Unsuccessful Thai-Lao New Year, Las Vegas 2013

       Our company, NATTV, has been assigned to broadcast live a very special event in Las Vegas on April 27, 2013.It's Called "Songkran Thai-Lao Las Vegas".  My team and me came to Las Vegas. I was the first to arrive. My responsibility in this event is to make sure that signal from Las Vegas is completely transmitted using high speed internet that provided by The Cannery Hotel. This year Thai-Lao New Year has taken place in The Cannery Hotel in Las Vegas.

I arrived at this hotel on April 26, 2013 at 6:25 pm. I have seen a well preparation from the Cannery hotel’s staffs. I was very impressed with the work they have done.

          My job is to hook up the equipment that transmit signal by using 2 Mbps high speed internet. The format is mpeg 2 with ACC 2 layers audio.  I took about 2 hours to set up and test the signal coming from Las Vegas, Nevada, to 

our studio in North Hollywood, California. The result came very impress since the internet is not a broadcast quality and can create packet loss, but the result came higher than my expectation. I can use a full range of 2 Mbps with this project. Also the on-air delay is only 3-5 seconds, which is a really good timing for this type of network.

         Unfortunately, the event was not successful. I believe in my opinion, Event planner or event manager did not completely set up the schedule with the stage members. The host, shows, and music did not cooperate with each other. The stage was often empty without any hosts or activities on the stage. Also, the most important, the event was not free, there was an entrance fee of 5 dollars per person. The food was not free and also the drink.

     In conclusion, at the event part, I believe it was a failure. In the other hand, our production team worked very quick to resolve any issues with the camera color, lighting, camera positioning, and cables issues. We solved everything very quickly and be able to broadcast live on schedule. We were very happy with the work and the most important, OUR BOSS was happy ! 

Disappointment of APPLE TV, a great expectation for streaming media device

My company sent me to the conference show in Las Vegas on April 8, 2013. It was the NAB Show. There were plenty of new technology improvements and new model of production equipment at the show. My personal interest is the IP streaming devices and camera equipment.

I went to one of their boot and they are having a presentation. I was listening to their speech about new server and storage equipment for the commercial use.

Luckily, there was a raffle ticket to win a free Apple TV streaming device. I was researching about this Apple TV for quite sometimes now and always wanted to see what this device has to offer.

30 minutes after the speech, they brought up a bowl of raffles and picked one winner.

I was the winner and won Apple TV! I was so lucky.

At NAB show in Las Vegas, they have every major company there, such as AVID, Black Magic Design, Sony, Canon, and etc.

After came back from the conference show, I focus in Streaming device, I personally found that Apple TV has very limited benefit.

First I checked if this Apple TV has any major streaming providers, such as Youtube and Netflix. Yes! They have these 2 majors providers that I mostly use their services. 

       There are other providers such as, Hulu and iTune.

I am considering my sources if I can use these streaming media such as Roku, Google TV, Apple TV, or Livestream to use as a broadcast provider device for my new company. This Apple TV at this time can not do what I am expecting.

This Apple TV cannot create a private channel. Apple TV only offers services from major streaming service providers, such as Netflix and Hulu. Not like Roku, another streaming device, can create a private channel that fits my need for the new company.

I am using this internet broadcast to replace the satellite broadcast to save cost and simplicity process. 

I have a high expectation in Apple TV, but Apple disappoints me with lack of resources. Everything in Apple TV is not free. I can never watch or use Apple TV to stream media.

I can connect it from my computer and watch media from my computer (according to official Apple website www.apple.com), but this has no benefit to me.

Correct me if I am wrong and I hope to find a great update for this Apple TV product. I am looking to be partner with Apple and use it for my primary source of streaming media.