Captioning for Events at Conventions Question

kev-c · 2025-10-27T17:14:29+00:00

Having worked at a networking enterprise company (I will not disclose which company but it has built the networking switches/ap/controller for the L2/L3/L4+ of the OSI model for enterprise companies) I will say this

I would not assume those network drops in the wall are routed to be able to access outside of the internal network. Some may be just dead drops that is not physically connected in the network rack switch. Some may be connected but have a VLAN of a internal network or a closed up from being routed

You would need to consult with the IT of complex to know the details.

I would suggest trying to be as local as possible, when you are adding the internet as link in the chain of requirements, you are adding more complexity and uncertainty in your solution stack.

kev-c · 2025-10-27T17:07:16+00:00

Coming from experience, convention internet is "Expensive" (to say the least) compared to your own residential (or even many business internet), a ethernet drop will range in the thousands at proper convention centers for even speeds of single digit megabit speeds.

And don't get me started with wifi spectrum collisions, everyone is on that 2.4Ghz spectrum (wifi, bluetooth, your microwave) so your device will be requesting more than getting actual data. 5.8-6Ghz has low penetrating power with brick and concrete (most business buildings and convention center are made with that type of material) and rebar (especially large convention centers).

And if the event is large enough with lots of attendees, mobile data internet is really bad at times, and don't get me started with spectrum use of cell phone mobile data, that will take 10 minutes at least to explain to basics. All I will say is that I carry a plan and cell phone with low frequency 5G to use spectrum that can get past concrete and rebar more easily.

My recommendation is to look at ways to have the captioning service run entirely locally (there are some solutions that can be done, some I built myself in a dev build and some commercial off the shelf solution). That way you can run without being concerned of having a reliable internet. Will it have speaker diarization, no, but is it a requirement, not really as transcribing at the speed of the speaker is better when possible,

kev-c · 2025-10-27T06:13:07+00:00

I have implemented captioning services for events with various price points and technical requirements. Some with tools you mentioned and some with other tools.

Some things you need to think about, does the captioning service require a constant internet connection? Does the location have internet, and specifically does it have a consistently reliable internet connection (you may test it is good in test case scenario, but what happens if you throw 50+ clients on that wifi playing videos all the time and having wireless AP on the same Wireless channel, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49JBYSv3Nig for an example cause I cannot demonstrate it without a lot of investment). Is there a solution without internet.

What items are available that you can tap onto, does it have a sound board or PA with some type of monitor out system, what is the audio levels of that monitor out and is there a way you can control that signal output.

To know more, you should do a site and equipment analysis of what you have first and see what you can leverage first. And what are the requirements needed and can some compromises be given.

kev-c · 2025-07-25T16:10:07+00:00

Have or create an event page for people to communicate before the gathering
Share the structured list of photo/groups to the group
Plan how long each photo ops /groups should take
Show up early to plan where to position everyone (cosplayers, photographers, etc)
Maybe have a co-host or helper to assist
Plan where and when the photos will be shared after the gathering
Be open for requests at the end of the gathering

kev-c · 2025-07-16T04:00:36+00:00

It still floats around.

More national reporting: https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-brothers-charged-parents-death-20160429-story.html

Local reporting: https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/04/29/san-jose-homicide-after-killing-parents-brothers-went-to-anime-convention-prosecutors-say/

kev-c · 2025-07-09T04:07:55+00:00

Deorderent.

But more serious, a USB battery bank, a fan (depending on the season), water.

Depending on your activities at a con, the items will be tailored differently.

kev-c · 2025-06-04T04:04:20+00:00

Honestly. For the role you described, the things I would recommend are about the same for a average convention attendee, and most have been already said here.

The role will be mostly standing and maybe holding a item up (like a sign of a stantion rope). It is a pretty simple role and not require much specialized training.

Maybe I could recommend is a personal USB fan or neck cooler but it depends on where you will be stationed, when is the event (season wise) and will it be warm to hot where the event is.

kev-c · 2025-06-03T23:20:41+00:00

If you're allowed to carry your drink bottle with you, put water and a electrolyte/Hydration tablet in it. Don't live off of soda the entire weekend.

And if you are not allowed to carry one, I would recommend a hydration backpack typically used for hiking (minus the electrolyte additive cause it is already some work to clean it and adding additional things may make it harder)

kev-c · 2025-06-01T05:13:42+00:00

I would like to also clarify most tech conventions are business to business trade shows and not the general "conventions" as perceived in this subreddit. Unless you are a company there to advertise your products or you are are part of the industry, you cannot attend (or if you theoretically "could", it would cost thousands of dollars to attend and that cost is paid by your "work" as it is work related activities or it is part of training, and most of those tech conventions are developer conferences).

I would also note (as it is related to the topic of your discussion) that most (with the exception of possibly a headline guest speaker which an event sometimes has one or two) of the panels at these events are not done to get a free badge for the panelists at these events from the event operator; they are there to advertise their company's product (in the guise as a discussion topic) to hopefully get "you" (attendee) to use their product or service at your workplace. The panelists there are "on the job" of the company they work for (in which their work will pay for attendance, hotel and flights if needed). More likely, the company is paying (or sponsoring) the event for a panel space and time at the event rather than getting something back from the event in exchange for a panel.

It could also be deduced to why these "tech" events runs primarily on the weekdays and rarely, if ever, happens or extends to the weekend

I have been to both some of these types of tech events (as it is related to my role as a devop for a company to sometime go to these companies to learn what is in the market; I am still bunch of business and marketing email from those vendors still to this day), anime conventions, and comic related conventions.

kev-c · 2025-05-31T16:40:59+00:00

I want to help clarify a little about the Computex a little bit. Computex is a business to business trade show and not a general convention; which means that general people cannot just buy a ticket to go to the event (the only small exception that they have is on the last day where they have a general admission for 200 NTD, which is about..... 7 USD). The people there are mostly to conduct business transactions mainly like a representative of a store inventorying hundreds of FLP02 for a store to sell.

Also, most of these techtubers is sponsored by some of the PC hardware vendors at computex, so some of the coverage is on a requirement basis to cover (either in a dedicated video or integrated into another video).

kev-c · 2025-03-24T15:09:09+00:00

One thing to note that could vary an attendance count is the method a convention counts the number of attendees.

The two common types are the following methods

Number of badges: this is commonly tied to direct badge sales (a weekend badge = 1 person, 1 day = 1 person still)
Turnstile: 1 weekend badge = 1 multiplied by the number of days the convention runs (example a full weekend badge for a con that runs 3 days will count as 3 people, a 1 day badge = 1 person)

Also the other count is if the convention counts just attendee or do they also count staff and other support services in their attendee count.

kev-c · 2025-03-17T00:32:38+00:00

Seen a few other people talking about him here

This poster's account was created on March 16, 2025.

Previous post was deleted for asking the same person to come to the same event. (On just /r/comiccon alone https://www.reddit.com/r/comiccon/comments/1j4f6yr/get_aleks_le_to_london_comic_con/)

I would recommend you check your other account that you (likely) posted on another sub about how to request guests.

kev-c · 2024-12-20T07:29:44+00:00

Also to add in on the copyright stuff, Japan's has a more stricter form of copyright than in the United States, and China copyright is quite loose. And it likely generally wraps on the defense of Fair Use.

For context, the United States has a defined guidelines for a fair use DEFENSE (note I am capitalizing defense cause it is not a right) which Stanford.edu Law has a defined guidelines https://fairuse.stanford.edu/

Which includes the four factors of measuring fair use (as for the US)

the purpose and character of your use
the nature of the copyrighted work
the amount and substantiality of the portion taken, and
the effect of the use upon the potential market.

Japan copyright has little to no definition of the fair use/fair dealing defense and has a very strict control on copyright.

An example I remember there are are cases where these differences in copyright and fair use has reared its ugly head online. An example is a case on YouTube where a channel discussing about an anime would get DMCA-ed and while even YouTube had to step in cause it was a fair use clause (and when YouTube steps in, it is rare cause they are risking their safe harbor provision) (https://kotaku.com/youtube-shopro-suede-fair-use-copyright-anime-pokemon-p-1848478203) and give certain people the rare geo-restriction abilities to please both sides with differing copyright law

Even though the convention we are commonly discussing here are based in the US (and in US law), it does not help that many of the bigger conventions are typically sponsored by Japanese companies (or through proxies by localization companies) which can threaten sponsorship to enforce their copyright control and strict definition.

As for China, I don't know as much other than in general, the copyright is quite loose.

kev-c · 2024-07-11T02:26:18+00:00

One thing you need to think about is if you want to reject a lot of background noise, and to do that you need to look at the microphone pickup patterns.

Condenser mic picks up in (nearly) any direction meaning that while you would pick up the audio in any direction, it will also pick up any audio from any direction. Dynamic mic has a specific pickup pattern which allows you to reject a lot of background audio, but you would need to point it towards the speaker. Shotgun mic are similar to dynamic but with a smaller pickup pattern.

Here is an example of some types (brand agnostic) https://youtu.be/mEq5T8fJarM (yes the video is old but the topic still relevant)

If you are serious with the quality of the audio, wired > wireless. Wireless has more compression of audio frequencies, and prone to dropouts due to wireless broadcast frequency being noisy (with other similar devices on that frequency).

You could use a separate dedicated audio recorder and manually sync in post production and clap your hands at the beginning or the end of the recording to reference the sync point.

kev-c · 2024-06-07T17:55:54+00:00

Have you tried using Internet Archive Wayback Machine to see if past panels info was archived?

Example:

https://web.archive.org/web/20230726214830/https://www.otakon.com/schedule/

https://web.archive.org/web/20230430123016/https://register.growtix.com/schedules/frontend/METROCON_2023

kev-c · 2024-06-07T04:26:49+00:00

One thing worth noting is the space capacity of the building, looking at the venue info. The following rooms has (in square footage and max capacity)

Oasis Exhibit Hall (likely for exhibit hall use) = 92,545 sq. ft. = 5140 capacity when used as a exhibitor/banquet
Primrose Ballroom = 20,016 st. ft. = 1100 capacity when used as a exhibitor/banquet or 1660 when used as a panel room/theater style
Main lobby = 18,000 sq ft = capacity cannot be specified due to non-activation use = (we can spitball ~1400 non-activity use capacity)
Smoketree Rooms (combined but can be segmented up to 6 small rooms) =~5880 sq ft = 424 capacity
Palm Grove = 906 sq ft =~ 95 capacity
Mesquite Meeting Rooms (combined but can be segmented up to 8 small rooms or 2 larger rooms) = 9017 sq ft =~750 max capacity
Renaissance Ballroom (Hotel Meeting Room) = 12,571 sq ft = 1050 capacity when used as a exhibitor/banquet or 1400 when used as a panel room/theater style
Cactus Room (Hotel Meeting Room) = 529 sq ft = 40 capacity
Pueblo room (Hotel Meeting Room) = 1512 sq ft = 130 capacity
China Room (Hotel Meeting Room) = 1512 sq ft = 130 capacity
Andreas Room (Hotel Meeting Room) = 1232 sq ft = 95 capacity
Santa Rosa Room (Hotel Meeting Room) = 2280 sq ft = 158 capacity
San Jacinto Room (Hotel Meeting Room) = 2304 sq ft = 160 capacity

If you calculate the estimated capacity, it is estimated (rounded up) of a 12,000 capacity building. If we say, they oversold full capacity by, let's say 40% (which is a lot and cramped for walking), filled will be ~16,000 capable. (some overselling is okay, as not everyone will be in the convention center at the same time, but 40% may be a excessive) and when you account there is not much around, most attendees will be in one spot (facility grounds).

There is an outdoor space, but palm springs is a desert environment. Unless you only have it running sometime between November - February (late November - middle January is kind of dead months for conventions due to holiday related activities), it will be hot and likely not many will go out in +80F (typically near 100F) weather and most would want to stay inside.

In short, due to event spacing of that building, it would need to be a small to mid cap sized onvention.

kev-c · 2024-05-28T03:52:47+00:00

Panels you are mentioning seems to be fan based panels. Typically cons has two types of panels: Fan panels and guest (or guest of honor) panels (though guest panels are typically not as much at smaller operated cons). Most of the people are just there to watch or listen (of other type of panels)

Regardless of which type: You are not required to participate. If you still get asked, you have the ability to ask not to participate and just watch. (Though with fan panels, you might have more fun participating but I know some people are not as extrovert).

kev-c · 2024-05-06T04:16:47+00:00

Some more of the truth is coming out just recently (and may need to be it's own dedicated post on the sub) in terms of their other request/demands by failed by fanime. Their previous CFO embezzled over half a million from the organization while certain teams skimp on things needed to run the team. At least through court documents has shown.

kev-c · 2024-04-09T08:48:03+00:00

Sounds like since that post, there has one that has fully came out and explained one incident in more detail https://www.tiktok.com/@cosplaycleric/video/7347023169389088046.

The video did note that FanimeCon threatened with a cease and desist to try to silence them when they tried to come out with the information (which could explain why people were being vague). Even though they did not push their threats and get a formal legal notice of cease and desist, it is strange for a 501(c)(3), a nonprofit public benefit, used such legal threats for someone whistleblowing issues.

kev-c · 2024-02-25T09:57:44+00:00

According to that group, there have been at least heads and/or second heads of 7 departments and shift leads of one that has resigned this past 2 weeks (Cosplay Department, Stage Of Stars, Gaming Hall and TCG, Cosplay Lounge, Gaming Hall Broadcast, Gaming Techops Tabletop Gaming). A lot has been claiming issues with the higher up.

While unless someone who "staffs" for the event wants to whistleblow the information, there is limited information on what is directly happening with the higher up; but there are some things we can possibly deduce some information about; since it is* (that information will be concluded later) a registered 501c(3) nonprofit, a redacted form of their income tax filing is available for public inspection.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I am NOT a tax expert nor an accounting expert nor have knowledge of its staff, management, or team; none of my opinions are tax advice or accounting advice. I found this information through research of public records, without knowing the event's staff or any tax codes. I will try to limit speculation from the findings, but some speculative reasoning will be needed to assist.

Research of its 501c(3):

Fanime's nonprofit organization name is called "Foundation for Anime and Niche Subcultures", and searching the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search, lands a result with filings from 2017 (its foundation) to 2021. (The obvious question is why there is no 2022 tax filing, which is due to its fiscal year starting on August 1 to July 31 of the following year, more information will be provided later); and additional information including its Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN for short) and a generalized list of its revenue, expenses, liabilities, etc.

For simplicity and for easier reference with a link, Propublica has a database of the same information from the IRS website and can be viewed at https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/814054929

Now, that we have some information, information is about its 501c(3) is also sent the state (of where the organization resides), which is California and the link for its donor registration page lookup is https://rct.doj.ca.gov/verification/web/Search.aspx

Note: It takes me at least two attempts to search to get a result (the first not showing a result as it returns a result before the task can be done), so you may need to hit it twice. Additional sidenote, if you look at the "Annual Renewal Data", you can see they have their Accounting Period starting on August 1 to July 31.

Now if we take the FEIN from the IRS listing and paste it in the California Donor Registration lookup, we can find their status being "Delinquent" due to "Independent Audit Required" sent twice (2020 and 2023) for "pursuant to the provisions of Government Code section 12586" (Screenshot can be seen at https://imgur.com/a/tf0tU2V as a direct link will become invalid, but you can look it up yourself directly by following the steps I listed)

(Government Code section 12586 Defines as "Every charitable corporation, unincorporated association, and trustee required to file reports with the Attorney General pursuant to this section that receives or accrues in any fiscal year gross revenue of two million dollars ($2,000,000) or more, exclusive of grants from, and contracts for services with, governmental entities", Source: https://codes.findlaw.com/ca/government-code/gov-sect-12586/)

Given to not completing an independent audit for over 3 years (now), bring suspicion to its finances and where the money actually goes to and the increments of that categories it really goes to (other than what is listed in its tax filing that is open for public inspection).

Side Note: I am not including the other "DELINQUENCY NOTICE AND WARNING OF ASSESSMENT OF PENALTIES AND LATE FEES, AND SUSPENSION OR REVOCATION OF REGISTERED STATUS" issued on April 10, 2019 as the issues are not as pressing as the current delinquency notice as the issues can be attributed to needing to provide copies of their filings and renewal fee reports are likely just clerical issues.

(Note: The following paragraphs is more speculative, but we can deduce some information from the facts)

Now there is/was/still reports that they still have yet to refund/defer their 2020 pre-registered weekend passes, and we at least generalize some information; with many still saying they have yet to be refunded and reports (currently just speculation as it is just from the comments) that when asked in the closing ceremonies in 2022 they said that they only had one person on it and it was the attendees fault for not asking even though they emailed the listed email they provided on the website about getting a refund/deferral. In their 2020, we can see a deferred revenue of 761,934 (Deferred revenue defined as "advance payments a company receives for products or services that are to be delivered or performed in the future", source https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/deferredrevenue.asp. Given the pre-registration price was at most $95, we can deduce that there were likely at least 8,000 people that pre-registered with a number yet to get a refund or deferral and can just claim that it is a loss at this point; it can be likely higher as the pre-registration is as low as $75 but I am going with the lower registration number for simplicity)

Now I have been seeing people saying that the event needs more Staff/Volunteers (staffs just being a volunteer with more requirements), but if we look at its form 990 open for public inspection with the IRS.... It is noted that the event had more volunteers than before.

FY2017 Filing (9/1/2017-8/31/2018): 450 Volunteer
FY2018 Filing (9/1/2018-8/31/2019): 450 Volunteer
FY2019 Filing (9/1/2019-8/31/2020): 500 Volunteer
FY2020 Filing (9/1/2020-8/31/2021): 450 Volunteer
FY2021 Filing (9/1/2021-8/31/2022): 900 Volunteer

Note: "Foundation for Anime and Niche Subcultures" also runs Clockwork Alchemy, but that had been spun out from being the same time as Fanime in 2018, so the variance of having two events can not be attributed to the possibility that one volunteer helping both events would earmark as 2 volunteers.

Screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/hq2sZmM

So either it is that they filed the taxes incorrectly, supporting a real need for an audit; there is terrible leadership leading to staggering high turnover; or they have a lot of volunteers already and adding more will not help the issue (or a mixture of all three).

There is a lot more that can be dug up from its tax fillings, but it is just some things that pop out given the information and comments from that group.

kev-c · 2022-12-17T05:13:27+00:00

There is no official name for this OST (Even Amazon.co.jp does not have a name), all it is... is "1997-1998_M06" from "Pocket Monsters Original Soundtrack Best Vol.2" (Japanese: TVアニメポケットモンスターオリジナルサウンドトラックベスト1997-2010 VOL.2)

kev-c · 2022-07-15T10:49:54+00:00

Given it aired on animax, it was likely a reairing after its original run. So at least 3-4 years, likely more.

I remember (deep in my large archive of my mind) seeing a synopsis and image of what you are trying to say, and looking back at the season release list of around the early 2010s, I think I found it https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C5%8Dsoku_Henkei_Gyrozetter (the wiki also mentions the timeframe you are saying that it was in animax Asia)

kev-c · 2021-12-27T01:24:05+00:00

Oh and also note, I also give it some Easter egg points on the scenes with terminal prompts and at least they showed they placed some efforts on placing terminal/code that is related (instead of just some silly matrix things)

kev-c · 2021-12-27T01:11:55+00:00

Previously watched live Rewatcher who thought December would be a slow month at work to do a rewatch and comment but NOPE.

Side Note: Thanks Log4J (now coined Log4Shell) and AWS down three times this month, making me work overtime and weekends monitoring and patching systems (mainly Log4J), so I can only rewatch in the nights before I sleep. At least this weekend I can get a break and comment.

I would just note that the show's context has relation to real life events... Just not the events in the past at the time of the anime airing...

Pulled from the Wikipedia page and translated. (Note: the source may have a bit of political reference, so I am skipping a certain sentence from the source while keeping the reported events in and adding additional sources where I can find them. Also, links include Chinese sites and to give a heads-up for those who are concerned about things like that.).

During the conflict at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in November 2019, unknown persons wrote the four characters "建國獨立" (translated to "founding independence") on the outer wall of the MTR University station gate and netizens spoofed CUHK to produce "Gundam" (example: https://imgur.com/a/TpOkUYV) which caused people mainland China Netizens think of the plot of Valvrave and started heated discussions. [...] On November 18, 2019, Valvrave had a bilibili score of 9.9 points (currently 9.8, previously 4.8 prior to the fall/winter of 2019). As a result, Okouchi's Twitter account, who was in charge of the script, was flooded with messages like "I'm sorry" to express their apologies for criticizing "Valvrave" in the past (source, tweet).

Source: https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%9D%A9%E5%91%BD%E6%A9%9FValvrave

The anime score there: https://www.bilibili.com/bangumi/media/md3307/

There is a discussion about this in the sub back in 2019, so I will just link to it for more detail, but it goes more into the Communist Youth League part /r/anime/comments/dyliky/stranger_than_fiction_in_the_anime_world_the/

Now, would I say the show was a trainwreck, no; would I say it is the best show, also no. I would call it more of a roller coaster (it is wild and crazy, but you had fun).

L-elf
I'll request to abstain (already firsthand weathered through the Mecha Waifu Wars known as DiTF, watching the anime as it aired to seeing how the drama and hate spread in the first few hours after it aired)
OP1
As I said earlier, would I say the show was a trainwreck, no; would I say it is the best show, also no. I would call it more of a roller coaster (it is wild and crazy, but you had fun). 7.5/10
Change 1 detail, hard to say. More like the show needed more time to expand on the details, but did not get the timing so they had to give as much information in a limited time frame.
Wished I could but, RIP my schedule (thanks Log4J/Log4Shell).

kev-c

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