Recommendations for Updates to Camera Kits

Following previous discussions on WordCamp camera kits, an immediate action item is to identify equipment that might better meet our needs. There are a number of reasons to update our kits:

  1. The current kits are older, and record in MTS. It would be easier for WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. A/V wranglers to handle files that are recorded as MP4s.
  2. It is difficult to get good audio – a key element for recorded WordCamp sessions! – on the current kit. Newer equipment may do a better job of this.
  3. Our kits are unable to connect to more modern venues.
  4. Despite online tutorials, the kits themselves are not as intuitive to set up and use, especially for new WordCamp A/V wranglers.

Keeping in mind that durability, ease of use, quality, and expense are deciding factors, we’d like your recommendations on video and audio recording equipment!

What equipment have you used in the past that worked well? Have you heard of equipment with rave reviews? What do you think would be the best fit for WordCamps?

Helpful information to include in your recommendation would be cost, objective data on ease of use, recording format, and any other information that we can use to clearly compare recommendations. Links to reviews and/or the product itself would be additionally helpful!

Please share your thoughts by Thursday, January 31, 2019.

+make.wordpress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org//tv


#camera-kits

WordCamp camera kit program discussion wrap up

Thank you to @otto42, @jerrysarcastic, @drbe4t, @ubernat, @stk_jj, @andreamiddleton, @weslinda, @pablo-moratinos, @desafio, @roseapplemedia, @jtleathers, and @sippis for contributing to the discussion around the WordCamp camera kit program! It was super helpful to hear personal experiences, challenges and successes with the camera kit program.

Looking deeper into the camera kit program and having this conversation makes it clear that the camera kit program should be continued.

This is partially because the cost of professional videography services, when compared to the number of videos uploaded to WPTV, is very expensive, and can consume a large portion of any WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. budget. Moving forward, let’s work on improving the camera kit program so that it is easier for WordCamp A/V wranglers!

During the discussion, there were a few trends in the comments:

  • Audio is a crucial element of recorded sessions, and often difficult to capture clearly with the existing kits, although not impossible.
  • While opinion is split on how easy it is to use the kits, the general consensus is that more education and documentation on how to use the kits is needed.
  • Post-production of videos, especially editing, is time consuming and can be a technical challenge.

Based on this, the following immediate needs have been identified:

  • People who can help ship and coordinate camera kits, more immediately in the US and Canada.
  • Better education on how to use the kits. This could be in the form of more documentation, videos on how to use the equipment, or contacts on the WPTV team who help answer questions.
  • Better follow up with WordCamps that use kits so that we can help them address any blockers.

Huge thanks to @tashan, @mikeyarce, @roseapplemedia, and @petya for wrangling camera kits to date, and to @sippis for continuing to wrangle kits in the EU!

A few of you shared in your comments that you would be willing to help! That’s amazing, and someone will be reaching out to you soon. As this is an important part of WordCamps, it would be fantastic to have even more volunteers, especially if you have A/V experience, or helped organize a WordCamp in the past! Please comment below if you are interested in participating.

#camera-kits

Discussion: Should we continue the WordCamp camera kit program?

One goal of WordCamps around the world is to publish recordings of sessions to WordPress.tv, to make WordCamps even more accessible to all. To do this, so far WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. organizers have either:

  • relied on camera kits provided by the WordPress FoundationWordPress Foundation The WordPress Foundation is a charitable organization founded by Matt Mullenweg to further the mission of the WordPress open source project: to democratize publishing through Open Source, GPL software. Find more on wordpressfoundation.org..
  • raised the funds to pay for professional videography services.
  • arranged local in-kind or volunteer videography services.

A huge thanks to @sippis, @tashan, @jerrysarcastic, @roseapplemedia and @mikeyarce for wrangling camera kits to date!

After hearing feedback from the TV team and some of our community deputiesProgram Supporter Community Program Supporters (formerly Deputies) are a team of people worldwide who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about program supporters in our Program Supporter Handbook., it seemed time to reexamine how we handle camera kits (this is how we currently ask WordCamp organizers to use camera kits).

The Community Team pulled together the following data to compare the expense of shipping camera kits, the expense of outsourcing videography services, and the success rate of getting videos uploaded to WordPress.tv.

Summary of Results, data from January 2016 – October 2018

In the US & Canada, professional videography costs totaled almost $88k per year, while total costs in the EU came to just over $34k per year.  

While we do not have shipping expenses fully documented for the EU, in the US, camera shipping costs added up to almost $4,000 per year in 2016-18. (Each camera kit cost the WordPress Foundation about $1500 to assemble. There are 8 kits in the US — 4 kits with 2 cameras each and 4 kits with one camera each — 3 in Canada, and 3 in the EU.)

The cost of shipping the kits around the US and Canada is vastly cheaper than the expense for A/V and Videography for 2016, 2017, and 2018, and the same can be assumed for the EU.

However, the number of WordCamps that paid for professional videography had a higher success rate of publishing on WPTV, as compared to the WordCamps who relied on Foundation camera kits alone. This is particularly noticeable in 2017, where:

  • In the US/Canada:
    • 18 WordCamps paid for professional video services and published their sessions to WPTV
    • 10 WordCamps paid for professional video services and did not publish their sessions to WPTV
    • 10 WordCamps relied on the Foundation camera kits and volunteers, and successfully published their sessions to WPTV
    • 16 WordCamps relied on the Foundation camera kits and volunteers, and did not publish their sessions to WPTV
  • In the EU:
    • 19 WordCamps paid for professional video services and published their sessions to WPTV
    • 5 WordCamps paid for professional video services and did not publish their sessions to WPTV
    • 6 WordCamps relied on the Foundation camera kits and volunteers, and successfully published their sessions to WPTV
    • 0 WordCamps relied on the Foundation camera kits and volunteers, and did not publish their sessions to WPTV

Other Considerations

While outsourcing A/V support is far more expensive than shipping camera kits, there are other factors we should consider. These include:

  • It takes a lot of time to wrangle these kits. Cemal, for instance, has been responsible for all camera kits within the US. Maintaining and sending these kits to all the WordCamps that request them (35 WordCamps in 2017, and 41 in 2018) can sometimes require more than 30 hours of work per week.
  • Both Cemal and Mikey will be stepping down from this duty next year. Additionally, Jerry is going on sabbatical at the end of this month (hooray!) and he is stepping down as team representative. We need someone to manage the shipping and maintenance of the kits ASAP, at least for US/Canada.
  • Because the equipment is often in the hands of WordCamp organizers who are not familiar with the equipment, there is a perceived steep learning curve and, all too often, equipment is broken or lost.
  • Additional pain points have been summarized by the WPTV team here.
  • Stolen/lost camera kits happen (we had one case in 2017, and one in 2018 so far)

What do you think?

  1. Do you see any inaccuracies in the data we’ve collected (especially for your WordCamp)?
  2. Do you have additional information based on experience with your local WordCamp that would be helpful?
  3. Should we continue the Foundation camera kit program, based on this data?
  4. Do you have suggestions for a different/cost-effective approach to session recording that would also increase the number of uploads to WordPress.tv?
  5. Are you interested in volunteering to maintain Foundation camera kits and coordinate their shipping to/from WordCamps?

Click to review how this report was created, including resources, methodology, and limitations/exclusions in data.

Continue reading

#camera-kits

Replacing a lost European camera kit + a request for an additional one

Hey team,

One of the five European camera kits got misplaced during WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Europe contributor dayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/.. As far as I know there are still people looking for it but unfortunately I think for the sake of planning the shipping of kits to camps this autumn I need to consider it gone.

That leaves us with four kits for all European WordCamps. Three events have already booked kits – WordCamp Varna (September), WordCamp Dublin (October) and WordCamp Sofia (November) but considering the amount of events being planned for this autumn, I expect more requests and most camps request a minimum of two kits, some request three.

So two questions:

1. Can we replace the missing camera kit with a new one?
2. Can we purchase a sixth camera kit so we have three pairs circling around WordCamps in Europe for situations like the weekends that have more than one camp.
3. I can request a a quick inventory from the organisers who currently have the kits to make sure all kits are equipped with everything they need (microphones, stands, Peli cases) and if there’s something missing, it would be great to complete the existing kits with the missing bits. Would that be ok?

Thanks in advance for your help,
Petya

#camera-kits