Shangtober

So...
Once again, I'm in China.
(It wouldn't be so bad, but I'll be back here in 2 weeks. Again.
Good thing I like baozi. The big problem is getting Western booze.
More on that later.

I have to say, Shanghai is not Beijing.
(Duh.)
People are nicer, city is cleaner, traffic is (for the most part) better...
This event is going to be great.
(Provided , of course, we are able to get all the equipment and services we need... Heh.)

Of course, getting here was a major hassle...

(Long painful narrative concerning small seats, lack of legroom, insane airport services, bureaucratic hassles with my equipment, and overall whining omitted for brevity.)

Just two items that should say it all...

1. Center seat.

2. 26 hours traveling.

And just for laughs- this is Delta's idea of legroom.


One cool thing...
And I've seen this on a JAL flight too...
The plane cam.

A live video feed, in this case from a tiny camera at the top of the tail of the plane.
They keep it on all through loading and taxiing the plane. Right up until the time the plane actually starts to go down the runway, then they shut it off. I guess they don't want you to see if there is a chance of hitting another plane or going off the end of the runway...
The one I saw last year on JAL was mounted in the nose of the plane. I liked this one better...
It was cool to see how wide the pilot had to turn the plane for the wingtips to clear the sides of the taxiway.


Shanghai-

Once again, I'm at the Mayfair...
I'm starting to enjoy this hotel... Nice people- especially the guys working the front entrance. They are a nice bunch of kids. They keep calling me "Harley"... I was in my sunglasses and denim jacket when I arrived. The biker persona.
Apparently they spread the word after I arrived because they all call me that now.

The driver for Xinxin Sports is the same one (Zhou - Joe to you and me) I had back in July- the embodiment of the "Drive Offensively" school of highway hooliganism. He has a foot on the gas, a hand on the horn and usually employs them both liberally. Riding anywhere with Joe is an adventure. And since the arena is about 15 miles out of town, the ride to the arena is long and exciting.

The arena at QiZhon is beautiful... I had only seen it in pictures, but it is something else to see it in person.
When we arrived here on Thursday, they opened the roof about 5 minutes after we got in the building.



It was very impressive... fast and quiet... About 30 minutes later they closed it back up again.
No muss, no fuss...


We tested the interfaces to the video walls today- SDI outputs worked flawlessly.
We ran a direct input to the Barco controller. I'm not sure how it will be done
during the event... The floor manager may be using a switcher/keyer in Analog, but we can feed him directly if need be.
And now the good news...
SMG can't have the video cubes here for testing until Sunday at 1:00 pm.
Another 3 hours for assembly and power... I'll get to test stuff around 4:00pm.
(Of corse this means I have to reschedule my flight. Hopefully there will be no issues with flying on Monday rather than Sunday. I need to call Delta too.. Geez.

Heading back to the hotel to do some more e-mail, post this to the blog, and then try to actualy stay up past 8:00pm tonight.

I'll let you know what happens...

Film at 11...

TBG Out-