a laptop"; videos produced in more elaborate (and stationary) media labs, along the lines of those coalition forces were able to capture in late 2007; and those produced outside the theater entirely, is only going to shrink as time goes by. One company is marketing today a piece of equipment that they are calling "basically a live TV truck in a backpack."[1] Now, with "minimal training, anyone who can operate a computer can use it to broadcast professional-quality live video over the internet or on television."[2] It is clear that neither the manufacturers nor the technology reviewers are considering possible downsides to the way technology opens up broadcast-quality access to almost anyone with any kind of agenda. Yet if it were up to me, the same kind of export controls would be slapped on this that we put on fighter-bomber parts or Cray super-computers.
This disruption of the normal live video production process means content attractive to niche audiences is now worth televising to local communities or streaming worldwide. "You don't have to have a million people watching," said Nelson [Senior Vice President, NewTek], "because the budget of making the show is almost nothing."
The TriCaster is essentially a high-powered computer with special ports. Like other computers, it plugs into a display and it is operated using a mouse and keyboard. The onscreen interface resembles a traditional TV-studio switching console, but after a short tutorial, just about anyone can figure out how to switch between cameras, add graphics, and so on. I saw how easy this was, and heard countless testimonials about high schoolers and church volunteers learning how to use it in a half hour.
"We had to take a process that normally has 5 to 30 people creating a show and make it easy enough for one person to run, [someone] who has never run a TV show before," explained Nelson. Indeed, the TriCaster allows28
- ↑ Philip Nelson, Senior Vice President of Strategic Development, NewTek, quoted in Eliot Van Buskirk, "TV Studio in a Box Enables Long-Tail Television," Epicenter, Wired Blog Network, December 18, 2008, available from blog.wired.com/business/2008/12/tv-studio-in-a.html.
- ↑ Eliot Van Buskirk, "TV Studio in a Box Enables Long-Tail Television," Epicenter, Wired Blog Network, December 18, 2008, available from blog.wired.com/business/2008/12/tv-studio-in-a.html.
