Adobe TV debuted today with a wealth of ready-to-view video content, much of it aimed at InDesign-using graphic designers. What’s nice is that you don’t need to run out and buy an HDTV – just go to https://tv.adobe.com and watch the shows in your browser. (You may be prompted to install the Flash Player v9 plug-in, because the Adobe TV “network” is also a proof-of-concept showcase for its just-released product, the Adobe Media Player.)
I just finished watching three of the 50+ programs currently available, each belonging to one of their four Adobe TV “channels:” Designer, Photographer, Video Professional, and Developer. I only meant to watch just one show, because I have work to do, but it was like potato chips. Just one more. Okay one more. Finally I tore myself away to write this up!
While some of the content appears to be repurposed video from existing podcasts and training companies (Lynda.com, Total Training, the Creative Suite podcast), what I loved were the “made-for-Adobe TV” shows like Caffe Fibonacci, Tim Cole and Rufus Deuchler’s “digital kitchen:”
Caffe Fibonacci appears to be broadcast from an elegantly rustic kitchen in Tuscany, and even the list of topics they’re going to cover is conveyed by a “Today’s menu” video overlay. Tim and Rufus sit with their laptops behind a kitchen island laden with loaves of fresh-baked bread and slabs of cheese (mmm cheese…), and for about 30 minutes talk about (and show) neat InDesign tricks and effects, all of which integrate features in Illustrator, Photoshop and Bridge.
There are many more Adobe TV exclusive shows that I plan on watching whenever I can steal a few minutes away from deadlines, like Lynn Grillo and Adam Pratt’s “The Lazy Designer;” and Julieanne Kost’s “The Complete Picture” (about Photoshop and Lightroom).
But if you only have time for one program today, you MUST watch Kush Amerasinghe’s program “Ask the Adobe Ones.” (I think it’s supposed to sound like “Obi-Wans.”) The show’s graphics and soundtrack are a meld of Law & Order CSI and “24.” Adobe staffer Kush, in an hysterically funny deadpan delivery, promises to do whatever is necessary to track down the answer to “all your questions — okay, maybe not all, but at least the ones related to Adobe products.”
To submit a question, you’re supposed to upload a video of you asking it to any video hosting service like youtube.com or blip.tv, and then e-mail a link to the video to him at the address he provides on screen. Can’t wait to see the next episode!
This article was last modified on December 18, 2021
This article was first published on April 9, 2008
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