cisco certified

Win Online 2021 Lessons Learned

VIDEO (quality) MATTERS

Fortunately for me I haven’t had to rely on myself as video talent or even a producer.  Olivia and her crew have handled our demanding customers such as VISA and other major companies.   Well, I did an experiment not long ago and here’s what we’ve learned.

Video Production HD 4k 8k From Anywhere

In 2019 before the pandemic I started a project called “Video Anywhere” where our video people could produce small scale videos (not for our large customers) from a large room from their home or even an “instant metal building” we provide put next to their home.

The idea was to produce fast videos without them having to travel to Birmingham, Al for production for smaller productions.  We provided a 4k and later, 6k (upscaled to 8k) Sony PXW-FX9VK camera.  Of course lighting – sound – etc too.

I was initially the test subject and for the first time got behind the camera and did production which – early on – wasn’t such a good thing.  I cheaped out on the camera’s lighting and sucked in all aspects but was able to make fine tune it and get better myself and … learned that I would have to spend 20k per employee vs 2k for all the equipment (which I did).  When the pandemic hit (which we weren’t expecting) production continued and we even produced one of the VISA commercials from Olivia’s home setup / green screen and you can’t tell it wasn’t in our big bad Birmingham studios.

Lessons Taken From Small Scale Video Production

Can I Use A Cheap Chinese Camcorder?

I thought maybe we could and tried to in early videos when experimenting.  Wow.  What a mistake.  If you are looking to produce a reputable video for your business and want to DYI you’re going to need to spend at least about 3k (lights 4k Sony AX700 audio)

What About Post Production?

Nothing short of a jacked up I9 with 64 gb of ram – Adobe After Effects and Premier Pro with video rendering on an RTX 2800 (at the time – now at 3200).  Oh yeah – make sure your 4k 65″ monitor is built for computer use. 

About 10k – sorry.  You probably don’t want to do this yourself.

Can't I Use My Powerful I-Phone?

No.  Unless you want to look as bad as I did with my first “video anywhere” experiments.

The Bottom Line?

You don’t need to spend 20k like we did but … assuming you have an elite computer system already you can get by with about 3-4k – great lights – good sound and a Sony AX700 ro similar 4k camera.  Just make sure you don’t look like a clown when you read your script and know a whole lot about post production and camera settings during production.

The bottom line is just hire a company like us and move on unless you want a new hobby.

Don't Use Mr. Fuzzy

An excerpt from our Mr. Fuzzy production.  This is typical – although slightly exaggerated – bad green screen productions.

Early mistakes

An excerpt from a bad production I did when testing “video anywhere” from my home.  Bad green screen but I’m amazed how similar it looks to some of the crap spokesperson services marketed to small business!

What A Small Production Should Look Like

Play Video

What a small scale production should look like …  or at least what you should pay for.  This wasn’t done in our Birmingham studios .. it was done in my home office – studio.  Wow!  Now that’s magic folks!

Jim Ellis - Tech'd Up Since 1981

FOUNDER - Senior Partner

Since he was 11 years old Jim Ellis, founder and guy who runs things … still… at EngineX has been in the thick of high-end technology.

Over 1,000 IT departments built later we thought it was so much fun we’d advertise it again.  He even shows up in our videos but – please – don’t judge him by his performance on screen!

Olivia Voss - Tech'd Up Since 1992

OPERATING PARTNER

Olivia Voss is our next generation poster child.  She cut her teeth in JavaScript and has expanded as our top spokesperson and animator – in charge of our large scale video productions that involve animation.  Add the fact that she leads our Oracle and Microsoft SQL Team then you can figure out why she’s a Partner in EngineX.

Clients include the likes of VISA International along with several European conglomerates that count on us for seriously deep resources.

Jennifer Gordon - Tech'd Up Since 1999

OPERATING PARTNER

Jennifer Gordon, like Olivia, is multi-talented having one foot in YouTube video production and the other in Information Technology – specifically IT Statement of Direction and mid to long-term plans for Medical Clinics and Hospitals.

She has many clients in Health Care that she has helped leverage technology to improve patient care and profit margins including the University of Alabama Birmingham.

Tech'd Up Since 1980

Chris MacMillan doesn’t like pictures and avoids being seen in corny videos but he makes up for it with having literally worked through every viable trend this industry has seen.

Chris loves it when a fail-over system instantly switches users to a synced backup database, application, server, or even an entire “ghost” network.  He never fails – he just fails over.

Tech'd Up Since 1990

Christy Voss can handle anything with the word “code” or “script” in it.  Javascript?  SQL database stored procedures?  Linux platform Android apps?  Ancient assembly code?  She’s got it covered!

Christy handles the custom code team that gives your websites and applications that extra “pop” since they don’t come from the same template wizard the babysitter your friend hired for his, now closed, business website.

WE ARE ENGINEX

Over 1122+ it projects delivered

WE ELEVATE EVERYTHING

YOUR COMPANIES SUCCESS TRAJECTORY

RIDES THE BACK OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
YouTube Advertising

To celebrate our 29 years as the Alpha of the IT industry we are bringing back our Tech’d up program where we help support and, if requested, help elevate your IT Department to levels that will also elevate every department you support/service.

WARNING High Voltage Brain Power

leverage the power of "we"

From running virtual Windows servers on OS/X to standard Windows server administration and security our team can deliver the results you need – support and/or implementation.

Need to build a true fail-over “bulletproof” IT department that can handle hackers, acts of God, and anything thrown at it while serving users without a hiccup?

Need support blocks for remote support to fill in the gaps with high-end engineering?

Give us a call or email us and we’ll talk more about it and how we can fit in with your IT departments needs and long term planning.

Plug Us In!

0 +
Clients Serviced
0 +
Active Certifications
0 +
Years In Business