Thoughts And Thank Yous On The Maine Moose Lottery Drawing Event

Actually, my head is still buzzing from the excitement of the event last evening that took place at the Kittery Trading Post in Kittery, Maine. It is my understanding that this is the first time that this event has been held at a venue like the Kittery Trading Post - a place of trade or business.

Although I am not a veteran of many previous Maine Moose Lottery drawings, I think it can be said that this one was a big success. Those who weren’t lucky enough to get their names drawn might not agree with me today, but as the dust and disappointment settles, I think they will also look back and think it was a good time.

This was a first for me and Skinny Moose Media to attempt a live stream of audio and video of the event. I can say without any hesitation that without the hard work of the Kittery Trading Post personal, namely Bob Adams and Julie-Lynn Belon, the success we realized from this event would never have materialized. I can only hope that we have boosted interest with KTP and the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and the Moose Lottery.

Bob Adams had hard-wired us a connection so we could get direct access to his Internet connection. Then he whipped out a power cable and soon we were assembling our gear. We seemed to be the first of any media companies to set up and were definitely the last to tear down.

Julie-Lynn and Bob gave us an ideal table to work from. We were right up front next to the main table, where we had excellent visibility - the crowd got see us as easily as we could see them. We were even provided with a sign indicating our reserved space. In short, I think we were treated with royalty.

I want to also take a moment to thank Milt Inman and Gregg Inman for their much needed and highly appreciated assistance last night. I couldn’t have pulled this off without their help. Whenever I needed something, one of them was always there ready and eager to help. Most of the time they were anticipating my next move and already ahead of me.

Several months ago when I received an email from Deborah Turcotte of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife about this year’s Maine Moose Lottery, I began thinking that we could perhaps attend that event and broadcast live audio of the drawing.

I contacted Deborah and the Kittery Trading Post and we began making the plans of how we could do this and make it work. It wasn’t until after Bob Adams of KTP told me about the effort he was making to provide an Internet connection, did I realize that his service was good enough to also stream the video.

But in all honesty, I never dreamed we would get the viewers we did. Although Steve and I never actually discussed expectations, we both individually thought if we could muster up 20 or 30 people, maybe even as many as 50 viewers, we would have considered it a success.

For those who may not know, at our peak time we had over 400 viewers. That may very well have translated into over 600 different viewers or more being on line viewing the events throughout the night. I just don’t have those statistics.

As we watched the viewer count rise, so did our own excitement level. First we wondered to ourselves if we could ever reach 100 viewers. Then it was spoken questioning whether we could hit 200, 300 and 400.

Needless to say we were walking on thin air. The curiosity and excitement from the crowd was great. Many stopped by our table to ask about what were doing. Several in attendance called friends, neighbors and family members once they discovered they could see the event live online. In short, the responses we got from everyone - attendees, IFW personnel, KTP staff, television and radio people - was astounding.

It wasn’t without some glitches though. Two of the biggest come to mind. First was dealing with audio problems but once I got a handle on it and tweaked the audio and video quality and learned how to adjust the volume better on the mixer, for the most part the audio came out pretty good.

The second issue was getting booted off line twice during production. I don’t have an answer why that happened, but after the second time, we lost a sizable amount of viewers.

Once I figure out a better way to become more mobile with the video camera, we can get better quality video. Without having to spend thousands of dollars, we are pretty limited with power cords and USB video cables.

I want to thank everyone who was gracious enough to stop by the table and participate in an interview. I had a great time talking with everyone and I hope I was kind enough to you that you will consider doing it again.

Thanks again to everyone and already we are thinking about next year or the next event.

Tom Remington