Fall 2006

A View From Heaven HD Video Shoot Completed, In Post-Production

Film to Begin Running at Polk County's Outpost 27 in March 2007

CCI's most ambitious high definition project to date, the Polk County Outpost 27 HD video, "A View from Heaven", wrapped shooting this week after an exciting though long four day production. After a day of shooting helicopter aerials, two days of ENG locations shooting at attractions around the county, and one day of set shooting on location at Fantasy of Flight with none less than Academy Award winning director Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings Trilogy) watching in the wings, the production wrapped and moved into post.

The video shows a fictional balloon festival leaving from Polk County's Fantasy of Flight and presents aerial and ground views of the attractions and excitement to be found in Polk County. CCI employed twenty lead actors for the film, and more than sixty actors including extras were present on set at Fantasy of Flight.

According to CCI director and producer Bryan Foster, "The day at Fantasy of Flight presented the biggest challenge. We had so many people here for the long dolly shot and the close up of our Aviator (played by Fantasy of Flight owner Kermit Weeks), but we also had to shoot our pilots and all their lines and our balloon launch, all before noon. After noon, it's too hot and potentially too windy to take a balloon up, so we had to hustle. The real pilots were very accommodating, and we got some fantastic shots that are going to look incredible in HD and on a big screen."

In order to offer the most exciting experience possible, CCI shot the video as if it were a film: it was shot in HD at 24 fps and 720p for a true film look. The piece was shot entirely in HD on the highly-touted Panasonic AVX-200 cameras and will be edited on the lightening fast, graphics rich, top-of-the-line Avid DS Nitris HD editing and finishing system at CCI HD Orlando. The film will also be presented in 7.1 surround sound.

When the video is complete, it will be shown in the new, state-of-the-art high definition theater at Outpost 27, Polk County's new tourism information center located along US Highway 27 near the I4 interchange in Polk County.

Outpost 27 is slated for a March 2007 opening.

CCI Produces Membership Video for Florida Citrus Sports

CCI recently partnered with Florida Citrus Sports, a not-for-profit membership organization dedicated to increasing community spirit and pride, promoting tourism, stimulating economic development and benefiting charities in Central Florida, to develop a membership video for the organization to inspire current membership and recruit new members.

CCI produced a video that touts the important work done by FC Sports and also highlights Florida Citrus Sports' five signature events: The Capital One Bowl, the Champs Sports Bowl, the Orlando Citrus Parade presented by Delta Air Lines, the Cingular ABC Sports All-America Team Celebration and the OUC Half Marathon and 5K.

The video first aired at the FCS Speaker Series Luncheon and was part of a presentation that same day before the Orange County Board of Commissioners which helped secure funding for renovations to the Citrus Bowl in Orlando.

According to Florida Citrus Sports' communications manager Matt Repchak, "The video has already made several appearances at public functions in front of thousands of current and prospective members. Our Membership Committee is using it as a marketing tool when they go out to sell memberships. It also played to a captive crowd of 150 at our Team Selection Kickoff Dinner, and made several revolutions on the JumboTron during the "Feast on the 50," giving it an audience of about 1000. So, clearly, we see the CCI video as an integral part of our marketing and membership efforts."

Dana Stites, managing director of CCI's new high definition post-production facility, CCI HD Orlando, stated, "This video represents the first of several projects CCI is working on for Florida Citrus Sports. Most recently, our A/V department set up and ran a successful press conferences for the organization. It's strong and growing relationship, and one that will continue to be instrumental to CCI's success in Orlando in the future."

The video can be viewed in its entirety by clicking on the link on the FC Sports Homepage.

Communications Concepts Inc. Produces Live Satellite Event for Harris Corporation on CNBC's Morning Call

CCI recently produced a live interview and satellite uplink with Howard L. Lance, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Harris Corporation for CNBC's market watch program Morning Call. CCI provided the live C-band satellite truck and turnkey satellite feed, along with camera package, crew and technicians for the Harris Corporation announcement.

In the live interview with Morning Call co-host Rebecca Quick, Lance provided details about Harris Corporation's agreement with Stratex Networks, Inc., of San Jose, California. The deal combines operations from Stratex and Harris' Microwave Communications Division to form a new company, Harris Stratex Networks, Inc. CNBC was the first media outlet to feature the story, and it has since been picked up by several national media outlets.

According to Harris Corporation's senior manager of media relations, Brent Dietz, "Today's broadcast was the most positive national broadcast media experience I've ever had, and I've had about a dozen with CNBC, Bloomberg and CNN. We'll do it again, and I will undoubtedly call on CCI again."

Of the burgeoning relationship between CCI and Harris Corporation, CCI general manager and vice president Jim Lewis remarked, "We've been around for a while, and Harris was one of our first clients back in 1978. We actually produced a similar live event for them back when then Harris CEO Jack Hartley made a product announcement. It's great to still be working with Harris."

The four minute interview and CNBC feed consisted of an exclusive interview with Lance and reporter Rebecca Quick on Morning Call, a daily program which offers real-time market coverage.

The CCI crew arrived at Harris Corporation corporate headquarters in Melbourne at 7am and set up in the Harris Customer Briefing Center. CCI crew and Harris staff worked together closely to set up the shot with the microwave product display as a backdrop and to ensure light and sound were optimal for Lance's statement and met CNBC standards.

Jay Van Dyke, director of new business for CCI, stated, "The shoot was a complete success and working with the Harris staff could not have gone smoother. Hopefully, this represents a renewal of business for CCI with Harris Corporation. Even though Harris has in-house production capabilities, there are many services that they don't provide due to costs and changing technologies, like live broadcast or high end HD production. CCI, however, can provide these types of services cost effectively. Finally, CCI does production everyday, so we bring expertise and experience to the job that guarantees success, and for live TV, there are no second chances to get it right."

The entire four minute spot can be viewed at the Harris Corporation Web site.

CCI Adds Closed-Captioning Services to its Duplication Division

CCI recently began offering closed-captioning services for all television and video programming as part of our duplication and conversion division. Closed-captioning service is available pre-recorded programming through a partnership with VITAC, a Merrill Communications company, and is available on all CCI productions and as a stand-alone service.

Since the Telecommunications Act of 1996, closed-captioning for the hearing impaired has been required by the federal government for all distribution technologies—cable, broadcast, and satellite. Ten years later, only a handful of companies offer third party closed-captioning services, and CCI saw a niche.

"Out of necessity, the technology is improving every day," said Dana Stites, general manager of CCI HD Orlando, a satellite CCI office dedicated to high definition (HD), located on the lot at Universal Studios Orlando. "It's now a vital service for the entire industry—CCI has always been a conscientious place to work, and while we still intend to sell this service, we also feel it is a socially responsible one," Stites continued.

For prerecorded, offline captioning, two style options are available: pop-on and roll-up style. Pop-on style, similar to movie subtitles, appear on the screen all at once and can appear anywhere, but usually appear near the person who is speaking. Pop-on captions appear one line at a time, are time-coded to match shot changes, appear in synch with the audio, and do not interfere with the action. Roll-up style is often used in news captioning, soap operas and entertainment programming. As with pop-on style, captions are time-coded, but they scroll up one line at a time from the bottom or top of the screen.

CCI offers closed-captioning on all major broadcast formats, including Beta SP, Digibeta, DVC Pro, MiniDV, S-VHS, 1-inch, D2, and D5. Standard turn around time for captioning and delivery is seven days, however rush delivery is available. CCI's duplication and conversion division also offers NTSC to PAL and PAL to NTSC conversions.

In addition to television industry clients, Stites concluded, "More and more, we're seeing corporate clients utilizing closed-captioning services for training and educational videos as well as sales and marketing videos. These clients are being proactive by providing for current or future hearing impaired employees."

For more information on closed-captioning services, go to the duplications page under Services on this site.

Is Your Web Site Working For You?

Click here to read the latest CCI White Paper on creating effective Web sites. The article is part of a series which appears monthly in the print edition of Space Coast Business.