The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Have we sorted out if we're going to be able to have a live stream this year? Will there be wifi at the venue? Any volunteers with camera, tripod, laptop, etc.?

I think that nay livestreaming that happens will have to occur via some volunteer as I expect to be otherwise occupied. I'm pretty sure there's wifi at the joint though. Fluffy had mentioned bringing a recording setup, and someone else had mentioned streaming it as well, via some site that does that kind of thing. I have no objection to it, but I can't be responsible for it.

I will, however, provide a repository space on sf.org for any and all recordings made of the event.

JB

I've set up a Ustream channel and can run that from my iPod or iPad, but since I'll already be busy with babysitting the recording setup AND playing the opening set (where things are most likely to go wrong) I might not be able to be very responsive with it. Anyone else can feel free to do it instead, if there's wifi anyway. (on that note, anyone who knows how to run Logic is more than welcome to help out with the recording part. I've set up a project template that should work for what we need and it should just be a matter of creating a new project for each set and pressing "R" before it starts but who knows.)

I'll also have a mobile access point with me that has around a gigabyte of transfer available, but I don't know if that'll be enough for streaming the whole show and if I go over it costs me 2 cents a megabyte, so I'd really rather not find out if a gigabyte is enough.

Has Ustream made any improvements to their audio fidelity? I remember that those recordings from Spokane were janky as all get out, plus they had advertisements interrupting them. I could bring my laptop and webcam and do a Google/Youtube stream like last time. I made a few mistakes last year that resulted in, um, service interruptions, but I got most of both shows, and the audio quality was pretty awesome (example).

I would volunteer to operate the stream Friday night but I'm playing in half the sets. I could maybe help out with it Saturday night.

Generic wrote:Has Ustream made any improvements to their audio fidelity? I remember that those recordings from Spokane were janky as all get out, plus they had advertisements interrupting them. I could bring my laptop and webcam and do a Google/Youtube stream like last time. I made a few mistakes last year that resulted in, um, service interruptions, but I got most of both shows, and the audio quality was pretty awesome (example).

Nope, it's still as shitty as it ever was.

I have no qualms with you doing it on Google or whatever. Also I can set up an output mix for whatever audio input you have, so that you get a combination of room and board audio.

The setup I'm bringing is:

PreSonus FireStudio Project (12x12 interface with output mix capabilities)
2x MXL V63M (room audio) each with a tiny mic stand (to sit on the stage or floor or whatever)
A variety of cables for the connections

I can also bring a kinda-janky USB audio interface that we can use with your laptop, if it doesn't have a line input.

I definitely don't want to try streaming from my laptop while it's also recording since that would put the recordings themselves in peril.

A Hangout On Air might be a good way to go. It seems like those can be made public and even embedded on sites, maybe we could put it on the songfight.org homepage or something?

http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/hangouts/onair.html

Lunkhead wrote:A Hangout On Air might be a good way to go. It seems like those can be made public and even embedded on sites, maybe we could put it on the songfight.org homepage or something?

http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/hangouts/onair.html

Yep, that's what I did last year.

I have both a GoPro (with an audio-in adapter) and a nice mirror-less camera that takes excellent video. I'll bring a small tripod and will capture what I can.

I'll bring my camcorder again for after-event postings on YouTube. Yeah, I know, I still have to post last year's - it's just the 1080p takes so long to upload to YouTube.

Isn't http://www.concertwindow.com/ made for this kind of thing? If Glenn Case can figure it out, surely the rest of us can...

Does concertwindow support 8-hour free events?

fluffy wrote:Does concertwindow support 8-hour free events?

Someone would have to apply, but they say, "Most people play for 30 minutes, but there's no time limit"

Are we doing our own sound this time? The one upside of that would be that we wouldn't have to worry about the sound guy playing non-Song Fight! music during the breaks between sets and causing issues with our live stream because of copyrighted music being broadcast on it... That was an issue with the Hangout right?

Concert Window could work. I may try applying to see if I get approved in time. But maybe some other folks should apply too to better our odds.

I'm assuming since this is a rehearsal/show-case space that there is no sound guy, just as there's no waitstaff. In that spirit, SF Jukebox might provide some good (royalty-free) playlists

Lunkhead wrote:Are we doing our own sound this time? The one upside of that would be that we wouldn't have to worry about the sound guy playing non-Song Fight! music during the breaks between sets and causing issues with our live stream because of copyrighted music being broadcast on it... That was an issue with the Hangout right?

Concert Window could work. I may try applying to see if I get approved in time. But maybe some other folks should apply too to better our odds.

roymond wrote:I'm assuming since this is a rehearsal/show-case space that there is no sound guy, just as there's no waitstaff. In that spirit, SF Jukebox might provide some good (royalty-free) playlists

That was an issue last year, but to the best of my knowledge, Google auto-resolved it by muting the audio in those segments, and leaving the audio intact while the musicians are playing.

Having control of our own board would make this a non-issue in the first place, but you're right to point out that this is one of the things that went wrong last year. One of several lessons learned.

Other problems with last year's stream that I now know how to resolve:
- Three hour streaming maximum. We must find a logical break in between sets, somewhere between two and three hours into the show, and cut the stream off to start a new one.
- Don't invite anyone into the Hangout on Air. People can view the stream, but we don't want anyone else to be able to speak and interrupt the audio from the show.
- Remember to activate Studio Mode at the beginning of each stream; Google does not "remember" to activate it for us.

Knowing these things thanks to last year's experience, I think replicating last year's setup and correcting for those lessons learned would be the ideal way to handle the stream this year. Therefore, I will bring my laptop, my Lexicon USB audio, and my webcam, so that I can replicate last year's streaming setup, unless I'm asked not to. I welcome other recording methods for "more polished" audio and video to share later, but we should probably only have one live stream, so there won't be multiple computers fighting for limited wifi bandwidth.

Sounds great, Jon, thanks! I can try to help out with remembering to restart the stream at the 2-3 hour mark.

Also, if we're going to play music in between sets, I think roy's got a good idea. We could put Niveous's favorites playlists on shuffle and have some good classic Song Fight! tunes going.

Lunkhead wrote: Also, if we're going to play music in between sets, I think roy's got a good idea. We could put Niveous's favorites playlists on shuffle and have some good classic Song Fight! tunes going.

Agreed, it's definitely a good idea. I wanted to do this in Austin last year, but never found the time to to put the playlist together.

I have nothing to do in any of the sets other than Caravan Ray's, so I'd be happy to play host to our Internet audience!

we're doing our own sound, so y'all can nerd out to your hearts's content.

Generic wrote:Knowing these things thanks to last year's experience, I think replicating last year's setup and correcting for those lessons learned would be the ideal way to handle the stream this year. Therefore, I will bring my laptop, my Lexicon USB audio, and my webcam, so that I can replicate last year's streaming setup, unless I'm asked not to.

Cool beans. My recording interface can provide 6 stereo submixes with 1/4" outputs, if you want to take advantage of that. I probably already have all the cables you need to hook it up but it doesn't hurt to have more (especially if one of the cables I brought ends up being needed by someone else).

Generic wrote:That was an issue last year, but to the best of my knowledge, Google auto-resolved it by muting the audio in those segments, and leaving the audio intact while the musicians are playing.

Ha ha, this might be an interesting wrinkle - my songs are registered with AdRev now, so it's possible (albeit unlikely) that Google might decide that my set is infringing. Wouldn't that be hilarious?

What's your YouTube channel so I can whitelist it in AdRev?