Winter 2011/2012:

• January 24, 2012: Cameara operator, South Saint Paul at Simley, girls and boys basketball.
• January 19, 2012: Camera operator, Mahtomedi at South Saint Paul, boys hockey.
• January 13, 2012: Camera operator, North St. Paul at Henry Sibley, boys basketball.
• January 12, 2012: Camera operator, Henry Sibley at Simley, boys basketball.
• January 10, 2012: Camera operator, Simley at Henry Sibley, girls basketball.
• January 3, 2012: Camera operator, Richfield at St. Thomas Academy, boys basketball.
• December 22, 2011: Camera operator, St. Paul United at Simley High School, girls hockey.
• December 20, 2011: Camera operator, Hill-Murray at South Saint Paul, girls hockey.
• December 15, 2011: Camera operator, Cannon Falls at Simley, girls basketball.
• December 13, 2011: Camera operator, Humboldt at St. Croix Lutheran, boys basketball.

Fall 2011:

• November 10, 2011: Character Generator, Visitation vs. Wadena-Deer Creek
  at the Xcel Energy Center (streaming video unavailable, due to MSHSL rules), girls volleyball state quarter finals.
• November 1, 2011: Character Generator, Minnehaha Academy at St. Croix Lutheran, girls volleyball section semi-finals.
• October 25, 2011: Camera operator, St. Louis Park at Simley, boys football (partnership with ParkTV)
• October 20, 2011: Camera operator, Humboldt at South Saint Paul, boys soccer section finals, and New Life Academy at South Saint Paul, girls soccer section finals.
• October 18, 2011: Camera operator, St. Croix Lutheran at South Saint Paul, boys soccer section semi-finals and girls soccer section semi-finals.
• October 14, 2011: Camera operator: South Saint Paul at Mahtomedi, boys football.
• October 12, 2011: Character Generator, Visitation at St. Croix Lutheran, girls volleyball.
• September 29, 2011: Character Generator, Richfield at South Saint Paul, girls volleyball.
• September 27, 2011: Camera operator, Sibley and Simley, girls and boys soccer.
• September 20, 2011: Camera operator, Simley at Sibley, girls volleyball.
• September 15, 2011: Camera operator, South Saint Paul at Simley, boys and girls soccer double header.
• September 3, 2011: Camera operator, St. Croix Lutheran at Visitation, girls soccer.
• September 1, 2011: Character Generator, Henry Sibley at South Saint Paul, boys football.

For you, from ActavaTV (only $69.95!)

I found this in my mail. I’m not entirely sure why ActavaTV in New York has sent me this, but it certainly piqued my interest. As far as I can tell, ActavaTV is a Russian-language MSO, that provides, and this is where my rusty Russian skills come in, over two hundred channels from Russia, the Ukraine, Israel, and the rest of the CIS (basically, Russia’s southern-bordering neighbors). It purports to offer content in HD, and a variety of films. From the website, I’ve also managed to determine they offer karaoke and radio in addition to these services.

All these features (I can barely understand)!

So the box they’re advertising is only $69.95, and I knew that there were some Russian satellite television providers around, but this made no mention of satellite or anything else of that nature. Some quick Googling of the set-top box pictured in the flier revealed it to be an IPTV box. I was intrigued when I thought they were a satellite MSO (I’ve always wanted to get into Free-To-Air satellite DXing, a good, cheap package just might be the right incentive), but now that they’re an IPTV MSO, I’m really quite interested. The website was rather scant on service costs, but eventually I dug up some information in their feedback page. Turns out their premium package is $29.99 and their basic package is a mere $9.99.

If I should come across some extra cash somewhere, I might actually invest in this, if only to examine it more closely. Of course, I probably ought to brush up on my Russian before then (good thing I kept my dictionary and work books from high school).

• December 12, 2011: Camera Operator

• December 1, 2011: Camera Operator, Episode 34, featuring “The Humbugs”.

I worked a camera for Town Square Television’s production of the Kaposia Days Band Concert, featuring the Inver Hills Community Band. The video is available for streaming, and download (as a WMV) here.

Listed below are the episodes I participated in, the role fulfilled, and links to streaming video (when available):

• November 9, 2011: Camera Operator.
• July 2011: Camera Operator
• May 7 2011: Camera Operator

Aside from being completely freaky to watch, there are some problems with this solution that doesn’t address any of the complaints about active-shutter-based 3D TVs:

• You’re still blocking a portion of the light getting into your eyes, making the picture overall dimmer
• You still need to wear something on your head (only now you look like Geordi LaForge without his VISOR)
• There is still likely flickering
• People without these devices still can’t see the picture (so you need to have enough of these devices for all your viewers)

Then there are all the new potential problems introduced with this solution:

• Instead of charging one set of glasses, you now need to charge an independent pair of devices
• The prototype is pretty small, which makes you question the size of the batteries (and their capacity)
• The size of the prototype also leads to the probability of the devices being more easily lost
• Obviously: eyelid fatigue.

Since this is just a prototype, some of these problems could be solved in the next hardware revision. For example: independent charging of the two pieces and battery size could be solved by tethering the two pieces together, much like some stereo BlueTooth headphones, but this adds weight and increases the size of the device, which could prevent it from being affixed to the skin as demonstrated here. This could be replaced with a circlet, but then you basically have glasses, except your eyes are the shutters, which still leaves the potential problem of eyelid fatigue, and doesn’t really offer much advantage over conventional active shutter glasses, unless their cost is significantly lower than most 3D glasses.

Another problem I noticed, but likely just a problem with the prototype, but the system didn’t deactivate when the demonstrator looked away from the screen. Immediately everyone I showed this video to began planning pranks based around it. I could also see other potential problems, though less intentionally. Like forgetting you’re wearing them and trying to drive with them on, potentially causing visual impairment (related to dimming the real world) or issues with reading electronic displays (like traffic signs, gas station prices, or LED-based traffic lights) because of the refresh rate of those signs isn’t quite compatible with 60+ Hz shutters (leading to incomplete looking images).

I guess the moral of this story is that while this is indeed, technically, “glasses-free,” (or, “no glasses,” as the video is labeled) it doesn’t mean it isn’t “device-free,” that it’s better than the glasses, or that it’s an optimal solution.

For those who aren’t aware, ivi TV was offering people access to a great number of television channels (most over-the-air TV), over the Internet for $5 a month. ivi TV’s claim was that most of this available over the air for free anyway, so rebroadcasting it, complete and unedited, over the Internet does not violate copyright.

However, I don’t think this is protected, at least not in its current implementation. Take Major Leage Baseball (one of the parties sueing ivi): they have struck contracts with local broadcasters nationwide. This includes blackouts and which games can be aired by region. By allowing me to stream TV from New York City I can bypass MLB’s restrictions and not have to pay them for their MLB At Bat service.

Furthermore, ivi TV is profiting from broadcasters without any kind of agreement. According to a press release, ivi says “Furthermore, we pay broadcasters in accordance with the law, just like cable. This is not about copyright, this is about competition.” There is little information about who they are partnered with.

If it is illegal for me to borrow a friend’s VHS recording of a television show, I don’t think this is legal. For a precedent, see the outcome of Sony Corp. of America v. Universal Studios (Wikipedia link, for those who don’t speak Lawyer), were it was determined that an individual’s recording for time/placeshifting was legal, and implies that if the recording is then shared, it is then unlawful redistribution of copyrighted content. In this case, ivi is recording the show, and then distributing it to other people. Granted, they’re not allowing me to save the recordings, or view recordings from the past (though their DVR service allows me to do so, but only to an extent), this isn’t a service that necessarily was established as a partnership with other organizations.

Now, I’m sure local TV stations would love to get their media out there and to as many viewers as possible. It’s in their best interest to increase their reach, but I don’t think they can, because of legal agreements with other parties regarding their media. I don’t know if KSTW in Seattle has the legal right to allow transmission of their network programming or syndicated programming over the Internet, whether it’s done in a cable-like fashion or not. As far as “this is what happens in cable,” cable/satellite rebroadcasting is still geographically locked, and therefore doesn’t breach any kind of geographical restrictions that may be placed on programming (such as syndication deals or professional sports, which has a huge vested interest in geographic lock-downs).

Therefore the big players here are the Networks and Professional Sports organizations, who have deep pockets and are well known for establishing blackout rules regarding programming. Networks want to be able to sell programming to their local affiliates, and being able to import stations from out-of-market threatens the existing affiliate system. Professional Sports imposes blackouts in order to encourage people to pay for tickets to see the games live, for their online services (Like MLB At Bat), or for extended cable packages (Like NFL Red Zone). This threatens to circumvent those systems, and offer people an alternative to those services.

Slingbox was almost sued into oblivion because it allowed placeshifting, but it still only allowed a person to (theoretically) view the shows they watched at “home,” in much the same way I could record, say, All My Children on VHS, and then watch that on a tape deck in my office: it still doesn’t allow me to import material from other regions.

I do not predict a favorable outcome for ivi TV, but if they’re goin to fight them, more power to ‘em. I would love to see an independent IPTV service rival cable companies, but knowing how much old media loves to preserve the status quo, I’m not feeling too confident this will come out in their favor.

Update: I incorrectly identified ivi TV as countersueing. It is sueing, but it has not been sued. It has only received Cease-and-Decisit letters. I also more thoroughly explained my reasoning, and linked out to additional articles.

As of this time, the video is unavailable. It will be displayed, embedded or linked to as soon as it is made available.