This year's trick

[Panrock]

The Convention will be with us in a couple of months so what will I take this year?

Well I thought I'd take my venerable 'Grosvenor' colour monitor, but without its equally massive mechanical camera. Instead I'm going to adapt it to work off Darryl's WC-01 converter. This should be fairly easy to do. I expect to see an improvement in picture quality... it'll be interesting to see the results when Steve A's excellent PWM LED drivers and his aperture correction are matched to the converter's high quality output. Sound will also be included.

The aspect ratio won't be correct though, so I may make a concave-cylindrical correction lens filled with water.

The picture shows the unit from the rear, covered with dust, heaved down to the workshop from the upstairs store room.

Steve O

[Metallica Man X]

I'd love to attend and see some of these things....but I'm pretty sure I live too far away

[DrZarkov]

The convention used to be at the second saturday in April, that would be April, 11. this year. Nothing official yet? It would be time to book the hotel and ask for holiday at work...

[gary]

Oh haven't you heard? The convention is going to be in Sydney on April the 1st - you had better get your bags packed!

[DrZarkov]

Sydney, great, I love Nova Scotia!
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney,_Nova_Scotia )

[Panrock]

Judging from the level of interest and skill in Oz, I would have thought a convention there would be a success if the distances could be overcome.

Meanwhile, back here in Blighty, I've now got good results on the 'Grosvenor' working from the WC-01 converter. Only one problem... the 'Baird' standard picture from the converter is (correctly) of aspect ratio 3:7, whereas my laser-cut 30-line disc delivers an almost square picture. This wasn't a problem with the mechanical camera 'cos that used the same pattern disc. But now I am faced with constructing a concave-cylindrical 'correction' lens to view the picture through.

This afternoon I extracted some clear flat polystyrene base panels from Copycoders, and found that, if I put them in the oven at 110 deg C for 4 minutes, they were just pliable enough to bend around the outside of a mug - forming a cylindrical lens surface. The other surfaces are also to be made from Copycoder bits. I am assembling everything into a unit that will later be filled with water, to make the lens. I am using slow-setting araldite to seal the joints, so the assembly will take another few days. I'll try to get some pictures up when it's done.

Steve O

[Steve Anderson]

Judging from the level of interest and skill in Oz, I would have thought a convention there would be a success if the distances could be overcome. Steve O

Or how about a compromise? Halfway Blighty-Oz?

I suggest Bangkok...as I would.

Steve A.

[Harry Dalek]

This might be a crazy idea and it is 2015 and i know we are all set in our vintage ways but couldn't the convention be video streamed ? so every one can go that wants to via this .

I have never tried it but there is free two way multiple people video chat software as well, where i suppose people that wish to could show there gadgets live to the visitors at the convention.

Now the question is do they have wi fi and are we brave enough

[DrZarkov]

I wonder if there is free Wifi in the convention rooms or at least a normal LAN connection which we are allowed to use. Technically a stream would not be a problem. I wonder which format is good enough for NBTV-streaming. Maybe an ogg-vorbis stream?

[gary]

I wonder if there is free Wifi in the convention rooms or at least a normal LAN connection which we are allowed to use. Technically a stream would not be a problem. I wonder which format is good enough for NBTV-streaming. Maybe an ogg-vorbis stream?

Aaaah I think Harry is talking about a "high definition" form of streaming which, whilst easy enough to arrange (given a reasonable bandwidth internet connection), would, I think, be seen by the NBTVA as a manifest disincentive to attend the convention, something we would all want to avoid of course.

BUT, the idea of a an NBTV format "broadcast" has always appealed to me, hence the reason I developed the NBTV Virtual Camera DirectShow codec that allows an NBTV camera (mechanical or otherwise) to be plugged into a soundcard and appear to the system as a webcam. The idea being that an standard application like Skype could then stream the video point to point or as a conference call to many or all NBTVA members.

Of course the camera could be a high definition camera and converted in realtime via Video2NBTV to NBTV and streamed in the same manner.

It has always been a source of disappointment to me that no one has taken this up (especially as I spent a great deal of time on it) other than this example:

http://pumar.org/30-lines-60-seconds/

but then one's wild ideas don't always get taken up do they? LOL

In any case the idea of an NBTV video link is available (given an internet connection) and it is as simple as (for example):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yblVZXcCth4

[Harry Dalek]

Yes Gary, DrZarkov, i was thinking more what some of the live cams do pointing at city streets what ever quality those things are ,that would be a nice ,
But i think you might be right Gary it might not go down well ?
i also like the idea of a NBTV broadcast i could live with that ,be nice to join in some how and we have no hope apart from something like this, if not no NBTV DAY for us on this side of the world ,its like saying you can have xmas but only if you come to England .
Least DrZarkov always shows us some pictures when he gos .

[gary]

its like saying you can have xmas but only if you come to England .

LOL that quote led me to think that if all NBTV members were English back packers we could have the convention on Bondi beach!

(and if JLB had been an English cricketer we'd still be listening to radio dramas)

[Panrock]

I suspect this issue is quite keenly felt 'down under' and something is not done soon, Australia might even leave the commonwealth...

Personally, I like the idea of a web broadcast. Making it happen though would be harder. It would demonstrate that the membership living far-and-wide is as important as that in the UK and it could build international interest with new 'tuners in'. Easy for me to say all this though, while doing naff all about it.

For a broadcast to happen, you would need:

1) A suitable internet connection.

2) Someone at the UK end with the necessary equipment, knowledge and enthusiasm - and preferably with the presentation skills to bring it to life and make it watchable.

3) Such a person would also need to have spare time at the show. So that rather rules out existing exhibitors.

4) Probably other things I've forgotten about.

A well attended Convention (they aren't always) can get quite hectic and could make an interesting broadcast. As ever, it all comes down to finding the right bloke.

Usual warnings about 'my tuppen'orth' apply...

Steve O

[Harry Dalek]

I think Steve it would be really nice to be able to have a look /

Perhaps Garys idea might be more to the liking to the club heads who run the convention a NBTV broadcast would be a nice start .


Well the idea is out there how long it takes or will ever happen we will see ....even if its just for club memebers i couldn't see why they would disagree on that .

Filming and taking pictures would be great as well for us missing out for what ever reason ,so strap that iphone to your hat and press record up load here later

[Panrock]

so strap that iphone to your hat and press record up load here later

But Harry, I haven't got an iPhone yet... just a mechanical camera!

Steve