Posts by Richard Hulse

  • Hard News: Radio being made, in reply to Hamish.MacEwan,

    Doesn't seem to have the Livestream capability to start playback from the beginning before the end of the show.

    It should do, and we had it during testing. I'll look into it.

    The Checkpoint logo is a better cutaway than cycled web pages, but best would be a faux "second screen" experience for radio.

    We are working on a replacement for that, optimised for 'TV'.

    Wellington • Since Jul 2011 • 4 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Radio being made, in reply to Rich of Observationz,

    The YouTube live stream has the ability to rewind. If you got home at 6 you can move the scroll bar back one hours and start watching from the beginning. We will also post the whole show on YT afterwards. And video/audio on the Checkpoint page of rnz.co.nz

    Wellington • Since Jul 2011 • 4 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Friday Music: An accompanied korero,

    Back in the 1980s when I started music recording for Radio NZ Concert (or the Concert Programme as it was then) a reasonable amount of Lilburn’s music was being recorded, much of it new.

    I recall one time when Margaret Nielsen (with whom he had a long association) was to record some of his piano pieces (I can’t recall which ones). I was told the Douglas Lilburn would be coming to the sessions.

    I can still remember the trepidation – he was held in very high esteem by everyone – and this my first encounter with THE composer at a recording of his own material. What if he didn’t like the sound we got? (I think the only other time I felt this worried was much later, recording Dame Kiri in some studio sessions.)

    I asked the producer what should I say. He said Douglas would probably just sit in the studio. When he arrived he went straight into the studio and spent the whole time there, and we didn’t in fact even speak.

    It was interesting and a privilege to observe the composer and performer, both at the height of their powers, discussing the work at hand.

    Some time later I recorded (I think) Michael Houstoun playing Chaconne (1946), a work that was performed only once before, and never recorded. I do know that he came in later to listen to the performance and was rather taken with it.

    Other folk at RNZ worked more closely with him and have much better anecdotes – I have suggested that they share them here.

    Wellington • Since Jul 2011 • 4 posts Report Reply

  • Access: Web accessibility is not a box…, in reply to Julius Serrano,

    That is an excellent point - the earlier in the process you talk with real people the better.

    The later you leave accessibility considerations in a project, the more expensive retro-fitting will be required. A bit like adding wheelchair access to a building. Very cheap to design in from scratch, very expensive, and often a compromise, if added later.

    Some projects use 'personas' - a written representation of an end-user - and these are useful as a reference points, but no substitute for real people and conversations.

    Wellington • Since Jul 2011 • 4 posts Report Reply