7. Editorial

Tue - July 18, 2006

VLOBLIVE has moved!

If you can read this, then you should be aware that VLOBLIVE has moved.

The new website is here http;//www.vloblive.info

and the new RSS feed is here. http://vloblive.wordpress.com/feed/

You will have to re-subscribe in your RSS news reader.

For various reasons I have decided to move VLOBLIVE off my dotmac server and on to wordpress.com. The main domain name will remain the same -

http://www.vloblive.info

but if you have an old bookmark back to my dotmac site, you might want to update it.

Also I haven’t found a way to redirect the RSS feed, so if you are subscribed to the RSS feed for VLOBLIVE you need to remove the old subscription and add the new one which is

http://vloblive.wordpress.com/feed/

Anyway, hope you like the new look. All the old content has been moved over and some new stuff added.
Let me know by adding a comment to the new site if you have any problems with this new feed.
Thanks

Dave

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Thu - January 12, 2006

How do deal with the question "can you just record the gig for us?"

More often than not, someone at every gig will ask you "hey are you recording this?". What you answer will depend who is asking, when they are asking, and why they are asking...

As a general rule, I recommend recording all gig mixes to tape for your own private viewing afterwards. It's a great way to learn, and it can also be very encouraging to see that things went better than you thought.

However if you are approached about recording the mix by others, then that's a whole different thing.
Here is some guidelines on how to respond:

1. If, prior to the gig, the organisers of the gig are asking you to record the gig

You need to set the right expectations - explain to them that you are doing IMAG, and not recording. if they want a recording of the gig then they need to pay more for the extra gear and crew that will be required.
Also alert them to the need to get artist permissions. Check what they plan to do with the tape and who will have ownership of it.

If the organisers explicitly DON'T want you to record it, then you can ask to do a no-sound recording. There are very few people, other than the vision mixers who would actually bother to watch a silent tape of a gig, so it makes it 'unsellable'

2. If, during the gig, the artists ask if you are recording this.
The best answer is probably 'no', but if you want to be completely honest say 'yes but just for our own reference'. if they then say, 'can i get a copy?' it is usually polite to say 'let me check', unless you know from the organisers that they don't want this.

3. If, just before the gig the organisers ask you, 'oh, by the way, can you record this'
The answer should always be 'we'll try, but we can't guarantee anything' even if you KNOW you can record it, its still safer to allow for problems and set the right expectations.

4. If a member of the public, or the crew, or general hangers-on ask, at any stage, if you are recording the show
The answer is always 'No'.
This is the safest way to avoid any pleading for bootleg copies, promises to check with artists etc. It's just not worth getting into this hole.

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Sun - August 21, 2005

DVD as a format for live video playback - an analysis.

As more and more computer based video editing systems gain the ability to burn video to DVD, I can see this becoming the most common format for the delivery of 'home-made' playback video for live events.
This has some good consequences and some unexpected side-effects. Read on for how to get the best of the DVD format at a VLOBLIVE event.

DVD playback of pre-recorded video inserts for live events. Got to be a good thing right? I mean, it's easy to make them, they are interactive, high quality, etc. etc. etc. What's not to like?
Well let's consider the pros and cons of this format:

Good things:

- now cheap to 'author' and blank media inexpensive
- Potential for higher quality video and audio
- more convenient physical format (easier to carry/post etc.)
- easier cueing of multiple items on same disc
- menu system
- support for multi-channel audio
- possible to pause and get good still image
- possible to loop endlessly between A-B points and not wear anything out

Bad things:
- confusion about format compatibility between writers (plus vs dash etc.)
- codecs sensitive to 'out of spec' video
- video quality can be seriously compromised by over-zealous compression
- it's REALLY easy to burn a disc in the wrong video format (PAL or NTSC)
- careless handling can render discs unreadable (especially recordable ones)
- variable delay after hitting 'play' makes cue-ing a bit random
- menu can get in the way of fast back to back playouts
- consumer features (like OSD) can get in the way

As you can see most of the bad things are more to do with how the format is used, rather than inherent limitations, and can easily be worked around with some effort. Here are my suggestions, based mostly on personal experience, of how to get the best from recordable DVD as a playback format.

Preparation tips:

- burn to -RW or +RW first as 'tester' disc.
This isn't a specific live tip, but it's still a good idea. To avoid making lots of coasters, I suggest always doing your FIRST burn to a DVD-RW or DVD+RW disc. This way, if you miss something, or it doesn't work as you expected, then you can erase and re-burn till you get it right. I do, however, recommend doing the 'master' burn to a -R or +R disk, as they have better player compatibility and are more robust.

- use minimum compression possible
Most clips will be MUCH shorter than the capacity of the DVD, so you want to use the best possible quality setting in whatever encoding software you are using.

Minimum compression = fastest allowable datarate = best quality video.

In iDVD on a mac the settings are a bit confusing, but you want 'best quality' not 'best performance' in the encoder settings section of the preferences, which means turning off background rendering.
(the reason is that with background rendering iDVD doesn't know exactly how much video you have still to put on the disc, so is conservative about compression settings. If you wait to encode until you have everything in place, it can do a better job at chosing a compression setting that best fits your video duration)

If you have a more sophisticated DVD authoring tool like DVD Studio Pro from Apple you can really tweak the compression settings, but be careful as there IS a maximum data-rate beyond which most DVD players will choke at decompressing the MPEG2 video. Apple recommend a maximum of 8Mbps to ensure playback without dropping frames on all DVD players.

- make useful menus
A DVD for live playback is no place for fancy animated menus. The key here is information and ease of navigation. Use the menu to clearly identify the disc, the clips and any relevant info to each clip (length, in and out details, audio details etc.) Make it REALLY quick to know which clip is which and to select it.
Also make the menu background unobtrusive, so just in case you ever drop out to the menu when live, you don't get laughed at too much.

- add countdowns
To cope with the variable time from pressing 'select' on a menu and getting video, I suggest that you add a short (3 sec) countdown to black immediately before the start of each clip so you know EXACTLY when to press pause (on the black bit!) to cue the clip. This may sound like a backward step, but remember you have to fade up your video mixer on this clip, so this way you can fade up on pause, press play and never miss the first second of the clip.
You can find an example countdown here

- add trailing black
You REALLY want to do this so that if you are a bit slow fading out at the end of the clip you don't jump back to the menu while still live on screen. Yes I've done that. It's not nice.

- add fade ins and fade outs to audio and video
You always get a more elegant start and end by adding even a very short (0.5 sec) fade in or fade out to the video. You will also get thanked by your audio engineer if you fade in any audio that is coming in halfway through (i.e doesn't have a clean start)

- use broadcast safe filter
If your NLE software allows it (like Final Cut Pro) then apply a broadcast safe filter across all the video clips. This ensures that luminance and chrominance (brightness and colour) are kept within legal values and so don't upset the compression to MPEG2. This is especially relevant for clips filmed on comsumer DV cameras that tend to over-egg the colour considerably.
I have seen problems with iMovie and iDVD in the past with very colourful parts of a scene turning purple as the values are clipped.

- consider making 'nose to tail' video segments
the ideal DVD for live work would be one that worked like a pro CD player. It played a track then went into pause, waiting for you to press play for the next track, then pause again etc.
You could make a special script on DVDSP to daisy-chain all the clips so that they play one after the other with just a 'holding' page in between. I've still to try this (just got DVDSP) but it looks very useful.

Usage tips:

- look after discs
DVD-Rs are quite susceptible to scratches and dust - much more so than normal CDs or even commercial DVDs.
Buy a brand name blank media (not no-name cheap rubbish) and look after them and keep them in their cases when not in use. Consider having a 'place' where DVDs are kept during a live show. Put them down on their backs (sensitive side up) to avoid scratching the surface. If you have to wipe dust off use a lens brush or spectacle cloth and NEVER wipe round in circles - always straight lines radially. In theory the error correction can cope with momentary blips but not long drop-outs caused by scratches that track around the disc.

- make a backup and ask for backups
Always burn a spare DVD. Keep it in a different place, and don't use it unless you have to.
This may sound paranoid, but I've had several DVD-Rs just decide not to work during a live gig, and especially if others are not so careful about choice of blank media etc.

- buy a suitable player
See my suggestions here for features to look for to make your life easier for live event playback.

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Thu - August 18, 2005

Why write about gigs in the Gig Blog?

Unless you REALLY aren't paying attention, I imagine that you usually come away from a VLOBLIVE gig thinking something along the lines "Well that was good, but next time I will remember to ...." The purpose of the Gig Blog is to record some of those thoughts about what happened at gigs that I have done - what went well, what went badly, what could be improved for next time.

I have started a new category on this site that I am calling 'Gig Blog'. Here's what I want to do with it.

Unless you REALLY aren't paying attention, I imagine that you usually come away from a VLOBLIVE gig thinking something along the lines "Well that was good, but next time I will remember to ...."
The purpose of the Gig Blog is to record some of those thoughts about what happened at gigs that I have done - what went well, what went badly, what could be improved for next time.

It isn't meant to be an introspective, but it should help me remember and if it helps anyone else in the process then that's a bonus.

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Use an RSS newsreader to keep up to date with VLOBLIVE

It may have escaped your attention but VLOBLIVE has an RSS feed. Click on the 'Syndicate this site' link on the left to add VLOBLIVE to your web browser or newsreader RSS list and find out when new articles are added.

RSS, or really simple syndication is a way of keeping informed about new articles on websites and blogs without having to go and visit the sites regularly.
You use the RSS feature of your web browser (e.g. Safari on Mac OS X 10.4 ) or news reader app (e.g. Netnewswire on Mac OS X) to get the app to check with the site regularly for new items, which it then lists, and you can choose to just read the headlines, or go off to the site to read the full details.

If you try to keep track of a lot of news or blog sites and don't use RSS then you are missing a great trick, as it really helps cut down the time you spend surfing sites and increases the time you have to read ONLY the stuff you want to read. You can subscribe to your favourite websites (look out for the RSS logo on the site) and quickly scan through anything new.
Note that RSS isn't just for bloggers, as lots of mainstream news and tech sites use it now.

There are plenty of free RSS reader apps available - have a look on versiontracker or macupdate

In the meantime, here are some of my favourite RSS feeds for VLOBLIVE readers:

HD for Indies

Anthony Coppedge - Church tech blog

Video Thing

Camcorderinfo blog

and of course

VLOBLIVE

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Sat - June 25, 2005

New vloblive domain name registered

we are now at www.vloblive.info

I decided to take the plunge and register a domain name for Vloblive, as it wasn't easy to explain the previous dotmac URL to anyone and expect them to remember it.

In the end I went for vloblive.info as it has a nice ring, and accurately describes what I'm trying to do here - provide info on doing low budget live video for events.

It may take a few days for the domain to ripple through, and of course I am still hosting on dotmac, so no change there.

Let me know if you experience any issues with this new shorthand domain

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Comments now supported on VLOBLIVE

Now you can add your own comments or pearls of wisdom to any entries

I finally got round to enabling comments on this website. Please do take a moment to add a comment, even if it is just ' I agree' or ' this didn't work for me' or whatever. Makes the whole thing more relelvant.

Just click on the 'comments' link below the summary or the item itself and add your details and your comment.
Your email address is necessary for the comment to appear, but it doesn't appear in the comment itself - just your name and the text you type.
I reserve the right to remove any offensive, irrelevant, or otherwise unsuitable comments.

Comments are powered by Haloscan

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Sun - December 21, 2003

Safety first - why VLOBLIVE gigs are actually more risky than others?

It may seem a strange thing to say, but in many ways a VLOBLIVE type gig is actually at higher risk of a health and safety risk happening than at a much larger, more complex pro gig. Here's why...

VLOBLIVE gigs are more risky because they are typically staffed by too few too inexperienced crews.
This presents the following risks:

- A lack of knowledge about the potential dangers and risks to themselves and others of large heavy bits of wood and metal being lifted, moved, dangled and cajoled in a hurry. The pro's are trained in all this and are used to it, but others may not realise how much risk they are taking.

- over-enthusiasm - yes, really. When folk really believe in what they are doing, they tend to push themselves beyond reasonable limits of either skill, strength or endurance for the sake of the cause. Trying to just cram that one extra flightcase into the van. Reaching to just add that one extra cable to the truss, keeping driving for that one extra hour when you should pull over and sleep.

- underestimating the resource requirements. Too few people doing too much work for too many hours is a recipie for disaster. Sometimes we need to scale back or even cancel gigs, if we can't get the right crew.

So, what can you do about it?
Well follow the same basic rules that the pro's use every day, and you will have a good chance of avoiding disaster. If they are not your employees you may not have a legal responsibility for their safety but you certainly have a moral one!

Here are some basic rules:

1. Assess the risks beforehand - stop and think "What are the possible things that could go wrong and could injure someone?, How likely are they to happen? What extra can be done to avoid those risks.

2. Conduct a short safety briefing at the start of every gig. Point out the potential hazards to everyone - don't assume they will know to look for them.

3. Make sure everyone has the right Personal Protection Equipment for the situation. Do people have steel-toed boots? gloves? hard hats (if flying equipment), safety harnesses, eye protection, and do they know how to use them?

4. Record 'near misses' and learn from them. If an accident almost happens, then make sure you review what went wrong and change your procedures or what you are trying to do to avoid a repeat of it. Tell everyone working on the gig what happened and how to avoid it for again.

I know it all sounds like common sense, but at 3am, in the rain, after a long day, it's not so easy to be sensible every time.

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Thu - November 27, 2003

It's official: Lo Fi video is cool!

Never mind beating ourselves up over having to make do with low quality gear and less than optimum results, it seems some of the big boys are falling over themselves to emulate that grungy, edgy, rough at the edges look...

Coldplay, Radiohead, and now David Bowie. What do they have in common? Well they have all gone out on tour with big expensive LED video screen systems sourcing images from... cheapo CCTV cameras. It seems that in the hunt for something 'different' that using lots of 'little CCTV camera domes' is the latest word in video experimentalism. It's funny that folk who COULD afford to do better are choosing to do this to get a specific look, while some of us who can't afford to do any better are stuck with it.
If any major touring acts are interested, I've got a genuine Lo Fi video rig they could hire!!. Or how about a swap???

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Sun - October 26, 2003

Hey, you're encouraging low standards in live video!

I guess on one reading of this site I could be accused of encouraging the 'cheap and cheerful' brigade to say "it's OK to do live video on the cheap, and to fob off the general public with sub-standard implementations of inadequate systems". But that would be missing the point...

The point of this site is in fact the complete opposite of this accusation. People ARE doing live video gigs with cheap, budget gear and are making a mess of it. What this site tries to do is to show them ways that they can apply the same production values of the 'big' gigs, even when they don't have the same budget.

So just because you don't have money, doesn't mean you should let your standards drop.

Get the best signal chain you can, rather than assuming it will be rubbish, and then achieving that.

Do all the preparation just as if you were doing it for a huge audience on a big budget

Get the best out of the gear you have, rather than pining for gear you will never have.

These are the approaches I am trying to encourage others to adopt.

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Fri - September 12, 2003

The history of VLOBLIVE

Am I the only person trying to do live video on no money? I doubt it. So when I couldn't find a website that really got into detail about live video at this level, I decided to do something about it. ...

OK, here's why I am doing this. I have ended up doing lots of live video events, and learning stuff as I go along. I am not a trained camera operator or director or producer or anything. I am an electronic engineer who designs digital camera chips for a living, but all my live video experience is as a result of my hobby and my ministry as a Christian. I started doing some filming and editing for some youth events at my church , which nearly always got played back to a live audience. This expanded to include some live video, graphics and song words, and it was always a real struggle to get everything set up. Eventually as I learned stuff, it became clear that there was a gap in the market for affordable live video for churches and charities, for their live events, and a providential partnership with Room 3 , a local Christian not-for-profit AV hire company meant that before I knew it I was designing, setting up and running live video gigs for 1500 people with 6 cameras and major production values in some of the biggest live venues in Edinburgh. All in my 'spare' time!!

One thing always remained the same - there was never enough money, never enough help, and never enough time. Faced with that, we could either give up and moan that no-one understood how expensive/hard/time consuming doing live video was, or you could get creative and try to work out ways to get around these limitations.

So, this is my way of trying to share some of that hard-earned knowledge. I couldn't find any good websites about doing live video graphics and IMAG on the cheap (unless you were a VJ, but that's another story), so I made one.
The site is low on style but hopefully high on content.
The plan is to keep updating the site with snippets or thoughts as time goes on and things happen or occur to me, much in the style of a weblog.

I hope you learn something. I still am.

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Thu - September 11, 2003

VLOBLIVE and VJing

If you are a VJ, you are welcome to look around. A lot of the info here is very relevant. Some of the aesthetics are a bit different.

There are a lot of similarities between the live video work that we do, and what VJs do. We are both usually struggling with very low budgets, we are often working with second hand or lash-up gear, we often struggle to get good content, we often have to make do with sub-standard projectors and poor screens, and above all have to substitute creativity for hard cash.

If you take VJ-ing, in its normal meaning (playing live generated or mixed computer graphics and abstract video to dancers in a club or a rave or a festival) it is a subset of VLOBLIVE, but I am trying to extend VLOBLIVE to include all other forms of live video and live graphics on a low budget. This means that VLOBLIVE must include other aesthetics as well as the graphic-heavy, effect-over-quality vibe that VJs tend to favour.

For your info, I have attempted a couple of VJ gigs myself, using Aestesis 98 , Arkaos VJ and some home brew video loops. It wasn't very successful, as the unsuspecting audience were more bemused than entranced, although the dancing man in Aestesis 98 got some good responses!!

So, if you are a VJ-er, you are very welcome - have a look around, and let's learn from each other.

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Tue - September 2, 2003

Video and lighting - an uneasy truce

Good lighting can make good video. Bad lighting can ruin good video. Good lighting doesn't rescue bad video...

Even if you have the best video equipment and the right crew, your live video will still stand or fall, depending on how good the lighting at the even is.

There is a fundamental dilema here: Cameras need LOTS of light to work at their best. Projectors need as little light as possible to work at their best. You have to find the right balance, and generally that means finding the right person - a lighting designer or operator who will work with you, understand your needs and find a balance of your needs and his. This is especially true at music or other events that use more theatrical or rock n roll lighting.

The lighting designer's job for a live video event is to make sure that there is enough (i.e. LOTS) of light on the subject of the live video when needed, and as little as possible falling on the screens.
If they are good they will know how to do this.

Here are some tips:

- preparation is everything. Don't turn up to a gig, never having checked what lighting there will be, or never having contacted the LD to check he knows there will be live video and what your plans are.

- Go in expecting to compromise. You may have to sacrifice some key shot you really wanted for a good reason. You may have to adjust camera positions, you may have to give them space to do their thing. That is all fine, if, in return, you get an understanding of how much light you need and some consideration in providing what you ask for.

- If you have comms, use it. Get the LD or operator on comms and tell them what you are trying to do, what shots you are likely to want to go for, when a shot is too dark, too bright, when they are helping and when they are hindering your work.

- remember that light goes up as well as down. Watch your screen positions to make sure there is no reflected light hitting the front (front proj) or back (back proj) of the screen. Watch for distracting reflections from chairs, music stands, cymbals, guitars etc.

- be creative - use the lights themselves as a video effect. Pointing a camera directly at lights can produce some interesting effects, especially if there is smoke or hazing being used.

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Tue - July 18, 2006

VLOBLIVE has moved!

Thu - January 12, 2006

How do deal with the question "can you just record the gig for us?"

Sun - August 21, 2005

DVD as a format for live video playback - an analysis.

Thu - August 18, 2005

Why write about gigs in the Gig Blog?

Use an RSS newsreader to keep up to date with VLOBLIVE

Sat - June 25, 2005

New vloblive domain name registered

Comments now supported on VLOBLIVE

Sun - December 21, 2003

Safety first - why VLOBLIVE gigs are actually more risky than others?

Thu - November 27, 2003

It's official: Lo Fi video is cool!

Sun - October 26, 2003

Hey, you're encouraging low standards in live video!

Fri - September 12, 2003

The history of VLOBLIVE

Thu - September 11, 2003

VLOBLIVE and VJing

Tue - September 2, 2003

Video and lighting - an uneasy truce