On 23 May 2020, the Elgar Society Yorkshire & North East Branch put on its first ever on-line presentation. The extended period of corona- induced lockdown appeared to have left us with the choice of either doing nothing or keeping up the interest by means of a presentation via a suitable on-line platform, which came in the form of Zoom, perhaps the best known of such devices for transmitting virtual meetings.
There were, of course, important considerations before going ahead. Would the technology hold up? Would the sound quality be satisfactory, not only in terms of the speaker but crucially the music extracts? Would our members feel sufficiently confident with the technology to ‘attend’ the meeting? What were the licencing requirements for transmitting music on-line?
Not least of all, we had to find a speaker who was prepared to engage with the project, and in this we were singularly fortunate in Christopher Wiltshire, and his topic ‘Elgar as Remembered in Radio Interviews by Those who Knew Him’. Christopher had presented the first part of his talk in October 2017 and we were eagerly anticipating the joy of hearing more voices from the past from Chris’s extensive collection of archive recordings, and so an on-line presentation seemed the only way of going ahead at the advertised date.
Two trial runs, during which our speaker heroically maintained his good humour and positive attitude, proved invaluable in uncovering various technical difficulties, such as the presenter’s image and voice regularly freezing, and the music clips being at first inaudible. Part of the difficulty was marrying different platforms: Powerpoint, which brought together archival interviews, visual images, and music clips (many of them from old recordings conducted by Elgar), and Zoom. All this was perfectly possible but required considerable technical guidance. Once again we were fortunate in that Anne-Marie Grafton gave of her expertise and guidance with such generosity, patience and good humour as to make the entire process, whilst not exactly relaxed, far less stressful than it would have otherwise been.
The meeting went ahead with the speaker, subject, and time exactly as advertised, with an ‘attendance’ of 31 members, friends and members of the Executive of the Elgar Society – in other words, pretty much like a regular branch meeting (including tea break half way through and questions at the end), but conducted from a distance. The consensus was that the event was a success, but not without a few technical hitches, which were overcome on the way. Most importantly we experienced a fascinating delivery combining voices, images and music, by a presenter who has assembled an invaluable collection of archive material, much of which throws new light on our knowledge and understanding of a composer who continues to enrich and ennoble our lives.
The most important lessons to be learned from our experience are as follows:
1. Hold at least two trial runs to sort out the inevitable technical challenges; this is most important
2. Ensure you have an expert in the technology to guide you
3. Look carefully into the licencing requirements for transmitting music on-line and any copyright images
4. Make sure that the speaker uses suitable equipment – personal computer, laptop, or whatever, that the signal is adequate, and that the machine is not overloaded with data, for this will slow down the process
5. Send out in advance easy to follow instructions on logging on to Zoom (or whatever platform) to the prospective attendees, and point out that sound quality may be improved by connecting the computer or laptop to speakers or wearing earphones, but this is by no means necessary
6. Consider muting all attendees (except the speaker, of course!), for any sounds, whether a hoover in the background or a couple whispering whilst listening, will come across loud and clear – you can unmute at the end for questions – but seek the wishes of the speaker first.
David Young
Branch Chairman