- Is this more, less, or equivalently legal (copyright-wise) to just posting the youtube videos on youtube in the first place? It seems like the act of compositing them in this way would be significant, but maybe not?
- The normalisation of audio could use some work. SwitchCam seems to do something (the youtube volume on each clip was different for me), but it didn't quite work.
- I'd be really interested to know how automated this is, and how much human curation is required to get it right.
- Presumably, the next step is stitching the multiple videos together to make 3d models, allowing you to pan to places between the various camera operators. :)
- I'm no lawyer, but the advice we've received is that we're good on the legal side.
- You're on the money re: audio. It's miles better than it was 1 month ago, but we're still not 100% yet.
- There is a human curation step (~5% of the process), but that is mostly for removing really crappy videos. Searching/Synching/Sequencing is automatic.
- I dunno about next step(!), but i agree the idea is super interesting :)
This may be more legally grey than just piping through audio since you are actually producing a derivative work (even if it is mechanically produced), but the net effect would be awesome. You'd end up with better audio than any one person could record, and the more angles you get the higher quality you can make the audio.
Definitely a great idea and very well done for the first cut. You just need some Wilco on there.
Actually, I'd be tempted to make the process 100% automated, and open it up to the general public as soon as possible.
This has the potential to go extremely viral, and occasional "bad" videos could work in favour of this, by introducing an element of humour into the proceedings.
I can't see how this is possibly "fair use" - it's the complete work of music and the visual design of the set, choreography and show that is being reproduced in full in a commercial way. Unless the uploaders bought a license with their ticket to reproduce and distribute online and allow derivative works of those reproductions ...
Would be fascinated to read the letter from your IP lawyer justifying this?
A little suggestion.
The first video I picked had only one camera angle for the first two tracks of the concert. So it was an effort for me to understand how it works. I would suggest you have a prominent link to a 'model video' that has multiple camera angles so new visitors can easily see it in action.
Very good job lads!
Of course, I presume the bigger play is for switchcam to be the default app that people use to record at concerts and other events. Smart!
It combines a few high-resolution still images with a low-res video to improve the video quality:
Static scene: http://vimeo.com/1513129 Dynamic: http://vimeo.com/2937785
(Looks a bit old (3 years) so I don't know if it's still in development)
TL;DR: lose the strips of white from the video viewing page.
I am excited about the concept - was thinking about this very idea while watching Coachella streaming live this year and then seeing all the cams people were uploading.
Thankfully this isn't too much of a problem at heavy metal gigs. No-one wants to take their smartphone to the moshpit :D
Incidentally, Switchcam.com was only a little more than $1k, which was definitely worth it.
I realize that often times getting the recorded audio for a concert can be a finicky matter, but maybe you could partner with one of the many music festivals that are cropping up to make it happen.
I went to add a concert with time/date but landed up getting lot of videos that didn't meet the criteria. The concert was part of Osheaga (a festival in Montreal) but the listing shows up as Parc Jean-Drapeau, where the festival is held. I think including the ability to indicate what event it was part of might narrow down your search a bit.
Since most of the 300 videos found were unrelated, I decided to go through manually and select only those which were relevant. By default, all 300 videos are checked with no easy way of unchecking them. Your average user isn't going to be able to just use a jQuery one-liner like I did, so this is something else you should consider!
Overall, great job and I look forward to seeing how you guys progress with this idea!
What's also interesting is how much the effect of SOPA will have on such an awesome service like this. So disappointing to think about how the copyright holders would rather shut you down then come up with a great way to enhance the service and share revenue with you.
Best of Luck. We'll all be rooting for you guys.
http://switchcam.com/event/a-perfect-circle-lollapalooza-201...
Some of these concerts may have bootleg audio available, often recorded by audiophiles with decent equipment. It'd be amazing if supported syncing that up so you'd get great audio with multi-camera video
Now it would be nice with an underlying concert-track or / per song mp3. I don't like the crappy cellphonesound. I guess the syncing will be hard though, with the videos lag not very constant (most often, seems to work good now but I have a nice broadband connection)
That makes me think that all kinds of crowd video (protests, speeches, etc) should be stitchable, which seems like it would open larger (and potentially morally ambiguous) markets.
would also be cooler to have a seating chart to click around to make sense of perspectives
MPAA: More of this, less of SOPA. If you give us great ways to get content, we will pay for it.
I think it could be pretty cool if users had the ability to reference a higher quality audio source (when available - something on Archive.org or uploaded mp3s).
If you're inclined (I completely understand if not) can you tell us the error that the console in Chrome or Firebug gives you?
VKLog is not defined http://switchcam.com/assets/js/utils/facebook.js?ver=2011112... Line 81
VKLog.dlog("checkSessionStatus()");
It does seem to work with Adblock disabled, so I'd guess a subscription is blocking something essential.
I think I would advise not to just focus on concerts, but potentially other mass events, e.g. sporting events.
I guess you're using the audio stream to do some form of sync / time stamp though, so that may limit potential uses.
some techie questions, how does it work? how do you get to know which videos are actually part of a specific event? how do you match the video with the actual song?
It says a lot that the music industry didn't invent this.
