Tech trio are ready to change up a gear as Glen turns humble room of home into a multimedia centre . . .
WHETHER you want to record an audio track using state-of-the-art equipment, film a video and burn it onto a DVD, or create your own web site, you can get it all done within the confines of one humble room in a Devonshire house.
In what must rate as Bermuda's most high-tech cottage industry, Glen Cuoco has turned the room of his Tribe Road No. 3 home into a veritable multimedia centre.
Mr. Cuoco is the web site creator, while the other two men involved in the triple-pronged enterprise both have family connections. Cameraman and video producer Larry Bucher is married to Mr. Cuoco's cousin Trudy, while audio technician Craig Simons is the boyfriend of Mr. Cuoco's daughter Kari.
Each of the tech-minded trio heads his own business and, between them, they can offer organisations and individuals alike a comprehensive electronic media service. The three businesses have been growing steadily, expanding their clientele largely through word of mouth. But all three men now feel ready to change up a gear.
Mr. Cuoco, a well-known ham radio operator and owner of the bermudashorts.com domain, has been creating web sites for eight years, under the company name Bermuda Shorts Design.
"These days, organisations really need to have a web site," Mr. Cuoco said. "There are many people out there who would like a site but don't think they can afford it. I ask them to give me a shot.
"I would say I have the best rates for making a web site in Bermuda.
"I advise most people to start out small, just to get a presence on the Internet. Then see how it goes, and if you want to upgrade your site, then I can do that for you."
As a web site becomes increasingly viewed as a necessity rather than a luxury, Mr. Cuoco has seen business gradually pick up pace. Right now, he is working on six or seven new sites, although he admitted it tended to be a case of "feast or famine".
To outline the sheer people-reaching potential of the world-wide web, Mr. Cuoco cited the example of his own creation bermudaweather.bm, which has proved to be of particular interest to those planning a visit. Using his own measurements, and cross-checking them with those of the Bermuda Weather Service, Mr. Cuoco has logged onto the site the details of every day's weather since 1996. And he has also added a digital picture of the conditions taken daily from his own yard.
Browsers can search a date and see weather details and pictures for that day in each of the last eight years. They can use it as a guide to what conditions they are likely to encounter if they plan to visit at that time of year.
"There's no other site like it and we get 25,000 to 35,000 hits a month," Mr. Cuoco said. "The day Hurricane Fabian came, we got more than 160,000 hits.
"The guy in charge of weather coverage for Fox TV in Chicago called me and said he liked what I was doing on the site and wanted to interview me for the channel. I did an interview before the hurricane and one afterwards. That is what the Internet can do if you just have a presence."
Mr. Cuoco is seeking local support for his bermudacommunity.com web site, open to all organisations that want to be linked to it.
His aim is not to ask the organisations to pay for the service, but to find sponsors to fork out the required $30 a month. In return, the sponsors' logo appears on their chosen organisation's web information.
"This is something that could be really useful for Bermuda, but only if there is support from the community," Mr. Cuoco said. "For the sponsors, $360 a year is money well spent, when you think that their logo will be on the web site for every second of the year."
MR. Bucher and Mr. Simons are graduates of the Full Sail School of Film, Art, Design, Music and Media Production in Florida.
Mr. Bucher's first media experience was in radio broadcasting, working for ZBM's 1340 AM station on Saturday afternoons. He later moved into video and worked for Hamilton company Panatel.
In 2000, he left to set up his own business, Digital Impact. He has all the gear to film an event, edit it and put it onto DVD.
"During my four years at Panatel I got know the video side of things and operating a camera is my main forte," he said. "Basically, what I offer is camera work and editing to completion onto a DVD. I film anything from weddings to kids' parties and functions for corporate clients."
MR. Bucher, 39, also produces the monthly Money Talks television show for ZBM. When the NBC network set a large group of staff to stay at the Elbow Beach Hotel during last year's Olympic Games in Athens, they hired Mr. Bucher to help. He set up his editing suite at the hotel. He has also worked with other major networks such as CBS, as well as for Good Morning America.
His television-style camera, Betacam and DVCam tape editing machines and computer software required a substantial investment.
"I had to get $100,000 to start up with," Mr. Bucher said. "The camera, tripod and lenses cost around $50,000 and the computer editing equipment cost $20,000-plus. The Bermuda Small Business network helped me to get off the ground and I also have to thank Butterfield Bank for giving me the loan."
At the age of 24, Mr. Simons is the youngest of the trio. He has been fascinated by all things audio since doing some disc jockey work at the age of 13.
"I started playing the guitar and keyboards and from then on I wanted to record and hear myself," he said.
He went to Full Sail and graduated three years ago, having been nominated as valedictorian of his class. Now he has set up a company called I-Vibes, in partnership with John Amaral.
Mr. Simons has spent time working in the US and has managed to forge links with some major record labels like Colombia and Interscope. And through those links, he can offer promising Bermudian artists a potential conduit to the international music market.
He is already trying to help two Bermudian talents, Joshua Simons and Khari Thornhill, to make the big time. And he believes that where there is talent, his equipment can help to make the most of it.
"There is a level of recording quality the major record labels are looking for in a demo, they want a certain sound," Mr. Simons said. "Most of the demos recorded in Bermuda are of a lower quality and the labels wouldn't even bother listening to them.
"I am using Pro Tools software, which is used by 99 per cent of all the major recording facilities in the world.
" I also have Antares Auto-Tune, which can fix a singer's mistake. After the singer's performance, if the singer has gone off-key, or hit a note too sharp or too flat, then you can fix it with the click of a mouse."
Mr. Simons said he would get his first recording credits this summer, for work he did for RR Records on two tracks on the debut album of hip-hop and rap artist Sky High.
He and Mr. Amaral plan to go online in the next month or so with their web site, www.infamousrecords.com.
Naturally, the site will be built by Mr. Cuoco.