Editor’s note: The following story is the third of a three-part article on IP newsgathering. The article in its entirety is appearing in November edition of Broadcast Engineering. Part 1 and Part 2 of the story are available online.

Smartphone newsgathering
Covering a raging forest fire from a mountain near Lillooet, British Columbia, Canada, in 2004, Gary Symons, then a reporter for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC), experienced firsthand another limitation of ultraportable backpack journalism.

“I was on a very steep mountain getting coverage. The trees would burn down, and roll downhill spreading the fire,” he recalls. Carrying three bags of gear, including a video camera, tripod, laptop and audio equipment for both TV and radio coverage, Symons decided to evacuate his reporting position when word came that a big wind had begun spreading the fire even faster.

“I started hiking back up to the truck and caught a wire dangling from one of the bundles on a tree,” he says. “That flung me down the hill sending my camera, tripod and other gear all over the place. I started picking it up and stepped in a hot spot that caught my pants on fire, which caused be to drop all of the gear again.

“That is when I figured I would do two things: Get some fireproof pants and find some more portable gear,” he says.

Since that time, Symons started Vericorder, a company that at the 2011 NAB Show began offering apps and hardware that turn an Apple iPhone into a Swiss Army knife of ultraportable newsgathering and transport. Using his company’s newsgathering software and hardware bundle lets Symons produce three to four finished stories in the time it used to take him to shoot, report, edit and submit one with his backpack of gear, he says. Currently, live video is not an option for the system, but may be in the future as Vericorder pursues a streaming partner from the broadcast industry, he adds.

Other alternatives for live streaming news reports from smartphone exist today, however. This month AT&T announced AT&T Video Capture, an app that lets users stream video as they record it on their smartphones. A special bundle for broadcasters includes low-latency video ingest decoder software for live on-air reports. Another is Apple’s FaceTime, which adds live video streaming from the iPad 2, the iPhone 4 and iPod touch as well as a Mac.

“There are a lot of ways to stream live video that may ultimately eclipse what is being done by the industry,” says Dave Smith, CEO and co-founder of Los Angeles-based SmithGeiger consultancy. “A reporter with an iPad and a mobile wireless connection is pretty much in business.”

However, industry consultant and publisher of the HDTV Executive Report Tore Nordahl says not so fast. “Although helpful in the overall newsgathering environment, particularly in the area of hyperlocal reporting, the iPhone ‘ENG tool’ will not take market away from the professional mainstream HD ENG products required by TV stations’ news operations to remain locally competitive.”

Even so, equipping local journalists, news producers and others in the newsroom with a relatively low-cost smartphone should increase the opportunity to find stories when they happen upon them.

Remember the future
Several developments promise an even brighter future for IP newsgathering, including more efficient compression algorithms, new ways to access the Internet remotely with high bit rates and even more portable systems for professional cameras.

In February 2012, the Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding (JCT-VC) of ISO/IEC MPEG and ITU-T VCEG is expected to release the final draft of a new standard named High Efficiency Video Coding, also known as HEVC or H.265. It is anticipated that HEVC will encode video at lower bit rates than MPEG H.264 at the same quality level.

The consequences of a more efficient compression algorithm will ripple throughout the broadcast industry and likely lead to the availability of smaller IP newsgathering wireless transport camera backs or even integration of this capability directly into ENG cameras. “I think that the emerging HEVC or H.265 compression with lower bit rate and improved 4G upload speeds may help to reduce bonding complexity, perhaps to the point that only one 4G wireless upload circuit is required,” says Nordahl. “Look for this by 2015, with early cameraback attempts using bonding and H.264 possibly by next year.”

While the future is bright for IP newsgathering, it isn’t likely to replace traditional ENG or SNG for quite a while. “I estimate that wireless broadband HD ENG backhaul will be dominant by 2015, but microwave and satellite will still be in significant ENG backhaul use, because 4G/LTE will not have sufficient or reliable coverage in the fringe areas of many DMAs,” says Nordahl.

Kelowna, B.C. – The Board of Directors of Vericorder Technology are proud to announce the appointment of Jason Neale as the company’s new CEO. As part of a restructuring process, Gary Symons, one of the founders of Vericorder, becomes the new CTO and President with immediate effect.

VeriCorder was founded in 2008 with the goal of producing a new, and highly disruptive, Online Media Publishing Platform. VeriCorder provides a suite of mobile and cloud-based software enabling video segments to be recorded, edited and posted automatically to a company’s website. Typical customers include news agencies gathering reports and SMEs (Small to Medium Enterprises) wishing to produce “videoette’s” for marketing purposes.
Gary Symons, the previous CEO, described Neale as an accomplished entrepreneur, technologist and executive, with the right experience and skill set to help grow Vericorder to achieve its potential.

“VeriCorder has grown from a small start-up with big ideas, to become a rapidly maturing company with a great future,” said Symons. “Jason has the proven ability to help young companies like ours grow rapidly as they begin commercializing their products. He’s the right man at the right time, in the right company.”

With a background in cellular technology, digital networks and satellite systems for the delivery of high-speed, two-way internet, Neale is the founder of OmniGlobe Networks Inc, a service provider of broadband internet and cellular service to remote regions around the world.

Neale is a serial entrepreneur. His experience includes founding OmniGlobe which became the fastest growing technology company in Canada in 2007 and was ranked in the Top 10 Deloitte Fast 50 Technology companies in 2010. Neale raised nearly $30M in funding for OmniGlobe; and grew revenues to $22M and the EBITDA to $3.6M in 5 years before it was sold in 2011. During his tenure at OmniGlobe, he acquired and turned-around money-losing companies, L-TEQ and RAM Telecom.

Neale also co-founded Lynx Mobility, a spectrum holding cellular company that delivers cellular services to the North of Canada; and TSA, a UK consulting company that he helped grow by more than 300% before successfully exiting.

Neale holds a PhD in Electrical Systems Engineering from the University of Essex, UK, as well as Executive MBAs from London Business School, UK, and Columbia Business School, US, where he qualified for the illustrious Beta Gamma Sigma Society. He also completed the MIT-Quebec Entrepreneurship program, where he later became a Business Coach. In 2009, Neale was the recipient of the Ernst and Young Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year award for Quebec, as well as the Canadian National E&Y Entrepreneur award for Design and Innovation.

Neale’s most recent position was serving as the CEO of Accelerate Okanagan, a not-for-profit technology association. Here, he helped close $2.1M of government funding, increased the sponsors by 700%, the membership by more than 1000% and assisted companies in raising just under $1.5M. Despite those successes, Neale says, “I am absolutely delighted to be back running a technology company.

“The world-wide market opportunity for short video production technology is $80 billion, and Vericorder has very novel, groundbreaking technology to exploit a significant niche of this global market.”

Neale is a Canadian Citizen, happily married with two young children and enjoys coaching soccer, skiing and canoeing in his spare time.
— End —

For further information, contact:
Gary Symons
President and CTO
gary.symons@vericorder.com
Tel: 250.448.4954 x2083

About Vericorder Technology
Headquartered in Kelowna, BC, Vericorder Technology was founded by former CBC reporter and editor Gary Symons, and his cousin, serial entrepreneur Kirk Symons.
The original vision of the company was to develop a simple, end-to-end solution to simplify the production and distribution of professional quality video and multimedia, using a mobile device.
Today, VeriCorder is marketing its new VeriLocal system; a simple, yet powerful platform, to enable organizations to produce, edit and post news reports and videoettes for marketing purposes. VeriCorder produces Voddio, the most sophisticated video and audio editing software available on any mobile device. More importantly, Voddio also allows users to instantly post their content directly to their corporate or media website.
VeriCorder competes in the field of Online MultiMedia Publishing; one of the fastest growing sectors of the Information Economy.

http://vericorder.com

December 15th, 201 1Posted by Sarah Marshall in App of the Week, Multimedia

App of the week: Voddio
Operating systems: Apple (iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad)
Cost: Free (you will need to pay £2.49 to unlock the sending and sharing functions)
What is it and how is it of use to journalists?
Voddio allows you to record and edit audio and video in multitrack and produce audio slideshows.

It is the latest app from Vericorder, which makes apps for journalists, and combines the functionality from its other paid-for apps – 1st Video, VC Audio Pro and Showcase – in a single app, which is free to download.
Voddio has has the ability to produce richer slideshows than earlier app Showcase, introducing titles and transitions for images.
After testing and creating audio, video and slideshows users can then opt to pay to unlock the sending and sharing functions

Nov 14,2011 Kelowna, BC

VeriCorder Voddio Launch

http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/voddio-video-audio-editor/id472769922?mt=8

VeriCorder Technology Inc. is proud to announce Voddio – The Video and Audio Editing App for iPhone. It goes beyond just editing your media, and will let you share large media files directly from your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Voddio is based on VeriCorder’s existing professional editing interface – also available in 1st Video – but includes the option to send large audio and video files directly from the app. Voddio solves the problem facing reporters and podcasters every day; you’ve created that media masterpiece … but there’s no reliable way to get it where it needs to go.

That’s where the new VeriSend package comes in. Voddio comes as a free download. For just $9.99 you can add the VeriSend option, which includes the ability to send 100 MB files directly from the app.

VeriSend automatically works in the background, managing the upload process while you do other things, like answer the phone, or record more video. VeriSend will pause and resume the upload process as you move between available networks. It works seamlessly over both WiFi and Cellular networks and gets your file uploaded to the server reliably. No more frustration with failed uploads. The media file arrives as a simple, downloadable link in the recipient’s email.

It’s simple, it’s fast, and ideal for podcasters, reporters in TV and radio, bloggers, and anyone else who needs to quickly send edited video and audio over the web.

The Basic VeriSend Account will allow you to send files of up to 100MB in size, with a monthly limit of 250MB of uploads. Paid Subscriptions for larger upload and storage packages will be available soon through In-App Purchase.

Voddio includes multitrack video and audio editing functions, and is rated by professionals – like the Reynold’s Journalism Institute, as the world’s most advanced mobile editing app for reporters. For more information on the VeriCorder Technology and Voddio see www.vericorder.com, or contact: heather.eichinger@vericorder.com.

Background:  About VeriCorder Technology
VeriCorder is a technology company based in Kelowna, BC, Canada, at the Accelerate Okanagan high tech center. The company was founded by former mobile journalist Gary Symons to develop solutions for mobile journalism, and for hyper local media networks. This year VeriCorder has unveiled ‘VeriLocal’ the first comprehensive system to build, manage and monetize a successful hyper local network system. VeriLocal allows companies to deploy and manage reporters using its 1st Video mobile editing applications, integrated into its online media playout system, and with a unique monetization program that will be released in Q1 2012, called Ad ShowCase. The system includes the FindStringers.com service, which allows media companies to find, hire, and integrate any freelance reporter into their newsroom system.

Click here to Register

For more information see our invitation below.