Streaming

The Moving Picture: Mistakes and All

The first and most common mistake made when producing for streaming is shooting in an interlaced mode. All streaming video is progressive. And if you shoot interlaced, you start with two fields that may not combine into one clean frame (even if you check the deinterlace box before rendering), especially when motion or sharp diagonal lines are involved. This can result in simple jaggies or bizarre artifacts, such as a table edge that looks like twisted wrought iron in a video produced by one of the largest retail chains in the world. Second, if you do shoot interlaced, remember to deinterlace the video. Streaming producers make this mistake all the time and end up with horizontal slices, almost like Venetian blinds in higher-motion sequences.

Accessible Web Video: JW Player Controls

Our JW Player Controls is an attempt to get around the limitations for access that Flash presents, to provide a richer user interface to the JW FLV Player, and to enhance the contrast and readability of captions by providing an alternate viewing area for caption content.

Stripped Bear

An introduction to Usability: What's The Use? by Shaun Fensom from Manchester Digital, followed by a short primer to usability by Paul Rouke, User Experience Director at PRWD.

Efficient Video Delivery Over The Internet

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. In this day and age of digital media, video on your web site can be priceless. Whether you have a corporate, social networking, or video streaming site, video instantly captures your visitor’s attention and describes your product and services quickly and effectively. Due to its large install base, Flash video is now the de-facto standard in internet video delivery. With recent updates to Flash 9, Flash Player adds the capability of playing H264 encoded video in full screen mode, making the delivery of Flash videos on the internet not only practical, but efficient as well. In this article, I will examine a few different techniques for delivering Flash videos over the internet and compare the advantages and disadvantages of each.

How to Podcast with Skype

So you want to be a podcast superstar? Well, while this article might not make you a superstar, the aim is to help you record quality audio using Skype. Skype recording can be a tricky, but the benefits far outweigh the time investment it takes to learn. We use it on the Web 2.0 Show podcast to capture our interview audio and it has allowed us to interview some very big names without being in our interviewee’s location. Or running up large phone bills. This article will cover both Mac and Windows based recording techniques, and we will post follow-up articles covering post-production of the audio and how to upload and track your podcast.

Strategies for Using Compressed Video Effectively

Interactive media for distance training require special presentational strategies. Compressed video, an interactive medium using fiber optics, has unique characteristics which users must know. The video creates a lack of direct eye contact and a sense of separation. The compression creates flattened images and extremes of colors. Effective presenters in this medium must plan concise, horizontal graphics. They must schedule short, varied activities with limited use of uninterrupted lecture. And they must plan frequent interactive activities--such as questions, group work, and demonstrations--for an effective session.

Infrastructure for Academic Podcasting

Podcasting involves three activities: capturing content, producing it, and distributing it. Tim Poe and Ben Rogers from the Office of Information Technology at Duke University's Multimedia group talk about the technology initiatives undertaken, and make their audience aware of the plethora of tools available to perform these activities easily.

Cafe2Go

The IABC Cafe2Go is the official monthly podcast of the International Association of Business Communicators. Hosted by IABC president Julie Freeman, ABC, APR and 2006-07 IABC chair Glenda Holmes, ABC, Cafe2Go features updates on the association's programs and initiatives as well as discussion of current issues and trends in communication.

Podcasting Tutorial: Create Your Own Podcast

This podcasting tutorial will show you how to create your very own podcast quickly and easily! Think about listening to a radio show on a topic that you're interested in, but instead of having to tune in at a specific time, you can listen to the show at the time and place of your choosing. That's what podcasting enables you to do.

Podcasting for User-Centered Design

This summer marks the anniversary of initial recordings of Design Critique: Products for People with Tim & Tom, a podcast devoted to informing listeners about the advantages of User-Centered Design (UCD). I hope this article may encourage the creation of other podcasts related to UCD theory and practice. Our vision of doing a UCD-related podcast was that an informal, occasionally humorous show combining consumer product critiques, interviews with user experience professionals, and occasional method discussions might fill a void I perceived in the podcasting world. Sometimes the absence of a thing may imply more than its presence would, and I was concerned that this new medium didn't seem to have many regular shows devoted to what user experience professionals can offer the world. A maturing, innovative field ought to be represented in a maturing, innovative medium.

Using Cable Access to Learn Video Production

Today's information seeker wants instant enlightenment--at the push of a button. And, thanks to TV-conditioning, s/he wants it packaged with action, sound, and pizzazz—like an episode of 'Nova.' The national information superhighway will provide the delivery vehicle for information in video format. You and I will provide the material—if we know how to produce it. Our demonstration will include television programs produced by Dallas STC members and explain how you can learn videography at your local public access facility.

Managing the Knowledge Behind Business Decisions Through User-Centered Design: A Case Study

Jerome and Giovanni explain why efficient access to knowledge is essential for global business operations. Giovanni discusses how his company realized its systems needed improvement – and why user-centered design proved to be the appropriate solution. This empirical approach to interface design/architecture enables effective business decisions.

HTML Scripting Guide for QuickTime

You can use QuickTime and HTML together to present various kinds of multimedia over the Internet or from a local disk. There are specific HTML tags and parameters that cause a browser to load QuickTime and allow the HTML author to control QuickTime's behavior.

Creating a Dynamic Playlist for Streaming Flash Video

As developers, we are often bogged down with mundane tasks such as site maintenance and updates. Until now, if we wanted to pass these tasks on to clients or colleagues who are not tech-savvy, we had to develop sophisticated interfaces to simplify the process for them and to give them easy access to the data. But now, XML is changing that reality.

Encode, Deliver, Design: Getting a Grip on Flash Video

Follow these simple technical steps to turn your video concept into reality with Flash Video.

Shooting Web Video: How to Put Your Readers at the Scene

Freelance writers, bloggers and independent journalists yearning to use video on the Internet, grab your PDAs. Use these tips to help you begin shooting and editing your own Web video stories.

Flash Video Learner's Guide

This guide provides an introduction to Flash Video, including information on how to create and publish Flash Video.

Flash MX : Import and Compress Video

One of the most exciting upgrades in Flash MX is the fact that you can now compress and playback video within Flash. In the previous version of Flash you could import but then could only export the video as a QuickTime movie. You did not have the ability to playback or compress the movie within Flash. If you want to incorporate video into your Flash movies, then Flash MX should be your tool of choice!

Planning Ahead in Technical Communication

Describes the course of study that new students in the field of technical communication should consider. Describes what high-tech companies in the Northwest are looking for in prospective employees, and provides information about how to employ particular TC skills to cope with an unsettled job market.

Portfolios to Demonstrate Professional Skills

Explains how electronic portfolios bring together all the assignments in a TC core course, including learning the tools supported by the profession, student assignments, design rationales, and students' reflections on the tools and their skills and abilities.

Dreamweaver Tutorials: Getting Started

Learn how you can get up and running quickly with Dreamweaver MX. Watch these tutorial movies, and get started today.

Getting Started with Flash Video

In this brief tutorial you will learn how to build a simple Macromedia Flash video project in just five easy steps.

Introduction to Macromedia Dreamweaver (I)

Macromedia Dreamweaver is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor used for web page creation. This video will guide you through the first use of Dreamweaver MX. It is followed by Introduction to Macromedia Dreamweaver (II).

Introduction to Macromedia Dreamweaver (II)

Macromedia Dreamweaver is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor used for web page creation. This video will continue to guide you through the first use of Dreamweaver MX. It follows Introduction to Macromedia Dreamweaver (I).

Macromedia Dreamweaver MX Fundamentals

Macromedia Dreamweaver MX Fundamentals is the first in a series of tutorials from Virtual Training Company for Dreamweaver MX. The author of this series, Mark Fletcher, is a member of Team Macromedia for Dreamweaver. Tap into his extensive knowledge as he takes you step-by-step through the creation of a web site. He will show you how to add text and graphics, work with frames and framesets, apply cascading style sheets, and create re-usable content from library items. You will also learn how to insert and edit Flash objects, construct an HTML form, manage your page layout using both HTML tables and the Layout View, structure and maintain your web site using Dreamweaver MX's powerful site management tools, and create a dynamic web page using Macromedia's ColdFusion technology. To start learning, simply click one of the topics below.

Creating a Backlit Sign

This video will show you how to make an eyecatching backlit display.

Creating a Magnetic Sign

An introduction to how to create a magnetic sign for indoor displays.

Creating an Indoor Banner

This video will cover professional banner design and layout and choosing the right material for the job.

Creating an Indoor Print on Rigid Substrate

Covers scanning a photograph, laying out the graphic, printing, mounting, and then a review of components.

Five Reasons to Stream

Many organizations are hesitant to deploy streaming media on their sites due to the fact they don’t want to deal with the performance or support issues that may crop up. But those downsides need to be weighed against the true business benefits that accrue from streaming media deployments. In a recent primer, Adobe offered these top five business benefits of streaming media.

SMIL Tips and Tricks

SMIL, as more people are beginning to appreciate, can be used for a variety of applications, such as interactive video, video on demand, online training, audio, animation, and more, in ways that were previously unavailable. With SMIL, the ability to create rich media presentations is simplified and is available to any user with a computer and an Internet connection.

Ten Tips for Talking Heads

Andy Warhol once said that everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes. So when that time comes don't screw it up - follow these 10 tips for broadcast success, whether you're talking to Matt and Katie via satellite uplink or your employees via a Webcast.

Traceability, Reproducibility, Compatibility - Quality Control Elements in Audio Information Transfer

In transfer from one medium to another or one format to another, the target format may be able to hold more information or less information than the original. According to the purpose of the transfer, a selection offeatures may be made as a minimum requirement for transfer. Awareness of Traceability, Reproducibility and Compatibility will ensure the fulfilment of these requirements. The dedicated transfer station approach using calibrated equipment is contrasted with the use of diagnostic signals for use with transfer stations of any standard. The advantages and disadvantages of the respective approaches are mentioed, in particular as regards long term storage. The background for creating diagnostic signalsfor transfer of mechanical recordings is discussed in depth.

Using Writing to Negotiate Knowledge and Power

In Language and Symbolic Power, Pierre Bourdieu demonstrates how the language practices of institutions can generate symbolic violence and relations of power. At the same time, these language practices make existing power relationships seem natural and thus hide the symbolic violence from both more and less powerful inhabitants of these sites. Research has only recently begun to examine critically these practices as they function in corporate America. This talk will examine textual practices within a large manufacturer of agricultural equipment to show how they require subordinates to document their work in forms determined by management. Such documentation represents work in terms acceptable to managers and prevents subordinates from developing alternative understandings of the possibilities of their labor.

What We Do Best

This lecture describes the need for the field to clarify how we represent ourselves and think about ourselves.

Software Environments for Technical Writing

Starting with the development of Caterpillar Fundamental English in the 1970's, industry has made several attempts to formalize and standardize the writing process, both to promote consistency and quality for the reader and to improve the possibilities for automatic text processing (e.g. translation to other languages). In this presentation, I will review the work we have done at the Language Technologies Institute on a software environment for automatic document checking, specifically to address the issue of how such environments can be productive (and hence useful) for the technical writer.

The Basics of QuickTime 5

This article focuses on Apple’s latest release, QuickTime 5, both from a user’s and developer’s perspective. I'll also describe the tools you'll need, the creative possibilities, and how to best deliver a project to your intended audience.

Streaming Media

Streaming media is a method for delivering multimedia content, where video, audio, graphics, and animation can all play simultaneous roles in the presentation.

The advantage of streaming media is that you can start viewing the presentation almost immediately while the file itself is still being sent from the server; there is no waiting period while all the component files are first downloaded to your hard drive. When the presentation is over, none of the component files remain on your computer.

The Marriage of Rhetoric and Pragmatics

The current proliferation of hermeneutic resources with a linguistic base--pragmatics, speech act theory, classical rhetoric theory, Burkean analysis, conversational analysis, Habermasian communicative action--is an embarras de richesse. Surely, at this point, we need, not another theory, but rather an attempt at synthesis, an attempt to turn this hermeneutic plentitude into a single theory. In this paper, we propose to take an initial step in this direction, to attempt to marry pragmatics and rhetoric. But given the theoretical exfoliation that has marked these areas, such a marriage can be managed only by imposing very strict limitations on the scope of our enterprise. We believe, however, that we can take a step in our preferred direction by addressing the more specific problem of whether the theory of Paul Grice, the father of pragmatics, is compatible with the theory of Aristotle, the father of rhetoric. We intend to do so by reconstructing Aritotelian rhetoric as a pragmatics.

On the Razor’s Edge: Languaging, Autopoiesis, and Growing Old

A. L. Becker’s 'modern philology' is an approach to discourse rooted in multifaceted explorations of particular texts: a line from Emerson, a Southeast Asian proverb, a Javanese shadow play. He explains 'autopoiesis' this way: 'One of the tenets of the gaggle of ideas calle ‘autopoiesis’ is that languaging is orientational, mostly. A says something to B -- and no ‘message’ is ‘transmitted’ -- rather what A says orients B (and him/herself, of course). But the orientation of A is not the orientation of B, except to the extent they have the same reactions to prior texts (lingual memories).

Strategies and Roadblocks to the Inclusion of Community Expertise in Academic Research

This talk presents a case study which followed a graduate course in public policy. This course attempted to construct knowledge around a community based problem in collaboration with community members. The talk covers both the successes and difficulties of this research project.

'Where The Hell Did I Put It?': Users in Heterogeneous Communications Environments Negotiating the Production, Distribution and Archiving of Knowledge Objects

A qualitative glance at how people in contemporary, heterogeneous communications environments--especially those involved in collaborative enterprises--were handling multiple communication events and the incoming and outgoing products of their communications, for example, texts, files, e-texts parked on shared file servers, e-texts parked on a user's hard-disk, web pages and useful http addresses, all of those sorts of things.

Designing (for) Ourselves and (for) Others

This presentation, by one of the best-known professors of technical communication in the U.S., traces how readers have been paid increasing attention, especially as they have become more active in text-making, rather than just text-reading. In particular, it talks about the rhetorical roles that readers assume in Web documents, and how those roles contribute to the success or failure of communication.