A couple of folks have asked where they can see my interviews from the shuttle launch. The first is with CNN’s Miles O’Brien and the second is with Orlando Sentinel Photographer Red Huber.

Based on the feedback I got from that day and other interviews, we are getting ready to launch a new video franchisee called “Inside the News.” More on that to come later. I’ll post some more clips soon.

Growing up Rachel Ray worked as a buyer at Cowan & Lobel, a gourmet marked in Albany. She realized that many people were reluctant to cook.

After all it would take way too long and they didn’t have the skills necessary to cook a fantastic meal.

We’ve all felt that way at some point. That’s why we go out to a nice restaurant to eat diner.

After all it’s better left to the professionals.

Rachel Ray didn’t think so.

Ray began teaching cooking classes and teaching people how to make meals in thirty minutes or less. Her concept caught on and soon local TV stations were asking her on for their morning shows. The rest as they say is history.

Are her meals as good as the culinary chefs you find in the top dinning spots in the city? Of course not, but they taste good and work when feeding a family.

Right now there are lots of journalists out there saying that they can’t do video journalism. After all it would take to long.
And for every journalist saying that, there are at least two TV journalists telling them that the product they put out will never be as good as what goes on TV.

I work in a newsroom that is pushing online video to all the journalists, yet I still hear whining that reporter video is not top quality and they should only shoot video if “there is a volcano in the middle of the highway.”

But you see I think we should take the Rachel Ray mentality.

The video that journalists shoot won’t be the same as what you see on TV. Nor can we expect it to be.

Instead we need to give them a recipe to create a quick way of shooting and editing video.

Video that our viewers wont think is what they will get on TV but video that they will still enjoy and want to watch.

It is possible. But it’s going to take some time and patience on both ends to figure it out.

Yesterday we did our first live video coverage at the Orlando Sentinel. (We did a trial of the Venue vote.) We streamed the launch of the Space Shuttle at OrlandoSentinel.com/live. We started our stream at 12:30 p.m. and went until after the shuttle launch at 6:36 p.m. For most of the time we showed NASA TV but at the bottom of every hour I anchored live updates with sentinel staff writers, editors, photographers and even CNN’s Miles O’Brien. First off we had a blast. We are also very happy with the numbers we got.

We were able to do this using a slingbox to send out signal back to the newsroom to stream on our site. I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank Alex Medina in Technology for all his help in getting it set up.

You can see some clips:
here, here, and here

oh and the actual launch video is here