Blog | ChamberPG

Video Editing On-the-Go

When something unexpected occurs, it doesn’t mean your video project has to be delayed. With just a few modifications and a bag filled with the right equipment, video editing can be done anywhere. If you find you need to head out of town for the weekend, just grab your on-the-go bag and take your work with you. Never miss a deadline again just because you have to travel. These days, the tools for video editing are more portable than ever.

RELATED: Boston Video Production Services by ChamberPG

On-the-Go Bag

While you will have to forgo using more than one large monitor, and perhaps leave behind some of your favorite toys, you can still get your work done with just the equipment that can fit in your on-the-go bag. By taking just the essentials, you can fit everything you need in one convenient bag. Just grab your bag and you will be ready to work on your video editing no matter where you need to be. Items needed to create an on-the-go bag include:

Bag. It can’t be an on-the-go bag without the bag. The bag you choose will be a matter of personal preference, but there are a few elements that you will want to look for in order to choose the perfect on-the-go bag. Look for a bag with a padded laptop compartment, a large main storage compartment, and several customizable compartments. Make sure to choose a bag made of quality material that is built to last. Choosing the right bag the first time will save you time and money in the long run.

Laptop. Since desktop computers don’t travel well, a laptop is a must for on-the-go editing. Luckily laptops have come a long way and there are many that work great for video editing. In order to use the laptop for editing your will want one with a great processor (CPU), plenty of memory (RAM) and lots of storage. Look for something with at least 500GB of storage, 8GB of RAM and an Intel i5 processor. Your budget will impact what you can get, but try to get the best laptop in your price range. A faster processor and more storage will only make your job easier.

Media Drive. Depending on your needs, you may want to carry a full sized 4 bay RAID, a smaller, portable RAID, or even smaller, more rugged drives. The full sized RAID is more difficult to travel with, but if you are traveling by car, it would be safe enough to package it and set it in the car without damaging the equipment. If you want to go this route, make sure to keep the original packaging so that you can bundle it up for travel. Sometimes you may want to sacrifice storage space for portability and use a smaller, portable RAID. If you can get by without the extra space of a full sized one, this may be a better option for you. Some even smaller drives come with rugged carrying cases that make them easy to transport.

iPad. The iPad is a convenient second monitor for on-the-go editing. Carrying around monitors is impractical, but an iPad allows you to have another screen that is easily transported. It can also be used as a trackpad or a controller. There are several great Apps available on the iPad that allow it to be used to turn the iPad into a trackpad or controller.

USB 3 Hub. When you need to plug in a keyboard, mouse, thumb drives, iPads and other peripherals, you’ll find you may need a USB 3 hub in order to get everything hooked up. Don’t bother with a USB 2; that will be too slow.

Extra USB. Always travel with extras.
Extra Cables. Extra cables will save you from a scramble if something goes missing or isn’t working right. Throw in a few extras just to be safe.

Adapter for Wall Warts. You don’t know what type of power outlets will be available, and you will want to make sure that you have the space to plug in all the equipment you’ve brought. An adapter will make it so you can plug in wall warts (large plugs that take up lots of space) no matter where you are.

Power Strip. A power strip is important for making sure you have the space to plug in all your editing tools. It does little good to travel with your laptop if you don’t have a sufficient place to get everything powered and ready to go.

Extension Cord. The outlet available may be difficult to reach or too far for your cords. Save frustration by bringing an extension cord, and you will be prepared for any type of power situation.

Headphones. Headphones will allow you to work in any type of environment without bothering anyone around you. It will keep your sound down for others, and also allow you to hear better as well.

Portable Speaker. For when you don’t need to keep the sound down, it is important to have a speaker that will allow you to hear what you are working on.

Mouse. Laptop trackpads are notoriously small and can cramp fingers when used for extended periods. A mouse will make work much easier and save you from discomfort.

Full Size Extendable Keyboard. This does take up a lot of space, but the ease and comfort of a full size keyboard is probably worth the space it takes. For any amount of editing work, a full size keyboard is a must.

Organization

Having the necessary equipment and a bag for travel, is only part of being ready to edit on-the-go. Even if you have a laptop and the other suggested on-the-go components, it will do little good if you aren’t organized. Successful video editing always requires organization, but if you want to be able to take your work with you no matter where you need to be, organization is essential. You need to have all your media elements in order so that you can easily move your work space. It does little good to get where you are going and realize you don’t have the video clips or the right music. Keep your work organized so it is easy to bring all the components with you for on-the-go editing. Don’t forget to bring:

Video Clips
Supporting Footage (B-roll)
Still Pictures
Graphics
Music
Sound Effects

Portable Editing

At one time, portable editing wasn’t feasible. Now that laptops, iPads, RAIDs are lightweight, powerful and easy to move, video production editing can be done anywhere in a pinch. Obviously, there is something to be said for using a permanent set up with all available bells and whistles for regular editing work. However, when something unavoidable comes up or if you want to take an extended vacation, but still have to meet a deadline, then it makes sense to have a way to get your work done with a portable set up. With an on-the-go bag and proper organization, you can conveniently do some video editing from anywhere you need.

Video Production Makes Business Boom

October 4, 2016/in Blog, Web Marketing Videos /by Video Production Blogger

People love watching videos. Since its inception, YouTube has become the second largest search engine. According to YouTube, they have over a billion users that spend millions of hours watching videos every day, generating over a billion views. Not only do people watch the videos, but they also share them on social media, making their reach that much further. Companies that understand the impact videos can make, use video production to get their brand noticed.

Why Use Video Production as a Marketing Tool?

It’s smart business to take advantage and use videos as a marketing tool, especially if your audience is between the age of 18 and 49. YouTube boasts that they reach this age group more than any cable network. Videos have an audience, that is for certain. Yet, there are even more great reasons to use video production as a marketing tool.

Easy to Use. Videos are user friendly. It’s as simple as pressing play, and the viewers have the information provided quickly and succinctly. There isn’t any need to read through pages of text for instructions or information. With the click of a button the information is presented in an enjoyable format.
Establish Image. Videos have a way of presenting information and establishing image way better than text. Their visual nature makes it easy for your company to express your image and share it with the world.
Create Buzz. Videos can build excitement about a product and get people talking. When people are excited about a video they’ve seen on the internet, they talk about it.
Engagement. People find videos engaging, and it will keep them on your website longer. Studies show that people spend more time on websites with videos.
Relevant. It’s an easy way to share relevant information and get people to watch. Let people know the important information about your products.
Creativity. Graphics and images in your video are interesting, and the creative aspect of videos is what gets people watching them.
Sharing. Videos are easy and fun to share through social media. This simple act of sharing increases your reach and allows that many more people to hear about your company.
Enhance Website. Videos add interest to your website. Add some videos and give people the tools to learn more about your product.
Exposure. You don’t have to wait for someone to share your video, post it on your website and link it to social media. Put it up on YouTube and increase its potential for viewing. The more you put it out there, the bigger the potential audience.
Affordable. It isn’t as expensive as you think. With easy to use programs, you might be able to create something yourself. More and more, professional production is affordable and gives you a quality product that you will be proud to share.
Versatile. Video is an incredibly versatile medium. You can use it to do an instructional video, share information, provide product demonstrations, or share testimonials—the options are as endless as your creativity.
Reach. If you want to reach the 18-49 year old crowd, you need a video. More and more, this age group is turning to the internet for information, and they like watching videos. Know where your audience is and how they are getting information. Using videos will help you reach a larger and more interested audience.

Technology is becoming increasingly important. The internet is the place where people go to learn about products, socialize and share their interests. Tapping into this growing marketing opportunity will help your company reach a larger audience and hopefully get the word out about how great your product is.

NAS Server & New Workstations

May 20, 2016/in Blog /by Specialk

The world of video production is always changing. Technology moves forward at an unrelenting pace, and as people who work with video all day long, we have to stay on the ball. I thought I would take this opportunity to talk about our workflow as a company. Pieces of it are still in progress, but I’m happy to share the ideas and the things we already have in place.

Firstly, we built two brand new editing workstations. Both are intel platforms. One is Z97, and the other is X99. The z97 workstation has a 4790K and 16GB of memory, along with an older GeForce GTX 660 Ti for leveraging CUDA performance in Adobe Creative Cloud. The X99 workstation has a 5820K, 32 GB of RAM, and a GTX 960 for GPU accelerated tasks. The reason we chose the X99 platform is because of its versatility. It uses the new DDR4 memory spec, as well as supports all chips on the LGA 2011-3 socket. So while we may “only” have a 6 core 12 thread CPU now, in the future when xeons for the socket come down in price, we can pick up silly amounts of processing power on the cheap and greatly extend the life cycle of the system. For instance, the top of the line xeon from 2012 launched at just under 4000 USD. Nowadays you can pick it up on ebay for 500 bucks or less if you wait for a good sale. That’s eight cores for not a lot of money! The top end xeon for the lga 2011-3 socket currently retails for 3800 USD brand new. But in a few years, we’ll be able to pick up an 18 core 36 thread beast for pennies on the dollar. That’s the advantage of the relentless march of progress, the bleeding edge trickles down to the consumer faster and faster.

The second half of our workflow is still in the works. We’re going to build a high capacity and highly expandable NAS (Network Attached Storage) server! This NAS is going to replace the numerous external hard drives that we have used over the past years. With the way we shoot footage nowadays, we are always clamoring for more storage. This NAS will have us covered. It will be running FreeNAS in a RaidZ ZFS Pool, have 5 3TB drives with room for 16 drives total, a SSD boot/cache drive, 32GB of ECC RAM, and a quad core xeon to make all the magic happen. It’ll be used for longer term storage than externals, but not archival. So projects that we shot and have a possibility of revisiting sometime down the road, we will put on there. Depending how fast it is, (and it should be rather speedy,) we can even dump projects on to that and work directly over the network.

Should be a fun build, and we’re excited to make it happen.