PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff

Newtek TriCaster: Conversation with Paul Lara

  Paul Lara is a 20-year veteran broadcaster, covering all aspects of television from reporter, producer and news director to coordinating video PR for a major teaching hospital. As NewTek’s video evangelist, Paul is now responsible for NewTek training and demonstrations of NewTek video products: TriCaster, TriCaster PRO, VT[4] and soon-to-be-released SpeedEDIT video editor.

In this conversation, Paul tells us more about the changes taking place in presentations because of affordable appliances like NewTek TriCaster.

Geetesh: Paul, tell us more about TriCaster and TriCaster PRO.

Paul: At $4,995, NewTek TriCaster brings the power of professional broadcasting and web streaming to more people than was ever before possible. TriCaster brings all the key elements of a TV live truck (live switching of 3 cameras, titles, clip playback, and more) into an appliance that is the size of a shoe box and weighs just 10 pounds.

TriCaster also comes with iVGA, a revolutionary software client that allows any computer running PowerPoint to be included as a live TriCaster input, along with cameras and videos. While TriCaster is showing your presentation with live cameras and video clips, it can be sent out as a live Windows Media stream to your audience. TriCaster gives you the ability to record your presentation as a broadcast-quality digital video clip for later broadcast or streaming. Find out why TriCaster has garnered more than 13 industry awards.

TriCaster PRO, at $6,995 adds critical features requested by professional broadcasters, such as component video, balanced audio, push streaming, and simultaneous video recording while streaming to the Internet. You can see a comparative feature list.

Geetesh: How can everyday presenters get cost benefits by using TriCaster?

Paul: TriCaster becomes an insurance policy on your intellectual property. It is not, after all, the PowerPoint presentation that is the key ingredient, it is your elaboration and passion that makes the presentation important. PowerPoint is simply an outline for later audience support. TriCaster lets you capture important presentations to stream live to the world or to share later with a targeted audience either as a web stream or video.

The views and opinions expressed in this blog post or content are those of the authors or the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company.

Filed Under: Interviews
Tagged as: Hardware, Interviews, PowerPoint, Projector

PowerPoint Flaw Hits Windows, Mac Versions

An unpatched flaw in Microsoft’s PowerPoint slideshow software has left both Windows and Mac PowerPoint users vulnerable to a “zero day” attack. In a security advisory posted online, Microsoft said it was investigating reports of “limited ‘zero day’ attacks” that exploited a vulnerability in its PowerPoint 2000, PowerPoint 2003, PowerPoint 2004 for Mac and PowerPoint v.X for Mac.

Read more on the Australian IT site.

Filed Under: PowerPoint All Versions
Tagged as: Malware, PowerPoint

Death by PowerPoint, by Watercooler

America needs a PowerPoint intervention. It feels like half of my work life is spent reading PowerPoints, sitting through PowerPoints, or writing PowerPoints. My point? I think we’re just about PowerPointed to death, and I’m not the only one who feels this way. According to Thomas Ricks, Washington Post Pentagon correspondent and author of the book Fiasco, the U.S. military has also jumped onto the PowerPoint bandwagon.

Read more on the Watercooler Confidential blog.

Filed Under: Case Studies
Tagged as: Case Studies, Death by PowerPoint, PowerPoint

authorPOINT updated to v 3.7

authorPOINT, the PowerPoint to Flash converter product from authorGEN has been updated to v.3.7. New features include:

• Pointer Tool is available during the capture process.
• VU meter on authorPOINT launch window to verify the receptivity of your mic.
• Content Manager improvements, including a Package to SCORM option.
• ADA-compliant Flash player.

Learn more on the authorGEN site.

Filed Under: Add-ins
Tagged as: Add-in, Flash, PowerPoint, PowerPoint Flash

PowerPoint Live 2006: Day 1

Day 1 is Sunday, and it starts at 12:30 with Echo Swinford‘s session on animation. Two other sessions follow with Rick Altman and Peggy Duncan.

The registration began half an hour ago, and all attendees were given a T-shirt that’s got an Indezine logo.

The Help Center was busy later. Bruce Jacobs, Steve Rindsberg, and Bill Dilworth set up all the hardware and software. The patrons are here with all their questions, and it’s great to answer their queries. It’s even better to see the many ways in which people use PowerPoint.

Filed Under: Events
Tagged as: Events, PowerPoint, PowerPoint Live