This streaming rigmarole has almost as many permutations as there are grains of sand on the beach. In order to keep it simple for our audiences, we selected YouTube as our platform. It’s available in HD; has good built-in integration with lots of different TVs, apps, and services; and solves some back-end technical problems to boot.
The exceptions to the YouTube rule are our six workshops taking place from Tom Lee Music over Zoom, and our annual Colloquium, taking place from the Western Front over Zoom.
In the spirit of adventure, we asked our staff and board how they are planning to watch streaming shows. Hopefully, this will give you some ideas:
THE MINIMALISTS
Jeremy Page, Artist Logistics and Programming Manager:
“I just use a MacBook and headphones.
🎧
🎶 🤓 👍
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Box office manager Dannielle Rutledge doesn’t bother with the headphones:
“I open my email on the device I want to watch the stream. I click the link. It opens. I watch.”
Can’t get much simpler than that.
THE SLIGHTLY LESS MINIMAL, YET STILL SIMPLE SET UPS
AKA the one-cord solution
Box Office Assistant Benjamin Anton, COVID Safety Officer & Bar Manager Ian Wardle, Volunteer Coordinator liisa hannus all have set ups that involve connecting their TV to their laptop using an HDMI cable. The laptop provides the navigation, the TV provides the sound and visuals.
Production Manager James Ong adds his stereo to this set up, and uses a Mac mini to power it all.
THE BUILT-IN SOLUTIONS GANG
Director of Administration Jen Thomas is our resident Amazon expert, and is using an Amazon Firestick with her TV. She has a few pointers for you:
Get your Fire Stick from Amazon, and plug it into one of the HDMI ports on your TV (and plug it into power with the included power cable) Once you’ve set it up with the password to your Wifi, and your Amazon account credentials, head to the Store menu and download the YouTube app. It’s free! Launch the app and log in with your Google account and password so that you can access your subscribed channels like Coastal Jazz (you HAVE subscribed, right? You really should.) Once the app is up and running you can either search for Coastal Jazz using the magnifying glass search icon … or just find us in the Subscriptions menu on the left side of the screen (if you’ve subscribed. Which you should). Once you’re on the Coastal Jazz videos list screen, click the Visit Channel button onscreen to be taken to the full line up of every free show in the Festival, starting with Bonnie Northgraves at noon on June 25 and running through to the Spotlight on France and Italy stream at 5:30PM on July 4. And then you can just sit back and watch the show … literally.
If you’ve bought tickets to some (or all – All Access Pass it up! It’s an amazing deal) of the Jazz Festival’s ticketed shows, that aren’t available on the 2021 Festival playlist on the Coastal Jazz YouTube channel, and are reading this asking “that sounds great, but how am I supposed to check my email for my streaming link ticket FROM MY TV?” here’s a tip. When you receive the email from our box office with the link to the show on Youtube, click it and go to the show page in YouTube on your computer, tablet, or smartphone, whatever you got. Doesn’t matter if the show hasn’t started yet – it’s better if it hasn’t! When you get to the show page, click the Save button underneath the video, and choose “Watch later” if you’re in a browser (if you’re in the YouTube app, it saves the video to Watch Later automatically – no need to choose it)
Then, when it’s showtime, turn on the TV and wake up the Fire Stick. Launch the YouTube app and got to the Watch Later option in the menu on the left side of the screen. Click the show that’s about to start (I’m assuming you will have a bunch of shows saved in there to choose from – like the entire Pyatt Hall series, perhaps?) and it will go live as soon as the stream does.
Marketing Communications Coordinator Heather Gunn and Board VP Franco Ferrari are Apple TV enthusiasts. Here are Heather’s tips for using that service to access streams:
“For a ticketed show, it’ll be slightly different because there is a dedicated URL that I can’t just find by searching “Coastal Jazz”. In this situation I’ll use what’s called “AirPlay”. It’s built into most Mac laptops, and we’re an Apple family, so it works well for us! First, I use my laptop to click the link that’s sent to me in an e-mail (this pulls the video up on my screen). Then, I click the little AirPlay icon in my taskbar and select my TV (which is called Bee Tube, for reasons nobody needs to know). Et voila! My laptop screen is automatically cast to my TV and I can watch the show with nicer speakers and a bigger display.”
THE PEOPLE OF THE PROJECTOR
Neither Operations Director Eduardo Ottoni nor Programmer Cole Schmidt have a traditional TV–both have a projector that they send digital information to when they want to watch something. Here’s Cole’s description of his setup:
“We don’t have a TV, but I bought a tiny projector for [his partner] Amélie for Xmas which we set up and plug the nice stereo into whenever we watch things that we want to be good and big. For example: BATMAN! For the festival, I think we’ll leave it up and plugged in for 10 days with the curtains closed so the summer light doesn’t interfere.”
Eduardo sent this photo of his setup–the thing he likes best is when the projector isn’t on, he just has a plain white wall. Note the lovely wedding photo on the mantle!
THE AUDIOPHILES
Content writer and streaming coordinator Stephen Lyons is also an artist, and claims “a lot of people haven’t considered that they can hook their computer or phone up to their stereo in a kinda old school way (as opposed to having all your digital stuff linked up). I’d love to empower people to explore the world of adapters and cables! I have so many more adapters not pictured here. I keep them in a wall safe behind a beautiful photo from Eduardo’s wedding.”
This is probably a lie. But here are his cables to inspire you.
Managing Artistic Director Rainbow Robert does something similar, with an emphasis on sound. She says:
“I like to watch streams on my tablet, connected to one big wooden speaker, so that I can see the band, but also get to enjoy sound that it a bit warmer and more organic than my computer speakers. “
