B-L-A-C-K-O-P ships CamCamX Uncompressed 8-bit 4:2:2 Pro Video Mixer for the Podcast Generation (PDF)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Editor's Contact: Ms. Black

Washington, DC - Sept 9, 2007 · B-L-A-C-K-O-P Design today announced they are shipping CamCamX, a broadcast quality video mixer for Macintosh computers which utilizes 8-bit uncompressed 4:2:2 component video as its native video format. CamCamX takes a fresh approach to live video mixing on the desktop; just as with traditional video mixers any two camera sources, QuickTime movies, and still images can be used as inputs and mixed in real time. What sets CamCamX apart from other existing video mixers is that the video mix is re-routed back into the Mac as an emulated iSight (webcam) camera. And this CamCamX emulated camera is simultaneously available to all traditional webcam and video recording applications as a live camera input. With CamCamX, the operator can perform a live video mix that is published as a live video in Yahoo Messenger, Skype video phone, Adobe Flash based video webchat sites (www.stickcam.com) - all at the same time. The video mix appears simultaneously on all webcam application inputs without any special configuration, as if the video mix were itself a built-in iSight camera. Not only can you broadcast live, but you can, at the same time, record your live video mix directly into iMovie 08 (iMovie HD, QuickTime Pro, et al) for later republishing as a DVD, youtube.com clip, or iPod compatible podcast.

Familiar Interface Means Simple for Anyone to Use and Operate
CamCamX is designed to look and work similarly to Apple's most recent iLife applications. The ergonomics of the design are styled after traditional professional video mixers - the mix is controlled by a single slider that fades between A/B camera inputs, making it possible to easily operate the mixer with just one hand on the mouse. Still images and QuickTime video clips can be selected as source using the conventional Drag and Drop paradigm familiar to all Macintosh users. While video professionals will enjoy the familiar interface, anyone capable of using iMovie will have no trouble creating compelling video mixes for webcast or podcast.

Democratic Webcasting for Global Breaking News
Leveraging the emerging market of free one-to-one and one-to-many webcasting video pipelines (Stickam, Yahoo Messenger, Skype, QuickTime Broadcaster), CamCamX makes it possible for an individual to create live, professional broadcasts of breaking news, live music, interviews, and publish them live (in real time) to a global audience of web viewers. Live video feeds can be mixed with pre-recorded content and arranged on-the-fly for adapting to changing conditions (sportscasts, political conventions etc). Increasingly, the web is being relied upon to provide the most up-to-date, accurate reporting of world events, and CamCamX makes it possible for anyone to create compelling live coverage with just a Mac notebook, internet connection and one or more webcams (including, but not limited to the Mac's built-in iSight camera).

Speeds Youtube/Podcast Production
Despite the fact that today's video editing applications are more powerful and easier to use than their predecessors, they all follow the familiar capture-edit-render-publish workflow model. In today's fast-paced world, with an immediate waiting global audience, CamCamX makes it possible to produce professional video content much faster and more efficiently than the capture-edit-render-publish model by mixing sources directly for broadcast or directly recording mixed video to MPEG-4 320x240 clips that can be immediately uploaded to Google's youtube.com, myspace or published as a podcast file. No editing, rendering or compressing is required - the clip is available for publishing both while the video mix is underway AND immediately after completion. Because the mixer works with both live camera inputs and pre-recorded QuickTime clips, professional productions with titles, custom wipes, bumpers, commercial insertions and theme music are produced as easily as ad-hoc video mixes.

Application and Hardware Compatibility
Since CamCamX publishes it's video mix as a QuickTime compatible camera input, it achieves unparalleled compatibility with existing video applications that Mac customers already use and enjoy, including iMovie for recording video mixes, QuickTime Pro for converting them to different formats, Final Cut, and all streaming video and video chat services that work with Apple's built-in and external iSight (webcam) cameras. CamCamX also works with a wide variety of creative video software, including all the popular VJ applications. Literally, any live camera application developed for the Apple Mac OS X system can immediately take advantage of the new video mixing services provided by CamCamX. On the hardware side, CamCamX works with most live camera hardware input devices available for the Macintosh. This includes Apple's own built-in USB and external FireWire iSight cameras, 3rd party USB Class Video webcams such as the Logitech QuickCam Ultravision and many other webcams with Macintosh drivers, FireWire based MiniDV camcorders and professional video input devices such as those made by BlackMagic and AJA.

Price/Performance Breakthrough for Professional Desktop Video Mixing
While other professional video mixing applications for the Macintosh have been available for hundreds (or thousands) of dollars, at just $29 USD, CamCamX sets a new price/performance mark by combining the 8-bit uncompressed 4:2:2 format of the video professional with the ease of use and iSight compatible camera output which the typical non-professional requires for webcasting.

Pricing and Availability
A fully operational demo of CamCamX is available for free download from the web at:
http://b-l-a-c-k-o-p.com/download/

The demo can be serialized online for just $29.00 at the B-L-A-C-K-O-P Online Store at:
http://b-l-a-c-k-o-p.com/store.html

An AppleCare-like subscription covering 3 years of upgrades is $59.00 and a lifetime subscription to the product is just $99.00. Site licenses, educational and volume discounts are available.

About B-L-A-C-K-O-P
B-L-A-C-K-O-P Design is a brand of 0x00000001 LLC, a privately held Delaware Corporation.

For details and pricing information on all B-L-A-C-K-O-P products, please visit our web site at http://b-l-a-c-k-o-p.com/

References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webcast
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_video_device_class
http://www.stickam.com/
http://www.youtube.com/
http://www.myspace.com/
http://www.blackmagic-design.com/
http://www.aja.com/

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BLACKOP product names (DotMatrix, CamCamX, AsSceneOnTV, GrabberRaster) are trademarks of B-L-A-C-K-O-P/0x00000001 LLC. Apple, AppleCare, iMovie, Final Cut, QuickTime and iSight are the trademarks of Apple Computer Inc. Flash is a trademark of Adobe. Yahoo Messenger is a trademark of Yahoo.