I am so glad that this pandemic has made Live-streaming events commonplace.
Since Vietnam closed her borders in March of 2020 (they reopened for tourism last month), I have virtually attended my niece's wedding, my dad's funeral, and another niece's confirmation. Also, more churches live-stream services, so I've been able to "go to" church again.
Not everyone's Live-stream game is at the same caliber, however.
At first, I was going to my old church in Delaware occasionally. They live-stream on Facebook, but I couldn't always access it in time for the beginning of the service. No biggie, but now that I virtually attend my sister's church, I see the difference. Theirs begins with a video showing the text "The service will begin at 9:00" and some worship music playing in the background, so you can tune in before the action begins.
My niece's wedding was well set-up, because they did it themselves. He set up a youtube channel, posed his own camera (phone?), and it was in plenty of time to watch guests arriving before the service. The audio was kind of terrible though. It was a large, echo-ey space and they hadn't thought to account for that.
My dad's funeral was... well, it was crap for a variety of reasons, but I can't complain about their streaming at the time. I screwed up the time difference and logged into it after it had begun.
However, the confirmation was at the same church, so I bet my complaint would apply to the funeral as well. Here it is: They didn't start long enough before the event. It was on Palm Sunday, and the confirmands - and probably the officiants? - processed in. So I'm told. One of my family members was messaging me beforehand, and wanted to be sure I could see. So she had told me "They're processing in. Video should go live." We were there, ready, keyed in, and missed the processional and the first hymn.
Why couldn't they have started it 10-15 minutes before? Is it outrageous that the few people watching from afar might see some people walking through to set things up, or maybe overhear an usher talking to someone?
But it's easy for me to complain. I've never live-streamed anything. Have you? Is it a huge pain? Have you ever had complaints?
Reconnecting on this AtoZ! This pandemic has forced us all to rapidly learn to use technology be it for ordering stuff or virtual meetings. Live streaming has its drawbacks but i guess in the circumstances it was something rather than nothing! :-(
ReplyDeleteFor sure!
DeleteThanks to lock downs I am now comfortable sitting at home and letting everyone deliver without my ever leaving the house. That can't be healthy...
am so sorry about ur dad. Its upsetting to not be there and live stream it . I heard so many such stories during Pandemic. I never live streamed anything but Have attended a couple of events like that
ReplyDeleteDropping by from a to z http://afshan-shaik.blogspot.com/
Honestly, I'm glad streaming is a common thing now because it is a huge pain to travel all the way to the US from Vietnam!
DeleteThe only thing I ever "livestreamed" was class, but I don't think that counts as it was a Google meet, not a video people could watch. So, I would have no idea how to do it. I think some of your issues are that--people are learning how to do it. It's nice you can still be a part of things from the other side of the world.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how to do it either but I'm married to a tech-savvy guy who has ideas on improvements.
DeleteAnd I understand everyone's learning. Also, my attendance at these is very random, so if I'm not the standard audience, my complaint probably would carry little weight.
I have not live streamed but have seen some weddings from back home with pretty decent coverage
ReplyDeleteJayashree writes
I'm so grateful it became common recently, even if everyone learned how to do it because of the pandemic.
DeleteI just want to choke everyone, every time.
ReplyDeleteI'm just glad it's available. A far cry from when I was a kid living around the world from friends and family!
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