Streaming Media - April/May 2008 - (Page 22)

case study MSN Autos Revs Up Video Production By MSN Autos t he video team at MSN Autos offers a peek into the latest and greatest in the auto industry. The team travels the world to cover the major international auto shows, filming car and truck unveilings, manufacturer press conferences, industry interviews, and more. The videos are posted to the MSN Autos site (www.autos.msn.com) for auto aficionados and car shoppers alike, and they also can often be found on MSN’s portal site. “All of the material on the website is really consumer-oriented. We aim to give people a preview of the new cars, as well as information about the new features,” says Bruce Whitaker, media editor for MSN Autos, which garners more than 10 million page views per month. As with anyone covering live events, turnaround time is critical for the MSN Autos team. As Whitaker explained, “We’re working on a publishing deadline in order to keep content fresh. And we’re also paying editors to sit and edit, so we want to make the best use of their time.” Working with tape created some inefficiency in MSN Autos’ workflow. “We’d go out and shoot a press conference or unveiling. We’d then have to hand off the tapes to our video editor, who would need to spend real time logging and capturing,” says Whitaker. “We could have up to a full tape for a car, and there could be quite a few events in a day. For example, at the Frankfurt show, they scheduled approximately 40 press conferences a day. And as could be expected, we’d get a little backlogged.” With the FS-4, the MSN Autos video team captures footage of the latest car—and motorcycle— announcements across the globe. shoot in QuickTime, as it can be supported by the majority of systems,” says Whitaker. “Since we’re strictly publishing to the web, we’re not using the FS-4’s full HD capability; anamorphic 16:9 is plenty for us right now.” Each time the camera operator triggers the camera, the FS-4 creates a new clip and the MSN Autos team uses this feature to streamline the editing process. “We employ a slightly different shooting technique with the DTE drives,” says Whitaker. “We pause recording each time we want to start a new piece. For example, I can create a new clip each time a different presenter comes on stage, or to separate an interview from a car walk-around. Keeping that in mind while shooting makes it easier for the editors in post production. They can grab exactly what they need without scrolling through lots of footage.” Coming Into Focus In order to find a better way to turn around video coverage, MSN Autos purchased four FS-4 Portable DTE Recorders from Focus Enhancements. With its Direct To Edit (DTE) technology, the FS-4 lets videographers record DV and HDV streams directly to disk via FireWire. The FS-4 weighs just 1 pound and is only 1.5" thick, making it well-suited for portable, on-location recording. Available in four configurations, the FS-4 comes standard with a 40GB hard drive for 3 hours, recording time and is available with an 80GB hard drive for 6 hours, recording time. FS-4 supports all the major DV nonlinear editing (NLE) systems, recording files to disk as RawDV, AVI Type 1, AVI Type 2, AVI Type 2 24p, Matrox AVI, Canopus AVI, QuickTime, or QuickTime 24p. FS-4Pro models also include Pinnacle AVI and Avid DV-OMF. In addition to DV file formats, the HD models also support 1080i and 720p MPEG-2 (.m2t) files. This direct-to-disk recording allows users to drag and drop footage into any major NLE without the time-consuming digitizing and file conversion process. “The nice thing about the FS-4 is the flexibility in file formats. We use a variety of editing systems, including Final Cut Pro, Avid, and Adobe Premiere. We tend to 22 STREAMING MEDIA April/May 2008 Enhanced Coverage So far, the MSN Autos team has used the FS-4 recorders at the Frankfurt, Tokyo, Las Vegas/SEMA, and Los Angeles Auto Shows. By eliminating the need to capture, the FS-4’s DTE technology saves the team significant time. “At the recent Detroit International Auto Show, we used the FS-4 DTE drives for every video we produced from our behind-the-scenes preview to new vehicle unveilings and interviews with top designers,” says Whitaker. “The combination of the FS-4 and tape meant significant gains in quality and speed in our post production cycle. By the end of the press preview days in Detroit, we had a full library of footage already cued up on the drive for our popular Top 10 Cars of the Show videos. “ In addition to helping the MSN Autos team publish videos faster, the FS-4 helps deliver a higher-quality final product by allowing the team to include additional content. At major unveilings, auto manufacturers often supply tapes with professionally shot footage of their new vehicles, including shots of the cars in action. In the past, MSN editors didn’t have time to incorporate this material into their final products. But by adding the FS-4 and Direct To http://www.autos.msn.com

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Streaming Media - April/May 2008 Table of Contents Beyond the Bottom Line Technology and Business Trends by the Numbers (Not So) Instant Karma MSN Autos Revs Up Video Production Dow Finds the Right Streaming Chemistry Why Video Is Changing the World A Decade of StreamingMedia.com What's Your Digital Media Strategy? Blasts From the Past: A Decade (Almost) of StreamingMedia.com Headlines Analyze That A League of Their Own: Streaming Media All-Stars Where Are They Now? Wanted: Sexy HDTV That Connects to the Internet and Services All DVRs Anystream Agility Inlet Technologies Spinnaker S3000

Streaming Media - April/May 2008

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