Old Tacoma Communications

Old Tacoma Communications is a production company focusing on producing audio and video recordings of conferences and classroom training. We deliver the audio and video content digitally:

Ų on CD ROM to be viewed on PCs, or

Ų streamed over the Internet or your company's intranet, or

Ų on DVD to be viewed on DVD players in PCs or connected to TVs.

For distributing presentations at conferences CD ROMs have many advantages over tape cassettes.

§ Lower costs are realized by placing over10 hours of audio on a single CD ROM - up to 5 hours of video.

§ View the PowerPoint slideshow along with the audio or video. The slides changes are automatically synchronized to the audio presentation.

§ Use the mouse to navigate through menus to the presentation desired. Then navigate instantly forward and back anywhere in the presentation.

Click on the “conferences & events” selection on the left to learn more.

Leverage your company's investment in technology to yield major travel cost reductions.

§ No longer fly in employees or clientsto attend briefings or classroom training.

§ No longer fly instructors to remote offices to give classes.

Video presentations of briefings and classroom training delivered to the desktop PCs of your employees or clients. Choose the best delivery method(s) for your audience: CD ROM, DVD or Internet streaming.

Click on the “e-learning” selection on the left to learn more.

Is streaming media a new technology for your organization?

Here at Old Tacoma we provide a complete service. Just deliver your presentations as you normally do and we handle the video taping, editing, synchronizing the slides to the video and distributing the content to your users.

E-learning:

The training scenario that leverages the Old Tacoma solution the most is where an organization has a classroom training program in place for its employees or customers and is looking to reduce travel costs and have large numbers of people trained quickly.

Ų All of your employees receive the equal training. No longer choose who in the office is sent to headquarters to receive training. No longer deal with employees who missed out on training because they were out of the office or dealing with a crisis when the trainer came to town.

Ų All of your employees receive the best training. For each section of the training material we will video tape the person in your organization who is the expert in that area.

Ų All of your employees are trained at the same time. No longer take months to cycle your people through classroom training. The moment the new system goes online or the new product is released on the market have the training material in place for everyone to immediately begin using the new product, system or process.

How we develop training material.

1. Develop a plan. We listen to the training specialists in your organization and together develop a plan for the best way deliver training content to your employees or customers.

2. Submit a proposal. We submit a detailed proposal that lays out exactly what our deliverables are. We include:

l A schedule - clearly describing who does what, when.

l The charges - presented in a way that allows you to pick and choose various features.

l A change management process - to enable the project to proceed in a controlled manner even when changes need to be made while we’re under way.

3. Preproduction activities. Prior to the video taping session we line up who will be making the training presentations (subject matter experts, trainers, help desk personnel, etc.). We schedule the taping sessions based on a detailed plan.

4. Production activities. We will set up our video equipment in a training room or a conference room at your location to make it convenient for the presenters to come in and give their presentations. Sometimes there’s a live audience in the classroom and sometimes they present directly to the camera. Some presenters prefer a script scrolled on a teleprompter where others are so familiar with the material they just work off of notes and the PowerPoint slides.

5. In the Old Tacoma offices we edit the video tape and encode it in whatever its final form will be (CD ROM, Internet streaming, DVD, etc.). We also include PowerPoint slides, menus, etc. to create the complete training package.

6. We then go into a review process where we make adjustments as needed to perfect the package. This may include swapping out PowerPoint slides, making video edits and the like. This also includes reviewing the artwork on the CD labels, developing the credits and including any legal disclaimers and copyright notices.

7. Distribution. Once the product meets your approval we create as many copies of the CD ROM as needed or install the content on a streaming server depending on the distribution method called out in the plan.

And we’re done. In 8 to 12 weeks you have an entire workforce trained.

When there are no PowerPoint slides use the large view window for the video.

When training how to use software applications we use animation in the slide window to depict mouse motion, scrolling, drop down menus, keystrokes, etc. All synchronized to the video presentation.

Conferences and Events:

Conference attendees want to use CD ROMs in their PCs at home and at their office to see and hear the conference presentations. Here’s why:

§ They want to be free from sorting through a mountain of tape cassettes – an all-audio CD ROM can hold over 10 hours of presentations – an all-video CD ROM can hold nearly 5 hours.

§ They want to view the PowerPoint slideshows while they hear the presentation.

§ They want a convenient way to navigate through the content. The Web has us spoiled; people expect to get to a specific slide in a specific presentation in the time it takes to click a mouse.

§ They want to return to their workplace after the conference and show their colleagues how valuable the presentations were and how successful the conference was. They don’t want to wait weeks for the tapes to arrive. Within 72 hours of the end of the conference Old Tacoma begins mailing CD ROMs to the attendees.

Conference sponsors want a more cost effective multimedia solution.

§ Imagine the savings of placing ten presentations on a single disc.

§ Add to that the efficient processes we’ve developed to create the menus and navigation controls.

§ We have also developed specialized software to add the PowerPoint slides and synchronize the slide changes to the audio (or video).

This combination of digital media, efficient processes and specialized software enable us to provide all the advantages of CD ROM at costs comparable to the old audio cassette solution.

Here are the services we offer. Old Tacoma will:

§ Record or video tape the key notes and breakouts.

§ Combine the recordings with the PowerPoint presentations producing a CD ROM.

§ Synchronize the slide changes with the audio (or video).

§ Provide special services such as including text subtitles of the presentations.

§ Duplicate the CD ROMs as needed.

§ Operate a booth on the show floor taking orders for the CDs.

§ Fulfill the orders mailing the CDs to the attendees.

§ Provide an ongoing online sales capability.

If you feel your conference needs the advantages our multimedia solution has give us a call. If you already have some of the services shown above covered – no problem we’ll work with others on your team to deliver a successful conference.

Check out some of the screen shots below to get a feel of the Old Tacoma solution.

Who We Are:

Old Tacoma Communications is a video production company focusing on producing videos of classroom training, conferences, meetings and events. We deliver the video content digitally, over the Internet, on CD ROM or on DVD.

Established in 1992 as a computer network engineering firm, Old Tacoma soon saw the potential of the World Wide Web to deliver whole libraries of information to relatively small interest groups. In 1993 we began publishing technical "Best Practices" documentation on the intranet of a large, multinational manufacturing company. Using this information technical support staff throughout the company began to provide standardized proven processes to the installation and support of computers and networks.

In 1996 Old Tacoma began using streaming audio technology to deliver narrated slide shows of presentations over the Internet. This service was employed by a multinational financial institution to extend the audience (and thereby the value) of client conferences. Also about this time CD ROM was added as another delivery medium in addition to on-demand Internet streaming.

In 2001 video was added to the service line. Also in 2001 Old Tacoma added live webcasts to its delivery capabilities along side of on-demand streaming and CD ROM. A not-for-profit educational foundation is currently using this live webcast capability to train educators on techniques to help people who have learning disabilities.

In 2002 DVD was added to the mix. DVD has all the advantages of our CD ROM solution - hours of content on a single disc, user navigation to the exact material needed - and it also brings new capabilities:

Ų With DVD your audience can view your videos on their TV as well as on their computer.

Ų DVD also provides the highest quality video image.

A Look Under the Hood:

Here we'd like to answer (or at least address) the age-old question: how'd they do that?

Let's start with our Internet streaming solution: We use Microsoft Windows Media version 7.1 software to display the video. We think this software gives us the best video quality at the lowest bandwidth for the broadest installed base of desktop computers. If we went with the latest version of Windows Media we would have a better image quality for the bandwidth but we'd lose all of our users who are still on Windows 95 (and there are a lot of them out there). If we'd back up to version 6.4 of Windows Media we'd reach a broader base of PCs that already have Windows Media installed but the image quality would suffer.

Some slideshows have animations running in the slideshow space. These animations are particularly valuable for training people on how to use computer software. Our animation shows computer screens with the mouse cursor moving around, drop down menus dropping down, dialog boxes receiving keystrokes, and buttons being pushed. With the instructor in the video window describing what to do and the animation showing it happen you end up with a powerful training solution. This animation uses "Flash" software by Macromedia. We opted to use an older version of Flash (ver 4) to reach the broadest installed base of desktops possible. If a user doesn't have Flash ver 4 or greater he can download the Flash player (it's free) from http://macromedia.com.

Now for the viewer software running on the desktop that plays the video and shows the slides and scrolls the text of the presentation and provides all those nifty navigation buttons: it's a web page that contains a lot of tricked out JavaScript and DHTML code. Internet Explorer version 5.5 (ver 5 on Macs) supports all the features we included in our viewer. This version of IE is available for all Microsoft Windows systems starting with Windows 95.

Now for our CD ROM solution: Here we use Microsoft Windows Media version 6.4 software to display the video. So why use version 6.4 for the CD ROM solution and version 7.1 for the Internet streaming solution? The answer: bandwidth. When we're placing the video image on a CD ROM we can bump up the amount of data we use to display the video image and thereby bump up the image quality. That allows us to use an older version of Windows Media (6.4) and still maintain our quality requirement. So what's the big deal about version 6.4? This version of Windows Media is baked into Internet Explorer 5.5 and its baked into Windows 2000 and XP. So if the user has any of these products installed on his machine he's good to go.

For the animations, we use Flash version 4 just like the streaming solution described above. But with our CDs we include the Flash viewer software on the CD. That means users who don't have Flash running on their machine he can still see the animations on the CD ROM without having to download and install.

The viewer software we use to display the video and the slides and do the navigation etc. is "Director" by Macromedia. We chose Director because it provides all we need to display the slideshows and the animation in a single program that resides right on the CD - no need to install anything. That means if you're in an organization where the desktop PCs are "locked down" and installing unauthorized software is taboo - don't worry. Nothing is being sent out onto the C: drive. Nothing is messing with the Registry.

To sum up, we took this idea of making it easy to use and, well, we obsessed on it a little. Okay maybe a lot:

Ų We opted for a version of Windows Media that is already installed on millions of desktops.

Ų The software that displays the menus and slideshows is on the CD.

Ų The software that displays the animations is also on the CD.

Ų No need to run an "install" program that modifies the Registry and scares the bejeebees out of the desktop support techies.

Frequently Asked Questions:

What are the services offered by Old Tacoma?

To produce a video CD or Internet streaming content what do I need to provide and what does Old Tacoma provide?

What exactly is "streaming" anyway?

My organization is not in the Tacoma Washington area. Can I still use these services?

What kind of technology does the end user need to view a CD or video streamed over the Internet?

How long after the conference can I expect to see the master CD?

My company has training videos on VHS format. Can I place those on CD or a streaming server?

What are the services offered by Old Tacoma?

Old Tacoma Communications produces video slideshows that are viewed on PCs and TVs with DVD players. These slide shows are delivered by either CD ROM or streaming video over the Internet. We can handle the entire process including production (the video taping), postproduction(editing the video and digitizing the slides), and distribution (replicating the CD ROMs and providing the Internet hosting of the streaming media).

If your company has its own video production unit in its corporate communications group or if your company is a video production house, Old Tacoma is available to perform the postproduction work to turn the video tapes into a complete collection of slideshows.

To produce a video CD or Internet streaming content what do I need to provide and what does Old Tacoma provide?

The optimal scenario is when you have a presentation already in the can but you find that getting the presentation in front of all the people who need to see it is going to be problematic (read expensive). That's where we come in. We'll video tape you giving the presentation and we'll encode the PowerPoint file and put it all together in a package.

Now for the variations on that theme.

§ If your company is a video production company then we'll work as a subcontractor to you. We'll take the video you produce and do the postproduction necessary to create the slide shows.

§ If your company's corporate communications group has an in-house video production unit then we'll fit in much like the way described above.

§ If the presentation is a software training presentation where the instructor operates the software that's projected up on a big screen then we'll do screen captures of the software and turn that into an animation where the cursor moves around the screen, drop down menus drop down, dialog boxes pop up, etc. Then we synchronize that to the video.

What exactly is "streaming" anyway?

Streaming is a variation on the Internet web technology where a server presents a continuous, controlled flow of data to the end user's PC browser.

Conventional web communications sends data in chunks or batches where a block of data is sent to the browser (using all the network bandwidth available) and then stops and waits for the browser to ask for another chunk. This works fine when the browser is displaying a web page or a picture or a file is downloaded. In situations where a very large amount of data is required but is needed only a little at a time the better way to send the data is in a gradual stream instead of all at once. This approach uses less resources on your Internet connection and less resources in your PC. Displaying video or movies or playing music are cases where lots of data is needed but only in a gradual flow and streaming is the best way to go.

The two major players who offer streaming technology are Real Networks (they pretty much pioneered this technology) and Microsoft (they are a major player because, well, they're Microsoft). At Old Tacoma we opted to go with the Microsoft solution because there's a pretty good chance the end user has all the software needed in the browser already installed so all that's needed to view your slideshows is just click on a link on your website. Another reason we tilted towards Microsoft is their method of streaming the data is more reliable. This whole field is very competitive and both Real networks and Microsoft are moving fast bringing new capabilities to market. Currently, the hot topic is securing intellectual property - making sure the artist (or in our case the presenter) has control over who views the material. This includes pay-per-view capabilities.

These two companies, Real Networks and Microsoft, offer streaming servers that send out these streams and software called "players" that run on end user PCs that pick up the stream and convert the data to sounds and videos. They also offer a variety of tools to help in converting videos into streaming data. Here at Old Tacoma we make use of these tools but found that in our particular niche of video slide shows we needed specialized tools and developed a number of programs to automate parts of our process. Specifically, we've developed software to automate the job of synchronizing when the slides change on the slideshow to the video. We also use software developed in-house to synchronize the scrolling text to the video.

My organization is not in the Tacoma Washington area. Can I still use these services?

Absolutely. The processes we use and the software we've developed allow us to lower our costs to such an extent that even when we add in travel expenses we're still able to offer results that make video slideshows an option where it wasn't before.

What kind of technology does the end user need to view a CD or video streamed over the Internet?

The CD has the program on it that displays the slide shows. That program uses Microsoft's Windows Media software for the video portion of the show. If the user has Internet Explorer 5.5 or Windows 2000 or Windows XP then he's all set. Otherwise he'll have to go to Microsoft.com and download the free player.

The streaming Internet solution also uses Windows Media but it's a newer version (ver 7.1 as opposed to ver 6.4). It also requires an Internet connection of 256,000 bits per second (256 Kbps). The way this works out is that if the user has a dedicated Internet connection of any kind he's okay. Dialup isn't okay - even the nifty ISDN dialup.

As a general rule the CD solution is the lowest common denominator so if that's important then it’s the way to go. The streaming option has a lot of advantages so if the user base has the Internet bandwidth that could be the ticket.

How long after the conference can I expect to see the master CD?

For a conference running 1 to 3 days we can get the master CD in your hands in about a week. The same goes for the Internet streaming option. If you want both CD and streaming over the Internet or if the conference goes for 4 or 5 days or more then more time is needed.

We are capable of completing the work in less time but it requires more preparation and resources on our part so we'll need a lot of close coordination with the event management folks.

My company has training videos on VHS format. Can I place those on CD or a streaming server?

Video that was intended to be viewed on a TV usually doesn't work so good when it's streamed over the Internet or digitized and stored on a CD ROM. The viewing window on the PC is a lot smaller than a TV screen and when the TV signal is digitized for computers it is also compressed so much that a lot of detail is lost. When a professional video production unit knows of these limitations up front they can compensate (with lighting, backgrounds, framing the shot, etc.) and make the video image look great; but just pulling a VHS tape off the shelf and digitizing it probably will be a disappointment.