Virtual WT show/modellers hour?

76043

Western Thunderer
Having just watched my cousin performing Shakespeare within a Zoom environment, and seeing other societies moving into the virtual arena, is a virtual show/modellers day/hour where WT should be heading next?

I just wonder if we are not really thinking creatively enough here, and are just waiting for the traditional show to eventually reappear?

Just putting this up for discussion.
Tony
 

Overseer

Western Thunderer
The 2mmSA has been running fortnightly Zoom sessions. I have taken part in one of them and think it can work well. It was good to see and hear some high profile members I haven't met, plenty of them in 2mm as I only dabble occasionally. To work for larger groups I think there needs to be a defined topic for each session and a host/mc to control things. Otherwise it could tend to be dominated by a few while not giving the quieter people a chance to share interesting things. The topics could be similar to the existing sections on WT eg social chat, Western hydraulics, layout building, loco building etc. Or there could be sessions on soldering brass, for example, where people bring problems to be helped with. Not as good as hands on instruction but could help people get started or over an obstacle and finished.
 

Jordan

Mid-Western Thunderer
Exhibitions are not at the center of my modelling world anyway; if I get to one or two in a year I'm doing well, so it's not something I'm missing at the moment.
I did look in at the Virtual Exhibition they did Over There last weekend, but found little of interest to me; in fact because the vast majority of the layouts were "4mm BR Steam" I found myself doing online what I've seen so many British modellers do to American outline layouts at real shows - going straight past almost without a glance, as it's "Foreign", "not my interest", "not my Era", "can't relate to it" etc. This is unusual for me as at a real Show I do stop to look at every layout regardless of Era, Location, motive power etc, but then going to so few shows anyway I try to get my money's worth when there!!
The one layout I did look at a lot was Buckingham, the late Rev Denny's layout. It was interesting to see it in colour, since most of the articles I ever read about it - & the book, of course - has monochrome photos.
So I for one am not bothered about 'virtual' shows or online 'conference'-type meets, and I'm not looking to WT to provide such. Other opinions will vary. ;)
 

76043

Western Thunderer
Yes, I've been told of the 2mm zoom meetings, sounds a good effort. I'm looking to work up a proposal for a professional association, so am grappling with this in my day job, but I agree that the 'louder' members can overpower everyone else, so moderation is required. I also think bitesize chunks of one hour are enough, if it is a form of hands on instruction.

Just wondering if anyone has seen a good online exhibition of a working layout via Zoom etc?

There is also the cost, so this may not be feasible for WT.

Tony
 

AJC

Western Thunderer
These things have a place, sure and some specific skills-based sessions/the show and tells that are a feature of club evenings. We've had a 'show and tell' as part of work team meetings (that's not as ghastly as it sounds) but could work really well in a modelling context, especially for the kind of things that 'are too boring to write a post about'. Dad's club have been doing something similar with some success, he says

Not sure about the virtual shows, though. As Jordan says, I've found that I tend to look at things according to my pre-existing interests and the difficulty with video presentations is always that what the person behind the camera wants is seldom what I'd look at were I viewing the layout in the flesh (and I'm bored to tears with 'modelling' interviews about layouts...), but I do think the two things are different. 'Doing' conversations have value and you can learn a lot.

Adam
 

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
Sorry to say that WT takes up enough of my day as it is! If I was just an armchair modeler it may pique my interest but will not encourage me to join. If I run in to problems I find that the advice offered on WT both on and off line (and I can always use "Skype" if I need to show and tell) fills quite enough of my day already.

Brian
 

76043

Western Thunderer
Thanks all for your views. Just wanted to take the pulse of WT and see if there were any bright ideas out there.
Cheers
Tony
 

adrian

Flying Squad
Thanks all for your views. Just wanted to take the pulse of WT and see if there were any bright ideas out there.
and I appreciate that you raised the issue as it is something that I have been looking into recently. Not just in the hobby area but in my day job as well. For some reason within my business I seemed to have picked up the mantle of being a Matlab/Simulink guru and frequently organise and present various technical seminars so it's something I've had a little experience of. It is something I have looked at and considered for different groups in different scenarios.

So to contribute a few random thoughts to the thread from myself for consideration.

  • Historically to the best of my knowledge WT has never really had any presence at any physical show, with the sole exception of supporting LarkRail. Where in the past Cynric used to organise a table to display members projects and provide a point of contact for discussion.
  • I've had a look at a couple of the "virtual shows" that have been organised. I need to look at some of the more recent ones but the early ones I struggled with. As I have said before they were interesting but frustrating. It was like a normal exhibition to me but just an endless stream of consciousness. If I dipped into "the show" I might find something interesting but it seemed just like pot luck at times what I could see.
  • I have joined a couple of the 2mmSA zoom meetings and I really did enjoy them. To have a dozen modellers online in a chat was really good fun. It was great to see and chat with modellers from around the globe, from Australia to USA and a few from around the corner in Harrogate. It was inspirational and got me motivated to move some of my 2mm projects along. Unfortunately I've had a couple of blood bike shifts on the weekend so have been unable to make the last few.
  • Work related - we had a Matlab/Simulink technical presentation - this was conducted via Webex. The Webex software despite a slightly clunky interface did actually work really well. The video was good and the control and chat room features added to the event. The one thing it did highlight is that for anything like this you cannot run it as an individual. For the workshop we had one person to compère the meeting, they responded to chat room questions, sorted out the technical side etc. and left the presentation to another engineer.
  • The thing I find as the biggest difference between the physical shows and the virtual shows is the ability to walk around the exhibits and stands in the order that interests me. As I walk into a show I want to pick and choose which stands and exhibits to visit. If one stand is too busy then I would walk past and return to it at a later point. I haven't seen any virtual show where I can do this.
  • Zoom - whilst excellent for the service it provides is extremely dodgy software to install on your computer, in the past it installed some really insidious spyware so I really don't trust it and will only access the system via a web browser.
  • Google hangouts looks really good and is privacy friendly but does insist on only allowing users with google accounts to access it so might limit some people from accessing the service if they don't have a google account.

My reservations with the current "virtual show" format were brought into context on the Gauge O Guild forum. It became apparent to some of us that the Gauge O Guild main show, Guildex, was probably going to be cancelled planned as it was for the end of August. So some of us started discussing a "virtual Guildex". In this discussion I raised the issue of having a format which allowed users to wander around the virtual show in a similar way that they would do in a physical show and I suggested an alternative format.

My idea was that they could have a show guide in pdf format in exactly the same way you would have for a physical show. Each stand, trader, layout in the show guide would be an active hyperlink. This link would then take you to a little zoom meeting or youTube video or Webex conference or Microsoft Team meeting or Google hangout etc hosted by the trader or demonstrator. So as a visitor you can then pick and choose which exhibit or trader you want to visit when you want by clicking on a suitable link in the show guide. Each trader could use Zoom/Microsoft/Google/Webex video conferencing system of their choice to host a little chat room and video area. These systems will struggle to cope if all the show visitors descended on them at the same time but allowing people to dip in and out would keep them at useful little groups. The idea for demonstrators is that they could arrange a timetable of events for the different demonstrators. So if I were to do a demo on silver soldering I could say the demo was to be run 3 or 4 times a day for an hour, say 10am 12 noon, 2am and 4am. So as a visitor you can then pick and choose which demonstrator to visit at a time of day that suits yourself.

So please forgive me for a little hubris but I'm pleased to say that the Guild seems to have picked up on my suggestion and have something along these lines planned for this years Guildex - the only disappointing issue is that it is planned for the end of October. It would have been nice to aim for something sooner end of August beginning of September but there is a lot of work so it is understandable.

So I'm not proposing to organise a "WT virtual show" - just not got enough free time to be honest - but I am willing to try a virtual chat or online video event if people are interested. Alternatively if you know of a virtual show being organised then I am willing to host a virtual table for people to dip in and have a chat.

As always - feedback and comments are more than welcome.
 

simond

Western Thunderer
A further thought for the mix.

The company runs training sessions for buyers of our test equipment, and for authorised repair techs; these have become exclusively online since lockdown started. We are videoing them as we go, and are trying to build a library of the best cuts so we can keep a video presentation on file - or even put it up on our website. Apart from the not inconsiderable effort in editing, and the storage space required, recording such presentations is essentially free.

It might be worth trying to generate some video of demonstrators dealing with some of the more common issues; soldering 101, preparing Slaters wheels, fitting hornblocks, etc.?

Atb
Simon
 

Pencarrow

Western Thunderer
A further thought for the mix.

The company runs training sessions for buyers of our test equipment, and for authorised repair techs; these have become exclusively online since lockdown started. We are videoing them as we go, and are trying to build a library of the best cuts so we can keep a video presentation on file - or even put it up on our website. Apart from the not inconsiderable effort in editing, and the storage space required, recording such presentations is essentially free.

It might be worth trying to generate some video of demonstrators dealing with some of the more common issues; soldering 101, preparing Slaters wheels, fitting hornblocks, etc.?

Atb
Simon

Pity you just mentioned this Simon. I could have filmed placing 3500+ tiles on the grain store roof. Surely ideal for insomniacs. (like the idea though and I would trust the approaches used on WT more than an unknown on YouTube)
 

SLNCR57

Active Member
A further thought for the mix.

The company runs training sessions for buyers of our test equipment, and for authorised repair techs; these have become exclusively online since lockdown started. We are videoing them as we go, and are trying to build a library of the best cuts so we can keep a video presentation on file - or even put it up on our website. Apart from the not inconsiderable effort in editing, and the storage space required, recording such presentations is essentially free.

It might be worth trying to generate some video of demonstrators dealing with some of the more common issues; soldering 101, preparing Slaters wheels, fitting hornblocks, etc.?

Atb
Simon

Lovely idea Simon but I won’t be volunteering unless you want ‘Basil Fawlty does soldering’....image courtesy D4741019-7432-4DAD-9295-0132DA75B3CA.jpeg BBC...
 

paulc

Western Thunderer
Hi Chris , laying tiles on a roof would bring a whole new meaning to 'slow tv ' , one up on watching paint dry though .
Beautiful job on that roof , i didn't realize that humans were allocated that much patience, well done .
Cheers Paul
 

Eastsidepilot

Western Thunderer
I'm no internet expert but another problem I've seen, on the Love Lanes group on line get together's, is that not all have a fast broad band speed and they come across as pix-elated and distorted sound.
 

Pencarrow

Western Thunderer
I'm no internet expert but another problem I've seen, on the Love Lanes group on line get together's, is that not all have a fast broad band speed and they come across as pix-elated and distorted sound.

Yes, we found that too with a group of friends. Also it was interesting that those that use Skype and Teams at work generally had decent headsets (and hence had good two-way audio) whereas others relied on the inbuilt mics and speakers on laptops which were somewhat variable in quality. At worst conversation was almost impossible.
 

Pencarrow

Western Thunderer
Hi Chris , laying tiles on a roof would bring a whole new meaning to 'slow tv ' , one up on watching paint dry though .
Beautiful job on that roof , i didn't realize that humans were allocated that much patience, well done .
Cheers Paul

Thanks Paul. The patience has been spread thinly over many months. Embarrassingly the building was started over 5 years ago....
 

simond

Western Thunderer
My mate John’s Thursday night crew have been meeting quite satisfactorily using my Teams account. To be fair it did take a substantial amount of faffing over a couple of weeks for the 70/80-somethings to get their heads round it but they did and the meetings now work well.

Most folks simply use the computer audio, and it seems to be fine.

I’d rather go to the pub, but beggars can’t be choosers.

Atb
Simon
 
Top