JISC Digital Media Blog

Free online audio editing tools

Posted by Gavin Brockis on Wednesday 28 July 2010 at 3:53pm
Tags: audio editing | sound recordings | web services

A new advice document looking at free to use online tools for recording, editing and converting audio files.

Rather than downloading software and installing it on your computer, it is now possible to use web hosted services to edit and arrange many types of media files. Upload or record from any machine connected to the internet, and use these free online tools to manipulate, edit and convert your content, then download or publish the results. No special software necessary at all, and usually at no cost!

Our new advice document - Free Online Audio Editors - looks at some of these online tools designed specifically for manipulating digital audio, and examines at what you can do, and which service might be best suited to particular tasks. It is a companion document to our recent guide to Free Online Image Editing Tools, and we have a similar guide to online screencasting tools coming up soon too.

Photoshopping for alternatives

Posted by Antony Theobald on Monday 26 July 2010 at 11:10am
Tags: image editing | photography | photoshop | software

Photoshop was in the news last week - as the tool used by a BP photographer to alter images for use on its website.

Photoshop is the industry standard image editing application - so much so that ‘photoshop’ is often used as a verb in place of ‘edit’, ‘alter’  or ‘manipulate’ images - but there are alternatives.

If you are looking for a tool to tackle some of the more common image editing tasks, our recent guide to Free Online Image Editors looks at cost-free alternatives to Photoshop. Our advice document on Image Editing Software discusses some of the things to consider when choosing the right software for your needs and links to a number of applications.

If you want to see the BP photoshopping, the company has ‘for the sake of transparency’ posted the original versions alongside the edited images on its Flickr stream.

One image shot inside a stationary helicopter was adjusted to make it look like the aircraft was flying, by removing the landing pad from the photo:

The original image. Photo by BP America on Flickr - used under a Creative Commons licence

The altered version. Photo by BP America on Flickr - used under a Creative Commons licence

The Gizmodo technology blog highlights some of the Photoshop work in more detail.

The Digital Economy Act 2010 - don’t get left behind

Posted by Joel Eaton on Thursday 22 July 2010 at 12:23pm
Tags: copyright | podcasts

JISC have just released a podcast delivering advice for universities and colleges on the legal ramifications changes in law could mean for HE and FE employees and institutions.

Furthermore, there are some particularly interesting (and wholly relevant) audio interviews with Professor Charles Oppenheim (Loughborough University), Dr Naomi Korn (Copyright adviser), and Saskia Walzel (Policy advocate, Consumer Focus).

What is the Digital Economy Act?

The Digital Economy Act (DEA) was introduced in April this year amid growing pressure for government to tackle online copyright infringement. The DEA assigns new legal powers to Ofcom (Regulator for the UK communications industries) to help change the legal processes and put in place more concrete legislation for protecting works online.

How could it affect staff in HE/FE?

The act has not been received without criticism, namely for it’s lack of clarity in specifying the effects it will have on FE and HE.

To summarise this issue the DEA categorises individuals and organisation as one of these three groups:

1. ISP (Internet Service Provider) - Individual or organisation providing an internet connect/IP address
2. Subscriber - Individual or organisation receiving the internet through an IP address
3. Communications Provider - As yet this role is not clear enough to be defined

The DEA separates each of these groups with different responsibilities and subsequently different penalties for infringement and as yet it is not clear which of these three categories HE and FE institutions will sit in. If an institution faces sanctions results could include a limited internet service or even complete disconnection, as well as organisations potentially being responsible for 25% of costs associated with allegations copyright infringements in their role as ISPs

What should you do?

Ofcom has been tasked to develop codes of practice on how the legislation is implemented. It is these codes which will decide how FE/HE institutions fit into the three categories above, and so far they have put together a draft for the first two, which still lacks clarity in defining the positions of HE/FE institutions.

JISC is currently advising ALL institutions to consult the Ofcom codes before the 30th July 2010 with information on how to do this here.

For more information on preparing for the DEA and how the draft codes may affect institutions, visit the JISC website for some in-depth practical advice.

Photo by Kimb0lene on Flickr. Used under a Creative Commons licence

Summer issue of newsletter now available

Posted by Antony Theobald on Thursday 22 July 2010 at 11:37am
Tags: news | newsletter | screencast

The fourth issue of our newsletter Intermedia is now available.

Operating your camera remotely

Posted by Nigel Goldsmith on Wednesday 21 July 2010 at 12:43pm
Tags: cameras | equipment | hardware | news | photography

We have just published a new advice document on Tethered Camera Operation.

The document looks at why a photographer might choose to work with their camera tethered to their computer and how they would go about doing it. It also looks at a variety of software applications that allow a camera to be used tethered.

Tethered camera photographing architectural detail 4 metres above the ground

Read our advice on Tethered Camera Operation.

A window on the musical past of Britain and Ireland

Posted by Steve Hull on Monday 19 July 2010 at 8:30am
Tags: digital collections | finding audio

JISC has funded a sound archive at King’s College London containing performances of once-popular artists recorded between 1900 and 1950.

The project has already been admirably described by JISC, so rather than repeat their news in an inferior manner, I direct you to their news item.

Open Source is not the same as free

Posted by Steve Hull on Friday 16 July 2010 at 8:41am
Tags: copyright | open source | software

Many people make the mistake of assuming that their open source software is free or that their free software is open source. Software can be both, but the two terms mean very different things. Here’s a brief discussion of the differences and what they may mean to you and your institution. These descriptions have been newly added to our Glossary—check it out for explanations of any terms related to digital media that you’re not sure of.

Open Source means that the actual code of the software is publicly and freely available. This means that anyone is free to modify the code and hence the workings of the software. As a result, open source software is usually, though not always, maintained by a (possibly quite large) group of volunteers. Even when the software is maintained by a private company (e.g. Moodle), the fact that it is open source means that suggestions and modifications can be made by anyone, and these changes may be incorporated into the official versions of the software by the maintaining company.

Open source software is often free as well, and when it is not free, the cost is generally very low. It should also be noted that open source software is not in the public domain, i.e. unlicensed. Rather, open source software is available under a licence (such as the GNU General Public Licence) which generally prevents users from incorporating it into proprietary products.

There are two important strengths to open source software. The first is that, since the creators/maintainers have no vested interest in keeping their code proprietary, decisions about the software are made solely to improve the software and not to protect its confidential nature. For example, a large corporation that makes a word processing package will change its file format frequently, either to make it difficult for its competitors to keep their products compatible with it or to require users to pay for new versions. Maintainers of an open source word processing package have no such motivation and hence changes made to the software will be done purely to improve the software.

The second strength is that it is unlikely that the software will ever cease to be supported. When a piece of software is proprietary to a private company, it may at any time decide to stop supporting the software at which point bugs will cease to be fixed and improvements to be made. With open source software, as long as there are programmers who are interested in maintaining the software there will be support for it. In fact, some software companies have made their products open source upon ceasing to provide support for them in order that such continuing support can flourish.

Sometimes free open source software will be sold by companies who add features such as ease of installation and technical support; a popular example of this is the versions of Linux sold by Red Hat. Linux is itself both free and open source.

A typical example of open source which is not free is Transana qualitative analysis software for video and audio data.

Free software, on the other hand, is software which does not cost anything to acquire or use. Often, but not always, free software will consist of cut-down or demonstration versions of purchasable software. Such free software will serve either to generate goodwill in the prospective buyer or to advertise the purchasable version.

A popular example of free software which is not open source is the AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition, which has had tens of millions of downloads since its inception.  Perhaps the most famous example of free software which is open source is the Linux operating system (although Linux is sold by companies which provide additional services with it, the OS itself is free).

Sign of the times

Posted by Stephen Gray on Thursday 15 July 2010 at 1:58pm
Tags: accessibility | news | video

We’ve created a new a step-by-step guide to adding a sign language interpreter to your videos.

As part of our series of guides on improving accessibility using digital media, the latest instalment takes a hands-on approach to adding a signer to your videos using a technique known as ‘chromakeying’.

We’ve written this guide with the novice in mind and kept the equipment costs purposefully minimal as budgets become ever more elastic. This guide is the latest in a series that also contains Adding Closed Captions to Flash Video.

Sample of video with signer added.
If you cannot see the video above, please use this link to download the video file (10.9MB)

Programme content ‘Lesson Starters’ used with the kind permission of Teachers’ TV.

See how we added the sign language interpreter to the above video by reading our guide: Adding Sign Language to a Video.

Digital preservation cartoon takes to the mountains

Posted by Antony Theobald on Friday 09 July 2010 at 2:22pm
Tags: animation | digital preservation | youtube

We’ve been waiting for the latest instalment of the Team Digital Preservation cartoon series and here it is at last.

This is the fourth in a series of cartoons from DigitalPreservationEurope (DPE) - watch them all on DPE’s YouTube channel.

HTML5 vs. Flash (à la VHS vs Betamax)

Posted by Stephen Gray on Thursday 08 July 2010 at 9:42am
Tags: delivery | flash | standards | video | youtube

Recent events have pitched Adobe against Apple in an online video standards stand-off. This has made it difficult for those responsible for online video delivery, finding themselves having to take a side and make a some very difficult decisions.

Much heated debate has occurred recently between some of the largest and most powerful companies on Earth. The uninitiated would be forgiven for thinking of Apple, YouTube, Microsoft and Adobe as akin to a band of 6-year-olds fighting over the last conker on the tree. The topic causing so much upset is one more loaded than religion combined with politics then liberally sprinkled with football. Video. To many this battle of the giants seemed inevitable, after all when video lived on tapes VHS famously took on Betamax. Then, when video finally became digital and migrated to optical disc, HD-DVD was firmly whupped by Blu-ray. Given this precedent, the media-less age of video was never going to be ushered in peacefully.

To recap on events so far: in the blue corner is Adobe, who own the technology known as Flash (they also manufacture Creative Suite products such as Photoshop). Flash can be found everywhere and is used for many different purposes but most notably interactive games and the encoding of video, but perhaps most famously on YouTube. Flash isn’t perfect and has proved a real headache for mobile devices, which generally have to resort to software decoding in order to get it to play (on paper though, Flash should be well suited to mobile devices as bandwidth can be ‘down sized’ on the fly). In practice, Flash is invariably decoded in software, using more precious battery power than hardware decoding. Adobe realises Flash’s current limitations and (depending on your point of view) have been attempting to either: a) open up the technology to third party developers who wish to create innovative new applications which will run smoothly and without issue on popular mobile (and non-mobile) devices or b) flog a dead horse.

And in the red corner is Apple. Apple have embarked on what has been called an ‘anti-Flash mission’, abandoning support on current and future Apple products including the beautiful (if by now slightly greasy) iPad. Apple have either been: a) inspiring a generation by offering access to media which is rock steady and makes the most of (their) up-to-the-minute hardware by supporting ‘open’ HTML5 video techniques, or b) denying access to vast parts of the internet (and users’ own media collections) by dictating what can and can’t be watched while suppressing dissent with an iron fist, each knuckle emblazoned with a little white apple.

This move to open source tools seems noble enough (and to some quite unApple-like) and promises the holy grail of on-line video delivery: a format that plays well on any platform and any device, which allows searching, tagging and embedding and does all this without the need to install a third-party plug-in.

Apple’s case is weakened somewhat by the fact that much of the actual video content accessed via HTML5 is frequently of a flavour known as H.264. The news that H.264 is an ‘open’ standard would come as quite a shock to MPEGLA who administers the licenses for H.264 related patents. To ease worries, truly open source video encoding-decoding technology is being championed by the WebM project. Google have assisted by donating to WebM their VP8 video technology. Still with me? Good. So Apple are all set to embrace HTML5 and truly open source video delivery on their mobile platforms yes? No. The only phone platform set to be WebM enabled in 2010 is Google’s Android - a direct competitor to the iPhone.

The clashing of titans such as Apple and Adobe was never going to be a quiet affair, but the public-nature of the debate has shocked many. See Steve (Apple) Job’s Thoughts on Flash and the retaliatory Washington Post ads. Since then YouTube has attempted to broker a truce while Microsoft has poured oil on the flames by announcing Internet Explorer will also be only supporting HTML video technologies (H.264) and not Flash.

As I write Apple seems to have Adobe on the ropes, cheered on (who could have guessed it?) by Microsoft. But this could all change over night. Let’s hope whatever happens that we as end-users do end up with invisible and seamless access to video. We’ll be blogging again with significant updates, meanwhile watch this space.

Presentation slides on where to find images, video and audio

Posted by Antony Theobald on Tuesday 06 July 2010 at 12:09pm
Tags: event | finding audio | finding images | finding moving images | flickr | news | presentations

Here are the presentation slides from the session Sue and Ant gave on where to find images, video and audio at last week’s RSC Wales event: Learning in a Digital Wales. #ldw2010

It’s a popular topic - in addition to introductory sessions such as this one, we have detailed advice documents on Finding Video, Audio and Images Online, Finding Subject-Specific Digital Media Resources and Finding Images on Flickr.

If you are looking for more in-depth coverage of the subject, our training course on Finding Free-to-Use Images Online will be of interest - new dates to be confirmed soon.

You may also be interested in our free online tutorial Internet for Image Searching - and keep an eye out for our new online tutorials: Internet for Audio Resources and Internet for Video and Moving Images.

Free online image editing tools

Posted by Antony Theobald on Friday 02 July 2010 at 2:48pm
Tags: image editing | news | photography | photoshop | software

We’ve just published our latest advice document on Free Online Image Editors.

Photo by Phil Gyford on Flickr. Used under a Creative Commons licence

You don’t need Photoshop if you want to edit your digital images. There are now countless alternatives. This advice document looks at free-to-use online image editors which let you work on images via your internet browser. As these free image editors are web-based, you don’t need to install anything on your computer.