Category: Conferences

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SDN Event: Ted Neward – Busy Developer’s Guide to NodeJS

SDN EVent - Ted Neward II

Last Sunday we published the third recorded session from our October SDN Event. It was the second session by Ted Neward titled “Busy Developer’s Guide to NodeJS”. If you (still) don’t know Ted, more reason to watch, he’s a real storyteller and has no problems to hold your attention for the full hour. A joy to listen and learn at the same time.

Where to watch
https://youtu.be/1WKKJvrmXLQ

Abstract

The circle, as they say, is complete. JavaScript underwent a significant shift in thinking recently, from a "browser-only" language to a language that’s increasingly seen as a server-side execution system. In some cases, a JavaScript engine is embedded inside a larger server program, such as what we see with different NoSQL databases (MongoDB, CouchDB), but now, with the increasing popularity of NodeJS, as a server itself. In this presentation, we’re going to take a hard look at NodeJS, from installing it through using it write a variety of different server programs. No longer is JavaScript just a user-interface tool.

Don’t forget to subscribe our YouTube channel, especially if you don’t want to miss our next published session recordings of the SDN Event(s)!
https://www.sdncast.nl/subscribe

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SDN Event: Bill Ayers – Welcome to the Brave New World of SharePoint and Office 365 Development!

BillAyersI800

Second session in our series of October SDN Event recordings we released the first presentation by Bill Ayers from the event where he informs you about the evolution of SharePoint and Office 365 Development and where we are today with regards to these products.

Where to find:

https://youtu.be/MIGySwrI6tg

Abstract:

If your software development journey ever took you into the dark misty forest that is SharePoint development, there are two possibilities: you became a SharePoint developer or (more likely) you vowed never to go there again because of the dragons. But the forest is changing, the dragons are slain (mostly), and there is a new world of SharePoint and Office 365 development. Instead of building full-trust solutions that run in-process on the SharePoint server, we are moving to a model of client-side or remote-server development using a variety of technologies. Starting with SharePoint 2013 and Office 365 we have REST endpoints to support the rich client-side solutions our users want. In this talk we are going to see how far we can go using JavaScript and client-side development for Windows, web and mobile applications, and using ASP.NET MVC and other web development platforms. It’s time to take another look at SharePoint and Office 365 development. We can build sophisticated solutions that take advantage of the powerful back-end services that deliver business solutions through websites, desktop or mobile applications.

Don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube Channel so you won’t miss the next sessions that we are about to post soon!
https://www.sdncast.nl/subscribe

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TechDays NL 2017 – Conference Impression

TechDaysNL2017

Last two days Marcel Meijier, Fanie Reynders and I, the SDN Cast team, spent our time at the Dutch TechDays 2017 in the RAI conference center in Amsterdam to talk to technology specialists and build, just like last year, an impression video of the conference.

The conference is a two day high speed, drink from the firehose, technology event with a great selection of speakers and we had a great time, learning, networking and driving the Beam Robot Camera around at the venue.

We have been shooting many videos and footage with interviews, robot cam interactions and cherry on the cake – the impression video. We collected all the videos and assembled them into a nice short impression worth watchin, even if you didn’t make it to the conference. It is fun to watch so here it is:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwoM7ROklaU&w=560&h=315]

It is hard work to get all the videos and equipment up and running, doubled our hours in double day shifts as our work also continues leaving not much time to sleep and catching up -both work and sleep- in the weekend.

There is however nothing more satisfying than being around a great bunch of people at a conferences like this. A couple of thousand or more developers walking around at ‘the show’, good company to be with.

We hope you like it as much as we do and see you at one of the next Software Development events where or whenever we are invited again.

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SDN Cast 70 – SDN, Microsoft and Google Event News

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Due to the third SDN Event last week on Friday October 6th we were a day early with our weekly Dutch SDN Cast. Usually we broadcast on Thursday but this week we had to shift things a bit, so we broadcasted on Wednesday. As usual we pick up our foreign speakers from the airport the day before the SDN Event and bring them to their hotel to stay the night.

You can’t ask the presenters to travel large distances all on one day, can’t you? For this reason, we moved the SDN Cast a day earlier and didn’t skip the web cast because you don’t want to miss the weekly news either don’t you agree? News just goes on and on, SDN Event or not.

And news there was … a lot of it! Besides the annual hardware event by Google there was the Microsoft Mixed Reality event the day before. Would it be a coincidence? Microsoft’s event was completely focused on Mixed Reality announcements. Some sort of a special on Mixed Reality headsets, HoloLens and MR software.

Other than the already announced headsets Microsoft this event showed off the new Samsung Mixed Reality headset that will become available soon. But more important was the vision Microsoft showed us with regards to the Mixed Reality future developments. All available in the soon to be released Fall Creators Update.

With this Fall Creators Update Microsoft will also include the Windows Mixed Reality home – the Cliff House. In this virtual space you can move and design the spaces with your apps and holograms.

Another thing that was announced is that Microsoft acquired AltSpaceVR and the SteamVR catalog will soon be available from the Mixed Reality world of Windows. Currently already available for developers in Preview.

Somewhat later, the day after, Google held its annual hardware event. Many of the details already leaked as we discussed last week, but now we officially were introduced to the announcements and no need to speculate over the details. A whole slew of new devices, the new Pixel 2, Google Home, Google Buds, Google Clips and the new Chromebook to name a few.

For both events I’ve added the links in the show notes below in this article so you can go back and watch the events again.

We haven’t decided yet what day we will go live with SDN Cast 71, maybe again on Wednesday but another option is live from the TechDays event in Amsterdam. Go to www.sdncast.nl for more information on the exact date and time.

Where can you find our 70th episode of our Dutch SDN Cast?
https://youtu.be/9GodcvJrIt8

Our YouTube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/sdncast

Did you subscribe our Dutch SDN Cast channel already?

Subscribe your YouTube channel if you don’t want to miss a single broadcast. Usually we will broadcast on Thursday evenings at 8 PM but there can be a change of plans where we need to move to another time or day. So to be sure Subscribe to our channel on YouTube or go to http://www.sdncast.nl to see when the next episode is due.

Other news:

Meetup group .NET Oost
https://www.meetup.com/NET-Oost

https://twitter.com/dotnetoost

Azure – New Logo
https://azure.microsoft.com

Microsoft joins the Open Source Initiative
https://open.microsoft.com/2017/09/26/microsoft-joins-open-source-initiative/

TypeScript Turns 5
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/typescript/2017/10/02/typescript-turns-5/

Roslyn Primer – Part I: Anatomy of a Compiler
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/vbteam/2017/10/02/roslyn-primer-part-i-anatomy-of-a-compiler/

.NET Framework 4.7.1 Runtime and Compiler Features
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/dotnet/2017/09/28/net-framework-4-7-1-runtime-and-compiler-features/

The Book of the Runtime – The internals of the .NET Runtime that you won’t find in the documentation
https://www.hanselman.com/blog/TheBookOfTheRuntimeTheInternalsOfTheNETRuntimeThatYouWontFindInTheDocumentation.aspx

The era of Windows Mixed Reality begins October 17
https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2017/10/03/the-era-of-windows-mixed-reality-begins-october-17

Google:
October 4th – Google Event
A few new things made by Google

Events

Events this Week

Microsoft Mixed Reality Event
https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2017/10/03/the-era-of-windows-mixed-reality-begins-october-17

Google Pixel 2 Launch Event 2017 – Live Stream
Google Pixel 2 Launch Event 2017 – Live Stream

SDN Event 3 – October 6, Zeist, NL
https://www.sdn.nl/EVENTS/6-oktober-2017

OpenHack Amsterdam, October 9-11, Amsterdam
https://aka.ms/openhackamsinvite
Register:
https://www.microsoftevents.com/profile/form/index.cfm?PKformID=0x2564678abcd

Upcoming events

Windows Developer Day – October 10, London, UK
https://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2017/09/14/windows-developer-day-returns

TechDays October 12-13, 2017 RAI Amsterdam 
http://www.techdays.nl/
https://techdays.msnlevents.net/content/eventselection.aspx?eventid=26152

SharePoint Saturday Belgium 2017, October 21, Brussels BE
http://www.spsevents.org/city/brussels/brussels2017

SharePoint Unite – October 24-26, 2017, Haarlem
https://sharepointunite.com/

Azure OpenDev
https://azure.microsoft.com/nl-nl/opendev/

Dev Intersection, October 30- November 2, Las Vegas
https://www.devintersection.com/#!/

Firebase Dev Summit – Amsterdam – October 31st
https://firebase.google.com/dev-summit-17/

Microsoft Future Decoded – London, UK – October 31st-November 1st
https://futuredecoded.com/

Azure IoT Community, November 2nd, Nieuwegein
http://www.azureiotcommunity.nl
https://www.eventbrite.nl/e/tickets-azure-iot-community-avond-bij-winvision-37965079575

Web Summit – November 6-9 2017, Lisbon, Portugal
https://websummit.com/

Visual Studio Live! November 12-17 2017 Orlando, FL
https://live360events.com/events/orlando-2017/vslive.aspx

MixUG – Eindgebruikers Evenement – November 29 – Gouda
https://www.eventbrite.nl/e/tickets-mixug-eindgebruikers-evenement-34890983872

NgEurope, February 1-2, 2018 , Paris – France
https://ngeurope.org/

MVP Summit 2018 – 4-7 Maart – Seattle

Global Azure Bootcamp – 21 April
https://global.azurebootcamp.net/

Techorama, 22-24 mei 2018, Antwerpen, België
https://techorama.be/

Experts Live 2018 – 19 Juni 2018
http://expertslive.nl/
https://www.eventbrite.nl/e/tickets-experts-live-nederland-2018-36481046793

Ignite 2018 – 24-29 September 2018 – Orlando
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ignite/default.aspx

As usual we are always looking for presenters for our own events and Meetup’s so if you want to share something about hot technologies or just about something you implemented at work or in an App that could be interesting to our audience let us know so we can schedule you for one or our next SDN events or Dutch .NET Group Meetups.

This off course also goes for if you want to write a great article for us to publish in our SDN Magazines or at our SDN Website. The downside of publishing a magazine article is that there can be sometime between writing the article and publishing the magazine. So, if it is time critical sometimes the best option is to publish it on the www.sdn.nl website to get more speedy attention to the article.

As you see, options enough to address your audience with top notch information. You can even, if you like, be our guest in our SDN Cast shows to discuss the projects you are working on or other topics you master. We will instruct you how to connect with us and what it is you need to join the show.

Hopefully we will see you at our weekly web cast, for the schedule go to www.sdncast.nl for next week’s announcement to find out the day and time of our next broadcast or go to www.sdncast.nl/youtube to watch old episodes and videos that we recorded at our events. Don’t forget to subscribe our YouTube channel www.sdncast.nl/subscribe or go directly to YouTube not to miss any of our shows!

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SDN Event: Ted Neward – Busy Architect’s Guide to DevOps

SDN EVent - Ted Neward I

As usual (by now) , we will put some of our SDN Event sessions online on YouTube for the next couple of Sundays.

The first session that we recorded last Friday was the session by Ted Neward, a popular presenter from the Seattle Area (USA). If you watch the presentation you’ll see why.

Go over there and watch Ted’s session if you missed the session at our event or if you’ve attended the session but want to see it again:

Where to go to see the recording:
https://youtu.be/txrNKKtM404

Abstract:

"Developer Operations", or its more commonly-known nickname, DevOps, has taken the industry by storm. Everywhere you turn, everybody wants to be doing DevOps. It’s the new black, the new normal, the thing that everybody clearly represents the next pinnacle in software development…. Except not everybody agrees on what it is, how to do it, or what benefits it will even provide you. In this presentation, we’ll deconstruct the whole "DevOps" movement, talk about what it really represents, how to get started with it, and perhaps most importantly of all, talk about what is realistic to expect out of it once you have actually managed to "DevOps All The Things!" within your company.

Don’t forget to subscribe on our channel so you won’t miss the following sessions that we recorded:
https://www.sdncast.nl/subscribe

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Richard Campbell – “Saving The World One App at a Time”

SDN Event Richard Campbell II - 800

In our series of SDN Event session recordings we published today our third session from SDN Event June 23rd. This session is the second session by Richard Campbell that day titled “Saving the World One App at a Time”.

Abstract 

Mobile and cloud technology are changing the business world – how about disaster response? Join Richard Campbell as he tells his story of software, hardware and charity that ultimately has led him to the Humanitarian Toolbox (htbox.org). The Humanitarian Toolbox is an open source initiative to build software for disaster relief – both for the Non-Governmental Organizations that are involved in disaster relief, the citizen volunteers that donate their time to assist during a disaster and the disaster victims themselves. Richard will take you along on his journey of the convergence of mobile, cloud and open source software to help save lives.

In this session Richard explained to us all about the Humanitarian Toolbox and how you can help by putting your efforts into a project that literally is able to save lives and help where it is needed the most in the world.

SDN Event – Richard Campbell – Saving The World One App at a Time

Previous recordings published from the SDN Event June 23

If you missed the previous recordings that we already published over the last two weeks, jump in, go ahead and watch ‘m online here and don’t forget to subscribe:

SDN Event – Brady Gaster – Getting Started building Visual Studio Code Extensions

SDN Event – Richard Campbell – Keynote: The Development Platform Landscape in 2017

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SDN Event – Richard Campbell – Keynote: The Development Platform Landscape in 2017

SDNCast 55-800

Last Friday June 23rd we managed to pull off our second SDN Event of 2017 and we recorded a couple of our sessions so if you couldn’t make it or had other reasons not to attend you still can watch the session online.

Abstract:
Join Richard Campbell as he takes you on a tour of the broad range of subjects explored while recording more than 1400 episodes of .NET Rocks over the past 10+ years. The development world today is evolving rapidly, but a look at the history of development can help inform the path we’re on and where we’re going. Along the way you’ll hear some great stories from the various .NET Rocks episodes and get some ideas of how you can take your career and your company into the future of technology.

YouTube Link:
https://youtu.be/kbd3ybHX-G0

Richard Campbell Keynote-800

If you like to know how we recorded the session you can read my other blog post:
How to record your user group presentations in high quality with low budget tooling – Part II

Other Events
Events last week
Goto Amsterdam – June 12-15
https://gotoams.nl/2017

Microsoft Data Insights Summit – June 12-13, 2017, Seattle
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/datainsightssummit

NDC Oslo – June 12-16 2017 – Oslo
http://ndcoslo.com

E3 – June 13-15 2017 – Los Angeles Convention Center
https://www.e3expo.com/show-info/2895/about-e3/

Global Devops Bootcamp – June 17
http://globaldevopsbootcamp.com

Events this week

Office365 Engage – June 19-22 – Haarlem
https://office365engage.com/

Google Cloud Next – June 21 – Kromhouthal – Amsterdam
https://cloudplatformonline.com/Next-Amsterdam-2017.html

Microsoft Azure OpenDev – June 21 – Online
https://azure.microsoft.com/nl-nl/opendev

SDN Event 2 – Zeist NL – June 23, 2017
http://www.sdn.nl

Upcoming events

Digility VR/AR Conference & Expo 2017, Cologne, Germany – July 5-6
http://www.digility.de/

Inspire July 9-13 – Washington D.C.
https://partner.microsoft.com/en-us/inspire/

Ignite 2017 – September 25-29 – Orlando
https://ignite.microsoft.com

SDN Event 3 – Zeist NL – October 6
www.sdn.nl

TechDays October 12-13, 2017 RAI Amsterdam NL
http://www.techdays.nl/

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How to record your user group presentations in high quality with low budget tooling – Part II

In my previous post about session recording I explained how we recorded straight to Google Hangouts. This time there is a slight change of plans … we replaced Google Hangouts by YouTube Live through OBS Studio. Also we no longer require the presenter to login to Google Hangouts. Instead we now use the Elgato HD60S HDMI Splitter/Game Capture Device to capture the presenters screen so there won’t be any lag caused by Google Hangouts while presenting. Google Hangouts could negatively impact the performance of the presenters’ PC because the video processing can be a heavy impact if the PC or laptop does not have a fast video card inside.

New Recording gear setup with OBS Studio:

clip_image002

By using OBS Studio (or other production/broadcasting/recording software such as vMix that I use in our weekly SDN Cast recordings) we can simultaneously record our session to local disk and as an option broadcasting it to YouTube Live. The recording PC in this case is connected to the YouTube Live stream, the presenter is just sending his desktop images to the beamer over the Elgato HD60S Game Capture device.

My gear list as used so far with the configuration in the picture above:

  • One recording laptop
    OBS Studio
  • One monitor laptop (optional)
  • Behringer XENIX QX1002USB
    Power Supply
    6.35 mm Jack to 3.5 mm headphone adapter
    USB Cable
  • AKG WMS45 Band D Wireless Microphone Set
    Power Supply
    Wireless Microphone
    XLR Cable Male/Female
  • Logitech 930e HD Web Cam
    USB Extension Cable (Optional)
  • Camera Stand/tripod
  • Elgato HD60S
  • USB Hub (Optional, if your laptop does not have enough ports)
  • Headphones
  • One presenter laptop to share his desktop

Installing the recording gear:

Put the camera in front of the presenter covering both the projector screen and the presenters desk. Be careful not to put the camera too much into the viewing field of the audience. The optional USB extension cord can help here.

The camera is small, so not really an issue as it seems. This camera will be the ‘overview’ camera setup showing both the presenter walking around, sitting down at his desk as well as the big screen from the beamer.

The wireless microphone is pinned on the presenter for near field voice recording, don’t hurt him by clipping it on his skin. This microphone will record his story telling voice, picked up by the AKG WMS45 wireless receiver set and dropped into the Behringer XENIX QX1002USB.

The Behringer will provide the sound USB input channel for the recording ‘source one’ combined with the video from the camera ‘overview’ output by the Logitech 930.

The recording PC will be logged in as video producer to YouTube Live (optional) and you will be able to switch between sources, big screen and presenter or desktop view using OBS Studio.

An example of a session recording (this recording is in English BTW):

”Fanie Reynders – Rest-ful APIs with ASP.NET Core”
https://youtu.be/rsgwUsfD2-A

A full playlist of all our (Dutch and English ) recorded sessions so far can be found here if you want to see more:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC5P51a_60YElMJvidAy7GagDJH0Y-UwX

What you see in this example video is that we can switch between the big picture on the overhead screen and jump into detail by showing the desktop from the presenter laptop to get a good readable picture of the slides or even when there is live coding going on.

With OBS Studio you can setup multiple screens consisting of several inputs, images, cameras or videos to create a compelling view. You can even add some sponsor information in the screens. While directing your recording you can switch between the screens that you prepared with all the sources.

So, is all good now, doing it this way with the improved inputs sharing the HDMI signal on the Elgato HD60S?

Well, we lost the issue that the presenter experienced some delays on his PC due to the video processing. No need to log in as presenter, no need to have a Google Account available to do so. It is closer (for the presenter, at least) to the zero-configuration solution.

With the setup above you can broadcast your sessions through YouTube Live and record on your local hard drive to share after the event. If you are afraid to broadcast live and for example think about the risk of getting a lower number of attendees (why going to the event, it is broadcasted live) the session can be just recorded without going into YouTube Live and you can decide to upload the video only after the event is over (this also gives you the option to edit the footage, adding annotations, start or end screens and upload the edited footage for you to share as public video).

I really hope this post will encourage you to try the same thing what we did and get more of the community efforts recorded and to get more of our valuable arranged sessions shared to a larger audience. The information is way too valuable not to share!

If you want to comment on this setup, share improvements, have questions or just want to say something, leave your comments below on this post!

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How to record your user group presentations in high quality with low budget tooling

Every three months we at SDN manage to pull off SDN Events, full day four track, five sessions a track with great Dutch and some occasional international speakers showing off their great content to our attendees.

Last year we started to record some of these sessions, first ones to try out as proof of concept, but now in production already to share our content to a bigger audience.

I was asked more than once how we were able to record our SDN Event session recordings in relatively high quality with only some low budget tools. So here it is so far.

Recording gear setup:

SDN Event Recording - 2 Hangout Connections

This has been our setup up as we used it until today, but for the next event we will try something else for the reasons you will read at the end of this blog post. I guess we will continue to tinker with the setup until it is just perfect. This change will be the subject of another blog post, but only if all of this tinkering actually appeared to work for us. No need to bore you with something that does not work properly.

Right now we use two Google Hangout logins per recording, one from the ‘recording device’ (actually the device is not recording, Google Hangouts/YouTube is doing the recording for us) and one login from the laptop used by the presenter.

The ‘recording device’ is logged into Google Hangouts with the recorded projector screen and presenter and presenter voice using the Logitech webcam and wifi microphone set. The presenter logs into Google hangouts with his own laptop, sharing the desktop, providing a high quality representation of what is shown on the projector screen.

My gear list as used up to today with the configuration in the picture:

    • One recording laptop and a Google ID
    • Behringer XENIX QX1002USB
    • AKG WMS45 Band D Wireless Microphone Set
    • Logitech 930e HD Web Cam
    • One presenter laptop to share his desktop

 

Installing the recording gear:

Put the camera in front of the presenter covering both the projector screen and the presenters desk. Be careful not to put the camera too much into the viewing field of the audience.

The camera is fairly small, so not really an issue as it seems. This camera will be the ‘overview’ camera setup showing both the presenter walking around, sitting down at his desk and the big screen.

The wireless microphone is pinned on the presenter for near field voice recording, don’t hurt him by clipping it on his skin. This microphone will record his story telling voice, picked up with the AKG WMS45 wireless receiver set and dropped into the Behringer XENIX QX1002USB. The Behringer will provide the sound USB input channel for Google Hangout ‘source one’ combined with the camera ‘overview’ output by the Logitech 930.

The presenter is also logged in to Google Hangouts as ‘second source’. This will be full time sharing his desktop.

The main recording device will be logged in as video producer and you will be able to switch between sources, big screen and presenter or desktop view.

An example of a session recording (this recording is in English b.t.w.) :
”Mr. Moffat – Introducing Microsoft Power BI”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_bQ_EivYb4

A full playlist of all our (Dutch and English ) recorded sessions so far can be found here if you want to see more:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC5P51a_60YElMJvidAy7GagDJH0Y-UwX

What you see in this example is that we are able to switch between the big picture on the overhead screen and jump into detail by showing the desktop from the presenter laptop to get a good readable picture of the slides or even when there is live coding going on.

So is all good, doing it this way?

No, we are still learning and we found some downsides with this configuration (maybe more, but this is the main one) and that is that you require the presenter to log into Google Hangouts and therefor he needs a Google ID. This means that this is not a zero configuration solution to the speaker invited to do his session.

It seemed not everyone owns a Google ID. Also, it can be somewhat cumbersome to the presenter to log into Google Hangouts, disable his camera and recording microphone (check this ahead of time before the recording starts, as this will cause a critical echo caused by getting two sources at once, one over the wireless mic the other through the presenter laptop mic. So the last one has to be disabled. Also there is a small amount of his resources used to run the Hangout in the background. This could affect the responsiveness a little bit and maybe interfere a bit on high resource claiming presentations (for instance if he needs to compile a bit of code in the demos).

With the setup above you are able to live broadcast your sessions and immediately record it as is to share after the event. If you are afraid to broadcast live risking a lower number of attendees (why going to the event, it is broadcasted live) you can record the session private or unlisted and expose the video only when the event is over (this also gives you the option to record the session, download the video and edit the footage adding annotations, start or end screens and upload the edited footage to share as public video).

To get around the issues mentioned above we will test a slightly changed configuration by adding en extra device. But as said, I will explain this later on, when tested and with proof of recording properly.

I really hope this post will encourage you to try the same thing what we did and get more of the community efforts recorded and to get more of our valuable arranged sessions shared to a bigger audience. The information is way too valuable not to share!

If you want to comment on this setup, share improvements, have questions or just want to say something, leave your comments below on this post!