The Lung Cancer Alliance has recently been working on a national campaign to increase lung cancer awareness called “LCA All-Stars,” and they turned to some big names in professional sports to help spearhead that effort.  Within the next month, Cal Ripkin Jr., Joe Buck, and Troy Aikmen will be appearing in a series of PSAs destined for TV, web and print.  And LCA picked PMI’s Shannon Barry to shoot anddirect the PSA’s.

Over several weeks, Shannon traveled to Baltimore to shoot Ripkin, and to St. Louis to shoot Buck.  He describes the two as “very genuine and interested in boosting awareness of lung cancer, as both men lost fathers to the disease".  Although unable to attend the Aikmen shoot, Shannon did help to produce his PSA as well., In the words of Laurie Fenton Ambrose, President and CEO of the Lung Cancer Alliance, “To say this campaign ‘knocks it out of the ballpark’ is an understatement.  PMI has gone above and beyond its call of duty with both its deliverables and its creative product.”

As the only national non-profit organization dedicated solely to patient support and advocacy for people living with lung cancer or those at risk for the disease, the Lung Cancer Alliance offers several programs to achieve their goals.  Some of these include the Lung Cancer Hotline, the Phone Buddy Program, and Lung Cancer Awareness Month.  For more information on these and other programs, and to learn more about the Lung Cancer Alliance, please visit www.lungcanceralliance.org.

	Lung Cancer Alliance All Stars
	High Definition Video Conversions
	Reach Out to the Generation Text

Reach out to the Generation Text

Text the keywords “OTG PMI” to 56658 from your mobile phone.

If you followed the directions above, then you've just seen a demonstration of PMI's new SMS service. Better known as "text messaging," SMS, or Short Message Service, is the newest, coolest way to connect with your clients, or your clients’ customers, via their mobile phones.

With over a billion text messages sent per month in the U.S, a new generation of highly desirable, mobile customers is emerging.  You've probably heard the terms "thumb mob" or "generation text", but what you probably don't know is that SMS has rapidly established itself as the most effective way to generate revenue from this coveted demographic.

SMS campaigns rely on keywords that users enter into their mobile phones and then send to a "short code" number. Once that’s done, a message is quickly sent back. This message could contain product information, news, content, ring tones or links to a web-enabled site.

SMS can be an added-value feature of any marketing campaign. Use offline media such as TV, radio and print to encourage customers to opt-in to your SMS campaigns. When customers "text" you back, you will be establishing a group of people who are interested enough in your product to respond. Talk about a targeted audience! Using SMS can help advertisers determine the effectiveness of a TV, radio or print campaign by tracking the number of customers who have opted-in for offers like mobile coupons or mobile downloads.  You can also drive opt-in consumers to websites to redeem coupons and provide you with more detailed CRM data.

SMS can also be used as a premium, revenue-generating service for subscription content or to participate in contests, cast a vote, download a ring tone or take a quiz.

PMI now offers a platform to allow anyone to utilize SMS as part of their overall marketing efforts. Want to know more about how PMI can work with you to create engaging SMS campaigns? Contact Evie DeSarno or Dee Dee Woods at 412.281.8500.

High Definition Video Conversions

While the slow march toward high-definition video production continues, one particular advancement in consumer electronics is making inroads into professional production.  The HDV camera, originally developed for consumer use, is an advancement of the popular DV format, used in almost all modern consumer and some “pro-sumer” cameras.

The availability of an HD camera costing around $1,000 (about $5,000 for professional models) has proven to be irresistible for some applications.  The relative high-quality image and widescreen format make HDV very useful in situations where a low-cost, low-profile camera is desirable.  But one of the technological advances that makes HDV possible can also make for some difficulties after the shoot is over and the post production process starts.

Packing all of that HD video data into a small recording bandwidth requires data compression.  HDV uses the familiar MPEG-2 compression format, used in DVD, digital television (DTV) and digital satellite TV.  MPEG compression uses a technology known as “Group of Pictures” or GOP, which basically records one full-quality frame, followed by heavily compressed frames of “difference” information.  This makes editing HDV video in its native format difficult, as edit decisions will likely fall within these groups of compressed frames.

While there are some editing platforms designed for HDV, the more common way of handling this problem is to convert the HDV data into another format, one which can be edited on a frame-by-frame basis.  This can be accomplished in software, which is time-consuming and computer resource-intensive.  Another method is to convert the HDV data stream, in real-time, to base-band digital video, which can then either be directly captured into an editor, or recorded on another HD tape format.  PMI has installed just such a conversion system.  It can take the incoming HDV data stream from an HDV camera or VTR via the device’s “firewire” port and convert it directly into a high-definition HD-SDI (serial digital interface) video signal with embedded digital audio. 

The converters can also down-convert the HD video into standard-definition video, for use in SD editing systems or SD video tapes or DVDs.  This is useful for attaining viewing DVD’s of large amounts of HD shoot footage quickly and fairly inexpensively.  This down-conversion process can handle the 16:9 widescreen conversions in three selectable ways:  The “squeeze” mode, also called anamorphic, visually compresses the widescreen image into the more-narrow 4:3 SD frame.  The “letterbox” mode also contains the full widescreen image, but without the image compression, creating the familiar black bands at the top and bottom of the picture.  The third mode is the “edge crop” mode, which simply clips-off the left and right portions of the widescreen image which do not fit in the 4:3 frame.  This last mode is useful when 16:9 HD video is shot in a “4:3 protect” mode, which keeps important action and information out of the extreme sides of the frame.

This converter is ready to handle your HDV conversion needs.  We can transfer the HDV video into our high-definition  editing systems or record onto Sony HDCam video tapes.  Or, if your needs are in standard definition, we can record onto formats such as Digital Beta, Beta-SP, DVD video, DVCam or DVC-Pro (even VHS, if needed!).  For more information, give me a call or send an email to edfrat@pmidigital.com.

HD Down Conversion Modes