“防弹”应该成为生产装备的标准功能
When it comes to marketers pitching gear to streaming producers around the world, it’s all about, “这是最新的功能!或者“我们刚刚添加了这个。!或者“现在它可以这么做了。!“部分原因是总有新技术需要添加. RTMP becomes RTMPS. H.265 succeeds H.264. SRT 支持成为一个必须具备的特性. 智能编程变成人工智能. Buyers of gear are used to seeing ads that are only about what the latest feature is.
There was a time when production gear was sold with no possible upgradability after the fact. Today, another tentpole of marketing is that new features are being added to existing hardware with a software or firmware update. This has become so prevalent across the industry that buyers now fully expect—even demand—to get new features that they didn’t pay for. “我看到一款新相机可以做x. 我希望我的旧相机也能做到这一点.如果没有添加(或不能添加), 他们在各种可用的社交媒体上表达自己的失望, even if they were perfectly happy with the product before that new thing came out.
Another aspect of this discussion is that manufacturers are making products that break through traditional production barriers, 提供惊人的成本功能比. “Hey, we made this little handheld item that can be used to display and assess your video, 但现在它也记录, streams, 甚至可以在输入之间切换, adds titles, and more. 一切都在你的掌心.或者“我们做了一个小摄像头，现在可以自动跟踪你。, respond to gestures, 并纠正或扭曲图像.”
But what often gets lost in the marketing hype is the need for absolute reliability. Not every piece of gear has to match its competition new feature for new feature. 但它必须是“防弹的”.” What good are a dozen amazing features if the video frame rate isn’t an absolute solid, reliable, bulletproof 29.97? Or what if users in European countries can’t get an absolutely reliable 50 fps? What good is cutting-edge AI motion tracking if the battery occasionally thinks it’s completely discharged, 而且设备无法启动? 如果相机的颜色总是看起来不一样怎么办? 如果音频计量调整没有任何意义怎么办? 如果这个设备中的10db和其他地方的10db不一样怎么办?
What good are new features if they hurt the basic reliability of the device? What’s an overhyped firmware update worth if a camera that used to work fine now keeps defaulting to a black-and-white color profile and needs to be reset every time? What if upgrading a product means that connectivity to other devices using a standard protocol is no longer possible because now the device only uses the latest version of the protocol, 而其他设备无法升级?
I have personally experienced all of these post-upgrade and ill-fated add-on glitches, 我相信其他人也一样. Chasing after the latest and greatest widget that does everything and sells for a fraction of traditional gear comes with a cost. 这个代价就是缺乏可靠性. While technology is indeed making smaller and cheaper devices that are capable of doing more, it is being pushed beyond the limit in order to chase the “latest and greatest” marketing wave.
问题是没有人推销可靠性. It’s expected. 人们只看到了蛋糕上的糖霜. 他们不知道蛋糕本身是坏的.
还有另一项成本:获得支持. So, 当升级或新部件不工作时, 或者它的某些方面不像你期望的那样工作, 你无法联系到你自己国家或地区的人，或者根本联系不到. Or, 如果你能联系到谁, 他们是无能为力的客户服务或销售代理, 他们并不能真正解决你的问题. Or the problem gets funneled into some social media forum or Discord channel, 在哪里可以讨论, 但很少解决或解决.
It’s hard to market gear as bulletproof because we all assume it does the core thing it is marketed to do. 这是预料之中的. Of course, it captures video, switches cameras, has a really good zoom lens, etc. But, usually, we’re buying it because of other cool features that set it apart from the crowd. However, 如果核心内容——比如它制作的视频本身——有问题, 在市场营销中没有提到这一点.
如今，我们不能再假设. We have to rely on the very rare critical reviews and tests by people who aren’t bought with product or sponsored by the vendors whose gear they’re “reviewing.” We need people who say negative things and point out a device’s problems so end users can make an informed choice. We must have this so the manufacturers that forget to make bulletproof reliability an absolute core feature can be held accountable.
The problem is there are very few resources that point out the negatives. 与供应商友好的替代品, what company is advertising in media that is telling people its gear has problems? 你通过各种媒体渠道, 这都是关于完美的解决方案, this amazing new tool, 这个项目是如何解决所有问题的——它们都是完美的. 这是获得视图的地方.
The problem is that there’s a lot more imperfect gear on the market than ever before—gear we can’t count on from gig to gig. 不能提供可靠视频的设备. 功能可以工作，然后不工作. 连接后又断开的设备. 我们已经失去了核心可靠性. 防弹需要成为一种功能.
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