The Sony Bloggie Live

This is being done through a connection with Qik which has been used for live streaming on smart phones for years.

There is also a new smart phone application from Sony called Play Memories Mobile that allows you to use your phone as a hotspot for the camera if there is not an open WiFi signal to connect with.

In addition to live streaming of video, the camera also has the ability to upload videos to the web directly from it. Shot something that you loved and want to share it with your friend on Facebook and YouTube? You can now do this directly from the video camera.

We are excited to see what people create with this because it opens the possibility for everything from citizen reporting to live event coverage. We are hoping some of you will show us what you’ve created with this camera in the coming months on your own .tv’s.

The camera is set to be released at the end of January and expected to retail for around $249. If you’d like to watch a hands-on demo, the team at TPN.tv has a great one.

Flingo.tv

As covered by GigaOM, two .tv’s that showed new products are Flingo and Simple.tv.

Flingo, headquartered in San Francisco, launched in late 2008 as a way for sending online video to internet-connected TVs (including sets from LG, Samsung and Vizio). They launched a new product at CES, called SyncApps, which they claim allows users to share easily on Facebook and Twitter, while allowing social content from broadcasters, like polls and updates, to be sent to the user’s TV screen. There have announced a number of really exciting features, including an API that enables developers to create application that use SyncApps to hook into their system. This looks like the next phase of social television and we can’t wait to see where this goes.

Another .tv that emerged from CES is Simple.tv, a set-top device that lets you stream live and recorded TV content to supported mobile devices – including the iPad.  Simple.tv announced availability for Spring 2012 and are taking reservations for their device on their website. Simple.tv also announced a premium subscription package will be available  that will include an enhanced program guide, automatic recording and streaming to a set number of connected devices.

Simple.tv

These are pretty exciting uses of technology for online video – it looks like the future is really here!

We’re also looking forward to exploring great new features that are being implemented in cameras – like Wi-Fi and 3D – that will help take online video up to the next level.

One of the big events of this year’s CES was the International Academy of Web Television Awards. This is an organization that promotes and celebrates online video and the amazing creators behind them. The awards were given out on January 12^th and you can watch the stream of the ceremony here.  We were really excited to see one of our advocates, Brad Powell’s webshow, DadLabs, win Best Educational Web Series – Congratulations Brad!

Once again, the Consumer Electronics Show was an exciting kick-off to the year and we’re looking forward to seeing all of these products in use during 2012!

Twitch.tv website

We’ve written about Twitch.tv before and have followed it’s progress since it’s spin off from Justin.tv in June 2011. Twitch.tv is a site for video gamers to watch, broadcast and chat about their gameplay, a great site to discover new games and personalities to follow.

The site has been growing at an incredible rate – 11% month over month since their launch – and announced in December that Twitch.tv is now engaging more than 12 million unique visitors a month. They also launched an iPhone application, which had over 80,000 downloads in the first month.

Twitch.tv has a premium partner program that includes the Electronic Sports League, Major League Gaming and the IGN Pro League, and is now more than 1000 members strong.

There is an incredible amount of momentum going into 2012 around Twitch.tv and the gaming space – what we see is that this is an incredibly connected and vibrant community that’s passionate about video gaming and online video.

Happy New Year!

Thanks Scott! How are you planning to use video in 2012? Let us know what – send us a tweet, comment here, on our Facebook page or on our YouTube channel.

Stay Tuned!

* Disclosure: Mark is a compensated member of the .tv Advocate Program,  http://CMP.LY/3/zNxf55

.tv Advocate, Amy Mac

From function to fashion, my journey to finding food…

It is true. I use to be the girl that couldn’t cook and was fine with it. This didn’t affect my daily life (I once survived on Cheerios for 4 days and didn’t notice until I got dizzy) because I was all about the function of food and not the fashion. Plus, my husband can cook. Fast forward a few years and my brother-in-law moves in and decides to learn to cook. I was his sous chef (mostly because I didn’t want him destroying my kitchen) and suddenly food began to matter. I could start tasting subtle differences in spices and really appreciating a well-prepared steak – what had happened to me?!

This new appreciation of food didn’t really play in to my healthy lifestyle and weight management regimen so my workout plans have had to be modified through the years but it has been worth it. Not only do I appreciate amazing food but I can also cook (even though my family will never really believe it)! It is nice not to stress over having people over for dinner or taking a dish to a party. That’s why I’m a fan of LeGourmet.tv!

LeGourmet.tv

This site is full of short,informative and fun to watch videos on cooking and kitchen prep. I love the site’s simplicity, tips and recipes. From how to store an avocado without it browning to the correct way to measure flour and howtomakeovenpulledpork, you will learn something new from this site! Even if you don’t attempt any of their recipes, you get to watch and enjoy the process in these fast 5 minute videos! 

Thanks Amy for a great post.  We’d love to hear what are YOUR favorite .tv sites – send us a tweet or comment here, on our Facebook page or YouTube channel.

* Disclosure: Amy is a compensated member of the .tv Advocate Program,  http://cmp.ly/3/7Zcya9

.tv Advocate, Brad Powell

One of the best things about working with our .tv Advocates is that we get to hear about great companies that are using online video as a means to help other people and businesses.

Today, .tv Advocate Brad Powell introduces us to David J. Neff of Lights.Camera.Help., a company that connects filmmakers with non-profits.

Thanks Brad – what a great organization!

We’d love to hear what topics you’d like to see covered by our advocates – send us a tweet or comment here, on our Facebook page or YouTube channel.

Stay tuned!

* Disclosure: Brad is a compensated member of the .tv Advocate Program,http://CMP.LY/3/IohLtU

.tv Advocate, Amy Mac

Many people think that they need to be a massive production house in order to use or even afford a teleprompter.  Not true.  If you are putting out webisodes every week, EVEN if you’re just getting started, a teleprompter is not just a luxury… it’s a must.  A teleprompter is the difference between memorizing hundreds of lines and hours of shooting and stuttering OR taking 2 minutes to shoot your video and moving on with the rest of your day.  The teleprompter we use was around $1000 dollars and is considered by most standards to be pretty small.  The farther away you are from the camera the bigger teleprompter you need, at about 10 feet away from our camera, I can read it just fine.  That being said you don’t need a $1000 teleprompter or even a $100 teleprompter to get started. 

If you plan on being close to your camera (like using your webcam) you can write out the words in a big font on your screen and refer back to it as needed.  Alternately, if you have an iphone, or other smart phone, there are teleprompter programs for just a couple dollars in the app store.  Just place the phone as close as you can to your camera and you’re off! 

Some rights reserved by PrimeImageMedia.com

If you do decide to pick up the real deal, there are a couple things to know in order to look like a pro….

Make sure you stand far enough away from the teleprompter that people watching can’t see your eyes reading.  Another way to say this is use a bigger font.  If you are close enough to the teleprompter that you can have several sentences on it at one time YOU’RE TOO CLOSE.  You see this a lot when the president speaks in the Oval office.  The camera is so close to him that if you watch his eyes, you can actually see him reading the speech.  The way you fix this is to make the text a little bigger and take a couple steps back.  This way it seems as though you are just talking and not reading a script!

This brings up my last point on teleprompters.  Just because the words are on the screen doesn’t mean you can’t rehearse the text a couple times.  I can’t tell you how many times I see terrible commercials on tv or videos online where the person is talking, but clearly someone else wrote the script and they are just reading it.  You have to say the lines a couple times to make sure you are getting the inflections right and the script makes sense.  It’s like the classic scene from Anchorman when Will Ferrell reads the line on the teleprompter wrong because someone put a question mark at the end of a sentence.

A little knowledge and a small amount of cash can make your next production faster and less stressful by just using a teleprompter.

Thanks Amy for a great post. Do you use a teleprompter when shooting web video?  We’d love to hear what topics you’re using – send us a tweet or comment here, on our Facebook page or YouTube channel.

* Disclosure: Amy is a compensated member of the .tv Advocate Program,  http://cmp.ly/3/7Zcya9

Learn how to create and edit video on .tv

Our new Watch.tv site design has been live for a couple of months now – and we’ve gotten a lot of great, positive feedback on our new look and feel. One of the new sections on the site that we love is HowTo .tv, which is dedicated to educating our users about online video.

In this section you’ll find videos and posts on a number of subjects:

• Steve Garfield‘s video on how to “Plan, Shoot, Edit and Share Web Video“
• A great post on “The Keys to Great Audio“
• An answer to a question we get a lot at Watch.tv, “How to Host Video on the Web“
• And more…

Stay Tuned!

* Disclosure: Rick Griffin and Sandi McKenna are compensated .tv Advocates,  http://cmp.ly/3/LyzHe9 and http://cmp.ly/3/yDVhjL

Phil's still in the Holiday Spirit

Last Friday completed the first full week of Phil Campbell‘s amazing project, the Watch.tv Advent Calendar. Phil’s working incredibly hard on making these fantastic videos and we appreciate all of the effort he’s putting into this. These videos contain wonderful tips and technology that will help you create, edit and automate some of the processes that go into making web video.

We didn’t want you to miss anything (you are subscribed  to the iTunes feed, Phil’s RSS feed and are watching the @fibrecamp and @WatchDotTV Twitter streams, right?) so we wanted to post an update of last weeks videos, in case you need to catch up.

1. December 5: Audio Editing “On the Go”  (we posted this last week, it’s worth watching again!)
2. December 6: Automating Your Disclosure Requirements
3. December 7: Custom QR Codes and Tracking Software
4. December 8: Holler Gram for Getting Attention
5. December 9: Secure Your Data “On the Go” With a Virtual Private Network
6. December 10: Mobile Storytelling “On the Go”
7. December 11: Ten Ultimate Tips for Media Makers “On the Go”

Thanks Phil – these videos are amazing! What’s your favorite tip that Phil has shared so far? Send us a tweet or comment here, on our Facebook page or YouTube channel.

Stay tuned!

* Disclosure: Phil is a compensated member of the .tv Advocate Program,  http://CMP.LY/3/HPynQH