Yes Chris is right, its just me, our Lab, my webcam and good intentions.

peteroakes I would love to see your streams and yes I do love Thomas Sanladerer, His videos are very polished. 

Phil

We don't have a crew.

There are technical limitations imposed that we do have to work around. Some of these webinars or presentations have varying quality, and the reason for that can be that we're doing it at home instead (see the Arduino webinars where Phil uses a pretty nice setup).

Thanks for the input

Hi all, I would like to help out here if I can, both in regard to the topic of the comments above and also in general creating live stream videos

Please let me point out, I have NOT yet done a live stream of my own, I do plan to and have been preparing for it by getting the right (Popular) software for it and additional cameras and the like. I have however created and published hundreds of videos and articles on YouTube and also in this community here at E14.

So, My first few were even in my own opinion... terrible  , I got the point across, technically the content was there but like all newcomers to this format, there was plenty of room for improvement.  I am now way better at it both with my confidence and also in the quality... practice makes perfect. So did Chris and Phil make a great quality video and presentation, live on there first try, no. Will they get better as they learn more, absolutely

So what most folks I have seen who do what I would call good live streams tend to have

OBS for the software, this is an awesome free bit of software to manage many HD video inputs and will allow banners, static content like Power Point etc

Of course an HD Camera or two, possibly separate audio inputs so the sound is not jumping arround depending on the video source, this is also configurable within OBS

A Scrips to work from (I have to admit this is a good thing even for none live stream but I dont yet do it)

Very good lighting, set the camera to a static exposure once there positioned

Even some web cams produce some pretty good visuals if properly lit.

Of course this does not cover the acting , sorry I mean presentation, most of us are not professional presenters and I am the firs to admit that presenting to thousands of people even if you cant see them is pretty daunting and it takes getting used to. I am still having times where I procrastinate for a bit as I build back the gumption to get rolling , once I do I wonder what the problem was to begin with...

Habits are very hard to break, even after hundreds of videos I still have to edit out way too many ums and ahs, but I am slowly getting better, another thing I and many others do is wonder off topic on a tangent, thank the universe for post editing , no such luck with a live stream and hens the reinforcement of needing a script

So after what I hope is a morally supportive blurb, and a few tips that I hope will help Chris and Phil to move on and do it again and again getting better all the time, may I suggest anyone wanting to embark on this venture (Live streaming, not just getting into 3D printing), look at how some of the successful people do it, the one I would point to in this case as it is the same topic is https://www.youtube.com/user/ThomasSanladerer he live streams very often, uses scripts and has a fairly conservative setup and I dont think anyone would criticize the quality of the published work or his technical know how. Does he make mistakes, sure, does he react to his live viewers, adjusting content on the fly, yes to that too but within limits.

Perhaps Phil or Chris could share what the setup is their using, I'm sure there are a few of us that create content on a frequent basis may be able to help out sportively.

Lastly, I dont disagree with any particular comment that was made above but I also did expect better quality (Video, Audio, framing of closeups, slide sync etc) only due to the fact this was done by E14 in their office space (I think) and with their kit, I am not sure if they had to run it by themselves or if they had a "Crew", if they were on their own and no crew to speak of then they were as good a job as one could expect being their new to this and will only get better over time, if they ad a crew then more time planning closeups and testing audio etc before would probably help

I will still be watching the next few presentations because I'm interested and want to support the E14 folks as best I can

Keep up the good work and dont be discouraged in the face of negative feedback, as we always a say to new comers on the forum, we all started there at some point and some people dont even allow them selves to be put in the cross hairs in the first place, so qdo's to you both and keep it up.

To all that would criticize... I say this. Don't make it personal, Always make it constructive if you do criticize and lastly, could you get up and do it ?, knowing your potentially influencing thousands of people, it certainly is not easy. I know first hand.

Peter

I pose the question, are the commentaries, that countering criticism, come from an academia or a corporate perspective? This response assumes they are shrouded in academia.

  As a former college instructor, I recognize educational and research environments must be safe to fail if we wish to encourage risk taking and the benefits that it produces. It is important for students or researchers to understand that those academia bumpers don’t exist in the corporate world and there are serious consequences if not recognized.

  I’m trying to recall the details from a Globe and Mail editorial written about Michael Ignatieff a former leader of the Liberal Party of Canada who at one time held academic posts at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard and Toronto.

  He was discussing the transition from the academic political forum to the real world. He indicated the outcomes from political decisions have consequences. In the safe world of academia a debater can decide to use military action as a means to end and score points for his position. In the real world those actions have consequences that exist in academia.

  I feel the standards bar for presenting on Element14 exceeds academia and the presentations should strive for the corporate world standard. The one saving grace on Element14 is the consequences of actions are minimal. You may face the scathing reviews of your peers. Commentary padded to soften the blow is not the expectation but rather objective and constructive feedback with the goal to improve.

  Butchering an Aristotle’s quote. Anyone can criticize - that is easy, but to criticize to the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose and in the right way- that is not within everybody’s power, is not easy, has a cost, with few rewards and little if any acceptance.

  In the Element14 presentation environment you can learn and earn respect. If the standards are high, you get to draw your skills knife across a honing stone of professionalism. If you come up short, you don’t lose a multi-million dollar contract or face the ire of your employer and possible unemployment. You also can decide if you want to do it again

I too have lectured for many years and I agree with Ken. Doing something new, especially live is always fraught with dangers and risks and I always advised my students never to do a live demonstration, always video it. Something nearly always go wrong or acts differently and then you are left in silence while you try to work out what is happening and what to do next. However, for live webinars of this kind that is not really an option. I do like the 'liveness' because it makes it real and encounters the real problems that we have when trying to do these things for ourselves. I'm sure it will get better.

As for content, I can remember starting with 3D printers and not having a clue and to me the Introduction webinar provided information that I would have wanted to know. I still learnt a lot and I now know why my PLA prints didn't melt on the surface when painted with acetone. I'm quite slow at comprehending things so a bit at a time works well for me.

My only constructive advice for the webinars is to have two people involved, even if one of them is only there to push buttons on the laptop. When things go wrong it is always good to have someone handling the tech stuff while the other person can dazzle us with their ability to ad-lib.

Dubbie