[Lnc-business] record & stream next LNC meeting

Sat Aug 30 15:57:04 EDT 2014

Hello Josh . . .

I have five boundary microphones of professional quality in my equipment stash.  I typically bring three, and a mixer capable of handling three, for my purposes.  I can bring more if there is reason to do so.  (I have mixing capability for up to 10 microphones.)  Please call when your experiments are complete and let’s discuss what actions make sense.  I can set it up for you; operating the equipment is not terribly difficult.

To assist in analyzing sound quality, I have attached two sample audio files.  The first is from the Chicago meeting which was held in a relatively small and quiet room, and  the second from the Westin Alexandria meeting, a relatively large and noisy room (and also exhibits the constant tweaking necessary to obtain usable results).  The same equipment was used in both cases.  The differences are significant.  In selecting venues for LNC meetings in the future, we should insist on quiet rooms (ambient noise level at 35 dbA or less), and arrange for the “rectangular table array” to be of the smaller dimensions as was the case in Chicago.

Dr Lieberman’s suggestion of four wireless microphones would, in an environment where an individual was constantly adjusting the recording levels of the four microphones, overcome this noise issue; but would also become a major disruption of the meeting as the wireless microphones would need to be passed around before someone could speak.  (Also, I do not have any wireless microphones. :>)

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: Joshua Katz [mailto:planning4liberty at gmail.com] 
Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2014 11:04 PM
To: region1rep at donedad.com; lnc-business at hq.lp.org
Subject: Re: [Lnc-business] record & stream next LNC meeting

I run (part time) a Skype based business.  To do this, I use a special setup which takes a room, and that's to broadcast one person.  I also pay absurd amounts of money for a download rate I don't need (and which no hotel will provide) so that I can get good enough upload.  Thus, I agree with the comments that audio makes more sense - besides, aren't people concerned with what business we conduct, not whether or not we dimple our ties correctly (sorry to those who don't wear ties.)  I plan this weekend to try out the laptop I bought to do portable broadcasting, and to throttle down my internet connection while using it, to see what I can get.  However, I don't thought about the extra difficulty with more people, and do not have the equipment to place 3 mics.  

If I get reasonable results, as I said, I'll take this on, but I'll ask the member from region 1 to loan me some equipment, provided it is simple enough that I can figure out how to understand it.  

(Ideally we could have everyone wear lapel mics...)

The point about primary responsibilities is a good one.  It's my motivation in volunteering - I'm an alternate, so I'm less involved anyway.  

Joshua A. Katz

Westbrook CT Planning Commission (L in R seat)

On Thu, Aug 28, 2014 at 11:16 PM, Norm Olsen <region1rep at donedad.com> wrote:

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 <tel:%28202%29%20333-0008%20ext.%20232> , wes.benedict at lp.org
facebook.com/libertarians @LPNational
Join the Libertarian Party at: http://lp.org/membership

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