Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K

 Is it time to change up to the new Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K? It has an L mount so we can adapt most of our lenses and is a full-frame sensor like the Canon.

Music lesson on the Genos

 It's all changed around today to do a Music Lesson on the Genos rather than the Wersi. The whole camera setup has to be turned around and different cameras squeezed in to get the set-up correct.

Find the nucleus

 A "nucleus" (large ball bearing) is hidden and fixed under a clipboard, and students shoot ball bearings under the board, trying to find out the location and size of the nucleus. It's harder than the students imagined to do this. One to find it and the second to work out its size.

Guides and filming different formats

 Instagram wants Square, TikTok and YouTube Shorts want portrait, YouTube wants Landscape, and the only camera we have that will do all of this is the Canon R5C. Now we can do the videos in one take.

Online teaching with lasers

 Sometimes, to show off the science experiments online, we need to get closeup to the experiment so the students can see what is happening. Using the Lab as a  makeshift TV Studio and the TV Studio, We can quickly move from one experiment and type of teaching to another.

Online experiments teaching

 Teaching online is a challenge. It is a different skill set, and one many teachers have had to pick up and often make up as they go along. We decided to invest in a Jib for overhead views and other cameras to allow close-ups of the work. 

Cameras in a Boat

 Having just bought an @RSSailing Toura I now need to kit this out with a few waterproof cameras - probably GoPros to record what my son and I get up to and record the other boats.. This could be a bit of a challenge.

Using the Canon R5C

 Selecting the best camera for the job in hand. Often, this seems to be the Canon R5C. It has excellent sound capture, excellent fast lenses and probably most importantly, it can also take excellent photos for the thumbnails as well.

Novation

Using the space in the Lab as a music studio with the Novation controlling the Ableton Live Suite. Integrating this with VCV Rack 2 allows the full range of synthesised sounds to be created.
 

Hey! Broadband Arrives

 At the 7th attempt and needing all sorts of permits, Hey! Broadband arrived, ran the wire through previously installed conduit - no digging required and put the line in near my house. Now to wait for the engineer to install

360 views

 Using the Insta360 to capture 360 video of going out in a Falklands surviving Landing craft. This is normally based in Portsmouth but had come up to Southampton for the week.

Southampton International Boat show

@sotonboatshow Some people came to look at the Million Pound Boats

We came to look at the dinghies that my son can fit into at 6ft 4. Some tempting offers to get him back in the water.

 

Southampton boat show

At a very wet Southampton boat show for the day

 

Music Room online

 The music room is now online - or it is at least until I connect it to Zoom. The ATEM image is steady until I connect it to Zoom and then Zoom seems to do all sorts of horrible things to it At the moment the image is flickering so more work to do.

Seeing all the keyboards

 Something of a challenge set up to see all the keyboards and have room to play. using the jib as an overhead and turning to get the keyboard and the organ, another camera on the pedalboard and then one on my face, and then the outputs from the organ console screens.

Computer Upgrade

Attempting Computer Cascade upgrading. I got a new Win 11 i9 computer, the teacher's computer in the classroom got my old one and a non-working computer will get the kiss of life and me made to work again. Everything is now SSD and M.2 and the gift of more memory

 

No Hey! Broadband again

 In February, I signed up for @HeyBroadband. Today is the 5th time they have yet to attend an appointment to install my broadband. What excuse will the installations team come up with this time? Still no broadband.

set up for streaming

 The ATEM connected to an SSD to record the concert and then to be edited later to make into a video. Now many churches have WiFi so now it is just as easy to stream the concert as long as all the music licensing issues are solved first.

New Calculators

All the new @casio calculators have arrived and have received a positive thumbs up from the students using them. They seemed to like the new catalog key with the menus behind it and the new style format key as a hit.

 

Smart Materials

Smart Material to the rescue. The tap insert broke against the splines in the tap barrel, but heating up and moulding some smart plastic enabled a perfect fit and mend on cooling.

 

The Genos and Cakewalk

 Connecting the Genos to the Cakewalk DAW to capture midi sequences and trying to create new beats in Cakewalk and export to the Genos. Using each is okay, linking them and using them together is often more challenging.

8,500,000 views

 Still moving up slowly but surely, reaching 8.5 million views on Youtube

Macro Photography

 Macro Photography using @Adaptalux lights to get closeup to the subject and a Wemacro lens and stands to allow us to take stacked images  to gain the maximum depth of field

Best camera for the job

 Trying to find the best camera for the job.  The large screen of the studio camera was ideal for looking at the keyboard, and using an 18-35mm lens, we could get in close on the hands or zoom out enough to get the whole keyboard in the shot.

Roy Meek Annual Concert 2023

Every year we go to the Roy Meek Annual Organ Concert and with a few cameras, record and project the concert onto a large screen so that the audience can see the hands and the pedals on the organ. The concert is very popular as is the choice of music.