I want to take you back all the way to 2007, this is when the first sites started to come up which allowed anyone with a computer, webcam and a microphone the ability to have their very own TV show if you like. Back in them days, of course, we had no adverts and there was many people jumping on the bandwagon to start their very own show. If we look towards the tech shows of the time, two people were ahead of the game; this being Chris Pirillo & Leo Laporte. These people were no strangers to TV, they used to be on the USA show TechTV and many people strived to be like them, the same sort of show, the same graphics and even the same format. I wish to chart the rise and the fall of Tech Shows in general and look towards the future.

Ustream versus Justin

Back then, UStream was the king with the upstart Justin.TV seen as a childish attempt at a streaming host. Ustream had its good and bad features, the main thing that comes to mind was the ability to record segments and have a loop playing when you were off-air. This was also the bad side of course as you might have forgot to start recording and people will miss the action later on.

Justin.TV on the other hand records all shows and keeps them for 7 days, you can highlight what you need to keep and download them to your computer (if you are the host). The problem came when these hosts needed to make money and this is where adverts started to come into play. If you look at Ustream now, it plays an advert as soon as you jump on the stream, it lasts for 30 seconds (at least), and plays adverts every so often as well as all over the page.

People started to notice how Ustream were happier hosting the stars (who paid the money of course) over the ‘normal’ people who helped get Ustream noticed and soon many jumped ship to Justin.TV who had less adverts.

From ad-hoc to structured shows

The ways the shows worked in the earlier days were quite simple, the person switched the camera on when they were not so busy and had Skype callers keep the show going, jumping from topic to topic. The microphones were not as good, the cameras not HD and there was no lower thirds with shot switching but the fact is – people came none the less. The raw reality is that no amount of flashy graphics is going to paste over the fact that a show is lacking in any sort of content and have ‘no soul’ if you like.

The first thing that came with many of the shows was simply a time slot – this makes sense as TV works like that. As the majority of shows are USA based, this means the European audience most of the time will miss out. Why not watch the show via Recorded content or another means (YouTube, iTunes subscription etc.) – this is possible but you miss the interaction that the show brings.

The next thing that started to crop up I noticed was “Pre-recorded” and by this I mean the hosts would stream the last few shows they had recorded to HD on a loop, which meant the show always looked like it was live but in fact it was an old show. Twit does this but they have so many shows running through the day that there is a good chance you have not seen them anyhow.

The rise and the fall

 It starts with a mixer, add in a microphone, a better camera, more cameras, better microphone, better stands, compressors, higher bandwidth, tables for guests and the list goes on and on. Were these people making money from this? They got some trinkets for their trouble but is it worth it? Would you go to work for 8 hours a day and be happy to get a couple of hard drives for your trouble?

The constant streaming soon started to take its toll on real life stuff such as jobs, family and friends. First came the ‘break’ – what this meant in real terms was they were sick of doing live shows but did not want to see all their hard work go to waste, this gave them a means to come back online at a later date. Many shows just dropped, never seen again with most people heading to make YouTube Video’s instead.

One show I wish not to mention had a break, came back, hand another break and when they did come back, they were always late and by this I mean not 30 minutes late but like hours late. They probably wondered why they had no audience left but the reality of that was if a person thinks the show is dead, they are not going to keep coming back ‘just in case’.

Who is still around?

Looking through the sites out there, there is maybe a handful of shows left doing tech, the majority stream late USA time, so for the purpose of this post, I shall discount them. There is a few UK based Tech shows but these follow the format that is old and tired and by this I mean they have a ‘panel’ of guests who discuss the news (I already know the news thanks), discuss something they read online and normally only do one hour long show.

The stark reality is I can get more entertainment and discussion from a Google Hangout then I can any show left running these days. I did some random testing of streaming as it goes and for this experiment, I streamed Movies + TV Shows on one account. I never tweeted it out, I never told anybody yet many came. I streamed The Tech Buzz old Youtube Videos and the reason for this was so it looked like a tech show (if you see what I mean) if you were cruising around looking for a show and it’s not like there is page after page of tech shows on Justin. I had nobody turn up and this was to be expected.

The Future

Does this mean this is the end for Tech Shows, as we know them? When there is people doing something, more people want to join in and the momentum grows, the opposite is also true. If you think the tech side is dead, then why would anyone waste time making one? Chicken & egg we think.

Two ways to look at this – if a person wanted to make a stream so they can get money and goodies instead of a real job then I can see this failing as they will be driven by the sponsors (if they got any). If a Person just wanted to do an ad-hoc show with no rigid format, have fun and do some proper tech instead of just talking about it – then I can see this growing bigger over time. The only hurdle in the way is making time to do a show and having something to talk about on said show. I do not think they need a panel and if they do, Google Hangout is good enough I feel.

Thoughts

What about your thoughts? Do you see it getting better or has it been and gone as they say. What do people gain from running a show, is it the same as somebody running a free MMORPG for example?

They say that no matter what sport or hobby you choose, if you get serious about it,then it will cost you money. I was just thinking about how my initial steps into the world of keeping myself fit has started to take on a lot more of my time and also my wallet. I started with the equipment I already had (some loose weights) and added to this a punch bag, some dumbbells and finally a bar to fit across the door to allow me to do pull-ups and such. Although I dabbled in buying Protein drinks, it was always when they were in a Sale and bought anything to be honest. I hit a point in my training were I choose in my case to advance forward with what I saw as the cheapest route forward – this was joining a gym.

The cost of a gym

I joined one of the cheaper gym’s in the area and had to sign up for 12 months to get a price of £25 a month (£300 a year), before this I had paid £35 a month x two months as I was not sure If I wanted to carry on with that gym at the time. Thats a total cost so far then for 14 months of £370. At the moment I go to the gym five times a week, this means I am only paying about £1.25 a session which is cheap if you think about it. Given that I have signed up for one year, this will drive me to go no matter what.

The Cost of the protein drinks

I bought some Anabolic Muscle Fuel which is a 2KG container and this lasted me for 2 weeks, the cost of this is £39, so we can add to that another £80 a month to the price of training. I bought some Creatine as well – this was on Sale at the moment for £10, I plan to buy another tomorrow before the price jumps back to double that.You start off by taking it 4 times a day for five days and then its 1-2 times a day for 11 weeks, by the tie I have gone through £20 worth, I will be able to see if this stuff is actually doing anything for me.

Equipment

Let us not forget that you need to be buying more equipment and clothing such as tracksuits, gloves and other various stuff. You may have this already and this is great but the t-shirts and such will be washed a lot more than normal due to sweating in respect to training. I have also bought stuff for running such as a holder for my phone on my arm so I can listen to tunes, bright yellow running vests and so forth – it all adds up.

Time and effort

Depending on how much energy you put into training – will dictate how much time you will use up in the pursuit to get fit. A good example is I am working 5 days a week and straight after work I am changed and in the gym for at least one hour. Getting up on a Saturday Morning to haul yourself to the gym would be unheard of before and what about the holidays, when most people spend time relaxing? You have guessed it – there is no such thing as a holiday for training.  

Of course the end results are worth it and the costs are spread out over the period of a year. Playing Football once a week at work cost me between £3.50 and £5 and then I would have to start thinking about the cost of proper shoes, shin pads and so forth – it all costs you in the end.

If you wanted to create a stream live to the world – what so you need to get the best picture, best Audio and the most viewers? Let us first talk about the Camera, a Webcam can do the job but they come in two different types and the quality between them is like night and day. They are either fitted with a CMOS lens (Rubbish) or a CCD (much better) and also the resolution can go from 320×240 all the way up to 2MP. Rememebr that the stream is a certain size, it matters not that your camera can push out a mega high resolution when in fact the stream can only cope with 320×240 for example. What about using a DV Camera via firewire instead of a web cam? Will this provide a much better picture? Well as it also uses a CCD Lens, it is going to be no better then a good webcam picture wise but a point to remember is that you can spend as much on a web cam as you can on a very cheap DV CamCorder, you can use the Camcorder for other tasks (general recording) but it won’t rest on top of your monitor.

Now onto Audio – a PC Mic or one’s that are built into Laptop etc are plain bad – they are not only going to pick up noise around the machine (fan noise) but also be bad quality in respect of your voice. The one built into my imac by all accounts though is quite good, as I move away, it raises the volume and I sound pretty much the same. The best but also the most expensive is the USB Mic’s you see Musician use – these can set you back a lot of money and unless you can afford this, can make money later or whatever – then find another way to get the audio across.