Tech 12 Demo (NAATW 2025)

Transcript

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability from the original caption file. Speaker names are standardized using first name and last initial where available. Timestamps are adjusted so the edited audio begins at 0:00.

Presentation: Tech-12 Demo. Presenters: Mike W. and Matt C.. From the NAATW 2025 Workshop, Cincinnati.

[0:00] Presenter Introduction

[0:00] Buck R.: Okay, something different, something new, something borrowed, something blue. Next up, we're delighted to welcome our friends from Tech 12, Mike and Matt. Tech 12 has been an extraordinary partner to NAATW, offering not only top quality. technical production for this year's workshop and those in the past, but also steady encouragement, creativity, and support. Always behind the scenes. Today, they're going to give a brief demo showcasing some of the tools and innovations. That helped make gatherings like ours run smoothly. Please join me in thanking and welcoming Mike and Matt. From Tech 12.

[0:52] Opening and Audio Check

[0:52] Matt C.: And my name's Matt C., I'm with Tech 12. On a personal note, I will just say my passion is as a special worker. Yeah, absolutely.

[1:06] Room / Tech 12: You can't hear Mike. Could only hear Matt C.. Well, we can't… We can't hear Mike. How's that? There we go. You should have me now? Little bit nope, you gotta be louder. Alright, we can, uh… Alright, here we go, hey, check 1, 2, 3, 4. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Uh…

[1:34] Hybrid Conference Setup

[1:34] Mike W.: Alright, perfect. So, uh, yeah, as we go through this demo today, it's a very short, brief demo. feel free if you want to pop to the back and just kind of check out some buttons and things. I know some of you have popped back at different points when we're, like, rushing around a little busy, so we haven't had time to just be like, this is what this button does. But for the rest of the day, we should be able to kind of do that as we go through. So, uh, essentially what we've got going on is a, uh, just a hybrid conference,? So what we… are doing is we have a lot of computers, as Matt is showing you right now with the cameras. I think we have about 10 computers that are out and visible around the room.

[2:08] Mike W.: and essentially what those are doing, we have a primary and a backup that go to Zoom. Right? So that's one thing with hybrid events, is always just having a failover. And as we all know from. Being tech people,? Like, having that just primary option. Not really ideal,? If any of you were with us last year, uh, we lost internet on Sunday,? And then having that backup solution that we got to pivot to. kind of made things work. Matt, you got anything to add before we jump into some of what all this does?

[2:35] Matt C.: No, no, take it away. All right, cool. So, a couple of things that we've got going on. really, like, when we look at a conference like NAATW.

[2:43] Making Online and In-Person Feel Like One Conference

[2:43] Mike W.: is how do we make it a full, engaging experience, in person and online,? a lot of you probably know from your areas or from whatever it may be, how easy it is to just say. we're gonna have an in-person event with a camera. And then just kind of check the box that it's hybrid. And uh… okay, Mike's back. So, you'll have this, like, online experience that is… Sort of subpar,? I'm guilty of this all the time, like, let's just throw up a camera. Make it work,? But really, like, what we try to do with this one, and… virtual audience side. Virtual conference attendees, keep us honest here,? really trying to take the two pieces of a conference. Online and in person, how do you make it feel like one.

[3:27] Mike W.: conference, whether you're in person or online, and having that experience be created.

[3:31] Room Cameras, Anonymity, and Audience Views

[3:31] Mike W.: A good way to do that is a lot of room cameras,? And that starts off with just, like. figuring out, as a group, what's your… relationship with personal anonymity and hybrid events. Right? Do you need to have things like. portions of the room where people can and cannot be shown, this one. It's a hybrid tech conference. If you're in the room, you're probably gonna be on camera,? So, uh, as we go through, you've got a couple of cameras here in the back. which you probably won't be able to see right now, but you'll see them working at us. We've also got two up in the front. And essentially what those do is those give us the ability to.

[4:05] Mike W.: Grab anybody in the audience, we're only putting people on camera when they're actively speaking, we're not… or if somebody's online presenting, we'll just give, like, the podium view. Of what's happening there. Um… having a couple of devices that are dedicated to the view, and I found this is something that works really well for. It's like an area assembly, or just, like, a… Lower tech capacity, uh, event. is having something that dedicates the view that doesn't have. All the controls pop up, and the hosting pop up. That way, you're in-person attendees can have. the choice between gallery view and speaker view, and what I'm going to do right now. is just go ahead and… flip this, uh, can you hit 5?

[4:43] Mike W.: so you'll see, like, up here on the screen, and in… Online, uh, what we have is… the Zoom Gallery view is our primary view from the room. Right, so if you're online, you're wondering, hey, are these people… are they seeing us, or do they know we're here? The answer is yes,? If you hit those heart reactions, they pop up on the screen. if you… if you wave hello, we see you, we hear you. Right? And that really helps to create that seamless experience, so that way. It's not feeling, like, two isolated conferences. There you go with our reactions, love it. Alright, so a couple of things, uh, just to go through.

[5:16] Devices, Routing, and Redundancy

[5:16] Mike W.: I won't, because it's a very short presentation, and I don't think we started our own timer, so apologies on that, so Buck, my friend, keep me honest here. so as we go through, like, these different devices, we've got some that are dedicated just for graphics. Some that are dedicated just for Zoom. bunch that are dedicated for inputs, outputs. We have an 8-channel SDI input switcher, which, honestly, it's not enough; I just need one more video input. It's always just one more input,? but having those 4 dedicated outputs allows us the ability to, like, really control the routing of where things go. What people see and what people hear. Right? got a digital audio console that can kind of.

[5:53] Mike W.: direct and guide through what audio is going where, and give you the ability to, like, eliminate feedback. Right? And make sure that it's not… overly loud or overly quiet, so… if you were here yesterday for the start, and you heard those, like, audio hiccups as we get started,? with a conference like NAATW, it's not the most scripted thing in the world,? So, like, having that built in. Hey, sometimes we just gotta get through it,? And sometimes we just gotta figure it out and make it work. Having those systems of redundancy where. If this microphone doesn't work and we can pivot to this one, or this microphone doesn't work, we can pivot to that one, you have that ability,?

[6:29] Mike W.: this little device right here, and I've got another one on the table just to kind of hold up and show somewhere.

[6:35] Small Cameras and Scalable Equipment

[6:35] Mike W.: these are some of my favorite little tools. They're called an OBSBOT, uh, OBSBOT. Not endorsing it, just kind of. It's kind of dope. So, it's a little baby robotic camera. that you plug in via USB,? So, it's… it's very small, you can take these and put them on a little tripod, put them at a podium. Mike, you can put them up in the middle of the aisle, and they have AI tracking,? So you can say, essentially, we're gonna put this. in the middle of the audience, send it off to this size shot, and it will follow the action for the most part. The cost to entry for these is a lot lower than the couple of thousand dollars for each camera. Right? and you can get these, you can set them up, you can program them so that way they do what you want them to do for the most part.

[7:18] Mike W.: And it plugs in via USB,? So really. This looks like a lot. It's kind of a lot. But it's functional, and it's what we kind of. came to the conclusion that was needed for this event,? But not every event needs this. So really taking a look at, like, what is needed for that production, what's needed for the space, what is needed for the audience. And sometimes just, like, a little camera like this works. Tricia can attest, we use. One camera and one microphone in Area 61. It's called the Meeting Owl. We put it on a stick, we turn it on, and it just does what it does.

[7:53] Matt C.: It's easy, it works, and uh… Other people, other than a few of us can set it up.

[7:58] Right-Sized Hybrid Setups and Testing

[7:58] Matt C.: That is key and important. Matt, what you got? Yeah, I was just gonna say, like, depending on what setup you want to start with, you could easily start with, like, an audio interface and a couple webcams, and really… And really just have a hybrid experience. You know, you may have… you'd have, like. 3 or 4 computers, but you don't need all of this to do, like, a small hybrid setup. It really just depends. We have so many computers, because we never know if we're gonna have to pivot to a timer, slides. Something like that. We want layers of redundancy, but for, like, an area, district event, or even a home group, you may not need.

[8:30] Matt C.: you know, this much, and quite frankly, the setup for this is not worth it for something that you need to tear down very quickly and get out. So just keeping in mind that whenever you're setting up for, like, a hybrid event, and then test, test, test. We had something where we tested something before we got here, and it just didn't work on site, and that's also allowing yourself enough time to set up, I think is, like, very, very, very important, and just baking in extra time, if you are going to try to do something. test it at home, and then whenever you get there, test it, and then we were testing this morning, just because we tested yesterday. Doesn't mean that it's gonna work perfectly today. restarting your computer and starting everything all over.

[9:04] Matt C.: We have to basically go through and run through and make sure all the audio's gonna work perfectly,? And so… I say that is just a very key part of, like, doing any kind of hybrid setup, is testing it to make sure that it works for what you need it for.

[9:15] Mike W.: Yeah, no, that's… that's key. It's, like, testing, practice, and making sure there's layers of redundancy,? so that way it's not all contingent on, like, hey, did Mike wake up and come downstairs on time today? Right? Because that's the thing, it's the thing that happens, especially with, like. some of these events, whereas, hey, this one person showing up with all the gear, well, what happens. You know, if life happens. Right? Does that mean that there isn't that experience? so I will say, like, a workshop like this is probably one of the more difficult hybrid events to put together. because it is so interactive, and it goes so much between in-person and online, and back and forth and through,?

[9:55] Mike W.: but that's also what makes it fun. So, like, if it's a state convention or something like that, where. I'll put up a couple of cameras, or maybe just one camera, get a podium shot with some clean audio on Zoom. Pretty… pretty low barrier to entry to have that hybrid setup. if it's something that's secondary assembly. could figure out what works for your group.

[10:14] Q&A / Discussion

[10:15] Buck R.: But I think that's super high level. I know it's a short presentation. I know Buck's having a conversation. I'll defer to Kerry. Do we have time? Do we want to take questions now, or do we want to just kind of hit it then? Anything we left out? Alright, keep rolling. any questions?

[10:34] Audience member: he went through his chat. Yeah, we've got one online. Yeah, let's get you a mic. Does it have a microphone? Yep. Take one, go ahead. This little OBS pot that you, uh, mentioned, does it have a microphone built in? It does. So these are… I was about to… I did an event, um, wasn't a 12-step base event, it was a very corporate thing. this past week, where… two weeks ago, where we had 5 remote sites across the country. And had to get all these different watch parties to tag back into the hub event. So I put together 5 of these kits with the OBSBOTs, sent them out. And each of those rooms of 500-800 people. We're able to just, like, talk back to the main room. It's not the best audio quality, but it was good enough for what we were trying to do for that.

[11:18] Audience member: because it's at gmail. It went through their filter.

[11:23] Moderator: Hang on, hang on. Okay, let's, uh, go to online, uh, to, uh, Ray, and then Matt C.. Let's go quickly so we can get.

[11:31] Ray: Questions in. Hey, uh, Matt and, uh, Mike, good to see you. It's Ray from Area 30 and Mass. you guys have done sound for us before in these setups. how do… and I know this probably comes up a lot, and I just don't know, but… How do you make sure there's not a mic that sounds. like an echo to the people online. I know sometimes that's a… a problem? Is it a mite that's directly into the board that you're only doing for online people? Can't hear you… Can't hear you, Mike.

[12:20] Mike W.: That's right on time for talking about how to not get an echo, isn't it? Alright, you got me? Okay, cool. So, yeah, Ray, what you want to do, my friend, is have. one computer that is your primary ingest and output for your audio,? So, right here, we've got a Zoom 1 and a Zoom 2. Zoom 2 is effectively doing nothing right now. Zoom is actually really good with mix-minusing itself, which means it won't really feed back on itself. Their algorithms, their audio processing is good enough these days. Where it will clean up that background noise. So, whatever computer is taking audio in, you want it to be the same computer that's taking audio out.

[12:56] Mike W.: And it'll reduce that doubling effect. Taking it a step further, if you do have an audio console, you want to do what's called a mix-minus, where whatever you're sending to your audio interface, your little Scarlett, your Mackie interface, your Onyx, whatever it might be. You want to make sure that you're not sending Zoom back into Zoom, because that'll create that doubling effect,? So really just building it. In a way where it's not looping back on itself, and primarily you're using the same computer for everything. And then just looking around your attendees and making sure, like, somebody in the room isn't in the room with their speaker and mic on,? That's That is pretty key.

[13:31] Moderator: Okay, let's go to Matt… Matt C. online? Real quick, Matt C., so we can get it in. So, um… In general service, we have, like, meetings every month of about 30 people.

[13:45] Matthew: Or so, and one Zoom moderator is able to handle the load. what is the threshold. number of people-wise, um, to enable, uh, our. to need multiple people to handle a moderator commitment. That is a really good question. hard one to answer,? Because it depends on the event. Are you talking for setting up, like, the hybrid side, or just for facilitating the Zoom portion? I'm thinking more along the lines of events and repeated, uh… our quarterly events. for general service. I know Area 9 has their own. Yeah. dedicated tech crew. But at the district level, um. If we have, like, huge events on our own. how many people do we need for… and what kind of equipment, and…

[14:39] Mike W.: Yeah. So I'm getting the wrap-it-up sign, so I'll give you, like, a super, super quick answer here. and just feel free to shoot a message in the chat as well. if you can do it with one or two people that are skilled and proficient and know Zoom, that's great. Right? I think it's very feasible, especially for an event of 30 people. It really just depends on your comfort of. How many people are joining? what level of support the attendees need. And, um, as long as they can handle it,? And then you have that redundancy in case somebody drops Wi-Fi, it's not just, oh, our host is gone, host went to. to Charlie and, you know, wherever. Right? So, it's not a one-size-fits-all, but it's… what size fits you is really the question.

[15:22] Buck R.: Thank you. Thank you. Do… do we have… do we have time for one more, Buck? Zoom actually just released a 5,000-person meeting ID. it's 10.55, we're ready to go with our next presentation, Heidi. All right, well, thanks to Tech12, and uh… please continue the conversation in Slack, and also, uh, Tech12 is here all weekend, so if you have other questions for them, please, uh. Tech 12. Thank you.