Kouatchou videos not a technology test, to be continued for Heavitree and Spin 2

I will keep video updates in this blog, even when there is not much tech involved.

August Bank Holiday Monday now a while ago but editing takes time and my idea is to get more loaded in time for next year. YouTube is very slow to reach an audience but it gradually helps the events that repeat.

Kouatchou was part of the Open Mic but met Spin 2 during the sound check. Two of them joined him for one song and then he joined them later with the song again. There was no rehearsal as such. I found a previous performance on YouTube



so this shows the song with voice and guitar.

Open Mic version



version when all of Spin 2 have arrived



I hope more comes out of this. Future Open Mic Bank Holiday Mondays could result in more mixing and it may continue through the winter.

Video Edits and Lighting show new possibilities with wifi communication

This is possibly a suitable blog for this post. I don't want to start too many of them. Wifi is still not ready for video or at least phones are not likely to cope with the size of files. The cameras in phones are getting better but I am still using my very reliable Kodak Zi8 with a little card I take home to a desktop. Suppose a file is 150 to 300 megs. Is that in the limits of a phone contract? Coming up soon in Exeter is #likeminds, a good time for experiment. Some people visiting will have the kit. Last year the hardware on display was mostly phone cameras. Not that #likeminds is a hardware show of course.

But sometime in the next couple of years it will be possible to upload web video from a phone and have a reasonable result.

In the last few days I have noticed some changes in web editing online. I found a link to WeVideo and then looked again at YouTube. WeVideo started in Norway with education and is now launching from California for a wider public. It is a cloud editing service but also a social network. I have not tried out sharing clips yet but can see how it would work. Actually I find it a bit difficult still. It is not obvious that you have to request an email validation and then activate YouTube etc before you can either export to YouTube or get a notification. I tried to exsport to the WeVideo YouTube channel and the site itself but these may be in a queue somewhere. Anyway tst1 has turned up on YouTube



This is just two clips put together. (I followed Kev to the Amber Rooms after the St Sidwells Community Centre Open Day. Sound systems very important for video when you rely on the camera mike.)

Another example, adjusted for lighting with Kodak Media Impression



(possibility to edit reggae clips with other forms of music)

It has taken me a while to realise that lighting can be adjusted in an edit. But WeVideo and similar sites can make this more obvious.

So then I looked at YouTube, also claiming to offer online editing but I had not tried it recently.

Again they offer a "Fill Light" option. Summertime set to 4 just a moment ago. Yesterday I tried it on The Girl from Ipanema



Previously very hard to see



The idea of cloud video editing has been around for a while. But it is getting closer to somewhere nearby.

Blackwells updates web site, is Exeter ahead of the curve?

The Bookseller reports that Blackwells have put more features on the website.

M.d. of Blackwell bookshops, David Prescott, said: "This is the first of a number of exciting developments we have planned for our online bookshop for the coming months. We have listened to customer feedback and made improvements to the website to reflect Blackwell's reputation as the UK's leading academic, professional and specialist bookseller. By harnessing the expertise of our team of booksellers in Oxford and across the company on the website, we can now offer the same level of service and knowledge you would expect from a Blackwell's bookshop in store and online."

Jessica Armishaw, head of online, added: "It is about improving the customer experience in a number of ways and at the same time we wanted to move into a place online where we differed from our competitors and went back to our core values in the academic and specialist book niche."

So Exeter University may survive without a bookshop. There is much to discuss in the new term.