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arethereanyoriginalusernames · 4 years

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Let's talk about Helix waltz characters

So in my quest to lowkey indoctrinate my viewers into Helix Waltz, I've decided to make a series of posts discussing it. I'll be talking more about the characters, as one of the first selling points of any story can be the characters. I will be discussing characters in the order of which I complete all of the character's favor quests. Also, keep in mind that this is an opinion piece. Do not take my word as the end all be all. Thank you.

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Link to wiki page

So today, we will be discussing Gocheau from Helix Waltz. To give you an idea of how this will be structured, I will give a brief explanation of the character (the wiki page is available for more information), then giving my thoughts on the character.

Warning. There will be spoilers for Gocheau's favor quests and the main story's first season

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Gocheau (whose name, I assume by going off my Canadian knowledge of French pronunciation, I believe is pronounced "Go-ch'oh") is a demon mercenary in Finsel's Golden Mercenary Corps. He's rather infamous for pushing his nihilistic views onto everyone, and making every situation miserable by pointing out the negativities. This has gotten to the point where people have attempted to kill him out of frustration and annoyance. He spends most of his time training, and he apparently has a habit of unintentionally scaring small children.

Gocheau is especially fixated on the topic of death. He brings it into almost every conversation he has, and he speaks of it in a fancy, philosophical way. Basically, he finds a bunch of fancy ways to say "lol, we all gonna die, wtf is the point of being happy, having fun, or doing anything?" While him being of this belief is all well and good, not only does the way he phrase his beliefs come off as uncomfortable to most, the points where he brings up death can catch people completely off guard. During his favour quests, however, it's revealed that Gocheau isn't as accepting of death as he seems. On the contrary, he fears death, but he recognizes that, especially with his job, he could die at any point. After returning from a battle with some nasty flesh wounds, he confesses to Magda that him bringing up death so often is him attempting to overcome his fear. A strategy that doesn't seem to work as well as he'd like. A lot of Gocheau's character gets more implied here, but conversations with him expand on why his fear affects him so badly. It becomes clear that Gocheau has almost none existant social skills, has a lack of self confidence, and believes that nobody will mourn or remember him when he's gone. The fact that, no matter what, death will come to all, makes him unable to enjoy anything since life's outcome is all the same.

This is where the main character, Magda, comes into the picture. While Magda also finds Gocheau irritating at times, she does try to see things from his perspective. It's through understanding Gocheau that Magda is able to encourage him to appreciate life, and find meaning in living. What seems to help Gocheau the most is Magda's promise that, in the event of his death, she will mourn and remember him. It becomes clear that Gocheau does have a crush on Magda, and he has decided that she is his reason to live. Granted, he doesn't go about expressing this in the most normal way. In the main story, he becomes worried about Magda dying before him, thus he basically stalks her. He understandably is not rewarded for this. Hey, at least Magda found his concern for her sweet, even if she wanted to slap him afterwards (And I Headcanon that she eventually did). Gocheau has offered to be her bodyguard, no pay necessary. He does still seem to have a talent for appearing out of nowhere, even when he's not following Magda. I doubt he'd ever ask her out, as he views love as "pointless "(like most things).

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Ok, so I will admit that I was not expecting this character to be taken as seriously as he was. I figured that Gocheau would be more of a joke character than anything else. In my opinion, I find this character's story to be surprisingly compelling and interesting. I also enjoy how Gocheau works off of other characters such as Shatina, Carlos and Magda. With Carlos and Magda, they act as the sane outsiders to his weirdness, and Shatina's more chaotic energy compliments Gocheau's more depressive energy. I also like how expressive his face sets are. Unlike with characters like Foggy, Juven, and Shatina (where the changes are slight) , the expressions are more exaggerated and show more range. Finally, I like Gocheau's dialogue. While it can be more serious when needed, him philosophical rambling mixed with his outlook on life results in a lot of funny lines, many becoming funnier with the face sets. The "I killed a leaf" is a good example

I will say that, while I like his design, I like it because it looks like a dumpster fire. First, what is that sword? Who told him to put two pieces of grass in his hair as elastics, and to do it in such a way that I don't even know wtf he's doing. Idk what them random red rhinestones are doing, and I want to know what exactly those thigh rings are supposed to protect. Also, who gave him the dalmatian fur? Why?

And oh god, don't get me started on his design for the Marine Fantasy Event! First of all, he looks like a completely different person. Tell me he doesn't. Not only that, but comparing him to other characters in that event, he looks like that one kid who didn't get the assignment!

Anyway, that's all for now. I haven't started season 2, so if anything wants to update this any info from there, feel free!

I hope you enjoy! Rebecca Werchy is up next!

I apologize for wasting your time

- Spooky S Skeletons

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marriagebase · 6 years

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20 Lessons David DuChemin Taught Me About Travel Photography

I am a full time travel photographer, for all intents and purposes. For the last five years, I have been spending half of the year out of my home in the United States, traveling across the oceans to document the adventures to be had in other countries and documenting the beauty of other cultures. The majority of this work is published right here on Resource Travel. But I also lead workshops for The Giving Lens, so I like to THINK I know what I am talking about when it comes to travel photography, at least that’s what some of my workshop team members have told me. But after the last couple of days, I am starting to question that.

Why? Well there is a man named David DuChemin. He is a Canadian, so you know he is friendly. But in addition to being friendly, he is also one of the biggest influences in my photography career. Now, Mr. DuChemin doesn’t know this yet, but maybe if he reads this he will. It all started when I read his book ‘How to Feed a Starving Artist’. At the time, I was, in fact, a starving artist. Ok, well the slight beer belly I carried proved that I was NOT in fact starving, but I sure as hell didn’t know the first thing about how to get my photography business off of the ground. At the time, the book was as valuable to me as Bitcoin. It taught me about some important lessons that I put to use as I actually began to make photography not only my passion, but also my career. Fast forward a couple of years, and I felt myself falling into a creative slump. I was running in circles, not being able to harness my energy and creativity towards an end goal. That’s when DuChemin published ‘A Beautiful Anarchy.’

One Amazon reviewer called it the ‘Bible of Creativity,’ and that is 1000% accurate. It is a book I have read numerous times over, and, now that I am thinking about it, must read again.

Anyway, back to what David DuChemin has to do with me questioning what I know about travel photography. This week, he launched his online mentorclass ‘The Traveling Lens’ on his Craft & Vision website. There are few people who can force me to sit down at a computer and watch videos and then read in depth lessons about what I just watched in order to try to become better at something, but David DuChemin is one of them. So I brewed up a fresh batch of coffee and put the Whisky on ice and went through the course. And, it changed me. After all of these years, it is still amazing to me that I can still learn so much. I wasn’t doing anything wrong before, per say, but this course opened my eyes as to what I can do BETTER. Once again, David DuChemin, from hundreds of miles away having never met me, had somehow reigned in my wandering creative mind and forced me to look at the bigger picture, while at the same time, forcing me to take a closer look.

I am excited to share with you just a small sample of important lessons from this course that I either learned for the first time or re-learned with new eyes and ears. But this is just a small sample, and I am no David DuChemin. So if you have ever wanted to improve your visual storytelling, even if not ‘traveling’, I know this course will be valuable to you, so sign up today and improve your storytelling with me. Oh, and yeah, don’t put it off. Enrollment is only open for a week. Need even more incentive? That friendly Canadian is giving away a new camera and lens and a plane ticket to anywhere in the world to one lucky person who enrolls before September 4th.

So read on, see what I learned, check out some of his beautiful photos from India, where the mentorclass was filmed.

Below are some of my favorite quotes from Duchemin in the Traveling Lens mentorclass. This is just a SMALL sample. I had over 150 of his quotes in my notepad as I wrote this article. If you have ever read Duchemin’s books, you won’t be surprised as you know he is a master of inspirational and ‘ah ha!’ phrases.

It’s not about photographing everything that moves, but rather, what moves you.

This philosophy is a recurring theme in the class. And DuChemin makes sure to drive the point home in many ways. Go slow, develop a plan, (more on that later) and don’t scatter shot. I put this at the top of the list because it can relate to much of what is explained in the class. And is something I am horrible at. Being a ‘reactive’ travel photographer, I rarely go into a trip with a plan or a goal. Sure, it has worked for me. But am I really telling the BEST stories possible? Definitely not. I always had a feeling I wasn’t, but after taking this class, I am sure I can do better.

The postcards have already been shot, and they’re never the deeper images that reflect your unique experience and perspective on a place. Go determined to find your Varanasi, Paris, or Cairo.

As DuChemin also explains, there is nothing wrong with the postcard shots. If that is all that you aim to do on a trip, then go for it . But this is a class that is catered to those who want to take their travel story telling to a higher level. And the stories aren’t in the postcards in the gift shops. Another quote he said that relates to this point: ‘The needs of the tourist (one who tours) are different from the needs of the photographer.’ You need to determine which one you want to be, and approach your travels in that way. It’s not easy (or as enjoyable) to be both.

Don’t get so hung up on preparation that you never get on the plane.

Preach on Sir DuChemin! I am not a planner. As stated above, I am reactive. I get off the plane, and I react. All too often, I talk with photographers who invest so much time in the planning, only to have a couple things happen when they hit the ground. Nothing goes as planned, and the reality isn’t what their expectations were. Instead of rolling with the punches, they spend too much time trying to get back on track, and before you know it, the trip is over.

Most people plan to see way too much and in the end they never really see it.

I learned this lesson the hard way. The one and only time I went to Europe was in 2009. A couple of friends and myself decided to see six countries in just under three weeks. And one of those countries was Ireland, where we planned a road trip around around the Ring of Kerry in addition to our time in Cork and Dublin. As you can imagine, we saw a lot in every country. Guess how much I remember? None of it. Why? Because we didn’t give ourselves the time needed to become engrained in the locations, the culture, the history. We literally ‘followed the plaques,’ took our snapshots, and moved on to the next country via airplane, which was another nightmare in itself. These days, like DuChemin, I get much more enjoyment (and much better photos) when I plant my flag.

Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India

Your First job as a photographer is to SEE, and not necessarily with your eyes.

This may be the most obvious quote in the bunch, yet, I bet no one ‘thought’ about it before hearing it. Photography is so much more than seeing the scene. You have to read the scene. Feel the vibes. Live in the moments. All of these aspects, and many more that DuChemin covers, help you ‘see’ better.

Courage is one of the most important skills of a travel photographer.

That’s right. Not composition. Not the ability to find and capture the right light. But courage. You have that perfect light…that amazing scene in front of you. But it’s missing something…or someone. What if you had an incredible face in the frame. Someone whose story you can tell through the portraits you take in these perfect conditions. Well, guess what. You aren’t going to find those interesting people who hold those enthralling stories without having the courage to put yourself out of your comfort zone and get to know the locals you might otherwise walk by as you angle your head down to the ground.

How to approach the locals, how to keep them engaged, and most importantly, how to earn their respect, is all covered in depth in the mentorclass, and DeChemin nails it perfectly.

Establish some relationships and from those, you’ll create new opportunities that no passing tourist will ever have.

Once you have found that courage, learning how to connect with the people is an important part of the lessons, and for good reason. EVERY travel experience that I look back on with amazing memories stemmed from relationships that were established. Some of them have taken years and multiple trips to cultivate, while others happened over minutes in passing. But those connections would lead to amazing experiences that I can promise, very few other tourists ever had in those locations. DuChemin says it best: ‘Respect opens doors. Disrespect closes them and often locks them.’

Your attention is a resource, like money and time. It’s not infinite. Did you really come all this way to spend time on your iPhone, answer the same emails you do at home, or to check in on Facebook or Instagram to see what others are doing rather than having an adventure of your own?

This really needs no explanation. Read it again. And again. And again.

The curious always win.

Have you heard of Humans of New York? I am assuming you have, because he is amazing. Why is he so amazing? He isn’t the most technically perfect photographer of all time. What he IS amazing at is his story telling. And how did he get the skills to be able to get some of the most sensitive and private information locked away in his subjects mind? By genuinely being curious about people’s stories. He didn’t fake it. In his early days, I imagine his curiosity came off in such a soft approach that his subjects felt comfortable with him. Over the years, he has continuously refined his skills, but there is one thing that hasn’t changed over the years. His genuine curiosity about the Humans of New York. And that is what makes him an amazing story teller.

Great travel portraits come from respect, curiosity, and courage.

DuChemin often talks about the ‘defensive’ posture of subjects that he sees in a lot of travel portraits from around the world. That is for good reason. Most photographers simply walk up to an interesting looking subject, ask to take their photo (some don’t even bother with this step) and then walk away. There is no comfort, no respect, and no real person in the resulting photo. It is simply a statue. Why? Because the photographer lacked one of the quoted traits (or even all three). I can fully attest to this in all of my travels. My most coveted portraits came from the subjects that I spent time with. The ones I got to know. The ones that respected me for not treating them like a painting in a museum.

Learning how DuChemin achieves all three of these traits when he is taking portraits was one of my favorite and informative sections of the mentorclass. Even though I felt like I knew about this before, seeing it through his eyes inspired me and got me excited for my upcoming trips to Morocco and Jordan. Not just for the photos, but for the experiences of getting to know the people that will wind up in my viewfinder.

Get used to the awkward silence; there’s nothing wrong with it.

So you nail the courage to talk to a future subject, your curiosity makes them comfortable to open up to you, and you feel that they are respecting you for it. Don’t let that relationship crumble with your reaction to the impending awkward silence. It is bound to happen, especially if you do not speak the same language. A smile and a laugh are often just as loud as your words.

Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India

Showing too much dilutes the power of a photograph. If everything in the image pulls at my eye—my attention—with the same amount of power, my eye won’t know where to go, and you’ll dilute the power of the thing that could otherwise be most important, the subject that otherwise would give the image its strongest impact.

This came from another of my favorite parts of the course where DuChemin explains how to isolate your subjects. I never really thought about all of the different ways you can isolate the subject of a photograph. But there is a couple really creative ways that he explains perfectly. This is something I never really ‘practiced’ before, but it will be at the forefront of my mind on my future travels.

Leaving Mystery is interesting and powerful.

So you have learned how to isolate your subjects. But as DuChemin explains, ‘If I know the whole story the second I see the photo, my attention is gone.’ He goes on to explain how to leave a little mystery in your photos. Just enough to keep those viewers eyes glued to the screen and engaged.

Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India

Cliche is in how you do it, not in what you do.

Stop the train! David Duchemin just laid down the hammer! This is so spot on. We photographers hear that bad word, ‘cliche’, all the time. If George Carlin was a photographer, there would be 8 dirty words you can’t say, not 7. But as DuChemin goes on to explain, there is nothing cliche about a location or a look. But if you don’t get original, if you don’t think outside the box, if you don’t FEEL the scene and let that translate to your photographs, you will just come out with another cliche photograph.

Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India

Ami Vitale admitted, not entirely jokingly, that she didn’t really know what the rule of thirds was. Her point was that you have to shoot with your heart and that the story was way more important than following the so-called rules.

If you follow National Geographic’s Ami Vitale, this quote will blow your mind. But then, you really think about her photos, and it’s obvious that everything she captures really comes from the heart. And that’s why it resonates so strongly with us the viewers.

Make photographs that are about something rather than merely of something.

No words needed. This quote perfectly sums up the overview of the lessons DuChemin teaches us in this mentorclass.

The single greatest challenge I face as I travel is seeing the place. That is why I take visual inventories.

I never knew what a visual inventory was, and maybe it is a concept invented by Duchemin. In essence, what Duchemin drives home is that you are NOT going to photograph it all, so you need to begin taking a visual inventory as soon as you get off of the plane. You need to take note (physically, in a journal if possible) elements of the locations that draw in your imagination. This will help you properly channel your focus, instead of just aimlessly walking the streets ‘looking’ for something to photograph. The class has a much more in depth explanation and lesson planned molded around this concept that I can’t properly due justice, but I do know this is an insanely valuable lesson that I will be utilizing the second I get off of the plane in Morocco and Jordan this fall.

Sketch. Evaluate. Keep trying. The images that don’t work (yet) are not crap; they’re necessary steps to get to the good stuff. They are sketch images.

“One and Done is a myth.” Something I never thought about. Sure, I have gotten lucky with a photograph here and there with one take, but the majority of images I take have gone through a ‘trial and error’ system of a couple of ‘test’ photos taken before. But I didn’t really think through that process. I didn’t really realize WHAT I was looking for in my test photographs, but DuChemin explains his process of ‘sketch images’ in great detail. Before, I would think of these as failed images. But they are far from it. They are my sketch images, that are necessary in order to properly capture the final, refined piece of art.

Themes and constraints are critical to forcing you to learn how to focus and take deeper, more meaningful story telling images.

This is something I am terrible at. DuChemin says ‘Pray and Spray’ no fewer than 20 times in the course, and there is a reason. He is trying to teach you to tell a story with your images, and good stories don’t come from the ‘Pray and Spray’ approach. Go grab a National Geographic and read any of the articles and ask yourself “Did that photographer ‘Pray and Spray?'” I can guarantee the answer is no. They followed the established theme. Obviously the overview is given to them when the assignment is given, but in this part of the course, DuChemin expertly teaches you how to be your own creative director AND how to convey that creative direction into a story, based on the theme that you have narrowed your work on site down to. How can you become even more focused on that theme? By setting up constraints. As DuChemin says, having too many choices is not a good thing. Oh, you have 4 different lenses to take that portrait with? Well while you shuffle through your camera bag looking through your options, the moment with your subject has passed. They are no longer loose and in the moment. This wouldn’t have happened if you set a constraint to only shoot this theme on one specific lens. The themes and constraints portions of the class were exemplary. They have made me rethink years of my approach to travel story telling. And I couldn’t be more excited to start implementing his lessons about themes and constraints in my future trips.

A story told well can stop the frenetic Instagram scrolling and engage and that’s one of the reasons we use storytelling.

This is an issue I have long wrestled with myself about. I WANT to be a visual storyteller. And in a sense, I am through the original stories I tell on Resource Travel. But Instagram makes that same storytelling difficult. Not impossible. But difficult. So all to often, I am in a thinking about two different photos when I am traveling. What will work for Instagram, and what will work for the story. While my mind is trying to decipher how to accomplish both, I am losing the important connections and moments in unfolding in front of me.

So what do I do? Well, to be honest, I have to stop giving a damn about what people on Instagram want to see. I should be posting what I want to see. The stories I want to tell. The amazing people I want to introduce to the world. And I shouldn’t care about how many people like it, or if I lose followers as a result of my storytelling. If that story resonates deeply with just one person who I make stop in their tracks and dive deeper into the experience, it is worth more than the 500 likes achieved from the frenetic scroll that is Instagram.

And thanks to this incredible mentorclass from David DuChemin, I now have the courage and the knowledge to start telling the real travel stories that have meaning, emotion, and an everlasting effect on not just my viewers, but also on me. Thank you once again for lighting the path on my never-ending photography journey.

The post 20 Lessons David DuChemin Taught Me About Travel Photography appeared first on Resource.

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justanotherprowrestlingblog · 6 years

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Impact Wrestling Redemption Review

Sunday 22 April, from the soundstage 19 in the Universal studios, Orlando,FL

Aerostar vs Drago:[***]

Fun little opener to start the show and to hype the crowd. Both guys went for a good old classic lucha style match with lots of high flying moves but the finish was kinda sloppy as Aerostar slipped off the top rope while doing a springboard move and also the flying codebreaker seemed a bit sloppy too. Still a really solid opener even tho the finish was a little ruined. Booking and result wise you can't say much as i don't think they won't be much on Impact and won't have any consequences over LU season 4 since they already taped it. Hopefully Impact keeps the partnership with AAA because it would help both Impact and LU

Impact Tag Team Championship: LAX vs Eli Drake&Scott Steiner:[**1/2]

So as this match was announced on Impact i was like: “omg it's gonna be a gigantic clusterfuck” and it actually didn't happened. It was a slow match but at the same time i felt the booking was spot on since the moment when they announced that Konnan got taken out (he is out after an hip replacement surgery) and this got Santana going mad: then steiner and drake keep teasing Santana and the work was seen on the finish: LAX could have gone for the streetsweeper but Santana went for the dive on steiner, mistake by Ortiz that got Drake hit the gravy train and won the gold. Now i'm curious to see if their title reign will be a short one and also to see how this LAX situation is gonna develop as it could be an interesting storyline. Steiner hitting the frankensteiner got me mark out.

Trevor Lee vs Dezmond Xavier vs Taiji Ishimori vs El Hijo de Fantasma vs DJZ vs Brian Cage:[***1/4]

The match was under lucha rules so only two guys in the ring, you had to tag yourself in or wait until one of the legal man went outside the ring so you could become legal. The match was really really fun and they keept a good pace and fast action in and outside the ring, some spot were a little sloppy but it's ok when you risk so much like those guys did. Lots of cool spots like the collision curse on Cage, the tornado DDT from the inside to the outside from DJZ. It was really great and it was what should have been. Cage getting the win was expected and the right booking call. So far, the best match of the night and a really solid first hour for the show.

Kiera Hogan vs Taya Valkyre:[**]

There isn't much to say about this match because it was an ok filler match to give Taya a win after she lost the demon dance with Rosemary and also to give Keira some exposure, but at the same time, something happened in the form of Tessa Blanchard joining the knockouts roster. It is a huge pick up because Impact got a wrestler that can put on a good match with anyone and that can also be a great character and they needed someone in the division with a good amount of charisma and personality and Tessa showed it on the indipendent scene lots of times. Can't wait for her to debut on the ring and to see her facing the likes of Rosemary, Taya and even Su Yung, if she joined the roster.

X Division Championship: Petey Williams vs Matt Sydal: [***1/4]

It wasn't the match you expect from those two but it was a good match because they told a story and it wasn't just a bunch of repetead spots. Both working on the legs to make sure the opponent couldn't perform their best move...williams not getting hit by the shooting star press, Sydal rolling over to the outside after being hit by the canadian destroyer so he couldn't kick out yet from the move...and then he picked up the predicted win with a weird pumphandle craddle. Good ending but personally i would have gone maybe for Sydal getting the win with a roll up and holding petey's tights so they could have their rematch at Slammiversary but i guess they wanted to give Sydal a clean win before the rematch. It also lacked a little bit of drama that could have made the match better.

House of hardcore match: OVE vs Tommy Dreamer, Moose and Eddie Edwards:[***1/2]

It was a good hardcore match where they went all out and did anything to hurt themself, because some spots where nasty and very risky like Moose going trough the ladder or even the two cutters by Jake crist on the chairs and the one on mid air on the table..and then we had the finish i hoped: OVE getting the win and Dreamer being pinned by Callihan...post match Eddie snapped and punished Callihan for what he did to him and then Alisha edwards came to the ring to stop him but she got accidentaly hit by Eddie with the kendo stick. Obviously this feud isn't over because there is gonna be a final chapter between Edwards and Callihan and it will probably be at Slammiversary (or at least it should be at Slammiversary). So far it's the best feud in Impact and it deserves a great ending. I smell another hardcore match and if i could pick one i'd go with a Texas Death Match (James Storm vs Wildcat Chris Harris for those who remember this great match)

Knockouts Championship: Allie vs Su Yung:[***]

Much better than the previous KO match and it was not a stunning match but pretty solid. Loved how they booked allie and how she came to become a real wrestler after being just Maria's assistant and after she was booked to be like a fool, but now she is a different person and wrestler. She faced Su Yung which i hope will be again with Impact because she would bring some more unique stuff to the division: match saw her trying to get an advantage thanks to sutter help but and then Sutter got knocked out by allie and she went to panic switch but got rolled over and the former cherry bomb kept the title..and after the match, sutter got anahilated by Yung. If Su is staying with Impact, i see her having a rematch with allie and then moving on with rosemary, if not then they will already move towards Allie vs Tessa Blanchard at Slammiversary for title

Impact World heavyweight championship: Pentagon Jr vs Fenix vs Austin Aries:[****1/4]

My god what a great main event. Jesus, it was really really great. Easily the best match of the night. It had everything, good storyline, sick spots, the crowd was into the match and then we had a shocker, because i bet nobody thought that Pentagon Jr could really win the title. I mean it wasn't impossible but still he is not with the company and he won the title and now he is LU and Impact champion..and what made the title change even better, it is that it came out completely outta nowhere against a really strong champion and the finish was awesome: gory especial-package piledriver on both, he went to break Aries arm and then he hit the Fear Factor for the win. Now it will be interesting to see how they are moving with the plans for the title and also with Pentagon's character which probably is one of the best in Lucha Underground. Putting the belt over him is also a good move to bring some buzz around the product and also to make the partnership with AAA/LU stronger and better. Wise move from D'amore&Callis and great ending for a very solid PPV...and by the way..thank you Alberto

Overall: on paper it could have been a good PPV and what we saw indeed was even better than what i expected, because even those match i had my doubts went on and delivered, it was a good 3 hours show i liked from the start to the finish and the finish was the best moment of the night and it was truly a little redemption for Impact and their fanbase. Even commentary was good for once Hopefully slammiversary will be as good as redemption [7.5]

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signshoperonline · 7 years

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ISE 2017: Final Thoughts And Observations On The Biggest Pro AV Going

The final numbers suggest the 2017 edition of Integrated Systems Europe was a big success, with record crowds and exhibitors.

Now back at World HQ (aka spare bedroom), and mostly sorted on my sleep cycles, here are some final thoughts about the biggest pro AV show on the planet.

First, I love, love, love Amsterdam, but if it has to be in February, I am OK if it moves to Barcelona or somewhere well south of the Zuiderzee. It was cold, and all those beautiful canals just made it feel colder. And this is from a Canadian who knows cold.

The show has to do something about wayfinding in the Amsterdam RAI, which has 14 or so exhibit halls all joined by a weird, thatched tangle of walkways and escalators, enclosed bridges and tunnels. There IS lots of signage for wayfinding, but I spent way too much time waiting for people to find their way to me, or giving up and telling them to find some sort of a landmark so I could try to come to them. Hours in total wasted, and a couple of meetings never happened.

Next year I hire a guy to guide me around the insane maze of the Amsterdam RAI. I'm good with directions, but this place … #ISE2017 http://pic.twitter.com/IrosQIEni5

— 16:9 (@sixteennine) February 8, 2017

I don’t think ISE has an app, but an indoor navigation app linked to beacons – to give people turn by turn directions – would be a great start (though free WiFi is only available in one long hallway).

In the broad context of the digital signage industry, this is pretty much a must-do show if your company operates in Europe and/or the Middle East. Whether a company shows or just sends people to connect with clients and network, it’s a target-rich, efficient environment.

I didn’t talk to that many vendors about the show’s ROI, but my small sample was all very positive about the leads they generated or connections made from walking and talking.

The show is primarily hived in Hall 8, towards a back corner of the RAI complex. But the major display companies were sprinkled around numerous halls, usually at the front so they could dominate the setting and carve out the floor space they needed. Of those companies, I’d say LG again had the most impressive booth – not only because of the OLEDs and huge video walls, but also because a lot of the content was purpose-designed and very good.

.@LGCommDisplays used great creative and motorized pivot mounts to change up product announced and shown last year. Is well done. #ISE2017 http://pic.twitter.com/JRjny5Ih2s

— 16:9 (@sixteennine) February 8, 2017

I also thought NEC did a nice job, though it was somewhat smaller. Samsung has its own small building at one corner of the complex – and it would be possible to miss them – except it’s Samsung, so people would look. They were minimalist, like last year, but they do a good job (more so than others, arguably) of putting different technologies in context.

Samsung has an interesting wrinkle on using gesture for interactive windows. Sensor focuses on specific "touch" labels on window #ISE2017 http://pic.twitter.com/50qYSp8pIk

— 16:9 (@sixteennine) February 7, 2017

Philips is a much bigger player in Europe than in North America, and I was impressed by what the company is up to with its pro displays and partnerships, and the people I spoke with knew their stuff. In short, they seem to really have their act together.

In one of the halls – 10, maybe – there was a MASSIVE booth for Finlux, a brand completely foreign to me. It’s the display brand of a huge Turkish electronics company called Vestel, which is very active in Europe with both TVs and commercial displays. They make 1 in 5 of the TVs sold in Europe, including ones that have Japanese brand names on them. The company sees signage as a growth market, and had a full range of indoor displays (plus an outdoor unit).

Never heard of @FinluxDirect but they one big -assed, display-filled booth at #ISE2017 http://pic.twitter.com/r247J3D3j2

— 16:9 (@sixteennine) February 7, 2017

Finlux also has System on Chip displays in multiple sizes, adding to the lengthening list of display manufacturers who have introduced smarts inside their screens. I discovered in walking through Toshiba’s booth that it also now has SoC displays, and CMS partners like RED-V.

Have discovered Toshiba also has an embedded SoC smart display and CMS vendor/partners. Runs Linux. #ISE2017 http://pic.twitter.com/EbCnEaRra8

— 16:9 (@sixteennine) February 9, 2017

LG went very big on OLEDs in its booth, but was notably absent there and pretty much anywhere else was transparent OLED. Samsung didn’t have them (like they did last year). Nor did Planar (or I just flat missed them). The only transparent OLEDs I saw were in Panasonic’s booth, and I was told they were Samsung product.

Did you know @panasonic was doing commercial OLEDs? Me neither. Skinny 2 siders & transparent ones. #ISE2017 http://pic.twitter.com/L5E7Vmtt1t

— 16:9 (@sixteennine) February 8, 2017

As expected, direct view LED was everywhere – with scores of vendors of all sizes, locales and pedigrees. I saw pixel pitch as tight as 0.7mm on R&D samples, but with a human hair’s width being about 1mm, I’m not sure what’s gained by getting the gaps microscopically tighter.

#ISE2017 was LED Land. Expect the same at #InfoComm17 http://pic.twitter.com/FjNkK87aKg

— 16:9 (@sixteennine) February 10, 2017

A lot of the big LED displays looked spectacular, but a good chunk of the vendors had stuff that would only get bought based on lower prices and long distance viewing.

One trend I saw was the numbers of Chinese manufacturers selling curtain mesh displays with fairly tight pitches. There were a few at ISE a year ago, but a bunch in2017. In the right set-up, some of them would look pretty good as window displays and room dividers.

I was amazed, again, by the numbers of CMS companies out there. I must have seen at least 40 unfamiliar companies showing in partner booths or on their own. Sweden and Norway seem to have a lopsided number given the populations of those countries, but I also met several from Spain and Italy.

I saw numerous software demos, and must say while they all look pretty and intuitive, as I have written in the past (and told numerous vendors when they asked my opinion), easy, simple and friendly are great attributes, but to stand out from the crowd a vendor needs to have more to say, or a focus. Ideally both.

Stratacache CEO Chris Riegel and I had a long chat for an upcoming podcast, and he says he has a business intelligence team that tracks the market and has a current database of 3,200 CMS companies globally.

3,200???

One positive in that is how at least some of those companies either knew they needed a focus or fell into it. I spoke with companies that were doing well because they were leading with capabilities in areas such as tourism, airport operations or retail ERP system integrations. They weren’t just saying, “We can make digital signage happen. Please use our software for whatever need you can think up.”

I also noted a LOT of companies now have meeting room sign options. My micro-site MeetingRoomSigns.biz has 55+ companies listed, but coming out of this week, that number will swell. There also, now, numerous companies like ProDVX and Philips that have purpose-designed 10-inch signs for that use-case.

Hear the latest @sixteennine #ISE2017 edition podcast about our #workspace technology https://t.co/Ala9w6ExD0 #tech http://pic.twitter.com/toX0GdGFQk

— Condeco UK (@CondecoUK) February 8, 2017

I stuck my head in Digital Signage Summit run by the German firm invidis. It was a full house and the range of speakers was quite good. It was only a half-day event – which means attendees could also get some quality time on the show floor. The event is done in a partnership with ISE. Florian Rotberg of invidis kindly let me use their office space inside the convention as podcast central – and I have roughly 10 interviews banked from last week, which will appear in the coming weeks.

Florian Rotberg kicking off Digital Signage Summit at #ISE2017 http://pic.twitter.com/S4nitXWCc8

— 16:9 (@sixteennine) February 8, 2017

Interviewed companies included STRATACACHE, Navori, BroadSign, ONELAN, Maler DSO, SmartSign, SpinetiX, Quividi and Intel.

I did not pick up a raging head cold like last year, at least not yet. Two long flights and being around 73,000 people makes me feel like a marked man for that, so we’ll see.

All things considered, ISE was, and is, a great investment of time and money (I go entirely on my own nickel). If you are in digital signage, even if you don’t see your company being active in Europe, it’s worth at least one visit to walk the show and get out of whatever bubble you may operate inside.

I’m already researching my AirBnB place for next year. The show is Feb. 6-9 next year – same place, same beautiful city. Hopefully a bit warmer.

from Sixteen:Nine http://ift.tt/2l7sgn3 via SignShopOnline

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