Event Tomorrow

So we are helping produce this event tomorrow. Check out the press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DECEMBER 4, 2007

CONTACT: Beverly Lucas, Bend Bike N Sport, 322-8814,
beverly@bendbikensport.com

TOP PROFESSIONAL CYCLISTS CONVERGE ON TOWER THEATRE FOR “TRAIL TO TOUR” PANEL DISCUSSION ON FRIDAY, DECEMBER 21
Event benefits Central Oregon Velo Youth Development Program, which helps introduce the region’s youth to cycling programs and benefits

(BEND, Ore.)—They spend the majority of the year traveling across the country and around the globe for bike races, but for similar reasons they all choose to call Bend home. And now, Bendites have a rare opportunity to hear firsthand what motivates these elite riders to compete, what they do to maintain top form, what their plans are for 2008 and why they choose to live and train in Bend.

Scheduled for Friday, December 21 at 7pm at the Tower Theatre, the “Trail to Tour” event features an informal talk show panel discussion with some of cycling’s biggest names who also happen to be Bend residents, including Chris Horner, Carl Decker, Adam Craig, Chrissy Ruitter and Megan Elliott. The panel will be moderated by Anthony McCrossan, head commentator for the internationally-renown London-based Cycling TV, the world’s largest broadband cycling television company who will simulcast the event globally on www.cycling.tv.

Admission to the “Trail to Tour” event is $10 for adults and $5 for kids age 12 and under, with proceeds benefiting Central Oregon Velo’s Youth Development Program. Doors open at 6pm, and the forum begins at 7pm. Admission includes a complimentary beer for attendees age 21 and over courtesy of Bend Brewing Company, or a complimentary soda. Tickets can be purchased at the Tower Theater box office, online at www.towertheatre.org, or at Bend Bike N Sport.

Admission also includes a chance to win a number of door prizes, including a cruiser bike courtesy of Felt Bicycles, autographed cycling jerseys, equipment and apparel.

The “Trail to Tour” panel discussion is presented by Central Oregon Velo, Bend Bike N Sport, Racecenter Northwest, the Bend Visitor & Convention Bureau, Bend Memorial Clinic, Lowes Commercial Properties and Cycling TV. For more information visit www.bendbikensport.com or call 322-8814.


We are producing the simulcast. Will post the link when they have it. Nice international event.

Do you like Google Maps for Mobile?

So you must check this out!



I just installed this and I am really going to enjoy this!

AVID... Why do we care

So this came across in onve of my news feed today (Click on the title if you want to read the entire press release).

Avid Announces Major Shift in 2008 Strategy in Response to Customer Feedback

The press release goes on to say that they will be refocusing with the direct result being their customers. They also stated that they will NOT have a NAB booth. Now I know this bores a few of my readers, but I think it is interesting to note that they have chosen to not have a booth. While I am sure this is expensive the last time I was at NAB there were a lot of people around the booth and I think that there will be a few potential clients deciding on going the Final Cut or Premiere route. Also of interest is the focus on the customer.

Customer focus is where we should all be. Focus on what your clients think and need. Can you provide it then provide it otherwise move on and suggest someone that can do it for them.

What are your thoughts on this?

A great picture

I am really liking this one! Excellent look from Lance Hardy Photography. This was taken this weekend at the Central Oregon Women's Expo. Thanks Lance!

Uh OH!!!!!!!!

You ever wonder what would happen if you lost your hard drive? Well last night as I was geeking out and installing my software for my new slingbox I got the spinning wait wheel on my Mac. This has happened from time to time and I waited, and waited. I tried to force quit an could not. Well no worries just power off and everything should be good. Turned back on and was greeted with a horrible clicking noise. I waited and was greeted with a screen that had a folder with a question mark in it. Huh?! Well after doing a few other things there is a strong belief that the drive may be dead. Yes dead. It will be going to the local authorized dealer here in town in the AM in hopes that the Apple Care I purchased will take care of it I hope, but my thoughts are that everything on the drive is now gone. So the message to the masses, always back up. I believe that I will recover fairly quickly as most of my project files are stored on externals. Maybe it is time to upgrade to Leapord and make sure I always am upgrading.

Early adopter pains?

Okay a better title probably should have been my struggles with T-Mobile since last Friday, but in fairness to them I am going to give them a chance. The problem since Friday has been repeated all circuits are busy errors on our phones. I say all because we have a total of 5 lines with them. Yes we pay a small fortune as 2 of them have full service including BlackBerry Enterprise. The phone staff has been courteous and I have now filed 2 trouble tickets with them. Last nights tech stated to me "well it sounds like we just don't have capacity" and this really got me going. What do I pay for? Is T-Mobile really at capacity here in Bend? Wouldn't you think that they may have seen this coming in one of the fastest growing cities in Oregon? Okay my rant is done for now...

To blog or not to blog....

Well we are frantically working on the final details of BendFilm which is this coming weekend. Al things look good for another great festival. In addition we are preparing a very special edition on Let's Make a Space to premiere this week. In this edition it is a competition to be Central Oregon's Next Design star. What is exciting about this is in one day we shot 5 designers going to a total of 7 locations. This was don in conjunction with Central Oregon Cable Advertising and some videographers from there. look for a sampling in the coming days.

Hanging on for dear life...

So as I notice the posts growing fewer and fewer between. I have come to realize that it is a reflection of how much production we are doing. I am excited, but at the same time it is hard to keep up. We are right at that spot where we really should hire someone, but at the same time maybe I can do it all. Tough spot.

Few more thoughts:
So on Sunday I celebrate my one year with the most incredible woman. She is truly my world and keeps the business as well as our lives pushing forward. With out her I really don't believe we would have gone through the growth that we have in the past year.

Let's Make a Space:
Have you seen it? What are your thoughts? I am looking for some people that have seen it and can give me their opinion. Look for a couple of more shows in the next few weeks being posted.

Here it is!

Here is the first Let's Make a Space show!

Okay I love it when us geeks poke fun a ourselves.

Unicel to be purchased

So it would look like a bit of consolidation is happening for us here in Bend in regards to Unicel.

The interesting thing is currently T-Mobile is "borrowing" time on those Unicel towers. I am wondering if Verizon has the same relationship?

Secret Part 3

So it also has to do with this... link

The secret part 1...

So the first part of the secret has to do with July 23rd and an exciting event for us...

I have returned with a secret....

Do you want to know? Email me

A Bend Baseball Staple Passes

I found out from Elise over at Live on the Fly that Vince Genna has passed away. While I usually do not post about these sort of things I feel it important to give my thanks as I cut my teeth at an early age televising Bandits baseball from the field that he helped push for. He will be missed.

Imagine the posibilities!

Oh man the kind of instillations you could do with this!

What do you think?

Interesting presentation

I came across this presentation at Slideshare. Interesting and thought provoking.

Apple TV Histeria

I have been watching over the last few days as the Apple TV has finally shipped and is beginning to get some reviews. Most seem to be positive and I think Apple may have another hit on their hands. I think the interesting thing to note is some of the posts that talk about how people have been using Windows Media Center computers to do the same thing that Apple TV does. These users say they have been doing it for a long time. While I do not disagree with the fact that these people may have been doing it I would say that the one thing Apple TV does is make it easy for Joe consumer. While I only speak through anecdotal evidence, it would seem to me that Apple has gone to great lengths to engineer a product that works right out of the box. I really do think Apple missed the boat in not having any DVR function, but time will tell. Now if I can just get my hands on one...

Bad Marketing 101...

Just don't copy! Especially if you are as large as the NAB.



The NAB doesn't like the possible XM/Sirius merger and wants us all to know why it is bad, but they copied one of the people that have dumped a bit of money into the organizations members which are the television stations and networks. I just find it interesting that someone as large as the NAB would even consider doing this.

Jump here for a little on what was done: Radio Online

A reason to switch

So I found this article of some interest why people may be switching to a mac.
Apple of Our Eye: Macs Save Money

Te article raises some interesting point, but I find the discussion about the Apple TV the real interesting point. I have stated before that this is a change vehicle and I think there are even a few things us in the marketing world can use it for. I plan on giving it a whirl to see if perhaps you could make it into an inexpensive digital signage platform.

The beginning...

So when one goes silent on their blog does that truly mean they are out of ideas or thoughts? I know I have been absent for a while and wanted to take a few moments and bring you up to speed on what we are up to.

1) The Drakes- The once a year recognition of the great advertising that we do in this market.
2) A space- More details to follow on this, but we have moved! In the coming months I will bring you a few details about what is going on, but we will be developing a 25' X 25' insert stage. This stage will be available to clients as well as be useful in producing our own content.
3) Marketing and sales- We really have not done a good job within Central Oregon of telling our story. We have been helping others tell their stories, but our own has not been told. Anyone got any ideas here?


That is it for right now, but I am going to give a post a day for a week and see what thoughts I may drum up.

Amazing technology

As a highly visual person I look at this and wonder what the possibilities are. This could power amazing multi layer editing platform.

What marketers think?

What are your thoughts?

Digital Delivery

It was announced that Wal-Mart will be selling digital downloads of all of the major movie companies movies. This comes on the heals of a weekend where movies saw a decline from the previous year of 12 percent. The motion picture companies are finally discovering that they have a vast inventory why not make it easy for people to get at it in other ways. Putting that aside for a second though let's look at if this makes sense for Wal-Mart.



Wal-Mart is the world's retail sales giant. You either love them or hate them so obviously if they are getting into this there must be money in it right? Well here lies the "Long-Tail" theory. Movies that are new releases will cost you almost as much a if you went down to Wal-Mart and bought the DVD, so then they are going after the user who may want to download the older movies as it will be more cost effective. In my opinion Wal-Mart is going after a different customer with this venture than they get in their average store. In order to succeed with this they will have to bring web viewers to their pages which Wal-Mart currently does not do a very good job of. Why would I want to look at their site when I can go down the street and get it for cheaper. That is where HP supposedly comes in. They reportedly have been hired to optimize and change Wal-Mart's digital movie area into a better experience.

I think that this recognition in digital download model change by both Wal-Mart and the motion picture companies is a good start. Wal-Mart has to somehow bring people to their website though in order for this to succeed.


Oh yeah and this little jewel:

Sales for the top 12 films fell 12 percent to $71.6 million from a year earlier. Sales have fallen 3 percent to $779.8 million this year from a year earlier, while attendance has decreased 5.2 percent.

Mac Transition Week 2

So the transition continues. A couple of thoughts and recommendations.

I know all of those PC people out there will disagree with me, but the Mac OS just feels smoother. I enjoy the simplicity of design and ease of use. I know that the PC has gotten much better in it's over all design, but I just find the Mac to be somehow more user friendly.

Issues: Seems to be a small one under Boot Camp with Premiere, but only an annoyance and as such it does not preclude the work flow that I am developing until the full switch.

Programs:Here are a couple of programs that I have found on the Mac to be invaluable and have opened up new work flow possibilities that I had not discovered on the PC.

Handbrake: A great DVD ripper. I do not use this to rip movies, but often we record a backup DVD of the events we do. This program allows us to rip that file into the computer. I know there are PC programs out there, but I have not found any that are as fast and easy as this one.

Perian: This is a QT plug in that allows virtually any file to be played back including FLV. Very nice for attempting to open those pesky windows files. Now it doesn't support wmv, but that is what Flip for Mac is for.

So far so good and we are progressing well with the migration.

iPhone or whatever it is going to be called...

So this is an interesting post on a person who will be getting an iPhone hopefully in June when it is released. The interesting part is that it would appear Cingular does not have a concrete plan on what to tell people that may want to switch now. Revolutionary product, but no plans on how to handle things?

Build it and they will come... Okay couldn't resist.

The switch....

So a few weeks ago I spoke of a transition that I may make. Well I decided to do it.



Yes it is a Mac. We are needing a speed boost in our production and this seems to be a very good solution. The next photo shows XP being installed in Boot Camp.




Finally this is After Effects running inside OS X using Parallels. I will write a bit in the next few weeks about how this is working out.

Oh yeah and there is one more thing....

Steve Jobs on nightline last night. Is there anyone out there that is still doubting there is convergence today?

New media...

So a few things are going on in the world of media and I thought I would take a moment and give my 2 cents.

Apple TV Those of you out there know that I am a Mac fan. I would stop short of saying fanatical, but I admire what they have done. I really think this product will begin the next step in bringing internet content to you television. It is exciting to think of the opportunities that this device that is syncronized through iTunes can bring television shows, podcasts, and any other media you have in iTunes to your television wherever you have it plugged in. They have taken the time to develop a user interface that will be easy for the most people to use it. It will not require a geek and that is a distinct advantage.

CES: Being a geek I could go on for a day about all of the exciting products that are being unvailed, but some of the most interesting things are how the broadcast networks are showing up. They are beginning to realize that the model of television as we know it is has shifted and they need to begin to develop a new model for themselves. Time will tell, but I am excited because the next television will be the internet.

Interesting music stats

Interesting read today from Chris Anderson in regards to the recording industry.