At a great “pre-conference” dinner (all sorts of tapas [see below], several wines, main course, deserts) sponsored by Nokia for a group of bloggers (including me) before the start of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, I heard an interesting suggestion that, if implemented, could significantly improve cellular videos.
Stowe Boyd, social networking consultant at /Messages [no, the slash isn’t a typo] suggested to Nokia that they offer a Bluetooth microphone that connects to Nokia camera phones for improving the audio of videos. The audio quality of cellular videos is often poor because the only microphone is built into the handset, which is often held too far from the subject(s) to produce good audio.
A video with poor picture quality but good audio is much better than great picture quality but poor audio.
How about it, Nokia?
If Nokia sold a small Bluetooth microphone for its camera phone, the mic be attached to the interviewee’s shirt, blouse or jacket. That would be a huge help in improving audio quality.
Another blogger, Alec Saunders, who is CEO of VoIP startup iotum, noted that he has a wired microphone for his Sony camcorder. A microphone attached via a camera phone via a cable is a bit more awkward, but the sound could be noticeably better than via WiFi.
Great idea. Nokia, are you interested?
Actually, Alan, my microphone is a Bluetooth microphone for my camcorder. Sony has done this already!
Posted by: Alec Saunders | February 19, 2008 at 04:28 PM