Sometimes our “great ideas” just do not end up as we thought they would.
Dead end street?
Or maybe it’s a cul-de-sac with ample room to turn around and find a different way?
We haven’t done Quilt-Cam in a long while. And my schedule hasn’t been the only reason.
Google+ hangouts was AWESOME. It streamed live into YouTube, I could embed it in the blog post so you had words and photos all around the embedded screen so you knew what was happening in this episode, which machine I was using, what quilt I was making, where to find the pattern if there was one…all of that was so important to the success of Quilt-Cam.
And the ARCHIVES! Because it was embedded into the blog posts, it was easy to archive under the archives tab at the top of the blog….for the same reasons. You weren’t just watching some random video, each post had information pertaining TO that video. It worked.
And then the big change came. Google Live Hangouts is no more. EVERYTHING is done through YouTube. And it takes special software, and the know-how to USE that special software including codes and servers and all of that stuff to upload through YouTube.
Yesterday during my lunch break I got son Jeff, who is really good with this gaming thing he is interested in, to come down and help me load the software on my laptop and try to stream something to YouTube the new way.
Giving it a try!
It took FOREVER for the feed to reach YouTube where we could see it on the screen. Before, the old way, I had some time to grab the embed code from Hangouts and embed it in the post so it was live the moment I hit START. I can’t find where that is on this. I can’t find how I can grab the live feed code and embed it before sending the post live and then starting the camera. I’m wracking my brain.
Also. This was recorded in my dining room, on wifi. It’s laggy. It’s not clear. Could be because the overhead lights are too bright and washing out everything. But what we are saying is not in synch. It’s like we are going back to the dark ages here.
Will this improve if I move it to the basement studio and hard wire it to the internet instead of trying to stream over wifi? Maybe. Will try. That’s on the agenda for today.
Then I had this thought of….what if instead of using another program to broadcast to YouTube – we just start doing Facebook Live? And then afterwards send THAT video up to YouTube? I got out my phone and did a little trial run:
From my Samsung Galaxy S7
Picture is clear, sound is good. Video is SQUARE ONLY. Hmmmmm.
Also please notice: Everything is in mirror image. From the book I hold up (I was doing book orders at the dining room table!) to the Quilt in a Day shirt I am wearing. EVERYTHING is in mirror image. And at first I was so excited about the possibility of doing Quilt-Cam via Facebook Live that I didn’t notice it.
And this is where I throw in a whammy about Facebook Live for a BUSINESS PAGE, not a personal one. Going live on a BUSINESS PAGE requires that you either have an authorized account, enabling you to use a laptop or desktop within Facebook itself (And they have turned me down numerous times for authorization, don’t ask me why. Some 20-somethings are deciding who is AUTHORIZED or not.) OR, if you are an unauthorized business page like mine, you can ONLY do live streaming video to your business Facebook page via a MOBILE APP called PAGES. It’s not the normal facebook app. If I do live video on Facebook it can't be from a real computer or laptop. Only mobile. Stupid. But that's the way it is.
I thought a tablet might help so we went out to Best Buy to see what they had:
I have needed a new tablet for a long long time, this was on sale and I THOUGHT it might do better than my phone. There is no buyer’s remorse here, but after getting home with it is when I discovered the whole mirror image thing, so I tried the following on my PERSONAL FB page just to give it a test run and learn how it works.
And I end up with something like this:
I’m stumped. I can’t do Quilt-Cam in mirror image. I can’t have the sewing machine backwards, and everything I hold up backwards. More searching was done.
I have discovered that I can attach an EXTERNAL camera to the tablet if I get a special connector and that is on the agenda for today. There will be another trial run via Facebook.
I am hoping that the external camera set up will
- make me NOT be in mirror image.
- give me a video in landscape mode, not square.
- allow me to video Quilt-Cam Live into my Quiltville page on Facebook.
- not drain the battery so quickly that we end up with really SHORT quilt-cam because the external camera is connected through the usb charging port.
And if all else fails, we will try the crummy streaming into Youtube via an external program that may have us out of synch, bad reception and looking like idiots because we don’t quite know what we are doing yet.
Notice I say *WE* I really mean *ME* Because I am the fish out of water here. You just get to watch it!
And in the midst of this, I feel like I am wasting precious “book sending time” so I am trying to do all of this techie stuff in my off hours, during meal time and late night!
BTW…I did learn how to save videos off of Facebook to my computer and upload them to YouTube, so that was a valuable lesson!
SO – This brings us to Quilt-Cam tomorrow. Tomorrow morning’s post should give you an update of where we stand, whether we will be broadcasting on my Quiltville Facebook Page (And even those of you who don’t use Facebook can still access the page, can still watch it even though you can’t comment) OR…we will be broadcasting from YouTube on my Quiltville Channel via unknown unliked software.
And in between now and then, I’m getting as many orders off to the post office today as I can before they close at noon.
The greatest fear in the world is of the opinions of others. Don't let those opinions drown out your own inner voice. Autumn Leaf quilt made by me in the early 1990s from scraps and vintage pieces. It's seen many an Autumn season as it stays up on my table through Thanksgiving. Every stain, every faded peace holds memories of my sons growing up.
Cherish your early quilts! Love them, use them! You’ve come a long way, baby!
30 comments:
Such an awful situation..... :(
Hope it's sorted quickly. With such a busy schedule, this is so frustrating!!
We all will love to watch you on You Tube, you know..
Even if it means not such a clear view, or some delayed things....
Anyway.. we can see you, and sew with you!
Facebook should have an solution.... This is so unfriendly!
Good luck! And love from the Netherlands,
Ria.
Yikes! Keep on keeping on- I'm sure after multiple screams and hair pulls you'll come up with a workable solution. I have my new "Bonnie" book and I love it ☺️.
Changes can get really frustrating, but you are not wasting your time. Once you have it figured out, you will be fine. I know I hate when things change. You are used to your routine and everything works fine for you and *wham* change. I had to leave bloglovin when they decided that they needed to start adding ads that looked like blog posts, but had nothing to do with anything I followed. Patience is sometimes the hardest thing to find when change is forced upon you.
Thanks to your Son for helping! Techie stuff is very confusing with all the rigamarole (sp). Hoops to jump through. It's taking you Sew-time away too. Can hardly wait for my Book/ruler combo to arrive. It will be fun to see how the new ruler works with the mystery.
Thanks to your Son for helping! Techie stuff is very confusing with all the rigamarole (sp). Hoops to jump through. It's taking you Sew-time away too. Can hardly wait for my Book/ruler combo to arrive. It will be fun to see how the new ruler works with the mystery.
Hi Bonnie......I was doing some research for you. Would you be able to download the google hangout app? It seems google turned hangout into an app
Keep on trying out new thing. Learning curves are hard. Appreciate all that you are trying to do to give us a fantastic Quilt Cam.
Thanks for all you and your son are doing to bring us Quilt Cam! You are so generous to give up your meal time and evenings, precious as they are, to try to solve this problem. All should be able to understand how hard you are working to get book orders out and then work on this annoying problem to boot! Hope you and family can spend some time just relaxing and enjoying each other.
Ellie Lively
Your love of us fans is evident in tbe amount of work you will go through for us! We really appreciate it and love seeing you, but it is okay if you take a break while figuribg it all out. Do not stress on it, we will be here when it works! Hugs! High five to Jeff for all his efforts too!
I just am in awe of your tenacity! I would have posted a simple " Sorry, I will no longer be doing Quiltcam because the method has changed and I don't do change." I love how you live to serve - your family, your neighbors, your bazillions of fans and followers. I am a quilter because of you.
For the mirror image problem, you might want to check the settings of your camera app. The front facing camera is usually set so that it makes watching yourself in it seem like a mirror. I know that can be changed on an iphone, so Android might have the option as well.
Oh, Bonnie, you have so much on your plate right now. I'm sure no one will blame you if you just cancel Quilt Cam until you can come up with a workable solution without the time crunch and stress you have right now. (I wonder if there is a patron saint of the Internet?)
I admire your tenacity and attempts to make this work. I did Google 'how to mirror image a video' and got several results. That obviously would not help you with live-streaming, but it does mean you could mirror image the recorded video and upload it if you get that part figured out. Best wishes, Claudia W
Just an idea, have you looked into podcast? I don't know anything about it at all but maybe they do live podcasts? This may be another rabbit trail, sorry.
Granny Anne
krbassoc57@gmail.com
Thank you Bonnie for trying so hard. Your the best! We appreciate you and all your hard work. Cause we love QuiltCam!
Love the Maple Leaf quilt...
NOTHING beats technology, and NOTHING will be the end of all technology.... even the wooden tower clockworks ended up in the fire. Not a soul remembers the punch card accounting machines any more, so don't worry. In the end only paintings, quilts and marble will stay =^}
Hope you'll have a lovely sunday,
love from Witmarsum, Friesland
Irene
I can believe that they are always changing stuff on the internet, just when you get used to doing something a certain way all of a sudden they change something, and you have to figure out how they changed it, and how do you access it, yahoo is great at doing that for emails. Don't worry about it as we will be here until you have worked it out. I'm planning on buying you class on wanderlust, just so I can get some more Bonnie Time, and really learn about the scrap life. Hang in there, you will figure it out, and thanks!
Oh, Bonnie, I feel for you. Our world of technology is challenging and everchanging. Have you looked at the Livestream platform? It might be a little pricey, however. I'll be sending good vibes to you to reach a solution. Hang in there! We will too!
Love the random autumn picture! 🍂🍁
I wish you luck, as another small business owner in your age range, I find it as frustrating as you are right now not being able to understand why someone just ups and changes a system that works well, really just because they can, the newer is better syndrome. I wish you luck and do admire your energy level for teaching and creativity!! it is astounding. I will look forward to when you get to where you want to be!! with this technology.
There may be a mirror imaging setting on your camera when using the front facing camera that would need to be turned off. I have read about this for pictures, so I am not sure if it is true for videos.
Hope it goes better tomorrow. I will tell you I outdated watch quilt cam if it showed you upside down! Fingers crossed for tomorrow��
Just another suggestion - is Periscope something you could use? I don't know enough about it to offer advice but a quick look at it seems to suggest it might take the place of the Google Hangouts. It looks like an app you download and you can embed it into your blog posts.
I wish you the best in your technological endeavours! Thank goodness for sons!
Is all this after the SPAM video? I thought it was good. Will see what is posted tomorrow morning.
Oh, Bonnie, We so appreciate all you give and do for us. Your quilts, your patterns, your books, your inspirations, Quilt Cam and much more. There will be a solution to a new way to run Quilt Cam. Just don't stress yourself over trying to get it running by tomorrow. We'll all understand. You have enough on your plate dear one.
Bonnie
So sorry for all this mess Bonnie, but we have faith that you will eventually figure something out. My husband says that there must be some way to do Facebook Live without it being a mirror image, as he's seen one of the football players do it there...and the hubby says it goes for at least an hour. So, keep trying - we'll all wait here patiently and offer whatever advice and help we can!!
Erin in MI
Alex Anderson has begun doing occasional live video chats which are then embedded in the TQS blog. If you know her, maybe she or her husband John can tell you the setup they are using. They had glitches at first, but now things are going smoothly.
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It is obvious that techie stuff is not for the over 50 crowd. And the older I get, the less I even care to know about it. Good luck.
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