A Practical Guide To Video And Audio Compression (2005)

From The Author

When you write a book a book like this, it is the sum of so many people’s efforts and good­will. I would like to especially thank “J and Lo” (Joanne Tracey and Lothlórien Homet) of Focal Press for guiding me through the process of writing this book. Thanks to Gina Marzilli, who guided us down the right path on the administrative side. The manuscript was skill­fully progressed through the production process by Becky Golden-Harrell—thanks, Becky. Let’s do it again. Copyediting was ably managed by Cara Salvatore, Sheryl Avruch, and their team of experts. Thanks guys; you really turned this into a silk purse for me.

Of course, without the products in the marketplace, we’d have very little success with our endeavors. I’d like to send warm thanks to the team at Popwire in Sweden. Anders Norström and Kay Johansson have been immensely helpful. Over the last couple of years I’ve enjoyed getting to know members of the QuickTime team at Apple Computer. Thanks to Dave Singer, Rhondda Stratton, Tim Schaaf, Vince Uttley and Greg Wallace for their help and inspiration. Guys, you are doing wonderful stuff. Just keep on doing that thing that you do. Also at Apple, I’d like to thank Sal Soghoian for pointing out some really cool stuff that AppleScript does. Thanks go to Envivio for some very thought-provoking and inspiring conversations, especially the time I’ve spent with Rudi Polednik, Frank Patterson, and Sami Asfour. Greetings also to Diana Johnson, Dave Kizerian, and Matt Cupal of Sorenson and Annie Normandin of Discreet. Thanks for being there when I needed your help. In the latter stages of completeing the book, Janet Swift and Barbara Dehart at Telestream came through with some coolness that enabled me to make Windows Media files effortlessly on a Mac.
To the people who work so hard at the MPEGIF (formerly known as the M4IF), Rob Koenen, Sebastian Möritz, and your team, I thank you for your time and patience explain­ing things to me. I hope this is a journey we can travel together for many years yet as we see the new MPEG standards being widely adopted.

I have so many friends from my time at the BBC who unselfishly shared their expert­ise and knowledge. Foremost of these must be Russell Merryman, who produced the ele­phant cartoon and was also responsible—with Asha Oberoi, Robert Freeman, Saz Vora, and John Nicholas—for the MPEG-4 packaged multimedia concept studies way back in 2002. Thanks also to Julie Lamm, John Angeli, and everyone in the News Interactive department.

Thanks are due also to those individuals, companies, and organizations who gra­ciously permitted me to use their images in this project or spent time talking to me abouttheir work: Christopher Barnatt from the University of Nottingham; Simon Speight and Mark Sherwood from Gerry Anderson Productions; Guan at Etiumsoft; Jim Cooper at MOTU; David Carew-Jones, Anna Davidson, and Paul Dubery at Tektronix; Diogo Salari at DPI Productions; the folks at M-Audio; the Sales Web team at Apple Computer; Grant Petty and Simon Hollingworth at Black Magic Design; Julie Aguilar of ADC Telecommunications; Victoria Battison of AJA Video Systems; and Amanda Duffield of Pace Micro Technology.

I’d also like to thank Ben Waggoner for his unselfish sharing of many Master Compressionist’s secrets at conferences. Ben, I’ve learned many new things from you whenever I’ve been at your presentations. Thank you so much for encouraging people the way you do.
Read Comments For More Information