Behind the scenes
The laptop highlights with Windows in 2020 - more than just performance
by Microsoft (Schweiz)
Behind the scenes: New York City Fails
8.10.2019
Translation: machine translated
Being an editor doesn't automatically mean you can also work as a video producer. Nevertheless, I gave it a go at the Microsoft Surface event. Unfortunately, most of the 55 takes I made were unusable.
Kevin has edited together the alleged gems of my mishaps for you in the following video:
On working hours in New York - unfortunately awesome, isn't it?
You may have already seen at the end of the hands-on video for the "Surface Pro X" that not everything went smoothly at that Microsoft event. Video producer Stephanie Tresch was kind enough to include a little frustration recording as a take-out during the editing process.
SwissCoke then promptly picked up on this in the comments of the article:
At the very end, the editor says that «He was so damn frustrated». What happened there? I would be the happiest person if I had an employer who would send me to a presentation like that. :-)
And yes - SwissCoke is absolutely right. There's nothing wrong with travelling to the States on work time. Equally, it's absolutely awesome to be presented with the latest Surface goodies on site. However, there are various reasons why I wasn't entirely happy a week ago. First of all; Microsoft is not to blame. You can find out exactly what demoralised me in my frustration chronology (mimimi).
Frustration no. 1: Three and a half hours for passport control
The delay in my arrival meant that I not only missed my free taxi organised by Microsoft, but also a first business lunch. It took 17 hours just to get from Zurich airport to the hotel. I sank into bed that evening, dead tired, immediately after checking into the hotel.
Frustration no. 2: Slow trade fair WiFi
Watching the keynote live was very exciting. I diligently took notes on all the specs and at the same time snapped photos to provide my colleague Philipp Rüegg with for his overview article. And then the frustration slowly built up away from the airport.
The Wi-Fi at the event was so slow due to the mass of media representatives that it took ten minutes to send three photos to Philipp. An important ten minutes, which slightly minimised the total hands-on time of 2.5 hours. On top of that, the esteemed colleague didn't use a single one of my professional Nadella photos - even though he had expressly requested photos of the Microsoft CEO beforehand.
Frustration no. 3: No dedicated hands-on room
I still had two hours left to shoot my hands-on in the noisy, pumping showroom. Plenty of time. But very difficult when there's no camerawoman around and you're a complete beginner at filming.
Frustration no. 4: No Surface Duo, no Surface Neo, no Surface Earbuds
Frustration no. 5: No cameraman
Without a cameraman or camerawoman, everything is tedious. I started filming some general announcements and repeated them umpteen times as my head was either not visible, half-cropped or the autofocus didn't want what I wanted. I spent an estimated 30 minutes filming myself in front of a sea of flowers and other subjects. With a cameraman, it probably wouldn't have taken five minutes.
Frustration no. 6: Too many media professionals
The struggle with the correct setting continued during the first hands-on with Surface Laptop 3. The difficulty was compounded by the fact that there were always waiting times due to too many media representatives and only a limited number of products. And if a take did go well, there was still the danger of careless colleagues walking into the picture. One of them even took my test device away from me, even though I was filming detail shots. What a dolt!
Frustration no. 7: Camera without audio output
I was provided with the film equipment before the trip. I filmed with a tripod, Rode microphone and a Sony Alpha a6400, which is a good piece of technology in itself. However, it has two major disadvantages:
- If you attach the receiver of the Rode wireless microphone to the flash attachment, it covers the display. As a result, I could only see a small section of the image while shooting.
- The camera has no audio output. It is therefore not possible to check directly whether the sound was recorded correctly.
The second disadvantage was also the main reason for me to do a quick 180. I still had around 45 minutes left when I went outside the building to check the previous recordings on my laptop. To my horror, the sound on all of them was absolutely rubbish. There wasn't a single recording where the sound didn't skip. And it was all my own fault, because I forgot to check the microphone level before recording.
During the remaining 30 minutes of the hands-on time, I was still able to record the Surface Pro X with the correct settings.
The fact that I then had to wait another 50 minutes in the hotel to upload two gigabytes of Surface Pro X recordings unfortunately didn't cheer me up. It was Stephanie Tresch who finally managed to edit my endless video snippets and photos into a satisfying hands-on. And also the fact that I still had two private days left in NYC afterwards.
Martin Jud
Senior Editor
martin.jud@digitecgalaxus.chI find my muse in everything. When I don’t, I draw inspiration from daydreaming. After all, if you dream, you don’t sleep through life.
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