The Origins and Future of VideoMe

The word Karaoke comes from 2 Japanese words. The first word being ‘Kara’ which translates to ‘empty’ and the second word ‘ōkesutora’ meaning ‘orchestra’. The term empty orchestra is used to describe music tracks where the vocals have been removed. The karaoke phenomenon started on the early 1970’s in Japan and quickly spread throughout Asia with the Philippines adopting Karaoke in its infancy. Karaoke crossed the ocean to the America’s in the early 1990’s as well as penetrating into the rest of Europe and Australia. Today Karaoke can be participated in bars, restaurants, at home and online. Karaoke is one of the few forms of entertainment that does not have a specific age demographic. This means it is a great social tool for friends and family alike.
The Future of Karaoke
With the digital revolution Karaoke is quickly adopting to modern technology making it easier to get your karaoke ‘fix’. We now have Karaoke which you can stream into your home form the internet, singing booths in local malls, rentals of home units and even karaoke that can be loaded into your car stereo; allowing you to sing your heart out on the way to work. We believe the next steps in Karaoke are what we are doing now; putting fans of Karaoke into their very own video. This allows for friends and families who have never seen someone sing due to distance, health or time enjoy a performance over and over. It also allows for the patron to watch their performance and improve upon any lacking areas they may not have noticed prior. This would be more than just vocal pitch and tone but their body language and entertainment factor perceived by the audience. When a patron leaves an evening of karaoke they can now have a piece of memorabilia to take home with them and we believe that is important! So come join us for a night of Video Me karaoke. Video Me karaoke was formed in May of 2009 when 2 friends Larry Blight and Steve Warren were discussing the future of Karaoke over a coffee. Larry Blight had been running a successful Karaoke business for the past 20 years. At least once every night he would receive a request to record the singer so that they could take it home with them. Steve was running a night club at the time and looking for something new and exciting to bring patrons into the establishment. Asking why no-one was recording more than the audio but rather the video as well Steve had hit on an idea that Larry had been knocking around for the past 2 years. The journey began. Upon intense research they realized there was a reason no-one was offering this solution. It was difficult. A Karaoke host would have to not only marry up the music but oversee a live video recording, chromakey the subject and edit the performance on the fly. This would mean increased technical expertise, longer set up time and a way to allow all recordings to be managed. The guys soon started testing various hardware configurations. The first step was to find a system that would perform live video edits and record to a format that could easily be uploaded to the internet. For this they went to Roland Canada. With the help of their technicians and staff, Steve and Larry soon had a solution through the Edirol suite of video products. Secondly they had to find a way to effectively manage the chromakey of performers in temporary environments. For this they went to Reflecmedia based out of the UK. Reflecmedia have invented a system of keying that reduces the lighting needed and virtually eliminates the unattractive green or blue backdrops normally required for chromakey. The microlight is now used during every event Video Me Karaoke hosts. Once the system was complete a design was created to allow all this hardware and software to be encased into one rolling box. The website was completed and the marketing began. Luckily for us the fun sells itself! Come join us for some fun that you can enjoy over and over.