Livestream jumps into the production switcher business with the HD500

Earlier today, Livestream announced its first entry into the portable production switcher market. The HD500 is targeted directly against NewTek's Tricaster 455, at about half the price--$8,500 (U.S.) vs. $15,995 for the 455 without a control surface. Shipments will begin on October 15th. The HD500's features include:

• Live video mixing for multi-camera productions (1 M/E bus)
• Live audio mixing
• Graphics overlay and titling (2 graphics & titling channels)
• Digital video recorder (DVR) and player (two sources, 10 hour capacity at 1080i 100Mbps MJPEG AVI)
• One-click live streaming in HD multi-bitrate to Livestream's service
• Integrated multiviewer and 17" 1920 x 1200 display
• 4 HD/SD SDI inputs with live video out; 5 inputs when configured for streaming or recording
• 5 video outputs (HD/SD SDI, HDMI, Component, Composite and S-Video)

The HD500 is based on a portable workstation running Windows 7 that's small enough to be brought on-board airplanes as carry-on luggage. It's got an Intel Core i7 3.2 GHz six-core CPU, integrated 17" display and multiple PCI slots--all of which are taken up by the display controller and off-the-shelf Blackmagic Design DeckLink cards for video I/O. The software was written by Livestream's own development team.

According to Max Haot, Livestream's CEO and co-founder, the HD500's design was based on input from Livestream's own in-house video production team, which produces hundreds of live streamed events each year for clients. The team has used a variety of production switchers over the years, including Tricasters and Blackmagic Design's ATEM 1 M/E and 2 M/E. They wanted a highly portable, all-in-one production switcher that would be simple to use.

The HD500 leaves out some of the features in the Tricaster 455, such as virtual sets, because Livestream's production team found that it never used them. In addition, there's no dedicated control surface available for the HD500, although Livestream may offer one as an option in the future.

Livestream's goal with the HD500 is to make it easier and less expensive to produce live video events, which will draw in more clients and revenues. To that end, the company plans to unbundle its switcher software in Q1 2013 and make it available to its customers for free. A paid version will support streaming services from competitors. Haot also believes that the HD500's price and features will appeal to companies using other streaming services--its internal encoder is dedicated to Livestream, but even with an external encoder, the package cost will still be below that of the Tricaster 455. Haot also made clear that the HD500 is only the first in a family of hardware switchers planned by Livestream.

One concern I have is Livestream's plan for product repairs. The company offers phone support seven days a week, 12 hours a day, but if a problem with a customer's HD500 can't be resolved by over-the-phone troubleshooting, the entire device has to be shipped back to Livestream's manufacturing partner for repair. There's no field repair option and no local dealers to contact for an emergency hardware loan. Livestream doesn't want users to open up the switcher to attempt their own repairs, and only two months of phone support are included in the purchase price. If a HD500 breaks down at a live production site, shipping the switcher back for repair won't be an acceptable option.

Another concern is the quality and reliability of Livestream's switching software. NewTek has been making Tricasters since 2005; that gives them a lot of time to have worked out the bugs. By comparison, this is Livestream's first go at a broadcast-quality production switcher. It's inevitable that features will be missing or poorly implemented, and that there will be bugs in the software. Those issues will get worked out over time...but do you want to be the one who first runs into them during a live production? If I were in the market for a switcher, I'd probably let Livestream's software mature for 6 to 12 months before I'd buy.

The HD500 is a compelling all-in-one switcher--but there are an ever-increasing number of options for buyers. More than ever, it's important to clearly understand how you're going to use your switcher, how you're going to connect it to cameras, the rest of your video chain, and (for streaming) the Internet, and which streaming service (or services) you plan to use, before you buy.

Canon's rumored EIS mirrorless DSLR

EOSHD.com has broken preliminary details of Canon's answer to Panasonic's and Olympus' Four-Thirds and Sony's NEX series: The mirrorless EIS (Electronic Image System). The first model, the EIS 60, is rumored to be scheduled to ship in calendar Q2 2011. The EIS 60 is said to have a 22 megapixel imager, which should immediately be a cause for concern for a couple of reasons:

• More pixels means less surface area (and thus less light sensitivity) per pixel.
• The rolling shutter problem that DSLRs have in video mode is due to the process that they use to get the resolution of the image data coming off of the sensor down to 1920 x 1080. In most cases, manufacturers simply throw most of the lines of image data away, but the result is the "jello effect" when either moving the camera or shooting fast motion. Tossing lines away also results in image softness and moire patterns, especially when shooting objects with close horizontal or vertical lines, such as brick buildings and striped clothing.

To get around both problems, Canon has reportedly developed a technique called "Pixel Fusion" that merges a matrix of pixels together to form a single pixel. In still mode, 4 pixels (2 x 2) are merged into a single pixel, for a net resolution of 5.5 megapixels. In video mode, 9 pixels (3 x 3) are merged into a single pixel, for 1920 x 1080P resolution. The result is that the EIS 60 can achieve better speed in still mode (up to 20 fps) with excellent low-light performance (in "Pixel Fusion" mode, the extended maximum ISO of the EIS 60 will be 25,600,) and can read the data off the imager much faster in video mode in order to avoid the rolling shutter effect.

EOSHD.com reports that the new EIS format will use a new lens mount, but Canon will also offer a EF-to-EIS adapter. The lenses under development for the new format (some of which won't be available at launch) include:

• 12-75mm F2.8-4 IS Macro
• 70-300mm F3.5-5.6 IS
• 5mm F4 fisheye
• 8-25mm F4 wide-angle zoom
• 14mm F2 pancake
• 25mm F1.2 pancake
• 45mm F1.5 pancake
• 65mm F2.0 Macro (1:1, 2:1 is equivalent to full-size)

Obviously, all of this should be taken with a grain of salt until Canon makes an official statement. If this camera is actually under development and the timing is correct, it's unlikely that Canon will announce anything about it at Photokina later this month to avoid hurting sales of its cameras for this holiday season. I don't expect any confirmation from Canon until January at the earliest, but we may also hear about a true camcorder using the same imaging system at NAB next April.

IBC reminder and fast ways to track new product announcements

A quick reminder: If you're involved with or interested in professional video, the International Broadcasting Conference (IBC) starts this coming Thursday, September 9th, in Amsterdam. As with many conferences of this type, most of the new products are announced either shortly before the conference begins or the first day of the conference, in order to drive traffic to exhibitors' booths. A great way to keep track of new product announcements is a site called Virtual Press Office, or VPO. They distribute press releases and already have almost 100 press kits from exhibitors available for download. (Materials on the site will be updated throughout the show.) You don't need to be a reporter to use VPO, but you do have to register in order to get access to some of the materials.

In addition to VPO, you can also find IBC press releases at BusinessWire and PR Newswire. Not all companies use all three sites, so monitoring them all will enable you to keep track of just about everything.

Freehold InJersey experiments with a coffeehouse newsroom

From PoynterOnline's Jim Romenesko comes a story about Freehold InJersey, a blog run by the Asbury Park Press and Gannett, launching a public newsroom in a coffee house in Freehold, NJ. According to the press release announcing the newsroom, "At a computer workstation surrounded by diners and patrons, the staff of Freehold InJersey will conduct interviews, work on stories, and produce multimedia content for this groundbreaking website. Passers-by can stop to ask the latest news, share a tip, or learn how to post their own stories to the open-source news site. 
 Patrons can step into the newsroom and become reporters of their own community, using the provided desktop computer to post their own scoops."

It's a great idea for increasing community engagement and participation, but why stop with text? Put a camcorder or two, a reporter and a live streaming system into a coffee shop, and you've got an instant studio for interviews. It's been done before, from KRON in San Francisco doing morning interviews in coffee shops to Fox Business doing interviews in Wall Street bars at the end of the business day. The cost would be much lower than building out a studio and much faster to set up. News networks and local television stations spend millions of dollars building on-street studios; the "coffee shop studio" would get the same level of community exposure and engagement.

Speed is an important benefit, not just cost. Consider the following scenario: The local school district announces that it's going to close a neighborhood school. The typical approach for television stations is to send a reporter out to local rallies or to get "man on the street" interviews. With a coffee house studio, they could invite members of the community and the school district to come in and talk about the issues. The likely result would be a more informed, more in-depth discussion of the issues. When the issue is resolved, they could move on to another coffee house in another neighborhood. It's a great idea for blogs, newspapers and television stations.

Echolab shuts down, will liquidate; is there an opportunity for Blackmagic Design?

Last week, Echolab, a well-regarded manufacturer of video production switchers, closed its doors and gave notice that the company will be liquidated. All the company's employees have been laid off. Echolab focused on the midrange switcher market--higher-end than the industrial-style switchers from Panasonic and Broadcast Pix, but below the high-end from companies like Ross and Grass Valley.

Echolab's investors are looking for companies to buy its technology and inventory; in a liquidation, all, part or none of the company's assets may be sold. Blackmagic Design comes to mind as a potential buyer of Echolab's technology. Blackmagic has been a leader at driving down the cost of video production technology, and they're revitalizing DaVinci's color correction business. Production switchers are generally far too expensive relative to the price drops for most other video production and post-production equipment, and Blackmagic already makes an inexpensive, well-regarded line of routing switchers. Echolab might have technology and software that they could use to bring the same kind of cost-effective products to the production switcher market.

And yes, I can hear some of you saying that NewTek's Tricaster already fills the low-cost space, but there's plenty of room for competition. NewTek's control surfaces leave a lot to be desired, and by the time you get to their entry-level HD-compatible model, the TCXD300, you're talking almost $15,000, plus another almost $2,000 for a physical control surface. That's pretty close to the price of Grass Valley's Indigo AV switcher/audio mixer.

In any event, Blackmagic may already have all the technology it needs to produce a production switcher, or it may have evaluated the market and decided that it's not big enough to warrant the effort. However, an under-$10,000 HD production switcher from Blackmagic would get a lot of people very excited. Whether or not they pursue Echolab, it could be in the cards.

Brightcove positioning itself as a survivor?

Not too long ago, I wrote about which Web 2.0 startups would survive this recession, and one of the danger areas I pointed out was video services. The fallout is already happening, but one of the companies that's likely to survive is Brightcove. In the last few days, both The New York Times and AOL have shifted their video services to Brightcove. Like most video ventures, Brightcove started with a consumer focus, but it shut down its consumer services fairly quickly to focus on being a supplier of services to larger media companies, including Discovery Communications, 20th Century Fox, Showtime and The Wall Street Journal. It recently launched its third-generation platform. While YouTube dominates consumer video, Brightcove has become the arms dealer of choice for video infrastructure. There are other major players out there that are also doing fine, such as Comcast's thePlatform, but the outlook is bleak for consumer-oriented video sites that hope to switch to a business focus in order to ride out the recession.

Eyespot joins the deadpool

I received the following email this afternoon:

We deeply regret to inform you that Eyespot Corporation will no longer be able to continue serving you.

For our users at eyespot.com, we're no longer allowing you to upload new videos. You can retrieve your uploaded video and mixes by going to your mymedia gallery and clicking the download link below the video thumbnail. 

For our business customers in the eyespot video network, your site will continue operate unaffected for a limited period of time. We encourage you to migrate your video solution to one of our competing providers in the video mixing (e.g. http://corp.kaltura.com/) and video publishing space (e.g. http://www.fliqz.com/) immediately. We'll soon be providing you with the means of downloading your community videos from within your dashboard at http://eyespot.com/partnerDashboard].

We have spent three years providing over a hundred thousand of you with a unique video experience. We believed that by putting creative tools and rights-cleared media into the hands of influencers and connectors, Eyespot would enable social media and participation culture like no other company. 

After playing over two hundred million of your video creations, we have to stop. After assembling possibly the most potent team in digital media ever, we're now moving on.

Thank you all for being apart of our community over the past three years.

Jim Kaskade 
President & CEO

Eyespot.com followed the tried-and-true path of first targeting consumers, and when that didn't work, shifting focus to businesses. That didn't work either, so now they're going out of business, and I fear that many others will follow. It's overwhelmingly hard to monetize video on the Internet, and only a handful of sites have the traffic necessary to attract advertisers. In Eyespot's case, according to their email, they claimed just over 100,000 unique users over three years--not enough to make the business attractive to either advertisers or investors.

I hate to see any business fail, and I wish the management and employees of Eyespot well. This is a terrible time to be out of work. I'm afraid that many, many others are going to follow them into unemployment.

UPDATE, October 12, 2008: According to an email that I received last night, Eyespot's service will shut down for good at midnight on October 15th. According to the email, users must retrieve any content that they've uploaded to Eyespot's servers before then, or it will be lost.