Software packages are complex. Shouldn't software books make it easier? Simplify your life with The Focal Easy Guide to Final Cut Pro 5! This short, full-color book lives up to its name by paring down the software to its essentials. It covers only the key features and essential workflow to get you up and running in no time. When time is of the essence, less is more.

With this book you can start cutting immediately, whatever you edit, whatever the format. This is an ideal introduction whether you are a professional moving over to Final Cut Pro from another package or system, a new user, or just someone who wants to get the best results from Final Cut Pro, fast!

* Save time, learn all you need to know to edit professionally with FCP5 in a few hours!
* Concise full-color coverage, written for FCP5 but relevant to all versions

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Mobile Media and Applications - From Concept to Cash shows how to address the challenges of consumer marketing, technology strategy and delivery tactics for new 3G services from a pragmatic ‘how they did it’ approach. Combining the authors’ technical competence, business experience and consumer understanding, the book pinpoints the pitfalls and keys to success in the industry.  The authors offer an end-to-end view, covering customer needs, analysis of the many complex value chains, the capabilities and limitations of the technologies, and the packaging and launch of new mobile services.  Based on real case studies and experiences, analysis and advice is given to help the reader succeed in the real world.

Mobile Media and Applications - From Concept to Cash:

• Explains how media companies can go mobile, how the telecoms, media and IT industries are converging and how even a frog can top the CD singles chart with a ringtone.
• Built heavily on case studies from real implementations and launches of services such as mobile TV, music and gaming.
• Describes how many service environments today are failing and highlights best practices to make them efficient and powerful.
• For the first time ever, the impact of mobile devices and customer behavior for mobile services is analyzed in depth.
• Offers an accompanying website with additional case studies, articles and links to the best developer forums and resources.

Decision makers, professionals and application developers in the IT, Telecoms and Media industries, as well as enterprises, analysts, consultants, financial services, and journalists will find this an invaluable guide to creating successful mobile services. Advanced students in Electrical Engineering and Telecoms as well as business schools will find this book a useful addition to their reading list.

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Software programs are complex, the books that explain them shouldnt be. This thoroughly illustrated, full-color guide explains everything you need to know to get up and running quickly with Adobe Encore DVD 2.0 without any extraneous information or complicated, detailed explanations. The author focuses solely on the key features you will need to start producing and mastering professional-quality DVDs immediately in order to avoid overloading you with too many details. Learn best practices for planning your project, importing video and audio assests, creating professional-looking menus, and adding custom project elements. Abundant illustrations, screenshots, and concise, results-driven text makes this the ultimate guide to getting up and running quickly with Encore DVD.

The Focal Easy Guide Series:
* Start working with new software immediately regardless of your level
* Achieve professional results, learn practical skills from industry experts
* Focused, user-friendly coverage of the key tools you need to know

* Learn all the essentials for DVD creation: project planning, importing assets, timeline creation, transcoding, menu creation, adding custom project elements and more!
* Distills everything you'll need to know without delving into extraneous information and overloading you with too many details
*Abundant full-color screenshots and illustrations bring the instructions to life
*Accompanying website withdownloads and all the lastest software updates can be found at www.focalpress.com/companions/0240520041

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"Dale Angell's Filmmaker's Guide to Final Cut Pro Workflow is the postproduction supervisor's equivalent to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
It provides a babelfish to translate Geek speak into plain English. His wealth of experience in editing and sound makes the book an invaluable aid to navigating the plethora of HD codecs and finishing workflows now available to editors. Don't leave home without it."
–Lois Freeman-Fox, A.C.E

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Bypassing the old circuit-switched hardware, softswitches streamline message traffic and provide a much more efficient service development environment. Along with SIP, this technology leverages Internet technologies to replace plain-old-telephone service. Developers who are freed up by softswitch technology to build cost-effective 3G serives will learn how it works and what applications it can support. Network managers making hard decisions about whether to deploy VoIP will learn pros and cons, costs and benefits, and most importantly how to separate myth from reality.

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Take your Maya skills to new levels with the sophisticated coverage you'll find in this authoritative Autodesk Maya Press reference and tutorial. From key basics through advanced techniques, our Maya experts provide the very latest professional-level instruction on Maya Complete and Maya Unlimited.

Early chapters offer a practical overview of Maya's interface. A "Quick Start" exercise lets novices create an animation the first day and covers the basics of node structure, keyframes, and basic lighting. Advanced users will broaden their skills with pertinent coverage for nCloth, mental ray integration, volume Fur rendering, advanced texturing tools, and enhanced MEL scripting. Practical tutorials reinforce learning with hands-on practice.

If you've been looking for a professional-quality and complete Maya resource to turn to again and again, this is the book.

• Render and store stills through the Render View window
• Learn techniques with nCloth's powerful cloth simulation
• Tweak and add drag-and-drop Fluid Effects for real-world effects

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Now there's a single definitive source for everything Flash developers need to know to integrate cutting-edge video into a website—seamlessly. Whether your Flash skills focus on design or programming, this guide helps you with every phase from writing the project proposal to deploying finished applications. A step-by-step workflow directs you through setting up a work environment, designing applications, using ActionScript 2 and 3, Flash® Media Server 2, and every stage in between. Packed with tried-and-true solutions and detailed code examples, it's exactly what you need to deliver interactive video to your clients.

Understand your clients' needs and ask the right questions to determine the scope of their projects.
Obtain source video and optimize it for Web-based playback.
Develop a site or Web application that incorporates video.
Create and skin a player with Flash in both ActionScript 2 and ActionScript 3.
Explore hosting requirements, server options, and streaming vs. progressive download delivery.
Publish your site and enable the client to update it with automated tools.
Learn how to create full-featured video players with custom-designed skins.
Develop professional interactive video applications that utilize the power of ActionScript 2 and 3.

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Go beyond the mechanics of Final Cut Express HD 3.5–learn how to edit with it! More than a button-pushing manual–this workshop give you firsthand experience with the art and technique of editing. You develop a working knowledge of this powerful editing application with eleven tutorials that cover each and every essential, including:

• setting up your system and understanding the interface
• getting your material into FCE and organizing it
• slicing, dicing, and organizing clips
• editing to build and trim a sequence of shots
• adding transitions
• using sound to refine your edit
• titling with FCE and Photoshop
• animating images to create engaging scenes
• adding special effects filters
• compositing to enhance your projects
• outputting your material

The companion DVD contains a video introduction to FCE that is especially designed for iMovie users. It compares and contrasts the two applications to ease the transition. The DVD-ROM portion contains project media, demo software, and free plug-ins for your use

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Now there's a single definitive source for everything Flash developers need to know to integrate cutting-edge video into a website—seamlessly. Whether your Flash skills focus on design or programming, this guide helps you with every phase from writing the project proposal to deploying finished applications. A step-by-step workflow directs you through setting up a work environment, designing applications, using ActionScript 2 and 3, Flash® Media Server 2, and every stage in between. Packed with tried-and-true solutions and detailed code examples, it's exactly what you need to deliver interactive video to your clients.

• Understand your clients' needs and ask the right questions to determine the scope of their projects

• Obtain source video and optimize it for Web-based playback

• Develop a site or Web application that incorporates video

• Create and skin a player with Flash in both ActionScript 2 and ActionScript 3

• Explore hosting requirements, server options, and streaming vs. progressive download delivery

• Publish your site and enable the client to update it with automated tools

Learn how to create full-featured video players with custom-designed skins

Develop professional interactive video applications that utilize the power of ActionScript 2 and 3

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Design, develop, select, deploy, and support advanced IP-based audio and video conferencing systems

Scott Firestone, Thiya Ramalingam, Steve Fry

As audio and video conferencing move rapidly into the mainstream, customers and end users are demanding unprecedented performance, reliability, scalability, and security. In Voice and Video Conferencing Fundamentals, three leading experts systematically introduce the principles, technologies, and protocols underlying today’s state-of-the-art conferencing systems. Discover how to use these concepts and techniques to deliver unified, presence-enabled services that integrate voice, video, telephony, networks, and the Internet—and enable breakthrough business collaboration.

The authors begin with a clear, concise overview of current voice and video conferencing, including system components, operational modes, endpoints, features, and user interactivity. Next, they illuminate conferencing architectures, offering practical insights for designing today’s complex IP-based conferencing and collaboration systems.

Topics covered in this book include video codecs, media control, SIP and H.323 protocols and applications, lip synchronization in video conferencing, security, and much more. Throughout the book, the authors draw on their extensive experience as Cisco® technical leaders, showing how to avoid the most common pitfalls that arise in planning, deployment, and administration.

Voice and Video Conferencing Fundamentals is for every professional involved with audio or video conferencing: network and system administrators, engineers, technology managers, and Cisco solution partners alike. Whether you’re involved with design, development, selection, implementation, management, or support, you’ll find the in-depth knowledge you need to succeed.

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