Archive for January, 2011

Are You Too Busy At Work And Not Seeing The Returns You Should?

Jan 27th

Posted by admin in Estudy - 'How to... ' Articles

Often you work long hours and push it to get things done. You’re caught up in urgent activities just to satisfy clients and other staff members. This gives you virtually no time to step back and think if there is a better way. Why should you question the system? Your workflow and procedures have been done this way for many years. And besides, other business work the same or similar way.

I ask you to have an open mind and let me show you, how you can streamline your business and optimise your workflow and activities. I would like to introduce to you an interactive job management system, which includes an integrated accounting engine. It will free up your time and let you do the activities, which are most important to your business: customer care, management and focus on ways to grow your business.
You see, technology has not only changed and enhanced the products we use and the cars we drive,
it has enabled us to improve the way we do things around the business world. Somewhere along the line, faxes were replaced by email, written job-cards became virtual ones on computer screens and now we have ‘Cloud’ computing, which allows us to work and control our business from anywhere! We not even have to worry about computer backups or if the business premises burns down (at least not your customer and job records).
Now let me introduce to you NextGen Enterprise, a customisable job-control and accounting solution, which allows your business run on steroids. With your unique NextGen Enterprise setup you will have business control, job tracking and accounting at its finest.

Nextgen Enterprise

It allows you to do what you do best, your job. You are not caught up in too much administrative work, chasing information and customers. Everybody in the business is using NextGen Enterprise as their primary work screen for information exchange. This way all Job and customer related information is available to everyone immediately. Your customers can not only follow the status of their job from book-in to invoice passively on your website, NextGen Enterprise uses communication fields on the virtual job-card, where you and your customer can comment and ask questions related to the job.

Invoices are automatically updated in ‘accounts receivable’ of the General ledger in the integrated accounting package. If you use this free accounting system and update your expenses and perhaps other sources of income manually, there is no need for your current accounting software. NextGen Enterprise’s free accounting add-on calculates customer statements, provides reports for income statements, trial balance, balance sheet and more.

To summarise things up, you not only have an instant snap shot of all your business activities, you are also in control of your finances (at least you see where you are going).
Shift your business management forward and contact Thomas on 08-9402 8554 or email: Thomas@allcam.com.au and ask for your Free brochure TODAY.

Error Messages with Tape Camcorders – How to Avoid it

Jan 13th

Posted by admin in Estudy - 'How to... ' Articles

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Error messages, not accepting -, or ejecting-, chewing tapes, line bars and pixelation during playback – Sounds familiar? Do you want to know why these issues occur and how to avoid them? During my work as a camera technician I have repaired thousands of camcorders and other video equipment, from VHS and Betacam in the early days to Digital8 and mini-DV.
The latter format, mini-DV, delivers by far the best picture, but there is a downside…

In my experience it is the most sensitive tape format to different tape surfaces and damaged tape cassettes.
Let me explain: due to the high data volume on a physical small tape, the tape path and transport in the tape mechanism of the camcorder has to be very precise. Tolerances in tape path alignment and tape tension in the beginning and end of the cassette need to be very accurate. Sensors inside the recorder mechanism control tape tension, transport speed, and video head drum speed at all times. Even if the tape loading and unloading is slightly delayed, for whatever reason, the computer of the control logic shuts down the whole camera and displays an error message to prevent any damage to the tape or camcorder. A fingerprint on the tape can cause enough friction to slow down the video head drum, that the servo circuit cannot compensate and the system control shuts down the camera.
In theory as well as in real live it is very likely that a damaged tape inserted in a newly repaired camcorder can cause malfunction or any of the other symptoms described above. Usually the damage is not as bad as in the first place when the tape got damaged by the faulty camera, but it is recommended, to get the camcorder checked out first, before you try a different or new tape. For more details of what you can do in this case, click Camera trouble shooting.
It goes even so far, that some camcorder models are sensitive to mixing different tape brands, as the residue of some tape material doesn’t mix well with others, or the tape tension and friction upsets the tape mechanism in the camcorder. This particularly applies to mini DV tapes with playing times of 120min or more.

Repairs of a damaged Mini DV tape – As you can imagine now, this can be a tricky subject.

If there is any damage to the cassette housing, it is recommended to find an old mini DV tape, which has a cassette compartment hold together by screws and replace the whole housing without touching the tape with your fingers.
Splicing the tape itself, is a very delicate work and should be done by a professional, as the joint itself, if not done properly, can damage the video heads. The loss of the damaged tape, which has been cut out is usually insignificant, as a few centimetres of tape represent only a few seconds of video footage.
Once a spliced tape is successfully repaired, I still recommend to use it only once or twice to avoid any damage to the video head.

Summary, conclusion and recommendations