Conference

Last weekend was my stake conference.  (If you aren’t LDS and aren’t familiar with LDS terminology, just bear with me.)  And we had two general authorities visiting, one a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. 

I’m in charge of video for the stake.  And part of that responsibility is broadcasting meetings from the stake center to the other two church buildings.  I was given several months warning that we would be having a VIP coming (though I was sworn to secrecy about who it was) so I would have plenty of time to make sure that everything was going to work perfectly.  So for about a week before Christmas, and for two weeks after I got back here after Christmas break, I was getting the various buildings and equipment ready to go.  Lots of time in the attics, in the tunnels, and on the roofs of the three buildings.  Thanks to Ryan for helping me run cable to the roof, and the deacons of my ward for doing most of the work running cables in the tunnels.  (They really loved helping, BTW.)

The first meeting that would need video services was the Saturday evening adult meeting.  So that meant I had to have everything working by 7pm that day.  But because this is a major event for me, I actually started hauling equipment over and hooking it up about 24 hours before.  The only major hurdle was the need to be out of the building at 1pm on Saturday for its security sweep.

When I say I go all out, I mean that we use four professional video cameras, and switch between them during the meetings.  All three camera operators and the director all have an intercom for communications.  We had three projectors going, along with at least a dozen televisions in various rooms in all three buildings.  I also provide graphics in real-time (words to the hymns, the text of scriptures being referenced), and setup an array of microphones to create a decent audio mix so the choir and musical numbers can be heard in the remote buildings and on the DVD recording.  (It looks like a general conference, except that it takes place in a stake center instead.)  We even had Spanish interpretation going on.  So it took several hours to setup the equipment, even with help from Brent and two others.  Not only that, but I was trying out some new technology which required me to build several new devices and assemble and test racks of equipment, as well as tweak and test the software I wrote for controlling the whole mess.  Which meant that I was awake most of the night Friday night.  And also that I was at the church building until 3am Sunday morning after the Saturday evening session installing the last of the equipment that was going to be used for the general session at 10am that day.  I think, in total, I got about 7 hours of sleep over three days while it was all going on.

Fortunately it all went off without any sort of major problems.  On Saturday night a power cord got unplugged, taking down a projector and my main camera, but other than that everything worked just the way it was supposed to.  Thanks to quick work of a couple people on the team, we were back up and running in just a couple minutes.  But it was very lucky that we only had one problem, because our visiting general authorities (as well as the stake presidency) were watching everything on LCD monitors placed on the stand.  If we made a mistake, they would see it.

After it was over it took about two hours to take everything down, even with about 5-6 people helping.  And two absolutely stuffed truckloads, plus one carload, to get the equipment home. 

But it was all worth the effort.  The apostle that was there made a very positive comment about what had been done.  And on his way out he thanked me again for my efforts, and gave a compliment on a job well done.  I was also told later on that he hadn’t ever seen anything like that done at a stake level before, and was very impressed.

After I got home Brent and I unloaded the truck and went to bed.  It was about 4:30 Sunday afternoon by then.  And I didn’t wake up until 11:00am the next day.  I was exhausted.

Now I’ll just have to go back and watch the videos to actually find out what took place during the meetings.  Performing the functions of a video director, audio engineer, or graphics guy all pretty much require the full attention of whoever is doing them for them to be done properly, and at any given time I was performing at least two, if not all three of those roles simultaneously.  So, honestly, I have no idea what was said in either meeting.  Good thing I’ve got that recording.

But thanks to Brent (setup, takedown, running a camera twice), Dave (directing Sunday morning), Paul (camera Sunday morning), Irv (setup and takedown), and Danny (setup, takedown, and running a camera twice) for helping with the whole thing.  I couldn’t have done it without you.

P.S. We even had a little fun with our visiting apostle.  He was watching the whole meeting on the LCD monitor in front of him, but if we put a video image of him on it, he would immediately look up at the crowd.  Several times through the meeting we would watch him do the same thing each time we went to a camera that included him in a shot.

Busy Week!

So General Conference was this last weekend.  But I didn’t get to see much of it; both of the guys I’m working with on our Point-of-Sale application were tied up with other things, so all customer questions and problems fell on my shoulders.  So I pretty much missed most of Conference.  The part of the Saturday morning session when I could have watched because I wasn’t on a support call was missed because I only got four hours of sleep so I pretty much dozed off right after getting off the phone.  Fortunately I did record it, so I can watch it over the coming weeks.

Saturday night after conference Brad and I headed up to Riverton to visit some old friends.  Our friend Jessica had flown into town from Dallas, and wanted to meet a bunch of friends at Lalis’s apartment that night.  Jenn and Ariel were also there as well as some other people I didn’t know.  It was fun to see everyone.  Lots of good memories.

Since we hadn’t seen Jess since before her mission, Brad and I went to lunch with her yesterday.  Brad had to leave to get back to his studies, but I brought Jess back to my place and we watched August Rush and played some Guitar Hero for a bit.   (Don’t worry, Jared, I had my laptop and cell phone nearby during the movie, and took care of the issues that came up during that two hour window.  I’m not a slacker.)

In a few days I’m flying back to Spokane to help install our software in another Little Caesar’s up there, and to have a multi-day powwow with the rest of the Custom Register Solutions party patrol personnel.    Have you ever noticed that the word powwow is half Ws?

While I’m gone my living room is going to be painted (hooray!!! no more 1980s sleeping bag wallpaper!).  So between now and then I have to move everything away from the walls.  It’s going to be especially fun moving a 300-pound desk that has been sitting in the same place for ten years.  And the bookshelves which have been there for eleven.  I can’t wait to see who what is behind those.  I spent a few hours tonight moving my TV and audio equipment away from one wall so the wallpaper can be removed from behind it tomorrow.  (I’ll have to remember to take a picture of the wiring involved in a fully equipped home theater setup while it’s visible… it’s impressive.)  I’ll need to finish moving everything before Saturday morning when they want to remove the rest of the wallpaper.  I’ll also need to do a bunch of rewiring between now and then to “neaten up” the room.  No more visible wires dangling from the ceiling or clinging on the base of the wall around the corner into the next room… at least as much as I can get away with it, anyway.

As part of the living room makeover I plan to remove the computer and desk behind the couch to add a second row of stadium seating, and to build a new professional rack for all of the A/V equipment.  I was also going to mount my new TV on the wall, but the more I think about that the more I think that isn’t such a great idea; it wouldn’t be visible at all from the kitchen or one of the couches if it were on the wall.  So I’ll have to build a nice (and simple) stand for it at some point.  Things to ponder.

My friend Dave is also getting close to needing my help wiring his studio.  He’s has built a video editing / audio recording studio in his dad’s back yard and it’s now time to run the wires before putting up the drywall.  We went over the last little details before purchasing the wires last night.  But I still need to figure out how to terminate the wiring.  We’re going to be installing about 2 miles of wiring in a couple hundred cables, and I’ll have to add ends to the vast majority of them unless I can teach him how to do it.  Fun.

The POS stuff is going well.  We’ve had about twenty sales in the last two weeks.  And we’re getting more referrals all of the time.  Nearly everybody we show the software to is buying it.  I also just found out that we are trying to get into a tradeshow/convention thing in early November.  Which means I’ll have some big changes, as well as a demonstration video, to make between now and then.

If only I had something to do with my time.

Recent Goings On

You've probably noticed that the number of personal posts has been kind of low from me for some time now. Well, I've been kind of busy working. A typical day for me is 14-16 hours of programming, interspersed with a couple breaks for snacks, to run errands, then sleep for 6-7 hours per night to start it all over again the next day. Not exactly the most exciting thing to write about, so I've kind of kept my keyboard quiet.

But I haven't spent every waking minute in front of my computer; I flew up to Spokane last week to work up there for three days. The trip was a complete success, and I was able to add a feature to our POS system that a huge potential customer has been clamoring for for quite some time.

And prior to my trip to Spokane I spent several days prepping for last Sunday's regional stake conference broadcast by rebuilding the wireless network I setup between three local church buildings and rewiring the satellite room. Lots more time on the roof, with only a little bit of time in the attic. But this time I did got to play in the tunnels. Unfortunately I paid the price the next few days with jello legs from having to walk hunched over.

Speaking of conference, it was a pretty great meeting. And I actually got to watch almost all of it this time instead of running around between buildings fixing problems to make sure the video could be seen in all three.

TV Upgrade

One of the highlights of the last few weeks was the acquisition of a new TV for my living room. I have been using a 34" Sony CRT (tube) TV for the last two years, and it has been absolutely amazing (CRTs still have a MUCH better picture than LCDs), but I've been running into a compatibility issue between the TV and the projector I got in May. Plus I've been wanting something a little bigger anyway. While I was at Circuit City 10 days ago (looking for a projector for the regional conference, actually; not TV shopping) I noticed that the Sony 52" XBR4 LCD TV that I've been keeping my eye on for the last year was on sale, at the best price I've ever seen. It has typically been around $3500-$4000, but it was on sale for $2900. I asked the salesperson if they had any in stock, and they didn't, but they were willing to sell the floor model for $2540, which actually rang up at $2440. It was near closing and Brent and I went in his new So now I have an absolutely massive TV in my living room, and an amazing smaller 34" HDTV looking for a new home. So if you know someone who wants an amazing deal on an amazing High Definition TV, let me know.

For the techies reading this blog, the new model is Full 1080p resolution at 120Hz, and it supports true 24p, for an absolutely jawdropping picture for watching movies. If you're in the neighborhood drop by and I'll give you a demo.

Ike Hits Home

My sister Suzanne and friend Brian decided to evacuate Houston to get out of the way of Ike. Suzanne decided to visit my parents for a week to wait it out, while Brian threw his family in his RV and headed for northern Louisiana. From what I've heard, Suzanne's apartment survived unscathed, but I haven't heard the status of Brian's house yet. I can't say the same for Suzanne's employer's building; it had at least a few windows blown out by the storm. Because of the storm I'm also running some of the services that Brian provides for his customers on a computer here at my place to make sure that his customers continue to have access to their email.

Rock Band 2

Rock Band 2 is out now. Brent picked up a copy at midnight last night, and we played for a while before going to bed. It is essentially the same as Rock Band 1, with a few features added here and there. They didn't fix a couple issues I had with the first, though. You still have to play the same songs multiple times in order to get through the Tour, and it gets discouraging. Overall the guitar parts still just aren't hard enough. Brent and I 5-starred every song we played on Expert the first time through, and even had perfect scores on two songs. Shouldn't Expert be at least a little bit of a challenge?

The cool thing about RB2 though is that you can import/export almost all of the songs from RB1, and the songs you paid for with RB1 automatically show up in RB2 as well. Overall I think I like the songs that come with RB2 better than the first; but I'm still hoping that some day one of these games will focus on some of the bands I liked to listen to in high school, during the peak of the hair band era. Somehow I just don't think of Beck when I think of great guitar parts.

Nostalgia Lane

On Thursday Phyl came over and we were both hungry so we went to Pizza Factory in Provo. I had a Calzone, and it was yummy. But during dinner we were talking about TV shows coming out this fall, and I briefly mentioned that I was going to give the remake of Knight Rider a shot even though my expectations weren't that high. She gave me a blank stare, and I could tell that she hadn't ever heard of Knight Rider, not even when I mentioned David Hasselhoff. Anyway, so she would know what I was talking about we watched an episode of the show. It was the one where KITT's prototype, KARR, escapes from the laboratory. Now that's classic television. Do you know Knight Rider? And have you seen the show?

The Internet Has Changed the World

Two posts ago I ranted about a TV show I saw on Discovery Channel, and its pseudo-science being passed off as legit. Then Brad replied to my post and talked about another episode of the show that he saw on that same night. Then two posts later, someone who was actually involved in the episode that Brad saw posted a reply on my blog. If you had told me 15 years ago that someone involved in the creation of a TV show would contact me about my opinion (ok, it was Brad's opinion in this case, but that doesn't change the point) I would have never believed it. Back then you wouldn't even get a response if you asked for one, and here we got a response that we didn't even go looking for. The Internet has truly changed everything.

Excited For...

I'm excited that Heroes season 3 is starting up here in 10 days. I still think it's one of the best shows on television, even though they had to ruin season 2 because of the writer's strike.

I'm also excited for the new Zune software that is coming out on Tuesday. There are some pretty cool features coming with this update.

Don't Like Working on Sunday

I really don't enjoy having to work on Sunday; it is normally the only day I take off. But we had two Little Caesars stores with significant problems today that had to be addressed. So I had to spend three hours diagnosing problems with one store (their phone line had been cut, which caused problems with our system), then the next 3 hours fixing problems with the other store. That deserves 6 hours of not working sometime during this next week, right?

There is One More Thing

I almost forgot one of the biggest things that has happened recently. Brent bought a brand new Honda Civic a couple weeks ago. It's black, two door. But the black has a mild blue metalic flake to it that's really cool.

That's All, Folks!

I suppose I've rambled on long enough. But thanks for bearing with me through my techie posts to get to the good stuff.