Nmedia Holiday Hours

Nmedia's offices will be closed on December 24 and 25, and also on New Year's Eve and New Year's day. We would like to wish all of our customers and associates happy holidays.

Sidelined by the Recession? We're Looking for Experienced Production Salespeople

If you are or you know a motivated marketing/sales associate with experience selling media production services in the corporate/industrial space, we'd like you to get in touch with us. The person we're looking for has superior drive and a desire to build relationships through existing and newly developed contacts in the industry. We're looking for someone who will attend local trade group/networking meetings and identify opportunities and relationships through these channels. Compensation will depend on experience. The ability to work from home office would be a plus, and an Atlanta-based candidate is preferred, but we can be flexible if we find your skill is a good fit. We encourage you to refrain from calling the office, but please send resumes and cover letters via email to info@nmedia.com.

Nmedia Thanksgiving Office Hours

In observance of the Thanksgiving holiday, Nmedia's offices will be closed on Thursday and Friday, November 25 and 26. We will reopen on Monday, November 29. Nmedia wishes all its clients and associates a very happy Thanksgiving.

Nmedia Sponsors Pacci Restaurant Launch Party with Tangy Events and Dining Out Magazine

On Monday evening, October 19 Nmedia teamed up with Tangy Events to celebrate the launch of one of Atlanta's newest restaurants on the rooftop of the Palomar Hotel. Pacci Restorante features Northern Italian cuisine along with traditional steakhouse fare, prepared by Georgia native Chef Keira Moritz. The restaurant's rooftop terrace attracted a sizeable crowd, and we at Nmedia are likely to return soon to enjoy a new lunchtime option for Midtown.

Update: Nmedia Featured in Markee Magazine

The new issue of Markee is finally landing in mailboxes all over Atlanta, complete with a special 'Road Trip' section highlighting several local production companies, including Nmedia. The interview with Senior Editor Jason West discusses recent projects, production tools and views on how we believe the regional economy has allowed our industry to begin a turnaround.
The article appears across pages 25-27 in the current edition, and it can be viewed on the web at this link:
http://www.nmedia.com/nmedia_markee.pdf

Update: NanoFlash Usability Testing

Well, it seems Convergent Design's NanoFlash CF card workflow is all it's cracked up to be. Using a FW800 card reader, I was able to ingest the files considerably faster than real time and importing them into the FCP bin was a simple drag-and-drop. Our testing today was at 140MB/sec, but this workflow will support data rates up to 220 (faster drives would be needed at that point).
At the end of this month, we'll be kicking the tires on a real project, in the form of a multi-camera sync roll edit session...stay tuned.

Road Test: Convergent Design's NanoFlash

On Monday, Nmedia will be conducting onsite workflow trials on the new NanoFlash XDR compact flash recorder, introduced at NAB2009 by Convergent Design. We're longtime advocates of Panasonic's DVCPRO HD workhorse format (perhaps leaning more towards tape than P2), but if we don't run into any problems that hinder efficient acquisition/editing, this might just be the wave of the future. Sure, we've got our concerns, having mainly to do with file size manageability, long term archiving (which P2 never really solved) and whether or not FCP presents any significant barriers, but we're confident we'll get it all sorted out on Monday and we'll let you know what we find out.

Nmedia to be Featured in Markee Magazine

We will be appearing in the upcoming issue of Markee Magazine, part of a feature the magazine has included that focuses on Atlanta production and post resources. It should be hitting newsstands soon, if it hasn't already.

Update: VariCam/RED/35mm Shoot Out Rescheduled

Due to some surprise bookings on the production schedule last week as well as this week, we are moving the shoot out to late next week. We will still be testing all the same cameras side-by-side and we'll post the results on nmedia.com. The web version, of course, will be subject to the limitations of the internet, but you can come by our facilities anytime and we'll let you see the differences for yourself.

LED TV: Much Ado About a Little

The recent media blitz about LED TV had me sufficiently intrigued by this weekend that I finally headed to Best Buy to see the thing for myself. After a closer look, I have to say I'm pretty underwhelmed.
I didn't spend a lot of time evaluating LG or Samsung's claims while I was there, but it looks like what you have is basically the same old LCD TV we're used to, except now LED's take the place of the old-school backlight technology. I saw a modest improvement on the slurring of text crawl messages, so I guess we'll have slightly more legible tornado warnings. Swell. I didn't see the display go to black, but I'm assuming they can darken the LED's with the picture, which would improve it's likeness to conventional TV. It's also considerably thinner than a regular TV, so I suppose that's a huge improvement, architecturally speaking. The bottom line is, your existing TV shouldn't be losing sleep over this one, but if I was in the market for a replacement, this is enough of an incremental improvement that it would probably win out.

Shoot-Out: Varicam, RED & 35mm film

Next week Nmedia will conduct a shoot-out, comparing the new 'Red' camera against the two favorites from our shop: a Panasonic HDX900 with the Pro 35 adapter, our Arriflex 35, and we're borrowing a new Red camera for the purpose of this test. We're going to shoot several setups with all three cameras, and we hope it's going to give you (as well as our DP's) a look at the real differences between these three platforms. Stay tuned...we'll post the results on the new Nmedia.com 3.0 next week.

Mobile TV Looks Promising, But Can It Work For All Of Us?

I've been following with great interest all the hype that's being generated around mobile TV. On commercials for DirecTV, we see Denis Leary ragging on us about missing NFL highlights while he shoves an iPhone in our face with a crystal clear image of the same HD footage we see in the background. I've also studied up on some of the new delivery platforms under development, like MediaFLO and others, and it looks like they may get close to the picture quality they promised.
The one thing no one seems to be talking about that seems so obvious to me: how can we all get the same experience watching mobile TV when so few mobile devices have screens anywhere near the proper shape for TV viewing? The promotional videos I've seen show countless mobile devices, many with varying tall, skinny screens with perfectly-framed shots of a guy hitting a home run. But how can this be? Sure, the iPhone is going to be a great way to watch TV on the go, but apart from it and a couple of knock-offs, I don't see how people who originate content are going to be able to frame every shot to cover every device that's out there. Maybe there's an answer in the works, but I haven't found it yet...

HD Brings Back Our Old Problems With TV Audio Levels

There's been a resurgence of an old-school problem with broadcast TV: since digital transition, it seems like hardly anyone pays attention to program audio levels. I was watching a movie on TNT Sunday night and when they went to a break, it suddenly became so loud I spilled a drink on myself fumbling for the remote control.
I called a buddy of mine at Turner Studios to find out who's in charge of QC'ing their on-air playout. Turns out they've got lots of handy tools they use to keep their signal broadcast safe. In fact, they tell him 'Don't worry about video levels, we can catch that on the way out.', so it would seem that they could knock the audio of their promos down at least enough to keep me from getting soaked in Diet Coke. Some channels are better than others, like NatGeo, which is very uniform between programs and breaks. I'm not saying, but I'm just saying...

Raising Awareness for the Institute for Truth in Accounting

It's a staggering figure, and one of the more compelling messages we've ever been asked to deliver for any client. The nonpartisan Institute for Truth in Accounting was founded to connect people with the real truth about government spending that never seems to get the attention it deserves. This national debt counter only tells part of the story. Nmedia is producing a series of TV spots for the institute that highlight the perils of making decisions without all the facts. We encourage you to explore the institute's website at www.truthin2010.org.

Coming Soon: Nmedia.com 3.0

The slow summer has allowed us to focus on a few attributes of our business that need attention, particularly the Nmedia.com website. With a soft launch date set for August 20, the new Nmedia.com will feature a more elegant interface, more timely work samples and a tour of our facitlites, as well as mobile connectivity and new technology where it counts: providing robust, precise interactive feedback opportunities for our clients during the content review and approval process. We've also been hard at work with systems integration and various facility improvements as well, and we invite you to stop in for a look whenever you are in the vicinity of our Midtown studios. We think you'll agree the extra attention is paying off.