The Most Powerful Communication Medium Ever

TV is our global town hall. It's where we gather to share the experience of world-altering events. We've watched the assassination of presidents, the weddings of royalty, Man's first steps on the Moon, and wars on the other side of the planet—all live and in our living rooms.

Television shapes our view of the world. It gives us motion and emotion. As a learning tool, video is without equal because it's a passive learning experience. We watch, we listen, we learn.

Vince Wade, second from left, is seen kneeling next
to a guest prior to a live appearance on the NBC Today
show. The satellite uplink from a bookstore was on the
occasion of the release of the latest Harry Potter book.
Wade field-produced the live shot for NBC.

Politicians and large corporations understand the power of television. TV is not cheap, but they know it reaches people like no other medium in history.

A montage of scenes from various video projects
produced by Wade Multimedia LLC

Perhaps because television is so pervasive, many clients never take the time to ask questions about what they are buying. Many never understand why this or that element costs what it costs. Rest assured we're going to ask you plenty of questions about your business and your project.

Here are some important basics you should know before you buy:

What will it cost? That's the first thing everyone wants to know. Professional-grade television is like writing with a one-ton pencil. It requires expensive equipment, staffed by skilled and artistic technicians who are paid professional rates for dependable, polished work.

Television production is like buying a car. There are stripped down economy models and fully loaded high-end luxury rides. What does it cost? The logical answer is another question. What do you want?

As a first step, know the answer to three important questions:

Who am I trying to reach?
What am I trying to tell them?
Do we have a budget in mind for this project?

There are four elements in any video production:

• Pre-production planning and script development
• Field (location) or studio production
• Post production editing and graphics
• Duplication and distribution

Video production is like painting a room in your house. The preparation and the cleanup take more time than the actual paint work.

The primary means of delivering video to an audience are:

• Broadcast/Cable television
• Live or taped satellite distribution
• Videotape
• DVD
• Internet
• Mobile (cell phones)

The proliferation of video delivery choices has brought down the price for time on your local TV station. It's not dirt cheap, but the price of a half-hour isn't in the stratosphere, either.

Satellite time has come down in price, too. Many corporations use satellites to send live or taped messages to field offices around the nation or around the world. Many "event" hotels are equipped to receive satellite feeds.

Videotape is on the endangered species list, thanks to DVD. With DVD players selling for under $100, VHS is rapidly disappearing. "VCRs are going to die a horrible death," is the verdict from one consumer electronics market analyst.

DVD is a powerful tool for sales, training and business video. The menus, chapters, multiple audio tracks, subtitle options and camera angles of DVD make it a truly Digital Versatile Disc.

There are two ways to post video on the Web; as download files or streaming video. Download files look better. Video encoded for Web streaming doesn't look as good, but it doesn't keep the end-user waiting. Streaming video starts playing while the rest of the file is downloading. If the Web is congested, the streaming content may have to catch up, resulting in the frustrating "buffering, buffering" message.

Video on the Web can look good for broadband users, bad for dial-up users. Video over broadband versus video over a dial-up modem is like comparing streams of water from a fire hose and a garden hose. Decent quality video is a bandwidth hog. It needs that fire hose.

Here are a couple of tips when considering video on the Web. Talking heads with a solid color background, in short clips, generally look acceptable as streaming video from a Web site. Action video, such as highlights of a football game, does not.

Look in the monitor on the right at the top of the page. There are links to two video clips. As you watch them, note the simple background and simple production elements. Online, short and simple is better in case the viewer has a slow connection or slow computer.

Here's one more option to consider: putting video in your PowerPoint presentations. If you've ever attended a conference you know that e-v-e-r-y-b-o-d-y uses PowerPoint. To keep their eyes from glazing over, you might consider shooting short video segments for inclusion in your next presentation. It's an alternative to those worn out clip art characters.

Question: Can I transfer my PowerPoint to video?
Answer: It's a bad idea. PowerPoint is a computer program, not a video tool.
You'll be better off—and dollars ahead—by creating a video that looks like PowerPoint rather than trying to adapt a PowerPoint file to video.