At the center of their offering is the Central Management Server which manages and controls all of the video encoding and decoding devices on a single platform through a graphical user interface. The CMS system manages:

• PC-Based Encoder/Decoders
• Non PC-Based Encoder/Decoders
• Streaming Media Servers
• Mobile Encoder/Decoder

The live content is sent to a Live IPTV Broadcasting Server and then distributed to the viewers via the internet to their computers or TVs with the aid of set-top-boxes. The AAA server allows pay-per-view or subscription-based payment required for users to be granted access to the content.

With computer screens getting less expensive, and larger in size, it seems that the computer screen may well become the small TV screen of the future. Web TV could offer us consumers a whole new world of viewing content, and might actually allow us to hear world news from the people actually in the place where the news resides – and it might even be relatively unbiased! At last corporations will not “own” the news, or at least have to compete with a number of less commercially based feeds. Wouldn’t it be nice to not have to mentally filter about everything you hear on network news? Wow – news by the people for the people!

It’s like having your own personal composer, i.e., Hans Zimmer-in-a-Can; and you don’t have to be a Beethoven to use it. Its a new software product, called “Abaltat Muse”, from the Ireland based company, Abaltat (www.abaltat.com). They call it the “worlds first video-driven soundtrack composer”.

First, you import your video segment into the program. Muse can use several methods for formulating your composition; In the demo we were given at the NAB convention, Siun Ni Raghallaigh, the companies CEO, chose “color” as the key for the program to use in constructing it’s unique composition. Neuronets can also be used by the software to construct melodies (one primary, and one secondary melody), and other musical decisions needed to complete the composition. Using either of these techniques, in theory, will never give you two compositions that are exactly alike. We selected the color “red”, since the video’s main visual topic is a red sportscar. The software is also “smart enough” to take the time length of your video, and will adjust the composition to fit exactly in the video’s time frame.

You then select a number of other parameters, such as compositional “complexity”. The user has the flexibility to zero in on a particular time segment for the increased/decreased intensity, or use the same intensity for the entire composition.

Next, one selects a musical style, such as “classical”, “rock”, or “atmospheric”, the beats-per-minute (BPM), and the time signature (3/4 for a waltz feel, or the more typical 4/4 rock style).

Finally you set a parameter called “jingle”. This is slider that controls the degree to which the melody will repeat: set the slider to a low value, and the melody will repeat often, set it high, and it will will repeat rarely, if ever.

You are now ready to hit the “compose” button. With your selections made, Muse chooses the appropriate instruments with 4 “players” in all, 2 playing melodies, a bass instrument, and a rhythm player. The user can mute out, reduce the volume of, or add various “players” at any point during the video.

I was impressed by the results. The demo produced a composition that went well with the video, and would certainly compare favorably with any “off the shelf” soundtrack. And best of all, no royalties or other contractual paperwork to worry about – ii’s YOUR composition!

Once your are happy with your composition, you can export the project as a MIDI file, or AIFF sound file. This is a good feature, since, in my opinion, the sound samples used weren’t of the best quality.  In the demo, the “flute” sounded like a violin to me.  However, the MIDI export would allow you to enhance or otherwise change your composition further by using some of the pro-audio software tools, such as Cubase or Apple’s Logic Pro, as well some the high-end sound sample libraries available. The Abaltat Muse playout works with Mac’s own soundcard or with the standard editing third party cards such as Blackmagic.

The Muse software retails for around $480, is available on Apple, and will be available for Windows this year. Their “Express” version sells for around $220 (Apple only), and has fewer features than Muse but can still take you from A-Z resulting in a decent sounding track. For more information about the two versions, and other offerings from Abaltat, go to www.abaltat.com.

The site also includes over 1 million artist profiles, and updates these profiles in real time. “A search of a favorite artist will display videos, photos, playlists, news, blogs, biography’s, recommendations and more”, the Santa Monica company said.

We decided to take a look at this new free service and give you a quick overview on how this new service works.

When you first go on site you will notice a large video player in the center of the page. After clicking on it for the first time it will ask you to install a plugin to load the player. After you have installed the plugin the video will start playing. (I wonder where they got the unusual name? From “plugin” I suppose).

On the right side of the main page is the top videos box showing the most popular videos. Just below that there is a box showing you their 4 currently featured artists. Clicking on one of the artists will take you to their very own dedicated web-page chocked full of their music videos, YouTube videos, and even play lists with multiple videos. The player on this page is a bit smaller then the one on the home page but it still looks good and is about 400 x 300 in size. Just below the player window is a “Market Place” area with albums, concert tickets, merchandise and other related paraphernalia for sale.

Clicking on the “VIBE” along the top bar of the browser window you can see what other users of the site have been watching and see the most popular videos and artists. Over at the “MIXER” Page you cam create your own playlists simply by clicking and dragging videos into the playlist box.

Pros:

• It’s FREE and is not loaded full of ads like some sites.
• Simple to use and easy to navigate.
• Streams over Sprint EVDO connection.

Cons:

• When scrolling the video player jumps around causing the page to jump as you scroll. (See video at 3 minutes in.)
• You have to install a plugin to play videos.
• Fullscreen only maximizes the browser window, and when you exit fullscreen the browser does not go back to its original size.
• Videos, while clearer than YouTube, does not look to be in HD (compare to Vimeo for quality!).

Video Walk Though:

Image Gallery:

I was looking though my logs and realized that the traffic to that video has been increasing each month, In September 14954 visitors, October 25153 visitors and November 10170 visitors as of 08 Nov 2007 – 09:46.

Its just interesting how some of these videos just live on, i thought the life of the video would be a few weeks but each month more and more people see it and then send it to some one else and its a never ending process.

You can see on the below charts showing that over the last few months the traffic is going up and all over the place, its fun for me when i can see the traffic and watch where the visitors are coming from.

I have added the NBC version of the crash using our footage up at the Killacycle page- Click Here

Day

Weekly

Monthly

TGDaily

UPDATE: We have fixed the video links…

Full Version TG Daily 27.6 MB (Short Version below)

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