Larry Jordan: Tonight, on the Buzz, we are looking at live production and distribution. Live has never been easier but that doesn't mean it's easy. Tonight, we talk with the experts about the current state of live production, and streaming.
Larry Jordan: We start with George Klippel, the director of channel sales for LiveU. LiveU enables live streaming from just about anywhere. Tonight, George explains what streaming is, why live events are better than recorded, and where LiveU can help producers with their next project.
Larry Jordan: Next, Rony Sebok is the vice president for technology of 1 Beyond. They've been involved with digital video for decades. Recently, 1 Beyond diversified into new automated video products, and tonight, Tony explains how live streaming technology has changed and what you need to know to get started.
Larry Jordan: Scott Murray is the vice president of product management for Telestream. Their product WireCast is used in tens of thousands of live streaming productions. Tonight, Scott explains what it is, how it's used and the differences between planning for streaming distribution versus production.
Larry Jordan: Nick Mattingly is the CEO and co founder of Switcher Studio. This allows you to stream live directly from a cell phone or a mobile device. Tonight, Nick explains how it works and what you need to know to create successful live productions.
Larry Jordan: Hi, my name is Larry Jordan. Tonight, we're looking at recent changes to the world of streaming live events from sports to news to corporate communication. Just as the technology of production has undergone massive changes in the last few years, the distribution side of streaming has also changed. There are more than 100 services to help deliver your message live to the world, and as you'll hear tonight, Microsoft made some very interesting recent announcements to its Office 365 suite of products that also affect streaming.
Larry Jordan: Streaming is the process of distributing your program to an audience via the internet. Standard video production techniques still create your show, using a wide range of gear from a cell phone to network broadcast grade equipment. It's what happens at the output of your camera or the output of your video switcher, that we're interested in this evening. That is where streaming gets involved, and as you'll discover, there are a wide range of ways that you can now deliver your program live to the world.
Larry Jordan: Now it's time for our weekly DoddleNEWS update with James DeRuvo. Hello James.
James DeRuvo: Happy CES Larry.
Larry Jordan: What a great way to start the year. CES is such fun.
James DeRuvo: There's 110 to 180,000 media professionals, media personnel and people buying and selling technology in Las Vegas looking at the latest crazy devices, from Alexa enabled toilets to a flying taxi cab to some really cool products that filmmakers and content creators could get tempted to buy.
Larry Jordan: Let's take a look at them, what's the news this week?
James DeRuvo: The first one is if you swing by the Sharp booth, they are previewing an 8K pocket camera. It looks like the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera, it's got a micro four thirds 8K image sensor that Sharp says records 8K at 30 frames per second using the H.265 codec but they're working on making it 60 frames per second by the time they launch. It has this huge five inch pull out touch screen.
Larry Jordan: 8K James? 8K? What's the image quality like?
James DeRuvo: Many are saying that the consumer oriented camera won't live up to professional standards, due to stuffing so many pixels in a micro four thirds image sensor. That means the pixels have to be really super tiny and that's going to invite a lot of image noise and fringing to the party, but we'll see what they do. It does exist, they had the prototype there. It wasn't turned on but we'll hear more about it at NAB according to Sharp.
Larry Jordan: Sharp is out of the gate with an 8K camera, what's next?
James DeRuvo: This is my favorite product at CES so far. It's called the Elgato Key Light and it's a desk mounted LED light panels for content creators. The big thing these days is either doing live video streaming, doing video blogging or live broadcasting of let's play gaming videos is really big with the millennials, using your computer. The Elgato Key Light was designed with this type of content creator in mind. Key light is made out of 80 Osram LED ultra bright LEDs with a nice opaque diffuser built into it into a very thin adjustable light panel. The key light is adjustable to 2500 lumens, from zero to 2500 and has a color temperature range of 2900 to 7000 Kelvin. It's controllable from your desktop, mobile device or Elgato's stream deck controller and the best feature of all, $199.
Larry Jordan: This sounds a lot like the Lume Cube Air lights. Who's the market?
James DeRuvo: The market is for gamers who broadcast these 'Let's Play' videos to their loving audience. That field is growing by leaps and bounds for online streaming. Right now, what gamers and content creators are doing is they're using whatever lights they have, which means they have to pull their desk all the way out to make room for light stands and stuff. This comes with telescoping light stands that can be attached to your desk so you don't have to move any furniture. The panels are super thin, you can control them from your computer, or your mobile device. They're just beautiful and they cast this really great light to illuminate the content creator, video blogger, gamer, whatever. At $199, this could be my favorite product of the show so far, and it could be my best in show. We'll see.
Larry Jordan: That's the Elgato Key light. What's our third story?
James DeRuvo: It wouldn't be CES without displays, displays and more displays. The big one that's stolen the show at CES this year is LG's rollable 65 inch OLED TV which comes out of a cabinet much like a projection screen. You just push a button and it rolls out onto display so that you can watch television. It's a bona fide TV set. This isn't a screen. It's a TV set with tuners, speakers, the works. LG not only amazed attendees with this roll up 4K OLED TV, they also built this tunnel towards their booth with hundreds of them curving in all these crazy directions. It's a brand new technology, and it's also being used for foldable LED smartphones which we also saw at CES this year. LG is also showing off a ridiculously wide 49 inch ultra wide monitor with a 32:9 aspect ratio. It's got two built in ten watt stereo speakers, and supports HDR 10. It could be great for editors who need screen real estate.
James DeRuvo: But if you don't want to pay probably what's going to be $3500 for a display, Targus has got this really cool quad video dock which connects up to four HD video screens through HDMI and then you connect it to your computer via USB-C and it also supports Thunderbolt 3, Display Port and works with PCs, Macs, Chromebooks and android devices.
Larry Jordan: So with all these displays what are your thoughts?
James DeRuvo: Post production requires a ton of screen real estate for color correcting, video editing, computer graphics and all that stuff. You need a lot of real estate and we're getting by with multiple display screens. The ability to create one or buy one that's just really super wide that can handle all of that screen real estate is really going to help because studies show that the more real estate you have the more productive you are. But the thing I don't like about the LG 49 inch screen is if it breaks, it breaks. Then you have to go out and buy more monitors, whereas if you have a multi monitor setup and one monitor goes down, you can just plug in another one so I like that better.
James DeRuvo: Then there's also one more that I want to share with you. Nvidia has previewed a line of up to 40 different laptops that support RED's Red Rock codec that can work in 6K display resolution without the need to render or use proxies. These laptops are going to be launched at the end of the month and come with over 100 different configurations.
James DeRuvo: That's what I've seen so far at CES Larry. What's going on tonight's show?
Larry Jordan: Tonight, we're looking at live production and distribution from software to hardware solutions. How we can bring our message to an audience live.
James DeRuvo: Well if our audience has ever considered getting into live streaming on the net, tonight sounds like must see TV.
Larry Jordan: Absolutely correct with some really good ideas on ways to make it work. And James, where can we go on the web to learn more about the stories at CES that you and your team are covering?
Larry Jordan: James DeRuvo is the Editor in Chief of Doddlenews.com and joins us every Thursday. James, you're on assignment next week, so we'll talk to you in two weeks.
James DeRuvo: See you by the end of the month.
Larry Jordan: You take care.
Larry Jordan: George Klippel is the director of Channel Sales for LiveU. He's responsible for managing LiveU's network of online reseller and distributor partners. Prior to joining LiveU he was a partner and strategic account manager at Avid Technology. Before that, he also served in the United States Marine Corps as a broadcast journalist with Armed Forces Radio and Television Service. Hello George, welcome.
George Klippel: Hey Larry, thanks for having me.
Larry Jordan: From Armed Forces Radio to Avid to LiveU, your career seems to mirror the shifts in technology over the last many decades.
George Klippel: It truly has. Going from a tape based world to a non-linear world to a streaming world, that's been the course of my career path and as you said it's mirrored the shape of technology and the way that it's going today, absolutely.
Larry Jordan: Tonight, we're looking at live production, but before we get to LiveU, I appreciate your unique perspective. How has live production evolved if you look at it back when you started versus what we're doing today?
George Klippel: It's funny that you ask that. I think it's really evolved from the times where you had single camera live shots and satellite trucks to where we are today where things have really shrunken down from those satellite trucks and single camera shoots to live shots that could be done with systems that use bonded cellular, that are the size of units that basically can fit in the palm of your hand. That's really where this entire industry is moving and has moved to. Everything that used to be live, used to require satellite trucks or online systems that were fairly complex to master and to utilize, to bonded cellular which is much easier to use and much more streamlined.
Larry Jordan: Avid is known as an industry leader in non-linear post production. What was it that attracted you from post to live?
George Klippel: When I left Avid I was really looking for another opportunity to stay closely aligned to this industry and when I found out about the LiveU opportunity, it still dealt with a lot of the same customers that the folks at Avid were dealing with, the broadcast folks, the post production people. Some are literally aligned to what people were doing with Avid Technology product. They were looking to move and make transitions into live space if you will, and LiveU really fit that mark for me and it was something that I had really wanted to explore and get into and stay aligned with what my background was in. Being around people in post-production, broadcast, television, feature film and production work, corporate industrial, the same people that were using non-linear editing systems like Avid or Final Cut or Adobe or what have you were the same people that were starting to explore the bonds of doing live production work or even remote or Remy production work.
Larry Jordan: Tell me about LiveU. Is the company focused more on products or services?
George Klippel: it's a little bit of both. We're mainly focused on products but we have products that are field units, those are the products that are really the encoders. We also have servers, those products are the decoders if you will that receive the signals from the field units and these field units connect to cameras and take your video and distribute it over IP to these servers, which then distribute those signals back out to your feed via SDI or RTMP depending on where you're going in the production process.
Larry Jordan: Your device would connect either to the back of a camera or the equivalent of a video switcher, so I would produce the video and the audio, connect that output into your device, you would then be compressing it and streaming it up to the web, and then multicasting it out?
George Klippel: That's correct, exactly. Our device really functions in two different ways. It can connect to the output of a single camera or via a switcher as you mentioned. And then it'll end up going to the server or a Cloud server, so you can actually take it to one of our servers and the server can output SDI, it can output NDI, and then it can also go out RTMP, so it could go out to Facebook Live if you want, or YouTube or multiple destinations depending on what your needs are specifically.
Larry Jordan: If I wanted to do a multicast, so that I go up to your server, and then you hit all the users rather than going to Facebook or YouTube, can I do that or do I need to get a third party like … involved?
George Klippel: No, we absolutely have the ability to do multicasts, and you could do that within the LiveU environment.
Larry Jordan: So what are some of your newer products?
George Klippel: We recently announced the LU300 in December, and it just started shipping. That's our newest HEVC product which is a small form factor, weighs about a pound, pound and a half, and that's a … solution that just came onto the market in December. It's the little brother of the LU600 which has been on the market for just over a year. The LU300 is our second HEVC product and it's been very well received.
Larry Jordan: Who would be a typical customer?
George Klippel: The typical customer for the LU300 really runs the gamut. Not only broadcasters are looking at this product but we see a lot of folks in the education space look at this product, corporate space as well as the athletic or sports arenas.
Larry Jordan: Do you have any special programs for education?
George Klippel: We do, we actually have an education initiative that specifically offers bundles, special education pricing and other things that are really designed to help our education customers going in this space with the delivery of this type of technology. Our goal is for students to be exposed to the technology they're going to see when they get out there in the real world. A lot of journalism programs use our technology, a lot of athletic programs use it, so a lot of the schools take advantage of our education initiative, absolutely.
Larry Jordan: One of the challenges that we have is trying to get a signal out of a crowded space. I do every year a broadcast out of the NAB trade show which is like massively tech oriented. How can your device help get in a crowded bandwidth like that?
George Klippel: There's two ways that we're able to do that. The first way is with our new HEVC codec. It allows for the transmission of high quality video images at about half the bandwidth required for H.264 transmissions. So really in a high-density area like the NAB show or CES or other events like that, you're able to transmit in low internet speed environments down to one or two megs, you're able to get high 1080p video output using that HEVC codec that I mentioned.
George Klippel: But we also have a technology called the LiveU extender and that is a device that can connect to these different field units that we have, that adds additional modems and capacity that allows you to, in those same situations, have a better chance of getting out for your broadcast and it has a better chance of reaching additional cell towers because it adds additional capacity as well as additional high frequency antennas, called the LiveU extender.
Larry Jordan: What advice would you give to a producer who's trying to decide whether they want to do a live event or record it and stream it later?
George Klippel: I think the advice I would give them is, I would always prefer to go live. Live captures that moment, it captures the real time event and gives you the feeling that you can't really capture again with a VOD type of event. It allows users to interact in real time with your guests, it allows you to have that experience in real time, again that you can't get with a recorded event. And I think that's one of the things that's really exciting about live especially if you talk about sports. But even outside the sporting events, it's real time information. If it's a corporate event in particular you can get the information disseminated out in real time to your constituents. I think it's reliable today. That's the other key thing people used to hesitate over because of the reliability, and today live reliability is something that is just 100 percent.
Larry Jordan: For people that want more information about the products that LiveU offers, where can they go on the web?
George Klippel: They can go to www.liveu.tv for more information.
Larry Jordan: That's all one word, liveu.tv and George Klippel is the director of channel sales for LiveU, and George thanks for joining us today.
George Klippel: Thank you Larry, I appreciate it.
Larry Jordan: Rony Sebok is the vice president at 1 Beyond Digital Video Systems, a company that designs and manufacturers professional video systems for all aspects of the production and post workflow. Hello Rony, welcome back.
Rony Sebok: Hey Larry, Happy New Year to you.
Larry Jordan: And a Happy New Year to you as well. Tonight, we're looking at live video production and 1 Beyond has been involved in video for years. What was it that sparked the company's initial interest in digital video?
Rony Sebok: The founder of the company bought a camera 20 years ago, digital, new DV camera, so that's how he got into digital video.
Larry Jordan: What products do you have today that support live video?
Rony Sebok: So what got us into streaming is it's clearly the new way of communicating, where they said a picture's worth a 1,000 words, video is the way everybody likes to learn and communicate. So we've migrated from servicing the high end professional TV and film broadcasters, to now servicing the education and corporate market to get communications out with live production.
Larry Jordan: What's the difference between a professional broadcaster and corporate or education?
Rony Sebok: These days, corporate and education can produce something that looks almost as professional as what you would see on ESPN or any news network that you can imagine. The tools these days provide just an incredible amount of capability for not very much money. So you can add titles to your broadcast, you can do fancy spins from one video to the other, you can do side by side shots to have an interview show with somebody. The tools are quite inexpensive and available to pretty much anybody, which is why corporate education, even independent folks wanting to put on live broadcasts are able to do it now with very high quality.
Larry Jordan: Give me an example of the tools that 1 Beyond provides?
Rony Sebok: 1 Beyond has the StreamMachine, which allows somebody to manually switch between one camera, another camera, content, let's say PowerPoint slides, add titles, composite, like we were talking about, live stream, record. The future as we see it actually is in automation. So having a crew and a lot of camera operators is very expensive and companies are looking for ways to have the same production value but without the manpower.
Larry Jordan: What do you mean when you talk about automating the system? What's automated?
Rony Sebok: Everything from camera movement, 1 Beyond has an auto tracker camera that automatically follows a presenter as they walk around. It uses facial recognition and motion detection, so that's for the camera operator. And then there's the auto switcher that we now offer, called Collaborate AVS, we're renaming it now to just AVS. That stands for automatic video switching which will switch from camera to camera based on who's talking. The microphones in the room can sense where the audio's coming from and the cameras automatically switch.
Larry Jordan: Well let's take the camera first. How do you prevent an auto tracker camera from having very jerky moves, because traditionally automatic cameras would not provide a smooth camera move?
Rony Sebok: Exactly. That's absolutely right. So these PTZ cameras originally were designed to go from preset to preset. Very jerky, really fast motion. To do smooth tracking, you need a motor that has gears that are more finite, more gradual. So we actually had to change the camera design in order to do it.
Larry Jordan: With an automatic video switcher, how do you prevent a cough from all of a sudden changing the focus of the scene?
Rony Sebok: Yes, that's a great question. That's always the problem. So that's where the smarts of the algorithm come in. You know, we did a lot of testing in a lot of real world situations to get a sense of how long does a cough last? So we don't switch immediately when there's audio somewhere else. You get the sense of the rhythm of a conversation and generally it'll switch when somebody talks for a certain period of time. But that's obviously configurable in an interface, so if somebody's conversation is different from somebody else's, it can be tailored, but yes you essentially have to ignore short noises like that otherwise it's terrible.
Larry Jordan: 1 Beyond's been in the live streaming business for years. I remember you and I worked together on an NAB show a while back where we were looking at live streaming. What changes have you seen in the industry over the last few years, especially in terms of workflow?
Rony Sebok: There are more vendors out there providing encoders and streaming boxes, the prices are coming down. From our point of view it's the automation so that there's less effort required and more plug and play. Now you can stream from an iPhone straight to Facebook. You couldn't do that a couple of years ago, and then the bitrates, people's internet connections are getting better and better. People are consuming their television through the network so all the cable providers are providing higher bandwidth and that makes the quality of the video better.
Larry Jordan: What sort of bandwidth do we need for a live event? What should we request?
Rony Sebok: When you stream and consume media, that's the downlink speed, but when you're sending video out that's your uplink speed. We say that your internet provider has to be able to provide twice what you want to stream. Let's say you have ten megabits per second capability up, then you should be setting your stream to five megabits, and that's a really good bitrate for a 1080p stream. Five megabits is fabulous. If you don't have that, if you're in a place where you only have let's say five megabits of uplink, then you might decide to stream 720 at 2500 kilobits a second, instead of the 5,000.
Larry Jordan: Can we get a good stream at a 720p image at 2500?
Rony Sebok: Yes, absolutely. People are blown away actually by the quality of the streams you can get now. People used to set their bitrates at 500 kilobits or 750, so when you double, triple that, to let's say 2,000 kilobits a second, we call that two megabits, it's amazing what a quality difference is.
Larry Jordan: How do we monitor the bandwidth that we're using during a live event?
Rony Sebok: With the various software that's available, it'll show you if the bandwidth is becoming a problem and in fact what happens is that your video starts skipping then. You start dropping frames. So there are indicators on the various devices and software that will show you if your internet connection is getting weak. But it's really important to plan that ahead of time. Because there's no way for you on your end to adjust that. So you always want to be conservative and stream underneath what you're going to have at the venue. The problem is that can change from hour to hour. As the internet gets busy, sometimes the internet provider will scale back what bandwidth you actually have. So you've got to run some tests at the time of day that you expect to do your event, to make sure that you're going to be OK with the bandwidth that you decide to choose. But that's the beautiful thing, depending on what's available, you can adjust your stream accordingly. What you want to do is stream the highest quality up, because then your provider is going to stream that down at whatever bitrate people can receive it at. Anybody's who's watched YouTube will see that you can check auto and then it'll automatically detect what you're able to watch and give you the best quality or you can pick what quality you want to view. But you can't make quality where there isn't.
Larry Jordan: In your opinion, what's the benefit to doing a live event versus an on demand event?
Rony Sebok: That's a question that comes up a lot. Sports people want to watch live, because after the fact everybody knows what the score was, but let's talk about a corporate training session or an announcement from a company. Certain things have to happen real live time because it's a big announcement, and after that it's old news. Also there's interactivity with live so when you're doing a training for your company, you want to allow people to ask questions. You want to see that interaction and live does that much better as after the fact you can't ask questions of the presenter. On the topic of whether it's useful to schedule events, I think it's very important and useful because then people come to predict and expect that there's going to be material available every Monday or something like that. So that even if they can't attend live, they'll know that it's there and that draws your audience.
Larry Jordan: This question's a lot like asking how long is a piece of string, but for a live production, what's the basic equipment that I would need?
Rony Sebok: At the minimum, honestly, you need a laptop with a webcam. So a laptop with a webcam with let's say WireCast software, allows you to stream. But very quickly you're going to realize that that's not the best quality camera, it certainly doesn't move around so you're going to then look for a more professional camera and then if you want more than one camera, so you want to be able to switch between one camera and another, then you want to start looking at a system like 1 Beyond has, a StreamMachine because then you need a switcher, encoder, recorder. The 1 Beyond product just puts all those into one box.
Larry Jordan: Rony, for people that want more information about the products that 1Beyond has available, where can they go on the web?
Rony Sebok: We'd love them to come to visit our website at 1beyond.com, that's just the numeral one, not spelt out, 1beyond.com.
Larry Jordan: That's all one word, 1beyond.com and Rony Sebok is the vice president of 1 Beyond, and Rony thanks for joining us today.
Rony Sebok: Thank you so much Larry. Have a nice year.
Larry Jordan: Scott Murray is the vice president of product management for Telestream. He's been in marketing for over 30 years with marketing management and executive positions at Telestream, Grass Valley Group, Scitex Digital Video and Miranda Technologies. Hello Scott, welcome back.
Scott Murray: Hi Larry, great to hear from you and talk to you. 30 years? Where's the time gone?
Scott Murray: Oh my gosh.
Larry Jordan: Tonight, we're looking at live production and streaming. Where does Telestream fit into this picture?
Scott Murray: We fit into it in a couple of areas. We have a product called WireCast which we have tens of thousands of customers using it, churches, corporations and even companies like Fox Sports and major broadcasters have used and continue to use the WireCast product to stream and produce their content. There's also a second piece that we have, on the Enterprise side, so Fox Sports for example leveraged our Lightspeed Live Enterprise class streaming encoder and capture product to augment their replay production capability at the World Cup this last year. We have actually a couple of areas that we're very strong in live production in.
Larry Jordan: Let's focus on the WireCast side rather than the Enterprise side. Before we talk about WireCast, it seems that live production falls into two sections, the production itself with cameras and lights, talent and audio, and then there's the distribution whether it's via broadcast or satellite or streaming. One, do you think that's a good dichotomy? Two, where have the greatest changes been over the last few years?
Scott Murray: You're absolutely correct in the segmentation. I use an example. I went to a little school called Cal Poly in central California on the coast, and I love Cal Poly. As I moved up here into the mountains of northern California, I couldn't get Cal Poly football and I wanted to stay connected to my university because I just have an affinity for it. Why couldn't I get Cal Poly football? As I got into the video business, it became really clear there were two areas and you've identified them exactly. One is the cost of production, two is the cost of distribution. So the equipment historically has been very expensive so there's a huge capital investment, and then there's an operating expense associated with it so it takes people to run most of that equipment. That's the production side.
Scott Murray: On the distribution side, the historical distribution capabilities of cable and satellite have been prohibitive for businesses like Cal Poly to actually distribute their content. What's gone on in the last few years is we now have tools that allow you to produce the content at substantially lower price points. In many cases, unattended live production is actually out there at this point if that's what you want to do. Then there's also the distribution with over the top distribution is ubiquitous. Everybody's got a Netflix account or Hulu account or YouTube Live or Vimeo Live, Facebook Live, whatever. There are now over 100 streaming services out there, and now I can get my Cal Poly football in addition to Cal Poly wrestling, and swimming and baseball and anything else that allows me to stay connected to my university. Just because of the technology capability that has driven down the cost of equipment, cost of production, cost of distribution.
Larry Jordan: Many of us that have been in production for a while are very familiar with satellite distribution or broadcast distribution. But what is an efficient workflow? What's like a checklist we need to keep in mind if we wanted to do live streaming?
Scott Murray: The output of your production needs to get sent to the Cloud. How do you do that? So usually there's an encoder that's either embedded into the software or hardware, or you take an SDI input, which is the base band output that would be normal distribution, and you encode that into an RTMP stream or an RTMPS stream. That's the general accepted practice. That stream needs to be sent up to a Cloud provider to either a CDN that you have contracted with, or another platform such as Facebook Live or Vimeo Live, that allows you to do the distribution that you can allow your customers to dial into. So the hook between the production and the distribution really amounts technologically to quite simply, a good encoded RTMP stream. That'll do it for you.
Larry Jordan: You mentioned the content delivery network, the CDN. I had the great pleasure of working with WireCast a couple of years ago when I was working out of my video studio. The very first live stream that we did, I didn't know that CDNs existed, and so I had people attaching directly to my WireCast output and that didn't work very well. How do we pick a content delivery network? What questions should we ask?
Scott Murray: Where do your customers want to go for their content? It really varies. So for example, there's a broadcast company called Meredith which holds a bunch of local broadcast stations, Meredith broadcasting stations, and they've purchased WireCast Gear which is WireCast software on a preconfigured computer that we sell, that they've decided that their audience watches late breaking news through Facebook and Facebook Live. So what they wanted to be able to do was to send their late breaking news to Facebook, so that's where they pointed WireCast to. But if you pull down the list of WireCast destinations, there's a lot of destinations. Take Sunday for example. Let's say a lot of your customers may want to be Sunday churchgoers, and they want to watch the local worship service and are not able to attend. There are other CDNs such as churchstreaming.tv and streamingchurch.tv that provide the CDN capabilities for the customers for where they want to go. So what that means is, most customers have a destination in mind of where they want to go watch their content on a website. There are cases also where you want to send it to multiple destinations and in that case, you either have to one, do it through your computer and identify all of these destinations you want to go to. Or two, you send one stream up to the cloud and you use a restreaming solution like what we have in our Telestream Cloud account that allows you to restream to all of these other destinations that you want to go to. There's a couple of ways to go.
Larry Jordan: Earlier in the program, we talked with George Klippel who works with LiveU and as you know, LiveU makes an all in one hardware solution that does streaming. WireCast is essentially software. Why would somebody consider WireCast versus an all in one solution?
Scott Murray: Oh different applications. We work with LiveU and LiveU has their own solution that allows you to go straight from the field into the destination that you want to go to. But if you want to provide some level of production you could use LiveU as an input into WireCast and augment the production with other things such as remote interviews with people over our rendezvous capability inside WireCast. So it's kind of, what do you want to do on the production side? What are your camera sources? Who do you want to talk to? And how do you want to produce your event? Then you figure out where you want to go.
Larry Jordan: The big challenge that we have that's the unknown for many of us, is the whole concept of bandwidth. How do we plan the bandwidth that we need to connect WireCast up to the CDN?
Scott Murray: Great question. Most people think that it's very simple and you can handle it without any problem. WireCast runs quite well on a laptop, but the horsepower required to do the encoding for multiple destinations is one thing. In addition, if you're sending streams out to let's say you want to do five or eight different destinations, Facebook Live, YouTube Live, CDNs and you want to do them all simultaneously, you're going to need to send a separate RTMP stream to each one of those destinations so they can grab the stream. Now, you're talking instead of just a really good quality four or five or ten megabit per second uplink, if you want eight systems, eight destinations, you've got to multiply that by eight. So you're going, "Well crap, that's going to cost me a lot of money to do and I'm going to have to get a big pipe." This is where restreaming capabilities in the cloud come into play. With our WireCast restreaming capability you can send the output once up to the Telestream cloud, and then you can restream to any one of those destinations. We scale accordingly so you do not have to A, worry about the CPU encoding and B, you don't have to worry about the bandwidth requirements from your computer or at your home or wherever you're streaming from.
Larry Jordan: Let's just take that back one step. Let's say that I want to have a single stream of 1080p. What's my minimum bandwidth?
Scott Murray: Good quality four, five megabits per second?
Larry Jordan: OK, four to five megabits a second. And then on top of that we then have the distribution bandwidth which is based upon whatever our CDN charges.
Larry Jordan: What's the starting price for WireCast? What does it cost to buy in?
Scott Murray: We actually have two models now. One of them is a perpetual license, we have two versions of software, Studio and Pro, 695 or 995 is the perpetual price for WireCast. Just recently, Microsoft announced if you're a corporation they have a product called Microsoft office 365 stream and they are adding live streaming capability to their stream platform, and they have worked with us to create a version of WireCast that's a subscription for live streaming into an Office 365 eco system for about $20 a month.
Larry Jordan: For people that want more information about Telestream's products, where can they go on the web?
Larry Jordan: That's all one word, telestream.net, not .com. Telestream.net and Scott Murray is the vice president of product management for Telestream, and Scott thanks for joining us today.
Scott Murray: Have a great evening.
Larry Jordan: Nick Mattingly is the CEO and cofounder of Switcher Studio. This is an iOS app that enables anyone with an iOS device and an internet connection to capture and deliver multicam events to online audiences. Hello Nick, welcome back.
Nick Mattingly: Hey, happy to be here.
Larry Jordan: Nick, this evening we've been learning about live production and streaming. Where does Switcher Studio fit into this whole process?
Nick Mattingly: Switcher is a mobile creation platform as you mentioned. It's a way to make video that looks like TV using devices you already own. We have a big focus on mobility and interactivity and if you're looking to make video or you're not chained to a desk, not looking to make a big investment in hardware before you get started, Switcher's a great solution.
Larry Jordan: What first got you interested in live event production?
Nick Mattingly: Prior to starting Switcher which we first launched in 2014, one of our cofounders and I had an agency and we were helping visitors that wanted to do online video and we had many clients that were wanting to make more video, higher quality video and it ended up being a big investment and so complicated in some cases that they'd have to hire someone just to run it, and we were trying to find a way to get people to say yes sooner. So we used a lot of different solutions on the market and decided to take a step back and reimagine what it would be like to make it easier for people to make this type of video and to imagine what that could look like for someone that's never made video before so that they could give it a shot and be successful.
Larry Jordan: Well from 2014 until 2019, the world has changed. How has streaming evolved over the last few years? Where are we now?
Nick Mattingly: In 2014 when we first launched Switcher, UStream, LiveStream, those were the names that carried a lot of weight, and where a lot of the action was happening for live video. YouTube was doing a little bit, but it was primarily big events. Typically live video is something with a day, a time and a place and over the past 12 to 18 months, that's changed a lot in our culture and as far as what's accessible through free social platforms where Twitter and Facebook and others are offering live video as a part of their product offering. As a place where you can put content and not have to pay thousands of dollars a month for video hosting and delivery. Because of that we're starting to see from our perspective, many businesses that are using this new format to communicate, to talk about their business and ultimately to drive sales.
Larry Jordan: Well let's talk specifically about some of the products that you guys have got. What's the latest news on your products?
Nick Mattingly: Just a few months ago, in October 2018, we introduced new plans so we have a personal and a professional plan. There's our monthly subscriptions with an annual option as well. And the new professional plan allows you to do things where you can schedule broadcasts ahead of time. We also have an integration with Microsoft Stream which I think we'll be talking about a little bit here later, and with the professional plan we also recently introduced video chat in an update just last week. With Switcher 4.0 you can now have a conversation in real time with someone from anywhere in the world, bring in a guest and make them a part of your production. On top of all the things that were already possible with Switcher. We've also laid the foundations for more cloud enabled tools where we can bring in real time data and push those on stream. We'll have another upcoming release where you can take a comment from a viewer and put that on stream … activity like polling, and we'll continue to iterate and improve.
Larry Jordan: One of the challenges that we have when we're using cell phones for cameras, which is at the core of what you guys do, is that it's really hard to change shot angles to zoom in or zoom out or make moves on air. How do you get around that problem?
Nick Mattingly: You see this a lot with especially social video and some things on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter. It's very easy to hit the button in those apps and go live and you don't need anything extra to do that, but for the most part it's one camera point and shoot. And with Switcher you can use those same devices, but you can put your logo on the screen. Or you could switch from the camera to a photo or a pre-recorded video and we even have a multi camera component so if you have a friend with another device, or you have a retired iPhone or iPad, you can open the app on another iOS device and very easily add another angle, a different perspective and as you start introducing more and more of these elements, it becomes much more engaging and people watch longer. It really changes the experience and allows you to do things that you wouldn't be able to do with some of the native app experiences.
Larry Jordan: Totally agree, but let me ask my question a different way. Is there a way to do an on air zoom where we can change to go from a wide shot to a tight shot using your software? Or would I need to use two different cameras, one set tight and one set wide?
Nick Mattingly: OK, the answer is yes, but you would need two devices to have different perspective. You could have one camera that you could zoom with or you could adjust camera settings, white balance, ISO etcetera, but if the Switcher app is running on another iPhone or iPad, it shows up as a camera from your primary device and you can see it, and you can make adjustments to it before you choose to show it to your audience. So you have complete control of any other devices that you choose to bring in as part of your production.
Larry Jordan: So not only can we do multicam work, and we can integrate other titles or graphics, but we can also change the angle? So if we had a two shot and went to a single, and go back to a two, we could do that on one of the cameras that we're feeding into Switcher Studio?
Nick Mattingly: Exactly. We also support what we call multi viewer … so allowing you to do a two up, or picture in picture and there's several variations of that. There's a lot of customizable control and that's especially useful for things like the new video chat feature, if you wanted to show two guests on screen at the same time or a presentation or other information to go along with what you might be speaking about during your video.
Larry Jordan: One of the interesting pieces of news that Scott told us about and you've already mentioned it, is Microsoft Stream. Tell me about that because at the corporate level, that's a very exciting concept.
Nick Mattingly: Many of the listeners are probably familiar with Office 365 and as part of your Office 365 subscription you get Word, PowerPoint and Excel and a lot of these business tools that we've come to rely on. Over the past few years Microsoft introduced another platform within Office 365 called Stream where you could upload video and this was used for internal communication and training and as a repository for businesses to store the videos that they needed access to within their business. This past year, 2018, Microsoft Stream added the ability to do live video and Switcher was fortunate enough to be one of the launch partners for Office 365, so if you were to log into your Office 365 account and select the stream option, where you could post video or create events, Switcher's included in the drop-down menu. You can select different encoders and we're one of just a handful of partners and if you have a Switcher account you would select Switcher right within Office 365. You would create your event, those settings would be saved to your online Switcher account, and when you go to your mobile device, iPhone or iPad, it already knows what to do. Where to send the video. You just log in, hit the big red button and you're ready to go.
Larry Jordan: That is so exciting and I wish you great success, especially with the corporate market with that. Before I let you go, we've heard from the folks at 1 Beyond and Telestream WireCast and LiveU and they all make good products, just as Switcher's a good product. When should we consider using Switcher Studio? What's the optimal first use?
Nick Mattingly: I think there's a lot of different reasons to get into making video. For a lot of businesses, it's not always something that is happening in house. In many cases it's outsourced. Or something where you might contract a freelancer or have someone come in to do a promotional video or a video for your home page on your website or smaller, short clips for ads on social media. Live video is a really great opportunity for you to own that process and to go behind the scenes and really document what you're doing. I would say, don't let the technology get in the way of that. Everyone has a story to share, and all you have to do is open your phone and hit the button, and it's built right into all these platforms that we're using every day.
Nick Mattingly: If that's something that you're starting to do and you're having success with or you want to do more, Switcher is a really great stepping stone to be able to do more, to brand your content, to bring another element to help monetize what you're doing and help drive sales. So I would say check out any of these solutions, everyone's going to have different needs and they all fill different needs, but don't let the technology get in the way. Share your story, just hit the button and when you want to do more, then you can start looking at some of these other solutions and find the one that makes the most sense for you.
Larry Jordan: For people that are ready to hit the button, where can they go on the web to learn more about Switcher Studio?
Nick Mattingly: If you want to try out Switcher, go to switcherstudio.com, there's a 14 day trial included and then take it from there.
Larry Jordan: Switcherstudio all one word, and Nick Mattingly is the CEO and cofounder of Switcher Studio. Nick thanks for joining us today.
Nick Mattingly: Absolutely thank you.
Larry Jordan: You know, I was just thinking, as producers we have a lot of opportunities to create live productions for our clients. First this builds on all the production gear and skills we've developed over the years, plus the added excitement of doing it live. But planning a live production is more precise and much more detailed than planning a simple film shoot because unlike a typical recorded production, we don't have the ability to fix it later in post.
Larry Jordan: Unlike a film shoot, which includes all the issues of planning a production, you know, the usual suspects of scripts, talent, sets, locations, crew, a live event adds the additional complexity of distribution. In the past, we would hand distribution off to a broadcast, cable or satellite partner, but today we handle it ourselves. However, just as you have dedicated specialists for actors, directors and crew, you also need someone dedicated to streaming.
Larry Jordan: Distribution can be simple, but it can also be complex and while most of us are more than able to handle it as part of a production package, it's important that you plan ahead and test your entire network and workflow before the live event. This is a lesson that I learned the hard way the first time we streamed a video version of the Digital Production Buzz without using a CDN. Only three people could watch the show. Put someone in charge of the encoding and distribution that understands both networks and tech, the same way you'd put someone in charge of a camera that knows how to frame a shot.
Larry Jordan: There are more and more opportunities for producing live events for ourselves and our clients today. If you're looking for new services to suggest to your clients, streaming has never been a more attractive option. Just something I'm thinking about.
Larry Jordan: I want to thank our guests this week, George Klippel with LiveU, Rony Sebok with 1 Beyond, Scott Murray with Telestream, Nick Mattingly with Switcher Studio and James DeRuvo with Doddlenews.com.


text:
Home » Rajkumar Hirani
Tag: Rajkumar Hirani
Jul 18, 2019 - 9:23 am IST
Sanjay Dutt has entered a new foray with production of Marathi film,…
Boman Irani shares heartwarming tale of starting his dream career at the age of 35
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Boman Irani is undoubtedly one of the finest actors in the film…
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Jun 16, 2019 - 6:06 pm IST
Dia Mirza in an exclusive interview with Bollywood Hungama's Faridoon…
Scoop: Shah Rukh Khan and Rajkumar Hirani to team up for a LOVE STORY?
Jun 6, 2019 - 8:46 am IST
Is Shah Rukh Khan finally announcing his next film after Zero? Looks…
Rajkumar Hirani joins the jury for Shanghai International Film Festival
May 25, 2019 - 1:25 pm IST
Bollywood's one of the most celebrated filmmakers, Rajkumar Hirani…
Alok Nath won't be dropped from the Ajay Devgn starrer, but his options are narrowing
Apr 23, 2019 - 11:49 am IST
Call it hypocritical, if you will. But the film fraternity is more…
Here is why Sanjay Dutt stays away from Kalank promotions
We haven't seen much of Sanjay Dutt at the promotional events of…
Ranbir Kapoor shocks the #MeToo movement
Mar 22, 2019 - 10:58 am IST
At the Zee Cine awards on Wednesday night Ranbir Kapoor who won the…
Me Too: Fatima Sana Shaikh does not want to share her sexual harassment story, fears of being judged
Mar 15, 2019 - 8:35 pm IST
The #MeToo movement took down many big names from different…
Me Too: Rajkumar Hirani gets a Best Director nomination despite sexual misconduct charges, Twitter is livid
Rajkumar Hirani is a celebrated director alright but he also is named…
Vidhu Vinod Chopra is on GREAT terms with Rajkumar Hirani despite the Me Too controversy
Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Rajkumar Hirani have been close associates and…
Celebs grace Akash Ambani and Shloka Mehta's wedding reception
The Lion King Hindi teaser: Aryan Khan's captivating voice for Simba is strikingly similar to Shah Rukh Khan (Watch video)
Jul 11, 2019 - 11:41 am IST
Shah Rukh Khan reveals what he learnt from Disney's The Lion King
Jul 10, 2019 - 12:32 pm IST
Siddharth is Simba in the Tamil version of The Lion King!
The Lion King: After Shah Rukh Khan and Aryan Khan, Ashish Vidyarthi, Shreyas Talpade, Sanjay Mishra and Asrani to give voice overs for Hindi version
Jun 21, 2019 - 11:19 am IST
Sriram Raghavan's next to be based on THIS French novel by Frederic Dard

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text:
An American in Britain
Views from across the Herring Pond
Life in Britain
All Posts in "South Downs Way"
South Downs Way: Jack & Jill to Ditchling Beacon
The South Downs Way is a 100-mile path for walkers and cyclists and extends from Winchester to Eastbourne. We have now traversed 7% of that path. While that may not sound like a lot, it really has taken us some time. That's because we do the round-trip (return), not the one-way (single) path. We might cover more ground if we took advantage of public transport to deliver us to one spot and pick-up at another.
The second phase of our South Downs Way walk also started at the Jack and Jill windmills. However, this time we headed east towards Ditchling Beacon. The beacon, a small post in the ground, formed part of a chain of bonfire signals used to warn of the approach of danger. Back in the Georgian/Regency days, this could mean the possibility of an invasion from the French, or even the coming of the Preventive Officer, depending on who used the site.
After the strenuous walk of the previous week towards Devil's Dyke, we decided to take it easy. This part of the South Downs Way encompasses the Ditchling Beacon Nature Reserve. Parts of the reserve can be quite steep, but we only stayed at the top where the path is relatively flat. But it afforded wonderful views. From where we were, we could see out to the sea (English Channel).
Cows and sheep were grazing contentedly all around us. The cows didn't bother us, but we tried to avoid attracting their attention as we've heard the warnings about people being trampled to death. The sheep and little lambies were, well, "sheepish". But our eldest managed to sneak up on a lamb and touch its fur before it ran away.
It was not the best of days in terms of weather. It was quite windy and there was a slight chill, which did not help. The kids had not been very willing to go for a walk because of the Devil's Dyke experience, but after chasing lambs, they were in a better mood. The younger one started to have a tantrum by the time we approached the beacon because she thought daddy and sissy were leaving her behind. When told to run ahead and catch up, she started throwing hysterics and crying, "I can't. I can't breathe." As we took a few steps forward and an ice-cream truck came in to view, that was the end of her histrionics.
by Yank — June 5, 2010 in Leisure 4
The South Downs Way: Jack and Jill to Devil's Dyke
This weekend we decided to make good use of the present spell of good weather to navigate part of the South Downs Way in West Sussex. We started at the site of the twin windmills, Jack and Jill, atop a hill in Clayton overlooking much of Mid-Sussex. There was ample free parking, so we left the car and headed west along the Hassocks Link Trail to pick up the South Downs Way towards Devil's Dyke. Jill, the white restored windmill, was open to visitors but we decided to see it another time.
Heading west, we came first to a series of stables and paddocks where piebalds and bays grazed in the surrounding pastures. Beyond the stables, the trail joined the South Downs Way at a four-way junction. To the left was a bridleway, ahead the South Downs Way went towards the Ditchling Beacon, but we chose the right branch which bisected Pyecombe Golf Course. This picturesque trail, flanked by heather and wild flowers, seems to be popular with mountain bikers. Several passed us before we reached the PGC club-house at the foot of a steady descent over half a mile. Here, the South Downs Way crosses the A273 and loops right to the village of Pyecombe. We stopped in to look at the Grade I listed 12th century stone church which offered a cool respite from the heat.
Both our daughters took the opportunity to read sections from the church guide from the 17th century pulpit. As their voices echoed back across the empty nave, I pondered who else might have preached from the same pulpit to the many generations of the faithful to have sat in the church over the last 800 years. One such may have been the Reverend Lewis Beaumont whose marble headstone sits in front of the altar (see picture below).
Leaving the church grounds through the centrally pivoted Tapsel gate, we followed the path parallel to the graveyard as it sloped down towards the A23. For anyone duplicating this walk, the Plough Inn is nearby and would make a good place to stop for refreshments and a rest before tackling the ascent on the west side of the A23.
We continued over the A23 and, after passing a farm entrance, turned right away from the road, past an elegant 17th century cottage to commence the slow ascent to the top of West Hill. It was about this time that little legs began to tire and piggybacks to the top of the hill were the order of the day.
On reaching the top of the hill, we expected to see our destination, or at least some sign of it. We looked, and looked, and looked! Then, faint on the horizon we spotted the outline of a building we thought might be the inn at Devil's Dyke.
I was tempted to title this post "Getting Lost on the South Downs Way between Jack and Jill and Devil's Dyke" for there were brief moments when we felt completely adrift among endless hills and dells. However, a little later, and a good deal more tired, than anticipated we did reach the Devil's Dyke Inn to enjoy a much deserved dinner.
by Yank — May 27, 2010 in Leisure 1
The Forest Way: Withyham to East Grinstead
A Hedgehog at Dusk
All the Queen's Horses at Audley End House
A restful day at Ardingly Reservoir
National Stud Centre day
New driving test case studies are a waste of time
Variety of foods in supermarkets
Down House: Charles Darwin's Former Home
Tracey Lyle on A license to watch TV!? *gasp*
Emma on South Downs Way: Jack & Jill to Ditchling Beacon
Jeff on Why don't British homes have basements?
John Griffiths Jones on Fetes vs. Fayres
Clayton on Differences in social attitudes
Bob60506 on Why don't British homes have basements?
peter hall on Why don't British homes have basements?
David Sanches on Iced tea, please
Euro Thrift
How 'bout them Dodgers
Not From Around Here
Bonfire Night Britain British cars Colleagues england English Heritage fetes Fireworks Gymnastics insurance Landlord Money rac Several Times UK UK Driving License UK Driving Test US walking
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Are you better with writing or with numbers?
When you hear the phrase "The Arts" what do you think of?
You are a logical thinker! You will most likely be able to figure out a riddle and be correct. You most likely enjoy math more than English, and are better at it. You base your reasoning off of facts, and you are a wiz-kid!
You are a creative thinker! You love to make up your own solutions to problems, and you enjoy the fine things of life. You base your reasoning off of emotions, and you are a well rounded person!
You are a logically creative thinker! You have interests in both things, and your mind set does not consent to one thing. You reason off of emotions and off facts, and you are a complex person.
I did a science fair project on logic and creativity. I asked how peoples likes and interests affect their way of thinking through problems. Through research and experiments I conducted a survey, and gave it out to several people to determine whether they are logical, creative, or both. It turns out your lifestyle does effect the way you think. This is the survey.


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AZUL PARAGLIDING
Blogger space
The story of Paragliding
By TACK FARINAS
Where was Paragliding Invented?
Opinions differ on who the first person was to ever paraglide. Many believe it was David Barish in the early 1960s, who at the time was developing a space capsule recovery device called the "Sail Wing" for NASA. He tested his work personally in 1965 on Hunter Mountain, New York, terming the activity "slope soaring." His invention piggybacked off the earlier work of Domina Jalbert, an American who helped to advance aerofoil technology and subsequently patented the Parafoil in 1963. The Parafoil, with its ram-air design incorporating a row of inflatable air pockets into an aerofoil shape, would prove to be a precursor to the modern-day paraglider. There is also video and photo documentation taken sometime in the late '70s of a group of skydivers flying their parachutes in eastern Montana, launching off small hills in the area.
When and Where Did Paragliding Originate?
Meanwhile in the French Alps, climbers were utilizing similar technology. They found that after reaching the summit, they could make their descent from the peak safer and more efficient by using small ram-air canopies to help them "float" down the mountain. These parachutes weighed only 8 pounds, flew at a speed of 20 mph, and dropped the rider 3 feet of height for every foot traveled. By the mid-1980s, those interested in this mode of air travel started to focus on maximizing the flight potential of rising air, which was found to be the secret in increasing the duration of flights and thereby covering longer distances.
Many advances were made in product design in the '80s, all of which helped to improve parachute glide performance: increased wingspan, the introduction of nonporous fabric, and modifying the shape and trim of the airfoil. A newly enhanced design meant changes in the flight characteristics, and therefore new skills and techniques were needed to pilot the aircraft. The most successful designs were produced in large numbers to meet the growing demands of paragliding enthusiasts, whose numbers were increasing dramatically. By 1986, the sport was well established in Europe.
Over the last few years, a wide range of paragliding equipment has been developed in Europe, Asia, and the United States. Manufacturers test their products thoroughly to ensure the pilots' safety. For a long time, the development and marketing of paragliders in the USA had been restricted to three manufacturers of skydiving equipment. Though their products were very safe and stable, they lacked the performance of the European designs. A few radical new designs incorporating wings had emerged by the early '90s. Production was concentrated on paragliders with stable handling characteristics, making them suitable for the general flying population. Little by little, the wings became classified into different groups, according to their usage. There were different canopies designed for student pilots, intermediate (recreational) pilots, and competition pilots. In France and Germany, standardized procedures were established for testing and certifying paragliders; nowadays, this standard represents the benchmark for all manufacturers worldwide.
As paragliding evolved, the sport eventually separated into two different sports: skydiving (parachuting) and paragliding. In fact, in some regards, the two sports came full circle to meet again to a modest extent in appearance and design. For example, there are presently several different sport-jumping canopy designs. Their wings are nonporous, elliptical shaped, and have thin-profile airfoils, which allow higher speeds, better glide performance, and greater aerodynamic efficiency. These features, which were developed especially for paragliders, are now being incorporated back into skydiving parachutes. Of course, even though some paragliding wings seem, at first glance, to be quite similar to certain skydiving canopies, the two structures have very disparate flight characteristics that require unique pilot techniques.
Chez Abdoul, Ouzguita 42204, Lalla Takerkouste, Maroc | Phone: 00212766-867503 | Email: info@azulparagliding.com
Copyright © 2021 Azul Paragliding Morocco


China's event market is full of dynamic and exciting developments, innovation, new players and novel ideas, but at the same time of certain shortcomings. This new and huge market is drawing increasing attention from the event industry worldwide. The aim of this handbook is to analyse the Chinese event market, reflect on emerging trends, scrutinise the key players and identify the implications for the education of future professionals in this industry.
This handbook is the first of its kind on the Chinese event market written in English. It is a collection of 27 articles written by 39 authors from China, Germany, Malaysia, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States. The contributions embrace a mix of theoretical and practical reflections, written by academics/lecturers and practitioners alike. The focus lies on business events, such as trade fairs, conventions and corporate events. Some very specifically describe a certain trend or development; others focus on overall trends.
The handbook is divided into four chapters. Following an introductory chapter on the event market, the second chapter focuses on the event market in China from a global perspective. The third chapter reflects on management aspects in China's event industry. The fourth and final chapter addresses the issue of edu-cating professionals for the event industry.


Nearest town: 14.35 miles from Tremorfa.
Nearest town: 14.09 miles from Tremorfa.
Nearest town: 19.08 miles from Tremorfa.
Nearest town: 14.2 miles from Tremorfa.
Nearest town: 15.02 miles from Tremorfa.
Nearest town: 19.91 miles from Tremorfa.
Nearest town: 19.09 miles from Tremorfa.


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Q: R: item name missing in the plot legend With this code I get the plot I want
d <- density(mydata$item1)
plot(d)

This code is the same, but omits N/As. And there is a flaw in the plot's legend. As you can see, it doesn't tell what item is plotted, (x = .)

Can you tell where is the matter and how to fix it? Thank you for your help.
My data
structure(list(item1 = c(5, 5, 5, 5, 4, 4, 2, 1, 3, 4, 4, 3,
2, 5, 2, 4, 4, 3, 6, 5, 3, 2, 5, 3, 3, 1, 3, 5, 1, 3, 2, 6, 3,
5, 4, 4, 3, 5, 6, 3, 2, 6, 6, 5, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3), item2 = c(5,
4, 5, 1, 2, 2, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 2, 5, 1, 4, 4, 3, 3, 5, 3, 2,
4, 4, 3, 4, 4, 3, 7, NA, 2, 4, 2, 4, 2, 3, 5, 3, 5, 3, 2, 6,
6, 7, 2, 3, 2, 3, 1, 4), item3 = c(5, 5, 6, 7, 3, 4, 5, 2, 2,
6, 4, 2, 5, 7, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 6, 5, 2, 6, 5, 6, 4, 6, 4, 6, 4,
6, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 5, 6, 7, 5, 5, 7, 7, 6, 2, 6, 6, 6, 5, 3)), row.names = c(NA,
-50L), class = c("tbl_df", "tbl", "data.frame"))

A: Use the main =  argument inside plot to make the title say whatever you want it to.
Data$item2 %>%
  na.omit() %>%
  density() %>%
  plot(main = 'Density of Data$item2')

A: you had a little typo in your code as the density() call was piped into a plot call refering to the variable it was been written to ... this might have resulted in the strange plot.
In general the density() function won't work with NA values acording to the documentation so you have to set the argument na.rm = TRUE as the default is FALSE for the plot to work correctly... also as @AllanCameron pointed out in an earlier answer you can set the plot title manually.
d <- density(mydata$item2, na.rm = TRUE)
plot(d)

Possibly you can substitute, interpolate or impute the NA values so that you do not have to remove them for the denstiy() call. Though this obviously depends on your data, context and goals.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Looking for a pet product that your dog will love but wont harm the planet? Eco Nap Eco-Friendly Dog Mat from our natural & organic dog bed collection is the answer -- these eco-friendly pet beds are made of 100% recycled material that look and feel great at the same time. And not just any material here at Doggie Diva -- many recycled plastic soda bottles go into making just one dog bed and each mat comes with a tag indicating exactly how many bottles went into crafting it. So instead of going to the landfill, those re-purposed soda bottles will keep your dog warm, which is pretty cool! These dog beds utilize eco-fabric, milled in the USA. with 100 percent of the fabric comprised of IntelliLoft fibers, which means it comes from post-consumer recycled plastic. Help national landfills divert reUSA.ble material with The Eco Nap Eco Friendly Dog Mat the extra large dog mat uses more than 40 plastic bottles and even the medium dog mat diverts more than 21 bottles when it is made.
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Medium: 29 "x 20" x 3"
XL-Extra Large: 42" x 27" x 3"


Considering the World-Wide Web, this blog is written by a Nobody.
I doubt my review of this book will read by more than about 30 people.
The book costs about $17.00 (print) and $10.00 (e-book) on Amazon.
Since a good friend of mine had given me an Amazon Gift Certificate, I bought the e-book edition.
I don't make a practice of reviewing books and I'm almost sorry I thought I should read this one.
I didn't waste my time because I can share my experience here and hopefully caution aspiring authors against thinking that this book will be the only one they have to read.
In fact, about 90% of what's in the book is available with a bit of intelligent searching on Google.
I'd estimate about 70% is available through this blog—either what I've said or sources I link to.
One of it's best features is all the links it contains to various resources writers may need in their quest toward publishing.
Thing is, you don't have to buy the book to get those links.
They're right on the book's website >>> Here are Ape's 350 links.
If so, what's your take?
There are reviews and there are REVIEWS.
Even amongst all the good ones, there are those that make a deeper impression on the author.
It's even possible to like bad reviews, as was indicated in our post, Bad Reviews Are Good ?
Still, a treasured review from a humble reader is different than a treasured review from another author—cherished in different ways.
Jane Watson is the Australian author who wrote Hindustan Contessa.
You can read an interview with her here.
Some may think that last comment "invalidates" a review of my book from Jane.
But Jane knows me, perhaps better than anyone; and, knowing something about the author can infuse a review with special insights.
"I loved this book. Notes From An Alien is a deep epic with many voices, which work together to create a concert of meaning, which is both instructive and profound. The book is quite 'documentary' in style and structure, yet the writing has intense lyrical moments which draw the reader in.
"The story, told through science fiction, expresses the belief that world peace is possible and can be everlasting. The writer uses a clever technique of telling the story as a history of a distant planet. Soon however the reader comes to realize that this struggle could be the history of Earth itself in the future.
"How can we resist such an invitation to listen?
"Which is apt because, for most of the book, I felt the reader was watching the stories unfold in a cinematic fashion, so much so that I am hoping that someone does make this into a movie! This is Dune without spice but with plasma as a far more potent symbol of connection. In fact as I read on I realized that Plasma was one of the most important 'characters' in the book. The concept of plasma as a connecting force or medium is fascinating. I found myself on several occasions looking up the index of science-based books in bookshops looking for the word.
"Almost" "Reviews" . . .
How short can something be before the "experts" say it's not a review?
My dictionary gives a first definition as: "A new appraisal or evaluation".
There is a special page on this blog used for "normal" Reviews of my books.
The first "review" arrived as an incident related to me by a prison librarian.
Johnpaul Mahofski placed my book, Notes from An Alien, in his library at the Eastern Correctional Institution in Maryland.
Someone checked it out then, a couple months later, someone else checked it in.
It was in bad shape, the pages and cover wrinkled so badly that Johnpaul decided he had to replace it.
The second almost-review happened today.
Once a book is released and promoted on the Web, an author is well-served by having a Google alert set up to see everything being said and done about the book.
Tamela doesn't give any of her own opinions about my book but the layout of the post is "A new appraisal or evaluation".
The last review is still short but much sweeter.
My long-time, never-met-in-person friend Catherine Roberts had received a free copy of Notes from an Alien but was struggling with the language, not being a fluent English reader.


Contact — Kate Ellis. Acting Coach.
She is available to travel to schools for masterclasses with both teachers and students.
If you wish to book or have any further questions please don't hesitate to get in touch.


The expression "world class" gets casually thrown around, like a frisbee at the beach. But what does it really mean?
I love watching elite sports people competing under pressure.
For example, this photo of the finish line of the mens' 10,000m final at the 2012 London Olympics.
First: WTF, did that really happen?
Second: OMG, I'm a white dude winning a medal in a long-distance race at the Olympics!
The bronze medalist on this occasion was Kenenisa Bekele from Ethiopia. The reason he's looking a bit glum is that he was, and still is, the world record holder for this event, so no doubt was expecting more of himself on that evening.
It's nearly impossible for the average person, watching on TV, to appreciate the speed that world-class long distance runners run.
Bekele's 10,000m world record is 26 minutes 17 seconds, which is the equivalent of 100 consecutive 15.8 second 100m races. Most people cannot sprint a single 100m at that pace.
He ran the final kilometre of that race in 2 minutes 32 seconds. Again, probably twice as fast as the average runner could go at full speed starting fresh, and he had already run 9km at world record pace before then!
There are only a handful of people on the planet who can sustain that sort of pace. If you watch any of the elite marathons you'll see the leading group contains some designated pacemakers for the first 20 or 30km. They are themselves very, very good athletes, running at an eye-watering pace, but they peel away eventually unable to stick with that speed over the critical final third of the race.
Here is a good challenge, for those of us who mostly sit on our behinds and urge others to be faster, higher and stronger: run just one 400m lap of an athletics track. Go as fast as you can, and time yourself. Then compare your time to Catherine Ndereba of Kenya and Zhou Chunxiu of China, who got the silver and bronze medals respectively in the women's marathon at the Beijing Olympics, completing the last 400m of their race in about 76 seconds. Keep in mind they had run over 40km prior to starting that final lap!
It's difficult to find words to describe the gap between these athletes and you and me.
The most obvious difference is genetic. Mo Farrah, the gold medalist above, is 1.75m (my height) but 58kg (somewhat less than my weight!) The world record holder, Bekele, is 54kg. That physiological difference is telling. In the history of athletics, only a small group of people have ever run sub-27 mins for the 10,000m, and Chris Solinsky, at 74kg, is the only one heavier than 65kg (he ran 26:59.6 in May 2010).
But, of course, it's much more than that. There are plenty of people born with the same genetics who never go on to athletic greatness. It takes half a lifetime of hard work to get to the start line capable of running at that pace. The media loves stories about people who come from nowhere to win, but these days those sort of performances are more likely to attract suspicion rather than admiration. Most champions are well signposted, with a long history of improving performances from a very young age.
For example, Usain Bolt ran the 200m in 21.81 seconds in 2001, when he was 15, seven years before setting the then world record of 19.30 seconds at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, with small but consistent improvement every year in between.
Standing on the breakwater, in front of the Golden Gate Yacht Club in San Francisco, on the morning of 7th September 2013 waiting for race one of the Americas Cup to start, my heart rate was noticeably higher than it normally is. It's hard to comprehend how the team themselves must have felt, given what they had personally invested in the whole event. Up close, the fragility and bespoke-ness of the boats they were racing was much more obvious than it was on television. They are designed and constructed to sail right on the limits.
Somehow those on board continue to operate and hold it all together despite those nerves. The very best actually seem to thrive on the pressure.
And, it wasn't just physical.
Huge fighting words, and with the benefit of hindsight, quite prophetic, as Oracle eventually went on to complete what many have called the greatest comeback in sport to retain the cup 9-8.
It was a remarkable level of self-confidence bordering on cockiness. And it was a deliberate strategy. I'd love to know how much he actually believed himself, deep down, that day.
Imagine yourself in Dean Barker's position, and wonder how you would respond to that sort of comment - not just immediately, but lying in bed trying to get to sleep that night and then looking across the water on the start-line the next day with him grinning back at you.
Bonus: Dean Barker, interviewed on Radio NZ about his experience in San Francisco.
If you get a chance to go to a professional rugby game, be sure to get there early and watch the teams warming up. Take some binoculars and just follow one player. If you're anything like me, you'll find it mesmerising to watch them run through a very methodical set of exercises as they prepare for the game ahead.
There are hundreds of thousands of kids in New Zealand who grow up dreaming of being an All Black or Black Fern. There are thousands who play at 1st XV level, and every year there are a couple of hundred who play professionally and are eligible for selection at the highest level. The breadth of that pyramid, and the competition for places and desire that creates to be part of the team probably goes a long way to explaining why the level of performance is so impressive at the very top.
It's tempting to imagine that those who are picked have something magical that sets them apart from mere mortals. But, actually, it's not magic.
They are talking about all of the same skills that any weekend warrior has - passing, catching, tackling, kicking - but these elite players are able to perform those skills repeatedly under extreme pressure.
It's very easy to talk about executing the basics. But, actually, just doing that consistently and despite all that is happening around you is enough to set you apart from nearly everybody else in the world.
In sport there is an obvious and massive gap between the elite few and everybody else. For the enthusiastic amateur it's tempting to bridge that gap in your mind and imagine that you could be a contender, but that doesn't often stand up to much scrutiny. Very few amateurs call themselves world class.
However, in business this distinction is often lost. And especially in startup businesses.
The expression "world class" gets casually thrown around, like a frisbee at the beach on a sunny afternoon. But most people who use it actually have no concept of what it means.
It seems so easy to start a company and dream big. Anybody can do it, right? "I have a great idea for an app, if only I could find a developer to build it for me." Or, "I've built this amazing dingus and just need to find some way to sell it" (or even more delusionally, "I just need to get it out there and it will sell itself").
It is worth taking the time at the outset to ask yourself if you can be world class and if that is even the goal.
Do you have the desire to put in the years of hard slog and dedicated focus, to be able to push yourself to match the performance of the very best out there (keeping in mind that every founder thinks they can do in two years what always takes at least five, often seven, sometime even longer)?
Can you look your competitors in the eye and confidently know that you are mentally stronger and able to execute better when it counts? And, even if you don't believe that, are you able to talk it up anyway, so at least they believe you do?
Are the basics so ingrained, due to consistent and repeated execution over time, that you're able to repeat them almost mindlessly, even when time and other constraints are working against you?
You don't become world class by calling yourself world class.
You achieve that by competing with, and beating, the best in the world.
Think about the intersection of the things that you care about, have authority in and are prepared to take responsibility for.
To be considered successful you just have to do those things that most people don't.
Imagine objectively selecting companies to receive government support, without the bureaucrats or consultants?
Choose what you're going to focus on, and then have the conviction to say "no" to everything else.


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Q&A with Founder of Mama O's Premium Kimchi
by Amelia Nielson-Stowell / Monday, 20 April 2020 / Published in Business, Food & Flavor
Kheedim Oh never aspired to start a food brand. The self-described "accidental entrepreneur" began Mama O's Premium Kimchi in Brooklyn in 2007, in the midst of the Great Recession. With just $50 to his name, he started hauling giant jars of homemade kimchi to retailers on his skateboard.
Thirteen years later, Oh has grown the brand into one of the top fermented kimchi sold in the United States. Handcrafted kimchi is a labor-intensive food craft, but Oh doesn't cut corners. He has never received a dime of funding and employs only a small team that uses his mother's kimchi recipe.
"Everything we do is the time-honored, traditional way. From the experience of having to do it myself for so long, I've learned how to be as ruthlessly efficient in doing the steps to make the kimchi," Oh says. "It takes time. But, to be honest, I don't know how to do it another way. My goal is to make the best product."
His kimchi, kimchi paste and kimchi kit have been praised by Food & Wine magazine and Williams Sonoma. Oh spent decades prior to Mama O's building a name for himself in the entertainment industry as a DJ. It's only been in the last few months that he stopped working regular DJ gigs "and that's only because I've had to dedicate so much more energy into making the kimchi." Oh still incorporates music into his work, creating novel stop-motion recipe videos incorporating Mama O's kimchi. He also hosts Kimchipalooza, an annual festival in Brooklyn with live music and kimchi-centric tastings, demos and DIY workshops.
"I never had a 40 hour week job in my life. All I've done is hustle for gigs. I'm a hustler," Oh says, adding: "I don't mind it."
Oh bounced from locations while growing his brand. From his apartment kitchen to a commercial kitchen space to a basement kitchen in a friend's restaurant to a kitchen of a deli in Queens and, finally, to his current space in the Pfizer Building in Brooklyn.
"I'm not trying to grow this company and then sell it. That's not my motivation. I'm blessed to be able to do something I enjoy, that's positive, that's good for people, that helps people. Ultimately, that's what I'm doing: helping people."
Below, a Q&A with the dynamic founder.
The Fermentation Association: Why did you start making kimchi?Kheedim Oh: I never set out to start a kimchi company. I needed kimchi for myself and all the kimchi in the stores were not to my liking. I asked my mom to teach me how to make it. I live in New York, my parents live in Maryland. It's just too far to go bum a jar to kimchi so i asked my mom to teach me how to make it. I would take the Chinatown bus down to Maryland to make it. I would make a batch, but when you make a batch of kimchi at home, you typically do a 50-pound box of vegetables at a time. I would make it, bring it back in a cooler, then I'd wheel it back to my house on a skateboard because I couldn't afford a taxi.
TFA: When did you move from making it as a hobby to selling it?
Oh: So I was making the kimchi and, at the time, I lived by myself. Fifty pounds is just way too much for your personal stash. I would give it away to my friends and they were like "This is so good, you should sell it." I didn't put much too much stake into that. But I was buying ribs from my butcher (Jeffrey's Meat Market) and he was like "If you have kimchi and rice, you eat like a king." So I gave him a batch, checked up on him a week later, and he said "I love it!" I said "You know I sell this shit?" and he said "I want to start carrying it." At that point I had to come up with a name, incorporate, get insurance, all that stuff. I was making it out of the kitchen in my apartment, bringing it to him, he was only a couple blocks away. He was a total angel. He didn't want any money, he just wanted to give me the opportunity to promote my business.
TFA: Tell me about the brand name, Mama O.
Oh: It was an homage to my mom because she taught me how to make it and what's better than moms? You eat with your eyes before you eat with your mouth. So we call it Mama O's Premium Kimchi, not Mama O's Cutrate Kimchi. We strive to make the best tasting, highest rated, best kimchi. That went into it with our branding, how we wanted to portray ourselves. We may not be the biggest kimchi brand, but we're definitely making the best.
TFA: Kimchi has traditionally been a recipe passed down through generations of Koreans. Today, that's not happening as much. Do you think handcrafted kimchi is a dying food craft?
Oh: Yeah. It's really sad. That was part of the reasoning why I wanted to learn to make it, because my mom makes really good kimchi. All of the stuff in the stores was just terrible. It was a link to my heritage that I really didn't want to lose. I wanted to know how to make it just so I could have it. I invented Mama O's Premium Kimchi Paste, which is the first paste for making kimchi at home. It's my mom's recipe. What's great about the paste is it takes all the guesswork and grunt work out of it. What normally takes 3 hours takes 10 minutes because all the measuring and chopping is done.
TFA: You also created a homemade kimchi kit. Why sell a DIY kit?
Oh: It sells well around the holidays, especially. It's a 7-inch cube, it's a perfect gift size and it's super cute. It's the first kit of its kind. That kit took me two years to develop. I had to create the paste, then create the kit for it.
What's great about the kit is it works every time — it takes the guesswork out of making kimchi. I have so many people tell me they tried to make kimchi on their own and it didn't work. Kimchi tastes totally different when you're making it to when it's done fermenting it and eating it. With lactic acid fermentation, it's transforming the food on the molecular level. So people, when they're making it, they try to mess with the flavor to make it taste how they want, but the flavor changes through fermentation.
I'm trying to educate consumers and retailers on how they can use this paste with their vegetables. Retailers can take any vegetable past their prime and make kimchi with it, add value to things they potentially have to throw away. It's the art of how to transform your vegetables. It's a great way to maintain food sovereignty. You're in control of what you make and what you put in your body.
TFA: How have Americans' perception of kimchi changed from when you started to now?
Oh: It's interesting because, definitely, there's a greater awareness of it. It's kind of confusing on two ends because people don't know what good kimchi is. There are a lot of chefs that put kimchi on their menus, but it's not really kimchi. It's quick kimchi, they acidify it with vinegar.
I'm curious how exactly it will end up in the American diet because kimchi is part of the American food zeitgeist. Kombucha is fully incorporated — it's an American thing now. But kimchi, I don't know. I'm curious how people are going to want to eat their kimchi. I think it will possibly be in the form of salad or salad accompaniment. I think a lot of people like kimchi with their eggs in the morning. My favorite way, personally, is on a hot dog, with Western food. I fulfilled a lifelong dream – -one of my neighbors in Brooklyn is Joe's Pizza. He made a kimchi pizza. I like it better than pepperoni. Kimchi and cheese is like Starsky and Hutch, it's a great combination.
TFA: Where do you see the future of the industry for fermented products?
Oh: I see more of it, especially after whenever this outbreak settles. Though I got to say, what's been interesting, the media and journalists have not been touting naturally fermented foods which they should be. I get the resistance to promoting probiotic supplements, I don't think they're good either. But I don't get why no one is promoting fermented foods naturally to people because this has been saving people's health since the beginning of time.
I see the fermented space growing. I'm curious to see if the supplement industry is going to blow up. I'm not a proponent of the probiotic supplement industry.
TFA: What's your advice for other startups wanting to start a fermentation brand?
Oh: (Laughs) Besides don't. Food is tough. Especially now because I think it's going to get even harder. Really, I wouldn't want to discourage anyone. But coming out of this, so many people are going to want to start a food brand. You'll have people coming in that have funding.
That said, you have to love food to do it. But only do it if you love it. But if you don't love it and you just want to make a killing at it, that's not going to work. As they say, it takes 10 years to be an overnight success in the food business.
TFA: What are the future plans for Mama O's Premium Kimchi?
Oh: Right now, I want to start more partnerships with restaurants when they open again. A lot of restaurants don't have the time to make it, but I don't want them making quick kimchi and passing it off as real kimchi.
We are launching our first hot sauce — Kimchilli — in May with Whole Foods. I'm super excited to launch the hot sauce.
I'm super lucky — I wish people would acknowledge luck in their success. I was fortunate with my timing, the new science with the mind-gut connection was starting to come out. I'm really trying to make things that people need. And do a lot of education.
Ultimately my goal is to change how Americans eat and encourage them to eat more like Korean people. I totally get the appeal of a Western diet. I love a good steak. But you can't just eat a steak. You have to have sides and all of that with it. Just a steak is obscene. I'm really trying to encourage people to eat in a way where meat isn't the main thing, it's just an accompaniment. Eat more traditionally fermented foods. One interesting thing with fermented foods is it's not all the same probiotics. Kombucha affects me differently than when I eat kimchi. Even yogurt, I feel it does the least for me. But it's based on your personal chemistry as well. It all depends on what works for you, then incorporating things in your diet. There's a lot of education that needs to happen.
Tagged under: kimchi


The usual reflexive pro-Israel position of Western governments can no longer be taken for granted. Western governments, having long since abandoned the pretense of representing their own people, are now simply the prize fought over by warring tribes that are ostensibly citizens of the state.
In France, this has taken the form of violent riots, as Muslims attack synagogues and Jewish youth form street defense groups. [Gaza conflict: France criticizes 'anti-Semitic' riot, BBC, July 21, 2014] What precisely the French people gain by hosting these kinds of vibrant conflicts on what is still technically their soil is left unanswered by pro-immigration politicians.
Can the likes of Sheldon Adelson, who favors an ethnostate in Israel and open borders in America, make the connection between the demographic Death of the West and the collapse of international support for Israel? Will it even occur to him and other donors who uphold the massive double standard that their policies are suicidal?
Not likely. It's more probable that this will just be taken as further proof that the West — and America — deserves to die. The efforts to bribe Republicans into betraying the historic American nation will continue.