Technology gets continually smaller. The coolest result of this—next to increasingly powerful smartphones—is the emergence of pico projectors. These tiny devices, generally between the size of a small digital camera and large hardcover book, can fill a wall, or any other surface, with a fairly bright, high-res image. They’re a portable option for making presentations, showing off pictures or video once confined to a smartphone’s tiny screen, or keeping a big-screen HDTV in your pocket while travelling. Until recently pico projectors haven’t been bright enough for normal, everyday use, clocking in at less then 20 lumens (a measurement of emitted light—home theatre projectors easily hit 2,500). But recent advancements have led to the doubling and even quadrupling of that power, making the tiny technology one of the coolest gifts finding its way under Christmas trees this year.
How to shoot DSLR video
Shooting good video with a DSLR is one of the most headache-inducing, cursing-laden, blood pressure-raising experiences in which a human being can engage—and it’s worth every stress-filled second.
I’m a professional videographer who, after months of anticipation, saving and research, made the switch from camcorders and bought my first video-capable DSLR in October. It wasn’t an easy process. There’s an overwhelmingly diverse combination of bodies (that’s the actual camera part—there’s also an ocean of lingo to wade through), lenses, lights, mics, recorders, and mounts to buy. Cheap-looking, often crucial accessories tend to carry a price tag seemingly more appropriate for relics from the Ming Dynasty. It’s frighteningly easy to drop $10,000 on a rig, and you will have to spend hours, and hours, and hours, learning how to use the camera and its accessories. And your first videos are still going to look like crap. But shooting gets easier as you go, and results can eventually become so vivid, so cinematic, that every dollar spent and afternoon whittled away will be worth it. And it’s always best to start prepared, so here are some tips I’ve learned that can save money, shorten the learning curve, and keep you sane.
1. Set your price, choose your body, and ignore marketing gimmicks
Canon, Sony, Nikon, Olympus, and Pentax are the big brands, and, since camera accessories (especially lenses) are often more important than the body itself, its best to stick with a name that has a lot of support from other manufacturers. Once you start looking you’ll notice, in big fat type on every flyer and website, text hyping a camera’s megapixel count. Forget about megapixels. Marketing has turned them into a false shorthand for quality—any new DSLR, or point-and-shoot for that matter, will have plenty. Concentrate on sensor size instead. The sensor is tantamount to film, and its size will determine how much light your camera can capture. I settled on a 5D Mark II because it has a full-frame sensor, which means it’s the same size as 35mm film. But my camera, and equivalent models from other brands, costs well over $2000. Most consumers will want to aim for DSLRs in the $500-$1000 price range. Their sensors aren’t full-frame, but achieve similar results for the price, and are still far more powerful than point-and-shoots.
I recommend Sony’s entry-level products. I’ve used a Sony a350 for still photography for years. Their Alpha line of cameras are affordable, have a a tiltable screen—perfect for shooting from high or low angles—and use proprietary technology allowing them to autofocus quickly while shooting video, a feature most other DSLRs lack.
However, a new technology, called mirrorless interchanageable-lense cameras (MILC), is probably the best overall solution for consumers looking to shoot DSLR-quality video. They’re just as powerful as DSLRs, but were designed with video at their core and come in a much smaller, user-friendly package. They also use the same lenses as their larger cousins, but can autofocus even better than Sony’s Alpha line, and, unlike DSLRs, aren’t limited to recording video in 12 minute clips. These features almost had me sold on an MILC (the Sony NEX-7) for myself, but in the end I just couldn’t say no to the siren call of full-frame.
2. Choose the right lens(es), and (maybe) buy a light
Lenses are more important than your body. They’re the first thing light passes through to reach your sensor. They have a bigger impact on the quality and look of your video than any other part of the camera, so picking the right ones are essential.
Most cameras come with what’s called a kit lens, a normally mid-range, bread-and-butter zoom lens. As long as it has image stabilization (this reduces camera shake in your video, and is important in a lens because, unlike camcorders, DSLR bodies usually don’t have it built-in), it’s probably all most consumers will need. But kit lenses rarely feature much zoom, and aren’t great for capturing in low-light, so it’s nice to augment them with additional options.
That being said, lenses often cost over $1000, but you can pay far less when you know what to look for. Lenses made by camera manufacturers are almost always a safe bet, but they’re pricey and products from Tamron and Sigma can achieve similar results at a large discount. Buying used is also usually an option, as most camera stores keep their pre-owned sections well stocked.
The first glass I always buy is a 50mm or 60mm prime, which is a fixed (no zoom) lens that falls in the middle of a normal kit lens’ zoom range. These are usually much cheaper than zooms—the one I bought with my 5D only cost $140—but capture brighter, more cinematic images because they have “faster” (meaning larger) apertures. An aperture is the hole through which light passes—the larger the hole, the more light makes it to the sensor. I love primes, they might be a bit less convenient—you’re basically always walking instead of zooming—but resulting images are of such a higher quality (especially low light situations) that the effort is made worthwhile.
My second purchase is normally a telephoto, which should start at the top-end of your kit lens’ range (about 70mm) and zoom about three or four times further (about 200-300mm). This is ideal for sports, or getting the perfect shot of your high-school grad walking across stage when you’re stuck at the back of a gymnasium. But remember that cheap telephotos tend to have small apertures—this can be remedied by skipping the zoom and purchasing a telephoto prime.
Finally, you may want to purchase an on-camera light. They make a huge difference in video quality, especially since most houses simply aren’t bright enough to shoot quality images at night. Pro versions cost around $300, but consumer-level lights work well for a third of the price. It’s best to stick with LED lights, as they use far less power than most alternatives, and usually have dimmer dials. However, they can be intrusive, and turning one on may result in frustrated, squinting relatives.
3. Spring for better audio
One of the first lessons I learned shooting for web was that audiences almost always forgive low-quality video, but a comment section will tear you apart over bad audio—in-laws aren’t much better. Unfortunately, DSLRs are almost universally terrible when it comes to audio quality. Sound from my 5D is literally unusable. Luckily there is a fairly cheap alternative in Zoom and Tascam recorders. These function as affordable shotgun mics (they normally cost between $100 and $400) you can mount to your camera and plug into its external microphone jack, instantly turning a static-filled mess into near-broadcast quality sound.
Higher-end recorders also include external mic inputs, allowing you to use separate shotgun, handheld or lapel mics. These are more than what most consumers need, and cost around $800 apiece. But, for the more adventurous DSLR filmmaker, a cheap kit featuring a lapel and shotgun/handheld mic combination from Azden is available for half that price. The mics aren’t quite as good as what the pros use, but they’re close enough for home use.
4. Find a good retailer and demand a bargain
All this gear can be purchased on Kijiji or Craigslist, but camera equipment tends to retain its value, meaning you’ll rarely find a big enough discount to make up for the risks of buying used online. Camera stores, such as Aden or Vistek in Toronto or Henry’s across the country, are your best bet. They offer decent warranties, salespeople usually have more expertise than what you’ll find at a big box store, and you can sometimes bundle gear for a big discount. And, best of all, they’re almost always willing to beat other stores when it comes to price. I asked for a quote before buying my gear, and spent a day biking around Toronto, testing cameras and showing the price to different retailers. I ended up buying at the store from which I got the initial quote, but not until a few hundred dollars were shaved off my gear.
5. Save another $1500 and build a shoulder rig (it only takes about an hour)
So, you’ve got your camera. But DSLRs were originally designed to take pictures, and they’re almost impossible to hold steady while shooting video. Humans are not built to handle a four-pound camera four inches in front of their faces, and if you do so for any length of time, you will be incapacitated by back pain. One possible solution is a tripod (about $150 to $250), but while great in some situations, they’re a bit limiting when chasing kids around a backyard. A better option is a lightweight shoulder rig, which turns DSLRs into miniature versions of the shoulder-mounted cameras often used by TV and documentary crews. Good ones cost anywhere from $500 to $1600—and up—but you can easily build one yourself for less than $20. There’s a huge selection of plans online, I recommend ones built with PVC pipe—it’s lightweight, won’t give you frostbite in winter, and easily slides together with plumbing joints—but pick whatever will best suit your needs. All you need is a $10 pipe cutter and a half hour trip to Canadian tire—I started mine on a Saturday afternoon and was showing it off by the time my buddies arrived to watch the Leafs Game. Once the rig’s finished you drill a few ¼ holes, insert ¼ bolts, and attach anything with a standard tripod mount. I customized mine with a coat of glossy black spray paint, bicycle grips on the front handles, and mounts for lights, counterweights, a zoom recorder, wireless microphone receivers, and a monopod (in case my back gets tired)—but all you really need is a single screw to attach the camera.
6. Buy a monopod
A monopod, which is little more than a telescoping metal stick onto which you can mount a camera, gives you stability without sacrificing too much mobility. A good model is normally half the price of a tripod, and while not as versatile as a shoulder rig, is great for eliminating camera-shake, and preventing a weekend laid up with back spasms.
7. Learn how to white balance, change aperture and set ISO
DSLRs are complicated. There are literally hundreds of options buried within dozens of menus and sub menus. But there are only three that you really need to know to get started, and on a good camera they’ll each have their own controls right on the body. So, dig out your manual and figure out how to manually set:
White balance – Ever notice how a lot of pictures and movies taken around the house have a yellowish tinge, almost like they were shot through pea soup? That’s because a camera’s automatic white balance doesn’t do well outside of sunlight, and handles incandescent and florescent light especially poorly. But this is easily remedied by changing the white balance, either with presets (most cameras have sunlight, shade, incandescent, tungsten, florescent and more as defaults) or by setting it manually. This is a bit of a process at first, but should be clearly outlined in your instruction manual.
Aperture – The width of an aperture is measured in F-stops. It’s a bit counterintuitive, but the lower the F stop (1.4 or 1.8 being the maximum width on many prime lenses, 3.5 on most zooms), the wider the opening. This is a simple adjustment that normally has a dedicated dial on your camera body. It’s crucial to know since it determines how much light reaches your sensor, and, again, should be easy to find in your camera’s instructions
ISO – This determines your sensor’s sensitivity to light—think of it as a volume knob. The higher you set the ISO, the more sensitive your camera and the brighter your pictures. But, like a volume knob, turning it higher increases “noise,” which shows up as grain in your pictures. You won’t need a high ISO in the park, but will almost always want to crank it up in a dimly-lit hockey rink, so its important to know how to make adjustments according to the situation.
8. Learn the rule of thirds
The rule of thirds helps you compose your shots. It basically means mentally dividing your frame into horizontal and vertical thirds and keeping a subject within them.When zoomed on a face you want it taking up the left or right third, with background composing the other two thirds in the direction the subject is facing. It works the same way when tracking someone skating or while shooting an interesting-looking rock. This isn’t a hard and fast rule, and is meant to be broken, but it’s something every camera person learns because, simply put, it makes shots look nicer aesthetically.
9. Get comfortable focusing manually, and go shoot!
Focusing is easy on camcorders and point-and-shoot cameras. You aim at a subject and they do the work. DSLRs have the same function—when they’re in still mode and you’re looking through the viewfinder. But only mirrorless systems and translucent-mirror cameras like Sony’s Alphas can focus effectively while shooting video. The autofocus function on most other cameras is essentially useless. This means reaching out to the front of your lens and turning the focus ring manually. It’s a challenge, especially when you’re trying to focus smoothly while recording. The only way to get good is with lots of practice, but once you do your results will be far better than what’s acheivable with even the best autofocus.
Every other aspect of shooting improves with practice as well, so go out, create, and hone your skills. Your daughter’s rugby game, your uncle’s 85th birthday, the first snowfall in December, that punk concert you’ve been excited about or your dog chewing on a pillow. There’s a great video waiting to be shot every day, on every city block and country road, and you’ll only get better with every moment you capture.
Filed under Journalism, Print, Tech reviews, Toronto Star
Christmas Gifts 2011: Portable TV
So, you’ve got your shiny new smartphone, and now you want to watch some shiny new TV shows. Well, strap in, because this was by far the most frustrating selection of apps, services and hardware I’ve ever had the displeasure of banging my head against a wall over. A couple actually do work—but I’ve learned that this idea is still in it’s infancy, and the baby won’t be learning to walk anytime soon.
SPB TV
Price – Free
Six or less – Lots of channels, none worth watching
This is a free Android app that claims to give users access to 150+ live, streaming TV channels from around the world. I found about half that number while testing. The app is mostly made up of news stations, such as AFP, France 24 and local Fox affiliates, but also has some public access channels, several European sports networks, and some internet-only TV (which is a complete waste of time). There are also several Russian and Asian broadcasters that I couldn’t understand because they aren’t available in English.
Video quality varies considerably from stream to stream, and was mostly watchable without too much buffering, although a few stations didn’t work at all. The app’s layout has the rare problem of being too simple—you scroll horizontally through stations and select whichever one you want to watch, that’s it. Some organization into categories would have been nice, especially since users will have no idea of what the stations are until they start watching.
It’s a good thing this app is free, because you’d be crazy to pay for it, and really, it isn’t even worth the 30 seconds it takes to download and install. There’s nothing worth watching unless you have a Rainman-like obsession with the news, are a huge fan of French professional fencing, or want to keep up with goings-on at the Dallas-Fort Worth flea market.
Vulkano Flow
Price – $99.99 On the street
Six or less – I hate this thing
The Vulkano is a great idea on paper. In practice, it sucks. It’s meant to stream cable over wifi to multiple devices in your home, and to any device (but only one at a time) anywhere in the world over the internet.
The plastic, keyboard-sized unit bridges your cable set-top box and TV. Unfortunately, I have cable, but not a set-top box, and the Vulkano doesn’t have a TV tuner. However, it does promise to stream video from any source, so I hooked it to my Playstation 3. Now, to illustrate how truly awful this thing is, I’ll give you the timeline of my attempts to set it up.
7:00pm – Unboxing. Read the instructions, plug in to TV and PS3.
7:10 – Flip through TV inputs. No picture.
7:15 – Restart everything. See PS3 on the TV. Smile.
7:16 – Wonder why I’m seeing the PS3, and not the Vulkano setup menu.
7:22 – Read instructions again, fiddle with the cables, try the remote. Nothing.
7:30 – Call customer support. I have instructions for the wrong unit. I have to hook it up to my router, then connect it with my laptop, for setup.
7:32 – Unhook everything. Schlep Vulkano, cords dangling, upstairs.
7:33 – Bend over desk to reach router and hook up Vulkano.
7:45 – Back downstairs. Find setup instructions on google. They’re also for the wrong unit.
7:49 – Find software online. Start downloading.
8:00 – Wait.
8:10 – Wait angrily.
8:12 – Sigh loudly, give up, go play squash.
After squash (I lost) it took another 20 minutes—which included a couple more reboots, trips upstairs, and the installation of some software on my computer—to get a screen displaying a feed from my PS3 on my laptop. The device, shockingly, seemed to be working. Then I hit play, and got a response 30 seconds later. The delay made navigating menus impossible, and the video was incredibly laggy. Things smoothed out when I moved to a more powerful laptop, but only got worse once I switched to a smartphone.
There were two apps, one free and one $12.99, in the Android store. The free one, of course, did nothing. Users have to shell out another $13 just to get the functionality promised on the Vulkano’s box. There’s one word for hidden fees like this—sleazy. Plus I had to cut the stream on my laptop to view the one on my phone. THe Vulkano is sold largely on its supposed ability to stream video to multiple devices on your home network, but apparently that feature doesn’t work. Now, that said, streaming to my phone was very smooth—on wifi—although the video was shrunk down to the middle of the screen (an option to view it in HD just distorted the image horizontally). Once I moved to 3G the stream became pixelated, constantly buffered and was basically unwatchable, severely limiting the service’s portability.
I can see a lot of bright-eyed dads unwrapping Vulkanos on Christmas morning, smiles drawn wide with sugarplum visions of free NFL games on their new iPhone. And I can see the rapid descent into madness they spend hours setting up the device, shell out $13, and slump into utter disappointment upon watching the final result on their mobile device. As such, I can’t recommend the Vulkano for anyone.
Slingbox PRO-HD
Price – $329.99 OTS (plus a $49.99 receiver, plus a $29.99 app)
Six or less – Wow, that is… really expensive
This basically has the same functionality as the Vulkano. It’s a bit larger, seems to be better constructed, and came with the right instruction manual. But it still had to be hooked up to a router for initialization, so back up the stairs I went.
Setup went a bit more smoothly, although I was irked to find out the unit doesn’t have built in wifi. Instead you have to shell out another $49.99 for a pair of “SlingLink Turbos.” One connects to a router and the other a Slingbox, and they both plug into a wall to somehow send an internet signal through electrical wiring. It works, but is a bizarre, pointless idea in the world of ubiquitous Wifi, and can’t get a signal if you plug it into a powerbar That’s a problem for anyone living in an old house with few outlets (like me).
Regardless, after about 90 minutes of setup, several false-starts, resets, and trips up and down stairs, CBS’s “The Talk” was streaming on my computer (my girlfriend was watching the TV last, I swear). The picture looked great, and I was able to switch channels with only a half-second delay.
Then I moved to my smartphone. Now, I thought it was crazy that Vulkano would charge for an app, but Slingbox puts their sleaze to shame, sticking it to the consumer with a $29.99 mobile player (the web interface won’t work on your phone). It’s a shady business practice, but at least the app works. After logging in with an email and passwords users will be greeted with an impressive-looking feed that’s surprisingly unhampered by buffering or lag. The quality is reduced when you aren’t on wifi, but it’s still watchable.
The Slingbox works, but the total cost to get it running on your smartphone is somewhere north of $400. I certainly wouldn’t pay that to watch Sharon Osbourne and Leah Remini gossip while I’m on the streetcar, but someone else out there might.
Rogers Live
Price – Free for subscribers (premium content available for cable subscribers)
Six or less – What a mess
Full disclosure—Rogers is my service provider, and I already have one of their smartphones (a Sony Xperia Arc), so I figured this review would be easy. I was wrong.
Rogers has a streaming app, but I was told by their PR people that it’s only for special live events like Jays games or select concerts (their website advertised a Coldplay show). Subscribing to it will add a $5 monthly premium to your bill, and from reviews I’ve read online, is only worthwhile if you’re a hardcore Blue Jays fan with no access to normal TV. However, Rogers does have an on-demand service that includes full TV episodes.
I was under the impression that there is a Rogers On Demand app for phones, but couldn’t find it on the Android Market. So I called customer service. Starting with a wireless agent, I was put on hold, then sent to cable, then back to another wireless agent, who put me on hold for 10 minutes while he spoke to his manager. Another transfer, another recounting of my problem, and the agent responded “that’s like… TV and stuff, right?”
At this point I figured I was in trouble, but was not expecting a full hour of arguing, re-explaining the problem, and begging to talk to someone else. Eighty minutes into the call I was finally transferred to a woman from tech support, who was baffled at first but quickly figured out that the Rogers Live app is actually used to access On Demand service. I also found out that, despite what I had been told, the app has a live TV streaming service with channels like NBC, CBC and CNN as well. I downloaded it but, of course, it didn’t work, even though my model of phone (a Sony Experia Arc) was officially supported. So, after an almost two-hour call, I still couldn’t watch TV on a Rogers phone (I later found out that although Rogers Live works with my model of phone, it doesn’t work with the firmware I have installed).
One more call, this time to Rogers’ PR people.
They didn’t have another phone available to test, but sent me a tablet instead. The Live app didn’t support this device, but a mobile version of the On Demand website does, and it works well, although the site is a bit slow to load at times. It had the best picture of anything I tested, even on 4G, and even though the tablet’s screen was much larger than a smartphone. And there’s a solid variety of content. You can view by network (there’s a lot, from CBC and Global to AMC, YTV and Bite) or browse TV shows by genre or alphabetical listing. The problem is that while there are hundreds of listings, you never know how many episodes of a show will be available. There were 119 shows listed in the comedy section and some (Dead Like Me, Dilbert, I Dream of Jeannie) had a couple dozen available, while others only had two or three (22 Minutes, Modern Family, American Dad). Other genres, ranging from drama to history to “leisure,” has similar listings. I also tried out the mobile website on my smartphone, and it didn’t work.
Getting Rogers On Demand working was a chore, but from what I’ve read most users will normally be able to get the Live app working without any trouble—as long as they don’t change their firmware. And while the content is a bit hit or miss, the service is well worth a download if you’re already a Rogers subscriber.
Bell Mobile TV
Price – $5 a month
Six or less – Thank God, something actually works
This was the first service I tried that was actually functional out of the box. The TV and Radio app was pre-installed on the phone’s homescreen. Clicking it opened a slick interface with a scrollable list of 24 channels, plus two scheduled NHL games. Highlights included CTV, TSN, CBC news network, the Comedy Network, YTV, NHL mobile TV and MTV—real channels with real programming that people will actually want to watch. The streaming was a bit laggy at times and the audio was fairly low quality, but it was watchable.
There is a catch. Not all the channels broadcast all the time. Seven of the 24 (including CTV and TSN) were off-air while I was testing. Turns out they only work when their most popular programs, such as the Daily Show and live sports games, are being broadcast.
The app also featured an underwhelming selection of on-demand offerings. There was a handful of random episodes from HBO series like the Sopranos and Sex and the City, as well as a fairly large choice of children’s and Comedy Network shows. But most of the channels only had a couple of videos available. There was one real standout however, a bizarre section titled “Babes and Hunks.” The titles ranged from “Hot Blonde Washes Car,” to “April is the Month of Sexy.” A lot of the videos were broken, but the only one in the “Hunks” section, titled “Chocolate Hotness,” worked great—it was a one minute clip of a muscular man in ripped jeans sitting on a couch. He gazed, unblinkingly and without breaking eye contact, into the camera while beckoning the viewer to come closer. Then he adjusted his shirt, and the video ended. Adding diverse content is admirable, but this creep-fest shows Bell is stinkingly guilty of padding its lineup.
All in all, it doesn’t work as well as the advertising would lead you to believe, but it does work. If you want to watch MTV in a waiting room, or keep kids quiet with some Treehouse TV, the $5 a month may be worth it. Just make sure children stay away from the Babes and Hunks category.
Virgin Mobile TV
Price – $5 a month
Six or less – Exactly the same as Bell’s
This uses the same service as Bell’s, so the experience is identical.
Telus Mobile TV
Price – $15 a month
Six or less – Couldn’t get it working
Telus has a mobile TV app, which from the sounds of it is similar to Bell and Virgin’s but comes at the cost-prohibitive price of $15 a month. I say “from the sounds of it,” because the app didn’t come pre-loaded on the phone I was sent to test. It also isn’t in the Android app store, so I visited Telus’ website to figure out how get it installed. The website directed me to a page for the model of phone I’d been sent (an HTC Amaze), which had no such instructions. I looked around a bit more, and on another phone’s page found out you’re supposed to download the TV app from Telus’ mobile website. I tried opening this in the phone’s browser—didn’t work. So I called customer service, was pleasantly surprised to get an agent within three minutes, and had the problem resolved in another five—turns out the service isn’t yet available on the HTC Amaze (the phone they sent me for the express purpose of testing their TV app). Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to remedy this problem before publication. But the fact that Telus isn’t able to offer it’s advertised services on its phones as they’re released (and is apparently unaware of the problem) should tell users all they need to know about the service they can expect to receive.
Wind
Wind doesn’t have a dedicated service for streaming TV, but it does offer unlimited data plans. This makes it perfect for streaming with the Slingbox, but since there aren’t many viable, non carrier-specific options out there, not much else.
Filed under Journalism, Print, Tech reviews, Toronto Star
Energy costs a challenge tight budgets
Jamie Musselwhite is Toronto’s priciest piano tuner.
It’s a title he’s proud of, but it’s been challenging to maintain lately.
“As soon as I raise my prices, the other tuners raise theirs,” he says. “It’s hard to keep up.”
Like all entrepreneurs, Musselwhite has to keep a close eye on his finances, but as someone who’s constantly crisscrossing the GTA to serve clients — regularly covering upwards of 200 km a day — his bottom line is especially vulnerable to the price of gasoline.
With costs jumping from $1 per litre to a peak of over $1.50 in parts of the province over the past year, his finances have been especially volatile. But the counter-intuitive approach to marketing gives him leeway to maintain pricing that reflects costs — he charges $120 for a tuning, up from $95 in 2006 — reliably keeping his business in the black.
“I pass the cost on to the consumer. Customers never complain. If they do, I very happily suggest they try someone else,” he says. “If I had to struggle to make a living, I’d lower my prices to compete. It’s all a matter of balance.”
But Musselwhite’s approach won’t work for everyone.
“I’ve been doing it all my life. I’m a third-generation technician, and I’ve got the skills a younger technician won’t have.”
As a result, his experience nets a premium that lets him keep prices high.
Managing costs is a perennial problem for all business owners.
So other tuners, and businesses with different cost-management needs, must find their own solutions.
“The kinds of costs that throw businesses for a loop, the ones that are the most difficult to manage, are the ones that continue to surprise throughout the year,” says Ted Mallett, chief economist at the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. “Energy prices are at the top of the list.”
As gas prices show, Mallett says, energy costs swing wildly.
This isn’t a problem for knowledge-based industries with high margins, such as accountants, lawyers or software firms, but a spike in oil prices can destroy businesses with more overhead and tighter budgets. The trick, he says, is keeping track of revenue and always planning as far ahead as possible.
“There are fairly regular expenditures — pay periods, rent, heat and hydro. Project these costs forward and try to track what a typical revenue stream is,” he says.
This gives businesses more stability and helps when dealing with banks and investors.
“Banks do not like business risks. Understanding your business, the industry, being active in discussing this with the bank, it’s very helpful.”
This can lead to growth opportunities, which come with their own challenges — and opportunities.
Aditya Shah, co-founder of beauty subscription company Loose Button, knows about growth. The Toronto startup, which sends monthly packages of high-end cosmetics samples to subscribers, is looking to double its 10-person staff in the next six months, and has seen business jump 100 per cent month-to-month since its inception last year.
It’s still a small operation, but one that has to thrive or die. In 2010 there were only a small handful of beauty-subscription companies around the world; now, Shah says, there are over 30.
“For us to maintain leadership in the market, we need to grow fast,” he says. But, as a startup without much capital to burn, this growth has to be carefully controlled. So Shah plans meticulously and cuts spending wherever he can.
Probably his business’s greatest cost-saving success has resulted from eschewing traditional (and expensive) marketing. Instead, like an increasing number of young entrepreneurs, he focuses on word of mouth fuelled by social media.
“When we ship out our boxes, within 24 to 48 hours, you see all these blogs and YouTube reviews online that get anywhere from 10,000 to 50,000 views,” he says, adding that the key to generating positive word of mouth is simply “building a really great product.”
Shah doesn’t just trust his company to the hordes of Joe-YouTubers and Sally-Blogospheres. He fosters partnerships to expand word of mouth. To this end, he’s teamed with several newspapers and magazines to offer long-term customers free subscriptions to his service.
“They become exposed to us and we get new subscribers. It’s win-win. That goes a long way in keeping our costs down while we grow.”
That creativity never hurts and translates to huge savings over the long term. And, in the end, it stems from Shah’s careful business plan. This analysis and planning, says Mallett, is the key to successful cost management across industries.
“You can’t manage anything if you aren’t measuring it. Whether it’s keeping track of banking fees or tracking fuel use, make every attempt to try to quantify and measure the costs you have.
“Otherwise, you’re just guessing.”
Filed under Business, Journalism, Print, Toronto Star
Digital Movies: Full Stream Ahead
Netflix
Price: $7.99 per month
Six words or less: Netflix is awesome
I actually had a Netflix account once, but found the selection lacking and eventually cancelled the subscription. The task of writing this review made a good excuse to try the service again.
Set up is quick and you start with a free one-month trial, a great way to get people hooked.
You’re given the option to create a taste profile and start ranking films right away. I’d recommend doing this, not only because it’s fun — for people with my level of OCD anyway, I spent an hour giving star ratings to 450 films — but because it gives Netflix the ability to suggest titles you might like. And it does a great job, rightly guessing I love Alfred Hitchcock, Fawlty Towers and comedian Louis C.K., and recommending several westerns, screwball comedies and blacksploitation flicks I’ve been meaning to watch for years.
Netflix isn’t meant for catching the latest DVD release. I found myself almost overwhelmed by the number of classics I wanted to watch immediately, from Inherit the Wind to Coffy to the original Psycho, and was impressed by Netflix’s lineup of modern films and TV shows.
You can watch on a computer, smartphone and any modern gaming console or Internet-enabled TV or Blu-ray device. The quality is near-HD and streams almost flawlessly, even on a phone’s data connection.
Netflix is easy, intuitive, and the recommendations system ensures there will always be something worth watching right on your home page. For $8 a month, it’s a bargain.
iTunes Store
Price: Varies by title
Six words or less: Massive selection, kind of pricey
Around since 2008, the iTunes Store’s video section got the jump on Internet rentals, and has a robust library as a result.
The HD comedy section alone has 738 titles. There’s also an enormous selection of classics, including a huge library of brilliantly restored Criterion collection films and a full list of new releases. Downloads are available in standard and high-definition (including full Dolby 5.1 sound) and the HD is Blu-ray quality.
The videos are playable on iPhones, iPads, Macs, PCs and Apple TVs, and available to watch for 30 days from the time of purchase (although this drops to 24 or 48 hours once you press play for the first time). Rentals start as low as $3, with new releases and HD copies costing a couple dollars more. There are also videos available for full purchase as a digital copy, but these cost up to $24.99, which is outrageous; some new Blu-rays cost less.
There are a few other disadvantages. Videos can’t be streamed, only downloaded, which means you need the digital file on a device to watch it. If you download on a computer and move it to an iPhone, the file ceases to exist on the original hard drive, and users can’t transfer the file at all if it’s downloaded on a mobile device.
And movies take hours to download.
Although it doesn’t offer anything like Netflix’s recommendation system, the iTunes Store does have a handy power-search option.
Android Market
Price: Varies by title
Six words or less: Not much on offer
Launched last summer, Google’s service is still experiencing growing pains. The selection isn’t great, in numbers or quality.
There wasn’t a single feature on its homepage I was interested in watching, and, after a cursory look through the genre categories, I found myself scrolling through pages of documentaries before finding something worth renting.
Clicking on The Corporation, I agreed to pay $3.99 — a quick process since I was already signed into my Google account — hit play and a Youtube video launched. The quality was poor, with bad colours and too much pixelation, and constant buffering made watching in full screen impossible.
A higher-quality download option would have been nice, but users can stream rentals instantly on Android phones without having to transfer files — a great feature.
Pricing mirrors the iTunes Store, and you get the same 30-day/24-hour window for viewing.
Rogers on Demand
Price: Varies by title with some free content (and premium content available to Rogers customers)
Six words or less: Mediocre
Rogers on Demand (ROD) is a strange service. It currently only has 46 videos available to stream for free, 24 for Rogers customers — ranging from Hoosiers to Foxy Brown and all three Robocops — and 22 accessible by anyone, but these were almost all trailers for years-old movies like Batman Begins and Twilight. In other words, the already mediocre offerings were obviously heavily padded.
Video quality was okay, about on par with a standard Youtube video — although some of the widescreen movies I watched were squished sideways into a 4:3 format.
The rental selection was much more diverse, but still underwhelming — I counted just over 1,500 titles going by the numbers listed in genre categories, but that’s also heavily padded because many films pop up in multiple sections.
Pricing is similar to the Apple and Google services and comes with the same window for watching. However, ROD is only accessible from a computer or cable box — the website doesn’t work on smartphones and the Rogers Live application doesn’t include movie rentals.
The service is kind of like the Google Market, nothing special, but worth looking through if you can’t find entertainment anywhere else.
Filed under Entertainment, Journalism, Print, Science/Environment, Toronto Star
Two tickets to the gun show
BY: Tom Henheffer
“You’d better bring your bulletproof vest, cause I brought my guns,” shouted Bling Bling Blingdra, the surprisingly petite two-time champion, before one match. Wearing tasseled knee-highs and a pink tiger-print tank top, the event’s main villain (and biggest draw) is known for her braggadocio.
“My biceps are bigger than Kanye West’s ego,” she boasted.
The 16-competitor championship, in which all the women have personas and stage names (Faye-Tality, Scarlette O’Terror) and theme music (mostly metal), was first held last July. Steve Rock, a local event promoter, thought it up when he noticed women locking palms on a bar patio. The first event featured six participants and a small crowd of friends. But Saturday’s match, and the ensuing dance party, drew more than 300 people.
All the event proceeds go to Planned Parenthood, but audiences are really there to see the soap-operaesque storylines play out. Scarlette O’Terror, known for her leather outfits and gyrating, heavy-metal entrances, won the first event in July, only to be twice beaten by Blingdra in ensuing matches. Fans came from as far as Ottawa for Saturday’s grudge match between the two, but a first-timer going by Heidi the Tower—a math teacher by day—went undefeated in the early rounds, knocking O’Terror out of the competition. “Growing up with my brothers I always arm-wrestled for fun,” said Heidi.
The bar was sweltering before the final and the crowd, packed into a five-deep circle, burst into opposing chants for the two competitors. Blingdra stood, flexing and holding the championship belt over her head. Heidi looked on, dancing reservedly when the music swelled. But her demureness disappeared once the match began, and she quickly rapped the champs’ knuckles against the velvet pads.
As the crowd filtered out, the smiling newbie stood with the shiny plastic belt on her shoulder.
“My students are gonna go nuts for this,” she said, nodding toward the trophy.
Filed under Journalism, Local, Print, The Grid
Taking the show on the road
A parade of bikers—towing drums, horns and three over-sized mechanical puppets—shanghaied a sleepy Shaw Street on Sunday with a cacophony of bells, yelps and cries, calling bystanders to join their migrating pageant.
It was intermission between acts one and two during a performance of The Pedaler’s Wager, a multi-site mobile play by the Cycling-Oriented Puppet Squad from Clay and Paper Theatre. The three-part play requires performers to pack their puppets, instruments and set decorations into blue wooden bike trailers and travel between makeshift stages in Dufferin Grove (#BCT), Fred Hamilton (#OSS) and Trinity Bellwoods (#WQW) parks.
“We were quite curious as to whether the audience would follow us,” said David Anderson, the theatre’s artistic director and co-author of the play, which debuted in mid-July. “Our performers are very brave people, and sometimes the audience isn’t quite as brave.”
At least 50 people—many of them curious pedestrians and idle park-dwellers drawn in by the spectacle—turned out for the three stationary acts, and a dedicated handful of cycling playgoers joined the parades between stages.
“I like this play a lot,” said Isaak North, a nine-year-old who, with a few friends, decided to tag along for the whole two-hour show when he caught the first act after his soccer practice. “It’s funny, it’s really entertaining and really creative.”
The play, a vaudevillian allegory about the evils of wealth and excess in the modern era, tells the simple story of a poor family—played in turns by small blue puppets and burlap-clad actors—forced from its farm by developers. The villains, Baron Boots and Lady Grabsome, are two enormous-headed, 10-foot-tall papier-mâché puppets perched on the shoulders of actors. Thirsty for oil and in need of workers, they greedily lure the family to the city with promises of glitz, leisure and cheap iPods.
“The theme is forced migration, which is endemic in this world,” said Anderson, adding that biking to different locations reinforces the idea and is “an attempt to illustrate how effective bicycles can be.” Anderson hopes the show will help lure more investment in the puppet squad, because its three-year federal funding deal is about to run out. Performances continue tonight until Aug. 14; check Clay and Paper Theatre’s website for schedule.
Filed under Journalism, Local, Print, The Grid
