Australia’s best creatives are leaving our shores to take advantage of greater media opportunities overseas. That’s the view of HRX brand strategy head Elle Green, recounting her experience at the recent 2012 Circus Festival of Commercial Creativity in her Mumbrella article Why does Australia lack creativity?

While Australian parochialism and lucrative international opportunities may be spiriting away some of our brightest minds, a digital change is underway that may help to stem the flow.

A new report published in March by Boston Publishing Group and commissioned by Google is a must-read for anyone in the Australian digital media industry. The report states that digital media has been a “shot in the arm” for many sectors of Australian media and will be the driving force behind new media generation in the coming years.

Image source: Culture Boom: How Digital Media Are Invigorating Australia

Culture Boom: How Digital Media Are Invigorating Australia focuses on the number of Australians consuming digital media and the impact digital media is having on consumers, artists and the content sector in Australia. It claims that Australian media and content industry is in a healthy state, and is expected to grow over the next four years, driven primarily by internet media.

BCG’s independent investigation has a simple conclusion: “the Australian media and content industry is growing, consumers like what they are offered, and there are opportunities for all”.

Australians spend a substantial and growing proportion of their discetionary time consuming media. While the numbers are promising for digital media consumption, an imbalance still exists between traditional and digital media revenue. Online media generated only 7 per cent of the $24.8 billon made by media in 2011. With continued growth expected, there is huge potential for digital media generators. As more people embrace the internet and independent content generators enter the market, this lopsidedness will diminish further.

Digital media is having a destabilising effect on traditional channels, and the line between online and offline is increasingly blurring. The report states that a fifth of Australia’s opera audience is now online. Audiences accessing their favourite programs through television or online are not distinguishing between the services. Consumers are not spending less time on other forms of media, they are instead becoming adept at multi-tasking. Traditional companies that have not embraced online media have found it challenging to grow revenue and will continue to do, the report indicates.

There is a positive relationship between old and new media, and the internet has helped to stimulate interest in traditional forms of communication such as radio, television and newspapers.

Image source: Culture Boom: How Digital Media Are Invigorating Australia, Boston Publishing Group

As the report emphaticaly states, the consumer is now king. Their research shows the importance of content portals that empower the user, such as BigPond, iTunes and YouTube, displacing traditional cultural gatekeepers. ABC’s iview is a good example of a company reacting to changing consumption patterns. Importantly, the ability for users to shape their own experience means they value internet-based methods for accessing content more than traditional methods.

E-books and online games have seen large growth over the past few years, and are expected to continue to continue doing so. The success of Fruit Ninja by Brisbane’s Halfbrick Studio is cited as an example of the internet allowing independent artists to thrive.

Image source: Halbrick Studio

Digital media may provide the means for more Australian creatives to spread their wings and generate creative content for an increasingly expanding local and worldwide audience. The digital distribution, job and cultural landscape is constantly changing. I highly recommend the insight contained within BCG’s report, especially for those interested in the opportunities digital media provides to creative content generators.

The Artisan Baking Team visited Fine Food Queensland in Brisbane this weekend. Gauntlet Media came along to document and discover the power of sourdough.

This video had a quick turn around: two hours for filming and then edited and uploaded by the end of the day. I tried to learn from my first Bocuse d’Or video and kept the speeches for later into the video.

I broke up the start of the video with plenty of quick action shots to give the viewer a varied taste of what the event had to offer. I filmed a loaf of sourdough bread from my local bakery to intersperse during a baker’s speech and to illustrate the point he was making.

I will need to find a good source of free music online as I am currently paying for istockphoto.com audio tracks.

The Australian Artisan Baking Team is selected each year to compete at Sigep, an international baking competition held in Italy focused on sourdough bread and pastry. Visit the Sigep website here for more information about the competition.

Gauntlet Media has produced its first video, the Bocuse d’Or 2013 Australian selection. The event was held 20 February in Brisbane, Australia. The competition hosts were kind enough to invite us along to record the event.

The Bocuse d’Or (World Cooking Contest) is a biennial world chef championship. Since 1987, the Bocuse d’Or offers young chefs a unique opportunity to demonstrate their expertise and talent. In February 2012 the competition was held in Brisbane at the Southbank Institute of Technology, with the gala dinner at the Brisbane Exhibition and Convention Centre.

The winner will go on to compete in France in January 2013.

The video was produced using a Sony HDR-CX130E.

Some tips I learnt by going through the process of making the video:

• Go in with a plan. How long will the video go for? Who will you speak to? What will you show to viewers?
• Think about your audio conditions. Will it be noisy? Do you need to record events in different conditions?
• Make sure the video host can be seen as part of the action whenever possible.
• Take the same angled shot several times but in different ways: zoom in and hold steady, then zoom out again slowly. This will give you a few options to work with
• Make sure the viewer understands what is happening, even if you have to spell it out. There’s nothing worse than the viewer not understanding what is happening on-screen. Get the host to speak to the camera and explain what has happened and what will happen.
• Brevity is key. The video’s opening presentation by Gabriel Gate probably goes on longer than necessary, but I felt it was worthwhile setting up the credibility of the video and it does a succinct job of explaining what it is all about.
• Adobe Premiere Pro is a fantastic program

For more information about the Bocuse d’Or, visit their website.

Many of Australia’s best bakers and chefs have taken to Twitter with gusto. Foodies love to connect, follow and interact with those leading the food industry, and the artistry of making quality products and daily production cycles means there is always fresh content to update your Twitter feed with.

Twitter allows businesses to communicate messages that seem more personal and genuine than e-newsletters or website updates, and is an effective way of dealing with customer requests. The addition of photo sharing to Twitter late last year has been particularly beneficial for the food industry, allowing beautiful creations to be captured, shared and stored for all to see. For those in the industry looking to engage with their customers, starting a Twitter feed and sharing your work is a no-brainer. It has become almost mandatory for experienced and highly skilled chefs to buy a digital camera and learn some basic photography skills in order to stand out online.

Some of the best baking tweeters in Australia include Darren Purchese (@DarrenPurchese), Brett Noy (@UncleBobsBakery), Pierrick Boyer (@PierrickBoyer), Paris Cutler (@PlanetCake), Anna Polyviou (@ANNAPOLYVIOU), Jessica Pedemont (@ChocolaArtisan), Bernard Chu (@LuxBite), Michael Klausen (@BrasserieBread), Adriano Zumbo (@zumbopatisserie) and  Kirsten Tibballs (@SavourSchool).

In celebration of sharing good food on Australia Day, below are some of delectable creations recently tweeted by some of Australia’s best bakers and pastry chefs, including a few fresh takes on Australian classics.

Mobile phone user interface issues are explored in Dian Tjondronegoro’s new open-access book Mobile Multimedia – User and Technology Perspectives.

Telstra launched the first long-term evolution (LTE) or ’4G’ handset in Australia today, the HTC Velocity.  4G is the fourth generation of cellular wireless standards, with peak speed requirements for 4G service at 100 Mbit/s for high mobility communication.

What does this bode for the telecommunication industry? Is it the speed and size of multimedia content and communication that matters to mobile phone users or the device’s in-built user interface?

Mobile phone dependence has accelerated at an alarming rate. The introduction of Apple’s iPhone in 2007 catalysed the rapid uptake of high-band with mobile content, making multimedia applications and services mandatory for users. Video streaming, social communication feeds, digital markets and multimedia galleries have converged on the phone. The pressure is now on designers to create interfaces that provide both a high-quality experience and service for users.

Exploring the issue of mobile phone user interface experience is QUT associate professor Dian Tjondronegoro in his new open-access book Mobile Multimedia – User and Technology Perspectives. The timely publication opens with a section dealing with the challenges in mobile video delivery as one of the most bandwidth-intensive media that requires smooth streaming and a user-centric strategy to ensure quality of experience. The opening article by Dian quantifies the values, motivators and context associated with using mobile phones and how to understand the user experience.

The book looks at network and coding technologies, advances in wireless networks and VoIP. Attention is given to evaluating and understanding the mobile experience in public places.

For those interested in understanding some of the issues and terminology associated with mobile phone user experiences, this free book is a great way to start.