The Call Quality Arms Race

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5 minutes

Thanks to the generosity of a new subscriber supporting me at Ā£100 a year I just bought a Sony ZV-1.

I’ve been meaning to get a better camera for ages as I have that screen delamination issue on my MacPro and it makes the already substandard FaceTime camera even worse. I could have just gone out and bought one at any time – but I’m trying to bootstrap all my online activities for some reason.

The Sony ZV-1 is the current compact mirrorless vlogging camera du jour. Don’t worry I’m not about to start a vlog – YET lol. I asked Gary at Novara Media what camera he thought was best for Zoom calls and live-streaming etc he said the Sony ZV-1. That was good enough for me.

As of Feb 2021 Sony release the 2.0 firmware, so you can get a signal out of the camera over USB and charge it it the same time. All without the need for a capture card. Perf.
A 2h zoom call whilst plugged in the camera will drop the battery by one bar.

Here’s a picture of me fucking around the night I got it at 1080p 60fps into Quicktime:

For better or worse I’ve become a participant in the video call quality arms race.
It means I’ll be looking super crispy during the next season of Come Internet With Me.
I am also working on project that includes a lot of video interviews I’ll put up on Youtube so it’s also useful for that too.

The Sony ZV-1 is really excellent though. I have no complaints so far. That said, I’ve only played with it as a webcam. I’ve yet to take it out and about and take photos. But I may go for a walk in the woods next week and take it along and try it out.

I had pretty bad issues initially. The camera signal and audio signal from my external mic were out of sync. I insta bought Loopback and Audio Hijack. I’m now delaying the audio signal by 150ms with a virtual audio device. It wasn’t as simple as plugging it all in and getting on a zoomcall thats for sure.

Anyhoos. Thats the major news from jaymo towers this week.


As an aside RE the new subscriber mentioned at the beginning of this post. I simplified my support levels to Ā£5 monthly, or Ā£30 and Ā£100 yearly. So if you think blog and weekly podcast is worth Ā£2.50 a month, please do go check out my support page.

Permanently Moved

Will it Fit? But Is It News?

The new COD game is 500gbs and may not fit on a base PS4. Shouldn’t this be like … news or something?

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

  • More Guild.is DAO stuff
  • Much NFT discussion :'(
  • Delivered feedback on a friends project report
  • Started designing a workshop I’ve only ever run IRL for a figma workspace
  • Virtual Avatar discussion
  • Recorded a talk on the ‘Speculative Present’ for the Border Sessions workshop at Innovation-Garden Japan, on Friday.
  • WOW

Dipping the Stacks

Beeple Brings Crypto to Christieā€™s – The New York Times
One of the things that surprises me about the whole shock at the Beeple thing is that – he’s super famous? Also, great to see Ruth Catlow in the NYT.

EVE Onlineā€™s Short Squeeze And Real-World Economy Ambitions

Tracking Down the Elusive Shift: A Review | EN World | Dungeons & Dragons | Dragonlance, Pathfinder

New breed of local food halls in UK towns offer grub and a hub | Commercial property | The Guardian
If you combine these local food halls with rooftop/urban farms to act as brokers for other regenerative farmers on the periphery of the city; you begin to squint at how a more decentralised food system will work. Combine both of these as venues as an oppertunity for dinner theatre to revitalise local arts organisations, then we would be really getting some where.

TLDR this was a citizen sci-fi argument I made in a report funded by a union last year at the beginning of the pandemic that has still to be published.

The Problem With Influencers ā§ Current Affairs

Reading

This week I finished Finite and Infinite Games. Wow blown away by all the bits that aren’t usually referenced in people work. The last chapter on Gardens hit really hard.

I’ve picked up Inside the Drama-House – Rama Stories and Shadow Puppets in South India by Stuart Blackburn.
I played the Saron in a Gamelan orchestra preforming traditional Javanese Wayang Kulit many years ago at the Royal Festival Hall. I’m also pretty familiar with puppetry in South Asia in general, Myanmar etc. as I studied it. But this book about the shadow puppetry tradition in Kerala is something else. The book was a gift from Eve for Christmas. I don’t think I’m going to read the actual Rama Cycle, But everything else in the books so far has been so so good. Really interesting.

I also picked up a copy of The Little Prince for Ā£2.50 on eBay this week. For some reasons I’ve never read it. Need to rectify that.

Music

thejaymo.net Spotify Playlist 

Chants – Poly Pointillism

I’ve had this album on repeat all week.

If you, like me, are a sucker for Gamelan and polyrhythmic complexity. Then is this is an album for you.

The title sums up the vibe. It is music box pointillism, deeply complex and very impressionistic. Chants seems to place much emphasis on dense cluster formations just like the painting style. Love it.

This is the sort of album that I need to be deep listening in a room with you and pausing it to explain what I like about it.

Breathing Exercise is my favourite track. Iridescent Rhythm is wonderful also.

Poly Pointillism contains some transcendent moments. A word I don’t think I’ve used to describe an album since Hecker’s Love Streams. If this album was available on half/half orange/blue vinyl I’d insta-buy it and drive Eve up the wall listening to it really loud.

Chants is a new artist to me. I have yet to listen to anything else in the back catalogue but this album is incredible. Gonna go for a walk in a bit an listen to it again.

Remember Kids

NFT ERC721, arts discourse, Cypto meme

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2 responses to “The Call Quality Arms Race”

  1. […] my Smart Phone, my E-Cigarette plus mains battery charger, and my Nintendo Switch. But packing my Sony ZV-1 camera seemed a little excessive? Then again, that camera is a tool I use to make and create this […]

  2. […] of making and doing more, a huge thank you to all the paid supporters of this show. You bought the camera, and your support makes it all worth […]

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