I apologize for being silent so long. I’m told by a reliable supervisor that the California strain of influenza, probably the strain I hosted last week during my ‘flu festival, was a) particularly hard-hitting and b) impervious to the flu vaccine that I didn’t qualify for anyway. Since I am a scholar, I am somehow comforted by this knowledge. And I believe I am on the mend. So without further ado, a gadget:

Lots of buzz in the aether about DEMO, the innovation/demonstration revue that just concluded in Scottsdale, Arizona. The press coverage I’ve seen has focused on blogging and wiki applications, which of course pleases me, but I’m even more pleased to see an old friend from my Amiga days still in play. NewTek brought the Video Toaster to market in the late 80s , and the era of affordable desktop video production was born. Now it looks as if NewTek may have another ace to play: the BlackBox.

BlackBox is a portable live production switcher/Web streaming appliance. For under $5K, BlackBox allows the user to produce a live event, including switching multiple cameras, graphics, pre-recorded video material, PC screen shots, etc. (eight simultaneous video and graphic sources) and stream the output to the Web in real time. There is no other similar product in terms of price range, range of functionality and portability, on the market today.

Live TV for five grand: just add cameras and event. I can imagine plenty of illicit uses for this gadget, but I can also imagine a revolution in webcasting for education, and I know some enterprising undergrads will start doing some deeply cool campus TV shows, coming soon to a desktop near you.

Actually, BlackBox is part of the product (or “solution,” as the buzz goes) called TriCaster, which NewTek bills as the world’s first portable live video production suite. I bet they almost called it a TriCorder, but sober heads intervened. In any event, this may turn out to be the Portastudio of the video world. I’m intrigued.