JISC Digital Media Blog Archive
September 2009

No phone who cares

Posted by Zak Mensah on Wednesday 30 September 2009 at 9:00am
Tags: mobile

Since the unfortunate incident with a canal barge in Oxford I have no Apple iphone. Some have laughed. Most grimaced due to the cost of replacement (around £350) but none of them realise that I don’t care about the phone.

New devices such as the Apple iphone are not phones anymore. If I just wanted a phone I’d have kept my useless previous phone(s). They are now our way on to the web - mini computers that allow us to do much of our online “stuff” with the device already in our pockets. I really don’t care that it’s got phone capability, it’s nice but so what, I only get 2-3 calls a week. I want to quickly check my email anywhere, use it as a satnav, music player, read my favourite websites/blogs, and tweet. All with the usability that doesn’t make me want to chuck the device under a bus. So anyways, productivity is down to that of the non smartphone user and I now having to lug my laptop around more. Will I get lost in London this Friday? Yes, not get my email? Yes… not know the latest in hiphop news? Yes!

Can I live without it then? Of course, one day at a time. Please, if you do email/tweet me, sorry in advance for the delay.

Seat to the beat

Posted by Gavin Brockis on Tuesday 29 September 2009 at 9:29am
Tags: signal processing | supports and stands

The Sound Chair.

I’ve seen pictures and even video made from sound spectrograms before, but never home furnishings:

Created by Matthew Plummer Fernandez, the Soundchair is a three dimensional representation of the frequency spectrum in time of one of a series of sounds he has made in his quest for comfortable audio.

Looks good. Now, I wonder what it sounds like..?

Three new moving image documents just added to the website!

Posted by Steve Hull on Friday 25 September 2009 at 3:57pm
Tags: news | training | video

After some delay, the Basic Guide to Videoing Interviews, the Basic Guide to Videoing Lectures and the Basic Guide to the Flip are now up on our website.

In addition, a new section has been added to the Basic Guide to Shooting Video which covers the topic of “crossing the line”—and if you don’t know what that is, that’s all the more reason to read the doc!

Please note, however, that all three docs (and the crossing the line addendum) are still awaiting video clips to illustrate various concepts.  These have been delayed, but such was the demand for the documents that we have decided to release them as is.  Questions, comments and unalloyed praise should be directed to the usual email address.

On the level - audio compression and dynamics

Posted by Gavin Brockis on Friday 25 September 2009 at 11:03am
Tags: audio editing | news | signal processing | software | sound recordings

New advice document now online, introducing the mysterious art of dynamics processing, including compression, limiting and gating.

Managing the volume level of your audio recordings is a sometimes surprisingly difficult challenge. Variations in loudness of recorded sources can play havoc with recording and playback equipment, and lead to poor or even unusable results.

Our new advice document covering Audio Processing - Dynamics and Compression looks at some of the tools available to help you control variations in the level of your recorded signals, and particularly the compressor. Compression is an invaluable aid to the audio recording and mixing workflow, but is generally little understood outside of the music production, recording and broadcast industries. This document aims to explain why it was developed, and give an overview of its rôle in improving quality and consistency in audio production.

As well as explanation of how dynamics processing works, this document includes some advice on when you might need to use these processors, and some guidelines and tips.

There can be only One…

Posted by Gavin Brockis on Thursday 24 September 2009 at 4:36pm
Tags: digitisation | equipment | hardware | microphones | sound recordings

New entry-level audio interface from industry heavyweights Apogee, aimed squarely at the podcaster, but boasting quality suitable for serious music usage.

The Apogee One has recently been announced, and we for one (sorry) are very excited by the prospect. 

Apogee are well known throughout the music industry for the unimpeachable quality of their analogue to digital converters and audio interfaces, but they have thus far resided in the ‘esoteric’ bracket - both in terms of features and price. No more! Though it only has a single mic/intrument input and a 1/8” stereo headphone/monitor output, the One is engineered to their high standards, and has a couple of unique tricks up its sleeve too. It connects to and draws its power from USB, and all level setting fuctions are accessed through the single large encoder dial on the front.

But the big surprise is the built-in microphone. While you can of course connect your favourite condenser to the phantom powered microphone input, if all you need is to capture a quick location recording then you can use the One’s built-in omnidirectional mic. While we haven’t tried it yet, I suspect that Apogee wouldn’t include it if it were not up to scratch. Though not a large diaphragm mic, so probably not up to sensitive voiceover work, this could be of real interest for recording lectures, podcasts, seminars etc, and makes the One a cross between a serious recording interface and a compact USB microphone, without compromising either role.

Sadly for PC users however, the One is only available for Mac OSX 10.5 onwards, and no Windows drivers are - or are ever likely to be - available.

The first shipment of the One arrives in the UK in November and we’ve been promised the early trial of an evaluation unit by Sonic Distribution, Apogee’s UK representatives - personally I can’t wait!

Time-lapse photographic evidence of climate change

Posted by Antony Theobald on Wednesday 23 September 2009 at 12:22pm
Tags: photography | time-lapse

Photographer James Balog is using over 30 time lapse cameras to document global ice loss caused by climate change.

In a recent TED talk in Oxford, Balog describes how he and his team use the cameras and shares some of the remarkable images they captured.

A little (Myna) bird told me…

Posted by Gavin Brockis on Tuesday 22 September 2009 at 9:19am
Tags: audio editing | software | sound recordings | web services

... that there’s a new browser-based audio editing and mixing environment out from Aviary:

Myna - a free digital audio editor accessed entirely via the web.

Just released by Aviary Software comes another of the new generation of online creation and collaboration tools, this time a multi-track audio environment. Myna features the familiar timeline/waveform display format of almost all editors, with per-track graphical automation of levels and pans, and a good range of effects which can be applied to each individual clip.

It has a simple and elegant UI, and comes with a large library of free to use sounds (though read the terms of use carefully). You can also upload files of your own, or even record directly into Myna from your computer’s microphone or other peripherals.

Projects are stored on a web server (‘in the cloud’), along with recorded and library audio files, so are accessible from any web terminal, and can be shared with collaborators to allow multiple contributors to work ‘live’ on the same piece without having to mail large audio files about.

Final mixes are downloadable as mp3 or wav, and can be made available online - again on aviary’s server - under copyrighted or creative commons terms. Users choosing to upgrade to the ‘Pro’ level for an annual fee can select further options for accessibility and functionality.

Although there are some limitations on recording length and a few other minor niggles, it’s an immediately useful tool, and an interesting taste of things to come in the expanding world of cloud-based audio applications.

[Talking of which, electro fans might want to check out AudioTool]

JISC Advance

Posted by Antony Theobald on Friday 18 September 2009 at 3:28pm
Tags: news

JISC Digital Media is now working together with seven renowned JISC services to provide a unique tailored service for those working within the education sector.

For those of you may not have spotted the new logo in the footer of our website, the new not-for-profit organisation JISC Advance launched this month.

JISC Advance has brought together the collective expertise of eight established JISC services to address the new and challenging requirements emerging within the education and research communities and beyond:

• JISC Digital Media
• JISC infoNet
• JISC Legal
• JISCMail
• JISC Netskills
• JISC Procureweb
• JISC RSC UK
• JISC TechDis

JISC Advance will provide a comprehensive source of knowledge and support, inspiring progress through technology to meet individual needs. To find out how JISC Advance can assist your organisation, please visit the website.

Microsoft’s new visual search engine

Posted by Antony Theobald on Tuesday 15 September 2009 at 12:02pm
Tags: finding images | search engines

Microsoft have introduced a new ‘visual search’ option to their Bing search engine.

The Bing search engine was launched earlier this year in an attempt to dent Google’s market share.

Visual Search was announced yesterday and certainly looks different from traditional search engines. The Visual Search page may not work if your browser decides you are in the UK, but if you change your location to United States (top right of screen) it should launch. It’s still in beta and because of the location setting is currently geared towards US users.

The idea is to present users with a selection of browsable galleries - initially entertainment, shopping, famous people, reference and sports (this is where it becomes clear you’ve switched locations!)

Select a gallery and you are given a panel of thumbnail images - move your mouse over each thumbnail and a search term is placed in the search box for you - no typing required. You also get some extra information beneath the search box and options to sort and narrow your results (e.g. the Periodic Table gallery lets you sort the elements by ‘Amount in human body’ or narrow the results to liquids only).

It will be interesting to see how this takes off - the Bing blog announcement points out how searchers can use Visual Search to find books and this will “make it even easier to judge a book by its cover”, not necessarily something that will appeal to all.

Infographic of storage

Posted by Zak Mensah on Tuesday 15 September 2009 at 10:28am
Tags: storage

Nice graphic over at mozy representing physical storage vs digital storage. I hadn’t realised that the latest ipods have THAT much more storage than the original first generation (24x).

Goes to show not only how quickly the state of things move but also that we quickly forget what went before - unless you’re Ant or Gavin who still buy Vinyl :-)

Updated advice document - Systems for managing digital media collections

Posted by Joel Eaton on Monday 14 September 2009 at 10:56am
Tags: digital collections

Building on our previous advice document which focused on systems for digital images, this new release encompasses systems for all three media, still image, moving image and audio.

The paper, Systems for Managing Digital Media Collections discusses systems ranging from simple personal software systems to all singing and dancing commercial Digital Asset Management Systems (DAMS), and offers advice on finding a solution to fit the needs of your project.

Photo from activitystory on Flickr - used with a Creative Commons licence

Free online support

Posted by Zak Mensah on Friday 11 September 2009 at 9:00am
Tags: news

The 23rd of September 2009 will see the start of our new online surgery support sessions. The team will be available between 13:30 and 14:30 every fortnight to answer ANY questions regarding digital media. Full information can be found on the surgery page which is also where the sessions will start.

Having met  a diverse range of roles across the UK and having listened to how we can better support your needs we figure that this approach will further extend our reach for offering support, which currently consists of face to face training and the free helpdesk. We hope that it will be a success and would be grateful if you could spread the word for the first date. After the first session we will let you know how it worked out and then from time to time update you on developments. We will also document our process from idea through to execution in the near future.

If you have any questions please leave a comment below or email us.

See you online!

pd Bootcamp

Posted by Joel Eaton on Thursday 10 September 2009 at 10:47am
Tags: music | software | sound recordings

Last week I attended the excellent Pure Data Bootcamp at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

Pure Data (pd) is a is a real-time graphical programming environment for audio, video, and graphical processing and can be used creatively in a variety of ways. It is open source software for Windows, Mac OS and Linux and as such is a great alternative to the comparatively expensive MAX/MSP, which was also developed by Miller Puckette, pd’s author.

Pd is fast becoming a tool for teaching in education, especially in the fields of Music Technology, Installation Art, Composition, Multimedia and Performance. A major factor of this is that pd can be used to teach the fundamentals of sound design theory, including MIDI and control implementation, allowing students to create their own custom patches based on that they’re been taught in highly creative ways.

The week covered topics ranging from designing synthesisers and sequencers, using video to manipulate audio, writing programs for real-time composition and working with HID’s (Huma Interactive Devices) such as iPhones and the Nintendo Wii controller.

The bootcamp sessions culminated with a live performance streamed online and listened to internationally. Unfortunately, netpd, pd’s server which allows for online control of patches and communications, was temporarily down, but alas, the show went on.

For more information on pd, visit the pd website. Pd software is bundled with loads of great tutorials and help guides to get you started. A great book about pd, released under a creative commons license, Bang, is available to download for free.

Camtasia goes Mac

Posted by Gavin Brockis on Wednesday 09 September 2009 at 12:28pm
Tags: e-learning | screen capture | vle

Camtasia’s popular screen-capture software application now available for Apple Mac.

Since its first release in 2002 TechSmith’s Camtasia Studio has become a favourite tool for screen capture in education. Whether recording Powerpoint presentations with voiceover, talking through software demonstrations or following an example workflow, Camtasia has offered users a fine set of capture, editing and compilation features for producing polished resources for teaching and learning. But only on Windows. Until now.

Now available for Intel Macs running OSX 10.5.6 and upwards, the new Camtasia for Mac provides multi-track video and audio compiling and editing, complete with transitions and simple effects, resizing and layering. These functions are combined with its trademark easy-to-use screen capture + audio, which can also take advantage of the iSight camera built into most new Macs to add a little ‘live’ video with minimal effort.

Screencasting on the Mac is far from a one horse race however, and while Mac users with experience of Camtasia Studio on the PC will no doubt welcome its debut on Mac (though they may miss one or two of the features currently missing from its more mature Windows counterpart), existing ScreenFlow users may take a little persuading - especially with the recent release of V2.0. The new OSX Snow Leopard system now also offers screen capture facilities within Quicktime X, and Adobe are in beta with Captivate for Mac. One thing is for sure, the competition in screen capture for Mac has suddenly got a lot hotter!

This is a quick test project which I recorded, edited, compiled and rendered entirely within Camtasia shortly after installing the full-featured 30 day evaluation version:

Camtasia for Mac - first impressions

Use this link if you would prefer to download the clip or if our video player is not showing

From my initial experiences making this little demo, I can already see this becoming a very popular tool within the team for creating parts of our training materials and online resources. Ease-of-use is excellent, and the interface feels familiarly ‘Mac-like’ and intuitive. Of course since this is V1.0 we will no doubt see further development to meet users’ needs and feature requests, but for now this is a very welcome beginning, and feels well conceived and executed.

British Library world and traditional music archive is now free online!

Posted by Steve Hull on Monday 07 September 2009 at 9:29am
Tags: digital collections | music | sound recordings

The British Library has just placed its entire world and traditional music sound archive online for free access.

The archive includes over 28,000 recordings dating back as far as 1898 and includes recordings made in such diverse locations as Botswana, Nepal, Kiribati and, er, England.  The word ‘music’ is used here in the sense employed by John Cage, encompassing such things as an Assamese woodworm chewing on a window frame.  All recordings are available free of charge for non-commercial research, study and private enjoyment.

Read our new Intermedia newsletter

Posted by Antony Theobald on Thursday 03 September 2009 at 2:31pm
Tags: news | newsletter

We have just published the first issue of our new Intermedia newsletter.

Intermedia aims to give you a brief insight into the work we do and what is happening in the world of digital media.

The first issue includes news on forthcoming events as well as articles on:

• Mobile learning
• Podcasting
• Using Flickr
• Pinhole photography