Posts tagged zoom

Webcasting

One thing I’ve observed in many local churches is the minimal use of internet technologies available.

Websites and email aside as those are to be expected of any entity or organization today. I think it’s time they embrace more tools to enable better and greater reach.

Recently, our cell group scheduled a session with the esteemed Reverend Lim Kar Yong of STM to teach us on a series of Parables. Well, we decided to enlarge his audience by combining with Kinrara cell group via web-cast. Of course other members who could not make it could also attend the webcast session. Slides, audio and video were broadcast at standard definition. It was evident however that our regular Malaysian home ADSL service (Streamyx) would not cut it even though the webcast only required a downlink of about 350kbps. On a 1mbps line, the video would be choppy and occasionally drop out.

It was an interesting experiment though and one we would continue for the next three weeks. For those who couldn’t attend the webcast, we have audio recordings and if you want to watch, we have a HD video recording of the session as well!

I’ll blog about the tools we used in a separate post later this week.

A movie without sound is a photo…

When making movies with the recent (or not so recent considering the 5D Mark II is 1.5 years old by now) HD capable DSLRs, audio is almost always the weakest link. I’ve got some good footage with horrible audio and in controlled environments, my Rode Stereo Video Mic gives good sound. I’ve taken it off camera and boom mounted it for some cases but the camera isn’t always the best recording medium at times. I’ve been looking at Zoom’s H4n but it’s a bit beyond my budget at the moment. Come July however, Zoom will release something for the budget movie makers like myself. The Zoom H1. Same XY mic arrangement, smaller form factor and most notably, the USD99 price tag. It only has a single input and output jack but that’s good enough for myself.

  • Stereo X/Y mic configuration captures perfect stereo images
  • Same frequency and SPL handling as popular Zoom H2
  • Records Broadcast WAV (BWF) at 96kHz/48kHz/44.1kHz at 16-bit or 24-bit
  • Records MP3 from 48 to 320kbps for maximum recording time
  • Hi-Speed USB 2.0 port
  • Built-in reference speaker
  • Includes 2GB microSD card and one AA battery
  • One AA size battery allows 10 hours operation
  • Accommodates up to 32GB microSDHC memory cards
  • Track marker function
  • Low cut filter
  • Built-in tripod mount
  • 1/8″ external mic input
  • Stereo 1/8″ line output
  • Auto record level