The VirtualStudio.TV Blog

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  Users Review & Test of the Panasonic AG-AF101 HD Camcorder

  10th October 2011 by Jamie Huckle 2 comments

  Last month I was part of a team that travelled to Malawi to film a documentary for Microsoft . We were filming in some very remote villages on the outskirts on Blantyre and for the first couple of days we let the Panasonic AF101 just roam capturing some amazing B Roll footage. We got come great shots of the kids and the stunning views of the surrounding area. Our evenings back in the compound were always taken up reviewing the footage and being blown away with the beautiful depth of field and focus pulls that the camera was capturing.
  

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  5 Reasons why you need to have videos on your website

  27th September 2011 by Sean Malone 2 comments

  Following the launch of YouTube in 2005 there has been an explosion in the growth of web videos around the world and in the next 24 hours more than 3 billion videos will be watched on that site alone!
  
  We love producing Internet Videos andVirtual Events for our clients and really enjoy working in an industry where there is such a huge range of companies offering different creative video solutions for people all over the world.
  
  There are thousands of different uses for online video but I have listed below my 5 reasons why you need to have videos on your website.
  
  1. You want to communicate a lot of information in a few seconds; what your products, or services look like and the kind of people you are. All of this can be done in a punchy 60 second video clip, rather than more than 200 words of text. Due to the huge increase in email traffic and squeeze on available time in recent years, people today and in the future are far more likely to take the time to view a video than read a page of text...

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  How much does great customer service cost?

  20th July 2011 by Rachel Willis 5 comments

  Recently I found myself working on a new project in Reading. A trip to Silicone Valley (which is what Reading is), staying at the Premier Inn Central for 6 nights. (I don’t mind staying in Premier Inns at all, but after a couple of nights it gets deathly boring. Plus, I always get confused as they all look identical and I continually wake up wondering where the hell I am.)
  
  So late one Sunday night off I go to Reading and the Premier Inn Central. I’m expecting absolutely nothing as I’ve learnt that this way I won’t be disappointed. I arrive at the gate to the Car Park and there is nowhere to park, it’s rammed. I’ve got expensive kit in the car so I can’t just park in the street. I press the little intercom button at the barrier gate and am shocked when I hear, ‘hello, how can I help you’ ? I explain that there is nowhere to park and before I ask if there’re is an alternative car park the voice politely asks me to wait. Seconds later a man is once again welcoming me to the hotel and explaining that he’s about to move one of the chefs cars so I’ll have a space. I’m confused and very shocked.

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  The use of Internal Communications videos set to rise in the UK

  27th June 2011 by Sean Malone Be the first to comment

  We run Leadership Communication Workshops all over the world, and last week, delegates attending our Workshop in Seattle from one of the world’s biggest IT companies told me that they are routinely producing short videos for internal communication bulletins, training programmes and marketing case studies. The scale of their video production is jaw dropping. Five years ago external production companies were producing 5 videos a year for them, today they are producing 5 videos a day for themselves!
  
  The big question is why has this growth been so explosive and is it set to continue? The answers are threefold:-

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  An owner’s review of the Panasonic AG-AF101 HD Camcorder

  17th June 2011 by Jamie Huckle 2 comments

  We’ve always loved blurring the background and making films look grainy and cinematic in post-production for our conventional videos. A few months ago this new Panasonic AF101 camera spoke to me, promised the world and allowed me to do all this live while filming. This is one of the new breeds of camcorders offering incredible depth of field using standard digital single-lens reflex (SLR/DSLR) camera lenses.
  
  It’s a big step change for us as we’re very much into the reporter “run and gun” style of filming. By that I mean we often have short deadlines and increasingly shorter budgets which mean we’ve adapted to getting the most from a shoot day. We record footage very quickly to maximise our time on site and then add the “extras” and beauty to the video in post-production.

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  You can do Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) for your website yourself!

  25th March 2011 by Simon Malone Be the first to comment

  I think we are in a similar position to many organisations. I know that going through our website and spending time optimising each page is something I should do, but finding the time to do it properly is a real challenge. We have been busy working on virtual events, altering our product offering and planning an official launch night for the business so finding time to complete this project has been pretty difficult. That said, our website is our main selling tool and point of contact for our clients and last week having spent a month looking at the “DO SEO!!!” scribble on my white board, I decided to bin the excuses and actually do something about it.
  

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  The benefits of LED studio lighting

  6th January 2011 by Jamie Huckle 10 comments

  In the studio the lights were very easy to set up and once switched on they produced a very white clean light. This actually created our first obstacle as the light was ultimately too white! The Datavision LED-600’s do come with several different coloured gels to subtly alter the colour of the light output. Once we added one of these and did a little tweaking on the cameras white balance, all was good in the world.

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  The best TV in the world!

  22nd October 2010 by Simon Malone 4 comments

  The one at the top of my list is made by Panasonic and should have been called “The Gargantuan” or “Monolithic Thunder”, but is actually called the TH-152UX1. Although an uninspiring name, the clue to its appeal is found within it. This TV is a massive 152 inches in diameter, and has dimensions of 3.6m x 1.9m. To put it in perspective that’s the equivalent of nine 50inch screens stacked together in three banks of three!
  

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  Will 3D TV be a success?

  6th October 2010 by Simon Malone 434 comments

  Although an innovation in terms making it available to the masses, 3D technology itself is nothing new. The first stereoscopic (3D) movie ever made was L’arrivée du train” which was filmed in 1903, although it was not really until the 1980’s that the format started to achieve any commercial success. Films such as “Jaws3D” and “Friday the 13th – Part 3” were displayed in 3D, although the momentum faltered when filmmakers struggled to come to terms with the huge costs involved in production and viewers were reluctant to wear cardboard glasses to view the films.

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