NYT on iChat/iSight and videoconferencing, Kevin Callahan is a pioneer

June 16, 2005

New York Times: Jerky Pictures and Sound Are History. Videoconferencing Is All Grown Up.

"When Kevin Callahan started offering classical guitar lessons over an Internet video link, he wanted the sound to be as close as possible to being in the same room. After experimenting, he built a system that channeled three guitars, a microphone, and an orchestral synthesizer through a professional mixing board to his Macintosh. From there, he blended the sound with Apple's GarageBand software before sending it out over the Internet."

We (me, Cheryl and the kids) had a wonderful time at Kevin's house on the way back from WWDC last Sunday morning. It was so great to meet up with Kevin again, it's been over 3 years since we've been face-to-face. He's been innovating with distance teaching for quite a while now, it's great to see him get some recognition as a pioneer in the area. :-)

During breakfast I mentioned that the last session of the week for me was really cool, some great high-end effects that really got me jazzed.

(Quotes paraphrased)

"Was Troy Stephens the presenter?" he asked.

"That name sounds familiar, I think so, why?" I replied.

"He lives in Cupertino, I teach him guitar."

(Double take)

He showed me a screen shot he'd made for his web site while teaching him, and sure enough, that was the guy I saw speak 2 days prior in San Francisco.

Small world eh?

Kevin is also the developer of a very popular Mac OS X development utility, Accessorizer.

Great article Kevin!