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Hi Igor When you were at the RPS International at Cirencester last year, you gave a demonstration of Gaussian blur of an image in Objects and Animation and said it would be implemented in Version 7. This is an extremely useful feature to have but I cannot see it anywhere in any of the Betas. All that seems to be there is the unsharp mask. Do you still intend to include this feature? Jill AV News Editor www,avnews.org.uk

If people wish to make donations in memory of Peter, then the preferred charity is The British Heart Foundation Flowers should be sent to :- Robert Shaw Greenwood. Funeral Directors Albert Street, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, HX7 8AH Details are also on AV News website Jill & John AV News editors

It is with great sadness that we also heard this news. Peter was a truly great AV worker. His enthusiasm & knowledge will be missed by all those who knew him. He helped & inspired so many people. Long may his sequences live on to inspire yet more. Our deepest sympathies to his family. An Obituary to Peter will be published in the May issue of AV News Jill & John AV News Editors avnews.org.uk

Hi Igor, No sound on video. Also Offset on video not working. Type in offset time but video always plays from start of slide. When I go back into O&A window offset has gone back to zero. Jill

Hi Peter, Yes I am using Frames, but it is the individual animations within the Frames that I need to move. Grouping of keypoints really is something that is needed. Far more important than the inclusion of video in my opinion!! The other thing needed is the abilty to zoom in & out on the O&A timeline with CTRL +F11 & F12 We can do it on the main Timeline window & it would be great if we could have a similar view, with the waveform visible & time shown as in the main Timeline window. It is ok if you only have a slide with a time of a couple of seconds, but when doing complex animations you often need a screen time of say 20 or 30 seconds. The view can become very cramped & difficult with a lot of keypoints. And yes before you ask I do try to split things down so that not too much is happening on one slide! Igor if you can possibly incorporate these features (which are already available in the main window) please, please do so. It would make PTE so much easier to use. Jill

Does anyone know if there is a way of grouping keypoints together to move them as a block. With the slides we can click on the first & shift-click on the last, or CTRL click on the ones required to select a group. These can then be moved along the timeline as a block. I need to do the same with keypoints. I have several objects, 20 to be exact & I need to move their individual animations along the timeline by a few seconds. Each object has several keypoints & to have to do each one individually making sure I keep the correct spacing between them will take forever. I have other objects on this slide with complex animations that need to stay put so I cannot just move the slide. I have tried all combintations of click with CTRL ALT & Shift but can only select one keypoint at once. If there is currently no way of doing this, Igor can you please make this option available. It would save so much time when finalising the timing of an animation.

The Citation for Igor's award is available on www.avnews.org.uk along with some details about the award & previous recipients. Maurice and Liliane Dorikens of Belgium were also awarded a Dobson Henry medal for their services to AV. Pictures & results of the Internationals are also available on the website along with details of other events & festivals (on the Calendar Page) Jill & John Editors of AV News Magazine

The Citation for Igor's award is available on www.avnews.org.uk along with some details about the award & previous recipients. Maurice and Liliane Dorikens of Belgium were also awarded a Dobson Henry medal for their services to AV. Pictures & results of the Internationals are also available on the website along with details of other events & festivals (on the Calendar Page) Jill & John Editors of AV News Magazine

In the UK, to use Commercial music legally you must hold the appropriate licenses, MCPS, BPI and PPL. Members of the RPS & PAGB can purchase the MCPS & BPI for £8.54 which allow you to record the music, but in order to play those recordings in public you must hold the PPL which is only available to IAC Members. For IAC members the Licenses cost £7.17 & membership is currently £37.50. One of the conditions of the BPI license is that 'The NAMES of all instrumental groups, bands, orchestras, choruses, solo artists and/or performers shall NOT be identified in the subtitles or credits etc.' We recently featured a 4page article on this subject in AV News Magazine (Issue 177 August 2009). See AV News website for more details & Links to the appropriate IAC pages Jill & John AV News Editors

Update from a freind who rang the hospital to ask about George and although they cannot give information to “friends” they took the phone to him and were able to speak him personally. 'George said immediately that he went under a lorry, so showing his memory is not affected! He has broken his leg in two places and his wrist but is already keen to know how long he will be before he is fit again so fighting back already. He sounded strong and says he is alive and kicking albeit kicking with one leg. He sends thanks and regards to all who have enquired about him.' We wish him a speedy & full recovery. Jill & John AV News Editors www.avnews.org.uk

For details of AV Events around the world see AV News We try to list as many events as possible on the Calendar page, go to Events & then click on 'Full Calendar' to access. There is a Google Translate facility at the bottom of each page for those who prefer to read it in their native language. Please send us details of any AV Events/Competitons/Festivals along with contact details & we will advertise them for you. We would also appreciate reports & pictures of these events to include in the Magazine. We are trying to make the Magazine as International as possible & have Subscribers across the world, so please let us know what is going on in your area. See the Contacts Page for details of where to send information. The next issue is due out on November 1st & to ensure inclusion our copy deadline is 23rd September. We look forward to meeting a lot of PTE Forum Members at the UK AV National Championships at Leicester 19th & 20th September. Jill & John Editors AV News

When the sequence ran out of sync, the laptop screen was on & that was also displaying at 1400 x 1050 So I suppose it was having to upsize 2 displays. As it was not my equipment I wasn't in a position to alter anything or switch off the laptop screen. From what I can remember the sequence at the time was made with version 5, it was a while ago so things may be different with a sequence made in version 5.6 of PTE One thing I have noticed on doing some tests, is with another sequence originally made in version 5.0 where I have a horizontal pan. The image is set to 1530 x768 & set to 'Original' Mode in the Common Tab of the O&A. This was so that it would keep the full horizontal width. At the time I only had a 1024 x 768 monitor so all of the images displayed at the full height of 768. Displaying it on a monitor which is 1200 x 800 all of the other images are resized to fill the height of the screen ie 800 pixels. They are also increased in width to keep the aspect ratio of 4x3. This is what will happen if projected at 1400 x 1050, the image is increased in both height & width to fit the display resolution. BUT the horizontal panned image is not resized & still appears at 768 high. So a black bar appears at the top & bottom of this image. This is not too noticeable at 1200 x 800 but if increased to 1400 x 1050 on a large screen the difference would be really apparent. I now realise that I should have set the mode of this panned image in PTE 5.0 to be 'Cover Slide' & not 'Original' as this will then allow it to be increased to match the display resolution. When converting to 5.6 all of the images were automatically set to 'Fit to Slide' But the panned image was still shown at a smaller height than the others. I think this is because PTE recognised that my display was now 1200 x 800 & so set the 'size of slide' in the Screen Tab of Project Options to be 1067 x 800 It also ticked the 'Fixed size of slide' box. All of the other images have the zoom set to 100 in the O&A Animation tab, but for the panned image this has now been set to 143.393 even though in version 5.0 it was set to 100 Even setting the 'size of slide' to be 1024 x 768 (which would result in the images being shown at the native size rather that projector resolution) the panned image is still shown at a smaller height than the other images. I am not quite sure of the way PTE has adjusted the images, all I know is that it is something to watch out for when converting sequences from earlier versions. Also if you have any sequences with images set to original mode, be they panned, zoomed or png images, they will not be adjusted to fill the new resolution. So it is something to bear in mind when sending sequences off to competitions etc. Jill

I have been reading Peter's initial question & all the answers with interest as all my sequences have been made at 1024 x 768. One thing that no one has mentioned is the problem of timing when upsizing a 1024 x768 show to project at 1400 x1050. This may not be noticeable on short sequences or ones which do not have critical timing of pictures to music. But I have had it happen to one of my own sequences, made at 1024 & played on a 1400 projector via a laptop. The sequence went out of sync!! Then, presumably when the next buffer load of information was read it came back in sync only to drift out again. The audience did not notice the problem but I certainly did!! It was a fairly high spec laptop that was running the show, so I do not think it was question of running out of memory or processing power. I don't know the exact spec as I was using the club's equipment where I was giving a talk. The sequence in question was 12 minutes long & did not have O&A it was just straight dissolves. So I hate to think what will happen to one that has a lot of fast animation!! This is a concern for the Nationals competition & something I also raised with the organisers, but have never had a reply! Maybe viewing the sequences at home on a small screen they will look ok, but when projected onto a large screen as used for this competition I have concerns that the images will not look as good as when projected at their native resolution. Maybe the Judges need to be made aware of which sequences are being upsized (& maybe which are downsized) The differences may only be slight, but I am sure that authors will notice if the sequence is not projected as well as they had intended even if the audience do not. Full details of the Nationals Championships including entry/booking forms & rules can also be found on the AV News website Jill

IAC Geoffrey Round International AV Competition Entry Forms for this Competition are now available for download on the AV News website The closing date has been extended to Saturday March 7th Hopefully all RPS AV Group Members & Subscribers should have received their copy of the February Issue by now. Please let us know if you haven't Jill & John Editors

AV News Issue 175 February 2009 is now published and should be with you by the end of the week. We have another bumper issue for you, this time with an International flavour. There are Articles from Switzerland, Belgium, Ireland and Bill Bruce of Norway. An image from his winning sequence 'Arctic Dreams' features on the Front Cover Check out the website avnews.org.uk to see the full Contents for this Issue. Jill & John Editors of AV News Magazine

Hi Ralph, Could you please add AV News Magazine to your list of links. I have sent you a personal email via the Webmaster link on your webiste so hope it reaches you. Jill Editor AV News Magazine Website www.avnews.org.uk for all the latest Audio Visual News & Views

Just to remind everyone that Subscriptions for 2009 to AV News Magazine are now due. AV News is published quarterly by the RPS (Royal Photographic Society) & is available to anyone by subscription. Printed in Full Colour the 56 pages are packed with articles, reviews, technical details, competition results, events, photographs, letters and queries. The next Issue is due out on 1st February. See http://www.avnews.org.uk for more details & to download an order form. Best Wishes Jill & John (Editors)

Hi Colin, If you have downloaded & installed the new Beta version of Audacity 1.3.6 this now has an option of altering playback speed. The Green triangle at the far right of the screen. Next to this is bar with - at the left & + to the right with a slider to adjust the speed. Make sure this is set to 1.00 If you Double Click the Slider another small window opens where you can type in an exact amount. If you have this set to a higher speed it could explain why your track is playing a lot faster than expected. Hope this helps solve your problem. Jill For all the latest Audio-Visual News subscribe to AV News Magazine See our website http://www.avnews.org.uk Subscriptions are now due for 2009 & the next Issuse is due out on 1st February.

Hi, I have been playing with the new transitions, especially the Swap 3D. Is it possible to change the black background to a colour or even better to a tiled image. I have tried all the settings but it still stays black. Have yet to decide how best to use Masks, but the possibilities look really good. Thanks to Igor & the team for all your hard work. Jill

1. I am trying to set up a menu to run slide shows from. I know how to do this & everything works ok. However when I create the menu using Version 5.1 & click on the link to a show the screen flashes several times before the expected show runs. Using Version 4.48 the menu screen sits there for a few seconds while the show loads then it runs smoothly. In Version 5.1 the screen also flashes when the show ends before it returns to the menu. 4.48 returns smoothly. I have created an exe of the 5.1 menu & it runs fine without flashes on a freinds laptop. A menu created on that laptop, runs fine there but flashes on my PC. Does anyone have any ideas???? I am running XP SP2 with 1gb Ram on an AMD 3000+ 1.81Ghz using a Nvidia GeForce 7300GS with 512 Ram in single monitor mode Display is set to 1024x768 2. As I will be running the Menu etc from an unknown computer when out giving shows I would like to be able to jump off to other applications, Photoshop etc. Again I know how to do this. But as I can't guarantee where the application will be on the club's computer I would prefer to be able to jump to the Windows Desktop to locate it or at least bring up the Start menu. Does anyone know how to call up the Desktop from within a PTE exe or even if it can be done??? Thanks for any advice you give. Jill (North Wales)