Proposal: Video Updates Thursday to Sunday

[Aurabolt]

I've suggested a Saturday Feedback Session before but I figure this idea might be a bit easier to pull off in terms of logistics.

Basically, a spokesperson or two (not the mascots) puts out a video when there is a noteworthy to major announcement that needs to be made to congers on-site. There are monitors all over the Hynes and the Sheraton that are networked together and could be used for this purpose. The video content would be pre-recorded or live-streamed (now that the tech exists to do it at little to no cost) and within the Hynes so there would likely be a team dedicated soley to this.

It wouldn't be all that different from the existing kiosks we all know and love for sharing info. Just some additional useage for them from a programmer's point of view. Weather it's moving video or still photos can be decided case by case.

The kind of stuff where I think this would be extremely handy are:

- Security/Safety-related Announcements or Updates
- Missing or Found Child/Person Announcements
- Sudden scheduling/programming changes (along with the Guidebook App)
- Weather Updates

It also helps these things are outside what existing communication methods are able to do and they also plug holes in outdated print media (as I found out with one of my panels at AB2016).

As an aside: Speaking for myself, I would not object to the Convention Feedback panel being recorded and then uploaded to YouTube. Weather a congoer does it (I'm assuming there wouldn't be onjections to this) or the convention does, I think it's important for folks who don't go to see what goes on. Not just for simply advertsing the con-run panel because I think it will also help address alot of questions folks might have wanted to ask but couldn't be there themselves.

I have gone to Convention Feedback every single year I've attended AB and each time I go, I think of the over 20,000 who aren't there. Many of them ask questions online that are asked and addressed in Convention Feedback so...yeah. I think allowing people to see and hear questions answered--even if pre-recorded--is more effective for many as opposed to just reading the text. Evem if staff members shot a video recapping some of the things addressed durinng Convention Feedback a few weeks later, it would show the masses AB Staff do listen and do care.

Just my thoughts on the subject(s).

[pulsedemon]

All lost person reports are handled by the facility and their public safety team. That's why there aren't announcements or anything.

[thetoddfather]

I've suggested a Saturday Feedback Session before but I figure this idea might be a bit easier to pull off in terms of logistics.

Basically, a spokesperson or two (not the mascots) puts out a video when there is a noteworthy to major announcement that needs to be made to congers on-site. There are monitors all over the Hynes and the Sheraton that are networked together and could be used for this purpose. The video content would be pre-recorded or live-streamed (now that the tech exists to do it at little to no cost) and within the Hynes so there would likely be a team dedicated soley to this.

It wouldn't be all that different from the existing kiosks we all know and love for sharing info. Just some additional useage for them from a programmer's point of view. Weather it's moving video or still photos can be decided case by case.

The kind of stuff where I think this would be extremely handy are:

- Security/Safety-related Announcements or Updates
- Missing or Found Child/Person Announcements
- Sudden scheduling/programming changes (along with the Guidebook App)
- Weather Updates

First off this is a cool idea, but speaking from my perspective in charge of the digital signs this really isn't feasible for an number of pretty different reasons.

1. The hynes screens (not the ones outside of each room) but the ones on the walls, require money to access, a lot of money, and to my knowledge don't have any kind of speakers and aren't super flexable with what they support. That is a big part of the reason we have room signs as it is cheaper and more flexible to build our own digital sign network for a weekend then to use what the hynes gives us.
2. The room digital signs are not currently designed to play video or have video uploaded to them, or to switch from schedule mode -> video mode and then back again. This could be changed, but I don't see the value in a video message playing on 24 screens at random intervals. Additionally the Wireless bandwidth in the hynes is so saturated that we most likely would on be able to get in one very small very low quality message a day, which would immediately be out of date.
3. In the distant past we had a scrolling message on every sign so that information could be presented in real time, it resulted in a lot of people sitting staring at the screens reading a message that never got updated, or the updates were too long for a scrolling message, or the signs lost connectivity to the wireless and were out of date
4. live streaming tech is great for mobile, it is not great for a digital signage system we have in place because of bandwidth requirements and wirless issues inside of the hynes

I hope I've answered your questions.

[Nemra]

to add onto Todd's first point about the screens, the MCCA has to screen the content that goes up on those TVs about 2 weeks before the event happens. If we want to make alterations after we've already sent the files and everything, we would then have to pay again. You can then see why and how these little additions will actually end up costing the convention a lot more and these little things would start to pile up to a sizable sum. As Todd also said, they're not very dynamic and only allow for static slideshow style displays rather than a dynamic screen that can update regularly which means everything would have to be manually updated every time...

It's something we've wanted to do and are continuing to pursue but in it's current form, it's just not cost effective/efficient.

As for recording feedback, the purpose of feedback isn't really for people to necessarily hear our answers (though it's certainly part of it) as it is for us to hear what attendees have to say or want to say to us. Even if something has been said once, we absolutely 100% want to hear it from more people to gauge how much this sentiment is reaching amongst our attendee population. If one person says something and no one else echoes that sentiment, we can't really tell if it's one person that feels this way or 100 or even 1000.

That isn't to say that recording and publishing it is a bad idea (I'd personally be in favor of it), but I just wanted to clarify and re-enforce the idea that we really do depend on repeated feedback that people give in the forums and at the feedback panel and we are in constant need of more, not less, of it.