Farming Smarter now offers people the option to attend events virtually. Covid – 19 forced the decision to go digital when Alberta Health Services lowered the number of people that were aloud to attend event.
Farming Smarter still wanted to give every person an opportunity to attend events and access the information.
Hosting live streamed events can help more people have access, as people who are further away are able to attend the part of the day that is most important to them.
Jamie Puchinger, Farming Smarter Assistant Manager, and Morton Molyneux, K2 Communications, took technology out to the field to live steam Learning Adventures.
The transition to live streaming took quite a bit of work. Molyneux talked about the struggle they faced even acquiring the equipment to be able live stream.
“For a while we ended up renting the actual hardware to stream the video. We bought a switcher, but we were renting the actual hardware we use, “ said Molyneux.
He also talked about how the technology can be very unpredictable, especially the rented gear. They would try to book it a day ahead just to ensure that it would work in the field.
Live streaming events also gives the audience the opportunity ask questions live and interact with each other. Jamie Puchinger works the laptop to ensure that everyone gets a chance to interact.
Puchinger talked about the obstacles they had to overcome to be able to have smooth and constant productions in the field.
“Technology doesn’t always work when you need it. We could set up a test in the field and video, audio, everything would be good. We would go to an event, set everything up the exact same way and the audio would glitch or the video feed wasn’t seamless,” said Puchinger.
Live streamed Farming Smarter events are here to stay. There are lots of reasons people might want to take advantage of digital events. For Farming Smarter, sharing its knowledge gained through research and applied research will always be a priority. This is another tool to bring farmers what they need and it will only get better from here.
