Why Doesn't it WORK??!

[Tronhard]

Or... How many PhD's does it take to make an AV system display properly?

My partner has created a new degree program in Global Studies for the University of Auckland, and to kick things off they had a distinguished academic in this area come from the USA to provide a keynote speech and a lecture for the first week of the program - he's the fellow on the right looking mildly depressed.

U of A has a sophisticated system for AV tech but no documentation, and despite their obvious intelligence and education this brains trust (all with at least one PhD) never did get it working quite as required. Just a quick shot in tricky lighting but I liked the range of expressions from intellectual interest to desperation in the face of a lecture theatre full of enthusiastic students, and pressure to get going.



Having no photography budget it naturally fell to me to do the honours. Trying to light the faces from a distance and yet show the data display in some detail was a bit of a killer. Luckily their expectation matched their budget!

[Geoff F]

Nicely captured real life scene.

[Shadowman]

Very nice.

[lovelife65]

😀 hilarious. Nice work.

[rpcrowe]

I kept looking at the image before I read the description and kept thinking, "Why, this image works fine. What is Trev talking about that it doesn't work?"

[Rent]

They should have gone outside and bribed the first 10year child, and all would be sorted
Roy

[george013]

They're making progress. Arrived at slide 2.

I don't think there's a relation between education or intelligence on one side and being able to get this stuff working on the other side. You can tell your partner she doesn't have to worry about that.

George

[James G]

Hi Trev,

My wife taught young adults with special needs (Autism & Downs) and was truly gifted. She always admitted to being 'useless' with technology, but also championed it's use..
She had to give a presentation to a special needs seminar group and wanted to use her laptop connected to a display system. (much less sophisticated than the one your wife is using now!)
I set it all up for her and got her to go through the start up ... no probs.
On the day, she took a colleague with her to assist. All she had to do was hit the enter key, when cued by Janet... first keystroks she managed to switch back to laptop display..... then panic, no one had a clue what had happened.

Janet always a pragmatist, simply handed out the copies of notes & slides intended for distribution at the end of the presentation and carried on.

It's nice to know that nothing has changed and I do like the capture.. the consternation.... the concentration... but SNAFU!


I'd be inclined to crop the image letterbox style on the presenters... frame it, and present it to them for someone's desk

[Rita]

You have started my day with a giggle. One has to love the facial expressions.

[Donald]

Thankfully I'm retired and don't encounter these scenarios any more.

Good capture.

[Manfred M]

Engineers and computer types should never be allowed to design user interfaces. They love strange and over the top approaches; who else would have thought that hitting the <Ctrl> <Alt> <Del> keys on a keyboard would be the best way to reboot a computer. This is likely the reason that all these intellectuals are stumped by the projection system...

Apple seems to have been the only group to have figured out that an industrial designer, who understands "human needs" were able to move the rest of the world in the right direction; not only the product design but also how the user interface is designed. More companies need to let people like Jony Ive (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Ive)) have the final say in these types of issues.

When it comes to cameras, the German industrial designer, Luigi Colani greatly influenced the modern Canon cameras and the Italian industrial designer Giorgetto Giugiaro's work with Nikon is legendary.

[george013]

Engineers and computer types should never be allowed to design user interfaces. They love strange and over the top approaches; who else would have thought that hitting the <Ctrl> <Alt> <Del> keys on a keyboard would be the best way to reboot a computer. This is likely the reason that all these intellectuals are stumped by the projection system...

Apple seems to have been the only group to have figured out that an industrial designer, who understands "human needs" were able to move the rest of the world in the right direction; not only the product design but also how the user interface is designed. More companies need to let people like Jony Ive (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Ive)) have the final say in these types of issues.

When it comes to cameras, the German industrial designer, Luigi Colani greatly influenced the modern Canon cameras and the Italian industrial designer Giorgetto Giugiaro's work with Nikon is legendary.

At your service!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control-Alt-Delete

George

[Tronhard]

The problem actually was that the guest speaker wanted to use the slide notes feature in PowerPoint to present his lecture, but this is something that the comparatively technically unsophisticated lecturers in NZ don't use, so the system was not configured for that, and no user manual. I know PowerPoint well (Manfred I hate to admit I worked on the design interface for both MS Office and Windows back in the early 90's ), but I could not help them with the local setup - no guide or cheat sheet.

I used to have an enormous respect for people with doctorates, but then I found out that most of them can barely function outside of their specialty (sorry to any doctoral academics reading this - it's probably not true for you!). Also the universities are under such pressure that they don't have time to master the technology that would save them time - it's a vicious circle.

[Manfred M]

I used to have an enormous respect for people with doctorates, but then I found out that most of them can barely function outside of their specialty (sorry to any doctoral academics reading this - it's probably not true for you!). .

As have have friends and relatives with doctorates, I had better tread a bit carefully here too...

I think the most accurate thing I have heard describing someone with a doctorate is that they know a great deal within a very narrow field of knowledge.

[dje]

Excellent grab Trev, nice work. The one thing you haven't told us is whether or not your partner features in the shot and if so is she happy about it?

Dave

[Tronhard]

Excellent grab Trev, nice work. The one thing you haven't told us is whether or not your partner features in the shot and if so is she happy about it?

Dave

I can neither confirm nor deny that she is in the photo ('cos I want to live...) but I can say she is OK with it as it stands.