Mobile phone video clips as a marketing tool

The entry of Telstra into the 3G market with its NextG service is likely to fuel the explosive growth of video downloads to mobile phones and laptops. MMS, Bluetooth and subscription video services present organisations and bands with new opportunities to promote via video (3gp) and/or audio (Mp3). Here's a video clip of the Variety Youth Choir's "We're here to give" in 3gp format. Simply download the file and transfer it (by usb or bluetooth) to your mobile phone (if it's a media enabled phone) or ipod/mp4 player. Confused? Ask anyone under 18 for help, or call us :)

The 2006 WAM Award Winners are:

The Fly By Night Club on Thursday October 19 in Fremantle was the venue where the best of WA's songwriters in 17 different categories were honoured. The Grand Prize for WAM Song of the Year was taken out by Erik Hecht for his song 'City Wall and Empires' a song Erik has recorded with his band Institut Polaire. Performing on the night was an all-star line up of WA talent including Kav Temperly from Eskimo Joe, The Panda Band, Abbe Fuzz and The Rockin' Pneumonia, One Horse Town, the Catherine Noblet Quartet and The Watts. Presenters from Xpress Magazine, The West Australian, RTR FM, ABC Radio, Nova, Drum Media, Channel 10, APRA, Perth International Arts Festival and Minister for the Arts, the Honorable Sheila McHale were on hand to announce the winners. The winners of most categories walked away with $1,000 cash and 1 day of recording time in a leading Perth studio. The winner of the Grand Prize received an additional 3 days recording time with renowned producer Rob Grant at Poons Head and the pressing of 500 promotional singles.

GRAND PRIZE and Pop - City Walls and Empires - Erik Hecht Blues/Roots - Sidewindin' - Abbe Fuzz Gospel - Flowers In the Desert - Jeremy Dixon Electronic/Dance - These Times - David McKinney, Rachel Claudio Heavy Rock/Metal - Drag In Drag Out - Kevin Curran, Todd Fishwick Primary - Free - Matt Larsen Rock - Red Means Go - B Mulvena-Trinder, I Berney, J Sher, C Palmer Jazz - Wanderer - Catherine Noblet Lower Secondary - Shadows Of A City - E Hamilton, G Hutchings, M Mackintosh, L Osborn Urban - Lose Control - Sundeep Barman-Roy World/Folk - Mon Ankor Anmourer - Grace Barbe, James Searle Love - Old Folks, Drunks and Babies - Sascha Ion Upper Secondary - Happy Birthday Dave - Matthew Beau Gresham Regional - Call Of The Wild - Xavier Brown Country - Live On Love - Polly (Kylie) Medlen Indigenous - Our Song - Jason Bartlett and Phillip Bartlett Mixed Bag - It's a PC 21st Century New Millennium Romantic Arrangement... - Andrew Horabin

Pro-Copy was glad to support this years awards and congratulations to all nominees and winners

Winners of the 2006 My Big Gig for WA Schools

Friday Night at the Fly By Night in Fremantle was the culmination of months of work for Kosmic Sound, Canningvale College and the many participants of the 2006 My Big Gig competition for school bands.

The talent was enormous, the skills and level of presentation far exceeded the age of these great musos's - Western Australia has once again proved that Music is alive and well in our great State.

This years recognised winners are listed below - but really all the bands that entered were great to watch.

An amazing vocal version of Led Zepelin's "Rock N Roll" proved that the girls are up to the guys in the hard rock category.

Well done to all including the recipients of the ProCopy encouragement award Retrospect from Ocean Reef - their Original song was great. So this years winners are:-

• Winthrop Baptist College came first with their band Spectrum.
• Ballajura Community College second, with Wing-It
• Seton Catholic College, third with 8 of the Best.
• Ocean Reef with Retrospect had the most original song- Pro-Copy Encouragement Award
• Bridgetown had the marketing award.

We're all looking forward to seeing what the schools have to offer in 2007 

Unpredictable DVD recording and playback

In response to many questions we receive about DVDR playback and recording problems we've put this short explanation together. If you'd like to add to the discussion or ask further questions please log in below.

One of the big problems facing the industry is that high quality "branded media" is becomming almost impossible to get. Chinese, Indian and Taiwanese manufacturers have almost wiped them out via heavy cost cutting and excess capacity driving the prices down to marginal profitability.

Having said that even TDK and other discs manufacturers have made their discs under license in Taiwan for the last two years but are now dropping CDR & DVDR production in favour of the more profitable new products such as Blu Ray & HD DVD. The product cycles & variations are getting very fast so they (major manufacturers ) are in and out of a market now much quicker.

The other problem is not really the disc but the implementation of the relevant standards within the recorders/players. Most discs are actually made to tight specifications, however the players are made by a myriad of manufacturers with widely varying implementation of the specifications. This makes for unpredictable playback of discs.

Generally then we stick with known good stock at ProCopy - "generically un-branded" for ease of printing, which may be Tdk, Taiyo Yuden, or other manufacturers. We use a lot in house each month and get rapid feedback on disc problems and batch issues (which can even affect known brands such as TDK & Sony). The number of disc issues usually is well under 0.5% and can often be tracked back to software, faulty master or equipment or frequently overlooked, an outdated bios or firmware. 

Often we find that routinely upgrading equipment, say every 18 months, is a good path to take as quite often noone knows how to update the firmware in their equipment. Given dye formulations and speed changes are still happening with DVDs (every 6 months or so as it's a relatively new format) it is not uncommon to find that a DVD recorder is not optimised for the new stock that is in the market place and therefore gives unpredicatable results.

So recommendations?

• Update equipment a bit faster than you normally would have in the past, (you'll usually get a better resale value anyway).
• While known brands are still available use them if they work with your equipment.
• If budget allows use something like the A Grade Taiyo Yudens.
• Don't use stick on Labels where possible - print direct to disc with Inkjet, Thermal, screen or offset print.
• Minimise physical damage by handling discs with care and replacing in boxes when not used.

Blu Ray Player set to launch soon in Australia

Panasonic have recently had a product launch at the Sydney entertainment Quarter ( Old Fox Studios) to demonstrate their upcoming range of HD compliant devices including the Panasonic DMP BD10 Blu Ray player.

25Gb on a single layer disc and 50Gb on a dual layer disc it can store the equivalent between 5 and 10 std DVDs or 35-70 CDs. It will also hold hours of HD quality video.

Scheduled for release late September 2006 and priced at around AU $2,749 on release it will be part of a new range of plasma and LCD screens, projectors, still & video cameras.

For more details on the new HD equipment visit Panasonic's Australian website