CBS

We had a meeting with CBS yesterday in Burbank. Erik and I took one of our RED camera's down there to give some of the bigwigs a demo. It was a pretty cool experience! The demo went great and we got to tour a few sets and meet some really cool people. The demo was held in the Tyra Banks Show studio . . . or what used to be the Tyra Banks Studio - she apparently decided it would be cooler to do the show in New York and had it relocated. We got tours of the Price is Right and even cooler, The Young and the Restless =) I'm not a big soap guy but those sets are crazy! Here's a shot - it's tough to see but just look at all the lights!


Everyone was really friendly, even if I didn't have a clue of who they were . . . Anyhow, the day started early with a 7am flight to Burbank.

Here's a shot of me barely awake at the airport. The flight wasn't bad, only about 45 minutes of actual air time before touching down in Burbank. They, of course, screwed up our rental car so we wasted about 50 minutes while they scrambled to find us a car. They finally did and we were off to the studio for our 10am meeting. When we arrived we navigated our way through the line of picketing writers . . . annoying but I do see their point, and headed into the studio.

As I mentioned above, the demo went great and we got to meet some of the top dogs over there. They liked it so much they invited us back at the end of Feb to do it again for some more execs. We're grateful for the opportunity. Here are a few more shots from the trip . . .

Picketing writers . . .

Me and the RED camera


Erik - who apparently is a Ninja now . . .


Me working one of the cameras on The Young and the Restless

I'm stoked about next months meeting - the guys from American Idol are seriously interested in using RED for some of their outdoor stuff. I'll post when it happens but LOST is on now so I'm out.

TB

Macworld

So I didn't post this as quickly as I had planned to . . . I have a feeling this wont get updated very often.  So we went to Macworld and had a great time.  With the exception of registration at the beginning we had a great time.  Check this out . . .

That's only a small section of the crowd believe it or not.  They only had 4 people working the check in counter . . . what a joke!  Anyways, watching the keynote was really cool and as predicted Apple released the new MacBook Air.  If you think it looks cool in the ads you should see it in person - here are a few shots of it next to my buddies cell phone. . . 

It's crazy small and looks great . . . but . . . it does seem to be a little light on features as well.  It lacks firewire, ethernet and an optical drive.   Even so, it's pretty cool.  Full review HERE.  Apple also released a new update for for the iPhone, Apple TV and a movie rental service through iTunes.  All cool stuff!

The next night we had a booth at the Final Cut Pro User's Group Supermeet.  We had a great time and got a lot of interest in the RED camera.  It was a great trip.

TB

Macworld '08

It's that time of year again when Apple Ner . . . I mean Fans gather together to see what will be this years "must have" from one of the most innovative companies on the planet.  It will be difficult to top last years Macworld which saw the birth of the iPhone but the rumor mill has been a buzz with a couple products in particular that might just do it.  A flash-based subnotbook that carries Wimax (a wireless hotspot that can reach 30 miles in diameter giving you access anywhere in a city) and something called "Inductive Charging" which means it would not need a physical contact but only be in close proximity to the charging source - essentially wireless charging.  Sounds pretty cool but could be way off.  We'll find out tomorrow.

TB

Bye Bye Gazebo

Here a few shots of my backyard I took with my iPhone.  It's tough to see, but that mass of metal and canvass at the back used to be my Gazebo.  You can actually see where the wind sheared the metal bars in half!

Crazy Storm

Yesterday was the first day in a series of storms that are supposed to sweep through the Sacramento Valley over the next week.  Not only did we get a lot of rain (over 4 inches in 24 hours in some areas!) but man was it windy!  Over 80mph gusts!  As you can imagine it caused a few problems with power and debris.  This has been great for the Mountains though.  They're saying that when all is said and done this could leave upwards of 10 feet of new snow in upper elevations!  This would be great considering the lack of snow we've had over the last few years.  My cousin and I have a trip planned in February for Utah.  Going to hit Snowbird and possibly a few other locations so lets hope this storm makes it's way to Utah too!

TB

Another Silverado Job Complete

This week we successfully wrapped up a 4 seat Xsan install at EMC in Roseville.  They are a great group of people who have done some very creative work.  Check out their website HERE.  Thanks to Scott, Mads and the entire crew for being so great to work with!

TB

Silverado Happenings

We've got some really cool things going on at Silverado right now - unfortunately, I can't give specifics on most of them but will do the best I can.  On January 2nd, we increased our staff by over 30%!  This brought our staff total from 3 to 4   =)  Erik Espera joined the team to take over the Studio division of the company.  Erik is easily one of the top 5 editors in the Sacramento Region and a HUGE addition to the team.  He brings over 14yrs experience to table and as done some amazing work.  We're thrilled to have him.

Speaking of Post and editing, here's a shot of our editing suite:

Right now it's mainly used for color correction due to the fact that we have a Mortgage Company on one side and a Financial Planner on the other.  They tend not to appreciate wall shaking sound like we do . . .  It's a great suite though - eCenima Display, Tangent CP100 Panel, couple of decks (HDCAM, HDV, DVC Pro) and a 42" Panasonic Plasma on the wall.  Final Cut Studio 2 for our NLE running on an 8-Core Mac Pro.  We've recently added an LTO-3 deck for archiving and will be getting a Scratch system from Assimilate any day now for support of a full range of RED formats and resolutions to full 4k.

We're growing like crazy and are continuously looking for a location that will allow us to expand. I'm absolutely ecstatic about what lies ahead for Silverado - I'll post more details about current projects as they become available.

TB

Happy New Year

What better time to start a blog than the first day of a new year.  After years of good intentions, I'm finally becoming a "blogger."  I think I may be one of the last people on earth to not have my own Blog - just like I was the last person to get a MySpace page (which I had for all of about two weeks before realizing how much I hate MySpace).  Anyhow, this Blog is going to be dedicated to two of my passions in life: Snow & Technology.  Yes I'm passionate about my family but my wife has had a Blog about the Berry Family for about two years now and she's doing a far better job than I could ever do.  You can check it out at HERE. 

 2007 was an interesting year for the us.  Full of all kinds of highs and lows.  I started the year in the Mortgage Business.  I became a licensed loan office back in late 2003 where I worked for a company called Fidelity Capital Lending.  It was a great place and I have lots of good friends over there.  Things started out well and I went from making a small income while going to school to making a great income working full time.  Things happened fast then, we had our first child, Hailee, and bought our first house in Folsom all in the same month!  Things were good in 04 & 05.  In early 2006 the market began to change ever so slightly and I began to see a decline in business.  

By mid 2006 I was still doing pretty good but had a sinking feeling that things were about to change . . .  In December one of my favorite banks closed there doors which marked the beginning of the end for me.  I was waiting for loan docs for some clients of mine purchasing their first home.  We were a good 30 days into the transaction and all that was left was to sign loan docs which were guaranteed to me by 12pm that day.  We had a 6pm signing scheduled to close the deal.  Noon came along . . . no docs.  Called the bank and was told they were in a meeting and that I would have my docs by 3pm - still enough time for me to review and get them signed at 6pm.  3pm came and went . . . still no docs.  I called again but this time no answer.  Try again at 3:30 . . . no answer.  Try at 4pm . . . no answer.  Try again at 5:00, 5:15, 5:30 . . . Panic!  Finaly at 5:45 my inside account rep called me from her cell phone and said, "I'm not supposed to be calling anyone but wanted to let you know - we're closing our doors and NOT honoring our pipeline.  You'll have to find a loan somewhere else . . . "  Wha?  800 people lost their jobs that day with less than 4 hours notice.  I found another loan for my clients but that was the writing on the wall.

From there the banks dropped like flies . . . New Century, BNC, First Magnus, Greenpoint . . . These were some big name banks that no one thought in a million years would be gone so quickly.  Messages like this were a dime a dozen . . .

New Century went from having almost 2 billion in assets to closing their doors and filing BK in less than a year.  They are the poster child for poor decision making in the subprime arena.  HERE's a great timeline of their demise.

In March of '07 I left Fidelity and went to work for Masters Team Mortgage.  I can't say enough good things about these people!  Love them all!  I was a loan officer there for about 3 months before becoming Broker of Record due to some unforeseen circumstances.  Even though I was with great people at a great new company, my business was still floundering.  I began to realize I was never really passionate about the business but more so the checks that came in early on.  I decided it was time for a change and in July I decided to go back to doing something I really loved . . . working with Macs.

Through a few random events I met Torrey Loomis, President of Silverado Systems, Inc.  I can't describe what a perfect match this company is for me.  So far, in the 6 short months I've been there, I've had the opportunity to work on projects for clients like NBC and NASA, work with ground-breaking technology like the RED cameras, dine with the most sought after action director in Hollywood and most of all, work with Macs on a daily basis.  What a breath of fresh air!

So, there's a not so brief look at where I'm coming from.  The rest of this blog will be dedicated to current goings-on at Silverado and Snowboard adventures with me and my buddies.  OR this will be the only post I'll do and my blog will end up like my MySpace page . . . . I guess we'll see!

TB