Davenport Iowa and Chicago

This week Kednall and I flew into Chicago and then headed for Davenport Iowa. It is a three hour drive but it is faster then getting anothet flight and waiting around for the flight.

On the way down we had just a few calls! We hardly got to talk at all from the business calls.

When we drove back to Chicago after the dealer event we hooked up with Anthony Martorina and went to Gino's East Pizzaria and it was awesome!

Kendall and Anthony at Gino's

What is cool is that even though this is not the original location they moved ALL of the original walls and furniture to this location.

You can see all of the writing on the walls... this is a tradition and you can write on any walls you want to... even the furniture.

When Nathan, Lorena and I went to CHicago this summer for vacation Anthony told about Gino's and we went there and we wrote all over the booth we were in!

The Pizza here is awesome! It is true Chicago style Deep Dish Pizza and it is very good.

Sony Interview

Well, this week I flew to Park Ridge New Jersey and was interviewed by the folks at Sony on how EDIUS works with XDCAM HD.

I arrived at their Broadcast headquarters not really knowing what to expect and I was not dissapointed! :)

They sat me down in a chair and had a makeup artist that worked in the olympics and it was quite fun! She used a airbrush gun on me and I was facinated. This was first time with a professional Makeup artist and it was a great experience!

Then they walked to me to the set where the interviewer was waiting and amist the director, sound engineer, camera men, and the Tech. Director I answered questions about our workflow with XDcamHD and XDcamHD EX.

It took about an hour and it was a blast! Everyone from Sony was very nice.

New York, New York! and Florida too! :)

Chuck Davidson and I headed for New York to have a dealer event with Digital Data.

It was an all day affair as they had 4 sessions of 2 hours during the day. The only thing that happened during the day was a really weird guy came in with a backpack covered with foil and a little arm coming off of it holding a camera.

He starterd trying to tell everyone how he was a great vidographer with HUGE hits on his videos he took around New York... Then we discovered he was a weirdo that a few years ago did his on kinda Girls gone wild in NY.

That night Kevin Beaumont got us tickets to a Broadway musical called "A tail of two cities"

We rode Hansome cabs from the hotel and went to the show.

It is not easy to take a picture from a handsome cab with your phone... this is as focused as it got! :)

The stage before the performance started. Funny thing about Broadway... You would think the theatres would be big but they really are not.

Chuck and I in our seats.

Seattle and Toronto

This week I was with Kendall Eckman and the first city we hit was Seattle.

We stayed at this Hilton Garden Inn that was right by the Boeing plant where they are building the dream liner.

There is a museum there of flight and i wentover to look. It was pretty Cool! I will try and find some pictures of it.

The next day we visited a dealer and had an event on Tuesday afternoon.

We then drove up to Canada and it is always interesting how you have to be so careful about your reasons for intering the country! If you say work, they will turn you around and see ya later! So you have to say something like "we are here to help train one of our dealers in Toronto" and even then they look at you like you are invading! :)

We had an Event with a dealer Wednsday night that went quite well.

We stayed very close to the Airport and it was interesting how the Marriott and the Hilton almost look connected .

4Ever Group Video Expo 2008

This last week I was in Orlando Florida for the 4ever group Video 08 show. Chuck Davidson is our East Coast Channel Salesman and he is a very great guy! We have become very good friends.

This is Chuck Davidson at our booth during the Expo.

I flew out on the Red eye because I didn't want to miss Church so I got in at 5am and slept in the hotel room for 3 hours before heading to the show floor and setting up the booth.

I then had to teach an 1.5 hour class on EDIUS.

They had the Expo floor open at 5PM for 3 hours and Chuck and I had dinner with Dan May and Matt Stoneking (two old Canopus Employees now working for Black magic) I finally got back to the room around 10PM.

The next day the Expo was open from 10 to 6 and then I had to be on the High Definition Panel discussion from 6:30 to 9PM.

Needless to say I was just a bit tired!! :)

The Expo was only one day so we broke down before I went to the HD panel.The next day (wednesday) I stayed for the show (I was on one more panel) and I got to see many old friends and meet some new.

I have known Brian Gunn for years. He is a good friend and one of the best Internet gurus I know! You need a website he is the man to talk to at http://www.pixelpops.com/

Steve and Laura Moses are tewo of the best Videographers in the business! They are based in Southern Ca. and I built their first Editng Computer.

Mark and Trisha Von Lankin are really nice folks and great Videographers also. They are based in Tulsa Ok. and they run Seminars on how to be successful in the Business.

Maureen Bacon has been in the business for years and she creates really cool filter presets for EDIUS.

I just met Randy Stubbs for the first time this year. He is a very nice man and I will traveling to San Diego train him on EDIUS in the few weeks.

It was a very fun and productive trip! :)

Easing back into the schedule!

I have been working out of the house for 4 weeks now and it has been a wonderful time being with Lorena and the kids but all good things come to an end!

This is the first trip of 2008.

I am traveling with the west coast channel sales guy for the Desktop group... his name is Kendall Eckman.

We are visiting the soutern California area.

On the 16th we visited a Keycode office and talked with the salesman there and he seemed to get quite excited about doing a event including us and Sony.

We drove down to San Diego and the the 17th we visited another dealer and trained a few of thier sales people.

Kendall Eckman is a great guy and very good friend. He is married to a very nice woman named Tina and has two children.

On the way back to the LA area it was just a short 5 minute detour to visit La Jolla and see the coastline. We saw a couple of cool sites while we were there.

The coastline was very pretty, there many litte coves created by the coastline... it is pretty cool.

These Little caves are filled when the tide is high. It is interesting how the water cut though someparts of the rock and left the others.

We even saw some very lazy Seals lying around on the sand...

They are here year around... This is a big tourist attraction during the summer.

We stopped for lunch at a place called the Sammy's WoodFired Pizza and it was pretty good.

The food was good and the service was good also. We sat outside because it was a incredible day!

What a YEAR!

This has been a GREAT year!! I have a job tha I absolutely love and the folks I work with are great!

Our family is all settled in the new house this year and we get along great!! Christmas was the best! Everyone was home and it was wonderful feeling!

But since this is mostly about my work and travels I will leave most of the family stuff for Lorena's blog which can be found at renasraves.blogspot.com.For this I am hoping to do a blog each week this year along with pictures of the travels that I do.I am also hoping to back fill some stuff also!

I Should have started this years ago!

After I left teaching I stated to travel and train many TV Stations on how to use the Grass Valley (formally Canopus) Non Linear Editing Program EDIUS.

I traveled to well over 50 stations in small areas of the US and I will try and back log some of them as I have pictures from some of the cities I travel to.

About a year ago I was hired by Grass Valley themselves and I am not training anymore... I am working with the Sales team.I am the guy that goes in and tries to wow them and answer technical questions so the sales guys can then get them to buy! :)

I work with some great folks!! Chuck Davidson, Kendall Eckman, Bob Crites, Steve Jeab, Rob Robinson, Kevin Beumont, Sarah Brown, and MANY others!!

So I will try and update this each week that I travel so the folks that are interested can see what I am doing :)Mike