“I have to admit that I’ve never been a fan of Apple’s iPod — for reasons too numerous to mention in this story — but Apple has finally added the killer feature to its ubiquitous, market-dominating MP3 player: video. Sure, the company is late to the portable ‘media center’ game, but unlike its competitors, Apple actually got it right. The picture is simply amazing, and it’s opened the doors for independent producers to start dreaming about this new alternative way to distribute their content. While Apple seems focused on making mainstream ‘repurposed’ broadcast network programming its focus, it’s the independent producers who really seem keen on the idea of taking advantage of the platform,” Michelle Alexandria writes for UPI.
Alexandria writes, “George Wood, CEO of Flights of Fantasy Media, has had a tough time distributing his content (through mainstream channels), which includes the Academy Award Winning Documentary Series, ‘Hollywood Goes To War.’ He sees an opportunity in vodcasting (video podcasting) and distributing his programming on iPods and similar services. ‘What I like about vodcasting is that it allows independent producers to self-publish their own syndicated ‘shows,’ and it gives them as well as standard broadcast radio or television programs a new distribution method that goes directly to their target audience,’ said Wood.”
Alexandria writes, “Jennifer Bishop, a program associate at the National Academy of Sciences, said, ‘I just received an iPod Video as an early Christmas present, and I use it to watch video podcasts. My favorite is tuscany.podtravels.tv, which is a frequently updated podcast documenting travels in Tuscany. It is really beautifully filmed. The person doing the filming never intrudes on the scene, even to explain what is going on — there is just a camera there, recording 10 minutes or so of Tuscans going about their activities of olive harvesting, cooking, hog raising, winemaking, or monks singing a mass. It’s wonderful to have this window into another world during my long and uncomfortable subway commute.'”
Full article here.
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