December 2008 Newsletter
Project of the YEAR
Celebrity Cruises new Solstice ship
November and December provided Digital Media Services with our most exciting project of the year. Celebrity Cruise Lines debuted their newest and largest luxury cruise ship, named the Solstice, and asked us to shoot virtual reality photography of all the public spaces and stateroom classes for their Website. We only had five days to capture over 35 shots and the boat was full of passengers much of the time. Because of this, we averaged less than two hours of sleep per day and had to manage a constantly changing schedule. However, because of some new techniques we used, we ended up with some of the best VR shots we’ve ever taken.
Please take a few moments to appreciate the design and beauty of the Solstice and enjoy some fantastic photography. Click here for the Solstice image index page (warning: you’ll want to book a cruise with Celebrity after viewing). We’d be glad to tell you more about the shoot - just give us a call!
Marketing Tip
Looking back to move forward
Questions? Comments? Feedback? All are greatly appreciated! Email us by clicking here or call us at 727-512-9998. We’d love to hear from you!
Tech Tip
YouTube Basics
Most of you are likely familiar with the online video sharing service YouTube and a number of you are probably regular users of it. YouTube is part of the so-called Web 2.0 services and allows anyone with an internet connection and an email address to upload searchable video clips to the YouTube Website for the rest of the world to see, free of charge. While much of the content on YouTube is only interesting to a select group of people, the Website has become an effective tool in providing instant accessibility to current events, archived resources and almost limitless niche topics.
Since its inception, the only significant flaw with YouTube has been the inherent low quality of the presented video clips. All uploaded video clips are automatically re-encoded into YouTube’s chosen Flash Video format regardless of the original video’s quality or file type. Recently, though, YouTube has been making improvements in this area.
Earlier this year, YouTube began offering the capability to display High Quality versions of video uploads. High quality versions of videos are offered automatically based on the original quality of the uploaded file and the viewer’s internet connection speed. Below are two comparisons. The first is a standard quality sample; note the “watch in high quality” message in the bottom right below the video player. The second is the same video played in high quality mode:
Even better, YouTube has just initiated the capability to view content in the 16:9 (1.78:1) aspect ratio and select videos in high definition. All widescreen-recorded content will automatically be show to fill the new, wider YouTube player window frame and HD content will be shown in 720p. Click here for an HD YouTube video example. Be sure to click “watch in HD” in the bottom right.
So jump on board and upload some YouTube video!
Extras
Other cool DMS projects
All imagery and content copyright © 2008 by Digital Media Services & Consulting LLC. All rights reserved.
Contact Us
We’re here to hear
One of our regular procedures at Digital Media Services is to hold “Fixit” meetings after the completion of each major project. This gives everyone involved an opportunity to reflect back and share their thoughts on how a project went, how we can improve our service and operations and how we can better interact with our clients. These meetings provide a forum for valuable discussions on how we can become better at what we do both internally and externally. Ultimately, this helps us with everything from our marketing efforts to our client relationship building.
We’d like to propose that you set aside some time - either before the end of this year or shortly after the start of next year - to hold a Fixit meeting with your staff and/or your peers to reflect back on what difficulties you had during the year and develop ways to overcome them in the future. It’s easier to speak candidly about an issue long after the heat of the moment has passed and brainstorming as a group almost always produces a wider range of possible solutions. I can’t think of any Fixit meeting we’ve had where we didn’t come away with a valuable improvement.
But also take some time to recognize and reinforce positive outcomes you and your staff had. Perhaps someone discovered a solution to a long-standing issue that should be shared with the rest of the team. I’d even go as far as to recommend you draft a brief outline of your discussions and present it to your managers - they love that kind of stuff!
DMS photographer Sean Deren recently shot iamges for architect DooleyMack, rap artist Casanova and Tampa Bay Illustrated. Producer Vince Mann has been working at the Tampa Bay History Center getting all the displays ready for public viewing. Brian Satchfield did some promo work for the Kennedy Space Center.