Jeff Mottle

Soma Media, an experiencedvideo-based recording company, is back this year at SIGGRAPH2008, officiallyrecording the Conference presentations. The end result: a comprehensiveDVD-ROM set called SIGGRAPHEncore

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philip kelly

Too much to expect the videos to be screend for free on line.

I disllike the greed element of this type of thing.
Sorry Geff you won't agree, but info like this should be available to the masses for free, and not charged for.
You can't tell me people don't make a profit from the whole organisation of the event, otherwise they would not do it.

It will be on youtube within a month, I am sure.

Phil

Dave Buchhofer

the majority of the information is available freely online from the original presenters. You pay for the (VERY) nice convienience of the videos and presentations in an easy to digest format.

And if you think there is no investment made in recording and formatting this info then that's just plain naive

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Dave.
TD / EwingCole DMG

philip kelly

I am sure there was investment made.

But if people can't afford to go, because of the prices which are rediculas, what makes people think they can afford to pay 300 dollars for a set of DVD's

I think it is taking advantage.

Ya get nothin for nothin these dyas, but people have become very good at charging for everything especially in this business.

i have always found it rediculas that you have to pay to see the companies present the software you already own, and tell what they have improved or what errors they have fixed.
Bloody cheek
I know that's not all that gets presented, but you have to see it for the end users side at least.

Jeff Mottle

I should say so. When you get some free time go and check out how much it costs to host streaming video with a CDN (Content Delivery Network). I've done extensive research and trust me it ain't cheap, not even close. It always boggles my mind how all of these videos sites like YouTube stay afloat (deep pocket owners aside), as they are paying in the high hundreds of thousands of dollars a month if not into the millions.

SIGGRAPH is a non-profit, so they don't make a profit. In fact almost no one makes money in the organization of SIGGRAPH. Even the conference chair who overseas the entire show and in many cases has to take a sabbatical 2 years before the show makes nothing for their work.

Hehe, you're right, I don't agree. Say, I need some renderings done for a project I'm working on. You wouldn't mind sliding me around 5 or 6 would ya. You just press the rendering button and it's all done for you by the computer, so it's not big deal right?

The company that SIGGRAPH hired probably charged them a nominal fee and they are probably paying their own costs and salaries from the fees they make on the sale of the videos. If SIGGRAPH does make any money it only goes into the coffers for the next event anyway. I don't know the exact arrangement they made, but I do know that SIGGRAPH when it can tries to get donations for everything, but that's not always possible, so they have to make money somehow. SIGGRAPH is a multi-million dollar event, so it does not materialize itself without some money. Just as the VisMasters DMVC does not.


You really need to step behind the curtain on conference management and organization. There is a lot more too it than most people realize. People need to earn a living somehow and as I mentioned above video is NOT cheap. The cost of video hosting is a direct result of the fee charged by the owners of the huge pipes on the internet. The internet was never designed to accommodate video so these companies are paying billions to upgrade their network hardware to accommodate. The cost trickles downhill and the final user pay their part too for using the pipes that deliver the content.


Not sure which companies you are referring to, but the events Autodesk puts on for example (see the one i just posted last night) is free. All of their road shows are free. The masterclasses they put on are done by experts in the industry who don't show software updates, but their own production techniques. They are paid for their time as it's a lot of work to put together a presentation, so they have to be compensated. I suppose Autodesk could just absorb the cost as a marketing expense, but they know people will pay..so they charge for it. I doubt they make any money off it and it probably is a break even proposition as that is not their core business.

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Jeff Mottle
CGarchitect.com

Antisthenes

hey i didn't pay Rhinoceros let me in for free and you too if you would have wanted to go.


PS reading your post with a irish accent is fun

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The most necessary/useful piece of learning is that which unlearns what is untrue: 'evil'
may be acquiring Happiness through virtue which is based on knowledge!/?

Jeff Mottle

But that only get's you access to the floor not the sessions. You can still learn a lot from the floor though.

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Jeff Mottle
CGarchitect.com

Antisthenes

just fold the green part of your pass backwards

everything was fun and educational

__________________
The most necessary/useful piece of learning is that which unlearns what is untrue: 'evil'
may be acquiring Happiness through virtue which is based on knowledge!/?

philip kelly

Reading it with a German one would be funnier.


Well I still say it is expensive.
We have only two liciences for autodesk max.
We have over 200+ Bentley microstaion, and one person gets invited to the conference a year in america.

As I have said, i would love to go, and i am sure i would love it i live this job. as do you i am sure.

I appreciate the fact that you responded to all the comments i made.

So why is it so expensive to go to these events then, if alot of companies pay for thier own staff and works?

it's difficult to try and keep up with the industries latest advances , and seems if you have money under your belt you get to do more.

is that right ?

phil

Jeff Mottle

Not sure I understand what you are asking. Can you rephrase?

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Jeff Mottle
CGarchitect.com