THE VIDEO TIME LOGS OF ALLAN & SUN

Welcome to Future Peak, our home. Not just a concept,
Future Peak is our beautiful off-the-grid digital studio,
near the sky, high atop a mountainous precipice,
a few clouds above the coastal redwood forest
between the beaches of Santa Cruz and Silicon Valley.
We currently employ solar and biodiesel
technologies to power Future Peak, and we are
exploring many of the new green options for energy,
as they become available. As exciting as this is,
some of the new tech, <sigh>, doesn't work very well.
You'll be reading/seeing our pragmatic experiences in
energy independence at this blogsite. We have, for example,
a rich generator graveyard, with many a tale to tell..

But first, more on our first passion, what's next in making media.

NAB 2007

 

It's time to delve into our favorite adventures from the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas, where we explored what was interesting and innovative to us as media makers. We've divided our coverage into five short video clips, to make it easier to watch, enjoy, and absorb.

ARRIVAL (3:33)
Clip One
NAB Arrival via Monorail

To Watch Vids
Click Pics

 

 

 

HOLO MEMORY (9:22)

 Staying at the towering Stratosphere, the most enjoyable way to the show was via the Las Vegas monorail, a futuristic mass transit system, with a classic LV twist..Who would ever have guessed how much fun the announcement lady had, or the station's strange exits? MO-CAP RECAP (12:40) Clip Two
Virtual Dance Gear

We need more memory N:OW! And one of the most exciting ways this is happening is via information encoding using the 3rd dimension.

Think moving lasers, holograms, and photopolymers, light sensitive plastic.

Aaah, the dream of the dancer, to perform effortlessly with the perfect body, in perfect form to an adoring audience. Or that of a future actor, adept at playing any role in any body with grace and aplomb.

Clip Three
On the Holographic Frontier

Let's begin our NAB explorations with memory. After all, what's the point of learning anything if we can't remember what we've learned? Even the lowly amoeba has to remember what to move towards or away from. For our species, with the ever complexifying lives we lead and knowledge systems we use, need for memory is increasing at an exponential rate.

And our machines are trying to keep up. How many megapixels is your camera now? Did you pick up that cheap 500 gig USB drive at Costco yet?

 

Essentially, you are burning information throughout the entire volume, as well as the length and breadth of the disc. (Yes, there is still a bright future in plastics, thanks to lasers!..:-)

This clip is our interview with Liz Murphy of In Phase Technology, developer of the first practical holographic storage system. She will explain the tech for you in a fun and very comprehensible way, how it will be initially used, costs, availability, and where it's going in the near future. Could this really be commonly available soon? Will it change everything? We think it's worth a look.

And while you are looking, we think the 'culture vultures' amongst you will particularly enjoy the classic icons of Las Vegas, at the very end of the clip, and a cameo by our vlog collegue, Scott Jacobs!

The motion capture stage is the 'holodeck' of today, taking us from science fiction to faction, a renaissance room that can generate techicolor dreams one minute, portray jet engine protoypes in action, the next.

Dave Delivers

In this vid, we interview Dave Blackburn at his Motion Analysis NAB07 booth, on what's hot now with Motion Capture, and get a little history lesson on the blazingly bright MoCap future.

We've known Dave since the early 90's, the days he was weaned in his MoCap suit pitching softballs.

It appears Dave's 30 consecutive years as a real world fastpitch softball pitcher taught him a thing or two about 'motion' and 'capture' and why these are becoming important attributes of our unfolding cybernetic identities.

 


Escape from CYBERSPACE
(6:18)

You can take the Avatar out of Cyberspace, but..
will it ever be anything more than a walking cartoon? No doubt, once you see this rather amazing demonstration of 3D avatars escaping the bounds of cyberspace, to exist and play among us! Or so it appears..

Reminds me of when Walt Disney would talk to Tinkerbell in his office on his TV show intros.My 5 year old mind excitedly told itself, "I knew she was real!"


Clip Four
The Interactive Frontier

Maybe back then Walt would have guessed that today's virtual characters could now occupy a seat in a boardroom and interact with others. This tech could be a lot of fun in a
Cisco Telepresence Room!

Meanwhile, let's visit TOTAL IMMERSION at NAB 2007 and explore a few more possibilities.
A FEW OF OUR FAVORITE THINGS
(7:55)

Aaah, there's nothing like looking at the next generation of tools we'll actually be using very soon. For us, that meant a visit to Adobe, NewTek, Red, and Apple, to sample the latest wares before we shell out our hard earned 'Door #42' money.

These media tools are awesome and they keep getting better and better! Plus, it was a real bonus to see our favorite rock star trade show goddess Kikki Stockhammer demo the fun fx possible with Tricaster, the latest TV studio in box.


Clip Five
Media Making Magic at NAB2007

But in our book, Apple took the people prize by bringing the amazing feature film editor Walter Murch to their booth, so that we may all experience his mastery of the craft first hand.

It was also a treat to meet the people behind Full Sail, an amazing new media school in Florida.

Of course, we love how the clip ends, with a walking shot of Sun and AL, sharing the excitement of it all.