VEG Events Review?
Many of our regular readers are events junkies of one sort or another. That got me thinking. Is there interest in having more reviews of events in our newsletters? Would you read a review of a major event? The reviews would look behind the scenes to figure out how the magic happened or not. We’d look at vendors, venues,
budgets, and event tech.
Think of it as community journalism. If you’re game to be an events reviewer, we’d love to deputize you. Write us and tell us the event you’d like to cover. Send us your review. Twenty-five dollar Starbucks gift certificates for every entry.
Is Anyone Listening?
There might be fewer podcasts than you think. Although there are over 5 million podcasts registered on Spotify, only 300,000 of those uploaded an episode over the past month. According to ListenNotes there are currently around 3 to 4 million podcasts out there, and according to Amplifi and Podnews, 44% of the podcasts have fewer than 3 episodes and only 720,000 podcasts have more than 10 episodes.
Friends Don’t Let Friends Use Zoom Virtual Backgrounds
At least that’s how VEG Tech Editor Alfred Poor feels. He says there are many causes of the problems with virtual backgrounds (not just Zoom, but with video meeting platforms in general).
Basically, it boils down to the software not being able to reliably distinguish between figure and ground. Image editors (Photoshop, Affinity Photo, etc.) are
now able to do a remarkable job of isolating an object, but that is for a static image, not for video updating at 30 frames per second. Too often, objects appear and disappear at random – such as long hair or chair backs – and this is an unprofessional and unnecessary distraction. Alfred says that his own virtual backgrounds work well because he’s got a decent
desktop system with an NVIDIA GPU and OBS Studio and a green screen and careful lighting. He notes that even a crummy real background can be better than a bad virtual background. (Just be sure
to take the liquor off of the shelves behind you.) |