Project Update: Camerize’s whereabouts
Martinus Meiborg is an freelance director from Amsterdam and an associate of Stone Soup.
He is the founder and CTO at Camerize and co-founder at Appsterdam. During his visit to Athens we had a quick sit down with him to check on updates and his encounters here in Greece.
Q: So Martinus what is your backround?
M. When I turned 18 I wanted to go to the Dutch Filmschool, but people in the profession told me to learn a craft, as I would learn filming while doing it. So I studied digital electronics and programming at a technical school. I have worked as a cameraman, editor and director. In 1990 I started a computer based editing company and a two years later I started a software company called Broadware aside, specialized in all sorts of tools for the video postproduction. Around 6 years later I quit the editing company to work in Broadware full time. In 2001 I moved to France and took Broadware with me. In 2005 the Broadware dissolved and after 2 years I started working for a company that produced playout automation and media mangement for TV stations all around Europe, North Africa and Asia. In 2010 we started Camerize, which proved to be a little bit early for the technology so we started again in March 2014. We decided to take out Camerize for testing in January 2015 to cover the Greek National Elections and then again in September 2015. After that came a 24h endurance test in order to cover the Star Wars Premiere.
Q: Does the app work only on iOS? Do I need to have an iphone?
M. You need an iphone for the camera app but Camerize is a live production service in the cloud and we use mobile phones as cameras. You can stream with any device, but then communications and possibilities might be limited. Right now the app is running only on iOS software but we’re planning to release it on Android in time. The difficulty is that Android is running in different versions on many different brands and devices, which is tedious for a hardware related app as ours. We’ll do that once we are fully up and running on iOS.
Q: What about any future milestones?
M. Oh, that’s a big secret but we’re planning on letting you know as soon as we have some news.
Q: So, what about your experiences here in Greece? What’s the thing that excited you the most?
M. A souvlaki per day keeps the doctor away! I really loved the greek souvlaki and the mediterranean food in general. The truth is that there is a misconception about the greeks and there are many stereotypes that are not true. Here in Athens we do start late but also end late compared with Amsterdam, but I must admit that it fits me better since I am not a morning person anyway.
Q: And what about your project with Stavros Messinis? Could you tell me a little more about that?
M. In October the first Mini Maker Faire was held in Athens and I went there to visit the Stone Soup booth. I really liked the concept of the exhibition and there were many great things going on so I decided make a small video. Stavros was a co-organiser of the Maker Faire and he is really making an effort to put Greece on the map so I wanted to help this effort.
Stay tuned for more!