A Double-Dose of UK's Second City

Two Birmingham events back to back is a great way to start November

I started off my double-dose of the UK’s Second City with support and recording of the UK-EGG (UK Eye Genetics Group) Annual Meeting, Birmingham Children’s Hospital was the venue. Following last year’s joint international meeting with ISGEDR it was a pleasure to be commissioned to record the UK-EGG Annual Meeting (screencasts sponsored by ISGEDR).

Professor Robert MacLaran was the keynote speaker, he gave an excellent talk on ‘Gene Therapy for Retinal Diseases’. Below is the Highlights Video and if you head over to the UK-EGG site to check on all the latest news, plus if you are a member, view the HD Screencasts.

UK-EGG are heading north of the border to Glasgow for the 2019 Annual Meeting, already booked and looking forward to working with this great organisation.

Day 2 - 11th Birmingham Breast Pathology Update Course

Moving on from Eye Genetics to Breast Pathology meant heading over to the magnificent Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham.

QEH Birmingham and its Education Centre was this year’s venue for the 11th Birmingham Breast Pathology Update Course

I have supported and recorded Dr Abeer Shaaban's course for three years now and it just gets better and better. To keep up with the greater number of delegates this year the course moved from the ‘soon to be retired’ Postgraduate Centre over the road and round the bend to QEHB’s ‘spanking new’ Education Centre.

Great venue with very supportive staff, only issue being the audio which was set to keep the whole of Birmingham informed as to what was going on :-)

Check out the Highlights Video before heading over to their website so that you can book for next year.

London in Spring is a wonderful thing

London in Spring; warm but not too warm, fresh but not too fresh; is a wonderful thing.

For four years now my team and I have headed to Central and Wester London in mid-May to support and record the Internationally anticipated London Dermatopathology Symposium. Three days of world class presentations and workshops by the glitterati of dermpath all in what must be the World's favourite city London.

This year there was the extra icing on the cake of the Royal Wedding which overtook the British Weather as the go-to topic of conversation. Our venue the Kensington Hilton even had a cardboard cut-out for delegates and faculty to get their selfies taken with  :-)

Among the highlights for me were the Professor Robert Phelps of New York's presentations on Bed Bugs and Scabies, who needs to watch Alien when you can head down to DermPathPRO and watch his presentations.

At the end of the Symposium, I magically managed to fit everything into my trust Skoda Roomster all my kit for the 200 mile drive back home. As usual Apple Maps took me the scenic route to the M1, why I need GPS I don't know I have been working in and around London for over 30 years. Perhaps next year, yes I have been booked already, I will just head around the North Circular and be done with it  :-)

Once back home I then had to as usual collate all the media including recordings from the Microscope Capture System and just get down to work. One week later I had over 60 HD screencasts totalling 40 hours plus of content ready for review.

By all measures LDS 2018 was a great event, friendly, intense and a touch of Royal Pomp and Ceremony. I am sure that LDS 2019 will even better, just hoping there aren't any more lectures on bed bugs. 

Keep Calm and don't pull your hair out...

This is easy to say when sat at home with a nice up of tea, however, when you have an audience of almost a hundred of the UK's top Hair and Nail specialists it is another thing.

Glasgow's Crowne Plaza was the location of this year's British Hair and Nail Society's Education Meeting with one day of lectures followed by a half day over at the shiny new Elizabeth University Hospital for Clinical Cases and Discussions. John my videographer and I were there on Day 1 to support and capture a full day of wonderful and inspiring presentations, everything from Alopecia to Hair Transplantation was covered though I think it is fair to say that Dr Vicky Joliffe's 'Cosmetic Management of Alopecia' was the star of the show.

On top of the screencasts, we captured a great highlights video and a whole host of Speaker Interview Videos.

BHNS - Glasgow 2018 - Highlights Video

The British Hair and Nail Society are a new addition to our ever-expanding list of clients and I hope they will want us again next year, the signs are great so far with no hair pulling in evidence.

Jennifer Lawrence has nothing on this...

Jennifer Lawrence and her appearance at the London Premier of Red Sparrow on the 19th of February this year really had the crowds out in Leicester Square the heart of cinema and theatre land. Fantastic, great, wonderful I hear you all say, well me and my team of videographers have a slightly different take on this mediafest.

Why you ask? Well the venue for the internationally renowned Macintosh Administrators and Developers Conference organised by Amsys was this year hosted at the very same venue as the above-mentioned Premier. Hey you say, that great Conference was on the 20th and 21st of February not on Monday the 19th. Correct but setting up all the kit necessary to record in HD the presentations and speakers of 25 world-class sessions on two screens of the Vue Leicester Square doesn't just happen.

Being true professions we turn up at the previously agreed time to find that not only is Leicester Square teaming with more than the normal monday-night crowds but the venue is surrounded by security fencing and its accompanying team of 'hard guys'. I tried all my smooth talking to gain access with my trolleys of kit (which would have taken only a couple of minutes) all to no avail. These 'hard guys' were obviously being paid more than the minimum wage. 

Luckily my videographers were Jennifer Lawrence fans so whilst I had to shoot off to check into our 4-star luxury hotel (2-star hostel) then head to Covent Garden for a meet and greet with organisers and speakers followed by putting the trusty Skoda Rooster in safe parking, they dutifully guarded the kit trolleys until they could gain access over two hours later before they could go to the hostel. Thanks guys you were amazing.

All reviewed and ready to roll

Following a wildly successful joint UK EGG and ISGEDR meeting in Leeds early last month, the HD screencasts have been going through our normal editing and review process prior to publication via the organisers' websites.

That process has now been completed and very shortly all the delegates and members of these two organisations who attended and those who weren't able to attend in person will be able to watch in beautiful HD the near 16 hours of screencasts.

It was such a pleasure supporting and recording this major international ophthalmology meeting. Leeds and Yorkshire did us proud.

It all began on the night of Saturday September the 30th 1944...

Seventy-three years ago tonight my late father, George Cross, then a Flight Sergeant in the Royal Air Force, was a navigator with his pilot Jock in a de Havilland Mosquito on a night intruder mission over northern Germany.

I would like to invite you to discover what happened to the then 21 year-old airman and his friend Jock on that cold dark night over enemy territory.

If you prefer simply to listen then here is audio version (lovely Lancashire accent plus the occasional budgie in the background)

Feel free to share any of these files.

My dad's Prisoner of War ID photo

An Eye On The Future...

Thursday, September 14th 2017 to Saturday, September 16th, 2017 saw Leeds host a joint UK EGG and ISGEDR Meeting with almost 200 international Ophthalmology Clinicians and Researchers absorbing over 30 presentations from worldwide colleagues.

I had the pleasure of recording many of the presentations in the comfortable and well appointed venue, Leeds Beckett University's Rose Bowl, smack in the heart of this wonderful Yorkshire City.

The Keynote Lecture was giving by the legendary Professor Andrew Reed from the University of Manchester who gave a wonderful presentation "Overview of the Human Genome".

Highlights included the 2017 Franceschetti Lecture "Eye Genetics at the Fork in the Road" by Professor David Mackey from Perth in Australia. The 2017 François Lecture had the longest title of all the presentations "From Congenital Stationary Night Blindness to Inherited Retinal Dystrophy: A Journey of 30 Years Discovering the Secrets of the Emerging Human Genome" by the world-famous Professor of Human Genetics at Hamburg University, Andreas Gal who had us rolling in the aisles. The final keynote lecture was from Leiden, the Netherlands Professor of Ophthalmology Dr Annette C Moll "All for one: Retinoblastoma, Pineoblastoma and Second Primary Malignancies"

Personally, of special note, was Avril Daly's presentation from a patient's perspective. A really Red Letter Day of a presentation, not to be missed when it goes online. All these recordings will be available on the UK EGG and ISGEDR websites in the coming weeks.

Live Streaming - The World Is Your Oyster

You have a great event, with fantastic content and speakers but can only host in a venue that seats 100. One of your plenary speakers is to present a piece of research that is part of a project that was part-funded with grants from the EU or the States and you know your worldwide colleagues would love to participate but can't afford the time or the expense to come to the UK.

Of course having AV and Data create HD screencasts of the event which will be online shortly after the event  is a boon. But you want LIVE and you want INTERACTIVITY, so what can you do?

Simple, add a PLUS to your package and not only will you receive world-class AV support and screencasts in full HD but you can have your event securely streamed LIVE to the world. Have that added audience fully participate, fielding questions and queries as if they were sat right there in your venue.

With a host of live streamed events under our belt including London, Miami, New York and Montpellier to audiences stretched around the globe. Events become even more exciting and dynamic. The costs are minimal and can generally be easily covered by adding a virtual attendance track to your planning. 

So, if you have any projects that you think would benefit from our support then drop AV and Data a line, you won't regret it.

Mevo HD Livestreaming Camera 

Happy Birthday - Frank Lloyd Wright

June 8, 2017 - As I am sure you all know, the Architect Frank Lloyd Wright was born a hundred and fifty years prior to our visit to the wonderful Guggenheim Museum on 5th Avenue.

To be honest Jane and I had no idea that it was his 150th birthday. But hey ho we certainly do now. Not only did they have a guy dressed up as this great character but to celebrate they opened the museum especially for the celebrations (it not normally being open on Thursdays) and charged visitors a mere $1.50 entry fee. The exhibits are amazing and the architecture really does work wonderfully with its gentle slope allowing a comfortable amble through the exhibits (so gentle in fact that the Apple Watch didn't know that we had ascended so many 'steps').

A definite 'must see' for anyone heading to New York New York, you will NOT be disappointed.

Never mind 'Where's Wally' can you see Frank Lloyd Wright

Get a feeling of BNOS

BNOS 2017 - Edinburgh - June 21-23

When you commission AV and Data to record your event beyond all the great HD screencasts we always provide a mass of DSLR photos for you to use within your organisation. If you want to go that extra mile you have the option to have us record then compose a short voxpop/promo video.

Above is an example of one such video we have created for our friends at BNOS.

Someone has nicked the Glass Cube

June 6, 2017 - On our first day in New York we start with breakfast in a local deli then took a walk to the Central Park 5th Avenue Apple Store, you know the one whose entrance is a massive glass cube.

Well, someone has nicked it... The store is being refurbished and so once again I have missed seeing this iconic store (last year, I walked down the wrong side of Central Park). Anyway, in we pop to the temporary location adjacent to the site to see if by chance they had some Air Pods in stock. Surprise, surprise, no they don't have any in stock so chose to buy my lovely wife, Jane, an Apple Watch. Whilst Jane was having her new toy fitted I had a look around the store, hoping to see the new Macs announced the day before, no luck there either... Was sorely tempted to buy a drone but once again chickened out.

After that bit of retail therapy off we trot down 5th Avenue to say hello to Donald at Trump Tower, he wasn't in he tweeted, so on to more interesting vistas including Rockefeller Plaza before cutting across to Time Square, more about that and our first adventure on the Subway in my next post.

Top of the Rock

June 7, 2017 - Prior to the business of recording and streaming the amazing New York Dermatopathology Review course for DermpathPro and PathPresenter I am able to have three days discovering the delights of New York.

One of these is the 'Top of the Rock' basically a scary super-fast trip in an elevator to the top of the Rockefeller Building off Fifth Avenue to the amazing viewing platform. Lots of queuing, whoever said that the Brits were the master queuers hasn't been to a tourist hot spot in New York.

Amazing views and a great atmosphere, well worth the effort.