That's Just Wrong: Bad Video on TV, May 11-15, 2011

Happens to the best of them, albeit the errors are smaller and harder to see. Finally watched last week's "Treme". There were old cartoons showing on a TV screen and the frame dominance was backwards. Very small and only for a few moments.

Final game of the Miami/Boston NBA playoffs on TNT. "NBA Cares" spot in 3rd quarter had bad lip sync. Then on Sunday in the 1st quarter of the Memphis/Oklahoma City game on ABC, a Russell Westbrook interview also had bad lip sync.

Then there's the Kroger "Yellow Tag" spot. I've only seen it on WCMH-TV, but both times (Friday afternoon during "Ellen" and Monday during the 6 o'clock news) there has been field reversal. The fast animations look particularly bad. Monday the lip sync was off, too. I keep looking for the spot on other channels, but haven't run across it yet. It does not look like a station issue. I'd be pretty upset if I were paying for that spot.

Shoots and edits, not the best idea

It appears to be a trend. I see ads looking for someone who can shoot and edit. I see people who claim they can shoot and edit. And with inexpensive cameras and inexpensive software, anyone can do it. But is it a good idea? I say no.

I can shoot and edit. I've done it. I've been paid for it. My work has occasionally been praised. Does that mean I'm the person you should hire to shoot and edit? If one takes video seriously, the answer is no. Specialties exist for a reason. There's a reason for surgeons and anesthesiologists and nurses. You don't look for a doctor who anesthetizes and cuts. There's a reason for pitchers and catchers and first baseman. I mean, if you can find someone who can pitch for a .93 ERA and bat for .400, more power to you. But I don't think we've seen that kind of talent since Babe Ruth and he stopped pitching pretty young.

If using video is important to you, get a shooter and an editor. The skills are pretty different. A good shooter gets you great pictures that will tell your story. A good editor puts those pictures together to tell your story. Keep in mind that a slightly larger investment in good video will pay more dividends than a smaller investment in not-so-good video.

That's Just Wrong: Bad Video on TV, May 10, 2011

Lip sync was off on WCMH-TV early evening local news last night. Again. I told them about this problem about a month ago and they got it fixed right away. Seems a receiver at ATT (I use ATT U-Verse) needed to be reset. The problem is lip sync continues to go out. WCMH asked me to go directly to ATT about recurrences but did not give me a direct contact. And I don't think it's my job to monitor and correct the problem, especially on a repeated basis. It's easier to change the channel than to go through customer service. There's enough on TV today that I mostly don't need NBC. If it were me, I'd be doing some troubleshooting to see why this keeps happening.

That's Just Wrong: Bad Video on TV, May 6/7, 2011

Bad video on TV bothers me. Most people don't notice these things, but I do. The easy access to quality acquisition and editing tools has made video production available to pretty much anyone. However, not everyone understands the technical requirements for making good video. The complicated distribution chain with all the different formats involved today makes it even worse. Here are the things I saw over the weekend that were just plain wrong.

Saturday, Versus channel, the early Derby races: Dodge Ram spot. HD spot, letter-boxed with Dodge Ram logos, had the field dominance reversed so the trucks were jittering one frame forward and then one frame back. I couldn't tell whether this was locally originated or not. It was surrounded by full-screen HD spots that looked fine. No telling where this originated.

Saturday, NBC, Kentucky Derby: During the race, the surround sound was so hot I couldn't understand the call. Really? The rest of the program was mixed just fine.

Sunday, ABC, NBA playoffs post-game show: Sounded like the phasing between the center and side channels was off, producing a bit of unpleasant modulation especially in the low frequencies.

Sunday, TNT, NBA playoffs post-game show: Two taped segments (Memphis & Mothers Day) had lip-sync problems.

Sometimes it seems like nobody's paying attention. I will continue to point these things out in a probably vain hope that if I'm paying attention maybe someone else will too.

Technology for Lawyers: Choosing to Use a Technology Solution

Choosing to use a technology solution is not easy. Going into a technology solution without proper planning can cause more problems than it solves. There are many things to be considered. Does it really meet your needs? How much does it really cost? How will your staff react to it? And many more. It is important to have a methodology for choosing to use a technology solution and then choosing the right one. Here are four major questions to consider before committing to a solution.

What is it going to do for me?  Technology solutions should always be about increasing productivity. Whether it’s doing more work in less time so you can handle more cases, being able to get more information from your depositions or being more persuasive so you get better settlements and bigger awards, a technology solution should make you more productive and make your life easier. 

Technology solutions should never be approached because they are cool or au courant. They should be used in response to particular perceived issues. For example, if you feel you aren’t able to give depositions the attention they require, perhaps a deposition tool will help. You look into software options and decide several programs might help. Then you determine whether such a tool will be valuable and do a cost/benefit analysis to determine how valuable. As you do cost/benefit analysis, however, be sure to factor in training costs, maintenance and upgrades, and initial lower productivity during the learning curve.  When your analysis is complete, you will have a good picture of whether the technology solution you are looking at will have a significant impact on your productivity.

How do I evaluate a technology solution?  The first caveat is to not take advice from hardware or software vendors. They cannot help but have a conflict of interest. Get input from your staff, your peers, articles, reviews and groups you belong to that deal with your issue. The second caveat is to involve all end-users in the evaluation process. Implementing technology is a difficult process at best and there is almost always resistance to new technologies in the workplace. Involving all users in the process can be difficult and time-consuming, but not nearly as difficult as introducing new technology to unwilling and resistant users. 

First, identify the most technically savvy members of your staff who will be using and/or implementing the new technology.  These are the people who need to be able to answer all the scary questions. Honestly evaluate with them their technology skills to determine whether you need to get outside help with your decisions and with integrating and maintaining your new technology. Then identify those who will be regular users and those who will be casual users. Explain to each person where they fit in the universe of users and ask them to help evaluate the technology solution.  Important questions for them to consider are:

·      Does the solution make sense? 

·      Does it seem like it will address the identified issue? 

·      For software, does the interface seem friendly or daunting? 
·      Does using the solution seem intuitive or over complicated?

·      Most important, what scares you about this? Use the list of scary things from the last article to help them think about what might scare them.

Involving the end user in the evaluation and selection of technology solution is crucial to success. Listen to what concerns them and find out the answers to their questions before you make decisions.

As you and your staff look at different alternatives, evaluate the relative ease of use and costs.

What are the ramifications?  It’s always something. You just got a great communications tool, but your network or internet connection is too slow to get any benefit. Your new software is wonderful, but you don’t have enough memory and your computer keeps crashing. Your new video camera makes beautiful pictures, but it doesn’t record in a format that works with your computer. And so on. It’s always something. Again, go to the most tech savvy people you have. If they don’t feel comfortable (really comfortable) understanding the specifications and how the technology will integrate into your situation, get some outside help. A little help up front will almost always prevent a lot of pain later. Nothing creates more resistance to new technology than early problems and failures. 

Whoever is looking at the ramifications should be taking into account how your solution will touch the different systems in your office and evaluating what that means to each system and its interaction with your solution. Look at all the technical interfaces, but also look at all the human interfaces. How will the new technology fit into daily routines? How will it be accessed? Who should be allowed what level of access? Are there new or different kinds of handoffs that will need to be defined and managed? Examine the effect of the new technology on your process and procedures.

Is it (relatively) future-proof?  Here you want to look at the company whose product you are buying. How long have they been around and do they have a good reputation? Do they have a history of orphaning products? Where in the product’s life cycle will you be buying? If late in the life cycle, what are the ramifications of the next version? If the solution is hardware dependent, where is the hardware in its life cycle and in relation to current technology? What will upgrades cost and how often will they be necessary?


Answering these questions and the further questions your staff will come up with will make choosing to use a technology solution easier. It will also make your eventual solution more effective.

Technology for Lawyers: Fear, Over-Reaching and Acceptance

While the title says "Technology for Lawyers", this article and the next few are applicable to any business that is not technology based yet can use technology heavily. These articles are not directly about video, they address broader issues surrounding using technology in your business. Understanding these basic technology issues for your firm is crucial to being able to use video and audio technologies for their greatest benefits.  

In the lifetimes of many attorneys, we have moved from a completely manual world to a world of incredible technological depth. Where you once spent days searching through discovery documents, now you can scan them and use a computer program to run word-recognition and search for relevance. Today you can file pleadings electronically. Depositions can be reported directly to a computer with a time stamp that can be  synchronized with a videotape of the deposition and delivered almost instantly as a digital file to view and mark up on your computer.

You use email, on-line research, trial presentation software, time tracking software, and much more. It’s a veritable Candyland of technology, if you can use it effectively. Some of you are still resisting the technology because it scares you, some have found an accommodation that balances technology with productivity, and some have jumped in over your heads from either lack of knowledge, over-confidence or just pure exuberance.

What’s scary about technology for lawyers and other non-technical people? Well, lots of things and many of them are legitimate concerns if you are not technologically savvy. Is it secure? Can it be implemented without a lot of pain? Is it hard to learn? Can people who are not computer literate use it? Is it really productive and cost-effective? What extra hidden costs like ancillary programs and updates will there be? And the biggest one, is it reliable? Will it crash right when I need it?  Is it going to bog down my network? Will I lose all my work if it dies? How easily can I accidentally screw it up? If I use "the cloud" how reliable and secure is it? That’s a lot of issues.

Getting past the fear and finding a balance requires having some sort of methodology, a way of approaching your technology issues that makes sense and helps you make informed decisions that will work for you and your firm. The next article will address choosing to use a technology solution.