Hi! My name is Ted Dillenkofer and I am the owner/operator of TD Video Services LLC.
I started the company in 2009 after being laid off from my job as the senior technical manager for presales consultants at a mid-sized call center technology company. It was the middle of the Bush depression and corporate jobs at my level were few and far between.
“What to do?” I mused, sitting in my living room. I thought about my skills and what i could offer to people. I had converted my families silent 8mm movies to DVD and still had the equipment, so I thought that might be an interesting place to start.
That proved to be pretty popular, so I added VHS conversions, then 8mm digital conversions. I attended the Small Business Association’s classes on organizing a business and got more leads through them for local businesses in need of a media presence. That led to acquiring HD cameras, supports, lighting and the eventual construction of a 24×40 foot green screen studio in nearby Mount Bethel, PA.
I produced a number of commercials and did some work for local musicians, but the high point for me was shooting and editing Carl Palmer’s three piece band, celebrating the works of Emerson, Lake and Palmer. A relatively simple three fixed camera shoot, it took six months to complete the editing and other post work. It’s still available on Amazon.
Things came apart after that. A hurricane came through the area and blew the roof off the structure that housed my studio. Local demand for my services was dropping. Luckily, I found a software consulting gig that lasted a couple of years and paid moderately well.
Since then, I’ve pulled back and reconsidered what the advancing technologies were. Bands began to contact me for live stream of their performances. Using my existing laptop, I purchased webcams (yuck!) and built a hooded table so I could see my monitors outdoors. I settled on a software package for switching and started upgrading my webcams to HD camcorders. A friend of mine had just purchased a house with an enormous garage and we proceeded to construct a small performance studio in it. As things now stand, we have five cameras, stage lighting and a great audio feed!