Brian the Bull wins again!Posted on Fri, 21/11/2011
Brian the Bull, the eponymous cartoon character featured in the East Lancashire's Community Rail Project's latest DVD Greening the East Lancashire Line, has won again!
The DVD was awarded first place in the category of Involving Young People at the 7th Annual National Community Rail Awards held recently in a glittering ceremony in the Ballroom at Sheffield City Hall. Community Rail Development Officers Brian Haworth and Simon Clarke were on hand to accept the award on Brian the Bull's behalf.
Greening the East Lancashire Line was the second production by Apple Video Facilities to feature Brian the Bull, a character created and brought to life fully in-house at our production offices.
Previous to this award Brain the Bull's first video, Explore the Ribble Valley Line, won first place at the 2009 National Community Rail Awards in the same category.
As a character Brian the Bull has found fame and affection through out the North West, with school children all around Lancashire enjoying his DVDs and creating fan art of the loveable bull.
Blackburn train station recently saw the installation of a display dedicated to Brian the Bull and his educational exploits, with hand drawn renditions of the character adorning the wall of the stations waiting room.
Are your videos safe on DVD & CD?Posted on Fri, 21/11/2011
Here at Apple Video Facilities, our team of video experts are on a mission to highlight the possible dangers of storing your precious memories and important documents on standards DVDs and CDs.
When the first writable recordable discs started to arrive on the scene around 1999, they seemed the perfect way to record any video or audio you wanted to retain; a brilliant, new, space saving tool, allowing those priceless video memories to be stored, picture perfect, digital, and everlasting.
At least that's what we thought at the time…
Ten years on and some rather disturbing facts are emerging about the life expectancy of the discs. The latest research concludes that ALL standard consumer writeable DVDs and CDs do in fact have a life span, and in the worst case scenario, some cheaper discs may only last for 2 to 5 years. The industry has been thrown into turmoil over these rather startling revelations.
What causes the problem?
Some of the discs contain an organic dye which over time will deteriorate, rending the disc unplayable. Here at Apple Video we have software that can recover some, if not all data from the damaged DVDs and CDs but there is nothing that can be done when this 'disc rot' occurs.
So what's the answer?
GOLD ARCHIVE disc have now arrived, which, as the name suggests, actually utilise REAL GOLD as part of the dye. These new Gold Archive discs have a considerably superior life expectancy of around 100 years, provided you store them properly, in a vertically rested case, away from direct sunlight and protected from dust and dampness.
What can I do now?
Whether it is your precious camcorder memories or important documents and videos at work, the solution is the same – TRANSFER YOUR DVDs AND CDs TO GOLD ARCHIVE DISCS IMMEDIATELY! Here at Apple Video we can do the transfers for you, just bring the original disc to our store and we'll professionally transfer its content to a Gold Archive disc. Alternatively if you are confident enough to do it yourself, Apple Video will happily supply the discs and cases.
Live Internet TV BroadcastPosted on Wed, 10/08/2011
Earlier this year our first Live Internet TV Broadcast was watched by dozens of viewers and, thankfully, the response was tremendous and we have had some excellent and really positive feedback.
Thanks to all those that took part and for all of the enquiries we've had since.
This service is a live video broadcast, streamed over the Internet. It offers high-quality pictures and sound, using manned cameras, setting it apart from similar services that simply use webcams. Aside from the superior quality image and sound, the presenter's movements can be tracked.
The broadcast can be exclusive, accessible only by invite or it can be open for everyone to watch and participate. When the viewer accesses the webpage (which can be fully customized to match your company image), the transmission window will be displayed prominently, with an instant messaging box below the video, that allows viewers to send any messages, comments or questions live to the studio, to which the presenter can give an instant response in the broadcast.
As well as this, we can produce live effects during the broadcast, such as picture-in-picture displays, green screen effects, background music, live feeds from anywhere else in the world, name/title bars at the bottom of the screen, and anything else you might see on live television broadcasts.
The demonstration broadcast of this service can be viewed HERE, featuring our long time client Sue Tonks and a few of the techniques we can implement.
This service has numerous uses, including demonstrating a product or simply doing a presentation, and it can offer users the chance to address all their employees at one time without the cost of getting them all to one location.
We can provide this service with just one camera or with up to four cameras, which can be switched to independently. In most cases, two cameras are usually sufficient to cover the production.
Once again thank you to all who participated and if you require any further details please don't hesitate to contact us.