The Salvation Army’s red kettles will be jingling and jangling with more than just coins (or dollar bills) this Christmas season. The Salvation Army, in partnership with Universal CityWalk, is proud to present the second annual Rock the Red Kettle Concert, with host Mario Lopez of Extra, featuring  a mix of today’s top young stars, including Honor Society, Colbie Caillat, Cody Simpson, Greyson Chance, Drake Bell and Hanson, along with other special surprise guests. This free concert, which is open to the general public and supports the Army’s 120th annual Red Kettle Campaign, will begin at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 17 at Universal CityWalk’s new state-of-the-art “5 Towers” outdoor concert venue in Los Angeles.
In keeping with The Salvation Army’s continued efforts to reach young and aspiring American philanthropists, the concert will also be streamed live at 
Cambio.com/rock-the-red-kettle, where supporters can click to donate while watching the show. Donors can also make a $10 donation to the campaign by texting the word “GIVE” to 80888 through December 24. * 

“We’ll be rocking the red kettle yet again this year!” said Major George Hood, National Community Relations Secretary for The Salvation Army. “We are honored by the creativity and enthusiasm of these bands. By performing at our second annual Rock the Red Kettle Concert, they will be helping to educate America’s youth about the importance of giving all year round, starting with The Salvation Army’s Red Kettle Campaign this Christmas season.” 

The Rock the Red Kettle Concert will raise awareness for The Salvation Army’s Red Kettle Campaign, the oldest annual charitable fundraiser of its kind in the United States. Money raised during the campaign helps the Army serve nearly 30 million Americans in need each year in communities nationwide through a wide array of programs including toys for kids, coats for the homeless and food for the hungry. 

“This show is about reaching out to that next generation of Salvation Army supporters and spreading the message of doing good with the help of music artists who believe in the cause,” said Ned Specktor of Sky Blue Group and co-producer of the concert with David Swift of Swift Entertainment. 

A talented variety of young artists are scheduled to perform, including pop-rock bands Honor Society and Hanson; You Tube sensation Greyson Chance and pop singer Colbie Caillat. Other performers include Nickelodeon Star and musician, Drake Bell, best known for his role in Drake & Josh and Cody Simpson. 

In addition to the iconic red kettle, The Salvation Army is embracing online and mobile technologies to help support the Red Kettle Campaign. For the seventh year in a row, The Salvation Army will allow fans to become online bell ringers by signing up to host an Online Red Kettle atwww.onlineredkettle.org. The program allows individuals and organizations to host their own “virtual” red kettle on their personal, group or company website. Last year, Online Red Kettles raised nearly $2 million as thousands of people asked friends and families to give online. This year, the Army hopes to raise $3 million with improved Facebook functionality and an Online Red Kettle iPhone application. 

From its humble beginnings as a program started by a Salvation Army captain in San Francisco in 1891, the Red Kettle Campaign has grown into one of the most recognizable and important charitable campaigns in the United States. As part of the campaign, more than 25,000 Salvation Army volunteers spread throughout the country to ring bells and solicit donations to the iconic red kettles from holiday shoppers. In 2009, the campaign raised more than $139 million nationwide, a new record supported by the public’s nickels, dimes, quarters and dollars (and the occasional diamond ring or gold tooth) all collected and used to help people in the communities where the money was raised.

For more information on The Salvation Army and the Rock the Red Kettle Concert, please visithttp://blog.salvationarmyusa.org, www.facebook.com/salvationarmyusa orwww.twitter.com/salvationarmyus.

The HyperDeck Models

HyperDeck Shuttle – $345

Get the compact, portable and affordable disk recorder that’s battery powered so it’s the perfect on set field recorder! HyperDeck Shuttle bypasses your camera’s compression and records from SDI and HDMI direct into the highest quality uncompressed video on low cost solid state disks. SSDs are cheap and fast, so you can edit directly from the SSD media itself!Shipping Now!

Connection Diagram

HyperDeck Shuttle Mounting Plate – $99

New HyperDeck Shuttle Mounting Plate has been designed to provide you with an extremely versatile and flexible mounting solution for your HyperDeck Shuttle. Now you can easily secure your HyperDeck Shuttle to a camera rig with your choice of rail mounts, cold shoe mounts, articulated arms and a whole lot more. That’s because HyperDeck Shuttle Mounting Plate features a variety of pre-drilled 1/4″ and 3/8″ holes, making it compatible with every mount accessory you’ll ever need. It also gives you the freedom to power your HyperDeck Shuttle from an external battery. Simply attach a V-Mount or Anton Bauer style battery plate and you’re good to go. Shipping Now!

HyperDeck Studio – $995

The world’s first uncompressed HD recorder that lets you record forever! HyperDeck Studio features dual SSD slots and automatically continues recording onto the next SSD when one record disk fills! HyperDeck Studio features uncompressed video quality, deck style user interface, removable SSD disks and serial control for a 21st century broadcast deck! Shipping Now!

 

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Eliminate the high cost of HDTV monitoring with HDLink

The world’s most advanced full resolution 2D/3D HDTV and 2K monitoring for DVI, DisplayPort and HDMI monitors. Includes the quality of 4:4:4 SDI video, lookup tables via USB and analog audio outputs. HDLink will solve all your monitoring needs. From $495 View models >

Full Resolution HD Monitoring

HDLink connects SDI video directly to any supported DVI-D and DisplayPort based LCD computer monitor for incredible true HDTV resolution video monitoring. HDLink includes 3 Gb/s SDI for high resolution 2K film monitoring when connected to a large 30 inch DVI or DisplayPort display. With every individual pixel in the HD or 2K SDI connection digitally mapped directly to the pixels of the LCD display, you get a perfect digital-to-screen pixel for pixel HDTV or 2K display. Connect any HDMI television or video projector to HDLink for cinema style monitoring! Even large 23 inch CRT based monitors can’t display the full resolution of the HD-SDI signal, but with HDLink you see every pixel in the HD signal, so you’ll always see a perfect image. Read more >

Supports both DVI and HDMI

HDLink supports all DVI-D and DisplayPort based digital computer displays and also includes HDMI video support. HDMI supports video at 1080i/50, 1080i/59.94 and 720p/59.94 on any HDMI device. DVI-D and DisplayPort supports displays at 1920 x 1200 (16:10) resolution for all 1080 HDTV formats. When working in 720 HDTV formats you can even use lower cost 1280 x 800 resolution display for pixel for pixel 720p viewing. When working in NTSC or PAL, HDLink can scale to fill the screen making viewing easier. Read more >

Built in Optical Fiber

The HDLink Optical Fiber model is the world’s first broadcast monitoring solution with built in optical fiber SDI connections. Optical fiber easily handles long distances, is low cost, and optical fiber cables last virtually forever.

Includes 3D Lookup Tables

For matching LCD display colorimetry and simulating various types of film stocks, HDLink Pro model features more advanced 3D lookup tables. Advanced 3D lookup tables increase color control. Read more >

Analog Audio Monitoring Output

Audio outputs are de embedded from the SDI input and then converted to analog at an incredible 24 bit. HDLink supports 6 channels out allowing easy monitoring of 5.1 surround sound audio. Read more >

Affordable 3D SDI Monitoring

Now HDLink Pro supports 3D monitoring for the latest 3D production workflows! HDLink Pro 3D lets you display both dual stream as well as interleaved 3D inputs and then display them on any compatible 3D DVI display or HDMI television. When used with a DisplayPort to HDMI adapter, HDLink Pro 3D DisplayPort also supports HDMI 1.4a for compatibility with the latest full resolution 3D television.

Highest Quality 3 Gb/s SDI in 4:4:4

HDLink introduced the world’s first full HDTV resolution 4:4:4 monitoring solution that supports both standard definition SDI, HD-SDI and HD-SDI 4:4:4 for full resolution color monitoring. Conventional SD and HD video is 4:2:2 based, which limits color detail while 4:4:4 HD video preserves the full color detail which is important for critical keying and feature film work. HDLink Pro is the first solution for the new high speed 3 Gb/s SDI standard for 4:4:4 RGB and 2K film monitoring. 3 Gb/s SDI runs twice the data rate of normal HD-SDI video, allowing 4:4:4 RGB video to be connected using a single SDI connection. 3 Gb/s SDI also allows full resolution 2K feature film quality 2048 x 1556 video to be connected via SDI.

Supports LCD Displays

HDLink supports DVI-D and DisplayPort based digital computer displays. For 1080 and 720 HDTV formats, a 1920 x 1200 (16:10) resolution display is recommended. However, if you’re working in 720 HDTV formats only, then a lower cost 1280 x 800 resolution display is recommended. When working in NTSC or PAL, HDLink can scale up the displayed image to fill the display making viewing easier. Because most computer displays are limited to approximately a 60 Hz refresh rate, HDLink will automatically apply pull-down to allow video frame rates to be displayed.

Teradeck Bond liberates on-location video transmission over cellular networks from the confines of high cost commitments and bulky equipment. Built with the same chassis as our award-winning Cube, Bond is not only smaller than any other network bonding solution today, it is easier to use and is offered at a far lower price point than competitors.

This game-changing device is designed to attach to and extend the connectivity of Cube to support up to five 3G or 4G modems simultaneously from multiple carriers worldwide.

HD Streaming Over Multiple 3G & 4G Networks

We achieved this by incorporating cutting edge technolo- gies such as low power hardware based video compres- sion and advanced streaming options like MPEG-TS, RTMP, and Teradek’s revolutionary Adaptive Internet Streaming technology, which constantly adjusts bit rate and buffer- ing on the fly based on varying network conditions. During transmission, Bond’s video data is automatically fragmented and streamed over multiple cellular modems at an optimal bit rate that is constantly calculated in real time. This will ensure that the connection is highly reliable and outputs the highest quality video possible.

Includes MPEG-TS Compliant De-Bonding Software: Sputnik

To manage the multiple data streams, we have developed Sputnik, Teradek’s proprietary de-bonding software. Sputnik is available as a free download and can be run on any Linux server or hosted in the cloud to reconstruct your video into a single MPEG-TS stream that is compat- ible with most H.264 IP decoders, including our own Cube decoder — the smallest and lowest priced H.264 to HD-SDI decoder available.

The combination of Cube and Bond is the smallest, lowest power and most cost effective cellular bonding solution available

Cube’s H.264 stream is automatically fragmented and streamed over up to five 3G or 4G cellular modems at the optimal bit rate.

To manage the multiple data streams, we have developed Sputnik, Teradek’s proprietary de-bonding software.PHYSICAL Dimensions: 2.5”W x 3.5”D x 0.9”H Weight: 6 oz. (without modems)

ENVIRONMENTAL Temperature: 0° to +50° C Humidity: 95% non condensing

INTERFACES USB 2.0 Mini-B: H.264 Video from Cube TM USB 2.0 Type A: 5 Powered Ports for USB Modems*

POWER Power Input: LEMO 2-pin, 6V – 28V Looping Power output: LEMO 2-pin, for Cube TM Nominal Power Consumption: < 1.0W (excludes modems)

What’s in the Box?

$2490

MSRP

Yesterday saw the football coaches of the new Pac-12 gather in Los Angeles for their first date with the media for 2011. Rick Neuheisel was part of the crowd, bringing Johnathan Franklin as his player representative. After opening with the news that Brett Hundley will be having surgery and missing part of fall camp to recover, Coach Neuheisel took a few minutes to share some updates on the team, and answer a few questions about the program, and his outlook as a part of it.

Starting off with the quarterback position, after breaking the Hundley news, Rick stated that while there will be an open competition in the fall, that Kevin Prince will begin the practices as the first-team QB, having been the prime starter last fall. He then continued with his thoughts on the quarterback competition and what he is looking for in his starting QB:

It makes no differences the name on the back of the jersey to me. What makes the difference to me is that the guy has all the intangibles that are necessary to play it well. One, intelligence, knows the situation, knows what is required of this particular situation. Two, has the ability to throw it to guys in the same colored jersey accurately, and, three, the team loves him and follows him.

Those are the kind of things that you need at that position, and our conference is full of them. It’s time for UCLA to have that guy as well.

Blair Angelo added some further tidbits on the leading two candidates for the starting QB job after the day’s activities ended, addressing Kevin Prince’s health and R

ichard Brehaut’s decision to play baseball while following a full summer practice schedule:

Neuheisel said he has been assured by various people that Prince is “100 percent healthy” and completely ready for the fall. And of Brehaut’s dual-sport aspirations, Neuheisel said: “You have to do what your heart tells you to do. Richard, we’re going to coach hard. I don’t want to paint him as a bad guy because I love Brehaut, I love his family, but I know what the quarterback position demands.” Brehaut, a catcher who joined the UCLA baseball team in the spring, has juggled football and baseball duties since spring, playing in the California Collegiate League as a member of the Academy Barons this summer.

Even before taking questions, Neu acknowledged the warming sensation under his chair. As shared by Adam Maya:

“(I’m) excited to be here as a coach on the proverbial hot seat,” he said in his opening statement. Later, he added: “I don’t consider it the hot seat. I consider it a great challenge. No one thinks you can do this. Go do it.

… “To get in the postseason is huge. That’s where the perception of the program changes. We’ve got to get over the hump of mediocre.”

Even with the hot seat, he must be more comfortable this week than Chip Kelly is. Later on in his presser, he was asked about the on-field struggles of the team – particularly the 4-8 result of last Fall’s campaign, leading him to talk a bit about last year’s backslide, while remaining optimistic about the upcoming season.

I’m always an optimist. I believe that UCLA and what UCLA’s done in the past has helped to catapult the students to a great future. We’ve had some good recruiting classes.

… But we just haven’t turned the corner to the extent that I thought possible. I thought we were on the verge of it after 2009 with the Bowl win and coming back. But last year, unfortunately, took a step backwards with respect to our progress for a number of reasons not to be gone into again.

… I am looking forward to this year like none other in that if we can get over this hump and get going in the right direction, it will

be one of the great accomplishments in my own personal career and something that I think everybody will be excited about that I’m close to within the program and externally that follow our program.

As I mentioned earlier, Johnathan Franklin was also in the house. After having been asked about his thoughts on the NCAA’s new premature celebration rule (which folks in yesterday’s open thread saw as a pattern by one journalist) and his spot on the Doak Walker Award watch list, he was asked about stepping up to a leadership role on the squad – which his presence as player representative at media day seems to point toward – and how he might change to fill that role.

Q: You’ve always been a quiet player. Are you ready to step up and be the vocal leader at UCLA?

JOHNATHAN FRANKLIN: Yes, sir. I have no choice but to. You have Rahim Moore going, Akeem Ayers gone, and I’m placed on a platform where I have to lead this team. In late games when we need a guy to make a play, I have to be that guy. I have to be that guy to bring the spark to the team. I have to be the guy to carry the team to the top once again. I’m ready for that challenge, that’s why I came to UCLA.

After having reported on the goings on at the session regarding the Bruins, Blair Angelo focused his UCLA Media Day coverage for ESPNLA on Johnathan Franklin, focusing a bit on his fumbles from last season, but also his prolific production and current role as the face of the offense.

 … He’s the only offensive player on the cover of UCLA’s 2011 media guide and has been named to the Doak Walker Award and Maxwell Award preseason watch lists. Franklin knows he’ll be called upon as UCLA’s passing game works out the kinks under new offensive coordinator Mike Johnson.

 
“I want 20 carries a game,” Franklin said. “I want to be the guy. I want to be the man. I’m ready to take over. UCLA needs a running back, it needs a playe

r to take it to where it needs to be. We need a Mark Ingram, we need a LaMichael James. We need a guy, and I plan on being that this year.”

 
One of the broader takeaways from this media gathering is that the media is not so bullish on the Bruins this fall, picking UCLA to finish 5th out of 6 teams in the Pac-12 South. Southern Cal and Arizona State were tapped at the top of the division, followed by Utah and Arizona and Colorado at the bottom of the pack. For what it is worth, ESPN’s Peter Yoon tabbed the Bruins to finish 3rd in the Southern division (7-5 overall) and Jon Wilner picked UCLA to end the season in 4th.

A couple of injury notes came out of yesterday. As Achilies noted on Tuesday afternoon and I briefly mentioned at the start of this post, Brett Hundley tore the meniscus in his knee earlier in the summer; after the knee failed to respond to less extensive treatment, he is set to undergo surgery today, and is slated to miss the first half of Fall camp. Later in the evening, Jon Gold reported that Anthony Jefferson will likely miss the 2011 season, due to a bulging disk which is expected to require surgery.

While not having an impact on the immediately forthcoming season, Angelo passed along some positive news regarding Xavier Su’a-Filo - now halfway through his two year LDS mission – and his future back at UCLA:

Neuheisel said he has kept in touch with the father of offensive tackle Xavier Su’a-Filo, who left for a two-year Mormon mission after his freshman season at UCLA in 2009. Su’a-Filo, who started every game at left tackle, “can’t wait to come back,” Neuheisel said. There was some ambiguity surrounding Su’a-Filo’s post-mission plans.

In non-directly Bruin-related news from Tuesday, Jon Wilner caught a coupl

e of minutes with Larry Scott, who shared his thoughts on some hot topics in college football today – the level of funding for athletic scholarships, as well as how best to improve compliance with NCAA bylaws, calling for schools to use some of the upcoming flood of TV money to beef up their compliance staffs.

Let’s not forget that Tuesday’s media day in California is just the first part of a Pac-12 media tour, which continues today and Thursday in Bristol, CT and New York City. As part of the tour, Coach Neuheisel will be spending a significant part of today at the ESPN campus in Bristol, appearing on several programs throughout the day, beginning with a live appearance on Sportscenter at approximately 7:40am PDT. Feel free to add your thoughts on Neu’s appearances on tWWL, and other goings on as the media tour continues.

Ashley: Brett,  Tell us about what you do at Absolute Live Productions?

Brett: My job is to make the shows happen.  What makes  live productions unique there is 1000 challenges or potential problems that might bring the show to a halt , It is my job to foresee what might go wrong and fix it before it is broken.  The term fix it in post simply does not exist for a live show.  When you are live streaming on a global scale, such as we did with Fender and 100 monkeys tonight there is alot of presure to get it right.   Fans have very little patience for technical imperfections.

Ashley: Did you have any problems with the 100 Monkey stream tonight?

Brett:  Of course we did, but what made the stream so successful is that we were able to anticipate solutions prior to  them being seen on air.  To be honest it takes good people on all sides of the production to make it really work. And we were very fortunate tonight to be able to work with an amazing crew with talent and vision. Everything from setting aside the right amount of time to test and set up, through to being agile and flexible when it came to switching efficiently and successfully masking any issues from the end user. And besides all that, it was just great to work with fantastic musicians who knew their craft and brought the goods to the table. In the end you’re only as good as the people around you.

Band Members

The viewers experience was perfection,  What we bring to any production is a talented and resourceful team, that thinks on their feet and not only works on solving our own problems, but also works together to improve the entire user experience. Success for us is an enjoyable and issue free stream. Whilst we’re aware that in this format there are any multitude of factors outside of our control, we aim to be as prepared as we can. Often times we’ll need to add a graphic here, show a clip there, throw up an informative message, replace a logo, or change titles according to that last minute email. All this is possible when you have motivated people working to make our clients and viewers happy.

Mac Tech Tungsten Series Overview

The Future of Light is now! The Mac Tech Tungsten line of fixtures has been used in motion pictures, television and live entertainment since 2006. Our design goal was to amplify light, not just reflect it. Mission accomplished! These fixtures reduce power consumption by up to 44%, heat by up to 25%; while exceeding the output of our competitors. Interchangeable lenses allows fast configuration of beam coverage and color temperature. Our fixtures are extremely sturdy yet half the weight of our competitors because they’re made out of high grade aluminum. Mac Tech Tungsten is the most energy efficient production light in the industry!

Mac Tech Tungsten 12 Light
The Mac Tech Mini Dino! The light with bulbs and lenses weighs only 60 lbs! Meaning you can safely load four of these with a 200 pound electrician in a condor. Now you have a 48 light dino system that draws only 288 amps. And with our new full CTB Daylight Lenses you can shoot anytime, anywhere!

Read More
12 Light Technical Specifications
Power Supply: 110 – 240 volts
Current Consumption: 75 amps with 750 watt bulbs, 57 amps with 575 watt bulbs
Dimensions: 38” (W) x 8” (D) x 52” (H)
Weight: 59.29 lbs. / 26.894 kg
Included Items: Dual Soccopex connectors

Mac Tech Tungsten 9 Light
The Mac Tech Maxi! It weighs only 48 pounds and draws only 56 amps loaded with 750 watt bulbs. It’s 10% brighter than a standard par 64 maxi brute which weighs over 100 pounds and draws more than 90 amps. With our new full CTB Daylight Lenses you can shoot anytime, anywhere!

Read More
9 Light Technical Specifications
Power Supply: 110 – 240 volts
Current Consumption: 56 amps with 750 watt bulbs, 43 amps with 575 watt bulbs
Dimensions: 38” (W) x 8” (D) x 43” (H)
Weight: 48 lbs. / 21.772 kg
Included Items: Dual Soccopex connectors

Mac Tech Tungsten 6 Light Convertible
The Mac Tech Convertible! A truly versatile lighting tool. It will outperform and take the place of old style top lights, coops, and pars. It can hang at any angle for lighting green & blue screens or be used while filming special effects with rigging. Don’t forget the Full CTB Daylight Lenses for further versatility!

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6 Light Convertible Technical Specifications
Power Supply: 110 – 240 volts
Current Consumption: 37 amps with 750 watt bulbs, 29 amps with 575 watt bulbs
Dimensions: 26” (W) x 8” (D) x 43” (H)
Weight: 34 lbs. / 15.422 kg
Included Items: One Soccopex connector

Mac Tech Tungsten 6 Space Light
The Mac Tech Space Light! The most innovative piece of Mac Tech engineering thus far. It is the answer to the many problems standard FCM space lights bring to a budget. Plus the output on the floor is two times greater in foot candles, which gives the DP flexibility in his choice of film stock!

Read More
6 Space Light Technical Specifications
Power Supply: 110 – 240 volts
Current Consumption: 37 amps with 750 watt bulbs, 29 amps with 575 watt bulbs
Dimensions: 28” (W) x 28” (D) x 10” (H)
Weight: 19 lbs. / 8.618 kg
Included Items: One Soccopex connector

TriCaster™ 850 EXTREME™
HD Portable Live Production

Live production will never be the same

TriCaster™ 850 EXTREME™ with multi-track IsoCorder™ video recording technology. Record up to eight channels of video. Any input or output. Multiple formats include QuickTime®, H.264, AVI and MPEG-2. Adjustable audio headroom. Push-button video delivery in up to 1080p. Stream live to the Internet and other digital media in up to 720p. Go wireless with Apple® AirPlay® support for iPad®, iPod® and iPhone®. iKnow. It’s cool.

Take control of your HD live production. Pair TriCaster 850 EXTREME with the powerful TriCaster 850 CS optional control surface. Now, you have a physical connection to the TriCaster 850 EXTREME interface. All functions. All effects.

Get 18 HD live TriCaster virtual sets and advanced matte generation. Add TriCaster Virtual Set Editor (VSE) to your virtual set production tools. Deliver your show from a customized, network-style virtual set. Add your own artwork to create original virtual sets, with added support for Adobe® Photoshop® (PSD) files.

It’s time to take your live production to the EXTREME.