When things just don't work out....

For my #Innovationfika session on September 30th I had planned to meet the Klimato team at the Swedish Film Institute for a climate labeled lunch and a live broadcast.

We have a nice lunch and an even nicer catch-up, and then set up all the equipment as planned. We go live on time 2.30pm. Yay!

5 minutes into the broadcast we see comments of "No sound dude" and "we can't hear a thing". ??????

Check cables, check microphones, nothing is working! Quick decision, use the computer's camera, yes! That worked for 1 full minute before the computer died, no battery! (W-T-H?)

Sweating now... Another quick decision, use the phone only. Connect my phone, set up and go live again. Seems to work. Phew. We wrap up and close down.

Get home. Check material. WHAT?? The recording SUCKS!! The footage is terrible.

So I have 15 minutes of video with no audio, then another 15 minutes of horrible video with ok audio. What to do? cut and paste?

Call the team, could they consider doing another take?

Henrik Waardahl and Christoffer Connée answer in unison "Heck yeah!!" ??????

Great sports both of them.

So the week after we meet again, same place, same time. For tech I have tested the same setup at the office just 15 minutes before, everything works perfectly. This time we start 15 min before, get everything connected. NOTHING works. Panic. Again. ??????

Try every alternative setup, everything still sucks, even my phone refuses to work (!!). Restart phone, nothing!

We end up using Henrik's old iPhone that drags and lags, but we get a picture, and we use my backup's backup microphones, wired cheap things of lower quality but haven't failed yet.

Two minutes into the broadcast Henrik's phone starts flashing "low battery" and threatens to close down (Oh for chrissakes give me a BREAK!) leading to Henrik trying to plug in the phone at the same time as I am talking to Christoffer and trying not to lose focus.

However the charger cable is way to short, so he has to carefully move the tripod mounted camera closer to the outlet and finally gets the phone plugged in.

Anyway, we manage to finish the interview and even get the restaurant chef to say a few words, and we call it a day. I get home, check the footage and it is.... passable. Maybe I'll give the guys a call and we'll do it again one day. Third time's a charm, right? ??

Stay tuned do for the third and by then PERFECT recording of me and Klimato, until then make do with what we got the second time.

Oh, and make sure to follow me here on LinkedIn, every Wednesday at 14.30 / 2.30pm UTC+2 I will be broadcasting a cool startup, person or idea.

Epilogue: Why didn't it work? well both times I was making jokes about us standing in some kind of Bermuda Triangle of un-tech, and it turns out I was right! In that corner, facing a very special building, all tech goes haywire. Next time we'll make sure to choose the opposite corner of the restaurant ??