Presentations

Shopping list for my micro FPV quad

eirikso, , 3 Comments

DSC08464

Lots of people have asked. What is the spec for the tiny 25 gram quad you used in your demo at DARC? And in this flight at the Nordic Media Days?

Here it is:

Quad: Blade Nano QX – BNF Version (Horizon, A-main)
You don’t want the RTF version. You really want to control this with a proper radio. So buy a suitable DSM2-module for your favourite radio and use that. My favs are my second hand Futaba 9C and my FrSky Taranis.

DSM-modules:
JR / Spectrum, works out of the box.
Futaba, needs USB-stick to change the channel order if you want to control the Blade with it.

DSC08465

FPV:

Video Tx
Camera
Wide angle lens
Voltage step up and filter

DSC08466

Then you connect power from the main battery to the step up adapter and 5V out of the step up to the video Tx and the camera. The last cable is video from the camera to the Tx. And off you go.

DSC08467

If you don’t have a FPV base station you need at least a video Rx and some goggles.

Vaaaat? Tx? Rx? Soldering? If in doubt, start with this one. Not the same video range, not the wide angle lens, but plug and play for noobs.

Shopping list for my micro FPV quad

Speaking in Bergen and New York

eirikso, , , , , Leave a comment

This week I will be speaking at the Nordic Media Festival in Bergen (Norwegian). I will mention some of my key experiences from the One Year in 40 seconds-video. Talk about the media industry and new services on the internet. And try to draw a picture of the most important trends.

Bergen, Norway - in May

In June I will be at the Open Video Conference (english). Talking about some of the work we have done at the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. BitTorrent, Creative Commons etc.

I hope to see some of you there! But most of all:

For both presentations I am interested in thoughts and feedback. Any important trends or services I need to mention?

Speaking in Bergen and New York

Recommended reading

eirikso, , , , 4 Comments

I’m currently working my way through these:

Clay Shirky, Here comes everybody. I’m only half way through, but this book is essential. A very nice analysis of how the crowds of the internet turns into well organized groups that can solve tasks that traditional organisations can’t solve.

Dan Roam, The back of the napkin. A very nice book on how to use visuals to explain complex stuff.

Garr Reynolds, Presentation Zen. Currently the best book about presentation skills out there. Period.

Recommended reading

What to do if you are nervous when presenting

eirikso, 4 Comments

eirikso.com
Photo: Borut Peterlin / Mladina

The quick answer: tell the audience!

An actor once told me that it’s only one thing that’s worse than being nervous on stage. And that’s sitting in the audience watching a nervous person on the stage. Knowing that sounds scary. But it’s not. It means that the audience want you to feel fine. They feel sorry for you and want to do everything they can to help you.

So, I want to add something to that last part. The thing that’s worse than being nervous on stage is sitting in the audience watching a person that tries to hide the fact that he or she is nervous. It’s the hiding and pretending that’s bad for the audience. Be honest. Be yourself.

Through the last 10 years I’ve done a lot of presentations. Experience will make you less nervous. But from time to time you’ll encounter a situation where you feel nervous. You’re experienced, but this is the first time you speak to 2500 people. This is the first time you present in another language than your own. This is the first time you present for a small room filled with 10 important executives. The stage felt bad and the lights hit you right in the face. And so on.

First of all, you should know that the audience won’t see it if you’re slightly nervous. I’ve had presentations where I felt uncomfortable, but judging the response the audience didn’t notice anything.

Then, if you suddenly start feeling really nervous. Struggeling to find your words. Getting too hot. Feeling really uncomfortable. Then simply tell the audience.

“Wow, you’re a highly competent audience and suddely I started feeling nervous.”

You won’t believe how much tension that removes. Both from you and from the audience. And if you manage to be even slightly funny when stating that you’re nervous it will work even better.

“I’m sorry. I’ve gone thorugh this presentation a hundred times at home, but unfortunately I don’t have a huge stage with 2000 kilowatts of light in my living room. This made me more nervous than I expected.”

Some more presentation advice from earlier articles:

Essential equipment for your presentation

Two essential tricks in powerpoint

How to make illustrations even if you can’t draw

How to avoid making boring presentations

Happy presenting! And as always, I have to recommend presentationzen for more on this topic.

What to do if you are nervous when presenting

Speaking

eirikso3 Comments

Seems like May is the month for conferences. I have a pretty tight schedule, but if you’re in the area then drop me a line. This is my international presentations for the next couple of weeks:

Vienna, April 25 – 11th Roundtable Presentation & On-Air Promotion
Lucerne, May 8 – EBU Connect (link to PDF program)
Amsterdam, May 19 – THE 124th AES CONVENTION
Amsterdam, May 29 – EMBRACING NEW MEDIA IN YOUR PUBLIC RELATIONS AND CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY

Speaking

To share or not to share

eirikso, 7 Comments

I’m sharing a lot of my knowledge here at eirikso.com. I’m sharing images on flickr and SmugMug, quick thoughts on twitter and presentations on Slideshare.net. The internet is fantastic for sharing content and I think sharing is a very good idea. It’s simple – if you share, people share back. I learn a lot by structuring my thoughts enough to be able to communicate them. And I learn a lot by having an intelligent community out there that is ready to help me out by sharing their knowledge back.

But when you share information people can take it and use it without giving you credit!

Yes they can. And recently I got an email from a person that attended one of my presentations a couple of weeks ago. This person attended another conference with other people speaking the next week. One of them using content that was clearly borrowed from my presentations. And without giving any credit.

So should I stop sharing? Stop sending out PDF files of my presentations? I don’t think so. The value of sharing content is bigger than the problem of someone using your ideas without giving you credit. Such use is of course irritating. And not very polite. For the people in the audience that know where your content comes from you simply look like a jerk if you don’t give credit.

I remember an old interview with the photoshop guru Kai Krause. He was sharing all his knowledge in a series called Kai’s Power Tips. And he was asked why he shared all his knowledge. “You’re giving away your best asset”. He answered that he wasn’t. He was giving away yesterday’s knowledge. He was already working on something new. (And what’s he doing now? Living and working in a 1000 year old castle. With a priceless view and lots of space.)

Kai Krause’s statement is bold, arrogant and full of confidence. And I love it. So for me another important reason to share is the fact that I push myself forward. And that’s why you shouldn’t be afraid of people borrowing your thoughts. They’re borrowing old thoughts. Go ahead, use it. I’m on my way further down the road anyway.

To share or not to share

Another important gadget for your presentations

eirikso, , , , , 2 Comments

All the laptops I have owned have had some degree of noise on the audio out. Not annoying for regular listening, but when doing presentations the noise can be quite disturbing. It is due to the fact that the conversion from digital to analog audio is done inside the computer. Together with all kinds of electronics that produce noise. After posting an article about a very cheap external volume control and audio switch I had some comments about replacing that one with an external USB based audio card.

The theory is that when doing the conversion from digital to analog outside of the laptop itself you would get rid of some of the noise. So a while ago I received my Creative Xmod. Now I’ve had the possibility to test it at some venues. And it works very well. In some cases I went from horrible noises when connecting the internal audio to no noise and crisp audio when switching to the Creative Xmod.

The Xmod has lots of stupid so called enhancement effects as well. The X-fi crystalizer is supposed to clean up some compression artifacts in MP3 audio and might actually clean up the sound a bit, but the fake 3D effect that you also can add is not my favorite.

Regardless of the effects, my conclusion so far is that this gadget now is nicely placed in my box of essential presentation equipment.

Another important gadget for your presentations

Essential equipment for your presentation

eirikso23 Comments


I am doing a lot of presentations. For about 10 years running Powerpoint on Windows based laptops. And for the last 10 months running KeyNote on a MacBook Pro. First some words on “the switch”.

The experience with the Mac is simply much better. Period. And I am an advanced user that actually have been able to use Powerpoint to play videos, do transitions and behave quite well on all my windows boxes. But KeyNote is in general a better application than Powerpoint. The way it renders the slides, support for better graphics with proper shadows, effects, transitions, alpha channels and everything that simply makes your presentation look better.

And the Mac handles the projector with better stability and ease of use. The video always plays on the projector and the Mac always switch to the proper resolution when the projector is connected. When I save my presentation it is saved like a package that includes the media files. No more “can’t find the movie clip”.


But the best thing is that I always get both the current and the next slide on the screen in front of me while the projector shows the current slide. That makes it possible for me to do presentations with extremely fluent transitions and exact timing. Because I don’t have to memorize the presentation and remember what the next slide will be. I know that this is possible in Powerpoint as well. But my engineering degree has not been enough to make it possible for me to use that function with confidence on the laptops that I have used. On my Mac it simply works. Always.

But I have a couple of mandatory accessories to make the experience even better.


For my Mac I need to remember the converter from DVI to VGA. Apple have this tendency to ditch old technology a couple of years too early. About 1% of the conference halls I have been to support DVI directly. The fact that you need this connector is also the reason why Apple computers have this bad reputation regarding presentations. And personally I think it was a bad decision from Apple to ditch a proper VGA connector on their MacBooks. But let’s go on. I have learned to remember this connector along with my other three mandatory accessories.


My beloved remote. Covered in detail here.


The USB key. Always keep a backup of your presentation on one of these. The full KeyNote copy. In addition to a Powerpoint version and a PDF. Keep the USB key separated from the rest of your equipment. When your laptop gets stolen on your way to that important presentation it is very nice to have a backup in your pocket.


For the advanced users. You only need it in about one out of fifty presentations. But when you need it it is extremely valuable. The VGA amplifier. In some conference halls the cable to the projector is very long. This degrades the quality of the signal. This small device has done wonders a couple of times. Everything from making the image from my computer look way better than the person before me. To making me the only person actually getting an image on the projector.

Google “Extron P/2 DA1 Peaker” or something like that to find a shop near you selling this device. More details: “P/2 DA1 USB”. “Line Driver”. “P/N 60-319-03”. It was pretty expensive where I found it. About $200,-


And the last one. Some small loudspeakers. My experience is that most meeting rooms and conference halls have a projector that works. But the audio might be a problem. Especially in small hotels and meeting rooms. These speakers won’t help you in that large 500 people hall, but is very valuable in a small conference room.

But, as always the most important thing is your content. Start following Presentation Zen immediately. And some valuable advice from earlier eirikso articles here:
Working with one slide
How to avoid making boring presentations
Presenting Software

And my main guideline. Seth Godin’s “Really bad powerpoint“.

And comments are open. Do you have something to add? Something more you want to know about my presentations?

Essential equipment for your presentation

Speaking

eiriksoLeave a comment

Some of the events I will be presenting at this autumn:

IFA, Berlin (Sept 1.)
Presentation at the Consumer Electronics Trade Foundation press conference on Saturday

EBU Finance Assembly in Marrakesh (Sept 5. – 9.)
Economics of New Media

IT-Tinget, Tønsberg (Sept. 19.)
Your employers take control!

Nordic Sound Symposium (Sept 28.)
Audio production and new media

Social Media And User Generated Content, Stockholm (Oct. 18. – 19.)
Social media an professional broadcasting

Speaking