London Broadcast Video Expo

I went to London to attend the Broadcast Video Expo in Earls Court. This was interesting as we got to see a lot of the new technologies that were emerging within the industry. Businesses were competing for customers and attracting them with freebies. A lot of business types were there mingling exchanging cards and chatting over the newest gear. I was particularly interested in the 3d film cameras and the new Digital SLR cameras that were coming out.

A fabulous array of digital mixers was also to hand which was overwhelming at the best of times. I’m sure it would have been a more fulfilling visit if I actually knew what half the stuff did. On the other hand I had a great time listening to the people sell the equipment and dipping into various talks on some of the new editing software. I also had a go on a few of the new HD cameras that were out which was fun although all we had to shoot at was a toy train track.


Everyone was fond of the 'Tricaster' which was actually "pretty neat" as the American presenter said himself. The 'Tricaster' is a portable live production software that allows the user to have different three dimensional backdrops in one area using a green screen. This means that instead of the presenter just sitting in a studio with a table and desk he/she can be in a variety of places at the touch of a button. This is perfect for small budget companies needing more than one set in a short amount of time.

I thought the day was enjoyable giving me a further insight into the recently developed technologies of the media industry.

See the Broadcast Video Expo page here

Photography - Monday 9th February

Sharp Photography - Friday 30th January

Will We Still Remember? Podcast

After much deliberation on the final idea of the radio podcast idea, we finally decided upon one. The original idea evolved from ‘how the elderly are treated’ to one centred on the event of Remembrance Day. I wanted to unearth the grim reality of war and really hit home what Remembrance Day means to me and to the rest of the nation. In the podcast I tried to get this point across alongside as many viewpoints as possible. I used a varied approach covering different styles including street interviews, phone interviews, vox pops and adding music.

I planned to record a multitude of different people but after listening to the rushes recorded on Remembrance Day I thought it would be a waste of their time to interview them for such a short podcast as I already had enough for 5 minutes. I did some on location recording for the Sunday service. Unfortunately I could not get proper recording equipment for the service so I had to resort using my Dictaphone. This wasn’t a problem later in the edit as I didn’t use this recorded material.
I found the editing relentless as I had such a large amount of footage I wanted to cram into the five minute time slot. After listening through the entirety of my recordings I then went about selecting the best bits and placing them into a multi track. Reflecting on the edit I found that the interview with my grandfather most challenging as we had just over forty five minutes of recordings to put into a thirty second time slot.

I selected 3 different tracks for the podcast in keeping with the theme of Remembrance Day. Katherine Jenkins - I Vow To Thee My Country, Paul Hardcastle – 19 and Vera Lynn – We’ll Meet Again. ‘I vow to thee my country’ was originally selected for the introduction of the piece. I decided not to use this as the last post recording played by Larry Coles seemed to fit in better with the theme of Remembrance Day. Overall we put in the city of Bath poppy appeal organizer, Remembrance Day Organiser from the Royal British legion, my grandfather a WW2 Lancaster bomber pilot, children laying a wreath with their parent, Bath Parish Church Father Bill and a couple of vox pops. This interlinked with music and the Remembrance Day service recordings tied the piece together. The variation in different generations worked well with the dynamic of the podcast and really made the podcast relevant to all ages.

I hope I did the subject justice as taking on this ambitious task was both exciting and a learning curve. I found this subject truly intriguing and exciting to hear all the different viewpoints related to Remembrance Day and what it really means to my country.

Thanks to my Grandad for his input.


Will We Still Remember (Remembrance Day tribute) - Matt Steel

"Wet" Photography - Friday 16th January 09

Today I set out to take photos of things related to the word "wet." Above are all the photos I selected from today's shot around Bath Spa University campus. Thrown in are some others from the lake district. A 'Canon Powershot A70' was the weapon of choice, which I love as it has a decent optical lens and good manual controls like aperture and shutter priority.
I enjoyed doing this as I hadn't picked up my camera in over two years. It was good again to take some well thought out photographs. To upload them I used Flickr which is a photo organiser where the user can upload any pictures they wish provided they are the owner. Flickr is great as its slick and user friendly but the downside is that the free account only allows 100 megabytes per month, oh well... you cant win 'em all.



Find Flickr here
View my Flickr profile here
See the Bath Spa Media Students Flickr Group here
Find the camera I used (Canon PowerShot A70) here