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Everything you ever wanted to know about the 2010 Digital Media Showcase, from BC Demo Day II.

Introductions at the recent Demo Day II.

Presentation by airG at BC Demo Day II. iPhone-compatible version

Angela Robert, founder & CEO of Conquer Mobile gives an overview of how they develop new projects, including iPhone applications.

“Hot one inch action.” From button trading expositions to bike inspired tattoos, Chris Bentzen humorously presents the idea of community to bring together people and passions in the art world. From Pecha Kucha Vancouver. iPod-compatible video. (Right-click to download) Listen to the audio. (Right-click to download)

Along with her tools for the revolution (yellow putty balls), Erin Boniferro displays her textile-inspired art works and discusses the importance of early childhood education. From Pecha Kucha Vancouver. iPod-compatible video. (Right-click to download) Listen to the audio. (Right-click to download)

Coverage of the Olympic Games is dominated by the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) contracted rights-holder and accredited major media conglomerates. However some feel there is a role for crowdsourced documentation of both sporting events and the cultural context in which it happens.This expert panel discusses changes, challenges, and opportunities facing grassroots media makers around the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games.From Northern Voice 2009. iPod-compatible video. (Right-click to download)Listen to the audio. (Right-click to download)

When R.E.M. released their Accelerate album last year, they posted several clips of the band performing Supernatural Superserious and asked fans to make their own music videos and post them on YouTube. There were some great efforts, but the current collection is a shambles because many have been pulled down or had their audio removed thanks to the overzealous automated copyright infringement police.I recently got a takedown notice for my submission and promptly objected on the grounds that the copyright owners did in fact give their permission. My video has been restored but the whole incident brought the song to mind again and I thought I'd try something different with the material that R.E.M. made available.Among the clips there were four that were live acoustic performances. I thought it would be interesting to see if PluralEyes could sync them up. The audio was pretty different, but it worked. This says something both about how robust PluralEyes is and how tight R.E.M. is as a band.After syncing the clips I applied an ImageFlow montage generator with mostly random parameters. The result is a music video that works, thanks to some technology that gives serendipity a chance.Update: HD version of the video available on YouTube here.

Apple announced the new version of Final Cut Studio today. There are many improvements, but it appears that most fundamental characteristics of multiclips (and their limitations) has not changed. In the video below we show some tricks to get the most out of multiclips. Along the way we answer some questions that we get asked frequently about PluralEyes, our product that automatically synchronizes clips without the need for timecode. What if some of the cameras are turned on and off during the shoot? Will that still work?Can I have an audio-only track? Because I made a separate high-quality audio recording. (This technique is known as dual-system audio)How do I get multiclips to work? I want to edit while seeing all the cameras at once in a multi-angle display.The script of the tutorial comes below the video. (View larger version of the video.) (iPod-compatible version) For this example we shot a band with three cameras and a separate audio recorder. We've captured the clips and put them all into ProRes 422 at 1280x720 30 fps. They could be a different format, but they all need to be the same for a multiclip. To start editing we first make a sequence called pluraleyes and arrange the clips onto the timeline. Each camera goes on a separate track and the audio goes on its own track. We start PluralEyes. (It's a standalone application in the Applications folder.) We press the Sync button. After a minute we've got a sequence with everything in sync. So right away we have the answer to the first two questions: we see that having cameras turned on and off is no problem, and having a separate audio track works just fine. Multiclips will take a couple of extra steps, but it will be worth it. Final Cut Pro is a bit fussy about multiclips but once you've set them up they work great. First we notice that PluralEyes says it couldn't make a multiclip because of the audio-only track. But even if it could you wouldn't like the result. Final Cut puts every clip into a se

Colin Quon, CEO of ANTS Distributed Media presents a new take on digital signage based on ANTS' open and easily customizable digital signage platform. From MoMoVan, September 14, 2009.

Ben West, Co-founder of Xomo Digital (or Experiences On Mobile), talks about their VanJazzFest app that provided scheduling, artist profiles, details on performances, and links to sample music. They are at it again for Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) and are working hard on their contribution to the 2010 Showcase & Service initiative. From Mobile Monday Vancouver, September 14, 2009.

Graphic artist Marian Bantjes presents a wonderful, exhilarating array of art pieces inspired by her dentist, cake and love gone right and wrong. From Pecha Kucha Vancouver. iPod-compatible video. (Right-click to download) Listen to the audio. (Right-click to download)

What is dual-system audio?Dual-system audio is one name for the technique of recording audio and video on separate devices, and then combining them in post-production. Since the quality of built-in mics and audio systems of cameras are generally not nearly as good as the video, dual-system is a convenient way to get high-quality sound. It is particularly effective for video coming from a DSLR like the wildly popular Canon 5D Mark II.The price to pay for these benefits is a small one: you need to synchronize the audio and video in post-production. This can be done manually or automatically using our PluralEyes product.The problem with Final Cut ProMany non-traditional cameras shoot video at 30 fps instead of the more usual (in some parts of the world) NTSC rate of 29.97 frames per second (fps). If you are using Final Cut Pro with such video there is one quirk that you need to be aware of. This has been discussed in recent blog postings (see, for example the comment at 9:45 of the Zacuto video here). The quirk has come to be known as the 99.9% problem: when audio is combined with 30 fps video, the audio speed (sometimes) needs to be adjusted by the NTSC factor of 99.9% (actually 1000/1001).Fortunately there is a simple fix for this: use an Easy Setup for 30 fps. Details below, but first some background.BackgroundVideo from a DSLR and other still cameras is typically recorded with a frame rate of 30 fps. If you do a lot of work with NTSC video, your default settings in Final Cut might be something like HDV 1080p30 which has a framerate of 29.97 fps. When you work with 30 fps material, you might expect that ensuring that the sequence frame rate is 30 (and not 29.97) would be enough to make things work. But what happens is that when you add an audio track to the timeline, Final Cut retains some memory of the NTSC settings and applies an NTSC adjustment to the playback speed of the audio. This seems like a bug to me--I can't imagine any situation where I would want it to

Would you attend a dinner with virtual guests? Or be taken to a hospital where the disease and cure are both art? Dinka Pignon presents VIVO, a not for profit organization, as having evolved beyond just video production. From Pecha Kucha Vancouver. iPod-compatible video. (Right-click to download) Listen to the audio. (Right-click to download)

What does culture produce at a moment of change in our cities? How should a designer respond to the challenge of an urban population that is going to double over the next 30 years to 6 billion people? Oliver Lang talks about some of the concepts and projects his company is working on. From Pecha Kucha Night Vancouver #5. Technical note: The audio quality is not great. (Sorry!) You may need to listen with headphones. iPod-compatible video. (Right-click to download) Listen to the audio. (Right-click to download)

Alex Beim has created some of the most inventive interactive amusements for public events that I've ever seen. He shows some of his projects and how they came about in this presentation at Pecha Kucha Vancouver. iPod-compatible video. (Right-click to download) Listen to the audio. (Right-click to download)

Many years ago, Rex Weyler had to choose between going to Vietnam, a jail in Texas or Vancouver. Vancouver won. He tells the story of how he pursued a career as journalist and photographer, and how his enduring interest in the way environments shape who we are led him to become one of the founders of Greenpeace International. From Pecha Kucha Night Vancouver. iPod-compatible video. (Right-click to download) Listen to the audio. (Right-click. to download)

Any presentation that ties together environmental biology, shirt design, cross-country sneaker tours and food blogging has got to be interesting. Matthew Miyagawa and Vince Chan, the founders of Finale Design, survey their wide-ranging creative projects at Pecha Kucha Vancouver. Technical note: The audio quality is not great. (Sorry!) You may need to listen with headphones. iPod-compatible video. (Right-click to download) Listen to the audio. (Right-click to download)

"If you want something in life you just have to try it." Director, photographer and founder of the film collective Salazar, Jesse Savath illustrates that aphorism by the example of his own evolution. The starting point was a complete lack of ideas. From there he shaped a successful career doing what he loves in a series of steps that often involved just showing up and figuring it out when you get there. From Pecha Kucha Vancouver. iPod-compatible video. (Right-click to download) Listen to the audio. (Right-click to download)

Jeff Hamada gives a very funny retrospective of his artistic development from promising hockey and dinosaur drawings as a child, through a low point (ceramics) and then numerous design successes and the popular booooooom.com site. From Pecha Kucha Vancouver. Update: If you have trouble watching the video below, try this version on YouTube. If you've got the bandwidth, watch in HD for the best quality. iPod-compatible video. (Right-click to download) Listen to the audio. (Right-click to download)