“But we don’t have the luxury of ramp-up time that syndicated television shows have,” Webb adds. “They have weeks before they have to deliver their content. We have to capture content during the week and Saturday’s game — and deliver it by Monday morning.

“There’s no way, without Final Cut’s ability to capture and execute content as quickly as it does, we could broadcast fully-formed program segments over the web by Monday morning.”

Rehling agrees: “There’s true agility in having everything we need in one integrated package.”

“More than anything else, the Mac platform makes our business possible. The price point of the Mac platform facilitates our ability to bring the content to consumers at a price they are willing to pay.”

Elaborating, Rehling describes editing a Vmag issue following an away game at Ohio State: “It was an eight-o’clock game, but it wasn’t over until midnight. It was a huge victory for the Longhorns, so I wanted to deliver the show by Sunday morning.”

Overnight Success

Rehling took along a tape deck during the game and captured the content in the locker room, right after it had been filmed. On the flight back with the celebrating team “I edited the video on my PowerBook loaded with Final Cut, Motion, and Soundtrack Pro,” he says. “It’s totally self-contained.

“With only a set of headphones and a PowerBook,” Rehling emphasizes, “I put together that week’s entire program. As soon as we landed in Austin, I got an internet connection and uploaded the show to the server, and it was delivered. Talk about saving the day. There’s literally no other way to do this than with Apple’s production tools.”

Play by Play by iPod

Webb says Lava delivers the video magazine through netcasts and podcasts and considers the iPod a key distribution channel for the future.

“We’re already producing for the iPod,” Webb says. “I’ve got the full season’s worth of programs compressed in iPod format. We can go from script to screen without leaving our facility.”

Webb and Rehling also give iPods preloaded with Lava-produced content to key clients and partners, including Longhorn Coach Mack Brown. “We’ve found it’s by far the most convenient way to convey the data,” says Webb. “Rather than handing them a DVD for a DVD player or computer, we hand them a video iPod and say ‘Here you go. You can watch the show right here.’”

Making News Affordable

Just $25 for a digital video magazine subscription?

“More than anything else, the Mac platform makes our business possible,” Webb explains. “The price point of the Mac platform facilitates our ability to bring the content to consumers at a price they are willing to pay.

“We make money because we’re not spending six figures on a proprietary system. A G5 with essentially off-the-shelf software — Final Cut Pro for editing, Soundtrack Pro to compose original music and Motion for all of our titling sequences — lets us produce content in the same machine on the same platform at an extremely affordable price.”

Big Win

Right now, Rehling says, the Lava partners archive their projects on “lots and lots of hard drives,” but they’re looking at installing an Xserve RAID as a next step in augmenting the capabilities of their studio.

Longhorn fans can download free podcast snippets — called the Zone Read — of the Vmag from the Texas website. “The podcast alone is receiving about 30,000 downloads a week,” says Rehling. “That’s pretty significant traffic, and every week we see the numbers building.”