Remote demonstration POC

Re: Remote demonstration POC

Charlie belden

Great use of current technology. How are questions from the audience done? Can the demonstrator see the questioner?

Re: Remote demonstration POC

Alan Zenreich

Charlie,

Yes, we could see/hear the people in the club. They had one webcam and a wireless mic.

Re: Remote demonstration POC

Ralph Lindberg

Spif!

You knew it had to come, a full remove demo.

I have heard of people doing remote "programs", that were really more lectures then the demo's.

Our local club had Wally Dickerman do a remove interview last year.

Re: Remote demonstration POC

Brad Vietje

Bravo!

I fully support and encourage this type of demo. I do a lot of teaching via Skype (Physics, Astronomy and the use of a remote/robotic observatory), and in addition to saving the travel expenses, and the familiar equipment, you also save the time, expense and fuel of having to physically GO there.

I try to minimize my own travel, and there are many instances in which ones physical presence makes little or no difference. Applications would include all manner of "meetings" for which a video link or Skype session would be a lot better than a conference call, yet there's really no need to be physically on-site.

Safe spinning,

Brad Vietje

Newbury, VT (pretty far from everything, so you can see why this might be good for me)

I'm sure we'll see more of these, and I'll be glad to learn from your experience.

Re: Remote demonstration POC

Stuart Johnson

Have you given any thought to a webinar type presentation? Either a pay per view or possibly a sponsored one might give you some good coverage.

on the other hand....

Ralph Lindberg

Doing it remote robs both the presenter and the club of the personal interaction you get from attending the meeting.

These interactions was frequently useful for the club, as they pickup things not covered in the program. They are not infrequently useful for the presenter as well.

Re: on the other hand....

Alan Zenreich

Ralph,

In person interactions are very nice, but not if it's impractical for the presenter to be physically in the room.

We have demonstrated to most clubs within a 4 hour drive of our home, and we demo'd at the AAW symposium in Tampa. Travel costs, logistics, flight delays, snowstorms, full time jobs, etc etc make it not viable for many/most presenters to demo much beyond their close geographic region.

Professionally, I work with a global team, so there are many people I work closely with that I will never meet in person. The trick is getting the best people for the job, not necessarily the best people who are in driving distance.

So remote presentations are a little different than in person. The ability for the demonstrator to show how things work in his or her own actual shop, makes for a dimension not available in the club or symposium's setting. Remember too, that the demonstrator and club members can and do talk to each other during the session, it's not as if it is prerecorded.

If clubs and presenters adopt this type of technology, not for every demo, they can broaden the scope of presentation to those that were simply not viable, for the club, or the presenter, before.

By the way, one nice thing that can be done is to have the presenter send samples to the club in advance of the meeting, so there are things to pass around to the audience.

Re: Remote demonstration POC

Alan Zenreich

Stuart,

During a test session the day before the presentation, the manager of the Woodcraft store wandered into the room where the club meets in his store. We talked about the possibilities of them sponsoring demonstrations that might draw larger crowds than their location can support. For example, one could put together a mini-symposium where a few demonstrators could present, and all one would need on the club end is to find/rent a space with decent internet connection and enough seating and video screens to accommodate the crowd (no need for lathes, etc).

Ther are many ways of doing these type of presentations, and I have spent the last 9 months or so working out ways that involve minimal cost, shop friendly equipment. It would do no good if the presenters could not afford the equipment necessary to do the actual video and audio streaming.

It turns out that the audio was tricker than the video because I needed to be heard clearly while wearing a respirator helmet AND having my (very loud) dust collector running... which is the way I always work in my shop.

It's been a very interesting project, and last nights demo was a great first step in what I hope will be an ever refining endeavor.

Re: Remote demonstration POC

john Lucas

I think it's a great idea. totally impractical for those of us who are computer challenged. I really don't like to travel anymore so have limited my demos to 6 hour driving time give or take a little.

Re: Remote demonstration POC

Alan Zenreich

John,

Consider that you regularly use a computer to interact with others via forums.

Oh, and you use computers to record, edit and publish videos to the Internet.

I will be happy to explain how video demonstrations can be done practically, even for those who are not very technical.

It's all a matter of teaching some old dogs a few new tricks.

Re: Remote demonstration POC

Dale Gillaspy

Alan, I'm glad to hear this went well for you. I really like the idea, it's the execution that bothers me. While I think a face to face demo is still preferable for a lot of social reasons I will refrain from talking about here, it is much more practical financially, and I get that.

My concern is 6 cameras. Now you have to have at least 2 operators if 4 of those cameras are fixed, and a switcher, or else the demonstrator has to worry about camera placement during the demo.

Re: Remote demonstration POC

Dale Bonertz

I will have to contemplate this. My initial reaction is great idea. As I was reading through the posts I started wondering if I would stay a club member if the demonstrations were as in-personable as this seems. Why not just have Skype type demos and then folks could just stay home. As I type this I can see this potentially leading to more isolation from folks which could result in even less person to person contact. Just like email, text, Facebook and etc. already creates. Just not sure this would be good over the longer haul but that may be my concern over change more than it becoming a real issue.

I will say that I would never pay to go to a symposium if the demonstrator wasn't there in person.

Re: Remote demonstration POC

Alan Zenreich

Dale B.,

I am not advocating one method of demonstration over another.

I am simply saying that if clubs and demonstrators add this approach to their options, it opens up demonstrations in ways that have been impractical in the past.

It's much like your use of the Internet. You have the ability to easily share your woodturning ideas with people from around the world (via this forum and other venues), not just once a month with those who happen to live within driving distance.

It's all about finding new ways to share and learn.

Re: Remote demonstration POC

Alan Zenreich

Dale G.,

Lauren and I were the camera operators. We controlled our own cameras... Then again when we demo in person, we already do that. Clubs are not set up well for a pair of demonstrators presenting simultaneously.

Picture in picture and split screen is trivial with the setup we use.

I have spent the last several months working out very practical ways of making it easy for the demonstrator to control the video.

I will be happy to give you a short demonstration of how its accomplished, and what the results look like.

Re: Remote demonstration POC

Hal Taylor

Alan, kudos to you and Lauren. Another advancement in the woodturning realm. I'm glad we have people like y'all who have the knowledge and expertise to do things like this in our realm. Exciting stuff.

Re: Remote demonstration POC

Stuart Johnson

Being able to view the demo from home would work very well for me. There are two clubs near me but I don't belong to either. They both meet at night and I just can't drive at night anymore.

And im a really old.dog 

You 2 are amazing!

This dog

Jorge Castañeda

is ready to learn new tricks...

Re: Remote demonstration POC

Lloyd in Mississauga

This can be a great way to allow smaller clubs to have some access to demonstrators that they may not be able to afford to bring in physically. I suspect is much more of a one off event than regular for many clubs due to their desire for the social interaction, but this can have a place in a program calendar.

We had sort of looked at it within one of the guilds I am in a year or so ago, but it was approached not as a one to one, but a one to many and that took the complexity up a notch for a group already over their heads in this new world of video delivery.

I would love to get some info on where to start to piece together a system capable of this to see if it is something that could be investigated for our local clubs. If you have a quick one pager of some things to consider and look into then please forward it along if you could (fvp@ghwg.ca).

Thanks for your work in this area for the past few years.

Re: Remote demonstration POC

Alan Zenreich

Lloyd,

I will be putting together material both for clubs and presenters that outline the various ways of doing these types of interactive demos.

Re: Remote demonstration POC

Chuck Seguin

I'm sold where do I sign up for the information.

This is another way to communicate and it's well worth the time and effort to have in our tool box.

Re: Remote demonstration POC

Alan Zenreich

Chuck,

I hope to publish a short video (about our first remote presentation) soon. I have already started working on it.