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Tijuana Gringo

by Michael Thomas

10 May 2001 -- Thursday.

VIDEO NEEDS -- [First page.] -- [Dia de Madre.]

Until now I haven't written much in these pages about my specific specifications, plans, or designs for live webcasting from Tijuana. But I've been studying and thinking, and don't like what I see. The technology is FEARSOME, and still rinkydink, absolutely NOTHING like broadcast technology -- the quality I worked with at the University, HI-8 and SuperVHS and 3/4 inch cassettes, oh no, nothing like that. Not even the best AVI or better MPG come close to what I want, and as for "TV of the future" the much ballyhooed high-definition.... NO WAY.

Just to do a simple little video feed with even simple quality control I will need:

  1. A camera or two. I want to move through the streets, remote, and will thus also need as:
  2. Wireless link.
  3. Then, since I want to record and edit higher quality work on tape, I'll need recording and editing machines.
  4. Then the uplink to the web, to my server, whether here or elsewhere.
  5. And I'll need computers, of course, with power to handle video and audio at the same time as taking feedback from you, the viewer.
You see my nightmare? And money is not the chief worry -- I'm pretty sure I could get grants for this work. But the logistics and the technology and the fear of losing it all in one moment when someone steals the stuff....

Uf! Better I should just take photographs. Maybe attach some sound files. But the dream of doing it live, from the streets and shops and restaurants and galleries and cantinas and homes and....

TODAY: [First Page]. -- [Dia de Madre.]

thomas@masinternet.zzn.com

Next entry -- Brewery Chamber Orchestra

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Copyright 2001 Daniel Charles Thomas