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Maverick GL-03 Cordless LED Grill Light $22.99 Maverick GL03 Maverick Cordless Led Grill Light. This handy portable light features 4 brilliant LED bulbs which last 50,000 hours. Uses just 3 AA batteries (included) to provide convenient lighting anywhere. Energy efficient… |
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ALZO Digital Full Spectrum Light Bulb – ALZO 45W Photo CFL 5500K 91 CRI, Daylight balanced, pure white light, 2800 Lumens, Case of 4 $31.99 Case of 4 full spectrum light bulbs for daylight balanced lighting, energy star compliant, long-lasting at cir. 10,000 hours with 2800 Lumens output; low energy consumption, good for treating S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder), photo studio lights, or starting plant growth. These are Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) bulbs. Fits all medium-base E27/E26 sockets, but this is a large bulb that might … |
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GSI Super Quality Professional Studio Lamp Light Bulb – Tri-Color Ultra White, 105W Fluorescent Energy Saver – For High End Photography $14.99 Brand New Studio Light Bulb From GSI – Designed With Legendary Craftsmanship And State-Of-The-Art Engineering. Created To Provide Super Lighting Conditions In Studio. Easy, User Friendly And Affordable…. |
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GSI Super Quality Professional Studio Lamp Light Bulb – Tri-Color Ultra White, 125W Fluorescent Energy Saver – For High End Photography $19.99 Brand New Studio Light Bulb From GSI – Designed With Legendary Craftsmanship And State-Of-The-Art Engineering. Created To Provide Super Lighting Conditions In Studio. Easy, User Friendly And Affordable…. |
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Lowel Tota-light, Quartz Halogen Broad Light with 750 watt, 120 volt EMD Lamp $129.78 Compact, rugged & versatile, the broad throw Tota-light is a Lowel time honored favorite. It can be used with its umbrella or gel-frame & diffusion as a soft key, fill, or backlight. With its adjustable reflectors, it can be a smooth & even background light, or point it toward the ceiling to raise the ambient (base) light level of a room. Tota is also widely used for photographic copy work…. |
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Lowel Tota-Pak, Light Kit with Tota-light, 750 watt 120 volt EMD Lamp, Stand & Tota-brella. $206.84 Compact, rugged & versatile, the broad throw Tota-light is a Lowel time honored favorite. It can be used with its umbrella or gel-frame & diffusion as a soft key, fill, or backlight. With its adjustable reflectors, it can be a smooth & even background light, or point it toward the ceiling to raise the ambient (base) light level of a room. Tota is also widely used for photographic copy work…. |
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Lowel Omni Pak: Light, Bulb, Barndoor, Stand O1-102 $275.68 Lowel Omni Pak O1-102 The wide focusing range of the Omni-light makes it a flexible key or back-light. Add diffusion or an umbrella, and it’s a soft fill source. Swap the power cord & lamp and it becomes a battery powered, hand-held light. Available with a host of accessories and built for heavy duty long life, the popular Omni is the perfect companion to the Tota. Multi-use, tungsten halogen sou… |
Blue Umbrella – John Prine / Steve Goodman cover
Video Camera Umbrella
The Basics of Video Conferencing
Modern business operations all share the same rapidly depleting commodity: Time. When time is leveraged, productivity and output invariably increases within a business organization. Technology continues to provide workers and businesses with new tools to help leverage time. Video conferencing could prove to be one of the most important time leveraging business tools of the 21st century.
Once a luxury for only the largest companies, video conferencing is beginning to change the landscape of how businesses communicate with both employees and clients. In its simplest form, video conferencing allows two individuals to be thousands of miles apart yet still effectively communicate as if they were in the same room. Systems in use today can now connect multiple parties across multiple continents – in real time with excellent and high quality video and audio.
The Origins of Video Conferencing
Video conferencing capabilities originated in the 1970s. Similar to every other technology in use today, video conferencing has changed dramatically since first being developed. Early proponents of video conferencing technology had no standards or protocols to rely on. This fact made a teleconference via video an expensive proposition – one that only huge companies and government agencies could afford. In a time where cell phones were still a decade away for most consumers and businesses, video teleconferences were few and far between.
Today, affordable networks and systems are widely available across the globe. Interoperability of video teleconferencing systems is virtually guaranteed now that standards and protocols have been clearly established.
Specific Standards and Protocols for Video Conferencing
To make any technology usable for the masses, standards and protocols are required to insure systems, software and hardware are ubiquitous across the board.
To help guarantee video teleconferencing compatibility between manufacturers, the International Telecommunications Union developed and defined a series of video conferencing standards. In place since the mid-1990s, current standards are defined in terms of H.3xx.
H.3xx are “umbrella” recommendations for video conferencing. They include the protocols for coding video/audio, multiplexing, signaling, and control.
The core H.3xx recommendations are as follows:
H.320 – Narrow-band video conferencing over circuit-switched networks (N-ISDN, SW56, dedicated networks) H.321 – Narrow-band video conferencing over ATM and B-ISDN H.323 – Narrow-band video conferencing over non-guaranteed quality-of-service packet networks (LAN, Internet, etc.) H.324 – Very narrow-band video conferencing over the general (dial-up) telephone network H.310 – Wide-band (MPEG-2) video conferencing over ATM and B-ISDN H.323 is a standard for audio, video, and data communication over IP-based (Internet Protocol) networks.
All major video conferencing manufacturers produce ITU compliant equipment. When choosing video conference equipment, be sure that you select a system that does not offer only proprietary methods of operation.
How Video Conferencing Works
The success of a video teleconference depends entirely on the equipment and network capabilities behind that equipment.
Since real-time video contains a tremendous amount of data, it is imperative that the system being used can handle a high amount of bandwidth at any given time. Fortunately, video conferencing systems are designed to “sample” and “compress” a certain portion of data (such as the unchanging “background’ of the room) to help conserve bandwidth. This compression is accomplished through what is commonly known as a “codec”. A video codec is the device or software that enables video compression and or decompression for digital video.
It is the job of the codec to “sample” data at specific time intervals (fractions of a second) and then compress this data so that it can be delivered across the network. The codec on the receiving end then reassembles audio and video for transmission onto a television or computer screen. To conserve bandwidth, the codec focuses on the most important data – i.e. moving objects such as people, props, etc. Moving objects take a considerable amount of processing power, so the better the codec, the higher quality your video conference will appear.
Questions to Ask Yourself Before Choosing a Video Conferencing Solution
A wide variety of video conferencing systems are available in the marketplace. Before purchasing equipment or services from vendors, consider the following as a starting point to narrow down the requirements of a system that fits with your business needs:
How will you be using video conferencing? A simple video conference between employees in the same town, building or area will require a more basic solution than video conferencing multiple parties across the vast distances. Determine the maximum video conference scenario you will be utilizing to narrow down bandwidth and equipment requirements.
How large is the meeting room where you plan to conduct video conferences? Camera capabilities will depend on the size of the room and number of people involved. Conducting a video conference in a small auditorium with dozens of participants will require a quite different solution than 1-2 individuals transmitting from a small office.
On what type of network will your video conference be hosted? The network you choose to host your videoconference will play a key role in overall reliability and performance. Most video conferencing systems sold today include an IP interface with ISDN as an option. Determine the capabilities of your network before deciding on any one specific video conferencing solution.
The Future of Video Conferencing
Increasing productivity while reducing costs will always be an important part of any business. The popularity of video conferencing will undoubtedly increase in the coming years. Virtually all industries will eventually utilize video conferencing in some form to help bring people together – at considerably less cost than physical travel for face-to-face meetings. As more corporations, health care providers and governments experience the value in video conferencing as a time and money-saving tool, the technology will become more necessity than luxury. The age of the video conference has just begun!
About the Author
Karen Thatcher is President and CEO of TelCon Associates, Inc., a 35 year old telecom consulting and bill management firm. For a variety of free tools to help manage and reduce your corporate telecom expenses, visit http://www.telconassociates.com
5 New Gadgets To Have Fun With
New gadgets are invading the market place every day. The newest gadgets that will be release soon and promises to be interesting are: girl tech password puppies, star wars cockpit original arcade machine, transparent toaster, Wi Fi umbrella and Kiara plasma TV fireplace.
1. Girl Tech Password Puppies
Train and look after your puppy with your voice! The first virtual pet girls can raise, train and love with their voice! Her adopted puppy only responds to the sound of her voice. Name the puppy using voice and then call his name to make him appear.
Teach puppies tricks like sit, rollover and dance and maze games help to challenge and train the puppy all by voice . The older he gets, the more girls can interact.
2. Star Wars Cockpit Original Arcade Machine
Pilot the X-Wing Fighter in the classic color vector arcade game! Blast away TIE Fighters, zoom across the surface of the Death Star, and roar down the trench with sampled voices and effects from the movie!
Before the action starts, the player is allowed to choose which level of difficulty to begin at, with compensating bonus scores for each higher level of play. Once the preliminaries are finished with, the battle begins, and the incredibly smooth first person perspective and 3-D effects take over.
3. Transparent Toaster
This transparent toaster allows you to see the bread while it is toasting so you are never surprised by toast that comes out too dark. This idea is based on a transparent heating glass technology.
4. Wi Fi Umbrella
The high-tech brolly allows you to take pictures with a built-in camera. These can be uploaded to Flickr via a wireless internet connection and within two minutes you can watch downloaded photo-streams on your umbrella screen with a simple wrist-snapping movement.
Invented in Tokyo the Pileus umbrella also has GPS and a digital compass, which uses Google Earth to help you navigate yourself around the world. They are working on incorparating a video camera as well.
5. Kiara Plasma TV Fireplace
The Kiara has a magnificent mixture of hand carved rough and smooth marble. The combination of the two different finishes creates a sense of an unfinished masterpiece combining the natural raw beauty of the rough stone with the understated elegance of highly polished stone.
The Kiara is a one of a kind signature piece with a hand chiseled finish that will give your home a focal point that you will enjoy for many years to come.
The Kiara can be transformed into an entertainment centre by the addition of two equipment cabinets finished in the same style.
The cabinets can be positioned beside the fireplace to create an ensemble, or placed elsewhere in the room. Cables that run from the equipment cabinets to the fireplace can be easily concealed from view.
About the Author
See the newest hi tech gadgets updated every day and get the best present ideas for Christmas.