AValive announces Adobe and Blackmagic Design Seminars 1-31-2008

http://avalive.blogspot.com/2007/12/avalive-announces-adobe-and-blackmagic.html

Last Call

Join AValive,Adobe and Blackmagic Design for a two-hour training session on the new
Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium and Blackmagic Design Hardware
Solutions. Blackmagic Design will discuss the new Multibridge Pro and
Multibridge Eclipse capture and playback units, the Decklink and Intensity
lines of video capture cards as well as compressed and uncompressed
workflows. Adobe will discuss streamlining the capturing, editing, motion
graphics creation, compositing and rich media authoring processes using the
powerful programs in Adobe CS3 such as After Effects, Photoshop, Premiere
Pro, Encore, Flash and more.This seminar is free...

Click to register: http://www.avalive.biz/registration.php

Mac World Keynotes As They Happened

16:39 GMT: OK, we're sat down waiting for the thing to start... the last few people are still making their way to their seats.

16:46 GMT: The lights have dimmed and the music stopped. Pascal Cagini, General Manager and Vice President of Apple Europe, is on stage introducing the keynote.

16:48 GMT: He's wrapping up what Apple has announced in the last four months. iPod touch, Leopard, etc

16:49 GMT: Two million copies of Leopard shipped in the first two days. Also talking about the iPhone launch across Europe in November.

16:53 GMT: Pascal is now talking about Apple's retail strategy through EMEA. Filling time... seven minutes to go.

16:54 GMT: Apple plans to expand to 516 stores across EMEA during 2008.

16:58 GMT: Theme for the keynote is "There's something in the air" - that'll be something related to what is going to be announced. Screen has now switched live to the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Now we're just waiting for Stevie....

17:05 GMT: Still no sign of Steve... People are still walking into the conference room - looks like they're running a little late. The camera is doing a good job of showing off everyone with their iPhones while we all wait here in anticipation.

17:13 GMT: Alright, lights have dimmed... looks like it's going to start any second.

17:14 GMT: Steve's up - w00t!

17:15 GMT: He's recapping what Pascal has just gone over!

17:15 GMT: Steve says "Thank you for an extraordinary 2007."

17:16 GMT: He's got four things to talk about today... first is Leopard.

17:16 GMT: Leopard has shipped more than five million copies in the first 90 days - the most successful OS release Apple has ever had.

17:16 GMT: Microsoft is now shipping Office Mac 2008 - this is the last big app to go native on Intel Macs

17:17 GMT: He's now talking about Time Machine in Tiger

17:18 GMT: Steve has announced the Time Capsule - Airport Extreme (802.11n) and a Hard Drive. Allows you to back up your notebook wirelessly.

17:19 GMT: You can back up all Macs in your house to this device. Two models - 500GB and 1TB at $299 and $499 respectively. Will ship in February.

17:20 GMT: Showing an ad for Time Machine now.

17:21 GMT: "That's Time Capsule - a perfect companion to Leopard."

17:21 GMT: Now the iPhone...

17:21 GMT: Apple has sold four million iPhones since its launch... exactly 200 days ago.

17:22 GMT: Smartphone marketshare after just 90 days - Blackberry - 39%, 19.5% iPhone, 9.8% Palm

17:23 GMT: Reckons December quarter will be even better.

17:23 GMT: New features for the iPhone today

17:24 GMT: Maps with location, Webclips, Customise the home screen (upto 9 and you can flip between), SMS multiple people at once, Chapters, subtitles, languages and lyrics.

17:25 GMT: Maps has a new UI - showing off the locate function. Looks pretty swish.

17:26 GMT: Can also drop pins anywhere on the map.

17:27 GMT: Now showing off the multi-person SMS functionality.

17:28 GMT: Now showing off how to send SMSs to more than one person and then track the conversation between those people.

17:29 GMT: Safari has also changed - showing off Webclips now. There's a plus button at the bottom that allows you to select Add Bookmark, Add to Front Screen. Just touching the icon on the home screen allows you to return right back to the website you've just saved to the Front Screen.

17:30 GMT: You can drag icons around on the home screen. Can create upto nine of these home screens and can flip between them like you'd flick through photos.

17:31 GMT: Now explaining how Maps with location works - it's done with the help of Google and Skyhook. The two have been driving around and mapping out using WiFi access points and Mobile Phone Antennae.

17:33 GMT: You can now navigate through videos with chapters if the information is available. Can also change languages and lyrics (and so on). Available today as a free software update for every iPhone user.

17:34 GMT: "The iPhone isn't standing still."

17:34 GMT: Now is the iPod touch.

17:34 GMT: Five new apps - Mail, Stocks, Notes and Weather. Maps with WiFi location,

17:35 GMT: $20 update for current iPod touch owners. Free for everyone that buys a new iPod touch.

17:35 GMT: Number three is iTunes... sold the four billionth song last week.

17:36 GMT: Sold 20 million songs on Christmas day - new record.

17:36 GMT: 120 million TV shows and 7 million movies

17:37 GMT: Not satisfied with the movie sales figures... so Apple is introducing iTunes movie rentals

17:37 GMT: 11 movie studios supporting it - every major studio.

17:38 GMT: All of the top films from last year, as well as lots of what Steve refers to as "library movies".

17:39 GMT: Going to launch with over 1,000 films in February - will have them 30 days after the DVD release

17:40 GMT: Watch anywhere - Macs, PCs, all current iPods/iPhone... Watch instantly, less than 30 seconds with a modern broadband connection

17:41 GMT: Once you've purchased it, you have 30 days to start watching... 24 hours to finish once you've started watching. Can also transfer to other devices halfway through.

17:41 GMT: Transfer movies via iTunes

17:41 GMT: Library release $2.99, New release $3.99

17:41 GMT: Launches today in the US, Internationally "later this year."

17:42 GMT: Big flatscreen TV on the screen now.... "what about this?"

17:43 GMT: Everyone has missed when it comes to getting TV onto HDTVs via the Internet. Announcing AppleTV take two. No computer required.

17:44 GMT: Can rent movies on Apple TV, HD movies with Dolby 5.1, Podcasts (both Audio and Video), Photos from Flickr and .Mac

17:45 GMT: Now talking about YouTube on Apple TV. You can also buy TV and movies on the new Apple TV. HD movies are $3.99 and $4.99 respectively. Over 100 titles in HD - going to build really fast.

17:46 GMT: Entirely new user interface for Apple TV. Now showing demo on screen.

17:48 GMT: Before you rent, you get a preview/trailer for free.

17:49 GMT; Interface is swish as you'd expect.. simply select "Rent" and then confirm and it starts to download - after about 20 seconds, it indicated that it was ready to play. Can skip through chapters too... Not sure if you can skip back though...

17:50 GMT: Now playing some HD footage...

17:51 GMT: Showing off the Apple TV search functionality now - looks really well polished.

17:54 GMT: He's now demonstrating Podcasting on Apple TV. Some crazy dude Skiing down a mountain and then parachuting off... pretty crazy.

17:55 GMT: Now demonstrating photos functionality. He's streaming a slideshow live from .Mac servers.

17:56 GMT: There's also movies on .Mac... so he's going to show off Apple TV streaming video from .Mac - again, Stevie says it's all live.

17:57 GMT: With Apple TV, there's no computer involved... they can do this all from their sofa on their HDTV.

17:57 GMT: Now showing Flickr functionality...

17:57 GMT: Browsing to some photos and then.... the demo isn't working... Black screen... Brilliant. I guess that's live!

17:59 GMT: To recap 1,000 movies for rental (100 in HD) 600 TV shows, 6 million songs, over 125,000 podcasts, photos from .Mac and Flickr (when it works, heh), 50 million YouTube videos too...

18:00 GMT: Apple TV 2.0 is a free software update - free for every Apple TV owner.

18:00 GMT: Wants to make Apple TV even more accessible... dropped from $299 to $229 in two weeks. Software update will hit at the same time.

18:01 GMT: He's recapping Apple TV and iTunes movie rentals.

18:02 GMT: 20th Century Fox was the first to sign up to iTunes movie rentals...

18:03 GMT: Jim Gianopulos, CEO of Fox is on stage...

18:04 GMT: He's talking about the basic features of iTunes movie rentals...

18:04 GMT: "Homer's on board" - he's referring to The Simpsons Movie.

18:04 GMT: Jim says when Steve came to him with this idea, it was a no brainer...

18:05 GMT: Thinks this will be a transformative version of the movie rental model

18:06 GMT: Jim's now talking about DVD... he said "after that it will be Blu-ray"

18:06 GMT: He's holding Family Guy: Blue Harvest which contains a digital copy that you can instantly move to iTunes and your iPod/iPhone/etc... "and it's free!"

18:07 GMT: He thinks this is an exciting move for the entertainment industry... maybe we're finally going to get back on track?

18:07 GMT: iTunes movie rentals was the third thing he wanted to talk about... Number 4: "There's something in the air..."

18:08 GMT: Introducing a third Macbook - the Macbook Air....

18:08 GMT: "World's thinnest notebook"

18:09 GMT: Talking about the Sony TZ... which is about 3lbs and 0.8-1.2 inches with a 11-12 inch display... compromise on keyboard too (miniature)... Compromise on performance too...

18:09 GMT: Too many compromises... 3lb is a good weight though...

18:10 GMT: 0.76" to 0.16" tick - holy moly!!

18:11 GMT: Fits inside a jiffy bag... LOL... he's holding up a jiffy bag with one inside...

18:11 GMT: THIS THING IS INSANE!!

18:12 GMT: LED backlit 13.3" display with iSight camera and full sized keyboard.

18:13 GMT: Also backlit

18:13 GMT: Multitouch gestures in the trackpad... you can turn on multiple gestures in the options screen.

Apple releases new Mac Pro with 8 Processor Cores

Apple Does it again !

Just one week before the start of Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco, Apple has released an update for its high-end Mac Pro desktop.

The new Mac Pro combines two of Intel’s new 45 nanometer Quad-Core Xeon 5400 processors running up to 3.2 GHz, new graphics and up to 4TB of internal storage. Prices start at $2,799.

“This is a real dream machine for our power users,” David Moody, Apple’s vice president of worldwide Mac product marketing, told Macworld. “We are seeing two times the performance of our previous product.”

The Mac Pro features 12MB of L2 cache per processor, dual-independent 1600 MHz front side buses and up to 32GB of 800 MHz DDR2 ECC FB-DIMM memory. According to Apple, the new Mac Pro achieves a 61 percent increase in memory throughput.

The Mac Pro comes standard with the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT graphics card with 256MB of video memory. The systems also include a new PCI Express 2.0 graphics slot that delivers up to double the bandwidth compared to the previous generation, the company said.

With the new PCI Express, the Mac Pro supports the latest generation of graphics cards from NVIDIA, such as the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT with 512MB of video memory, or the NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 with 1.5GB of video memory and a 3D stereo port for stereo-in-a-window applications.

With support for up to four graphics cards, the new Mac Pro can drive up to eight 30-inch displays at once for advanced visualization and large display walls.

For storage, the Mac Pro has four internal drive bays allowing up to 4TB. The systems also have five USB 2.0, two FireWire 400, two FireWire 800, optical and analog audio in and out, dual Gigabit Ethernet ports and a headphone jack.

The new Mac Pro is available immediately from AValive here !

Consider This When Deciding On Your Next AV Purchase

Often times you have to ask the question who is this company I am doing business with ? What do they believe ? How do they treat others ? With out a doubt one of the 100 million dollar powerhouses in the AV reseller business is B and H Photo out of NY. I have always tried to learn from the positives of my competitors and try to stay away from being negative but lately after catching B and H sending price crawl robots to download info again and again from our site then seeing them adjust tactics again and again I had to ask myself why ? Is B and H in financial trouble ? Are they just bent on making as much profit as possible as shown by this recent NY EOC Ruling ?

EEOC AND B & H REACH $4.3 MILLION SETTLEMENT IN NATIONAL ORIGIN DISCRIMINATION CASE

Hispanic Employees Paid Less Than Non-Hispanics, Denied Promotion and Health Benefits, Federal Agency Says

NEW YORK – The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today filed a complaint and entered into a consent decree in federal district court with B & H Foto and Electronics Corp., resolving a national origin discrimination case on behalf of Hispanic workers at one of the largest retail sellers of photographic, computer and electronic equipment in the metropolitan area.

The EEOC’s lawsuit, filed under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 alleged that B & H paid Hispanics in its warehouses less than non-Hispanic workers and failed to promote them or provide them health benefits based on their national origin (EEOC v. B & H Foto and Electronics Corp., No. 07- CV-9241). The court filed complaint is resolved simultaneously through the voluntary settlement of this matter by consent decree under which B & H agrees to comply with the requirements of Title VII; equalize the wages of Hispanic employees to their non-Hispanic coworkers; and to work with the EEOC in a claims process to distribute $4.3 million in monetary relief to individuals who were paid less, not promoted, or denied benefits because they are Hispanic.

“We commend B & H for working cooperatively with us to resolve this matter without protracted litigation,” said EEOC New York Trial Attorney Louis Graziano. “We encourage other employers to follow B & H’s example of resolving this case expeditiously and in good faith.”

The lawsuit and consent decree are filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The decree, in addition to proving for distribution of the multi-million dollar settlement fund, also requires employer training, notice posting, adoption of an anti-discrimination policy, reporting to the EEOC, and monitoring by the EEOC for the following five years.

EEOC New York District Director Spencer H. Lewis, said: “Employees are entitled to work in an environment free of pay disparity and discrimination due to a person’s national origin. Every individual deserves the freedom to compete in the workplace on a fair and level playing field.”

The EEOC enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Further information about the Commission is available on the agency’s web site at www.eeoc.gov

We all know that employee discrimination is a big no-no in todays federally mandated work place and since B and H lost 4 million from their bottom line in 2007 I now am a little clearer why them seem so desperate in their tactics online.

You can be assured that AValive encourages the hiring of Hispanics and Minorities especially since the President is a women !

Think About This !

AValive Thanks You For A Record 07 and Wishing You A Great 08

AValive thanks their customers for making 07 the best year in AValive's 15 year history . AValive experienced double digit revenue growth , thanks to a great support staff and vendors like : Apple, AJA, Chief, Crestron. Digidesign, Kramer, Middle Atlantic, Panasonic, Portabrace, and many more .
AValive founder RB Columbus said " We have seen many changes in the 15 years of servicing the Audio Visual Community and we are happy that we continue to evolve with the changes in the market."

About AValive: AValive a division of Triangle Visual interactive founded in 1992 is based out of Wilmington NC and is small women owned business focusing on the professional audio and visual sales, services and rental vertical.