BBC Switch, the broadcast corporation’s youth brand, is launching a new “interactive” teen-oriented drama, “Proper Messy,” across the range of platforms popular with the young crowd. The show debuts January 24, and viewers can watch on tv (BBC 2), online (BBC Switch site) and on social networking site Bebo.

What makes this program interesting (to people outside the age 13-17 target audience, anyhow) is addition of an interactive element to the show. Viewers can sign up to send and receive text messages from Imogen and Jake, the series’ two main characters. The audience’s text-message responses can influence the story line of subsequent episodes.

Proper Messy’s prequel episode is here. The show will have six episodes in all, and is something of an experiment. An article in new media age reports that “the interactive series was being used to test viewers’ mobile TV habits.”

Mobile-influencers will be limited to the first 2500 (according to BBC Switch) or 5000 (according to nma) who sign up. That perceived “scarcity” of openings, paired with the possibility of your participation affecting the story arc, are an interesting tactic to drive initial interest, and sustain interest throughout the series.

Early response (among grown-ups, anyhow) has been favorable. PR firm 10 Yetis says that, to be successful, “Proper Messy” will have “to blur the divide between online and offline media, and to be fair, from what this Yeti has seen, they’re doing a pretty sweet job of it.”

As the television audience continues to move more of its video consumption away from scheduled, in-the-living-room viewing, we think more shows will be moving to short-form, interactive, multi-platform programming.

Today Sanyo Electric introduced a new lineup of Xacti Dual Cameras. The video cameras “redefine digital imaging” (according to the company) by allowing greater flexibility, shooting both still photos and videos.

The new mixed form factor (Horizontal, Vertical) line-up of five cameras include new waterproof HD models (DMX-WH1, DMX-CA9), compact HD units (DMX-CG10), which are pictured, right, and Full HD 60p cameras (DMX-FH11, DMX-HD2000). The DMX-HD200 will be the first release, available in early February.

The Full HD models boast newly developed high-speed image processing engine which allows HD2000 and FH11 to record two times the amount of data that common interlace formats currently do. The built-in still camera can shoot 8-Megapixel photos anytime, even while simultaneously recording Full HD movies. Other features for the HD Xacti cameras include high-speed video capabilities (240 fps/600 fps) for slow-motion playback (1/4, 1/10 of normal video speed), 8GB built-in memory (DMX-FH11) and the cameras are compatible with up to 32GB SDHC memory card, and compatibility with the “Xacti Library” that allows saving/indexing and playback of videos and pictures from an external hard drive.

The waterproof models, DMX-CA9 and DMX-WH1, have received IPX8 (full water submersion) based on JIS C 0920 waterproofing guidelines. The DMX-CA9 can be submersed to 1.5m ; DMX-WH1 can be submersed to 3m.

The compact model, DMX-CG10, has a motion correction (anti-shake) function, a ‘Face Chaser Function’ for movies and stills, and a 3-inch, 230,000 pixel-wide LCD monitor.

The cameras connect to television or computers and can share videos in the AVC/H.264 format. All of the Sanyo 2009 video cameras are all HD-ready.

The complete specifications for the Sanyo Xacti cameras can be found in a .pdf here.

Longtime podcaster and new media consultant C.C. Chapman made an appearance on cable news channel CNN Tuesday, where he talked about how the coverage of Barack Obama’s inauguration by social media:

Chapman created an early standout among music podcasts with his Accident Hash series. He also hosts the Managing the Gray podcast and is a founder of The Advance Guard, a new media consultancy and marketing firm. His enthusiasm for new and social media is evident in his “iReporter” interview:

“I couldn’t be in DC today, but i could experience the inauguration with people from all around the globe,” Chapman enthused. “I was very impressed with how the technology worked today.”

“it was really powerful to see how people reacted, especially some of the older crowd, who thought they’d never see this day…. I saw a sense of pride and joy. It was a cool wave of emotions. People were really touched by what happened [today]. And I think people realized that, even though we’ve been really hyped up about [Obama becoming President] for a long time, we’ve got a lot of work to do now.”

Chapman also went on to talk [frustratingly, too briefly] about the immediate and positive changes to the White House’s website and blog as the Obama administration took office.

On his blog, Chapman muses further about the variety of ways to take in the events of the day:

“This changes things. The fact that I don’t HAVE to turn on my television if I don’t want to. The fact that I can share the experience with friends around the globe in real time. The fact that this is another step towards social viewing.”

On its “Traditional Media” blog today, search engine giant Google said it was “turning the page” on its print media advertising sales program, which will end Feb. 28. Google had been working with 800 U.S. newspapers, up from about 50 papers at the time of its late-2006 launch.

Spencer Spinnell, Director of Google Print Ads writes, “While we hoped that Print Ads would create a new revenue stream for newspapers and produce more relevant advertising for consumers, the product has not created the impact that we — or our partners — wanted.”

The announcement comes as Google is making cutbacks in order to weather a worsening recession. Last week, the company shelved several other products (mobile social application Dodgeball, and Google Video), ceased future development of microblogging app Jaiku, and laid off a rumored 100 workers.

The biggest new story of the day may be Barack Obama’s Presidential inauguration, but, at least for people interested in new media, the most interesting story of the day may be the introduction of an official White House blog. 

Three years ago, we predicted that the next President would be a podcaster, saying:

The next president of the United States will be a podcaster. The next president will be someone that understands how to use podcasting and video podcasting effectively. And just as importantly, the next president will be someone that can navigate the potential minefield of citizen media.

Our prediction may have been right – but we didn’t anticipate how quickly the White House would adopt new media. 

Today, Macon Phillips, the Director of New Media for the White House, introduced the White House Blog and outlined the administration’s priorities for the site:

Our initial new media efforts will center around three priorities:

Communication – Americans are eager for information about the state of the economy, national security and a host of other issues. This site will feature timely and in-depth content meant to keep everyone up-to-date and educated. Check out the briefing room, keep tabs onthe blog (RSS feed) and take a moment to sign up for e-mail updates from the President and his administration so you can be sure to know about major announcements and decisions.

Transparency — President Obama has committed to making his administration the most open and transparent in history, and WhiteHouse.gov will play a major role in delivering on that promise. The President’s executive orders and proclamations will be published for everyone to review, and that’s just the beginning of our efforts to provide a window for all Americans into the business of the government. You can also learn about some of the senior leadership in the new administration and about the President’s policy priorities.

Participation – President Obama started his career as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago, where he saw firsthand what people can do when they come together for a common cause. Citizen participation will be a priority for the Administration, and the internet will play an important role in that. One significant addition to WhiteHouse.gov reflects a campaign promise from the President: we will publish all non-emergency legislation to the website for five days, and allow the public to review and comment before the President signs it.

We’d also like to hear from you — what sort of things would you find valuable from WhiteHouse.gov? If you have an idea, use this form to let us know. Like the transition website and the campaign’s before that, this online community will continue to be a work in progress as we develop new features and content for you. So thanks in advance for your patience and for your feedback.

Later today, we’ll put up the video and the full text of President Obama’s Inaugural Address. There will also be slideshows of the Inaugural events, the Obamas’ move into the White House, and President Obama’s first days in office.

While the official policy is that the administration is embracing new media for communication, transparency and participation – there are other reasons:

• Obama’s campaign demonstrated the value of using new media in politics;
• Adopting new media will generate a lot of links to the official White House site, improving the search engine ranking and authority of the administration’s message;
• Using new media will let the administration route around media filters and get its message directly to the public;
• The American public now expects a new media government – something that was hard to imagine four years ago. 

 

At the 2009 Winter NAMM Show, a convention that focuses on music and audio technology, Alesis announced their USB Recording Kit, an all-in-one computer-recording system.

The USB Recording Kit lets you connect the pair of AM2 condenser microphones to the iO|2 digital-audio interface to record stereo audio, using the included Steinberg Cubase LE 4 digital audio workstation software. You can monitor sessions and playback with the M1Active 320 USB speakers.

No extra sound cards, no special connectors or adapters and no software drivers are needed. You need to supply a Mac or PC with two available USB ports and a pair of standard microphone cables.

The USB Recording Kit is available from musical instrument and pro audio retailers with an estimated street price of $299.99. 

Here are the details:

This week at the Winter 2009 NAMM Show, Podcasting News has been looking at bushels of different products for creating, editing, and publishing audio and video podcasts. One of the standouts of the show, however, wasn’t a brand new device. Berkley Integrated Audio Software (BIAS)) added its iProRecorder (App Store Link) application to the zillions of apps available for the iPhone and iPod Touch late last fall.

Bias’ Cory Stuck was “blown away” by attendee response to demonstrations of the app during this year’s show. “We didn’t plan on doing a big deal about the iPro Recorder. But when people here have seen it, they get really excited by what they can do with it. It’s been the dark horse of the show for us.”

Alesis’ ProTrack recorder was using the app (on an iPod Touch) at the NAMM Show and in its promotional materials, further fueling interest in the software.*

iProRecorder, $4.99 at the App Store, uses the iPhone and iPod Touch’s Multi-Touch user interface so users can quickly record without shuttling through a lot of setup menus.

The app display includes a counter, progress indicator, available record time, and so on. Since the iPhone’s mic is at the bottom of the phone, and so that you don’t have to look at the display upside down while you point the mic at an interview subject, the app uses the iPhone built-in accelerometer to flip the screen image accordingly.

iProRecorder lets the user choose from three audio fidelity settings, letting you balance quality vs. available recording time (up to 13 hours per GB) while maintaining higher audio resolution than in compressed formats.

iProRecorder utilizes the iPhone’s location services and camera, providing support for geographic tagging and photos—ideal for associating a recording subject with the exact recording location, for future reference.

Recordings can be easily emailed, transferred to a Mac or PC via Bonjour sharing, or launched directly to BIAS’ Peak Pro 6 professional audio editing application—exclusively for the Mac.

More information about the recording software can be found at http://www.iprorecorder.com/

*A caveat: The Alesis rep, Bob, said that for some reason, the iPhone version of the iPro Recorder does not currently work with the ProTrack digital recorder, but the iPod Touch version works perfectly. Both companies are working toward making the software and iPhone and ProTrack all work together.

The Times Online has an interesting story today about Scottish beer maker Brewdog, looking at how it used blogging to market their beers.

Brewdog’s approach was smart and incredibly cheap – give bloggers free beer.

Brewdog was struggling to sell its product until its co-founders hit on the idea of using the internet to market their distinctive beers.

“It was a hard sell locally at first,” said co-founder James Watt. “People had grown up with lager, and a lot of the pubs in Scotland are tied. So we decided to see if we could interest overseas beer enthusiasts online. We could see an opportunity in places like Sweden and America where specialist beers are popular,” he said.

Watt found the most popular bloggers in each country and sent free samples to them. Having built a following, they convinced local importers to sell their beer and international orders took off. Today exports account for 80% of sales.

Brewdog also made smart use of Internet media:

“If you are competing against big companies, you have to use every means at your disposal to get your message out there and tell people why you’re different.”

Brewdog uses video to talk to customers. It recently gave them the chance to create a new beer by posting clips of its staff arguing about the virtues of different types of beer and letting them vote on how the final product would taste.

“We called it Beer Rocks and it was the first ever democratically designed beer. It generated a lot of interest and all it cost us was a couple of hours’ filming and the price of a video camera,” said Watt.

Marketers can get a lot of bang for their buck by focusing on getting information about their product to bloggers, podcasters and other active new media content producers.

Unfortunately, though, companies like Brewdog are still the exception.

Podcasting News has been covering new digital media product launches at the NAMM Show for several years. This year, though, we’ve invited veteran podcaster and new media strategist Ron Ploof to give us his impressions of the show.

Ron takes a look at TASCAM’s two handheld digital audio recorders, the full-featured DR-1 (retail $299) and the more compact DR-07 ($199). Both can record audio in WAV or MP3 format, at 16 or 24 bit, onto SD memory cards (provided with the product).

The devices have built-in directional microphones, but can also has a 1/4″ microphone jack. The recorders attach to your computer via USB cable. The DR-1 comes with a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, and the DR-07 uses regular AA batteries.

About Ron

Ron Ploof has the broad perspective of being both an experienced “indie” podcast creator and someone who has helped companies weave podcasting and new media into their corporate fabric. He blogs about B2B social media strategies at RonAmok and has helped pioneer storytelling podcasts with Griddlecakes.

Another new Samson microphone at the 2009 NAMM Show that seemed like it might of interest to podcasters and other media creators was their Q2U mic.

Already commercially available, the Q2U can be used as both a digital and an analog mic, depending on the needs of the particular situation. For instance, live sound (like a musical performance, or presentation) away from the studio might call for the mic’s analog capabilities. The same microphone, in the studio, can switch to USB for connecting directly to your computer.

The Q2U is a dynamic handheld microphone that features both an XLR output and a USB I/O, so it can plug directly into any live sound console or any computer outfitted with a USB input. The microphone’s on/off switch lets you control the audio to the XLR output, allowing performance in a live setting while recording to a computer simultaneously.

The Q2U also features a built-in 3.5mm stereo headphone jack output with volume control for no-latency monitoring during recording. The microphone has a cardioid pickup pattern and a high-quality A/D converter with a 16-bit, 44.1/48kHz sampling rate and is compatible with any computer based digital audio workstation.