[Upstage-list] how the "situation" went

[helen v. j. <he...@cr...>]

hi everyone,

last week we had the "we have a situation!" performance in coventry,
which is the first public performance on UpStage since we moved to the
new server in march/april. i'm happy to say that everything went very
well! :)

we had a series of technical issues during the preceeding week, which
unfortunately was quite disruptive for the workshop process. the two
main problems were around media uploading, and voices. these have been
documented on github (https://github.com/upstage-org/upstage/issues)
and, thanks to paul's daily slaving over hot code, most have been resolved.

i have to admit that on wednesday night i lay in bed thinking, this is
it, we can't use UpStage anymore, & trying to come up with workaround
solutions for possible failures. however, paul did his magic, the
planets aligned, & on thursday everything worked perfectly. the only
technical problem we had was my bluetooth webcam losing connection a
couple of times, i think because there were too many audience members
between it and my laptop. we managed to have a full rehearsal in the
afternoon, with 26 connected audience computers, & in the evening the
performance was followed by nearly 2 hours of discussion and the
streaming didn't even get too much lag.

during the performance we had 3 streams going - one audio only, one
video only, and one audio & video together; then for the discussion we
had a single audio-video stream. at the venue, with 7 player computers
and 2 audience computers on the same network, we didn't experience much
delay in the streams at all. we had someone mixing audio on his computer
& sending this as an audio stream - i suggested that he not leave it
open for the entire show but stop & restart it occasionally in order to
avoid the lag build-up, but i don't know if he actually did that.

i did hear from a couple of online audience members elsewhere that they
had trouble logging in. one friend in amsterdam said that the stage just
said loading all the time & never actually loaded. another man in
coventry said that he had to reload the stage a couple of times. we only
had a total of 13 audience connections for the performance (a bit
disappointing!) so i don't think these problems could have been due to
our server struggling.

the participants here in coventry, & audiences online & in coventry,
found it a really engaging & thought-provoking event, & were generally
impressed with UpStage & the possibilities it offers. so i was able to
revise my depressing thoughts about not continuing to use UpStage!

however, it does underline what we already know - the end is approaching
for the old code, & we need to do everything we can to move forward with
new developments. the AUT students are working on it
(https://github.com/AUTUpStageTeam/NewUpStage/), paul is working on
Limelight (https://github.com/upstage-org/limelight) - you are all
welcome to get involved! there is also continuing endeavours through UK
& european channels to find a decent chunk of funding & other support.

thanks very much to paul for his number 8 wire patch-up jobs to keep the
old lady alive, to martin & katarina for screen recording, to martin for
code tips, & to any of you out there who tuned in to see the show.

h : )
-- 
helen varley jamieson
he...@cr... <mailto:he...@cr...>
http://www.creative-catalyst.com
http://www.upstage.org.nz

*We have a situation, Coventry! <http://www.wehaveasituation.net/?p=1402>*
24 November 2016