MediaOne Services

You can easily make an inexpensive one-camera shoot look like a...

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 12:13:00 -0400

You can easily make an inexpensive one-camera shoot look like a not quite as inexpensive two camera shoot…and increase the production value along the way.

Shoot your video in 1080i (always). When you edit, set your session to 720p. Then at key points in your one-camera wondershoot, scale the video a bit larger. Since the original is in a higher resolution, you’ll have some room to play without having the enlarged video look soft.

See it in action in our our simple “We Give Away Giants Tickets” video. A one-take wonder shot in just a few minutes. There are more examples of the technique in our sizzle reel.

MAGIC NUMBER IS 3……

Sat, 22 Sep 2012 20:21:21 -0400

If the Giants win tonight & the Dodgers lose then the number is ONE.

That means the Giants would just need to win one more game to clinch a playoff berth.

It’s very possible the Giants could clinch this weekend and we are hoping it happens ASAP.

We’ve been preparing for the different post-season scenarios and it looks like games 1& 2 of the Division Series will be played here at AT&T Park on Saturday, October 6 & Sunday, October 7. We’re waiting to see who we play; it’s either the Washington Nationals or the Cincinnati Reds.

It’s the quiet before the storm but the BUZZ has started. Its nervy times for us here at the park, once the Giants clinch, it’s a 1000 miles an hour. We’re prepping for the post-season rights holders which are TBS, MLB Network, NHK from Japan & ESPN. That’s a lot of production and a wave of technical set-ups that we will be managing and supporting. My team and I will be ringing out the broadcast infrastructure and making all the necessary repairs and adjustments to make sure every broadcaster is accommodated.

The Giants by the way…. are on FIRE. They are hitting the skin off the ball. They look better then the 2010 World Series team, in my opinion.

…Nelson

3 Games against the Dodgers starts tonight

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 17:46:55 -0400

Dodgers are 4.5 games behind Giants.

It’s a HUGE series. Tomorrow’s game is broadcast nationally on FOX Sports & FOX Deportes.

Sunday’s game will be on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball & ESPN Deportes. Additionally, MLB productions will be producing the 5^th episode of “Caught Looking”.

This is the inaugural season of “Caught Looking” which airs on NBC Sports Network.

“Caught Looking” is their new one-hour show focusing on one weekend match up, each week, until the end of the season. It will serve as an opportunity for us to tell the story of each team thus far and highlight the games of the series.

During this 7 day homestand we also hosted Japanese broadcaster NHK for the Diamondback series.

Its very busy working towards post-season.

San Francisco Opera at the Ballpark, Saturday, September 15

It’s a FREE Live simulcast of Giuseppe Verdi Rigoletto @ Sat 8pm from the War Memorial Opera House.

It’s in HD and will be shown on the Giants huge HD scoreboard. MediaOne (thats us) are providing the engineering & technical support. We are also providing the HD connectivity between the opera and the park. We do over 20 days of testing before the actual event happens.Testing includes measuring signal loss over fiber, lip sync and practicing the scenario should there be a loss of signal during the event (fun stuff).

Yes, you can sit on the field, if you interested, the link is below.

http://sfopera.com/Season-Tickets/Opera-at-the-Ballpark-Registration.aspx

This what we’re sayin’

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 12:13:22 -0400

This what we’re sayin’

Hey! Come work here!

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 19:05:25 -0400

MediaOne Services is seeking a Sales and Business Development Director. This position will be responsible for selling a menu of corporate, PR and educational video communication services. This role requires someone who is both knowledgeable in professional video and is an experienced dynamic sales hunter and networker.

Current services include full service production studios, remote production, webcasting, satellite and fiber transmission. The range of products we produce encompass: National news, live events, celebrity interviews, conferences, presentations, press tours, branded spots, live webcasts, media training and corporate communications.

Including: Video Webcasting and Studio and Remote Production for products such as webinars, web shows, speeches, press conferences, shareholder meetings, and product announcements, and Custom Web films and Micro-documentaries for products such as sales videos, tradeshow videos, viral web films, branded shows, and promos.

Job Requirements: To be considered for this position, selected individuals must have:

Existing rolodex in targeted prospect area
Creating and building relationships with decision makers in the agency and corporate communication, marketing and community sectors via social media and live networking events
Developing customers and revenue including building a customer base, new business calls, writing proposals, negotiating and closing contracts.
Building new businesses and a proven track record of consistently exceeding corporate objectives and revenue goals
Ability to work closely with Director of Production to properly size and bid opportunities
Video. You must have professional experience and a working knowledge of corporate video communications, video production and post production. Background as video producer, agency account manager or broadcaster is highly preferred.
Commitment to excellent customer service, internally as well as externally
To lead meetings with high level clientele and close $5k to $1M size deals, efficiently and effectively
Outstanding interpersonal skills, communication and presentation skills, and a results-oriented style are essential

Salary:

Base Salary + Commission

Benefits:

Health, Dental, Vision, 401k offered

Company: MediaOne Services (“MediaOne”) is a unique media company in the heart of San Francisco that has been in business since 1987. During that time, it has been the leading independent broadcast origination center in Northern California. MediaOne provides services to video content producers, aggregators and distributors. The Company has strong long term relationships with its clients such as NBC, Google, Facebook, Climate Alliance, San Francisco Giants, McKesson and The White House.

The Switch is on

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 16:43:14 -0400

MediaOne is pleased to join The Switch’s global gateway of video fiber for the broadcast community. Launched in New York in 1991, The Switch provides customer-controlled routing services in 25 U.S. cities and internationally in London and Toronto.

In March, from it’s facility in downtown San Francisco, MediaOne began offering The Switch’s service in the area, allowing customers to immediately establish intercity connections directly from its touch-screen Switch Control System. Owned and operated by Beers Enterprises Inc., The Switch’s ICOD service offers both 270-Mbps uncompressed SDI and 1.485-Gbps uncompressed HD-SDI. ICOD offers the flexibility of immediate or reserved intercity transmissions in increments as small as one minute.

“It’s a perfect match, “ says Linda Hannan, Western Regional Sales Director for The Switch, “MediaOne is the premier provider of broadcast and webcast production and transmission services in San Francisco and we are the premiere long distance fiber provider. Together we can reach both our customers wherever and whenever there is a need.”

“The Switch gives us unparalleled flexibility and control, enabling us to provide the best product possible for our customers. The customer controlled routing system allows us to provide and charge for only what the customer needs. No more 15 minute increments and additional charges. Customers love it,” says Nelson Ferreira, Director of Broadcast and Transmission Services for MediaOne.

The Switch offers connectivity to television and cable broadcasters, satellite and fiber optic facilities, news bureaus, educational institutions, museums, and producers of individual programs, sports, and live events.

MediaOne Services is a global video production company headquartered in San Francisco, providing strategies, studios and services to enterprises, broadcasters, webcasters, and NGOs. Customers include NBC, Electronic Arts, HP, Climate Reality, Ustream, ESPN, McKesson, BBC, Girl Scouts and more.

Back in November, MediaOne was invited to participate in...

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 16:13:10 -0400

Back in November, MediaOne was invited to participate in covering the launch of Liquid Robotics Wave Glider’s from the St Francis Yacht Club. Well, we would like to congratulate our friends for breaking the Guinness Book World record for distance by an unmanned wave powered vehicle!

Check out this awesome page thats shows the route and data.

Rich Costello Director of Production

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You have an idea for a web show, YouTube video, but the cost of...

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 12:50:00 -0500

You have an idea for a web show, YouTube video, but the cost of the needed gear is keeping you from stardom.We have a beautiful studio, Sony EX-3 cameras, a Yamaha audio mixer, a handful of KiPro recorders. Let’s hook them up. Lights, microphones, small refrigerators…ya know…for snacks.

Giving people voice is a goal at MediaOne. To make this happen, we want to work with you and your idea, to experiment. We can use the tricks of modern gear to keep the costs tons cheaper then you might think.

Come play in The Lab, a new idea where we work with creative minds to produce quality videos. Turn your audio podcast into a video podcast. Bring your product in and let’s show it to the world. Talk show idea?

Get in touch. Use the “message” feature on our Facebook page. Or email us using the address on our website’s footer. Mention “The Lab”.

You can be somebody!

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AT&T park: The upgrade continues

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 15:15:38 -0500

Above is a jpg of the TV truck bay. This is where the mobile TV production trucks pull in and park. This is where the TV production trucks plug into our broadcast infrastructure. Its located under the Coke bottle and the little ballpark in the left field area. The visiting TV mobile unit parks on the right side of the truck bay and the home TV goes in the left side. The doorway at the rear of the truck bay is my office. This is where all the sparks fly and some of the magic happens. The truck bay is 52 feet wide and 58 feet long. Most production trucks are 16 feet wide and 53 feet long so as you can tell, it gets cozy in the truck bay. The big black area in the middle of the jpeg is the main patch panel. Check out the jpg below for a close up of our main patch panel. This panel ties the production trucks to the announcers, to the cameras and audio inside the ballpark. The production trucks also feed program to this patch panel which ties into our infrastructure. We monitor the program feed and transmit it to Comcast Sports, FOX Sports, ESPN or whoever is airing the game. I have spent many hours on this patch panel troubleshooting signal flow, hum, voltage, terminations and so on.

How fast can you lay grass? Check it out! last week dirt, today grass. The greens crew is amazing. Hey, where the infield go?

Nelson Ferreira

Director, Broadcast and Transmission Operations

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Who knew – The Coke bottle at AT&T Park gets a face lift....

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:54:00 -0500

Coke Cleanup

Under The Grass

Who knew – The Coke bottle at AT&T Park gets a face lift. In all the time I spend at AT&T Park, I was unaware the Coke bottle gets an annual refurbish. The crew working on the bottle install new letters and make sure all the lights work, patch it up and paint it for the upcoming season. BTW, the Coke bottle is 80 feet long with playground slides that will blow bubbles and light up with every Giants home run.

The field now has no grass, its all sand. The greens crew has about 3 weeks to get the grass in place for it to be ready for pre-season. FYI… under the sand, the field sits on a rock bed that sits on a grated steel floor. This provides sufficient water drainage. Under this grated steel floor airflow is provided by an massive engine located under the left field bleachers to provide quicker drainage.

Next week, I will start removing some of our older equipment in our TX facility to make room for our new infrastructure. Will keep you posted.

Nelson Ferreira

Director, Broadcast and Transmission Operations

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The grass is being bulldozed out at AT&T Park to make room...

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:33:00 -0500

The grass is being bulldozed out at AT&T Park to make room for new sod. The new field needs to be in place by March 17th as AT&T Park will be hosting a soccer double header. First up will be the San Jose Earthquakes vs Houston Dynamo, shortly after, Mexico vs Senegal will play an international friendly.

There are several projects happening at AT&T Park and one in particular that involves MediaOne. The Giants are considering expanding the broadcast infrastructure out to Willie Mays Plaza (WMP). This area is often used by broadcasters for pre & post game shows. The project asks for two 3 inch conduits to be buried under the plaza so broadcast cable can be installed into a new tie box @ WMP. The cable includes 12 single mode fiber, 6 video and 16 audio all of which are 1300 feet in length. This cable will be pulled all the way back to the truck dock and engineered into our existing infrastructure. This project will make broadcasting from WMP more efficient.

At the same time, I am in the planning phases of upgrading our transmission facility at AT&T Park. The installation will include a new Utah 400 HD-SDI/3G router along with Bright Eye DA’s, Evertz and Aja components.

The home opener is on April 13th vs the Pittsburg Pirates.

Nelson Ferreira

Director, Broadcast and Transmission Operations

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Al Gore’s Climate Reality team called on MediaOne Services again...

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:14:00 -0500

Al Gore’s Climate Reality team called on MediaOne Services again to head up a remote shoot in Dhaka, Bangladesh. This was a 4-day production that traveled from Dhaka to Khulna and then on to Shyamnager where Producer/Photograher Wahidur Khandkar shot his beautiful video.

Handling the difference in time zones, arranging interviews, crew traveling throughout Bangladesh, sometimes by ferry to remote locations, as well as coordinating the rest of the teams in New York, Washington DC, and Los Angeles…all challenges faced in an international production. Since MediaOne is a regular partner with Climate Reality, we’ve learned most…never all…of the ins and outs of global production. Having a wonderfully talented video photographer on the ground is a big plus.

Wahidur used a Canon 7D to shoot stunning interviews and b-roll and then sent his files via ftp to New York and San Francisco.

Rich Costello. Director of Production.

Links:

Wahidur Khandkar’s website

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A few days ago, I linked to a Creative Cow blog post by Mark...

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:12:00 -0500

A few days ago, I linked to a Creative Cow blog post by Mark Roudonis, SVP of Post Production, Bunim/Murray Productions. They do, among other shows, “Project Runway” and “The Real World”. The topic: going from Final Cut to Avid and back again.

Stephane Savard, CTO of Meetrical posted a comment worth reposting here:

Yeah, their experience pretty much match my feeling. Apple doesn’t need the pro video market anymore and focus heavily on the consumer market. In doing so, it offers tools like Final Cut Pro X for small independent producer to produce content for the web and don’t care much about the much smaller number of professional who have large scale needs. They needed them 10 years ago when Apple was not as hot as now, but not anymore. On the other end, Avid has only the pro market, it’s mission critical for them, they are also a much humbler and better company to deal with now (as opposed to the old Avid). For that reason they are my first choice for an editing platform for my next project.

Your comments welcome.

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Additional Reading:

Creative Cow Avid vs Final Cut Pro Forum

This interview was on Marketplace from American Public...

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 12:57:49 -0500

This interview was on Marketplace from American Public Radio.

Kai Ryssdal: We’re spending a little time on the media competition this week. Television, and the future of it. What that means for the companies that deliver programming, the devices that’ll do it and the advertisers who’ll pay for it.

That’s right up Jim Lanzone’s alley. He’s the president of CBS Interactive, that’s the CBS network’s online content division, which means he spends a lot of time where the Internet and the future of TV intersect. He joins us from the floor of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Good to have you with us.

Jim Lanzone: Thanks for having me.

Ryssdal: So this is a kind of fundamental question, I guess, but what does the future of television look like from where you sit, inside the industry?

Lanzone: This year CES kind of reminds me of that old Yogi Berra quote: You can observe a lot just by watching. It’s television everywhere. And before TV was just on your TV, and now you’re essentially being able to access it on every device you can imagine — so your phone, your tablet, but even places like your refrigerator.

Ryssdal: And then how do you as a content guy, how do you provide content to all those different platforms? Do you just spread out the same content, or what do you do?

Lanzone: Really online content, which is what we focus on, brings a new dimension into it. Your DVR brought time-shifting, so you didn’t have to watch it — just at a scheduled appointment time. And online lets you do place-shifting, which means you can watch it anywhere. And so, it’s really on-demand viewing than appointment viewing that you would normally find on real TV.

Ryssdal: What does that mean, then, for programmers? Do they have to come up with all different kinds of content? You’ve got you and doing online, and does CBS the broadcast network have to worry about other things?

Lanzone: Yeah, it actually opens up a whole new avenue for a new kind of content. So we’re not just restricted to 30 minutes or an hour for a show on television; we can have short-form videos.

Ryssdal: So we had a piece yesterday — Jennifer Collins, our reporter there, did a story in which she was talking about Louis C.K. and how he recorded his show at the Beacon Theater and put it out online for anybody to pay whatever it was, $10, $15 to get it. Not a dime of that went to studios, went to networks, went to any intermediary, and I imagine that must scare the heck out of you guys.

Lanzone: No, I think it actually just supports the model of premium content. We’re in the business of producing it in huge quantities. He produced one show, but we’re both in the business of making our content and selling it. So really I think it just goes to underscore the fact that the future’s going to be full of all kinds of devices, lots of different people trying to deliver that content — but at the end of the day, content is what’s truly valuable.

Ryssdal: None of that content, though, comes free, right, Jim? So you have to get the advertisers on board as well.

Lanzone: Right. And these new avenues of delivering content actually have opened up new business models. So for example, we’re able to not just sell advertising against all these shows, but we can also sell the shows on demand. So you can pay per show that you want to download, or you can pay by subscription. So we have a “Big Brother” show online that you can subscribe to.

Ryssdal: All right, so this is going to sound like I don’t know what’s going on, but “Big Brother”? That’s still going? That’s a series? The people in the house?

Lanzone: “Big Brother” on CBS, yes. Big series.

Ryssdal: Who knew? Whatever.

Lanzone: We actually had hundreds of thousands of people subscribe to watch different variations of that show online. So not just watch the hour it’s on television, traditional television, but also uber fans of “Big Brother” — and there are some — can then interact with that content, get additional videos online by subscribing.

Ryssdal: So once you get past the hardware, the future of television — at least from where you sit — is content, content, content, baby.

Lanzone: Right, and more content in more places. And at the end of the day, CBS Interactive and CBS will be there delivering that content to you.

Ryssdal: Jim Lanzone is the president of CBS Interactive, that’s the network’s online content division. We got him on the floor of the Consumer Electronics Show out in Las Vegas. Jim, thanks a lot.

Lanzone: Thanks for having me.

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Related Viewing:

Blog.toggle.com, which is also where we got the iPhone image.

We are Job Creators! You ready? We’re looking for rock...

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:31:00 -0500

We are Job Creators! You ready?

We’re looking for rock solid Video Photographer with nothing but the best customer service skills. You need to be a reliable source for shoots at large corporate campus’ in Silicon Valley, 2 to 6 times a month. It’s a 2-5 hr one person shoot at $300 a pop. These are usually speaker/podium events of fascinating people (no, not kidding). If you provide your own Sony EX3 or equivalent, we’ll up it $125. You will be ready to hand over a .mov of the event when it’s over.

Email Danny at M1sf.com with links to your work.

Quiet everybody! We have an announcement to make! MediaOne...

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 13:15:43 -0500

Quiet everybody! We have an announcement to make!

MediaOne Services, San Francisco’s leading digital media production company, announced today the signing of a new four- year contract with the San Francisco Giants. MediaOne will continue to manage and operate all broadcasts services for the San Francisco Giants as well as AT&T Park.

MediaOne Services offers a broad range of services including broadcast engineering, transmission, webcast, video production, web and mobile integration as well as full-service studio and post-production rentals.

“It was only natural for us to renew our partnership with MediaOne as they have a successful track record in providing live HDTV transmission and production services for our local and national broadcast rights holders and continue to be a trusted partner here at AT&T Park,” said Mario Alioto, senior vice president of the San Francisco Giants. “We look forward to continuing this effective broadcast collaboration, serving both the Giants and AT&T Park.”

“We’ve deeply enjoyed working with the San Francisco Giants and AT&T Park for the past 11 years, and during this time, we’ve had the great pleasure of capturing several monumental, live sporting events,” said Ben Schick, chief executive officer of MediaOne. “In particular, MediaOne was fortunate to have managed the transmission and broadcast services for the 2010 World Series, 2011 Cal Football and 2007 All-Star Game.

The San Francisco Giants are one of the oldest franchises in Major League Baseball They have won the most games of any North American professional sports team and in 2010 won their first World Series Championship since moving to San Francisco from New York in 1958

MediaOne Services is a global video production company headquartered in San Francisco, providing strategies, studios and services to enterprises, broadcasters, webcasters, and NGOs. Customers include NBC, Electronic Arts, HP, Climate Reality, Ustream, ESPN, McKesson, BBC, Girl Scouts and more.

This is a screen grab of a recent web stream. Single camera. The...

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 13:16:03 -0500

This is a screen grab of a recent web stream. Single camera. The projection screen that is useless to the audience because it’s too bright. The single mic being handed around with people bending in various yoga positions to speak into it. The camera zooming all over the room, sometimes at the floor, the ceiling. Anyone can run a camera right? Is this the impression you want to give your audience? Does this make you look professional?

Below is from Philip Nelson of NewTek pulled from Stream Media Magazine.

The novelty of live streaming has worn off; it’s time to step it up. As with all media, when it’s new you can get away with simple, unsophisticated content: a webcam pointed at puppies, or a joke-telling college student in his dorm. The CDNs must make the move to premium programming and event coverage, as they compete with traditional media for viewers.

For major networks and event producers, a streaming strategy will no longer be an option, it will be a requirement. A successful media strategy will have to include live streaming, along with a primetime network broadcast. This trend started with the new hit program “X Factor,” where the online streaming component was developed in concert with the network broadcast plans to complement and extend the programming beyond television.

In addition, those who hold rights to content, like sports leagues, colleges and universities, will start taking back control of those rights as they find ways to monetize their content directly, rather than through a third party. In 2012, we will see an increase in the quality and diversity of content offered through streaming media, well beyond anything available via traditional broadcast.

For those of us working in the industry, the demand for network-quality streaming media will continue to grow, creating extraordinary opportunities for live production professionals. For the world of content consumers, streaming will continue to be about convenience of consumption, rather than loyalty to a viewing platform. Whether you produce and deliver content, or just enjoy it-2012 is your year.

We agree.

"Daily Show...Today...Play"

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:52:00 -0500

Most of the bandwidth used during prime time television viewing hours is Netflix. Half of that is going through an Xbox. Like the frog in the hot water story, TV watching is changing slowing, but surely.

TiVO started it. No longer confined to when an LA network exec decided to run a show, we could shift it to our convenience. That was the game changing moment. The time the audience training began. DVR’s are common place now. It’s how TV is watched more and more. Now for step two.

App TV, the end of linear television all together. Imagine a 42 inch iPad mounted on your wall (called Apple TV?). Launch the YouTube app and watch any one of 100 channels, or your own channel. Have you seen the new YouTube layout? All your subscriptions on a single page. You “channel guide” to what you like. As obscure as you like, it’s yours.

HBO2Go, ESPN, all on apps, on your TV. Or, the “TV app”…a third party app from a company that has licensed content. The technology is there. That ethernet cable running to your house has it all. If you are using a game console to watch Netflix, you are there. Xbox is just the app-holder-of-the-moment and Microsoft is working hard to make it the app holder for as long as it can.

When I want to watch The Daily Show, I’ll launch my Comedy Central app (or my “fake news” app, because The Onion may be there too) and watch when I’m ready. The show is shot, edited and uploaded. No waiting until 10pm (no pressure Daily Show editors). Say to my TV “Daily Show…today…play”. Or if I want to see yesterdays interview, ”Daily Show…yesterday…segment 3”. Or maybe “Daily Show…today…Apple commercials.”

Then the joke with Scotty picking up the mouse and saying “computer” won’t be as funny.

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Danny | MediaOne Director of Operations

image from www.telegraph.co.uk

Creative Director Ed Ng from Be4Media was in with his RED...

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 20:51:52 -0500

Creative Director Ed Ng from Be4Media was in with his RED Mysterium-X doing some test shots. At 60 frames/second, the models hair flowed like budda.

Green hedge for an office wall

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 18:33:35 -0400

Green hedge for an office wall:

Check out this video. Thoughts? Meet me here in 5 years and we’ll compare.