- Is this more, less, or equivalently legal (copyright-wise) to just posting the youtube videos on youtube in the first place? It seems like the act of compositing them in this way would be significant, but maybe not?
- The normalisation of audio could use some work. SwitchCam seems to do something (the youtube volume on each clip was different for me), but it didn't quite work.
- I'd be really interested to know how automated this is, and how much human curation is required to get it right.
- Presumably, the next step is stitching the multiple videos together to make 3d models, allowing you to pan to places between the various camera operators. :)
- I'm no lawyer, but the advice we've received is that we're good on the legal side.
- You're on the money re: audio. It's miles better than it was 1 month ago, but we're still not 100% yet.
- There is a human curation step (~5% of the process), but that is mostly for removing really crappy videos. Searching/Synching/Sequencing is automatic.
- I dunno about next step(!), but i agree the idea is super interesting :)
Courts ruling on fair use are supposed to take into account "the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole". Automated copyright detection schemes in YouTube may try to do some semblance of fair use by allowing snippets of copyrighted content under 30 seconds.
The first video I picked had only one camera angle for the first two tracks of the concert. So it was an effort for me to understand how it works.
I would suggest you have a prominent link to a 'model video' that has multiple camera angles so new visitors can easily see it in action.
Very good job lads!
Of course, I presume the bigger play is for switchcam to be the default app that people use to record at concerts and other events. Smart!
Cool idea, but I was sad that it wasn't finally an implementation of an idea I've had for a long time. My idea is to actually use video and audio information from distinct sources to create a single video/audio stream that is of better quality and/or completeness than any of the constituent parts. Essentially, my idea would do to video what Photosynth does for photos.
That is just so much harder; though I haven't looked at the website yet, seems to be overwhelmed right now. Besides, I would want one consistent audio signal instead of one that varies in noise, volume, whatever. Video from different sources is alright though, since we are used to switching scenes and cameras all the time.
We've actually thought about this, but it's a low yield proposition until we've shown there's a market for what we have now. It's not impossible, but it is very hard to do :)
Very cool, just a slight niggle about the 'lightroom' colour scheme (dark area surrounding the video) which I see being poorly implemented time and time again: it doesn't really work when you have elements of bright white on the page, because they just end up looking even brighter next to the dark parts. The glaring white strips are distracting while watching the video, moreso than even an all white background.
TL;DR: lose the strips of white from the video viewing page.
Thanks for the feedback, I agree actually. We've been talking about changing the color scheme to either be all dark or all white but haven't pulled the trigger.
I had been thinking about something like this, but in the context of recreating riot crime scenes. After the last riot in Toronto the police received over 1M stills and thousands of hours of relatively low quality cell phone video. The main task for them is to connect different shots of individual offenders over time to build a) a coherent story demonstrating premeditation, b) an unbeatable description and connect it to some identifying info that might not necessarily be present at the exact time of the offense.
I am excited about the concept - was thinking about this very idea while watching Coachella streaming live this year and then seeing all the cams people were uploading.
This is awesome. My only suggestion is to allow the user to switch angles without changing the audio track. Since these are concerts, the audio track is going to be one of the most important things. Often times one video will have significantly better audio than the other ones. It'd be nice to be able to choose that one to stay constant. Alternately, it'd be awesome if there were a way for the bands themselves to upload the recorded concert audio.
I realize that often times getting the recorded audio for a concert can be a finicky matter, but maybe you could partner with one of the many music festivals that are cropping up to make it happen.
I went to add a concert with time/date but landed up getting lot of videos that didn't meet the criteria. The concert was part of Osheaga (a festival in Montreal) but the listing shows up as Parc Jean-Drapeau, where the festival is held. I think including the ability to indicate what event it was part of might narrow down your search a bit.
Since most of the 300 videos found were unrelated, I decided to go through manually and select only those which were relevant. By default, all 300 videos are checked with no easy way of unchecking them. Your average user isn't going to be able to just use a jQuery one-liner like I did, so this is something else you should consider!
Overall, great job and I look forward to seeing how you guys progress with this idea!
Thanks Ian, for the feedback and also for adding an event. I just saw those come through on the back end. We've put the processing on hold for the moment until the load becomes manageable - hope that's cool. We'll email you when they're up.
I love it. Any chance you would expand to more general "news" applications? The audio wouldn't be as good for syncing against, but I've always wanted an interface like this for watching protest videos.
I would love this, too. Fortunately, it has a name that can become more general, too. But first focus on promoting your service as it is, to this "niche", and later you can try growing into more general stuff.
Very impressive. Very cool. I assume this will eventually extend beyond concerts to all kinds of other live events (sports, plays, etc). This is going to be big.
What's also interesting is how much the effect of SOPA will have on such an awesome service like this. So disappointing to think about how the copyright holders would rather shut you down then come up with a great way to enhance the service and share revenue with you.
Pretty cool. One thing... after switching camera angles from the first camera I can switch between all other camera except I can never get back to camera 1.
Some of these concerts may have bootleg audio available, often recorded by audiophiles with decent equipment. It'd be amazing if supported syncing that up so you'd get great audio with multi-camera video
Nice. However - the timeline should be default. I was pretty meh'd until I found it, works great.
Now it would be nice with an underlying concert-track or / per song mp3. I don't like the crappy cellphonesound. I guess the syncing will be hard though, with the videos lag not very constant (most often, seems to work good now but I have a nice broadband connection)
[+] [-] angusgr|14 years ago|reply
- Is this more, less, or equivalently legal (copyright-wise) to just posting the youtube videos on youtube in the first place? It seems like the act of compositing them in this way would be significant, but maybe not?
- The normalisation of audio could use some work. SwitchCam seems to do something (the youtube volume on each clip was different for me), but it didn't quite work.
- I'd be really interested to know how automated this is, and how much human curation is required to get it right.
- Presumably, the next step is stitching the multiple videos together to make 3d models, allowing you to pan to places between the various camera operators. :)
[+] [-] brettwelch|14 years ago|reply
- I'm no lawyer, but the advice we've received is that we're good on the legal side.
- You're on the money re: audio. It's miles better than it was 1 month ago, but we're still not 100% yet.
- There is a human curation step (~5% of the process), but that is mostly for removing really crappy videos. Searching/Synching/Sequencing is automatic.
- I dunno about next step(!), but i agree the idea is super interesting :)
[+] [-] antimatter15|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] OoTheNigerian|14 years ago|reply
A little suggestion.
The first video I picked had only one camera angle for the first two tracks of the concert. So it was an effort for me to understand how it works. I would suggest you have a prominent link to a 'model video' that has multiple camera angles so new visitors can easily see it in action.
Very good job lads!
Of course, I presume the bigger play is for switchcam to be the default app that people use to record at concerts and other events. Smart!
[+] [-] baddox|14 years ago|reply
http://photosynth.net/
[+] [-] missing_cipher|14 years ago|reply
It combines a few high-resolution still images with a low-res video to improve the video quality:
Static scene: http://vimeo.com/1513129 Dynamic: http://vimeo.com/2937785
(Looks a bit old (3 years) so I don't know if it's still in development)
[+] [-] jeswin|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brettwelch|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rhizome|14 years ago|reply
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW4UVjROQdw
[+] [-] stuaxo|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jcitme|14 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] evan_|14 years ago|reply
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awesome;_I_Fuckin_Shot_That!
[+] [-] saurik|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mambodog|14 years ago|reply
TL;DR: lose the strips of white from the video viewing page.
[+] [-] brettwelch|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wittjeff|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ansonparker|14 years ago|reply
I am excited about the concept - was thinking about this very idea while watching Coachella streaming live this year and then seeing all the cams people were uploading.
[+] [-] nprincigalli|14 years ago|reply
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...
[+] [-] andrewfelix|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] exDM69|14 years ago|reply
Thankfully this isn't too much of a problem at heavy metal gigs. No-one wants to take their smartphone to the moshpit :D
[+] [-] cleverjake|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jamesgagan|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brettwelch|14 years ago|reply
Incidentally, Switchcam.com was only a little more than $1k, which was definitely worth it.
[+] [-] chartley|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jjcm|14 years ago|reply
I realize that often times getting the recorded audio for a concert can be a finicky matter, but maybe you could partner with one of the many music festivals that are cropping up to make it happen.
[+] [-] hospadam|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ianbishop|14 years ago|reply
I went to add a concert with time/date but landed up getting lot of videos that didn't meet the criteria. The concert was part of Osheaga (a festival in Montreal) but the listing shows up as Parc Jean-Drapeau, where the festival is held. I think including the ability to indicate what event it was part of might narrow down your search a bit.
Since most of the 300 videos found were unrelated, I decided to go through manually and select only those which were relevant. By default, all 300 videos are checked with no easy way of unchecking them. Your average user isn't going to be able to just use a jQuery one-liner like I did, so this is something else you should consider!
Overall, great job and I look forward to seeing how you guys progress with this idea!
[+] [-] brettwelch|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pavedwalden|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] PStamatiou|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nextparadigms|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aclements18|14 years ago|reply
What's also interesting is how much the effect of SOPA will have on such an awesome service like this. So disappointing to think about how the copyright holders would rather shut you down then come up with a great way to enhance the service and share revenue with you.
Best of Luck. We'll all be rooting for you guys.
[+] [-] blcArmadillo|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jhealy|14 years ago|reply
http://switchcam.com/event/a-perfect-circle-lollapalooza-201...
Some of these concerts may have bootleg audio available, often recorded by audiophiles with decent equipment. It'd be amazing if supported syncing that up so you'd get great audio with multi-camera video
[+] [-] phil|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wingerlang|14 years ago|reply
Now it would be nice with an underlying concert-track or / per song mp3. I don't like the crappy cellphonesound. I guess the syncing will be hard though, with the videos lag not very constant (most often, seems to work good now but I have a nice broadband connection)