There's nothing worse than a sales person who is attempting to demonstrate a product about which they obviously know very little. We've all been there, and some of us may well have bought something on the back of such a selling job. However, I've been doing my bit to help improve the situation - at least where camcorders are concerned.

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been helping Panasonic, one of the world's leading consumer electronics brands and a company whose products I've been reviewing for several years, by supporting retail staff training initiatives through the delivery of the first of a series of "HD Camcorder Academies".

With sales staff at the company's expanding number of retail stores - recently rebranded "Panasonic Store" - around the UK it's imperative that the people working at the sales coalface are armed with all the right facts about the camcorders they're selling. Having achieved success with a recent "Camera Academy", the company decided to adapt the concept for its first equivalent HD camcorder workshop. And that's where I came in. Read More...

Tags: training, camcorder, workshop, academy, panasonic

Yesterday (Saturday 12th) saw me spending a few hours at the London studios of QVC UK, where I was working as a Guest Presenter on the Hi-Tech Toys & Electronics show.

I was there to talk about the JVC GZ-HD300 high definition camcorder.

After a couple of days of preparation - during which time I got to know the camcorder and shot some test sequences that could be reviewed in the broadcast - I was in front of the cameras at approximately 00.40hrs and chatting enthusiastically to staff presenter Dale Franklin.

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I've been talking to quite a few people lately about how business people look upon the opportunities afforded by the rise in popularity of YouTube, and the findings (if that's what you can call them) are quite intriguing.

Back in the old days - when "shooting video" involved large 3-tube cameras recording onto portable video tape recorders the size of your average home extension - we were designing pieces of communication that ould be distributed onto strange lumps of plastic called VHS tapes. These tapes had to sent out to customers, trainees, partner organisations and operating companies before they could view them, an action that involved a thing called a VHS player. Not everyone had VHS players in the early days either. Read More...

Tags: video, production business, corporate, commission

It's that time of year when people are thinking about taking their Summer break, perhaps by flying off to a far-flung exotic location or driving to a location nearer to home.

It's on such occasions that we shoot video clips - with camcorders, mobile phones and even digital stills cameras.

Have you noticed that, even when pictures are reasonably good, the sound you're hearing is largely unremarkable?

It's amazing what a difference a good sound-track will make to your video, however basic the project is. With a low-cost video editing program like Adobe Premiere Elements 7 you can do a great deal to enhance the sound to the point where your sound-track will shine. Read More...

Tags: adobe, premiere. elements, sound, dvd, tutorials

Welcome to the new-look website. It's been a while since I've done anything with it - largely because much of my time is consumed with SimplyDV - but as a revamp has been way overdue I decided to give my "personal" website a bit of a makeover at long last. Read More...

Tags: adobe, premiere, elements, dvd, tutorials