Frank Weeks, Digital Cinema South

Frank Weeks is used to being out ahead of the pack.

"My first editing job was for Broadside Television in 1977," says Weeks, "so I got my start in video production the year that Elvis died. In fact, a rep walked in to our office to show us a cutting-edge technology called 3/4" inch tape, and said 'did you hear The King died?'"

Weeks first editing project an hour-long video of the Bill Monroe-Ralph Stanley Bluegrass Festival, which Broadside was hired to produce, and since then he's not looked back, working Who's Who of regional players in the communications arena, and: from his early work at WJHL as assistant sport director to his more recent work launching High School Football Weekly and So You Think You Know Sports for Charter, Weeks has seen it all. 

"When Broadside moved to Nashville, I decided to stay in Tri Cities," says Weeks, "and I took something closer to my marketing degree from ETSU: I went to work as a manager at K-Mart, in charge of the Ladies Apparel section. It was their biggest section at the time, but after a year, I really wanted to get back into video."

Weeks' friends told him about a new set of equipment that was being delivered to WCYB-TV but no one knew how to run it. So Weeks approached Bob Smith, News director of the station, who told Weeks he'd have to take a pay cut to come to work at the station.

"I wanted that job," says Weeks, "since it let me get into shooting and editing nightly news stories with first rate equipment."

Within another year, Weeks found his spiritual home at WJHL-TV in Johnson City. He became a sports anchor and assistant sports director at the station, working with Sports Director Tony Treadway, Anchorman Claude Wood (Co-founder of Masters Entertainment), and Dr. Carrie Swanay, who is now a professor of Communications at Milligan College, training many students who go on to work at WJHL.

"I remember Carrie Beth's first day on the job," says Weeks, laughing at the thought that the group of them have gone on to pioneer public relations and marketing throughout the region. "Besides the local television work at WJHL, though, I also enjoyed the freelance work we did for ESPN, CNN and CBS Sports, back when they would accept local submissions to fill airtime slots. John Madden even did a promo for Tony [Treadway] and I that aired locally."

Weeks stayed with WJHL until 1984 when he left broadcast television to to start World Class Productions, the Tri-Cities first independent production company.  

"When we started WCP, we were housed in a studio in downtown Johnson City," says Weeks. "During the nearly 25 years since we started WCP, we produced marketing and sales videos for many of the regions most progressive companies as well as  television programs for local and regional broadcast."

Weeks has maintained World Class Productions, in its varying forms, since those early days, where the company set a number of firsts for the region: first independent production company  with component (3-chip) equipment, in-house film production, computer animation and digital non-linear editing.

"My hat's off to those who grew the computer animation base in the region," says Weeks, who returned to graduate school in 1997 at the ETSU Advanced Visualization Lab. "I saw the value of computer graphics and animation, within the video and film field and was fortunate to have some first rate instructors and training at ETSU. The things I learned there a decade ago, are of dally use to me today. I remember having to work on Silicon Graphics machines to obtain my Level 2 Certification in Alias/Wavefront (creators of Maya). Things sure have come a long way."

Weeks continues to learn - and to mentor. Besides pursuing training in graphics, computer animation, desktop publishing and digital imaging while at ETSU - under the teaching of Dr. Keith Johnson, Jeff Morris and Neil Owen - he's also trained several shooters (as video and film camera operators are called) in the region, including the likes of Sean Harris and others.

Weeks has also spent several months studying his new equipment, a 4K digital cinema camera and 2K digital cinema editing package.

"We have the region's first RED camera," says Weeks, referring to a new camera manufactured by RED that shoots in 4K - 4.5 megapixel - images, at about eight times the quality of HD. "The waiting list for RED was over a year long,  and I've had it now for several months. Like anything that's very specialized, though, I believe in spending time working through all the options before I use it at a customer job."

Weeks has won over 20 awards for excellence in marketing and advertising, including Addys and a region-wide Charter award for the Kingsport Chamber's ChamberZone 100th episode. But he says his best work is ahead of him.

"This camera is the closest thing to film production that we've had in the Tri-Cities market," says Weeks, who has changed WCP's name to Digital Cinema South, adding "we can now produce motion picture quality content at a fraction of the price. I look forward to introducing the new digital cinema technology to clients, as well as training a few others in the region on how to take advantage of a technology that has now been embraced by Academy award winning directors like Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings) and Steven Soderbergh (Traffic).  It's an exciting time."

Additional notes from CTIA 2011 keynote by Federal Communications Chairman Julius Genachowski

These notes augment a published article on the topic, which can be found at http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/Editorial/Featured-Articles/CTIA-NAB-and-the-FCC-Battle-Over-Wireless-Spectrum-Reallocation-74523.aspx

Quotes from Federal Communications Chairman Julius Genachowski's keynote the CTIA 2011 trade event, held at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.

"We've made progress on a few points on the FCC's broadband plan, including open internet and transparency in roaming, specifically data roaming."

Open internet. Progress has been made, although we recognize the difference between mobile and fixed-wired broadband.

Data roaming. "We also understand the need for a competitive marketplace so we are pushing forward with, and continue to address, broadband roaming charges. Consumers should be able to roam anywhere in the country without roaming fees. We understand that many providers need roaming fees to remain competitive but we need to move forward with a roaming-free broadband details."

Spectrum re-allocation. "We see an estimated $30 billion in revenues for the government. We also see estimates that say broad consumer benefits may be ten-fold. While the number is not perfect, that could yield benefits up to $300 billion."


"While our appetite for innovation and mobile are insatiable, available spectrum is not. With three-fold spectrum inventory in place now, some analysts project a 35x increase in five years, meaning we will run out of spectrum within the next two years." [Other analysts contradict this statement, saying better spectrum management would resolve the issue.]

Wired, interconnected world. "When I visited CES, virtually every product on the CES floor was connected, primarily through wireless access.  It shows that broadband is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity. As demand increases, unleashing spectrum is important to American competitiveness and opportunity. [Gave iPad example of moving beyond befuddling to highly coveted]

Demographic and geographic disparities. Adoption rate for broadband is 67% overall, compared to Singapore's 90% adoption rate [fails to address compact size of Singapore vs USA]. Adoption is much lower for low-income and minority and rural areas [service providers don't make it available in many rural areas].

Innovation and Leadership. "Broadband is not only what you get when you plug into the wall, but also increasingly what you get on a mobile device. We see economic growth and global competitiveness through wireless broadband growth. Other than Japan, we have more subscribers for 3G mobile broadband, and we are the leader in 4G.

Yet by 2014 there will be more 4G devices in Europe than in US. We need to be innovating here and exporting to the rest of the world."

Legacy conundrum. "Broadband is a disruptive innovation that creates an innovator's dilemma in the US market, as the market leader. We have no choice but to develop a 21st century solution that accommodates 20th century legacy technologies, while other countries have an easier task as they have limited legacy technologies to integrate."

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. "There is an enormous costs of delay. 205,000 jobs could be created over the next five years, if spectrum is available. For instance, deploying towers will create 53,000 jobs, meeting the President's goal of bringing 4G to 90% of the US market. Making new applications will also generate jobs."

Socially Acceptable? A Call To Action Unheeded

Panel tackles role of social media In pushing premium content online—and off. 


The audience sat enraptured by the panelists, who discussed a blockbuster film set for its DVD debut just two weeks before Easter.

"The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader is set for DVD release on April 8, 2011 in the United States," said Simon Swart, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment executive vice president, "a perfect time for this audience to embrace the DVD as it did the theatrical release."

The audience Swart referred to included many attendees at the National Religious Broadcasters' event, held at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee in early March. 

The session, titled  “Connecting with Audiences in an Age of Distraction,” covered a number of faith-based films and online video projects that Sony, Fox and other premium content creation and distribution firms are gearing toward the NRB's core audience.

As part of the Super Session, Swart and fellow panelists explored the power of grassroots advocacy and—to a lesser extent—social media as a way to market premium content.

Michael Flaherty, an executive producer at Walden Media, the company that has seen its three Chronicles of Narnia films pull in over $1.5 billion in theatrical dollars, emphasized the importance of grassroots efforts to support a film.

"When we prepared to launch The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe with Disney," Flaherty said, referencing the distributor of the first to Narnia films, prior to Fox taking the lead on Dawn Treader, "we brought the trailer to show to your audience, just as we did with the second film, Prince Caspian."

Lion itself had over $750 million in box office receipts, in no small part thanks to its grassroots word-of-mouth marketing.

"You were instrumental in marketing all three films by word of mouth," Flaherty added to his appreciative audience, "from requesting that local theaters play Lion, to attending showings in record number."

During the Super Session, Flaherty and Swart confirmed that Walden and Fox were in discussion about adapting the next Narnia book, probably The Magician's Nephew, one of the four remaining books in the series written by Clive Staples Lewis in the 1950s.

When asked by panel moderator, Phil Cooke, about the importance of Facebook and other social media, one panelist discussed the difference between grassroots and social media.

"We've yet to see a direct connection between high social media interest and actual box office results," the panelist said, adding that one recent film he tracked had hundreds of thousands of likes on its Facebook page, yet the film didn't bring in business at the box office.

"It's possible that the sections of the film that were released on Facebook gave the potential audience enough of the film that they didn't feel a need to attend the actual movie," he said.

Still, this hasn't stopped social media from playing a role in driving online video, which the panel acknowledged. This may have implications on the 28-day release window if Netflix and others can convince the studios that its direct-to-DVD releases should also be released as online content on day-and-date. 

"We see several new models emerging," said Fox's Swart, who showed a number of DVD-only release "sneak peeks" to the audience.

John Schneider, of Dukes of Hazzard fame, also spoke about the impact of grassroots efforts on a film's marketing impact.

"I can't tell you how many TV commercials I've watched since I got TiVO in my house years ago," said Schneider, whose appearance at the event was intended to drive interest in Doonby, a movie Schneider will star in later this year. "If it were up to me, I'd spent a lot less on TV commercials to entice moviegoers and alot more on social media and grassroots efforts like this session."

Walden's Flaherty agreed that social media is important, but said that word-of-mouth's impact on consumer action is even more important.

"Even if you 'like' a film on Facebook," added Flaherty, "be sure you support the film at the box office, since that's the yardstick for which most premium content is still judged, and it will have a direct impact on being able to fund future films that you like."

Panel host Phil Cooke also talked about the importance of online grassroots efforts, including a fan base that might be a little "crazy" as he put it. Cooke talked about a previous event he attended, at which the Dawn Treader trailer was shown for the first time.

"At least the audience of religious broadcasters didn't film the trailer and post it online," Cooke said, which elicited a laugh from the radio and TV producers in the room, "but within twenty minutes of the trailer being shown, I saw a Google Alert in my phone's email inbox telling me that two sites already had detailed reports about the trailer."

Korn/Ferry International Doesn't Get It

Allen Delattre, Global Managing Director of Korn/Ferry International's Technology Practice, gave a brief presentation at GigaOm's Net:Work 2010 on the human factor in the future of work.

"Technology has progressed, but have we?" asked Delattre. "Pick your timeframe—5 or 10 years—and you'll see how rapidly technology has changed. Yet we as humans haven't evolved organically."

I thought I was at a tech conference, not a Matrix meet-up.

"You thought the telegraph to telephone was a bit leap," said Delattre, "but we've done more in the last fifteen years than in the past 3000 years."

I'm now beginning to wonder if there's a disconnect with reality, or just a marketing pitch coming, since there's not much that we've done recently that wasn't done in the 1800s (see the
Victorian Internet as a proof point: have we really pushed beyond the place shifting?)

"We live in world where we live locally but have to work globally," he continued. D'oh!

One good piece of news, however, in the presentation is the fact that democracy is growing across the world, at least based around the concept of the democratization of IT. Delattre wisely calls this "constructive anarchy" because workers are brining new mobile devices—such as the iPad—to the workplace.

"They are, in essence, dragging along the IT departments to the point of better tools to get work done," he said.

Yet there's one more disconnect.

"The past is no longer an indicator of the future," he said. "Tomorrow's leaders need to adapt and execute."

Yet he calls out that those who "took a turn through marketing and finance and operations" might not be the candidates to push up the chain, since they don't have the "new media" or "social media" chops.

But wait! Where will they get the experience to adapt, if we're overlooking those people who have taking a turn through finance, marketing and operations? What are they adapting from?

Plantronics shows off personal speakerphone

Renee Niemi, SVP, Communication Solutions with Plantronics presented a few new (or soon-to-be available) products.

To set the stage, she mentioned that there's a disconnect (no pun) between the message, tone of voice and body language between face-to-face meetings and voice-only calls.

Face-to-Face / Video, she says, breaks down this way: 7% message, 38% tone of voice and 55% body language, while voice-only / phone call communication is 13% message and 87% tone of voice.

Niemi then showed off Calysto 825, a new personal speakerphone that connects the mobile phone and PC phone (Skype) with a unified user interface.

"Because it works with both the PC phone and your mobile phone, it lets you focus on the conversation, not the tool," said Niemi. "It also has a wireless microphone, which allows you clip the microphone on and still remain part of the conference if you need to step away from the speakerphone."

The latter feature assumes you stay within distance of the speaker, of course, and will hopefully have a mute button for those times you need to stay connected but muted.

Another tool is a software app that Plantronics is launching called Instant Meeting, an Android and Blackberry app that allows one-touch connection to conference calls.

It searches through the Outlook calendar [and hopefully other CalDav calendars such as Google Calendar or iCal] and then prompts to join the meeting at the appropriate time.

When confirmed, it will dial the number, enter the passcode and directly put you in to the conference call with a single touch. Diemi didn't really describe what happens in those systems in which you have to say your name and push the # on the keypad before joining the conference, but perhaps there's magic happening there, too, which we'll find out when the app is released.

Finally, she showed off the Voyager Pro UC, a new headset that allows synchronized presence between the PC phone and the mobile phone. In addition, it has sensor capability, or the ability to know whether a headset is being worn or not.

This sensor capability eliminates the issue of having a phone call go to your Bluetooth connected headset that may have slipped down between the seat or is in your coat pocket. If you find it and then put it on, the call will switch over to the headset. Another outstanding questions on this technology, though: what if you take it off again?

The Death of Place?

MOBILOCRACY: Spreading the Wealth of Mobile Connectivity

Evan Kaplan, President and CEO, iPass, predicts we're about to see a"destruction of place."

Subtitled THE INALIENABLE RIGHTS OF THE MOBILE WORKFORCE, Kaplan's presentation at GigaOm's Net:Work 2010, maps out a world where mobility or mobile work is the rule, rather than the exception that it was just a decade ago.

"Today's average mobile employee is 46 years old and lives outside of Silicon Valley," said Kaplan, whose research is based on the Mobile Workforce Report, a quarterly survey of about 2,000 of the 2.5 million iPass users.  "Main Streeters are catching up with the technological elite, many have multiple devices, and their embrace of smartphones and tablets are creating the largest workplace disruption since the PC."

Trends from the iPass Mobile Workforce Report include:

1. Security and cost / productivity imbalance
2. Hyper-connected workers are becoming a norm: only 6% of workers totally disconnect on vacation
3. Post PC - the device stack that lets me work across multiple devices [simultaneously]
4. Multi-generational and global dissemination of the mobile workforce continues.
5. Multiple devices: 50% have three devices

"A highly mobile lifestyle come certain habits," says Kaplan, "which is both highly beneficial and also potentially risky to the enterprise."

"For instance, devices are cheap, but the networks are expensive," said Kaplan. "Just look at the recent LTE high-speed mobile data announcement by Verizon, where a 5GB subscription at $50 per month, can be drained in less than two hours of video viewing."

According to Kaplan, whose company works with mobile enterprise customers, enterprises need to strike the fine balance between data security protection and mobile employee productivity.

"The dirty secret is that the most of these mobile devices are more secure than the PCs or laptops we provision," said Kaplan.

Finally, Kaplan discussed what he calls the Mobility Bill of Rights:

I have the right to stay connected, to access the best networks and services, choose what device I want to use," said Kaplan, "and I want to personalize it (make it my own)."

"I want to be free of security threats and not be deprived of IT support," he continued. "I am one person, so I want one account for all my devices, not one per device."

Through it all, Kaplan talks about the "death of location" as a norm, but says that location is even more important than it was before.

"We see the cropping up of co-working, including the local CitizenSpace [here in San Francisco]," said Kaplan. "We see Starbucks and other coffee shops positioning themselves as 'third space' locations, since the need to meet with a group—and even to be around others while you work on your own thing—is still a key factor."

Is Nimble Cool Again?

"Entrepreneurs used to brag about the size of their funding round; now they boast about how little money they need."

http://www.sanfranmag.com/story/on-the-wings-of-angels


iPhoned