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.
Colleague Kevin Hofer is laughing his arse off. The reason: he's watching my fail videos from New York City. Of the 10 GB of data produced, a good three quarters are unusable. Most of them because the sound overlaps. Others for more classic reasons. Sometimes another journalist walks into the picture in the crowded showroom, then the autofocus isn't right or my head is cut off. But that's just the tip of the iceberg - so many things go wrong on the big day of the Surface event that frustration takes over from time to time. My video footage is teeming with facial derailments, strange movements and troublemakers. My nerves were on edge at times.
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
I was in good spirits before my departure, but after landing the day before the event, I was frustrated again. I queued for a whole 3.5 hours to show my passport, give my fingerprints and have my iris scanned. When it was finally my turn, passport control was closed without further ado because the person in front of me had a banana from Switzerland in their luggage. It took the customs officer a cursed 20 minutes to find the suitcase and the dangerous fruit. The fact that I should have been weeing for hours didn't help the situation either. But better to get stuck than queue again after going to the toilet.
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
Strengthened by a huge buffet with sausage, pancakes and everything else that has calories, the day of the event got off to a great start. And when I received my media pass, I was reassured that I would have no problem getting the opportunity for hands-on videos. I visualised myself testing and filming the new devices in a quiet room after the event. I already know this from media events at Computex in Taipei. The good thing about a quiet place is that you can film on your own without a cameraman and without stress.
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.
Source: Martin Jud
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
After that, I asked to be let into a quiet hands-on room. But to my disappointment, these rooms were unfortunately all already occupied. Whether I was too late or our online magazine wasn't on the list from the start, I don't know. At least a nice Micosoft lady tried to help me get in after all. I waited 20 minutes before I was told that it wouldn't work after all. Besides, the hands-on rooms were primarily intended for the really big Youtubers anyway. She was sorry.
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
Naturally, I wanted to pounce on the best products right away. I was hoping for a Surface Duo or Surface Neo prototype and found a Microsoft employee who was actually holding a Surface Duo smartphone. However, the Duo turned out to be a dummy. A beautiful dummy with ingenious hinges and apparently good workmanship. But if you're not allowed to hold it in your hand or film it, it's no good. That's when my Duo dreams evaporated. And after a few exchanges with the employees, my Neo and Surface Earbuds dreams also vanished, because I couldn't get these products in front of the lens or in my ears either.
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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