Revision3 Blog: Shows category

Hey everyone -

I wouldn’t normally use up space on the Revision3 blog to talk about a sponsorship - but this one is particularly cool, I’m excited about it, and I feel like sharing a little bit more about why.

Since the beginning of Revision3, we’ve prided ourselves on the success of a relatively old school and grass roots business model for this high tech and rapidly growing medium of Internet television. Although we employ various methods of efficiently delivering advertising, the most genuine, high value, and high return for our sponsors has been the integration of products/services and sponsor messaging within our shows.

Diggnation has been a successful proving ground for delivering integrated sponsor messaging and I’m really excited about our new campaign with the Michelob Brewing Company. Ever since episode number one of Diggnation, we’ve kicked back and had a beer while delivering the content of the show. It is a part of the show. As a result, the most natural fit for an integrated and identified product placement within the show is a drink sponsor. We were very excited to in working with the folks at the Michelob Brewing Company for some time to put together a 6 week campaign to cover the new Michelob Craft Beer Sampler Pack.

The excitement is two-fold:

One, Michelob is a brand that has a rich history as well as a tradition in seeking excellence along with analysis and strong identity with the properties through which they carry out their extensive and successful marketing initiatives. The Diggnation viewers have proven to be the perfect place to spread the word in a fun and engaging way about the new and innovative product offerings in the Michelob Craft Beer Sampler Pack.

Two, The Michelob Craft Beers have been formulated with the same passion for brewing specialty beers that the most detail oriented micro-breweries bestow. Being beer connoisseurs ourselves, we are genuinely excited to be able to sample each of the beers in the sampler pack and allow the viewers of Diggnation to try them along with us.

Last week Diggnation flew to St. Louis MO for a behind the scenes Brewery tour at the Michelob Brewing Co. Brewmaster Florian Kuplent walked us through the beer making process from Barley to Bottle. Check out the video from the tour (note that you will have to enter your birth date to access.)

Over the next 6 weeks we will be drinking craft beers from the Michelob Sampler Pack on Diggnation. If you like beer as much as we do, pick up a Michelob Sampler Pack and drink along with us. Here is the rundown of the beers we’ll be drinking over the next 6 episodes:

Episode 168: Michelob Amber Bock
Episode 169: Michelob Marzen
Episode 170: Michelob Irish Red
Episode 171: Michelob Pale Ale
Episode 173: Michelob Porter
Episode 174: Kevin and Alex Choose their favorite beers from the Michelob Craft Beer Sampler Pack.

You can learn more about the beers and at www.Michelob.com

Cheers,

David Prager

Go Daddy presents the coolest Diggnation contest ever! Win Diggnation in your living room!

In this once in a lifetime opportunity, Kevin and Alex will travel to a fan’s house to shoot an episode of Diggnation this fall. From now until October 22, every time you use the code “diggcouch” when you purchase something from Go Daddy you are automatically entered to win. Go Daddy will choose one lucky winner at random. This fall, Kevin and Alex will travel to their house to shoot an episode of Diggnation in their living room.

In addition to entering the contest you also get 10% off your entire order when you use the code “diggcouch” at check out. So make sure you get over to GoDaddy.com and make some purchases and get your entry in today!

You can also enter and see all the details about the contest at www.revision3.com/diggcouch

This is going to be HUGE!

It’s dueling launchpad show week here in California, with the venerable Demo show rolling out a fall slate of nearly 100 cool new companies here in San Diego, while another group are on display in San Francisco’s aging Design Center at the Tech Crunch 50.

Revision3’s David Prager is covering TC50, while I’ve been scouring the floor of Demo. David’s update will be up soon, but here’s my look at the best of Demo.

RealDVD: Although the geeks among us have been ripping DVDs into our computers for years (albeit illegally since the DMCA passed), it’s never been as easy as digitizing music. Not anymore. RealNetworks (the company that brought you RealAudio) showed its RealDVD software here for the first time. Using it is as simple as inserting a DVD into your PC – it’s designed to store all your DVDs on either an internal or external hard drive, and includes an easy-to-navigate interface to let you easily find and watch a movie.

How can they do it without breaking the law? Do they have the implied or explicit endorsement of the movie world? To the latter, the answer is no: they just informed the powers that be about the product a few weeks ago and are “working through the issues”. As for the former question, Real claims they are on solid ground. RealDVD does not break encryption. Instead, it creates a complete ISO – or disc image – of the movie DVD, and stores that file on your hard drive. It’s essentially a legal piece of DVD playback software, but instead of streaming the bits off of a plastic platter, it streams them off of your PC’s hard drive.

I can’t imagine that Netflix or Blockbuster will be too happy about this solution, as the $20 piece of software lets anyone with enough disk space copy rented DVDs along with store bought ones. And the required disk space is enormous – at 9 gigabytes for modern dual-layer DVDs.

It’s also a PC-only, and a single computer solution. It’s not designed to be shared across multiple systems. Want to share? Store the DVD ISOs on a USB flash/hard drive, and then plug it into different computers. You’ll have to pay $20 for each machine, though, in that scenario. Speaking of hardware, the company is talking with NAS vendors, like Drobo, to build DVD ripping appliances. It’s a brilliant, albeit shocking development that’ll definitely be controversial. But at just $20, it’s certainly alluring.

Imagine a Kindle, stretched out to 8×11, slimmed down to the thickness of a newspaper, with a full-sized screen stretching from corner to corner. That’s what Plastic Logic plans to release in early 2009. It uses the same digital ink display found on the Kindle and Sony’s reader, but sized up to the dimensions of a standard magazine. The device should cost about as much as a Kindle, should store as many pages, includes built in wireless (although they were cagey about EVDO vs WiFi) and will last for days on a single battery charge. It’s far closer to electronic paper than anything I’ve seen. It’s annotatable, which makes it ideal for textbooks, business documents, and reading magazines and journals. It’s all plastic, so it ought to be relatively rugged as well. I want one!

EchoNest: Run by ex professional drummer and reformed lawyer Jim Luccchesi, this company provides audio pattern matching software for developers that make it easy to roll your own Pandora, and build all sorts of creative audio weblets. The company showed off an applet it built for iMeem that plays a lengthy list of “more like this” songs, and even demonstrated an eerie “duet” feature, where they combined Michael Jackson and Estelle to produce a weird, mostly unlistenable mashup of two of their songs that was surprisingly note and key pure. The company also has a more cowbell example on their website that adds cowbells to, well, just about any song. Definitely worth playing with!

WebDiet: Want to lose weight? Eat better? Here’s a cool new web service that installs on your iPhone (or other smartphone), and helps you keep track of everything you eat. It uses GPS to find healthy restaurants,and will even recommend smart dining choices at your favorite eatery, depending on what you like, and what you’ve already eaten that day.  WebDiet will be out soon, although you can apply for the private beta today.

Maverick Secure Mobile:  The motto of this company:  “Payback’s a Bitch”, or maybe “To Annoy a Thief”.  For a dollar a month, these guys ensure that if your cellphone gets stolen, the thief will get the worse end of the deal.  Here’s how it works:

Load the Maverick Mobile software on your phone, and pay the company a dollar a month.  When it gets stolen, the fun begins. From your new phone (or a friends), you can remotely trigger your old phone to send you everything that happens on it: who it calls, what text messages are sent and received - you can even download the complete address book.  Tired of spying?  then simply send a “stop thief” alert to the phone, and it’ll display a bright red “stolen phone” screen, and play an incredibly loud and annoying siren sound through the speaker.  The only way to reset it is to remove the battery - but you can do it again, and again, and again.  You may not get your phone back, but at least you’ll have the satisfaction of really annoying the thief.

FFWD:  If you’re a fan of Revision3, you know that it’s often hard to find other web video shows that you like.  There were a few discovery engines rolled out at Demo, but FFWD was clearly the best - and the only one designed specifically for the new world of internet video.

OK, maybe I was biased - when the company demonstrated FFWD on stage, a SYSTM logo appeared on the home page.  And as I was using the software, Diggnation, Wine Library Reserve and Internet Superstar kept popping up too.  But this is a great tool for finding, watching and sharing all the great Internet video out there, including shows from Revision3 and elsewhere.    You can start using it today!

TikiTag:  Oh, one bonus - near field communications tags that cost about a dollar each and let you turn anything into an internet connected device.  Roll your own Webkins with Tikitag!

Hey everyone,

As you may have learned in Diggnation 166, the next episode of Diggnation (episode 167) will be a delayed release. The episode will go live on Sunday, September 14th instead of the evening of Friday, September 12th.

Why? Well, we’re back in St. Louis this week to shoot the show thanks to the support from our good friends at Anheuser-Busch (most specifically, Michelob’s new Craft beers). Their sponsorship begins with episode 168, but unfortunately, we’ll shoot episode 167 out there on the 12th (the day we’d normally release). So, we want to make sure you all know ahead of time, apologize for the delay, and appreciate your patience for what we know will be a great episode.

Cheers!

David Prager

Here at Revision3, we’re excited to announce that one of our favorite tech shows is now part of Revision3.

That’s right, we’ve added Hak5 to our award-winning repertoire of shows, and even better it’ll now be weekly! Make sure you check out the first episode, which includes something called a “WiFi Pineapple”.

What’s that? Well, it’s not something you can eat, nor make a Pina Colada out of. But that’s all I’m saying. You’ll have to watch to learn more!

Again, welcome to Hak5. Appearing weekly on Revision3!

Come meet Jim Louderback at New York Television Festival 2008. Did we mention it’s FREE?!

NYTVF is almost HERE! Revision3 has two fantastic panels discussing the latest industry trends in video media. In less than two weeks away we’ll be in New York with tons of video media experts, stars, soon to be and fans will gather to discuss the trends and practices of successful video media. The New York Television Festival began a few years ago and is something Revision3 loves to be apart of. Be sure to catch our Revision3 Meetup in NYC. For more info: http://bit.ly/rev3-meetup-ny

We hope you will attend as much of Digital Day as you can. All Digital Day events are free, so please invite as many people as you like.

Come See Jim at the following panels:

What:
Sponsorship and Monetization of Digital Content

When:
Tuesday, September 16th 3:30pm

Where:
340 West 50th Street (b/w 8th and 9th Aves.) - New World Stages 5

Info:
Our panelists tackle head-on a key question of the online content revolution: what is the best way to turn digital content into dollars? Leading names in the creation, development, and distribution on online series and communities offer a broad survey of the current digital landscape and discuss the methods of monetization that have and have not worked.

What:
Wine Library TV (WLTV)

When:
Tuesday, September 16th 8:30pm

Where:
340 West 50th Street (b/w 8th and 9th Aves.) - New World Stages 5

Info:
A live taping of the popular Web-based daily talk show. Hosted by Gary Vaynerchuk, the show features a spirited discussion of Gary’s favorite wines with special guest stars like Jim Louderback and others.

Although we’ve been expanding the topics we cover here at Revision3, we always have a sweet spot for the hard core tech. It’s where we came from, and SYSTM and Tekzilla are still among our biggest shows. So when I met the guys from the popular online video show Hak5 at our NY Diggnation in June, naturally the conversation steered towards hooking up.

And hook up we did! I’m pleased to announce that Hak5 is coming over to Revision3, and will join our stable of oustanding online video programming. The three year old program will debut here the week of September 8th, and even more exciting for existing fans: it’s moving from monthly to weekly!

It’s been an interesting summer for Hak5. Their studios were flooded back in the spring, which resulted in a completely new set. The good news is that they built out an amazing area to shoot in, which should add even more depth and visual interest to the show.

We’re glad to have them on board. Please join me in welcoming the team from Hak5 to Revision3! I can’t wait to see the first episode (I hear it involves a pineapple, but that’s all I’ll say).

Jim Louderback

Fans of popSiren! Now’s your chance to peer behind the scenes and watch everyone’s favorite ladies of the Internet tape an upcoming episode of popSiren! Be sure to tune into revision3.com/watch on Monday, August 18th at 3 PM Pacific (That’s 6 PM for those of you on the East Coast!) and watch Sarah Lane and the other gals of popSiren put together next week’s show! While you’re watching, you can chat with other popSiren fans in the chatroom too!

Be sure to RSVP on the Facebook event if you’re planning to attend and be sure to let your friends know!

We’ve had a few complications with our DIY projector, and unfortunately we won’t be able to bring you the episode on time. We’ll be posting updates in the forums, but it will be done by the end of the week. We apologize for the delay, and thank you for your patience.

Thanks to all of you who have taken a look at our fresh start for Internet Superstar. We hope you like what you see, and continue to watch because of it. If you haven’t had a chance to watch, please take a look.

Gator is dead, and all of us here at Revision3 are just heartbroken. In fact, Roger Chang went on a four-day bender because of it. But as I told him, many culturally significant Americans weren’t regarded as such prior to their passing, and I think that will be true of Gator. Plus, though Gator is irreplaceable, we can take comfort in the fact that sitting alongside me now will be my longtime collaborator Jay Speiden, who also happens to be Gator’s city cousin. Small world. Jay has been my main collaborator on pretty much everything I’ve done since day one of Unscrewed (not that that’s necessarily something you’d want on your resume), and I think you’ll really like what he brings to the show.

Right now, the plan is to do five shorter shows a week, Monday through Friday. We’ve got a lot of great interviews, segments, and important advice cooking, so expect every show to be different, and, hopefully, as we continue to figure it out, better than the one before it.

Because the show is still only partially molded clay, please keep emailing me your thoughts and suggestions, and make ample use of our message boards to express your opinions, positive or negative. We read and consider everything. In fact, part of the reason we changed the show in the first place was your feedback. We’re also excited to announce that we’re expanding to a couple of new playgrounds on the Internet:

Now you can follow our every move on Twitter at twitter.com/bestshowever as well as you can become a fan of Internet Superstar on our new Facebook page. It’s going to be the place to get exclusive Internet Superstar fun stuff to make your enjoyment of our show that much better!

Anyway, for those of you who are long time fans, we hope you’ll continue to watch and enjoy our work. And for those of you who weren’t into Internet Superstar in its previous iteration, we hope you’ll take a look at, and like, the new version. Regardless, thanks for watching our show and all the other fantastic Revision3 programming.

-Martin