[NJARC] Live streaming video of the meeting

[eugene at hertzmail.com]

I live too far to make the meetings (especially since they are during
the week). I would be very interested in the video-taped meetings so I
can watch them after the fact.


-----Original Message-----
From: njarc-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:njarc-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Dave Sica
Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2007 10:54 PM
To: njarc at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [NJARC] Live streaming video of the meeting

Visit our web site - See http://www.njarc.org
_______________________________________________
On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:04:14 -0500 (CDT) <jonsradioglo at verizon.net>
writes:
>  I watched the auction from texas thanks to Dave,and only wish
>  I could have bid on some items.The experiment went well.I just
>  hope costs and other problems could be worked out in the future
>  to broadcast future meetings for those of us who live in foreign
>  lands.
     Jon B.F.
 
 
 
For those of you who weren't there, or for those of you who were and may
have been wondering about that odd concoction of video and computer
equipment in the front row at our last meeting, we were (more or less)
successful in presenting our first meeting streamed out live on the web.
Video and audio was available on the Internet and we had two members who
"virtually" attended the meeting. We received "QSL" reports from
President Phil Vourtsis tuning in from North Carolina and New Jersey
expatriate Jon Butz Fiscina who was watching the proceedings in Texas. 
 
The picture was small and grainy (no HDTV here yet!) Now I know a little
how John Logie Baird must have felt with his tiny first-generation
television images. It was great to find out that it worked. There were
some special challenges in sending a signal out from the Sarnoff
auditorium, but in the end it worked. The stream proved to be a bit
intermittent: it quit unexpectedly a few times during the evening and
had
to be restarted, resulting in not even so much as a "please stand by"
for
our viewers, just a blank screen for several minutes each time.
Hopefully
we'll get the bugs worked out and be able to offer a higher quality
viewing experience. 
 
If we are, the $64,000 question is: is this something that people would
even be interested in?

- How many members might be interested in tuning in once in a while via
their broadband Internet connections to watch the meeting? 

- How many people who are regularly unable to make the trip to Princeton
or
Wall Township because of distance, physical impairment or maybe just
lack
of time might find it convenient to occasionally participate in the
meetings in this "virtual" way? 

- How many people who are not members of the club because they're not in
this geographic area might want to join if they could participate in
this
way?

If there's enough interest, I'll put together a little presentation on
the subject for a future meeting.
 
Costs have been coming down dramatically. While cost will likely always
be a consideration, I estimate that each viewer might cost only about a
dollar or two in bandwidth at today's rates. Figuring that I probably
burn almost $20 worth of gas on a round trip to Princeton, the bandwidth
costs start to sound like quite a bargain!
 
What do YOU think?
 
Thanks,
--Dave Sica
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