videography micro workstation VMW

Authors note: If you are not yet aware that you are living in "the age of videography" this discussion of the videography micro workstation may activate your imagination.

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The Videography Micro Workstation, VMW, is a hybrid design based on existing technologies and standards incorporated into a hand held device. It enables most workaday business to be conducted to a level meeting or exceeding the notebook computer of Spring 2007. We vidiots see the soon-to-be-coming iPhone as a baby step in the right direction . . . but iPhone has plenty of competition from Samsung and others.

Vidiots.us believes that the HD 1080 30p is the logical standard (see very small HD display from Sanyo) for a VMW. The workflow for producing 1080 30p on a handheld device is in development and we will publish as we update this story. A discussion entitled “The most stunning audio and video technology available on any computer platform” is of interest. Perhaps most interesting is the discussion going on about DRM and video. Steve Jobs "Video is pretty different from music right now …”

Video is one component of videography. Audio is another component. All available copyright protections should be afforded to the author of an artistic work done in 1080 30p. Syncronization licenses should be a standard rate as they are in the broadcast industry. Royalties from sale of content should be split between audio and video artists. One could write tomes about all the challenges to this simple system, BUT the bottom line is that it will make money for future videography artists and give the public quality that they demand. Delivering such content takes powerful new technologies.

One enabling technology, NAND technology is reaching for ever denser molecular media, which we also refer to as “flash” especially high speed “flash”.

Flash memory is featured in all HD (see P2 by Panasonic) & SD micro & mini cards. All these SD formats are doubling in capacity every nine months, Flash technology can be configured to support a "swap" capability allowing endless recording.

A second storage solution, of flash memory for HD recording, is useful to emulate the production of feature films which, for over a century, have been produced one 20 minute load at a time relying on editing to develop the content. In this age when flash memory is getting cheaper by the day (We just bought this 2GB micro SD card for $40 retail) the idea of having several cards for hot swaps is reasonable.

A leader in high powered handheld devices, Samsung shows a 10 Megapixel cell camera.

In other reports Samsung suggests that the cost of flash (NAND) media will eventually be so low that the cards can just be shot and stored.

As research progresses there are substantial indicators in technology of smaller platforms. This article on bar code readers for cell phones includes the following quote.

“The cell phone is the natural tool to combine the physical world with the digital world,” that executive, Cyriac Roeding, the head of mobile-phone applications for CBS, said the other day.

We agree that the handheld device with cellular capabilities is the “natural tool” for videography. The entire technology of wireless peripherals is most enabling to micro videography devices. Wireless projectors that handshake with the handheld device to allow larger presentations or review.

Major hurdles include voice to bitmap/vector document preparation . . . a challenge for software providers in the near term. Will these micro apps be online?

Dense applications cause micro devices to consume power at a rate that suggests constant charging would be vital.

VMW should be waterproof! Many vidiots are kayakists and naturists. We have already learned from experience the value of Pentax Optio as a high-powered device that is not systematically destroyed by submerging, even for an instant, in liquid.

Imagine if the best features of cell, video, photography, mp3/ipod, HD broadcast and more were combined with some features described above. You will have a prototype of a videography micro workstation - VMW 2008. New developments are being announced, even as we publish our specification, like LG'/Harris announcement that their "technology would be the first to enable TV stations to broadcast local programming to portable devices using the same airwaves they use to broadcast to regular living room TVs" and Samsungs 10 Megapixel cellular device.

While it is interesting to join technologies, the issue of quality of such systems needs to be addressed. Instead of throwaway devices with instant obsolescence, why not build devices of Leica quality for future videographers? Since NAB has concluded we have done extensive testing on one videograpy device that is waterproof, shoot movies in SD onto an 8GB SDHC card, which we have transferred using a PC Card reader into our laptop workstation for editing. It is not a cellular device but could easily be one. Please remember that the entire purpose of this thread is to gather the best existing technologies and specify a videography micro workstation.

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vidiots.us will continue update after digesting the new gear from NAB 2007