Lance: On Location

28/08/2024

What do you do if you are asked to livestream an event outdoor interment in a park that has no access to wifi/ethernet or even power?

We recently tackled that problem by using a LiveU Solo and An EcoFlow battery.

We streamed using the two modems that were part of the LiveU Solo. Our stream was set to 4mbs and it never faltered in the one hour of streaming. For power, the EcoFlow gave us hours of batter life while providing even power.

The two devices, The LiveU Solo, and the Ecoflow allowed us to be completely self contained without the need for external power or internet.

10/06/2024

Join at this link on May 17, at 7:30 PM (America/Chicago time) to watch live.

21/04/2024

We are selling our Ronin S if you know anyone who is interested. Used less than 5 times. $250. Here is a link to what we bought:

Buy DJI Ronin S featuring Three-Axis Motorized Gimbal Stabilizer, Holds DSLR or Mirrorless Cameras.

06/04/2024

As 2024 NAB approaches I get excited to see what new gear is being announced. Blackmagic Design usually releases 3-6 new products each year, often bringing revolutionary changes to the industry. BMD will be making it's new product and features development announcements in 6 days! Check it out here:

13/02/2024

Throughout 2024 I want to share some of the "Gems" that I have learned, been exposed to, figured out, or stumbled across. Some were a result of a hard learned lesson while others were discovered while debriefing after an event on what improvements we could make. You may not find every "Gem" useful to your productions but I hope you find at least one that is! And I also hope that you share one of your "Gems" with me!!!

GEM #2: Using Google Docs

I use a google doc for each location that I work at. I try to list important things that, while I may remember them right after the job, I might forget them the next year when I return to do the same event again.

I'll list contact names for the people who hired me, directors or managers and sometimes even just workers at the facility, and anyone else that might have been involved in helping us have a successful event.

I'll also insert a picture into the document that reminds me of where I set up and how I set up.

Finally, I will list anything that I think we should do differently the following year.

The key to making this document is to write it out when it's super fresh in my mind.

Then the following year when I'm getting ready for the job, I can do a quick review of that document to remind me of how we did things the previous year.

10/02/2024

One of the challenges with Live-streaming an event is having a stable internet connection. But not just a stable internet connection, but a stable internet connection DURING your livestream.

I generally visit all of my sites that I will be live streaming from a few weeks in advance to conduct a few stream tests. While this helps to get rid of the big problems such as getting past firewalls, making sure filtering isn't blocking me, and that I have the ports opened that need to be opened it doesn't simulate what will happen when thousands of people are in the space.

In some cases, the hard line that I have connected is separated from the guest net work. In some cases, they will turn off the guest network. But in all cases, internet, by it's very nature, is prone to timey-wimey gremlins that sometimes give less than a perfect connection. This is especially true when you are doing long streams.

My company covers several events that go for 12 hours. During that time, it's not uncommon to have a couple of hiccups on the network at some point. Because of that, I have been on a quest for what I can reasonably do at a reasonable rate, to overcome some of that uncertainty.

I think I have found my solution!

To be fair, I haven't tested this in a real world scenario yet (but I will soon). But if the technology works the way it is supposed to work, then it is exactly what I was looking for.

Enter: The Yolobox

In my case, I purchased the newly released Ultra Yolobox, but what I am about to explain works on their Pro and their Mini.

So what is this magic solution?

Network Bonding!

Network bonding refers to using multiple internet connections such as ethernet, wireless, and cellular modems to create one solid connection. Well, to me that's the way it appears...but under the hood their is some really cool voodoo magic that makes it work.

Essentially the different connections share the workload. Some of the packets go out the ethernet, some go out the wireless, some good out the cellular. And when one becomes a little bottlenecked because the Internet Gods sneezed and sharted at the same time, the others just pick up the pace.

Other companies have been doing this for quite some time. TVU, LiveU, Teradeck, and some others have been using this technology, but it has been a fairly pricey choice. And to be fair, it does require a server up in the cloud to handle the heavy lifting to make sure the packets are all being put back together correctly. That costs money. I feel like it's reasonable with Yolobox and I'm excited to put it through it's paces!!!

27/01/2024

If you find yourself working in locations such as theaters and high schools the two most important people to make friends with are the facilities manager and the maintenance crew. These people can make your life harder or easier. Add live-streaming to your services and make sure you get to know the IT techs. Here are some tips on how to develop those relationships.

1. Reach out ahead of time to introduce yourself. This can be done through email or, better yet, through a site visit. If you wait until the day of the event and TELL them everything you need, they will look at you as a problem instead of part of the team for the event. But reach out ahead of time and they can respond at a time that works for them.

2. I love talking shop and so do most people who work in tech. Take an interest in what they are doing in their facility. Be authentic. You might make a new friend!

3. Realize that you are visiting their 'home' and they might have some rules or protocols that need to be followed. Assure them that you appreciate the help they give you. The work in an industry that is largely thankless, stressful, and frustrating. You can be part of the problem or part of the solution!

23/01/2024

Conducting a Site Visit:

Anytime I am providing services at a new location, I almost always conduct a site visit ahead of time. This is especially true if I’m live streaming the event.

A site visit gives me the opportunity to determine where I will be setting up, where power is coming from, where my cable runs can go, and most importantly to meet what the facilities manager at a time when they aren’t in “event mode”.

Going to a site ahead of time can help you prepare what you need to bring to the event and head off potential challenges before they become show problems.

For livestreaming I almost always do a site visit even if I have streamed there in the previous year. All it takes is for a facility’s IT department to change the filtering or firewall and you may find that you can’t easily get a live stream to work. And sometimes making the changes that you need to have made to the network isn’t possible on short notice.

17/01/2024

One of the organizational strategies that we use is to have self inventorying cases. This is especially easy with cases that have pick and pluck foam. The idea is pretty simple: Everything has a spot in the case. So if you have an open spot, you know something is missing. While this might not be practical for all of your equipment, it certainly helps for some of the most critical (or most expensive) equipment that would be crippled if a component was lost.

To a lessor extent we do this with our gear bags too. Unlike a case with pick and pluck foam, a gear bag has a large open space (even if dividers are used). We are in the habit of always putting the same thing in the same spot. Here's an example:

We have a camera bag called: "Camera 1/2". That label is on the outside of the bag (in several spots). The bag contains 2 cameras (labeled "camera 1" "camera 2"). There are two smaller pouches, one for each power supply. The kick plates are always kept on the bottom of the cameras. There is a small plastic box that contains two zoom controllers. We pack this bag the exact same way, every single time.

If we need to bring 1 or 2 cameras to a job, we grab this bag and now that we will have everything we need for the camera to operate.

Being organized helps to make sure you always have the right gear with you and that you don't leave anything behind!

10/01/2024

In the past 20+ years of being in live production, I feel like I have acquired a lot of information. Some of it, is actually useful!!! I like to call these little bits of information "Gems". They can be so valuable in your workflow. They might be a quality of life upgrade or they might be integral to making your production what you want it to be.

Throughout 2024 I want to share some of the "Gems" that I have learned, been exposed to, figured out, or stumbled across. Some were a result of a hard learned lesson while others were discovered while debriefing after an event on what improvements we could make. You may not find every "Gem" useful to your productions but I hope you find at least one that is! And I also hope that you share one of your "Gems" with me!!!

Gem #1: The Sock-it Box

Working live video outdoors comes with many challenges. I'm involved with a couple of events that are multi-day events and take place outside. When your event runs several days, rain is likely to happen at some point.

It can be a real challenge to keep everything dry. The easiest thing to keep dry is your camera because you are standing right next to it. But what about all of your connections. Any place that has a connection, whether its in your com line, video line, or power line, has the chance of shorting when exposed to water.

In some cases, you might even be running converters (like a decimator). These don't do well in water and likely will be ruined if left to the elements.

We had searched for a solution for quite some time before we eventually found the "Sock-it" Box. Interestingly enough, the product isn't even marketed towards production at all. It's only marketed to home owners who have extension cords outside.

Now, if we are doing an outside show, we carry a bunch of Sock-it Boxes in varying sizes so that we can always protect our connections and not have to worry about them getting wet. When the day is over and we unplug from the camera, we can just put all of our "ends" in the box and seal it up for the night. No water is getting in.

Several years ago I recorded a quick video on my phone that shows you the box in action. My apologies for the audio (it was a windy day at an airport as part of the EAA event in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.) I have no connection to the company that sells these and I don't get any commission for talking about the product. I have also bought all of mine at regular retail price. I just think it's a nice little "Gem" and wanted to share it with you!

Check it out!

Keep your video, audio, power cables dry even in torrential down pours! At Champion Video, we use this product anytime we are doing a video event outside. ...

01/01/2024

Blackmagic Design has really changed the playing field for live video production. When they came out with their first HD switcher about 15 or so years ago, it was a real game changer. In fact, when I first saw it, I thought: "This must be a scam" because the value was high, but the price was low. Blackmagic has continued to release products with super high value, but crazy reasonable prices. Honestly, I don't know how some of the other brands can even compete.

On the downside, there always tends to be one or two things with each product that feels like it just falls short in one area. For example, until the 'mini's' came out none of the switchers had scalers on any of their inputs, so that meant that you had to have all of your devices set to the same resolution and anything that couldn't be set right, you would need an external and intermediary device to do so.

Fast forward to the present and Blackmagic is releasing switchers that have scalers built in, but the price point is still the same.

Around the time of the pandemic, BMD shook things up again with their "mini" line up. They were selling 4 channel HD video mixers for the same price as dongles that could only get one video source into your computer (think Magewell HDMI to USB dongles). It was unbelievable.

I can't think of a company that has done more to bring affordable, and high quality, video production to the masses than Blackmagic Design. Kudos to the company and the workers of Blackmagic Design because I'm not sure a company like mine could thrive without them!!!

10/06/2023

10/06/2023

01/10/2022

Getting ready to cover a local symphony. We are using 8 cameras but only two camera ops. one operator controls a couple of PTZ(robotic cameras) while the other operator controls two 4K cameras. The remaining cameras are all lock down shots but in 4K. In editing we will pan and scan the 4K footage to reframe, punch in, and/or give some subtle motion. The end result is a multi-camera production that looks like a large crew but is more budget friendly!

11/07/2022

We just got done doing our biggest job of the year. It's a 4 day outdoor music festival with about 100 bands spread across multiple stages. New this year was that we decided to deploy our PTZ cameras to see how they would do. And I have to say, they were awesome! I was worried about so many aspects such as placement location, vibration from the bass, weather, and quality of shots. But I have to say, they look great! Pics to follow.

03/06/2022

Here's the replay of the Menasha High School Graduation from last night. Note: Because this is the replay of the actual graduation and we start the stream an hour early to make sure that the stream connection is solid, you will have to move the video forward to 1 hour and 10 minutes to see the start of the program. Until then we are streaming a loop of their senior photos.

A little info about what we do to make a livestream like this. We are producing this with a two person team which helps to keep costs down for our client. One person is operating a camera while the other person is operating a few robotic cameras, monitoring the stream and audio, and switching to the different camera angles.

We have two cameras positioned in the back of the field house and one camera positioned towards the front so that we can aim it back towards the graduates and to get a clear unobstructed view as the graduates walk to receive their diploma. This camera also gave us the shot of the band as they started the ceremony off with Pomp and Circumstance.

The biggest challenge with graduations is coordinating your efforts with the other things that will be happening. When you put hundreds of people into a space, you have to be ready for some pretty unpredictable things. Where will the photographers be? Where is the band? What direction to the graduates walk? Will someone standing block a camera angle? And so much more.

I generally do a site visit before a graduation to do a stream test and to look over the venue space and plan where cameras go and where our cable runs go. While I did that for this graduation, when we arrived for set up, they had made a change on where they were putting their sound board. Since we tie into their sound board it created a 400' run for us to tie into it. While I was concerned that the length of the run would be a problem, thankfully our well shielded cables kept any extra noise or interference from creeping in. Our camera that was up front was also a 400' run, which requires placing a line booster part way through. Fortunately we have plenty of them so this was no big deal.

Because we were using two robotic cameras of one brand and an operated camera of another brand, balancing the colors can be tricky. However, we feel that the balance on this event was spot on!

https://evt.live/menasha-high-school-graduation-live-stream

Join at this link on June 2, at 6:30 PM (America/Chicago time) to watch live.

08/10/2021

It's been a long time since I posted! 2021 was an interesting year for our event business. Champion Video is the event company that I run and we pretty much do the same events every single year. When the pandemic hit, all of our events went away. We quickly pivoted (like everyone else on the planet!) and kept ourselves busy.

During 2021 we were back to doing events like in the past but a couple of things had changed. Most of the events that we would do in schools, weren't being held in schools. Instead they were moving to whatever venue would allow some type of audience. Because the audiences were often restricted in capacity most of the events also had us livestream their event.

The types of events that we cover are dance recitals and competitions, figure skating shows and competitions, graduations, theater productions, keynote presentations, tradeshows, concerts, and outdoor music festivals. For the bulk majority of these events, attendance was down overall. In the case of the dance schools, many school owners said that their attendance for lessons were down as well.

As we move towards 2022, I think we will see more of what we saw in 2021. Maybe a little less restrictions and hopefully moving towards recovery.

Do you work in the event industry? If so, leave a note below with what you are noticing and how 2021 was for you.