Category Archives: Video

5 Awesome Things You Can Do With Google Cardboard

Google Cardboard turns your smartphone into a full-on virtual reality device without the high price tag. It’s made out of exactly what you’d expect, but its pieces come together to hold your smartphone in front of your face for use with VR apps.

With your phone acting as the display and your homemade headset holding it in the right place, Google Cardboard presents itself as a lower-impact Oculus Rift. There are a variety of Cardboard-style headsets available for purchase from the official Google Cardboard website. Some are fancier than others, but you can expect to pay $20–$30 for your own. (May we recommend the Star Wars-themed Cardboard?) After punching out the pieces and putting it all together, there are a number of apps to use that respond to head motions, immersing the wearer in a virtual reality landscape. These apps feature a designated “Works With Google Cardboard” logo so you know that they are specialized.

The Cardboard-compatible apps are cataloged on this page of the Google Play store, and they run the gamut. Titans of Space is a virtual reality tour of our solar system and outer space. A game called WAA! immerses you in a field of asteroids. Sisters presents itself as a terrifying ghost story game, and for the more utility-minded, an app called Tilt Brush Gallery lets you view sketches in 3D. This only scratches the surface, but they all serve the same purpose: to transport the app’s user to some place that is otherwise completely impossible to get to. With that in mind, here are five cool things you can do with Google Cardboard.

RELATED: Virtual Reality Check

Take 360-degree photos and send them to friends.

The camera in your smartphone is all you need to generate an immersive virtual reality-style photograph that someone can pan and scan through from their own Cardboard setup. Google’s proprietary photo app will stitch together the many photos required to make an entirely 360-degree experience, and it will even record live audio from the scene you’re capturing.

Read the paper in an entirely new way.

The NYT VR app provides users with news stories in virtual reality format “every month or so.” Content is one of the most obvious things to be reinvented by virtual reality technology, and the New York Times is one of the first media companies to get serious about being ready to have serious offerings when VR proliferates.

Disappear inside virtual game worlds.

Whether you’re investigating the spooky scenes of Insidious Chapter 3 or falling out of the sky in Caaaaardboard!, Cardboard can embed you in a daydream escape fantasy taking place on your smartphone screen. Just don’t let your boss catch you using it at work.

Explore the real world.

Browsing Google Street View through virtual reality goggles is sure to be nostalgic or adventurous depending on where you decide to “go.” Tour your old hometown, or brave the freezing temps of Antarctica from the comfort of your current home. An app called Orbulus zooms in on destinations of note, allowing you to explore everything from the Sydney Opera House to Paris at night.

Watch regular media in a new way.

An app called VR Cinema renders your stored video into split-screen format compatible for VR hardware, like Cardboard.

Why & How You Should Integrate Online & Offline Marketing

Use online marketing to improve the effectiveness of offline ads. by Peter Roseler

It’s important for business owners and marketers to avoid the trap of binary thinking. Often, advice to business owners is given in black and white terms. For example, some study will show that email marketing is better than direct mail marketing or a business guru will write about why business owners should only use internet marketing. However, reality is rarely so simple. The truth is, most businesses will need a combination of multiple marketing strategies and tactics to maximize the potential of their advertising and marketing. This article will show why and how business owners should integrate their online and offline marketing campaigns.

Internet Marketing and Television
Though television advertising and marketing were unrivaled ways to reach consumers for decades, the growth of internet video demands a change in tactics from marketers. A business owner that only uses TV ads to reach their target audience may be surprised to learn that many members of their target audience watch far less TV than they think.

According to some estimates, 84 percent of internet users worldwide watch videos online. More than half of millennials watch TV shows on a tablet, desktop computer, or smartphone. Recently, comScore reported that nearly half of households with three or more people subscribe to Netflix. The report also found that 17 percent of millennials watch no original TV series on traditional TV sets. And that Americans aged 18-34 are 77 percent more likely than average to live in households that have never had pay TV.

These statistics show marketers can’t depend on TV ads to be catch all advertising channel it was in the past. In fact, no form of advertising medium is anymore. In order to reach modern audiences, need to integrate internet marketing tactics to reach more of their target audience. For example, millennials watch more YouTube than any network or cable channel. So using banner or video ads on YouTube is an effective way to reach people who don’t watch as much TV programming as others. Similarly, advertising on social media can help business owners reach targeted audiences with their marketing message.

Internet Marketing and Radio
Though it’s one of the oldest forms of mass media still in use, radio remains a useful and profitable tool for marketers. According to a recent study from Nielsen, 59 percent of US music listeners listen to traditional or online radio. Even in the digital age, there are advantages radio gives that are difficult to duplicate digitally. For example, radio remains the best way to reach consumers as they commute. Which makes radio marketing a great way to reach local consumers with relevant ads. This has been borne out by recent data. In a different study, Nielsen reported that radio ads drive 5.8 percent of US retail sales. Keep in mind that more ad dollars are spent on TV, internet, and print ads than on radio ads, so 5.8 percent represents a pretty good return on investment. Put another way, each dollar of radio ad spend generates an average sales return of $6.

Internet radio exists, but it’s not as widely used as traditional radio. Even among millennials, traditional radio is extremely popular. According to one report, 70 percent of Americans ages 18-34 listen to network radio each week. Additionally, about 71 percent of them have annual household incomes over $75,000. Internet radio apps are used a lot, but they aren’t pulling these kinds of number yet. This gap will likely shrink with time and it illustrates why marketers need to integrate their campaigns.

Running ads entirely on radio will give marketers a good portion of the local commuter audience, but a growing number of people will get their morning music and news from an app. Using banner ads that are available on generic apps or the specific audio and visual apps possible on internet radio apps helps to ensure that marketers reach a larger percentage of their target audience. .

Internet Marketing and Print Media
Newspaper and magazines have suffered a lot due to rise of internet technology. While some commentators are quick to declare print media dead and that our grandkids will consider a physical newspaper as strange as a scroll of papyrus, the truth is that there remains a value to print media that digital sources can’t completely replace. According to Harris Interactive, 69 percent of US adults trust their local newspapers. This trust in the medium can translate into action. According to Nielsen, 54 percent of consumers are more likely to buy a new product when learning about it from a newspaper or magazine ad. Even national businesses recognize the usefulness of print media for local advertising. About 43 percent of national businesses use newspapers for local promotions.

Integrating internet marketing with print media is relatively simple. This can be as simple as including websites and email addresses in print ads or including print coupons for specials that are available online. Just because people use the internet doesn’t mean they don’t use of the sources for infromation A study from Shop.org also found that 63 percent of US internet users have used a coupon from a newspaper or magazine. It also helps to include traditional media sources when distributing press releases, instead of solely relying on online distribution. Though it’s easy to get a press released published somewhere online, if the intended audience is local, it’s beneficial to get the news, product, or event covered by the local news media as well. As the Nielsen study showed, people would be more receptive of the information, which can help when introducing a new product line or brand.

The growth of various forms of media have created an environment where there is no longer a catchall form of marketing that will reach every audience, not even the internet. In order for business owners to get the maximum reach and effectiveness of their marketing tactics, they will need to use an integrated campaign. Merging online and offline marketing strategies in the ways mentioned above, is a good way for businesses to increase revenue.

Target Facebook Users Near Your Business with Local Awareness Ads

A great article that will help local businesses! by Peter Roesler

For a long time, ads on Facebook were less effective the more local a business was. It’s easier to target to an audience of all young women in America than it is to market all the young woman who live near a boutique that’s advertising on Facebook. At least, it was hard. Facebook recently introduced Local Awareness Ads specifically made to help small local business owners connect with Facebook users near their location.

“With local awareness ads, businesses can quickly and easily find new customers by showing ads to groups of people who are near that business’s neighborhood,” the company wrote in a blog post announcing the new feature. “Local awareness ads are built to be more cost-effective than traditional advertising channels like newspaper while offering more precise targeting and greater reach.”

Since Facebook had very good targeting options in the past, it’s worthwhile to explain what is different. Before, a brick and mortar store could only target to a city or ZIP code. It was possible to capture a large part of the potential audience for a business this way, it would also include a lot of unnecessary areas and serve ads to people who probably couldn’t act on them. With Local Awareness Ads, business who have their physical location listed on Facebook can run ads that are targeted a certain radius from that spot.

This can be a valuable tool when combined with Facebook’s resources for advertising to mobile device users on the Facebook App as well as on games and mobile sites in the ever-growing Facebook Ad network. For stores that rely on foot traffic, Local Awareness Ads can be used to steer customers their way as soon as they get in range.

Besides the usual ads for specials, discounts, and the like, Local Awareness Ads can also be used with “Get Directions” call-to-action button. Facebook noted that in conversations with local business owners and advertisers, clicks for directions where more valuable than traditional metrics such as Likes and Shares.

In the blog post, Facebook tried to assuage fears that the new ad format would be intrusive. The Local Awareness Ads won’t be able to target specific people just people in specific areas. And users can still opt out of sharing their device’s location with Facebook.

“Local awareness ads were built with privacy in mind. Advertisers select locations, not specific individuals, for local awareness ads,” the post stated. “Facebook does not tell advertisers which specific people are in any audience and, as with our other advertising products, all audiences must meet a minimum required size.”

Most consumer advocates would consider these points as mere semantic arguments. But with most eyes focused on the reintroduction of Atlas, slightly better geo-tracking isn’t raising many activist eyebrows. But local business owners and marketers should pay attention. Local awareness ads may be the solution for their local internet advertising needs.

If you don’t have a Local Awareness Ad option in your ad creation tool, keep an eye out for it, it’ll be there soon. Facebook says the feature will roll out across the US over the next few months. Every business owner in America should probably have it by November (they wouldn’t want to miss out on all that Black Friday ad revenue). The rest of the world may have to wait a little, but it should be released globally within the next few months.

Forget Ultra HD: 8K is closer than you think

Sure just when I was going to purchase a 4K Camera I read this….

Enjoy this article by Steve May – Why Japanese broadcaster NHK believes Ultra HD is just a stepping stone to bigger and better things….

2014 is fast shaping up to be the year of eight million pixels. Full HD, now ubiquitous on TVs at every price point and served up by more than 60 channels, finally has something to look up to. 4K resolution displays, built for those with really deep pockets, are finally becoming a reality. January’s International CES was a galvanising launch pad for these next-generation screens.

But 4K’s time in the spotlight could prove short-lived. An upstart upgrade is already impatiently waiting in the wings, and at least one major broadcaster believes it makes more sense to skip 4K altogether.

Pixel warfare

After 3D and Smart connectivity, everyone is talking about pixels again. Indeed, competition to drive resolution up is breaking out on display platforms large and small. For TV makers this buzz can’t come soon enough. Next-generation displays put business-saving value back into the marketplace. All the industry has to do is work out a way to sell them.

Shawn DuBravac, director of research for the Consumer Electronics Association, concedes that ‘4K is not really a product that’s applicable to everyone,’ but is optimistic that ‘consumers seeking a very rich visual experience… will want to make that move upwards as quickly as possible.’

A stumbling block to the 4K roll-out is the lack of native content. In the short term there’s been a 4K upgrade to the PS3’s PlayMemories Studio software, which makes it a lot more convenient to view still images at 3,840 X 2,160. A longer term solution involves the recently rubber-stamped new HEVC (for High Efficiency Video Coding) codec. Designed as the long-term replacement for H.264, HEVC will almost certainly be employed when SES begins a 4K Astra test satellite channel (probably this year or next), and is the obvious choice for the next evolution of the Blu-ray standard (if studios give it their blessing).

Equally hampering development has been the lack of a 4K HDMI output standard. While high-speed HDMI cables can take 4K in their stride, the HDMI interface at the source end has been inconveniently ignored. Atushi Matsui, one of the leading engineers at Panasonic responsible for the brand’s prosumer HDC-Z10000 3D camcorder, which employs a 4K pixel-shifted image sensor, says development of native 4K consumer products has been hampered because of this hiccup.

8K dawning

But even as the world’s biggest TV makers work out how best to package 4K, Japanese state broadcaster NHK has been talking up its replacement. 8K Super Hi Vision offers an image 16 x more detailed than HD. At 33 megapixels it inflates the envelope of human visual acuity, and then pops it with a loud bang.

Dr Keiichi Kubota, NHK’s Executive DG of Engineering (below), told HCC that progress with 8K has been so rapid that they’ve now decided to leapfrog 4K as a transmission standard altogether: ‘It took two decades to take hi-def from the lab to public demos. We’ve made the same progress with Super Hi-Vision in half the time,’ he says. ‘Our experts have set a target date of 2020 for experimental broadcasts, but there’s the possibility of bringing this forward. We want to begin as soon as possible.’

The ETA of Super Hi Vision actually hangs on Tokyo’s bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games. Should the city win, then NHK will bring wide-scale trials forward to 2016.

Dr Kubota concedes that panel makers have to move to 4K as a business imperative in the meantime, but says firmly that ‘NHK has no plans  to use 4K. We will move directly to an 8K system.’  The engineering chief insists it makes little financial sense to begin an expensive 4K upgrade of broadcast infrastructure when 8K is so near. ‘It would mean another big investment, and we can’t afford to do that. So we’ve decided not to take a step-by-step approach. Will go directly to 8K.’

NHK, in conjunction with the BBC, used the London Olympic Games as a field trial for 8K, and the resulting footage astonished all those who saw it, including us. NHK describes the technology as uniquely immersive. ‘This kind of advanced system gives us an unrivalled sense of presence,’ says Kubota. ‘It enables a viewing experience that is as close to reality as possible.’ Primitive cultures once believed that a camera could capture the soul in an image. 8K actually does.

NHK has been developing Super Hi Vision since the mid-nineties. ‘At that time we had just started digital HD broadcasting [in Japan],’ I’m told. ‘Our scientists were wondering what to do next…’

First-generation Super Hi Vision ‘cameras’ were essentially movable equipment racks tethered to  a lens. ‘Our crew used the original 80kg Super Hi-Vision camera to film a mother and her child playing in the back yard of our laboratory,’ he reveals. ‘Since then we’ve made crucial advances.’ Today, the latest Hitachi 8K shooter weighs a mere 4kg and can be shoulder mounted for use much like any other piece of pro video gear.

Dr Kubota admits not all broadcasters are as keen as NHK to pursue 8K, but he says there is solid interest from the BBC, Italian broadcaster RAI and the big American networks. Just as with 4K, it’s the HEVC codec which is central to getting 8K out of the R&D ghetto. Indeed, the man from NHK says that HEVC is so efficient it will even allow 8K to be streamed across the internet, which could change everything.

Even so, he maintains that there will be the need for an 8K turbo-charged disc format to accompany it. ‘NHK may predominantly be a broadcaster,’ he says, ‘but our subsidiary company sells Blu-ray discs of NHK programmes. I’m sure the same thing will happen with the Super Hi Vision system. We will produce 8k programmes for broadcasting over terrestrial and satellite channels and our subsidiary will make an 8K disc version for home use.’

Dr Kubota also reveals that the system’s expansive 22.2 sound system (below) is being adapted for home use. ‘Our audio expert is working on that right now,’ he continues. ‘22.2 speakers is too much in the living room, so we’re working out how to reduce the number of speakers, but retain almost the same effect – we’re developing a new type of down-mixing technology.’ He adds that even a 7.1 physical speaker deployment may be unnecessary: ‘We’re thinking 5.1 or even less…’

Still frame sequence shot in raw 8K bounced to 4K to You Tube. Blow this up and it still looks spectacular, almost like it’s computer generated!

Don’t forget to use 2160 4k = setting!

BASIC 3 POINT LIGHTING FOR VIDEO & FILM

Poorly lit scenes can leave your project looking flat and lifeless. But if you can get the lighting right, it will help establish a tone, and bring the depth and texture to your footage. In this segment, we talk about the basics of 3 and 4-point lighting including key lights, fill lights, backlights and set lights. Plus, some insight into hard light and soft light, and high key and low key lighting styles. Knowing the fundamentals of basic lighting setups can help breathe life into bland scene.

Creating the Film Noire Look (High and Low Key Lighting)

Color Temperature and Lighting

Gels and Diffusion: Everything You Should Know

Creating online awareness with video slide shows and HD Templates!

Video is still the most popular media that is viewed on the internet. Giving that everyone is turning to online video…. a good video is the most effective way to educate the user about your product or help promote your business. This video slide show produced by Kelsey Media Productions features a variety of Valentine’s Day Cupcakes from Nancy The Cupcake Lady located in Bellmore, New York.

We recommend our custom templates to clients because it’s fast and easy to add professional, customizable motion graphics to a project. These high quality Animated HD Video Templates can help build awareness to your business, products and services. The custom template samples from our website can be included in your production. Our HD Templates can utilize Video Footage, Content, Photo Stills, your selected Music and company logo. Your completed video production can be viewed on your Website, Blog, YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook used within a Presentation or added to a television spot. In addition to being a great marketing tool these animated templates are visually stunning and professional.

Are you looking to add some excitement to your products, services or business – then give us a call at 781.365.4800 or visit Kelsey Media Productions!

5 Instagram Marketing Tips for Startups and Brands

Written by Dhara Pandya

Instagram has become one of the most popular social media networks in the world within a very short time. Every day millions of users upload and share content directly associated with brands, start ups and organizations, presenting huge opportunities for you to inspire and influence current and potential customers.

1. HASHTAGS

Hashtags are the best way to find people who are talking about your brand or startup, follow the conversations people are having. From there you can develop unique ways of engaging them.

Create their own unique hashtags when they post images of their products and encourage customers to use the same hashtags to share images.

Hashtags can help business by making it easy for people to find images related to the brand, improve the reach or engagement, and in making their Instagram content engaging on its own.

2. CREATE A STORY THROUGH IMAGES

The best way to get your customers to remember your brand is to create a deep impact on their minds. Through Instagram businesses can post images of existing products/services, share pictures taken during events, product launches and behind the scenes. This would give customers a glimpse into the inside world of the brand and intrigue a higher interest in them for the brand.

Businesses should also encourage customers to share the images that showcase the brand’s products through specific Hashtags. One of the brands that has received great success with this is Starbucks.

3. INVOLVE THE WHOLE TEAM

Employees are considered most important asset for a business, and when it comes to social media the best way to create a legitimate activity is to encourage your employees to be part of it. They should be encouraged to follow your brand, like the images, post the images and to comment on them. They must incorporate this into their routine. The constant involvement of employees will give customers entry into behind the scenes and create a community for everyone to share their ideas and images.

Employees must be encouraged to take photos with their iPhone, android and tablets. This will make photo sharing very easy for them.

4. TIMING IS EVERYTHING

Select the best times for posting and sharing. Simply Measured did an amazing study on Instagram engagement showing which times have the greatest correlation to comments on photos. The results of the study are as follows:

5. MAKE AND SHARE VIDEOS

Instagram was acquired by Facebook in 2012 and in June 2013 the company announced their new video feature which would allow users to share 15 sec long videos. Instagram has more than 130M active users and in the first day Instagram Video was announced, more than 5M videos were shared. With such large number of users, Instagram has made it very easy for companies to share videos. This video feature enables businesses to share intro videos of their employees, fun facts about their brand, how-to videos, address customer’s questions, FAQs and create cool contests to engage customers and drive interaction.

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Multi-viewpoint robotic camera system creates real ‘bullet time’ slow motion replays.

This multi-viewpoint robotic camera system, under development by NHK, links the motion of eight sub-cameras to that of an individual camera, so that all the cameras film the same moving object.

“Using this system, you can create the effect of stopping time, and moving the viewpoint all around the subject.”

“Previous methods used a fixed camera, so they could only capture subjects moving in a narrow or limited space. But this multi-viewpoint robot camera system can film dynamically moving sports, or subjects at lots of locations in an extensive space.”

Each robot camera has two motors, for pan and tilt. The cameras also share lens data, so they can zoom in unison.

“Pictures taken with robot cameras inevitably have discrepancies in direction control. So simply switching between them doesn’t give smooth pictures. To solve that problem, we’ve brought in a computer, which redoes the direction control virtually. Image processing is done, to virtually orient the cameras in the direction of the subject, making it possible to switch between the cameras.”

“Pictures from this system can be sent out about one minute after filming is finished. First of all, we intend to use this for live sports broadcasting. We’d like to make it easy to understand what’s happening, by providing multi-viewpoint pictures instead of the current slow-motion replay.”

This multi-viewpoint robotic camera system can also be used as an image capture system for integral 3D TV, under development by NHK. By generating integral 3D video from multiple-viewpoint footage, 3D video of sports events will be viewable on integral 3D TV.

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