another way to pay for this.

It could be commercials, maybe a subscription, or maybe both. We’re not limited by what we’ve seen in the past. Sending video as a digital stream rather than analog allows for the integration of other info.

This ability to receive the programming you want, when you want it, will turn television into a narrowcast medium rather than its current broadcast model. There is a demand for shows on knitting or cars or computers or… well you get the idea. Those sharply targeted programs&#185 will steal audience from today’s broadcasts.

In the pre-cable days there were a lot of shows that, today, look like they were ‘going through the motions’ to fill the time. I’m afraid we’ll look back at what’s on TV now in the same way, as soon as the floodgates open in this new communications world.

The days of high production cost TV production are limited. Gresham’s economic laws will be seen affecting TV. We’re already seeing some of that as networks run more ‘cheaper to produce’ reality shows and re-run more of primetime TV.

Is there a long term viable business model for shot-on-film hour long dramas? I’m not sure.

Today, local television stations serve two general purposes. They produce and distribute local programming, like news, and they act as a distribution channel for nationally networked and syndicated shows. With video on demand, I can’t see why these program producers will need local stations.

Local stations will be forced to be local stations. Those who don’t will be marginalized out of profitability. This has happened in radio over the last 40 years.

That doesn’t mean the economic model of local TV is gone. It just means stations will have to better understand how to produce more content for local consumption. I also think they’ll have to shift their focus from producing programming to fill their air time to being producers of programming for anyone who will distribute it.

Today’s TV stations will have to turn out video streams the way Chinese companies, like Twinhead, turn out laptops. The majority of Twinhead’s products are produced for others with other people’s brands on them. You might be using one now, with no way to tell. Twinhead’s expertise is production… as is today’s TV stations.

A newspaper in Wilmington, DE is already producing video webcasts of local news. The New York Times is expanding their multimedia content online. I think, in the mature model, newspapers will provide the news and a company with video production expertise will package it for them.

All this is happening and we haven’t even hit our stride as far as bandwidth is concerned. My cable modem at home now brings in data nearly three times as fast as it did a year or two ago. It’s getting to the point where it will soon become faster than my home network can handle!

The price of this bandwidth will do nothing but fall for the foreseeable future. There are many factors at work here.

First, there is the onrush of technology which promises to deliver bandwidth wirelessly. That should add another level of competition for the cable and legacy phone companies.

Next, there is a vast network of ‘dark’ fiber – glass lines that have loads of capacity but have never been used. My guess is, the intercity capacity of unlit fiber is a multiple of what’s currently in use.

The people who really need to be worried are the incumbent wireline phone companies. More bandwidth is their enemy. Already they are facing competition from broadband VOIP companies like Vonage, with cable companies jumping in.

When there are wireless access ‘clouds’ of connectivity over most areas, portable VOIP phones will trump cellular and wired phone networks with cheap and probably unmetered, flat rate, phone service.

It is a very exciting, very different world of telecommunications that’s right around the corner.

&#185 – I am having trouble using the word program here because it describes something that might not be. When content becomes very narrow and the viewer becomes very focused on its content, the formality of a ‘program’ may vanish altogether.

It’s Emmy Time

You’ve probably seen the Emmy’s on TV. All of Hollywood’s glitteratti, decked to the nines, attempting to be humble or gracious (depending on whether you’re a winner or loser) in front of a worldwide audience.

As much as I’d like to go man-to-man in competition with Tony Perkins or Al Roker , I’m not eligible. NATAS, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences nicely compartmentalizes the Emmys with national awards (day, night and technical) and local ones. Here in Connecticut I belong to, and participate with, the Boston/New England Chapter.

Obviously, the statue I go after doesn’t have the same cachet as the one that goes to a David Letterman or Camryn Manheim. It’s smaller, lighter and has a rectangular base as opposed to the circular one on the national award. Still, it’s a great honor to receive one… and I have been lucky enough to get seven, all of which sit in a cabinet in our family room.

If you belong to NATAS, you get a chance to enter the Emmys and an obligation to judge them. I have taken my turn a few times, looking at tapes from broadcasters in other parts of the country. This year I held a judging session in my home, looking at weather tapes from the Midwest.

It takes skill to be nominated and luck to win. It’s a trite phrase but it’s true.

Judging usually takes place over pizza, maybe some beer, and lots of shop talk. You try to be a good and fair judge, but it’s tough. Does tape 8 get the same shot as tape 1? How long do you let a tape that has no chance play? My fear is that some winners are arbitrary winners. That’s not because of a bias but because of human nature.

This year, while I judged, I noticed a ‘syndrome’ among the entrants. They often confused a ‘good’ weather situation with a good weather presentation. In fact, talented broadcasters should be able to get by with a tape from a day with nothing doing… though none ever have the guts to send that. I certainly don’t.

Helaine and I used to go to the Emmy awards religiously. Unfortunately, it tends to be very Boston-centric and the weather category is at the very end. So recently, we haven’t gone. And, over the past few years I haven’t always submitted a tape.

Part of that is because of the ceremony, but it’s probably more because of my scatterbrained, non-organized personality. In order to enter, you have to save some of your work… and I hardly ever do. Then, you have to meet the deadline. Hello! Deadlines are my enemy. I’m terrible when it comes to getting myself motivated and started.

Still, this year I wanted to try. We have two new guys in the weather department, both with a real chance of winning. I’d kick myself if everyone entered but me.

So, last night I pulled together a few airchecks. This morning, I digitized them on the computer in my office and edited together a 7:30 presentation. It’s now on a DVD, but tomorrow it will be dubbed onto a VHS tape and FedEx-ed to Boston – just in time for Friday’s deadline.

Since I have this website at my disposal, I thought I’d throw a copy here too. If you have a Real player and DSL or cable modem, click here and take a look. If you’re on dial-up, don’t even bother – it won’t work.

Later, I’ll let you know if I’m nominated. No promises. There’s more competition than ever before.

Computer Speed – No Big Deal

A friend, whose company was upgrading its laptops, got me an old PII 300 model. In this gigahertz era, that’s awfully slow. The street value is probably a few hundred bucks, if that much.

Because it was from his business, I agreed to wipe the hard drive clean and then reinstalled Windows 98, its original operating system. After plugging in a wireless network card and adding the drivers, it was time to go to Microsoft’s site to get all the updates and security fixes.

Whose kidding whom? There’s no possible way dial-up users are keeping their software up-to-date. And, the vast majority of high speed at home users are there too.

I downloaded all the Microsoft stuff, Real player, OpenOffice, Spybot Search and Destroy, Dimension4 to keep the clock on time, favoritesync to keep my bookmarks aligned between computers, iespell and pokerstars.com’s client.

They’re all free… though pokerstars can cost you in the long run.

Then I went to the Navas Cable Modem/DSL Tuning Guide and got the registry hack to speed up my broadband access. Finally, I moved the virtual memory to a small disk partition and specified the exact size, which keeps it from fragmenting.

The computer is a champ. There’s little it’s doing that’s not fast enough. I suspect an upgrade from 64 to 128mb of memory will make a some difference, and I have ordered a stick for under $30.

I can’t begin to tell you how often a friend or co-worker will come to me (because I seem to be tech support for most of my friends – except those who are tech support to me) and ask for advice because their computer isn’t fast enough.

Usually, it is fast enough and they’re about to piss away money.

The CPU speed is certainly important, but nowhere as important as most people think. Most Pentium class PCs are totally usable, if you have enough memory (usually very cheap), the right video driver (crucial – and free) and get rid of spyware, malware and the other junk that’s leeching off your limited resources.

So, as I type this up on the ‘big machine’, I’m playing poker on the laptop. Life is good.