Blog Archives

A discussion with the development team behind Adobe Audition about the future of the application.

A “good news” support story concerning Electro-Voice microphones.

An interview with James Knight, Virtual Production Direction at AMD, about the new technologies of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality and the hardware needed to display them.

In a discussion at the 2016 Creative Storage Conference, I discovered the answer to: “How long can we store flash media on a shelf without losing data.”

How long should a video production company keep copies of their edited footage? Great question! Here are my thoughts.

The range of tools to create media is vast and becoming, um, vaster. How do you teach media creation to a young student who’s dreaming of Hollywood, but has a YouTube budget?

Creativity without limits creates nothing. Art requires conflict.

With graduations in full-swing, I want to share my thoughts on job hunting, interviewing and finding your next job. Technical skills are important, but only a part of the solution. These tips can help you find your next job.

A true story in discovering how much you don’t know – and the magic that can spring from that discovery.

A commentary on problems with cancelling Adobe Creative Cloud subscriptions, with advice on what can be done to improve the process.

Thoughts on problems monitoring HDR video, future rumors and general media industry guesswork.

Highlights and thoughts from BVE 2016 – London. (Includes more on the developing HDR standard.)

A summary of a panel discussion with part of the editorial team of “Deadpool” and how they edited the film using Adobe Premiere Pro CC.

Of all the recent decisions by Apple and Adobe, ending sales for DVD Studio Pro and Encore has caused more complaints and hardship than just about anything else they’ve done, as Tony Fleming explains in this commentary.

A look at the trends and highlights from CES 2016, with a strong focus on the future – whether that future is real or not.

An update on the latest storage trends – NVDIMM, object-storage, PCIe m.2 and encryption from Storage Visions 2016.

The status quo is tempting; but it’s a trap. Creative success lies with reinvention – discover how here.

A opinion piece of what to expect in 2016, written by Andy Marken, CEO of Marken Communications. Rest assured, he doesn’t expect 2016 to be like 2015.

It is a forlorn hope that the technology industry will slow down simply to allow us to preserve the past. Read why here.

A discussion between professional film editors about what you need to know once you land an editing job.

Based on personal experience, far too many SEO companies are unreliable and incompetent, as Larry Jordan details here.

A commentary on the need for and success of ad blocking software – and its impact on the advertising and online communities; written by Andy Marken.

Thoughts on recent storage and connectivity announcements from Western Digital and ATTO Technologies.

A tribute to Bruce Nazarian; musician, technologist and good friend.

A caution that LTO-7 marketing highlights storage and speed specs that media creators won’t be able to access.

A caution: don’t upgrade to El Capitan (Mac OS X 10.11) too soon. There are problems.

Protect yourself and your project. Know the rules and keep yourself safe. There’s more to flying a drone than buying one. This article will open your eyes.

Reflections on ad blocking software, great content, and figuring out how to finance a news-based, web business.

The things we purchased used to last forever. Today, they don’t. In bygone years, we could judge for ourselves whether something was good quality by looking at it, touching it and watching it work. Today, we can’t. Products are too complex, change too quickly, disappear. An essay on the impermanence in our life.

We publish 3-4 hours of live video every week, sliced and diced for our website, YouTube, FaceBook and video streaming. Sometimes we use Apple Compressor other times we use Adobe Media Encoder. This commentary explains which and why.

A commentary that students today don’t read, therefore they need training in the tools of visual communication to keep up and get ahead in the media-rich world of tomorrow.

This guest blog, by Clayton Moore, formerly of Apple, looks at the declining interest in media technology, and speculates on what this means for the future.

A blog on the expectations disconnect between buyers waiting for new products at lower prices and sellers needing revenue today to fund the development of tomorrow.

A summary of currently thinking on how and why to edit 4K (high-resolution) video, along with HDR (High Dynamic Range) and Wide Color Gamut video. Interviews with Michael Cioni, Michael Whipple and Bryan McMahan.

Story-telling is an art, but it is an art infused, driven and controlled by technology. Creatively understanding technology is essential in today’s visual world.

Thoughts on whether it makes sense to upgrade older GPU technology in iMacs or MacBook Pros.

A discussion on how change is disrupting the media industry and what we can do to survive it.

A commentary on why Apple is alienating musicians by demanding they not be paid during the launch of Apple Music. [Updated with late-breaking news that Apple changed its policy and will now pay royalties.]

An essay on ways to set client expectations, and budgets, for creative projects.

A commentary on the recent 2015 NAB Show.

I’m in London this week attending BVE 2015 – an industry trade show that draws about 15,000 attendees looking to get their hands on the latest technology. There are about 270 exhibitors here with a good amount of traffic at …

CES 2015 officially opens tomorrow. Today, however, was filled with press conferences and new product introductions. I spent today attending press conferences and wandering thru the South and Central Halls as exhibitors scrambled to get everything ready for tomorrow’s opening …

For the last several months, I’ve been contributing a monthly article to TV Bay Magazine in the UK. I enjoy these opportunities to write more generally about technology. This week, I’ve expanded upon an article that I sent them for …

A detailed explanation of how to configure your Mac or Windows system for audio or video editing.

There’s been a lot of debate since Adobe switched from a sales to subscription business model for their software. Reactions, as you can expect, were mixed, with the loudest voices coming from those who were opposed to the switch. Since …

An in-depth analysis comparing Final Cut Pro 7 with Final Cut Pro X.

One of the most popular questions I get asked is: “I’m using Final Cut Pro 7. Should I buy Adobe Premiere Pro or Apple Final Cut Pro X?” Let me start by saying both applications are used by professionals around …

[ Updated July 29, 2014, to reflect additional comments from Promise Technology. ] A RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) collects a group of hard disks into a single enclosure to provide great speed, storage capacity, and/or security than is …

[ This commentary was first posted in my weekly newsletter on July 7, 2014. It drew such a response that I am reposting it here to allow more comments. ] I was planning to write an article on Adobe Media …

A series of highlights on what’s happening in the media industry two days before the start of the 2014 NAB Show.