Straight Tech with Yuri and Jakub

Our friends Yuri and Jakub have started a new review channel to highlight some of the equipment they use to make their YouTube Car Review show The Straight Pipes.

ikan products are available at DV Shop!

NAB 2018: Back to the Neon Boneyard

Ten years ago, DV Dude ventured north of downtown Las Vegas to the Neon Boneyard and took some pretty cool photos of old, discarded neon signs. Since that time, the Neon Boneyard has grown in popularity, became the Neon Museum, added a Visitor's Center, and the obligatory Gift Shop.

Things are a little more organized and curated now, but that takes away some of the charm of the rawness of the old set-up, which felt much more of a "boneyard." Now things are so clean and so organized. And you get get Neon Museum shot glasses, t-shirts, and mugs in the Gift Shop. It seems there is a Museum Handbook/Formula that every museum around the world follows.

But the one cool thing they added is electricity - so now some of the signs work, and at sunset you can get some pretty interesting visuals.

So if you are ever in Las Vegas, and like old neon signs, DV Dude definitely recommends a trip to the Neon Museum. 

NAB 2018: Up, Up and Away!

DV Dude has been meaning to take the helicopter ride that goes up and down the Las Vegas Strip for quite some time, and this year I decided to scratch that off the old bucket list. Booked a flight on Mavericks and  away we went. The pilot played AC/DC's Thunderstruck as we took off.  Then Ride of the Valkyries.

They take you up the strip, get really close to the Stratosphere, go over old downtown, turn around (pictured above), and head back along the strip and back to the airport. In all, about 12 minutes.

I'm not happy with the photos I got, as it was very bouncy due to high winds, and you are crammed in a helicopter that is very hard to take good pictures in. And I just stopped trying to take photos because I just wanted to look at spectacle that was beneath me. Shooting tip - increase your shutter speed to 1/1000 due to helicopter shake/bounce.

As a fellow passenger remarked once we got back on the ground, "That was beautiful." And it was. Photos can't really capture it. Highly recommended.

NAB 2018: Day One Notes

DV Dude is once again attending the annual NAB Show, along with over 100,000 others. The weather is a beautiful 30 degrees and sunny, just  slightly warmer than Toronto.

Every year the crazy engineers at NHK show off their 8K products, and  this year they brought a prototype 8K camera that can shoot 240 frames  per second! It is meant for instant replay. Sensor size is 1.25" and has  33 megapixels. The 2020 Olympics in Japan will be shot in 8K, so you've  been warned.

Last year Sony wowed people in their booth with a wall of Crystal LED  panels. This year, they tweaked the Crystal LEDs, and made the wall even  larger. Impressive. Each panel is 16" x 18", and they are tiled together  to create a giant video wall.

Radiant Images in Los Angeles does these giant rigs using Sony RX0  action cams, and this one was a "handheld" rig attached to a Ready Rig  like device. The camera rig weighs about 35 lbs. It is meant for "bullet  time" shooting or "virtual dolly" digital camera moves. They were set up  in the Sony booth.

In Memoriam: Steven Bochco

If you are a fan of Peak TV, then you owe a big debt of gratitude to Steven Bochco, who passed away Sunday from leukemia at the age of 74.

Bochco, along with Michael Kozoll, created the ground-breaking NBC cop show "Hill Street Blues." Hill Street was unlike anything else on TV at the time, especially cop shows. With complicated multi-episode story arcs that often did not have a happy ending; a large talented ensemble cast, with flawed characters who don't always do the right thing; handheld edgy cinematography with moody lighting and a documentary feel; and a tone that combined comedy with dark emotional drama. It premiered in January 1981 to universal critical acclaim, and sadly very low ratings. NBC surprisingly stuck with the show, and even though the ratings were never very good, and it ran for 7 seasons.

To an impressionable Grade 11 high school student living in small town Ontario, it blew my mind.

As a historical piece, you can trace modern television back to this show. So if you enjoy Breaking Bad, True Detective, Boardwalk Empire, or any of the other numerous high quality TV series that now dominate the airwaves, it all started with Hill Street Blues. The lineage goes right back to January 1981.

I read an interview with Bochco a long time ago, and in it he gave a great piece of advice. When the writer asked him the secret to his artistic success, he simply said - I want to write what I want to see, what I would want to watch. That was it.

So raise your glass to toast the life of the father of modern television - Steven Bochco.