I had the great pleasure and honour of meeting Stephen Heppell yesterday during his visit to the Adelaide offices of Education Services Australia. I livestreamed the audio via Ustream and recorded a feed from the mixing desk of his talk and the conversations that took place afterward. To listen, visit http://educationau.edu.au./stephen-heppell and download the MP3 file.
I didn’t know what to expect from a man whom Microsoft calls “Europe’s leading online education expert” and whom other academics revere. I do know that when I was setting up the audio desk for web streaming and Suzie was moving chairs around I hadn’t expected this expert/guru to cheerfully start helping to shift chairs and tables. When I told him that any keynote speaker that helped with furniture moving was alright with me, he gleefully related a story where he’d arrived early at a venue and saw that help was needed so just pitched in. One of the organisers for the conference assumed he was a worker and treated him shabbily, up until a few minutes before the start when they asked him if he knew where the keynote was. Stephen’s broad grin and laughter at that memory was a crack up — and an indication of the sort of person he is.
A few minutes into his talk and it’s obvious he’s earned his reputation. His passion and intelligence are infectious. Although a founder of Ultralab (Europe’s leading leading research institute pioneering leading edge applications in support of proven educational precepts.” Oracle Corporation 1999), he revels in the way knowledge and wisdom are now de-centralised.
What stuck most with me was his answers to questions about how to get governments and the public to understand that standardised assessments aren’t measuring the right things and how to get them to appreciate innovative work. The answer was — start locally, by displaying the innovative work publicly. Hire out a movie theatre and show kids’ videos. Do public art exhibits of their work. Get them performing outside school grounds. Let the community and their parents see that the sort of talent and thought that can produce stirring works of art or suprising new fashions or fresh solutions to old problems isn’t measured by numbers or letters. He used that thinking to improve community relations between a school and a town. A town that saw their youth as thugs until a poster campaign showing the kids in a positive light through the innovative projects they completed for their school in music, art, theatre, etc.
You really need to go listen to that audio. http://educationau.edu.au./stephen-heppell
For those who want to share streaming audio via the ‘net, here are a few notes before you go:
I used a mixing desk ($600), two mics ($400 wireless lavalier and $80 handheld), an Edirol field mixer/recorder that allows me to record full quality WAV sound files ($600), two laptops, two headsets and wireless broadband. You don’t need all this stuff - you can stream audio and video via a Smartphone if you have no other options. But when someone’s Stephen Heppell, you want it to go really, really, really well.
I took two feeds out from the mixing desk - 1 straight to the field mixer/recorder and hit the record button well in advance of the start so I wouldn’t have to stress about remembering. The second feed out went straight into the production laptop to feed out via Ustream (http://ustream.tv) I was going to take a third feed out from the mixing desk to a video camera or my Nokia N95 to record video, but decided I had quite enough to juggle. The second laptop was to monitor the feed as embedded on the http://educationau.edu.au/stephen-heppell page.
What went right
Having both a handheld mic and a lavalier mic meant that my speaker could wander around to his heart’s content on wireless, but I had a backup for him. It also meant that I had a mic that could be handed around for questions.
I set up everything the night before and left all the gear plugged into the mixing desk and labelled the connectors, so if I got hit by a bus, someone else could have possibly figured it out. The day of, I just wheeled my multimedia cart up to my little desk and unloaded.
What I should have thought of
The laptop was one from the IT department and although I’d tested the Ustream streaming the afternoon before, I hadn’t tested it fully using the mixing desk. If I had, I would have set the mixing desk input as the default recording device. Because I didn’t, the first bit of the stream was streamed solely via the laptop’s mic. I realised this when I switched headsets to listen to the embedded stream on my second laptop. Not only was the sound faint, but I could hear myself typing. The lightbulb went on — BUT — and this is BIG — when I selected the mixer line in as the default recorder, the sound cut out on Ustream. You cannot change audio inputs midstream using Ustream.
I ended up having to close down Ustream and re-open it. There was at least 5 to 7 minutes “dead air”. Fortunately, there is a chat window you can embed with the stream window that allows you to text chat with listeners - so those not on Twitter could get the message there were audio difficulties being resolved.
So - checklist for streaming via Ustream:
Set up your Ustream account as far in advance of your event as possible. This will give you a chance to learn the backend of it, which can be a bit tricky.
Pick a URL you’re going to embed your Ustream player on and promote it. Ustream relates all events to US Pacific time, so make sure you put the exact time on the page and in the description of the Ustream event. I prefer to promote a page on a site I control or that benefits my organisation rather than sending traffic to a page on Ustream.
Pick a tag for Twitter and promote that too. Ustream allows chat interaction via Twitter, MySpace and Facebook. Promote that too to ensure you have a backchannel if you want one.
Set up and test all gear independent of streaming the day before.You don’t want to waste time troubleshooting your internet connection or the streaming service if it ends up you plugged the microphone into the headphone jack. You don’t need a mixing desk to stream via Ustream - you could use a Smartphone. But test it.
Test the stream the day before and then on the day. Remember you’re going live to the internet, so keep content appropriate.
If you’re testing with a laptop or desktop and an external mic (or line in) - ensure the external mic is selected as the default recording device.
Have a backup in case your stream goes down. I was able to publish the complete audio, straight from the desk, because I had the recording device. If you’re using a laptop with an external mic to stream audio, try plugging the mic into an MP3 recorder’s mic in then feed the audio out to the lap top via the headphone jack on the recorder and record 30 seconds or so on the laptop. If it sounds okay, try streaming it.
Monitor your stream from the audience’s point of view. If I hadn’t monitored audio from the second laptop, I never would have picked up my mistake. I do this with web conferencing when I’m a presenter — I want to see what the audience is seeing so I’m on the same page. Literally.
Have an alternate method for audience communication/interaction. Ustream.tv offers Twitter integration and a chat widget. I was a bit frustrated that the chat widget required people to create accounts when I set it up not to do so, but at least I had it to let people know there were issues with the audio stream.
Be good to your backchannel. Audio streaming helps you share good information and events and also allows you to extend the reach of your key messages to an audience who otherwise couldn’t participate. Allow the folks online to ask questions and feed them into the live event.
Some have asked why I didn’t stream video. Answer is - I don’t have a decent web camera. When I’m in the position to make a purchase decision on a digital video camera in future, it WILL be one that is not only tapeless but that can also act as a high quality webcam. I’d rather do good to great quality audio than average or poor quality video. And with live video, if the presenter is well lit - slides are burnt out. If slides are looking good, the presenter is a shadow. Unless I have the luxury of two cameras and a video switcher - I’d rather stick to delivering good to great audio and not waste bandwidth on a talking head.
Now go do yourselves a favour and have a listen to Stephen Heppell. There were staff at our Adelaide offices that had tears in their eyes when he finished, they were so moved and inspired. He speaks not only to educators but to parents and to people who care about the education of the kids in their lives.
That link is http://educationau.edu.au./stephen-heppell
