Separating Boom Recorder user interface, and metadata management on-set.

[takev]

Hello everyone,

I am planning a major rework of the user interface of Boom Recorder.

How does one feel about me separating the tape transport, metadata and meter bridge into three windows.

I want to do this, so I can make Boom Recorder into a video recorder as well. It would be more logical to have a meter bridge and a video window at the same time. But not everyone needs a meter bridge, not everyone needs a video window, and some need both.

I've been talking to a producer about what is happening on the set with metadata. Especially interesting is that, on a low budget film at least, the script supervisor already is doing all the metadata reporting including what camera lenses have been used. So metadata is entered by both the script supervisor as the sound mixer.

I also had comments about producers hovering over the shoulder of the sound mixer, because Boom Recorder shows all the current metadata. And requests from people who needed software for the script supervisor to manage the metadata which includes timecode.

So I thought a Boom Recorder for the camera, a Boom Recorder for sound, a Boom Recorder for the script supervisor.

The three Boom Recorder's networked together to share metadata with each other. The script supervisor can than type in the current scene, take, etc and the sound mixer automatically get the correct metadata into his/hers Boom Recorder.

This is long term of course.

Cheers,

    Take

[Jeff Wexler]

Hello everyone,

I am planning a major rework of the user interface of Boom Recorder.

How does one feel about me separating the tape transport, metadata and meter bridge into three windows.

Cheers,

    Take

I like the idea of 3 windows so we could organize our screen real estate any way we want to. Any chance that the transport window could look like real buttons --- REC  PLAY  STOP  etc.?

Interesting comments you made about consolidating metadata amongst the sound, camera and script departments. There has been quite a lot of discussions about the role of the script person and how it is changing and we all agree that if it can be done easily, metadata that starts with script person should be entered into everyone else's metadata.

There is much more to say about this but I'm off to Las Vegas for NAB Convention now.

Regards,  Jeff Wexler

[miker71]

I'd second the re-working of the buttons to the universally recognised icons. And losing the brushed metal, although Leopard may take care of that anyhow ;-)

Some sort of P2P system (Bonjour?) for metadata management sounds spiffy!

[takev]

Hello Miker,

I'll see what I can do with the tape transport icons, I have to draw them myself as they aren't in the standard available buttons.

What is wrong with the brushed metal look, I used it according to the style guide correctly. Any software that is used to talk directly to hardware (I would say an audio recorder qualifies), or any software that emulates the function of a real-world device (an audio recorder qualifies), should use the brush metal look.

It is a bit sad that Apple has ignored its own style guide, Safari, but should I then be punished for it? Also the brush metal look allows me to draw right up against the title bar giving me slightly more screen real-estate. I do want to go for the unified toolbar look, but they have not made it easy in Tiger.

I would indeed use something like Bonjour, to find all the Boom Recorders on the local network.

Cheers,

  Take

[Jeff Wexler]

And losing the brushed metal, although Leopard may take care of that anyhow ;-)

Recent screenshots seemto show that Apple is going to tone down the brushed metal look somewhat when Leopard comes out. Still grey, still sort of metal, just less brushed.

-  JW

[ptalsky]

Take,

I also like the idea of separating everything out - give me a video input and display capability and I can eliminate a monitor from my cart.  :-)  (Well, obviously you won't be giving me the input capability, but still...)

I would love to see the buttons become more standard - and larger.  It can be a bit hard to hit them when using the built-in touch track thingie (if I don't use the Mac Remote - love that feature btw).

Phil

[takev]

Phil,

Also the video display capability for Boom Recorder will have a separate and not so cheap license.

And the video recording capability is especially for raw footage, like these modern digital movie cameras.

Cheers,

    Take

[ptalsky]

Take,

After you told me about ordering in Euros rather than Dollars (saved a nice bit of change) I figure I owe you one.  :-)

Am I the only one that is scared by the possibility of sound becoming video assist too on low budget projects if Take does this?

Phil

[takev]

Phil,

Don't worry yet, the video recording capability is for high resolution raw sensor recording.

In other words, it is for a digital motion picture camera, like; the red one, DALSA or the Thompson Viper. Except instead of a 35mm sensor I am using a industrial camera with a sensor size similar to Super16.

http://www.alliedvisiontec.com/produktinfos.html?t=produktinfos&o=77&a=selectid

Of course, if a low budget production actually uses this camera, you may actually do the recording for the video as well, as you know Boom Recorder anyway, sorry about that Phil.

Cheers,

    Take

[takev]

Hello,

I've made a screenshot of work in progress for the split user interface.

Cheers,

    Take

[Jeff Wexler]

Hello,

I've made a screenshot of work in progress for the split user interface.

Cheers,

    Take

The multiple window interface looks FANTASTIC! I love the transport window ... buttons look good. I think what we will love about multiple window interface is that we can configure on the screen, at the same time and in the position we want, only the things we need (and using up only the specific screen real estate we want). I know that other programs really tout the single window interface but I prefer what you are doing. The other factor is that I am not so sure Windows PC's remember the windows and screen layout you last used, as does the Mac for the most part, but I could be totally wrong on this. With the Mac at least we are all used to launching a program and it comes back just as we left it --- so that makes the multiple window approach really useful.

Regards,  Jeff Wexler

[takev]

Hello Jeff,

The positions of the windows on Mac can be remembered automatically (even to the programmer), except for which windows are actually open. I will program Boom Recorder to also remember which windows are open, which should be done if you are on a Mac, it is what people expect.

On Win32 a programmer could do the same, remember where and which windows should be shown. I am not sure if the windows positions are remembered by default like Mac OS X, or if the programer has to do the hard work.

Cheers,

  Take

[Philip Perkins]

Looks good.

Philip Perkins

[Ramsay]

Hi Take, The interface looks good. Why do you need so many patch bay buttons now? Is that for video too? That's a fine choice of project name you used on the picture! Post was so happy on AVP2 with all the Metadata that Boom Recorder gave them. Just a thought but do you think it is useful to have the record and stop buttons slightly larger than the others? (Doesn't really matter to me because I use the Apple remote for both functions). If I had the USB TV receiver hooked up, do you think Boom Recorder could record a seperate file of a mono mix with picture without maxing out the Mac? I'm thinking that for rehersals it would be an interesting tool and it would be pretty fun to be able to playback takes with picture. I could make great outtake reels! I haven't been able to wrap my head around the group metadata idea yet. Part of the issue is getting continuity up to speed. Most everyone I work with is pretty old school and they just sit with the giant binder and hand write everything, even though there is a good scripting program available to them. Video assist and sound are aways writing Metadata and camera could really use something better than soggy camera reports which get so messed up they have to be rewritten. Camera and continuity would probably do well if they could interface with a palm type device for Metadata and video and sound could work from their computers. Bonjour is a good communicator someone mentioned.  Just my two cents. As always Take, Thank you for creating and growing such a useful program. Patrick

[takev]

Hello Patrick,

Hehe, yes I am using your Boom Recorder Pro license for development, I am to cheap to buy my own.

I still need to make the graphics for the buttons, but the new buttons will be:

    meter bridge, video preview, video viewfinder, metadata input, metadata viewer.

I am not going to resize the buttons, it took me a whole day to design them already.

I will be using the firewire IIDC protocol, so that would be a no for USB video. Also the video how I am going to use it will be extremely resource heavy, well for the harddisk anyway. Maybe in the future you will be able to see the video using a USB widget, but recording it may be stupid; as it will try to record at a much higher quality than it actually is at that point.

I am not sure if anyone would want to go for a digital production metadata flow, it will also even better metadata support in Boom Recorder. Such as easier retroactive modification. I have some ideas of joining the metadata and soundlog window together.

Bonjour only is for finding programs on a shared network. It does not do any other communication, I'm afraid.

Cheers,

    Take

[Ramsay]

You're doing great.... and how about that 'Red One'... A really nice looking camera. I've seen some 'stills' from it and they look good.

[takev]

Hello Patrick,

It would be similar to a Red One, but much more affordable and less futuristic looking.

Of course the red one has a very high resolution and sensor size, I wonder if it will live up to its hype.

Cheers,

  Take

[ptalsky]

Take,

I love the new screen look and am really looking forward to the new release.  Just a point of clarification - is the |<< button the false start button?  Or will there be a false start button?

Thank you again for a great product!

Phil

[takev]

Hello Phil,

Yes, the |<< is the abort/false start button. Maybe a weird symbol to use, but an abort is like rewinding to the previous point.

Cheers,

  Take

[ptalsky]

Thanks Take!

As with all software, once you know what buttons to push, it really doesn't matter how they're labeled - they could just as easily be A B C D (though icons do make it easier to remember when you've been pushing the same buttons for 12 hours straight).

Phil

[takev]

Hi there,

I see it has been more than 120 days since I last posted in this thread. But I have new screen shots from Boom Recorder 8 to show you.

I have reconsidered the separation of the user interface elements as it was confusing to work with. So I went with the modern Apple approach where the applications have switch-view-buttons on the right side of the toolbar, very much like iTunes.

At the bottom of Boom Recorder is the sound log, where you can see what recordings have been made and modify the metadata. The first screen shot also shows the metadata window, I some future version I will try to incorporate this into the sound log as the top line.

For now I may be able to add the current scene and take fields to the toolbar for easy access (the toolbar is user configureable).

http://www.vosgames.nl/products/MirageRecorder/BR8SS1.png

http://www.vosgames.nl/products/MirageRecorder/BR8SS2.png

I am also quite proud of the following screen shot, it shows my camera/RAW recording in action. I am using an industrial high definition camera, which outputs the RAW data from its 1 inch sensor. As the camera is for industrial use, the quality of the sensor data is very bad; the image you see here has been compensated for the pixel non-uniformity and non-linearity. This is not the end result however, in the near future it will be possible to record the full with of the sensor 1920 pixels by 850 pixels (2.40:1 ratio) at real progressive scan 24 fps, locked to an audio word clock.

BTW, this is a picture taken from my window.

http://www.vosgames.nl/products/MirageRecorder/BalancingSolved2.png

Cheers,

    Take

[old school]

Hey Take, as a happy Boom Recorder user, I like the new look of the interface, but I also like the look of B R as it is. I like your style of always making B R better. Keep up the good work. If you get a chance maybe you could explain your new product and how it will work as a Mac based RAW recorder if that is what it is. Thanks.

CrewC

[RPSharman]

Take,

I've been using Boom Recorder for a few months now.  I love it.  The only things I'd love to see in future versions is being able to use the up arrow key to advance the scene number from "32" to "32A" and then "B" and on, for example.  ALSO, and this is just my personal preference, I think the peak holds way too long on the meter.  Perhaps it can be an option for the user to change the duration.  What are other people's opinions?

Robert

[Jeff Wexler]

I was wondering what you have been up to, Take --- it is now obvious that you have been hard at work making an already remarkable product even better. I really do like the screenshots of the new interface --- the "old" one was very clean and of course very Mac, but the new one seems much clearer and cleaner. Will this be Boom Recorder 8? When might we see a release date for this?

Regards,  Jeff Wexler

Note: Take, please feel free to use my Discussion Group in any way you need and in any way that will help you with your work. I know most everyone here is very supportive and it makes for very good feeling if we know that we are helping you develop Boom Recorder.

Best Regards,  Jeff Wexler

[Ramsay]

Nice looking update Take. I am so happy with the current release, anything new is a bonus. Just wondering...were you ever able to get Boom Recorder  to recognize  the files from the 744T so that if I  have to go ultra mobile, I can import the files (and modify the meta-data) in to the current 'roll' on Boom Recorder and keep my sound reports up to date? Cheers, Patrick