FaceTime Performance Advice?

Hello friends, I'm in the process of arranging to do a performance via FaceTime for a local retirement village.

I have an iPhone 6 with the FaceTime program, but I've not used it much at all, except to visit occasionally with my kids and grandkids.

My buddy and I have played at this particular facility in person before, but now that the residents are confined to their individual apartments because of Covid-19 mitigation rules, we're not permitted to enter the building.

However, the activities director recently asked us if we'd consider choosing a day and time to initiate a FaceTime call to her iPad, and then she'd wander room-to-room with the iPad in hand as we play a set of approximately 15 songs (sitting in my living room). She wouldn't be able to cover all the residents, of course, but hopefully several people's day might be brightened a little. And if it works out pretty well, we can always do another one at a later date.

Have any of my friends on the Forum had occasion to do anything like this? And if so, are there any tips you might offer based on your experience? Thanks!

Hi, I love the idea!

I do zooms with residents in care facilities, with the AD taking the iPad around from room to room. I have found that the background noise, eg a roommates tv or someone speaking loudly outside the room cuts out the iPad and the resident can’t hear me, so I always ask the AD to be aware of that when we go in a room.

For music I have created a YouTube site, not monetized so I don’t have copyright issues, and create DVDs which one AD likes to put on a portable player that she takes around. I think live music would be better if you can overcome the sound problem on an iPad.

Let us know how you get on.

That’s a great idea, please let us know how it goes and any pointers we might use. I had to quit playing at the Odd Fellows Home because of cold weather. This sounds like a way to carry on.

Is your friend in your social bubble? How do you sing and play together safely? None of my playing friends, including me, would want to be that close to each other that we could share a FaceTime frame.

Often care facilities have their own TV channel where they post news and information to the residents. Perhaps they can televise a DVD recording of the two of you playing?

The big plus would be that they could show it several times. So all of the residents could get to see it.

Record to your computer and burn a DVD. Or record to your computer and send it to DropBox or other cloud-based storage that the Activities Director could download and play on their internal channel.

Kenn2018 said:

Often care facilities have their own TV channel where they post news and information to the residents. Perhaps they can televise a DVD recording of the two of you playing?

The big plus would be that they could show it several times. So all of the residents could get to see it.

Record to your computer and burn a DVD. Or record to your computer and send it to DropBox or other cloud-based storage that the Activities Director could download and play on their internal channel.

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I get how this would solve some problems, but if they do that, they might as well get a DVD of someone who’s actually good, like James Hill. Not that Bill isn’t good! I’m thinking of myself. I think the FaceTime/Zoom/Whatever option leaves open the possibility for personal interaction that goes both ways.

I am going to be very adamant about this, TURN YOUR PHONE SIDEWAYS (LANDSCAPE), DO NOT SHOOT WITH IT UPRIGHT (PORTRAIT). Have the activities director turn the iPad sideways as well, the image will show 60% more that way.

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This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly Grove near the Beverly Center
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Lighting is important, and can be tricky. Avoiding back-lighting is a start (unless you want to look like the Grim Reaper, which would be particularly inappropriate here.

The recording should be better to reach more people (as already suggested), and you could start with a welcome that names the place -- and even the people there who will be the audience. (Even James Hill doesn't do that.) Also, you can use titles that also "customize" the show. But a recording -- unless you edit nothing -- probably will take more time, as I've learned this year doing remote programs via recording, Zoom, Facebook Live.

Oh, and as you probably figured out, you should do some practice songs via FaceTime to a friend or family or whomever.

Well, not surprisingly, every single response has been immensely helpful! Thank you all so much!

Ziret, I can certify that my skill level is indeed just a FRACTION below James Hill's! Hahahahahaha! But seriously, I understood what you meant, and that particular point is well-taken (i.e., that the FaceTime approach opens the possibility of a little personal interaction between us and the particular resident for whom we might be doing a song...).

I'll try to be mindful of avoiding back-lighting, minimizing background noise on both ends, and sticking with "landscape" orientation. And doing a dry-run with a relative should serve to calm the nerves a little and help us get a feel for things.

Audio quality is not likely to be the greatest, but it will probably at least be serviceable, and I think we just need to keep things in perspective and have a great time with it! As an old friend used to say, "We don't want to out-think it."

Sorry not to specify each of you by name, but I appreciate all of you and will let you know how it goes (so far we haven't actually set the date, but it should be soon)!

You might consider Facebook Live. If you don’t need two way audio and video.
Also any resident with a computer, iPad, smartphone can tune in easily.

SailingUke said:

You might consider Facebook Live. If you don’t need two way audio and video.
Also any resident with a computer, iPad, smartphone can tune in easily.

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Certainly worth considering, SailingUke! Thanks!

Also, back to Ziret's question on social distancing concerns, honestly, my buddy and I have been getting together about once a week for the past several weeks to work on "duo" stuff, with a cup of coffee, at his dining room table, with his old bulldog Lucy laying across my feet each time... and, well, we've kind of approached it with the idea that, so long as neither of us is having any kind of symptoms, we just have our rehearsals and don't worry too much about it. I admit that may not be the most responsible thing to do. We're both retired, both age 67, and both in generally very good health. And we've been gigging together, in various configurations, for about 25 years.

Bill Sheehan said:

Certainly worth considering, SailingUke! Thanks!

Also, back to Ziret's question on social distancing concerns, honestly, my buddy and I have been getting together about once a week for the past several weeks to work on "duo" stuff, with a cup of coffee, at his dining room table, with his old bulldog Lucy laying across my feet each time... and, well, we've kind of approached it with the idea that, so long as neither of us is having any kind of symptoms, we just have our rehearsals and don't worry too much about it. I admit that may not be the most responsible thing to do. We're both retired, both age 67, and both in generally very good health. And we've been gigging together, in various configurations, for about 25 years.

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That sounds nice. What a good girl, Lucy!

Thanks for bringing this up. It gives me plenty to think about, too. I am loathe to use any Facebook product, but that Facebook Live sounds interesting. And I'm forced to use its messenger app with my granddaughter, so it's hard to get away from.

Well, my buddy and I did our FaceTime performance (for a local retirement residence) on Thursday, and it went pretty well! We decided to do it from my buddy's dining room table.

When I arrived at his house at 2:00, the first thing I did was to "access" his Wi-Fi service with my iPhone, which, fortunately, I was able to do with no problem, using his password.

Then, we mounted my iPhone in a little gooseneck phone holder that I recently got, set it on the dining room table, and got into the phone camera's "selfie" mode just to see if we were "framed up" reasonably well (as I understand it, when you're Facetiming on an iPhone, it's using that selfie camera).

We mounted the phone in the "landscape" (horizontal) position, and as a result it appeared that we were both sufficiently visible on the camera screen as we sat across the dining room table from the phone.

The facility director initiated the FaceTime call to us from her iPad around 2:30. She said that she could hear us perfectly well, and that our screen "frame-up" was fine.

From there, she walked room-to-room with the iPad introducing us to various residents, and we'd introduce ourselves to them and ask if they'd like to hear a song-- the answer invariably being "Sure!" It was really nice to see each face watching and reacting happily as we played and sang. It was obvious that some days were brightened!

We played totally unplugged, and it worked out fine. I'm not sure what the sound quality might've been on the other end, but I think the iPad probably has some respectable built-in speakers and volume. Of course, we were also limited on our end by the tiny built-in mic on my iPhone 6. We had thought about mic'ing up thru a small P.A. system and placing the P.A. speaker near the iPhone in order to beef up the outgoing signal a little, but ultimately we decided to keep it simple and just go "fully unplugged".

In addition to a few Christmas/Holiday songs, we did our "duo" versions of songs like Ventura Highway, Ferry Cross The Mersey, What The World Needs Now Is Love, Mr. Bojangles, Lookin' Out My Back Door, Groovin', and several others (probably fifteen songs in all).

I look forward to doing it again, no question about it!

Congratulations on your success with this very worth while project. People need a little joy in their life these days as we approach a very difficult Christmas season. Again Congratulations

Thank you, Colemole! It was a lot of fun, and I think we accomplished our mission!

That sounds like it was really worthwhile for everyone, and I'm glad to hear of your success. After Christmas I think I'll contact the activities director at the Odd Fellows and see if she would like to set up something like that. Thanks for the report from the field, brave pioneer.

Z

Ziret said:

That sounds like it was really worthwhile for everyone, and I'm glad to hear of your success. After Christmas I think I'll contact the activities director at the Odd Fellows and see if she would like to set up something like that. Thanks for the report from the field, brave pioneer.

Z

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Hahahaha! Thanks, Z! I think you should go for it! You'll do great!