Event :: Nanotech Talk this WEDNESDAY 28th at 7:30pm

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Lauren Hutchinson

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Oct 27, 2015, 2:38:13 AM10/27/15
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Dear all,


In what may prove to be an ambitious twist directly after moving into our bigger place, we are holding a nanotech talk at the new space this Wednesday night, tomorrow. Volunteers please, see below.


The Talk

The speaker is Dr. Eric Drexler, a leading light in nanotechnology, and the title of the talk is "AI and Atomically Precise Manufacturing (APM): Don't Expect One Without the Other." 

This talk was organized by the Oxford Transhumanism and Emerging Technologies student society, and is being hosted jointly by the Oxford Uni 3D Printing Society, with whom we are partnering around 3D printing, and us.  We haven't historically interacted very closely with the student societies, so this will be part of an experiment to see how it goes.  Everyone is invited to come along, and there will be no fee on the door.

Talk Synopsis

Speaker: Dr Eric Drexler
Talk Title: AI and Atomically Precise Manufacturing (APM): Don’t Expect One Without The Other

Both artificial intelligence (AI) and atomically precise manufacturing (APM) are self-applicable technologies that could potentially reach threshold capabilities that enable rapid and far-reaching progress. In addition, however, each of these technologies has the potential to advance the other, AI by facilitating the design of physical systems, and APM by multiplying computational capacity. What does this prospect suggest for the general contours of the future, and for the nature of the challenges we face?

Often described as "the founding father of nanotechnology", Eric Drexler introduced the concept in his 1981 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which established fundamental principles of molecular engineering and outlined development paths to advanced nanotechnologies. His doctoral thesis at MIT has been the basis for the book Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing, and Computation (1992).

He served as Chief Technical Consultant to the Technology Roadmap for Productive Nanosystems, a project of the Battelle Memorial Institute with support from the Oak Ridge, Pacific Northwest, and Brookhaven US National Laboratories, and as Chief Technical Advisor to Nanorex, a company developing open-source design software for structural DNA nanotechnologies.

He is currently a Senior Visiting Fellow of the Oxford Martin School, and is presently studying approaches to AI safety at the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford.

********************************************
Time:     7:30pm Wednesday, October 28th
Venue:   Oxford Hackspace, in the Oxford Centre for Innovation, New Rd, Oxford OX1 1BY
********************************************

Preparing the Space

A final note: Help preparing the space would be welcome given all the uh, artifacts of the move still about, and we'll have to figure out what will work best in the new place for future speakers to interact with the audiovisuals etc. No time like the present to restart the event schedule that has been on hold during negotiations for so long! 

Please let me know if you can come along to help tonight or tomorrow, so we can see what works best for these talks, as we're expecting perhaps 40 people. The organizers know we're just getting set up here so microphones, cameras and good feng shui are not promised, but it would be nice if we could figure something out to make the speaker's experience a good one and set ourselves up to do more of these in a way that would make potential speakers comfortable. We probably need to think about building an A/V kit for these things.  Volunteer stage managers please! ;).


Hope to see you there tomorrow night,


Lauren

Eileen Cameron-Kirby

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Oct 27, 2015, 4:12:01 AM10/27/15
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Dear Lauren
Can’t come tonight, but could be around from soon after 6:00 pm Wednesday to do whatever I can. Not much good at lifting heavy weights though, as you can imagine....
Cheers
Eileen
 
Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2015 6:37 AM
Subject: [Oxhack] Event :: Nanotech Talk this WEDNESDAY 28th at 7:30pm
 
Dear all,


In what may prove to be an ambitious twist directly after moving into our bigger place, we are holding a nanotech talk at the new space this Wednesday night, tomorrow. Volunteers please, see below.


The Talk

The speaker is Dr. Eric Drexler, a leading light in nanotechnology, and the title of the talk is "AI and Atomically Precise Manufacturing (APM): Don't Expect One Without the Other." 

This talk was organized by the Oxford Transhumanism and Emerging Technologies student society, and is being hosted jointly by the Oxford Uni 3D Printing Society, with whom we are partnering around 3D printing, and us.  We haven't historically interacted very closely with the student societies, so this will be part of an experiment to see how it goes.  Everyone is invited to come along, and there will be no fee on the door.

********************************************

<SNIP>

Preparing the Space

A final note: Help preparing the space would be welcome given all the uh, artifacts of the move still about, and we'll have to figure out what will work best in the new place for future speakers to interact with the audiovisuals etc. No time like the present to restart the event schedule that has been on hold during negotiations for so long! 

Please let me know if you can come along to help tonight or tomorrow, so we can see what works best for these talks, as we're expecting perhaps 40 people. The organizers know we're just getting set up here so microphones, cameras and good feng shui are not promised, but it would be nice if we could figure something out to make the speaker's experience a good one and set ourselves up to do more of these in a way that would make potential speakers comfortable. We probably need to think about building an A/V kit for these things.  Volunteer stage managers please! ;).


Hope to see you there tomorrow night,


Lauren
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Kate

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Oct 27, 2015, 5:10:00 AM10/27/15
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Could we please organise recording of the event!

Can anyone help - what of the tools below can people let us borrow?

At its most simplest it would
1. A general microphone plugged into a recording app on a phone .

Next would be
2. Dr Drexler on Lav Mic (Lavalier microphone) with its feed into a
phones recording app

And then adding
3. The audience on a hand held radio Mic with its feed into another
phones recording app

Video recording
4. Add a camera on a tripod - most modern stills/video camera could
handle that

5. have a camera that can shoot past 29mins 59secs (sometimes a firmware
hack)

Lighting
6. a couple of lights to provide a Key and Fill light on Dr Drexler

Notes
7. get a feed of any power points etc Dr Drexler uses

After that it gets more complex e.g.
A. A second video camera to get the audience take
B. Editing feeds

kate




On 27/10/15 06:37, Lauren Hutchinson wrote:
> Dear all,
>
>
> In what may prove to be an ambitious twist directly after moving into our
> bigger place, we are holding a nanotech talk at the new space
> <http://oxhack.org/> this Wednesday night, tomorrow. Volunteers please, see
> below.
>
>
>
>
> *The Talk*
> The speaker is *Dr. Eric Drexler*, a leading light in nanotechnology, and
> the title of the talk is "AI and Atomically Precise Manufacturing (APM):
> Don't Expect One Without the Other."
>
> This talk was organized by the Oxford Transhumanism and Emerging
> Technologies student society, and is being hosted jointly by the Oxford Uni
> 3D Printing Society, with whom we are partnering around 3D printing, and
> us. We haven't historically interacted very closely with the student
> societies, so this will be part of an experiment to see how it goes.
> Everyone is invited to come along, and there will be no fee on the door.
>
> *Talk Synopsis*
>
> *Speaker*: Dr Eric Drexler
> *Talk Title*: AI and Atomically Precise Manufacturing (APM): Don’t Expect
> One Without The Other
>
> Both artificial intelligence (AI) and atomically precise manufacturing
> (APM) are self-applicable technologies that could potentially reach
> threshold capabilities that enable rapid and far-reaching progress. In
> addition, however, each of these technologies has the potential to advance
> the other, AI by facilitating the design of physical systems, and APM by
> multiplying computational capacity. What does this prospect suggest for the
> general contours of the future, and for the nature of the challenges we
> face?
>
> Often described as "the founding father of nanotechnology", Eric Drexler
> introduced the concept in his 1981 paper in the Proceedings of the National
> Academy of Sciences, which established fundamental principles of molecular
> engineering and outlined development paths to advanced nanotechnologies.
> His doctoral thesis at MIT has been the basis for the book Nanosystems:
> Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing, and Computation (1992).
>
> He served as Chief Technical Consultant to the Technology Roadmap for
> Productive Nanosystems, a project of the Battelle Memorial Institute with
> support from the Oak Ridge, Pacific Northwest, and Brookhaven US National
> Laboratories, and as Chief Technical Advisor to Nanorex, a company
> developing open-source design software for structural DNA nanotechnologies.
>
> He is currently a Senior Visiting Fellow of the Oxford Martin School, and
> is presently studying approaches to AI safety at the Future of Humanity
> Institute at Oxford.
>
> ********************************************
> *Time*: 7:30pm Wednesday, October 28th
> *Venue*: Oxford Hackspace, in the Oxford Centre for Innovation, New Rd,
> Oxford OX1 1BY
> ********************************************
>
>
>
> *Preparing the Space*A final note: Help preparing the space would be

Eileen Cameron-Kirby

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Oct 27, 2015, 6:39:06 AM10/27/15
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I think we should certainly aim to get geared up for regular recording of
events for the future.
Whether we can get the necessary equipment together quickly enough, test it
all works together and that the 'operators' have a good enough idea what
they are doing is another matter.
It might, arguably, be better not even to offer to record it rather than try
to do so and make a shambles of it.
This is my initial 'take', but happy to be persuaded to a more positive
view.

Kate, as you know, I have a certain amount of gear which I'm happy to make
available (provided it's understood I shall kill anyone who breaks it!!).
My main problem is that I haven't really used it, so might have to rely on
other people's expertise.

#########

I have a Canon EOS 5D Mk 3, with a coupla lenses. Never used it for video
yet.
I have at least 2 tripods.
(I have a battery-powered mic, ECM-MS907, don't know how useful it is, it
attaches to a camera via a jack; no Lavaliere)
I also have a new Sony camcorder, Model HDR-PJ810E. Shoots quite a sharp,
bright picture but I'm still unfamiliar with most of its functions. Shoots
for several hours, I think.
I don't know how long the Canon records for without stopping but can check
(ok, 29m 59 secs). Would need further info about the firmware hack.

#########

I could make myself available from mid-morning Wednesday (to work on this)
if it looked useful, at home if that would be more convenient. Or else have
a trial run later on in time for another event.
Cheers
Eileen
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Tim Stephens

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Oct 27, 2015, 7:06:32 AM10/27/15
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On Tue, Oct 27, 2015 at 06:37:31AM +0000, Lauren Hutchinson wrote:
>
> In what may prove to be an ambitious twist directly after moving into our
> bigger place, we are holding a nanotech talk at the new space
> <http://oxhack.org/> this Wednesday night, tomorrow. Volunteers please, see
> below.
>


This sounds quite interesting; I won't be able to make it. :(
I realise that this particular event probably came up without much warning, but please can we have more than 1 days notice of these things in future?

Tim


Jake Adams

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Oct 27, 2015, 7:52:50 AM10/27/15
to Oxford Hackspace
If it helps, I have quite a lot of experience doing mostly lighting, but some sound for performances and know how to setup A/V equipment. Unfortunately I'm unavailable both today and tomorrow as I have revision to be getting on with, but for future situations I would be more than glad to help.

Jake

Lauren Hutchinson

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Oct 27, 2015, 8:25:44 AM10/27/15
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Tim: yes I know, sorry about the lack of warning. Having more is certainly the plan fwiw. This event came up at quite late notice because of a problem with another venue, so I said we would do our best. I'm hoping if we can't record or have a feed this time that we'll be able to get sorted for the next one.

Natalie Ivison

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Oct 27, 2015, 8:26:44 AM10/27/15
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-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

I can lend a stereo microphone (Sony ECM-MS907) if it would help.

On 27/10/2015 06:37, Lauren Hutchinson wrote:
> Dear all,
>
>
> In what may prove to be an ambitious twist directly after moving
> into our bigger place, we are holding a nanotech talk at the new
> space <http://oxhack.org/> this Wednesday night, tomorrow.
> Volunteers please, see below.
>
>
>
>
> *The Talk* The speaker is *Dr. Eric Drexler*, a leading light in
> nanotechnology, and the title of the talk is "AI and Atomically
> Precise Manufacturing (APM): Don't Expect One Without the Other."
>
> This talk was organized by the Oxford Transhumanism and Emerging
> Technologies student society, and is being hosted jointly by the
> Oxford Uni 3D Printing Society, with whom we are partnering around
> 3D printing, and us. We haven't historically interacted very
> closely with the student societies, so this will be part of an
> experiment to see how it goes. Everyone is invited to come along,
> and there will be no fee on the door.
>
> *Talk Synopsis*
>
> *Speaker*: Dr Eric Drexler *Talk Title*: AI and Atomically Precise
> ******************************************** *Time*: 7:30pm
> Wednesday, October 28th *Venue*: Oxford Hackspace, in the Oxford
> Centre for Innovation, New Rd, Oxford OX1 1BY
> ********************************************
>
>
>
> *Preparing the Space*A final note: Help preparing the space would
> be welcome given all the uh, artifacts of the move still about, and
> we'll have to figure out what will work best in the new place for
> future speakers to interact with the audiovisuals etc. No time like
> the present to restart the event schedule that has been on hold
> during negotiations for so long!
>
> Please let me know if you can come along to help tonight or
> tomorrow, so we can see what works best for these talks, as we're
> expecting perhaps 40 people. The organizers know we're just getting
> set up here so microphones, cameras and good feng shui are not
> promised, but it would be nice if we could figure something out to
> make the speaker's experience a good one and set ourselves up to do
> more of these in a way that would make potential speakers
> comfortable. We probably need to think about building an A/V kit
> for these things. Volunteer stage managers please! ;).
>
>
> Hope to see you there tomorrow night,
>
>
> Lauren
>

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Lauren Hutchinson

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Oct 27, 2015, 8:30:13 AM10/27/15
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Well Jake, you sound like an Oxhack stage manager ;) thanks for the offer!  I'll keep that in mind for next time. 


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Eileen Cameron-Kirby

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Oct 27, 2015, 8:41:07 AM10/27/15
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Further to my reply to Kate’s post re equipment, I think I might be able to rustle up some interest among members of the Oxford Photographic Society to help us with this. Pretty certain we can’t get anything sorted in time for tomorrow, but will start asking around tonight and over the next few days. We might even get a few of them to sign up to the Hackspace...
Cheers
Eileen
 
P.S. Natalie and I obviously have twin microphones...
 
Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2015 12:30 PM
Subject: Re: [Oxhack] Re: Event :: Nanotech Talk this WEDNESDAY 28th at 7:30pm
Well Jake, you sound like an Oxhack stage manager ;) thanks for the offer!  I'll keep that in mind for next time.



On 27 Oct 2015, at 11:52, Jake Adams <jacoba...@ymail.com> wrote:

If it helps, I have quite a lot of experience doing mostly lighting, but some sound for performances and know how to setup A/V equipment. Unfortunately I'm unavailable both today and tomorrow as I have revision to be getting on with, but for future situations I would be more than glad to help.

Jake

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Jane Charlesworth

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Oct 27, 2015, 9:59:10 AM10/27/15
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My camera does video, as does Hugh's. However I am not sure if I'm available tomorrow.

Jane

Neil C Smith

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Oct 27, 2015, 10:58:27 AM10/27/15
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On 27 October 2015 at 12:30, Lauren Hutchinson <killas...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 27 Oct 2015, at 11:52, Jake Adams <jacoba...@ymail.com> wrote:
>>
>> If it helps, I have quite a lot of experience doing mostly lighting, but
>> some sound for performances and know how to setup A/V equipment.
>
> Well Jake, you sound like an Oxhack stage manager ;) thanks for the offer!
> I'll keep that in mind for next time.

Likewise happy to help with AV kit for events. Also have both a
projector and PA system I can bring in for things if required.

Unfortunately, likewise, not around for tomorrow though - sounds good! :-\

Best wishes,

Neil


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Phil Barber

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Oct 27, 2015, 11:07:27 AM10/27/15
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We're OK for projector and sound production based on experience on Saturday (though the lighting situation is awkward for projection, that's not an insurmoutable problem).


Recording I'm sure we could manage in a pinch (we have a webcam set up in the relevant location which could presumably record directly onto the computer it's attached to) but getting good quality would be useful, and I suspect difficult with the current setup.

Best

Phil

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Eileen Cameron-Kirby

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Oct 27, 2015, 11:15:24 AM10/27/15
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In response to a private email from Lauren.
If it helps to break the slight log-jam...
 
I think the best thing will be for me to bring such equipment as I'm able to carry (bad arm at present) down to the Hackspace somewhere between mid- to late-morning tomorrow. I will then see if I can find out how to use it!! (I have already warned people that it’s new or the video function hasn’t been tried yet). Hope I might find someone around who could help a bit. I will certainly have to find out about the ‘hack’ to make the Canon run for over 30 mins. If I can get everything in working order, then I’ll have a bash at recording the event. Absolutely no guarantees, folks!!
 
We also need to be rather careful that nobody objects to being recorded. The camera can be placed sufficiently far forward that only the panel/speaker is recorded. There are more likely to be objections from the audience. The speaker still needs to be asked, though.
 
Cheers
Eileen
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Neil C Smith
Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2015 2:58 PM
Subject: Re: [Oxhack] Re: Event :: Nanotech Talk this WEDNESDAY 28th at 7:30pm
 
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Corneliu

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Oct 27, 2015, 2:55:07 PM10/27/15
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Please do record anything that can be recorded!

Eileen Cameron-Kirby

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Oct 28, 2015, 7:13:15 AM10/28/15
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Thanks for the offer Natalie, but i don't think this model (I already have
one) will help. What we could do with would be a Rode mic that could be
attached to the Canon 5d mk3 (a dslr).
I also need a second person to volunteer some help - maybe to operate the
dslr!!
Situation not looking terribly feasible without these 2 requirements.

What I propose to do is bring all the clobber down to the hackspace, within
the next couple of hours, then spend an hour or so trying to find out how to
operate the Sony camcorder.
Whatever gets done is likely to be poorish quality at best. We could just
regard this as a dry run...:-( .

Cheers
Eileen

-----Original Message-----
From: Natalie Ivison
Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2015 12:26 PM
To: oxford-h...@googlegroups.com
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nathan....@gmail.com

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Oct 28, 2015, 7:52:50 AM10/28/15
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Watch out for DSLRs used as video cameras and file size limits….. - maybe Mk3 has fixed this, but
often they will only record 5 or 10 minutes units. Better with a proper video camers sometimes…

Sent from Windows Mail

Jared reabow

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Oct 28, 2015, 7:58:12 AM10/28/15
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ill bring my camcorder and a tripod
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Eileen Cameron-Kirby

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Oct 28, 2015, 8:24:30 AM10/28/15
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Great, Jared!!
Nathan – thanks for the comment. I’m familiar with the problem, but at such short notice we have no other options. The 5d mk3 stops after 29mins 59 secs. I believe there is a firmware hack for this,  but don’t currently know anything more about it.
We’ll just do our best this evening...
Cheers
Eileen

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Lauren Hutchinson

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Oct 28, 2015, 8:37:38 AM10/28/15
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The 3DP people are already supposed to be bringing a "crappy camcorder" as a backup. Apparently it's not very good quality though. The question was whether we can do better. 

Eileen, Tim is still waiting for your call, see your texts. 


Jared reabow

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Oct 28, 2015, 8:44:24 AM10/28/15
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I have a HD camcorder that is 2014 new.
It will be perfectly fine for this
here is some footage from it at its lowest quality setting:
again on low setting:
 
(i generally record on low because i gives me 10 hours record time.
on high I get about 2 hours.)

Jared reabow

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Oct 28, 2015, 8:46:54 AM10/28/15
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I also have a tripod

Andrew Cousins

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Oct 28, 2015, 8:50:52 AM10/28/15
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I have to be somewhere else this evening but I could bring in a
pocket recorder:
https://www.zoom-na.com/products/field-video-recording/field-recording/zoom-h1-handy-recorder

If some kind soul were to press record on it at 7:30 this would give
us a backup audio recording.

Andy

Lauren Hutchinson

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Oct 28, 2015, 9:13:39 AM10/28/15
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Ok so to summarise online and offline conversations, it looks like what will be happening is the following:

1. Eileen and Tim Murphy will be working together this afternoon to set up video in the space tonight using one of her two cameras.

2. Jared's camera and tripod will be the backup, including backup audio.

3. The 3DP camcorder will be secondary backup.

Assuming 2 out of 3 of those work, we should be ok for a primary as well as a backup setup. Andy, thanks for the offer, and I'll leave it to you to decide based on this whether you want to add the additional camera. Someone can certainly switch it on at the time if it's there. In future we will get a kit together so that this all goes more smoothly and we can do these things regularly.

Thanks guys,


Lauren
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