[Lnc-business] record & stream next LNC meeting

[Norm Olsen]

Hello Wes . . .

 

I cannot accept responsibility for any of these functions.  I have some
experience and know all too well that one cannot be actively engaged in a
meeting and manage the recording/streaming of either video and/or audio at
the same time.  However, as you and some of the other old timers on this
committee are aware, I do possess proper equipment for the audio portion of
this endeavor and will be happy to assist in that regard.  If not requested
otherwise, I will bring only the equipment I need to overcome my hearing
disability.  Should someone else volunteer to take on this responsibility, I
will be glad to bring along additional equipment to assist as requested.

 

I would like to make some points about this effort.  Please excuse me if the
information provided below is already known to the reader:

 

1>     Video quality is of a stream is not that critical, however high
quality audio is a must if your audience is to remain connected.  Folks
don't need to watch to know what's going on.   They do need to listen.  If
listening is painful, only the truly dedicated will continue listening past
a certain point.

2>     Typical Internet connections concentrate available bandwidth to the
download function; only a small portion (~10%) of the bandwidth is available
for uploading.  Unless a special internet connection is made available, it
is unlikely that the desired level of quality will be achievable in
streaming mode.

3>     The primary detriment to the audio quality will be the background
noise level in the room.  Typically this is air conditioning noise.  Allow
me to quote from a recognized governmental agency report.  (Surprise!!! One
of the few government reports I agree with.)  "For full sentence
intelligibility in listeners with normal hearing, the signal-to-noise ratio
(i.e. the difference between the speech level and the sound level of the
interfering noise) should be at least 15 dB(A). Since the sound pressure
level of normal speech is about 50 dB(A), noise with sound levels of 35
dB(A) or more interferes with the intelligibility of speech in smaller
rooms. For vulnerable groups even lower background levels are needed, and a
reverberation time below 0.6 s is desirable for adequate speech
intelligibility, even in a quiet environment."

4>     Recording quality audio for a meeting with 18 participants, plus some
gallery interaction, requires a minimum of three microphones of the
"Boundary Microphone"  variety.  Having an individual whose primary purpose
is to monitor/adjust levels is important to create quality audio.  Thus I
cannot commit to performing this function as my primary function at the
meeting will be to represent my region.

5>     Please note that the above consideration is why everyone had trouble
hearing during the last meeting in Alexandria at the Westin.  My
measurements indicated that the ambient noise level was about 40+ dB(A).  If
you have three or four microphones picking up and feeding the background
noise to the to the streaming/recording device, and a single microphone
picking up a speaker who may be 8 feet away, the speaker is essentially
drowned out by the noise.  All the electronics in the world will not solve
this problem.

6>     I have experience in this area as I am one of the few deaf sound men
in the world :>)

 

Regardless of the recording/streaming effort, please advise the hotel of my
traditional request of having two tables in the center of the rectangular
meeting table upon which I may place the boundary microphones which I rely
on.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Norm

--

Norman T Olsen

Regional Representative, Region I

Libertarian National Committee

7931 S Broadway, PMB 102

Littleton, Colorado  80122-2710

303-263-4995

Norman.Olsen at lp.org

 

"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then
you win." -- Gandhi

 

From: Lnc-business [mailto:lnc-business-bounces at hq.lp.org] On Behalf Of Wes
Benedict
Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2014 9:21 AM
To: lnc-business at hq.lp.org
Subject: [Lnc-business] record & stream next LNC meeting

 

Chairman Sarwark has asked me to make sure the next LNC meeting is recorded
and streamed live (sound and video). Staff can make this happen. However, if
there is someone on the LNC who can take responsibility for this, that would
be nice, and might save on expenses at future meetings that aren't in
Alexandria. 

Quite often I've seen situations where people have offered to video tape or
stream something, and then they have been unable to follow through for
various reasons, technical and otherwise. Additionally, I've seen good
quality, and terrible quality results.  For this reason, I'd like to see
duplicate streaming of this next meeting in Alexandria so we can compare
results and see if one arrangement works significantly better than the
other. 

I'll make sure staff has at least one broadcast running. I'd like to see a
member of the LNC streaming a second broadcast. If you're willing to do
this, please provide your own camera, software, choose your own broadcast
service, etc. We'll make sure an internet connection from the hotel is
promised, but if you bring your own 3G/4G service or whatever and it works,
that's bonus points to you. Hotel wifi seems to be promised, but tends not
to work so well so often. If you give us a link to where you are
broadcasting the meeting, we'll embed it or link to it on a blog entry on
LP.org.

The following are things that I'll be looking for to gauge our success:
video quality
sound quality
How well do the video and sound capture all meeting participants?
How often does the broadcast stop working?
Was the setup ready and working at the start of the meeting and did it cover
the entire meeting?
How simple is the setup? We might be doing these at every meeting.
Do you blame the hotel for poor quality results, or can you get a quality
broadcast out in spite of a hotel?

Anybody want to step and take this one?

-- 
Wes Benedict, Executive Director
Libertarian National Committee, Inc.
New address: 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314
(202) 333-0008 ext. 232, wes.benedict at lp.org
facebook.com/libertarians @LPNational
Join the Libertarian Party at: http://lp.org/membership

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