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Technology Rentals Keep You Ahead Of The CurveSeptember 29th, 2009New high-technology tools are expensive when they first come out. This used to mean that only deep-pocket Fortune 500 firms were early adopters. However, with the rise of high-tech rentals, the latest and greatest developments are available to all companies. Full-service firms like CRE don’t just “do” computer rentals, and don’t simply add more and more items to a rental list. CRE is also an experienced event management firm, tying its expertise in computers and audiovisual gear to the real-world needs of companies displaying at trade shows and conferences. Cutting-edge equipment At one time the tablet PC was a “new and improved” item, a flat, portable computer with WiFi connectivity and a touch-screen interface.CRE has been providing tablet PC rentals for some time, as they are very handy for running presentations, taking notes and staying in touch with “the team” in cavernous convention centers.
To capture some of the people who won’t make it to your booth, you can rent an interactive kiosk that will be your “digital stand-in.” You can position it strategically at the convention to make product presentations and request customer contact information. A kiosk is a tireless assistant for your marketing efforts. Factors to consider when renting There are a number of considerations if you are thinking about a high-tech rental. Know the need, peg the cost Computers with more advanced abilities (faster CPUs more RAM, etc.) will always cost a bit more to rent. Make sure you know what computer you need. If you are going to be doing high-end graphics work, you are talking about a muscular Mac Pro tower like CRE rents. Do not try to do video editing on a five-year old home PC. Time, effort and quantities Video walls are more costly to set up since you need multiple monitors and the installation takes time and expertise. Similarly, you may need to rent multiple laptop computers for large training sessions. You can often work out a discount if this is an ongoing need. Timing and availability As with quantities, the length of time that you have an equipment rental will affect the cost. Also, commonly available devices like monitors will be less costly than high-end X Serve or X Serve RAID rentals. Try to be ahead of your own curve to keep costs in line. The where and when Getting your rentals delivered and set up at convention centers will generally cost more than having them delivered to your business address. This increased cost is partially due to convention center drayage fees, logistics, additional labor, etc. For large projects or small, CRE has what you need to get the job done. Contact our Account Executives by phone or e-mail, or use the Quick Rental Quote form to get an answer in a jiffy. Whatever it is you need to do, CRE is here to help you do it—efficiently, cost-effectively and with the finest technology available. 8 Tips for Successful Audience Response SessionsSeptember 24th, 2009Researchers question the effectiveness of a ‘lecture-style’ business presentation. In fact, some have demonstrated that audiences in a “passive” role acquire and retain less. Other findings indicate that an audience member’s attention falls precipitously after 20-30 minutes, and the average participant’s knowledge retention is quite low. Interactivity is the key to better knowledge retention. In fact, effective “active learning” encompasses multimedia components, discussion groups and teaching activities, all of which result from the use of a very powerful tool, an Audience Response System (ARS) from CRE.
#1: Check the session location at least a day before the event. Not only do you need to get “the lay of the land,” you need to investigate possible logistical problems. Is the room the right size? Will you need extension cords for the base station power, your projection rental equipment, laptop, etc. #2: Set up your ARS equipment at least an hour before start time (even the day before, if you have access to the location). Make sure everything is working right, and well before your audience begins arriving. Have our phone number handy in case you need more keypads or have a last-minute question or concern. It may make sense to get a laptop rental from CRE to have a backup of your presentation files. #3: An ARS is fairly simple to operate but you may need some practice to familiarize yourself with how it works. You will also need to coordinate your timing for a glitch-free presentation, so practice your presentation beforehand, as many times as you can. A MicroTrack digital recorder rental is a great way to practice speeches and presentations. Hearing yourself speak is a powerful aid in refining your delivery. #4: Give the audience members clear, concise directions. Tell them what is expected, and advise them that registering their response at the right time will ensure that it is properly recorded. Concise directions, both spoken and printed, should be given before the session to maximize the number of registered responses. #5: Keep your questions short and sweet. This is important for several reasons, the first of which is screen legibility—the questions need to be read quickly and easily, even when you are also reading them aloud. If you make the questions too long or unnecessarily complex, your response rate will suffer and the pace of the presentation will be out of your control. #6: Limit your answer options to four, if possible. When five or more options are displayed and/or read aloud, they can be difficult to read or remember, respectively. Be succinct. This is particularly important if you are making a small-group presentation on a table-mounted LCD or plasma screen rental. #7: Don’t present your audience with too many questions, or too many in a row. Build some “relief” (comic or otherwise) into your presentation with non-text screen images, occasional pauses and discussion time (see #8, below). If the session becomes tedious you can expect your audience’s interest to wane. #8: Among the biggest benefits of ARS sessions is the frank discussion that results from them. As the presentation proceeds, audience members get progressively more involved (that’s your goal, at any rate) and the discussion that ensues from the questions and answers gets progressively evolved. Always factor discussion time into your presentation plan. Following this simple advice, as well as learning as much as you can about ARS technology in advance, will help you achieve the best results from your interactive presentation. There is no reason that large group polling sessions have to be dull, dry, lecture-hall experiences. Fill out a Quick Rental Quote form if you know what you need, or use our Contact Page to ask us whatever you need to know. Our friendly, expert Account Executives will gladly help you turn your next marketing test, training class or presentation into a truly interactive (even fun) experience for you and your audience. October Conferences from Audio Engineering to Oracle Open WorldSeptember 22nd, 2009For over 60 years, Audio Engineering Society (AES), founded in 1948 by a group of forward-looking audio engineers, has been the major force promoting the discovery, analysis and distribution of technical information for the recording industry. This year’s conference—AES New York 2009, to be held Oct. 9-12 at NY’s Javits Center—is the 127th AES convention and, as always, is the most important annual gathering of audio professionals in the world.
The landmark event is expected to bring attendees and presenters from more that 100 countries together for a full schedule of seminars, workshops and exhibitions. Many exhibitors of hardware, software, instruments and equipment will demo their products on the Apple Mac Pro computers that CRE rents. They can also display their wares on AES plasma rentals or bright, clear LCD monitors, while others will opt for standalone kiosks to capture attendee information and present their product lines. You can do one or all of these things with CRE’s help. The show offers participants a unique opportunity for forming new, innovative business partnerships. Journalists as well as corporate sales and marketing personnel can use wireless tablet PC rentals to stay in touch, take important notes and get up-to-the-minute information over WiFi. In a departure from previous years, top recording artists will broaden the view from engineering to a musical-and-technical take on such recording processes as choosing studios and producers, nurturing creative relationships, and using Macinstosh and PC computer rentals for audio recording. The Platinum Mastering panel will focus entirely on the cataloging, repair and preservation of landmark recordings. Other Platinum Panels will share new insights, behind-the-scenes stories and audio clips from classic sessions on such historic albums as Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA,” Paul Simon’s “Graceland,” and Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” A MicroTrack Digital Recorder from CRE could come in very hand to capture all of the information being dispensed at this amazing conference. Of course, all the things you need to make a good impression as a presenter or exhibitor—projector rentals, displays, PCs—are available from CRE. Oracle OpenWorld 2009 From October 11th to the 15th, Oracle OpenWorld 2009 will feature over 1800 sessions, 400+ partner exhibits and keynote addresses from global technology leaders at San Francisco’s Moscone Center. Hands-on labs, special networking events and other interactive opportunities give the many OpenWorld attendees and exhibitors a chance to meet new people and old friends, field questions and hear comments. If you are making a presentation at this important event, you can survey your audience responses and get crucial data with an audience response system rental. Well-prepared exhibitors and presenters will gain tremendous advantages by considering the entire event an “adjunct marketing opportunity,” and the information you can collect from the top global professionals in networking will prove extremely valuable in all facets of your business. Although Oracle will not hold onsite testing or the popular “exam cram” this time around, the OCP lounge will fill in some of those gaps. With a MacBook or MacBook Pro rental from CRE, recording these sessions will be a snap with the built-in microphone and iSight camera. Oracle will also put on two certification-related Power Sessions for all those interested in pursuing Oracle certificates, at any level. Members of the Oracle Certification team will attend OpenWorld this year. Their stated intent, per Oracle’s PR materials, is to mingle in the OCP Lounge with the people that they “communicate with throughout the year” by phone, fax and e-mail. This presents smart exhibitors the opportunity to do some effective, one-on-one interaction. Whatever you need for OpenWorld, from laptops to plasma displays, CRE will help you make just the right impression. Get the right help with ComputerRentals.com CRE’s own professionals, the well-trained Customer Service Representatives and Account Executives alike, can help you get whatever you need to outfit your booth(s) at one or both of these events. Fill out a Quick Rental Quote and get an even quicker answer, right now! Meeting the Economic Challenges with Rentals from CRESeptember 17th, 2009It seems that “financial experts” just pop right out of the woodwork during tough economic times. This recent recession is no different, and there are tons of ads and spam touting penny stocks, how to make money in down markets and other magical maneuvers. In times like these, however, it is wise to keep a historical perspective, and always to “go with what you know.” CRE customers are no strangers to the ups and downs of the economy, the “whole one” or the portions of it they work in, their chosen industries. For animation pros who’ve run Final Cut Pro on a Mac Pro computer rental, working in a volatile industry is old hat. Hollywood is notoriously cyclical, although the trends have always been generally “up.” Office managers at all kinds of firms have relied on CRE for everything from that extra desktop PC to multifunction office wizardry like the Panasonic 595 Fax/Laser printer. They have done so in good times and bad. The “in-between” times There are also times like this, when there are definitely some big national economic issues, but certain industries are still going strong. Technology is running somewhat against the grain right now, but the real super-tech-types, the ones who know they need to get their new project backed up onto a high-capacity XServe RAID rental from CRE, aren’t always the folks watching the financial news. Sometimes it’s someone else in management, who might misinterpret economic signals at times. The techies have to educate others as to the cost-effectiveness of good backups, whatever is going on with the New York Stock Exchange. You could call what we are going through “in-between times,” for want of a better term. There is great volatility, but this is America, after all, so there is always great hope and a lot of enthusiasm. There are a number of important technology conferences coming up in the last quarter of 2009, and CES actually starts earlier than January 2010. It looks like plenty of folks are still investing in booths to make their presence known. What kind of signal does it send when you don’t go? That may take more explaining than it’s worth. It’s less costly to go ahead and make plans for the convention rentals that CRE offers than to weather the storm of doubt that might follow you in the wake of your decision to stay home. The right time for new marketing
A exhibit booth with a few high-res monitors or perhaps a high lumen projector rental from CRE, along with some enthusiastic sales reps and a tech guy (or gal) with all the answers—this is not a backbreaking expense. In fact, it’s an investment. Many marketing experts assert that the time to redefine and expand your marketing efforts is when others are not doing so. That time could be now. Don’t just follow the headlines in the business section, but dig down deep. That’s where you will find out what is really going on, like you will when you call up the people you know and ask the right questions. Get back to the basics of business, doing good work and making good deals for your great clients and customers, and you will not simply survive, but thrive. When you start getting busier, rent the laptops or other equipment you need from CRE until you know whether you should buy any. Often the smart thing to do is stay lean, renting what you need when you need it, and directing the capital that would have gone into equipment into marketing, instead. CRE’s experienced, business-savvy Account Executives are ready to help. All you have to do is fill out a Quick Rental Quote form, give them a call or send an e-mail. We can help you get through the challenges and set yourself up for the future. With the right attitude, the right help and the usual hard work, the future usually turns out to be pretty bright. Into the Future with Video and ImagingSeptember 15th, 2009Many of the leading imaging and video technology firms are gearing up to expand in a number of exciting directions. We’re not talking about imminent product rollouts, or doing some crystal-ball exercise trying to peer a decade or two into the future, but simply taking a cool, calm and collected look at what’s ahead in the next six months to year. The “near future” of imaging will find everything from the Web to the latest movies being enjoyed in more places, with amazing resolution all the time, while video will be following powerful trends emanating from a handful of major players and intriguing developments from a few smaller ones. Some of the prime movers in both fields-Samsung, Apple, Sony, the “New Asian Tigers” of China, Korea and Vietnam, and, interestingly, Google, which bought On2 Technologies in August-are, in fact, looking to move in multiple directions. The post-conference reports are in from such important video/imaging conferences as DisplayWeek, and pre-conference press releases are already promoting such upcoming ones as the 6Sight event. The consensus at the end of 2009’s third quarter is that there are four particularly exciting R&D areas right now on the imaging side of things. On-demand printing, new synergies among and between camera phones and social networking, 3D imaging and displays, and the increasing dependence on amateur photographers by print and Web publishers all have industry-defining, even paradigm-changing, potential.
Ready for 3DTV? This year already, FujiFilm demonstrated an amazing new consumer 3D camera (and viewer, too) while many other firms continue working on a broad range of new video and imaging product ideas. The technologies involved reach from Hollywood to Silicon Valley, which is dramatically demonstrated by the fact that a filmmaker and author, Lenny Lipton, is the driving force behind RealD (formerly StereoGraphics Corp.), a pioneer of “electronic stereoscopic display” technology. In such industry groups as the 3D@Home Consortium, early adopters and the developer (”geek”) community are very excited about imminent production of 3D content—which wouldn’t be the case without some good inside information on various ways to display it. This is the way momentum builds, the kind that will ultimately lead to 3DTV. In addition to pushing the boundaries of on-demand digital printing, many firms are putting a great deal of money and energy into electronic ink, digital paper and flexible displays. Today’s displays, like the LCD monitors that CRE rents, are so exacting that it is hard to imagine how “new and improved” will look. The answer is “real,” in case you haven’t seen a new OLED display yet. OLED panels are supremely expensive now, of course, but costs come down quickly on new technologies-and the technologies discussed here will have literally hundreds of applications and will change the world in ways big and small. The Fast-Fold Da-Lite screen that CRE rents is state-of-the-art today, but just imagine 4½-by-8 foot presentation screens that roll up into portable tubes. Combine flexibility with electronic ink, and you get magazines whose pages refresh with news updates delivered by WiFi. It’s all coming. Video everywhere, all the time? Camera phones, YouTube and computers with built-in Web cams have contributed to today’s “video everywhere” environment. With the “big bucks,” movie studios and TV producers could always do special effects work, but not on “a desktop.” Since the advent of the PC in the 1980s, there have been consumer-level image editing software programs, like Digital Darkroom (in grayscale, yet), for everyone to use. Now the software is both affordable and powerful. The waiting time was due to the lag in low-cost and efficient digital still cameras and camcorders. The first camcorders used analog tape, featured in a famous but short-lived “Beta vs. VHS war,” and even the first digital models in the 1990s used digital tape. This meant a lot of extra work to get the footage into the computer, where small hard disks and slow processors made even the best applications hard to use. Fast-forward a few years into the current crop of fast, huge storage systems, like the RAID arrays from CRE, and cameras have closed the “power gap” with the software. Meanwhile, video capture has come to cellphones, cheap wireless minicameras and—on Wednesday, September 9, 2009—to the newest iPod Nano. With the ongoing development of Flip HD cameras and other capable devices at stunningly low prices, the title of “videographer” will be available to anyone with $79 to invest. Leading the way have been the professional animators and post-production pros, many of whom are CRE customers, using systems like CRE’s PowerMacintosh G5 with Kona card to ply their trade. They, too, should see increased demand for their services from millions of new filmmakers who have been coaxed into creativity with less costly, less daunting, less finicky cameras, but don’t know how to use an AJA Io HD system, such as CRE rents to production pros, to produce the final theatrical releases. If you need some extra oomph in your production department, from high-powered PCs and Macintosh models to additional studio-grade Apple Cinema HD monitors, you don’t have to see into the future. You just have to count on CRE’s proven past to know that one Quick Rental Quote form, e-mail or phone call gets you plugged into what you need—not tomorrow, but today. Apple Grabs the Tech Headlines… AgainSeptember 10th, 2009
When it comes to computers and personal electronics, Apple is the company that the pundits (and Wall Street) keep an eye on. Yesterday, the firm was in the headlines again with a range of announcements concerning its iconic iPod line, but there was just as much interest in what wasn’t said, such as the all-but-confirmed rumor of a Macintosh tablet computer. Steve Jobs may have looked a bit frail after his liver transplant, but the company itself is as robust as ever, perhaps more so. Last week, Apple shipped the latest version (10.6) of its operating system, dubbed Snow Leopard, which powers its line of computers. Upgrades have slowed a bit on their iMac models, which CRE proudly provides to many firms, as sales tumbled some 25% over last year, as well as on the potent Mac Pro towers, which CRE’s customers rely on daily. The overall PC market dipped some six percent between 2007 and 2008, making production plans for 2009 a bit dicey. However, Apple’s laptop sales (MacBook and MacBook Pro) skyrocketed, growing some 70 percent in the first quarter of this year as compared to 2008. CRE customers are well aware of the power and utility of the Mac line, which has been the computer of choice (with the OS of choice) for creatives since its debut over 25 years ago. The venerable, still-muscular PowerMacintosh G5, which CRE outfits with the Kona card, is a mainstay of the animation and video/film production sector. For the powerful AJA Io HD system, the Mac is an elegant, stable and efficient front end, bringing incredible power and precision to post-production in tandem with Apple’s own Final Cut Studio 2 software. Video, in fact, made the news in Apple’s Wednesday extravaganza, as the capability to record in the state-of-the-art h.264 format was added to Apple’s iPod Nano model, along with FM radio (with a Live Pause function). Along with incredible price reductions and flash memory upgrades to the entire iPod line, this capability can do nothing but further establish the iPod as the personal music and video appliance king. The line as a whole has an incredible 70% market share. What was left unsaid was the future of the Mac tablet, rumors about which Apple is no longer deploying its famed (and feared) legal department to combat. Analysts now think that a touchscreen unit resembling a larger iPod touch (oddly, Apple doesn’t capitalize the name of this capital-earning model) will be a “connected device” offering movies, music, games, Web browsing and microcomputer capabilities at a sub-$1000 price point. Many industry observers expect it to be Apple’s next “growth catalyst.” Finally, the iPhone, now available starting at just $99, was given short shrift at the Apple event, since the big announcements about it came from AT&T and Verizon. Both companies are promising “warp speed” for the iPhone with their revamped 3G networks. Apple’s App Store is doing a incredible volume of business, as is iTunes, which was just upgraded to version 9, on the music side. Apple is healthier than ever, its stock having doubled in the last year, and the only reason the price took a slight dive late yesterday was because the profit-takers cashed in on the company’s 2008-2009 growth and its sterling prospects for the future. CRE customers know that they can expect all the best in Apple and other technology products, from WiFi tablets to office equipment, when they need to get that big job out the door or ramp up for a new project. As Apple pushes into the future (with a recovering Steve Jobs, one hopes), CRE is right there with them. Wherever Apple goes, it’s bound to be a happy journey for the millions of Mac, iPhone and iPod users, a large and talented contingent of folks that CRE proudly serves. Fill out an online quote request form, give us a call or e-mail our Account Executives today for all your technology needs, from Apple and other first-rank tech companies. CES Starts Early For Those In The KnowSeptember 8th, 2009
The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is a big, big deal, each and every year, for all kinds of individuals and companies. Many firms, of course, debut their latest and greatest products at CES, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. For many high-tech types, including quite a few of CRE’s great customers and colleagues, the build up to the event is just as important. Artists, animators, marketing managers, filmmakers, videographers, printers, banner makers and webmasters are hard at work for almost the entire year that passes between the end of one CES and the official beginning of the next. Some of our customers rent the AJA Io HD systems to make trailers, commercials and looping booth-display reels. A lot of cutting-edge art gets produced on CRE rental systems, in case you didn’t know. Other customers will rent a HD plasma or a full projection system, screens and other technology for their premier display space. Still others make sure their representatives have WiFi-capable tablet PCs to take notes, check schedules and capture names, e-mail addresses and phone numbers of new prospects. The build-up begins for CES Before and during every CES, a variety of events are held that are ostensibly for members of the press alone. The fact is, with the evolving definition of “media” and “publication,” representatives of Macintosh User Groups have talked their way into these events. You can, too, if you work at it a bit. With just a little amateur detective work, you can get information that can save (or make) you money. Here’s how… Building up toward the 2010 International CES, to be held January 7-10, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) will hold three important events. There are enough clues in the press releases about these “media meetings” to get any tech-lover excited about the “hot” areas of interest, and the build-up starts off with a bang. From kick-off to game time At “CES Unveiled@NY,” part of the CES New York Press Preview, media reps, bloggers and tech industry analysts will get sneak previews of products that will be grabbing headlines next January. “CES Unveiled@NY” takes place Tuesday, November 10 at New York City’s Metropolitan Pavilion. This event signals the official start of the CES promotional season, and is the one that you want to hear about for any new-product clues or confirmation of the “Apple’s going to CES” rumors. The two days before the CES officially starts, a trio of events will set the stage and prime the pump. The “State of the Consumer Tech Industry and 2010 CES Trends to Watch” will take place at The Venetian at “CES Minus Two,” meaning January 5, 2010. CEA analysts will clue in the assembled press and pundits to the mix of market signals, consumer behavior and industry trends behind the technology set to bow at the 2010 International CES. This event can also hold important “stealth” info for you if you are looking to upgrade laptops or replace an LCD monitor with a newer, better, less expensive model. Another presentation on January 5, “State of the Global CE Industry,” is not so much about technology as it is about the countries with today’s fast-growing economies and evolving middle classes-like the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) that are poised to take the lead in the next decade’s CE revenue surge. This session is about global CE market trends, so it won’t help you much with a decision about whether to upgrade your desktop computers. Getting close now! Similarly, “CES Unveiled: The Official Press Event of the International CES” is held on January 5, and is where the media gets an “official” sneak peek at the actual, on-the-floor CES product debuts. This is where the press learns about the Innovations Design and Engineering Showcase honorees—both Apple iPods and H-P office equipment have been winners—all before the show officially opens. “Press Day” is on opening day, January 6, and is a must-attend event media to get the major product and news announcements. Press Day wraps up right before the pre-show CES keynote address. Once all the rumors are sorted out into products that actually showed up and others that remained “vaporware,” you can get back to figuring out where your company may need to expand, contract, hold steady or move forward. While you’re waiting for the more problematic tech issues to shake out before committing a good chunk of change to new equipment, CRE is here to keep you busy and productive with the computing power, presentation prowess and office efficiency you need every day. Whether you need an Xserve Quad Xeon 64-bit network server to pick up the pace, or just want to check up on that Mac 10-inch MultiTouch Tablet rumor, contact our experienced Account Executives or request a rental quote online. Surviving Emergencies and EvacuationsSeptember 3rd, 2009The recent wildfires in California are a cogent reminder of how easily the things we take for granted can be destroyed. If you work with computers, you hear all the time about the importance of backing up your work. Still, even among businesses, only a small percentage maintain complete backups off-site. A backup that is in the desk drawer at the office will help you if the computer crashes, but not if the computer and the desk are burned to ashes. If you still don’t think you need to consider a backup plan with an evacuation component, and you live in Southern California, just step outside and look toward northeast L.A. County. The smoke should convince you otherwise.
Ongoing preparations In the event of an evacuation notice from authorities, you will normally have no more than half an hour to vacate your premises. This means that you need a plan ahead of time, and a clear, step-by-step program for what to do in that limited window you have for evacuating. A free, online, U.S government “e-tool” helps you put one together in no time. Before any type of emergency happens, you need to ensure that you are backing up every day’s work and storing it offsite. In the old days, this meant taking burned CDs or a tape drive cartridge home or to a storage facility every day at the close of business. Today you can use many online backup services (Apple’s iDisk, Xdrive, Strongspace, Carbonite, etc.) to store records, sales orders, address books, ledgers, etc., offsite for safe keeping. Equipment-saving plans In addition, your plan for what to take in the event of an evacuation needs to be figured out beforehand. You need to know how to take apart the cables that connect your computers to the peripherals like printers, networks, etc., and should have them all marked with colored tape or labels so you know what goes with what. A good introductory article on “home network security” will cover many of these topics for home businesses all the way to small companies. Once you start moving things to evacuate, set a pace and keep it up. Follow a pre-planned route that you will take to a car or van, and plan to take anything that can be carried by a single person. This means you should have time to take desktop and tower computers as well as your laptop (but if you lose it, CRE will rent you one). Skip the inkjet printers unless you have a pricey photo-grade model or a multifunction device. Inkjets are cheap, so don’t waste your time. Take external hard drives, for sure, especially if they contain additional backups. Routers, scanners and miscellaneous hardware should go, too, if you have time after moving the more important computers. If you lose hardware If you are not well prepared on-site, or the emergency is so sudden you have zero time to move anything, then you will be glad you had the foresight to have an offsite backup. If you do suffer the loss of hardware, CRE rents new desktop computers with all the software you need to get back to business. Once you are set up again, from home or a temporary office, just get online and download your remote backup, or pick up your discs or tape from their safe, offsite location and copy your working files. Even if you need various kinds of office equipment, like scanners or multifunction devices, CRE is your one-stop shop for everything you need to keep going forward. If you were working on an animated movie or a film project, CRE has you covered with high-powered workstations like the PowerMacintosh G5 with Kona card. If you are doing editing or post-production with Final Cut Studio 2, CRE even has the AJA Io HD unit in a compact and portable form factor for easy use anywhere. CRE has you covered no matter what your needs, and no matter what fire, earthquake, flood or other act of God has thrown you a curveball. CRE is here to make sure your business keeps moving ahead, no matter what the challenge. Contact one of our Account Executives today and talk about an emergency preparedness plan for your company. Making Hit Movies With MacsSeptember 1st, 2009What we now know as Apple Final Cut Pro, now in version 7 while the Studio package is in version 2, was actually created by Macromedia. That’s the company that took over the venerable FreeHand vector drawing program way back when, and also brought Dreamweaver (née GoLive), Flash and a few other goodies along when Adobe absorbed them in 2005. Long story short, Macromedia brought a beta version of a program called KeyGrip to the National Association of Broadcasters convention in 1998 (NAB1998) but found no takers. In somewhat of a strategic move, Apple bought up the KeyGrip code and the team that birthed it, added Firewire and DV support, continued developing the product and released it at NAB1999 as Final Cut Pro (FCP). Meanwhile, its old code and low optimization took Adobe Premiere’s Mac market share steadily downward, to the point that Premiere Pro became a Windows-only product at about the turn of the millennium. Starting then, however, FCP began making serious inroads into the Hollywood movie scene, and by 2007 it had just about half (49%) of the domestic professional editing market, compared to 22% for Avid. It began with a teen flick Demonstrating the power and potential of a consumer (more like “prosumer”) product, the teen movie Rules of Attraction was edited on a beta release of FCP3 in 2001. This made the film’s director, Roger Avary, something of an unofficial spokesman for Apple’s editing software, which caused a few industry pros—editors, directors of photography, directors, producers—to take notice. The entertainment world as a whole then noticed, and FCP won an Emmy in 2002 for its “impact on the television industry.”
Gaining momentum still There is no doubt that FCP’s involvement in the production of the 2008 Brad Pitt hit, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, sent a powerful “get on board” message to filmmakers still undecided about the software. The movie led the year’s Oscar nominations with a baker’s dozen (13, remember?) and was noteworthy for the excellent look and seamless special effects. Renting CRE’s Mac Pro with FCP gets you the same power that brought a bucket of Oscar noms to this well-regarded film. Even before Benjamin Button, however, a long list of first-rate films attested to the growing power and popularity of Apple’s editing package (see Mac Movies List, below), including multiple Oscar-winner Cold Mountain, Clint Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima and the Best Movie of 2008, No Country for Old Men. Big help for small films It’s not only big studios and bankable stars that benefit from the Mac’s creative muscle. Able Edwards, made in 2004 by director Graham Robertson and producer Steve Soderbergh, was shot on a small Hollywood green-screen stage in 15 days on a $30,000 budget. It was edited on a single PowerMac G4 with a mere 2GB of RAM, using FCP alongside Maya, QuickTime and Adobe Photoshop. Five years later, the iMacs that CRE rents have many times the power of that G4, so a low-cost rental can put you in the race for Oscar gold—assuming you have a great script, a talented cast and a distribution deal (YouTube may do in a pinch). As far as a “movie on a shoestring” story, there’s an even better one. Johnatan Caouette made his a 2003 documentary film, Tarnation, on an iMac for a final budget of $281. If you think that’s impressive, he didn’t even use FCP, he did it all with iMovie. Incredibly, the distributor spent over 1,400 times more (nearly $400,000) promoting the flick and bringing it to theaters. Caouette didn’t even have an external hard drive for storage, much less a RAID array like CRE rents, and dealt with iMovie’s limitations by producing 15 minutes of the film at a time. He would then dump each segment onto his Hi-8 tape master, delete it from the iMac and start up on the next piece. Where there’s a will, there’s a way—but where there’s a Mac, it’ll save the day. If you are thinking of giving Universal and Paramount some competition, and need a little extra post-production prowess, CRE is here with the right solutions. One of our specialties is supporting animators, editors and special effect pros in the entertainment industry, so contact us by filling out the CRE Quick Quote Rental Form , calling us toll-free at (877) 266-7725 or sending an e-mail for a quick, courteous and knowledgeable response. - – - – - – - – - - Major films edited with FCP: Black Snake Moan |
Whether you are training company employees, making a conference presentation or testing product ideas with a focus group, an ARS will create an interactive, collaborative environment in which the “teacher” arguably learns as much as the “students”—and learns even more when all the responses are later tallied and analyzed. In fact, the “teacher role” is merged into each participant, which maximizes audience input and feedback. If you are going to be using an Audience Response System (ARS), these tips will help you make the most of it.
Even the smallest home business or small office operation can afford to devise and implement a workable evacuation plan. The downside, of course, is that you can’t afford not to have one, or wait until you need one to develop it. The most devastating loss to a business or organization is human life, of course. Next to that (and animals) is the data that your business needs to survive. Not having a complete backup can mean the death of your personal or corporate mission and the end of your enterprise.
