David Knappe

Some of you may know that outside of my working passion for technology translation, I’m a beekeeper, and just finished making a documentary film called “Bee People.”

For that reason, this week’s translation aims to shed light on the technologies that enabled it to happen. Because two things are for sure: One, this is not something we could’ve done, easily or otherwise, five years ago. Two: You, too, can make a movie! A real one. Read on.

As my colleague and the director of the film, David Knappe, puts it: We had a DSLR and a dream.

DSLR? Digital Subscriber Line, Right?

Wrong. Probably the most important ingredient in the journey was his “Digital Single Lens Reflex” camera – a “pro-sumer”-grade device, which over the course of the last 14 months captured some 60+hours of HD video about beekeepers, bee rescues, honey festivals, child beekeepers, allergic beekeepers, and even some escapades from the go-to beekeeper of the NY Police Department, Tony “Bees” Planakis.

The camera itself is fairly small (less stuff to lug!), which inevitably prompted questions from onlookers/participants. Not being a camera-aficionado myself, and knowing Dave as a perfectionist, I just figured it was good enough. Each time, though, he puffed up with a seemingly protective pride: “We’re shooting on DSLR.”

Imagine my amusement, then, when finding this DSLR description, on Wikipedia: “’Shot on DSLR’ is a quickly-growing phrase among independent filmmakers. The movement has even inspired a branding: The ‘Shot on DSLR’ badge.”

What’s great about DSLR: One, it’s affordable, at least compared to a professional grade camera. His cost about $1,200. Two, it captures video in HD, and compresses it using H.264. The H.264 part is important for storage – because it’s one thing to capture enough video for a movie. It’s quite another to store it and ship it around.

For all of this process, I was in Denver, and Dave in Hoboken, N.J. – so another big tech contributor was the plentiful existence of broadband, and the emergence of cloud-based “shipping” services, like YouSendIt.com. With those two ingredients, we were able to collaboratively review and edit the footage, as it came together.

Other observations: Should you ever decide to make a movie, know going in that everything takes longer than you’d estimated, usually because this or that device needs something. Batteries, especially. Cords. Offloading footage to solid-state storage.

“Bee People” premiered at the Cable Center in Denver on Nov. 16, and we’re busy now figuring out what needs to happen to sell it. Any tips, you know where to find me…

This column originally appeared in the Platforms section of Multichannel News.

Louis Williamson, VP of Advanced Engineering for Time Warner Cable (and, as an aside, the guy who figured out how to move video over fiber optic cable in the mid-1980s), takes us on a walking tour of the company’s internal headend. Directed and produced by the fabulous David Knappe with equally fabulous Joe Bondulich on camera and lighting. Directed and produced by the fabulous David Knappe with equally fabulous Joe Bondulich on camera and lighting.

Video courtesy Multichannel News.

Louis Williamson, VP of Advanced Engineering for Time Warner Cable (and, as an aside, the guy who figured out how to move video over fiber optic cable in the mid-1980s) explains new technologies developed home networking capabilities. TWC’s new set top boxes and (code named) “Santa Monica” design converge products and information, so that viewers can link all content in the house, and access it from the TV, or the PC, or the handheld. Directed and produced by the fabulous David Knappe with equally fabulous Joe Bondulich on camera and lighting.

Video courtesy Multichannel News.

Dave Bell, Chief Architect for Time Warner Cable ATG West, explains “version tracking” software developed to help the MSO organize its enterprise software and check outgoing client and server codes for MDN (Mystro Digital Navigator) and ODN (OCAP Digital Navigator) products. Directed and produced by the fabulous David Knappe with equally fabulous Joe Bondulich on camera and lighting.

Video courtesy Multichannel News.

In this concluding segment with ATG East EVP Jim Ludington, we talk about where things are going — from multiple connected devices to EBIF, and what vendors can do to make life easier. Produced by the fabulous David Knappe with equally fabulous Joe Bondulich on camera and lighting.

Video courtesy Multichannel News.

How does a company deal with the software integration workload on a growing volume of new technology deployments? As the integration matrix expands, it’s important to replicate environments in the field, says ATG East EVP Jim Ludington. In this segment, Ludington emphasizes the importance of testing and tweaking before products to to the field. Produced by the fabulous David Knappe with equally fabulous Joe Bondulich on camera and lighting.

Video courtesy Multichannel News.

Time Warner Cable’s east-coast Advanced Technology Group is located in in Charlotte, N.C. In this series, three top ATG East execs take us through the facility, which focuses on quality assurance testing — making everything work right, before it goes to market. We begin with Jim Ludington, EVP of ATG East, who describes the video testing that takes place here, and why resolving “integration issues” are core to cable’s cross-platform future. He also delves into how all the ATG facilities work and link together. Directed and produced by the fabulous David Knappe with equally fabulous Joe Bondulich on camera and lighting.

Video courtesy Multichannel News.

Senior Software Engineer Phu Duc Nguyen discusses what it takes to offer “remote DVR” features to subscription video customers. Forgot to pick up the remote to set a series record on a favorite show? Do it from your laptop or mobile device tomorrow — regardless of where you may be. Produced by the fabulous David Knappe with equally fabulous Joe Bondulich on camera and lighting.

Video courtesy Multichannel News.

This final QA segment with Time Warner Cable’s Kevin Caldwell touches on some of the basic checklist items Caldwell and his team follow when preparing new products for market. “Never a dull moment” takes on new meaning when it comes to system integration and test…! Produced by the fabulous David Knappe with equally fabulous Joe Bondulich on camera and lighting.

Video courtesy Multichannel News.

In this segment filmed at Time Warner Cable’s Charlotte, N.C. integration headquarters, Kevin Caldwell discusses the challenges associated with performing QA (Quality Assurance) testing on cross-platform services. Having the resources to turn things around quickly proves key for QA, as to-do lists keep growing. Produced by the fabulous David Knappe with equally fabulous Joe Bondulich on camera and lighting.

Video courtesy Multichannel News.