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AS VEGAS — Nestled within the halls of every trade show lie the overlooked: product releases and other announcements that donit generate as much coverage as the news made by the big companies. The Mac Observer was on hand, however, to bring you three announcements that were overlooked during this yearis National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention.
Artbeats, which offers tons of royalty-free stock footage, premiered its latest offerings on the 60-foot wall of 12 high-definition plasma monitors that dominated the companyis booth. Artbeatsi footage collections come in standard definition (SD) and high definition (HD), with NTSC and PAL formats available. Pricing varies, depending on the collection, number of clips it contains, and whether the buyer wants SD or HD footage.
Collections released by the company during NAB include: a series focusing on the lives of teens and young adults, delving into everything from high school and college days to socializing to subjects struggling with various problems; over a dozen sets of international footage captured in Central America, the Andes, East Africa, the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia and the South Pacific; and two military collections: Road to Baghdad and Tanks.
 Some of Artbeatsi new footage on display at NAB (Click the thumbnail for a larger image) |
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The Electronic Farm made its United States debut with the release of Farmers WIFE 4.3, a project management, scheduling and media management system that has enjoyed much success internationally. Previously available in 24 other countries, Farmers WIFE enables mid-to-large-size media production companies to track invoices, create job sheets, schedule editing suites, manage employees and contractors and more.
Add-on modules, including a media management package and external access for sharing projects over a Web browser, are also available. In addition, Electronic Farm offers Farmers DAUGHTER, a cheaper version of the software thatis aimed at start-ups and smaller companies. Farmers WIFE pricing depends on client needs while Farmers DAUGHTER sells for US$4,900.
 Electronic Farmis NAB booth (Click the thumbnail for a larger image) |
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Finally, Backbone Networks Corp. added a podcasting feature to its Radio Pro software, which enables users to stream MP3 or MPEG-4 files over the Internet and run their own online radio station. Features include automated programming, on-the-fly playlist management, full DMCA logging and more. The new component takes advantage of the podcasting phenomenon, which allows anyone to create a radio show and make it available to listeners over an RSS feed as an MP3 file that they can add to their iPod, or other MP3 player, for listening to on the go.
Radio Pro, which is available only in Mac OS X, starts at $795 for a basic system serving up to 250 streams and can scale to more complex set-ups that offer listener demographics, a relational database and more. The company also offers Backbone Broadcast, which includes the Radio Pro software as well as a Linux-based server and everything else required to do an Internet radio show. Monthly rates start at $300.
 Backbone Radio Pro (Click the thumbnail for a larger image) |
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A representative from Industrial Audio Software, which provides similar functionality, told The Mac Observer that her company will offer a Mac version of its software on June 1.