Mark Randall introduced Serious Magic to the audience and proudly showed Video Communicator. Originally rolled out at Fall COMDEX, tonight's demonstration was the first showing of the gold-code retail release and we were the first to be able to buy it. The rest of the world had to wait two additional days.

The low-tech head shot.

Click the thumbnail for full image. (69K)

To demonstrate the program, the guys used a P4 desktop computer, a high-end 3D graphics accelerator card, and a video source switching between using a camcorder and webcam. (The system requirements for Visual Communicator are rather high but beta testers have reported that sub-1.0GHz systems give adequate performance. Don't scrimp on the video card.) Mark asked that SPCUG members buying on meeting night send him a note detailing what their first project was and how well the process went. They truly want to hear about your experiences with this product.

Video Communicator is sold in two versions, Basic ($99) and Plus ($149), and comes with a printed manual. The Plus version includes a sheet of material, the color of Kermit-the-Frog green, used to key the chroma mask (this will be explained later) and a high-grade, lapel clip-on microphone. The product works by offering the user pre-assembled themes (wizards) that drastically reduce steep learning curves that would otherwise impede new users during their first project.

CNN sets the standard every night at prime time, and everyone expects that same level of expertise when viewing video clips. But that's just not fair. There's going to be a difference between a studio with dozens of technicians and a webcam on the office desk with just you. Video Communicator is that "secret weapon" that will level the playing field. Those who are artistically challenged can produce quality videos in a matter of minutes.

Serious Magic hired several Emmy award-winning personalities and broadcast artists and created a series of wizards that will help the user create things that look like broadcast television and it is so easy to use. The company licensed the exact look and feel of several media styles including NBC, E! Entertainment, and others. Video Communicator is not "video editing" in the sense of assembling a final clip by shuffling pre-recorded sequences. It's a whole new approach and a whole new way to get it done.

Hundreds of backgrounds are available, and you can make your own.

There are several approaches to creating a clip and the first is by topic. These aim at, for example, a business person who needs to create a financial news update clip, or a human resources representative making an announcement on expected policy changes. Birthday wishes, family announcements, sharing your hobbies, and book reviews for school are suggestions for using the topic-based wizards.

Another approach is by style. Antique newsreels, celebrations, elegant, Gen-X, Kid Power, nature, and sports are among the many styles of clips one can make. As an example, Mark's assistant Stephen made a "high-tech"-style show using the appropriate wizard. He chose the various components that will comprise the show, including the opening and background graphics, entered the title, chose the style of the "lower third," and finished the prep by entering other information, choosing the soundtrack, and selecting a closing sequence. (All media file formats are not proprietary. Standard image, sound, and motion video formats are supported. Video Communicator comes with a boatload of media files, and you can add whatever else you can obtain elsewhere or create for yourself.) Once the wizard is finished, the user is taken to the main interface of Communicator.

There are three things that make Visual Communicator special. The first is a proprietary video-rendering engine called the "Ultra-engine." It enables Video Communicator to do what the original Trinity engine used to do in software, in real time. The second thing is that Video Communicator can do "chroma-keying" live in an uncontrolled environment. The technology is called "V-screen" and can adapt to virtually any color. (Don't use red—it's too close to flesh tones—unless you are Kermit the Frog.) The third thing is that Video Communicator makes the user sound coherent and professional by way of a teleprompter.

Watching the weather report, there is the person standing in front of what looks like a large weather map. In fact, special electronics substitute a specific shade of green or blue with a different video image. Chroma, meaning color, is the key to this switching capability. The weather person is actually standing in front of a large wall painted green. What you see is anything but green. (The color used to be blue until it was discovered that, on occasion, you could see through certain people's eyeballs.)

Tonight's demo used a $99 Logitech webcam, an inexpensive ($19.95) workman's tripod-mounted fluorescent light stand, and a sheet of green material.

The next step in making the video clip is to enter the script that will appear on the video teleprompter. (For the high-tech theme video, be sure to use the words "cool" and "stuff," according to Stephen. Then everyone will be able to understand what you mean.) When the teleprompter is in operation, the script scrolls upward. When that section of the script is in the red bar, that's when the "on-air talent" is supposed to read it. The rate of scrolling can be controlled.

Next, from the trays of special effects, the user drag-n-drops fades and wipes, music cues, and other bits and pieces that finalize the production.

Finally, the actual video clip is generated. A four-second countdown is displayed, then Video Communicator starts running the production.

The intro sequence begins, the teleprompter scrolls the script, the on-air talent delivers the story (reading the teleprompter), and the end sequence concludes the show. Rehearsals are recommended. The resultant AVI file (or WMA) of the final take (a "take" is another attempt at doing the scene without flubbing) is now ready for burning to CD or FTP to your Web site. FTP capability is built into Video Communicator.

Serious Magic has included numerous situational environments, or "virtual sets." On one demonstration clip, we see the on-air talent embedded inside a "remote location" scene and the entire sub-graphic is reflected off the polished surface of the news anchor desk. On another demonstration clip, an external AVI or MPG clip was embedded within a defined area of the production, showing that animated illustrations, as well as still images, can be incorporated.

Another demonstration reminded us of Shockwave capabilities, having animated text and objects fly around the screen. The final demonstration involved interaction with a co-star. As mentioned earlier, Serious Magic contracted with other television personalities and has created wizards, "Instant Hollywood" themes, that place the user in generic interview situations. You become the correspondent or the interviewee to the guy in the million-dollar TV studio.

Video Communicator is normally $99/$149 and Serious Magic is offering a 20% discount to user group audiences. But for the Sacramento PC Users Group only, that night only, the price was discounted 30%, never to be duplicated any where else at any other time. (The product sold out at 100 copies.) Purchasers must promise to send a copy of the first thing they make with it (and be sure that everyone has clothes on).

Recommended minimum specs are an 800-MHz Pentium III-class processor with some loss in real-time functionality, and a 3D graphics card (TNT-class or better). Video Communicator supports any Video for Windows input device: USB, FireWire, or analog input.

Outlook Workgroup Folders
Milt Hull stepped in to demonstrate OLWorkgroupFolders, a product from Quester Software. This product was developed to solve a particular problem: Outlook's folders cannot be simultaneously shared by several users at the same time and can be accessed by one user at a time only if your computer is connected to Microsoft's Exchange Server. Only those folders marked "public" can be seen by other users, and the types of information stored here is limited.

Using OLWorkgroupFolders, the user specifies which of any of Outlook's folders are "public folders." The machine which contains the folders assumes the role of the server. Any other machine—the client—can then access these folders and make changes.

For a complete description of its capabilities, visit Quester's Web site.

Internet Add-ons
Ken Hopkins demonstrated a couple of shareware programs, Mail Washer and Internet Organizer Pro.

Mail Washer is basically free but by registering for $3.00 or more, a promotional box is removed. Mail Washer pulls down just the headers of your e-mail. A comparison is made between information found in the e-mail and a list of addresses of known spammers. From the resultant list, you can order Mail Washer to delete the e-mails even before those e-mails are retrieved to your computer. Mail Washer also has the ability to generate a "bounce-back" message. A bounce-back message looks like as if the mail couldn't be delivered and the message says "user not known" or "host not found."

Mail Washer also allows you to pre-preview the message. With viruses able to infect computers by simply being shown in the preview pane of Outlook and Outlook Express, being able to pre- preview the message gives the user a preemptive strike ability to delete the message before it is completely downloaded.

Internet Organizer Pro provides several functions to combat many of the obnoxious behaviors of Web pages. This program doesn't really prevent pop-ups, but rather it immediately dismisses most kinds. It also has a cookie filter. Spyware pop-ups are also denied. The program has a 30-day trial but has a zero-cost registration.

See Ken's Virus of the Month article for the location to download these programs.