The Infynit Hour -- October 27, 2009

Last night was our first live show since they upgraded the studio to HD. It was a great first show and we are happy to be back on the grind. The Infynit Hour is very therapeutic because it's like doing Austin City Limits on a weekly basis. I am specifically speaking about the music performance that is 35 minutes long. It's an adrenaline rush and we would like to thank everyone that works on the show that has been doing this for years. Here's to the next 150 shows!!

Our knowledge is constantly increasing and we are happy to be back supporting the arts in Austin on a weekly basis. Check us out online at infynit.com to view performances from the show.

Timecode breaks are not good

Timecode breaks are not fun to deal with.

Infynit Hour Live -- October 27th, 2009

The Infynit Hour will be returning to the air on October 27th, 2009. We completed a dry run in the studio this past Tuesday and it was a success. The studio is now fully HD compatible and our shows will be better than ever. We are still getting used to the new facility but we will be up to speed in no time.

So look out for us on a weekly basis starting next week at www.infynit.com. Check the website for time and channels. We will be streaming live on the web as well.

We love Austin's art and music community!!

Digital Fusion Fest at Channel Austin -- October 10th 2009

The Digital Fusion Fest at Channel Austin on October 10th was a huge success.  We will be broadcasting the Infynit Hour live in HD in a totally cool and refurbished studio.  I estimate more than 500 people attended throughout the day and overall the event was fantastic.  Thanks Austin for supporting the coolest television station in the area!! 

HD Training -- The Infynit Hour

Channel Austin has updated their studios to full HD and I went through the training on last week.  It was a lot of work but the possibilities are endless when it comes to producing a modern television show.  They now have Final Cut record and playback stations so that we can completely eliminate tape from here on out.  We can record the show to DVD, Tape, and directly into Final Cut for triple redundancy.  

They have  a blue screen for chroma key applications but I feel that they would have done better with a green screen option.  You can still see some areas on the screen that are not fully keyed out because of the reflection from blue surfaces onto white.  It's not perfect but we learned a few tricks that would help make this a useful tool.  The Infynit Hour will remain simple and we will try our best to add a few new things such as logos and watermarks.  I have a lot more knowledge about how the different components work so we can experiment to enhance the show one episode at a time.  I am just excited to be broadcasting in 1080i.

The Channel Austin studios are amazing.  The mini and main studios are practically the same.  I will try my best to check it out an hour or two before we go live in mid October to be completely ready for our series.  Stay tuned for the Infynit Hour because that is the cornerstone of our organization and we probably would not exist without it.

We have a lot going on.  We will soon blog about our experiences shooting Texas high school football and having the show ready within 24 hours for our local on-demand TV station.  It's a lot of fun!!  We have another music video shoot in October that has already been scheduled.  It will be a one day shoot.  Stay tuned as we are extremely busy.

Anycast Training and HD Mini Studio Training

On 9/18 Captain Orion and I went to help setup the Anycast station for the recording of a band at a local venue. It was a great setup and the vibe was really cool. I ended up switching the entire first show and half of the second one. Since we have done live shoots such as this we assumed that the people we assisted were prepared. They were not.

They showed up 45 minutes before the show began. We had to setup 3 cameras, 3 COMMs, the Anycast, and connect the mixer and one of the cameras with the audio booth. This included unloading and unpacking. Cables had to be connected, placed, and gaff taped down. All of the batteries were not charged so that led to cameras going off during the performance which will be a nightmare when it comes to the editing process.

All in all it was sort of smooth once we got going. Before I go any further I would like to outline briefly how we handle shoots like this. We normally will arrive an hour or two before the event starts. We will unpack everything that we can and double check all of the cameras. We usually have the camera that is capturing audio on AC power. We have an extensive production checklist as well but I won't go into detail about that.

All tapes are labeled beforehand. When we begin to use hard drive packs we will simply use a pre-printed label for each drive. We white balance and check all camera settings once everything is connected and everything is in working order. We will then tape down all of the appropriate cables using gaff tape. We will also meet one last time before shooting to iron out any last minute details. We will sync up all cameras so that we are recording simultaneously.

All tapes are kept by each individual until the show is over. I usually collect all tapes immediately after we stop shooting as well. We will normally have drinks and Captain Orion will take care of all of the camera men and back them up during the performance if there is an issue. Pre-production meetings are nice but since we all have other obligations it means that constant, clear communication is a must before, during, and after a shoot.

Well, at the shoot last Friday we had none of that but were there simply to setup and ended up performing extra duties. I had no idea I was going to switch but I love what I do and did not mind. Our goal is always customer satisfaction. We received the best compliment afterwards from all of the camera personnel that it was really fun. There were some jerky camera movements but it was their first time doing an event like this. All in all it was great but we want to emphasize that it's important to plan and take care of all details before doing a shoot with multiple cameras out in public. Things are not controlled like they are on a set and you will have to deal with the unexpected. That's why people hire us as we are experienced and we want to share our knowledge with the world.

Training and Help With Anycast and Texas Rollergirls

We will be out tonight helping a local organization setup their Anycast system for a video shoot this weekend.  We have been using the Anycast system for a couple of years and we are always looking to find a more modern solution.  Don't get us wrong - the Anycast system is great for live switching.  I believe that the underlying OS is Linux so you know that KernelSTAck is all about the open source operating system.  We have used the system to stream the Texas Rollergirls live over the internet for the entire 2009 season.  You should be able to view some low resolution clips at justin.tv/infynithour.

Setup is easy yet simple.  Dr. Love has handled most of the setup of the Anycast for the entire Texas Rollergirls season.  We only had about an hour to setup before streaming the event live but we do that on a weekly basis with the Infynit Hour.  The fun part is calling the shots and interacting with the camera guys so that the internet viewing audience can get a feel for the game.  I think the maximum number of users we had at one time was reported to be around 1,000 viewers.  That was done with no advertising so you know that it was the hardcore roller derby fans that viewed the matches.

So tonight we will be involved with helping others use the Anycast system.  It's great to help out in the community and spread our knowledge about live video production in multiple environments.  The Anycast production system allows you to cut between multiple cameras and have a pure live experience like you would with any sporting event.  That's been our foray into the sports arena as we are all sports junkies. I must say that the Texas Rollergirls are true athletes after watching their entire season.

If anyone knows of any high definition online feeds that we can use for streaming feel free to give us suggestions.  The quality of the videos on the justin.tv site is lacking but we simply use the tools we have at hand.  It will get better as we know that there is a market for high definition live events that are streamed online.  Especially sports!!

Multiedits in Final Cut -- Color Correction

We have entered our world of multiedit color correction in Final Cut Pro and it's a new world for me and Comm Commander Radius.  While editing the Rook performance at Maggie Mae's we knew that Camera 3 would be a little dark on wide shots.  So our goal was to bring all of the clips into the multiedit windows and color correct all three clips at the same time.  

We always want to be as efficient as possible while achieving the most optimal result.  Time is of the essence and we have to make sure that all of our inefficiencies are deleted.  We are committed to working in Final Cut Pro in the most efficient manner and that was our ultimate goal in being able to view all clips simultaneously.

Comm Commander Radius figured it out and the color correction proceeded.  Once the color correction is completed we will proceed with the project.  We always enjoy the discovery process when we are creatively working on a project.  Color correction is a must because we want the most realistic visual image to penetrate the viewers eyes.

Please share your color correction stories.  We make sure that we white balance our cameras but you will always have issues in situations where you cannot control the lighting.  Thanks for reading and check out our future post on speeding up render times.

Audio and Lighting -- Always a challenge in clubs

We have recorded video in a lot of venues in Austin.  On 9/11/2009 we recorded Rook the Band and the performance was amazing.  We will be producing a promotional DVD for them so look out for that sometime in October.

The two biggest challenges that we face when filming outside of the studio is lighting and sound.  Sound was not that big of an issue this time because we had redundant recordings.  We ran sound from the main mixer into our wide shot camera and it worked out great.  We will use this for basic editing and will rely on the redundant audio source for the final cut.

Lighting was an issue.  The wide shot camera and the handheld appear to be o.k.  Camera three was slightly dark but our mobility and placement were very limited.  The club said that they could not control the lights and at least agreed to turn them all the way up.  In the end, there were some dark spots on stage.

We are looking into mobile lighting kits to help solve this issue.  In the end it was a great performance and we are working very hard to provide a final cut by October 1.  Video production never stops !!