Last night's experiment in live streaming video was a qualified success.
1. I won the 5-ahead set of 9-ball.
2. People actually watched. Not a lot, and not for long, but there were viewers.
3. Some high powered viewers logged in and chatted it up, including world champion Thorsten Hohmann, who caught a game or two while waiting at the airport for a plane from Taipei to Manila, and Mr. Wei (pronounced "way") Chao from New York City of CueTable.com fame (check it out), and Marcus "forcefollow" on YouTube (check him out).
However, I was not satisfied (am I ever?)...
1. The clarity of the video can be improved. I was using the webcam built into the MacBookPro (laptop) computer. This unit seems to be optimized for a distance of a couple of feet, not the distance of the pool table. Also, it seems to be sensitive to light, so we had to dim the pool table lights to keep from getting a washed-out image on the video. The lights on the table were so low that it was really too low to be shooting pool, and I missed more than one long thin cut on a 2-ball (or 4, or 8, or 6) up against the rail shadow. The edges just disappeared.
2 The camera angle could be better. Since I was using the laptop computer for the camera, I couldn't use the tripod I use for my video camera, so I put the laptop on the fireplace to get up high enough, and that gave a diagonal angle, which probably didn't help with the overall image.
3. I was trying to read the chat comments and answer chat questions verbally, so it was distracting from focusing on the game.
4. I gave absolutely NO notice of the event. After the event started, I sent an email to everyone in my email contact database who I had previously tagged with "pool". If I missed you, and you want to be on future notices, please let me know. This event was rather spontaneous. I will give more notice in the future. If you want to be removed from such notices, just let me know and I will de-pool you.
5. I gave out a link that was sub-optimal. It would have been more direct if I had given out this link: http://tinyurl.com/638gnn
Overall, it was a good learning experience. Things will get better. Thanks to all who visited and caught some action.
You might want to try this yourself. Heck, if I can do it, you can too...
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