• Category Archives Opto22

  • The brand of automation hardware and software that Ben uses at work.

  • Back in the groove (for the most part).

    Posted on by beno 4 Comments

    Well that was ‘fun’…….

    Its hard to fully describe exactly what has transpired over the past few months, so here is a link or two that will give those that don’t know what we have been up to, a bit of clue……

    The quick version, care of Opto 22.

    The long version, care of National Geographic.

    Im looking forward to seeing the 3D IMAX movie latter this year.
    There is also going to be a longer (2D) movie made for NatGeoTV that will air latter this year as well.
    (We don’t have cable on, so I hope that someone will invite me over or record it for me).

    Yes, I did take some photos, but not with my Canon, they did not allow us to do that, so I have some personal photos and videos that I took with my Android mobile (cell) phone…. So no, you will never see them unless you come over. We were all told that the photos we took were never to see the light of the Internet or email, so they are just personal memories.

    Long story short, we, as you know, went to Sydney, to help out on the sub control system for 2-4 weeks, and ended up going to sea for the last 3 months. Pretty crazy stuff. Turns out I get really really really really really sea sick. Who knew.
    We ended up helping out with the life support system, sonar computer, video recorder hard drives, audio and two way radio systems a bit as well…. as well as the Opto 22 gear.
    Thankfully the Opto 22 programmer, Luis, was amazing, I have only seen a small half handful of people code our stuff like he did, it was a pleasure to work with him.
    And yes, we did work with James Cameron on a daily basis. He was already in Sydney when I arrived, in fact he was the second person I met when I walked into the warehouse that the sub was getting built in…..

    Not to sure how interested in what went down you all are, so I will leave it here for now, feel free to ask any questions, depending on what you ask will depend on if I answer it here or ask for your email address and answer you privately……

    Its good to be back.


    Opto22 Trips

  • Australia bound

    Posted on by beno Comment

    Cant say much (no really, I cant)…. but I just found out a few hours ago that we have a project in Sydney that is interesting / unusual to the point where Opto is sending me as a consultant.

    Fly out tomorrow night. Arrive in Sydney 9amish Friday morning, and I go straight to the work location.

    Depending on how it all goes, we suspect we will be there for anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks.

    At this stage, my head is still spinning too much to think about anything other than the technical details of the project.

    Im still going to do my photo a day, but the posting of said photo will be hit and miss along with my internet access.

    Blog you from the other side.


    Opto22 Trips

  • Its not easy being green

    Posted on by beno 1 Comment

    We got a bit of a green screen for work……

    Personally I have been wanting to have a crack at one for a while with my photography. Freddy and I talked about painting one wall of the garage / studio green when we were moving in last year…. In the end, it was quicker to just do it all blue, but the idea has never left my mind.
    In the studio at work, the back drop is fading and the color is changing. Rather than just change it out for another fixed color, we thought we would go with the green so we can drop in different backgrounds as needed.
    Of course the main difference between work and home is that we will be shooting video at work, and at home I would be doing stills.
    Pretty excited to see how it all goes and to learn some new skills in lighting both it and the subject and then swapping it out in post production… who knows, I might end up with a green wall at home yet….


    Movies Opto22

  • Hi, Ben here…….

    Posted on by beno Comment

    Its been a busy few weeks here at work.
    Google have shut down their Google Power Meter product, so that meant we had to pull it out of our energy meter. It also meant that we had to take it out of any marketing material that we had produced. For me personally, that meant one of the videos we have shot…..
    At first we tried to just redo the audio part that mentions it, but it was really hard to get the quality and pace of my section the same as the rest of the video, so we ended up just re-shooting the whole thing….. This time around, we used my Canon 5D Mk2 camera. Uh, lets just say we are in love with the sharpness of it and the lens…..
    I’m not going to make you suffer through that one…. I have another that we shot a few days latter…..

    The programmers have been busy coding up this little gem… our first ios (apple) app! Yes, there is an app for that!
    Its been really popular and so it was only natural that we did a video of it. David and I have been given some new tools, both hardware and software to work with, and so this video went together in very little time. The quickest I have ever done a video thus far. About a day.
    We used the 5Dmkii to record it, a new digital recorder to grab the audio from a boom mike, then CS5.5 to edit (on the ‘new’ PC, which with 16gb of ram, just chews it up with room to spare!). It was great to be able to ‘just do it’ with out a single glitch or hitch in the tool chain anywhere.
    All in all we have recorded 4 videos and edited 3.5 of them.
    Not sure I would go right to fun, its still a lot of work getting each to sound and look just right, but just the same, its pretty cool and it sure is a far stretch from sitting in a basement listening to Trance programming air-conditioning……


    Movies Opto22