Syncing or swimming in Vegas......

Bob Pank#

Author: Bob Pank#

Published 1st May 2012


I've never been to America. I went to Canada for a month a few years ago, I have family living in Kentucky, but I've never been to the US before. My family are much more the Devon beach holiday types rather than a week in Disneyland every couple of year’s type.
And my first trip to America will be for NAB. In Vegas.
I have been reliably informed that Las Vegas is not an accurate representation of the rest of the country. And considering that even the water has to be pumped in, I'm thinking they're probably correct.
My Dad has been to Vegas for business a few times. Once he was over there, watching a promo video in a conference, and I walked on screen! The things you get to do as a production assistant. I was part of the team filming the videos and once the guys in the video realised my Dad would be watching it, they said I should have a cameo role! I even managed to keep it a secret for a good few months. And I like to talk, a lot. It was quite an achievement!
Anyway...
Vegas will be interesting to say the least. I'm currently a little way behind the legal drinking age. Which isn't so much of a problem, but it also means I can't step foot in a casino. Now, I haven't been there before so don't hold me to this, but I'm pretty sure a big part of the Vegas experience are the casinos. It's a bit gutting really; I've seen Ocean's 11, 12 and 13 and was hoping Brad Pitt might return for a fourth time, conveniently at the same time I would be there. OK, so the plan is flawed, but it doesn't matter anyway - I'm not 21 – I might just head for the pool!
Why am I there you ask? Production Assistant to BroadcastShow of course, the online video arm of tv-bay. We’ve done a few shows now, trialling first at IBC in Amsterdam last year. But this is the first on another continent!
We've tried a variety of software logistic programs to help us keep on top of all that we have to do. At IBC we had a spreadsheet on my iPad, but then decided it was safer to draw on all our appointments on the show map. For ProVideo we went with Evernote, easy to use but had some major syncing issues. We struggled on and persevered at BVE North with Evernote, but again, the major syncing issues. So for BVE (south) we tried Bento - which was ok, however by this point we had a new problem (challenge).
Broadcastshow.com continues to grow, as is the demand for videos, tweets, YouTube tags, photos etc. The world is so social media integrated now that for a product to work it has to tick so many different boxes. This meant a ton of work on the day of the show. The solution? Pen and paper on the day, and probably a fair amount of of pre-show work – we continue to seek an effective production tool for recording tag word metadata and info that is needed for the online interviews.

We have also had to contend with the fact that although Youtube is a great platform it doesn’t give us everything we need in terms of structure or statistics. Seeing a clip is viewed 500 times is great but how long did they view it? So as all things change so have we as the BroadcastShow venture has picked up both interest from both interviewees and viewers alike. We now use StreamUK alongside Youtube and can tell you to the nearest second how long each clip is viewed as well as a host of other “interesting” things!
I am looking forward to NAB. First time in America, first time in Vegas, big fan of flashing lights, lots of shopping. But also, as mentioned last month, it's nice to meet up with same crew you see at every show. And the shopping. And I'm staying in a castle. A CASTLE! There had better be knights running around.

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