There is a new live stream video on Steve Lookner’s Lookner channel on YouTube, entitled “LIVE Atlanta Piedmont Park Walkaround - 1st Outdoor Stream!":

In this video we see him going for a walk, using his phone to record his travels. He starts near the intersection of 14th Street and West Peachtree Street NW in Midtown Atlanta, and proceeds to head toward Piedmont Park.

While walking, he talks about how he’s trying out the technology he has available to him for this style of outdoor live streaming. He discusses the microphone he’s using with his phone, and he tries out switching between the front and back cameras on his phone. Steve also talks about the tall buildings he passes or can see, and how the area has been developing since he moved in near by.

Once arriving at the park’s entrance, he shows off the gate. After proceeding through the gate, he stops briefly at a peace monument from 1911, before looking at some athletic fields that include baseball diamonds and soccer fields.

He decides to show the viewing audience some birds, and starts to walk towards Lake Clara Meer, a large pond or a small lake. As he gets closer to the edge of the water, he sees some Canada geese and some ducks.

After leaving the lake and the ducks, Steve walks to a large open area, where there are surprisingly few people. He talks about how events like music festivals are held in the park, and he also points out some large buildings that can be seen in the distance. He continues to walk, again showing off part of the pond/lake, and then another large open grassy field area.

Coming upon a sign with a map of the park, he shows the viewers where he has walked through the park so far. For viewers not familiar with Atlanta and not familiar with Piedmont Park, this part of the video probably helps them understand better where he has walked so far, and where he’ll be walking soon after.

While continuing to walk, he talks briefly about visiting various other attractions and places in Georgia or that would otherwise be relatively close to him. The chatters in the live chat give some suggestions. At one point a dog, apparently named Otis, runs up toward Steve.

Steve proceeds toward an area of the park with some dog parks. While on the way there, he stops briefly to look at the Piedmont Park Demonstration Orchard and its fruit trees. Not long after he arrives at the dog parks, where there is one fenced in area meant for larger dogs and another separate fenced in area meant for smaller dogs. He notes that there are few dogs in the small dog park area, and there are even some small dogs in the area meant for larger dogs!

After the visit to the dog park, he starts making his way back. He walks up some stairs, and shows off the pond/lake and some tall buildings that can be seen in the distance. He crosses a small bridge across the pond/lake, and shows off a swimming pool area. He continues to walk back through the park, stopping briefly at one point to show off a view of the Midtown Atlanta skyline.

Steve talks about how he’d be interested in visiting various cities, towns, and other places to make content, assuming the finances worked out. He proceeds back through the athletic fields area he had passed through earlier in the live stream, and back through the entrance gate he originally came in at. He walks down some of the nearby streets, again showing the viewers some of the various buildings that are in the area.

I liked this video. I have never been to Atlanta, and I didn’t even know that Piedmont Park existed until seeing this video, so it was a learning experience for me. Since he was just using a phone, and didn’t seem to be using anything to help stabilize the footage, it was shaky. This was annoying at first, but I think I got accustomed to it as he continued to film. For a first attempt at a live streaming video recorded on a phone and with lots of movement, I think it went relatively well.

• Karl

I recently watched the “Crushing Crunchy & Soft Things by Car! Experiment: Car vs Jackfruit” video from the Experiment with Everythings YouTube channel:

A car tire drives over various objects in this video. As far as I can see, the objects include a head of cauliflower, cobs of corn, some crunchy foods, a ceramic car, some plastic dog figurines, florescent light tubes, plastic drink containers, a plastic toy horse, a heart-shaped gift box, a container of marbles, a plastic jack-o’-lantern, a coconut, small lit candles in glass holders, a carved watermelon, and other items.

Some of the food items make a big mess when they’re crushed! This isn’t something I would do at home because of the safety risks and the mess it can make. But the video was fun to watch!

• Karl

There’s another live stream video on Steve Lookner’s new Lookner channel on YouTube, entitled “Back in Atlanta…and Monetized!":

This live stream session is recorded in Atlanta, now that Steve has just returned from Boston. He hasn’t even unpacked yet, so he says.

The channel is now monetized, but YouTube Super Chat wasn’t enabled in the live chat for some reason. Steve goes over to his computer to enable that functionality. A viewer named Steve D makes the channel’s first donation, in the amount of $3.00. Other viewers make some subsequent donations. For some reason Super Stickers couldn’t be sent, so Steve goes back to his computer to enable those. Viewer Steve D also sends the first Super Sticker, for an amount of $2.00. It shows a cat animation.

Steve (Lookner, not D) talks about how mobile streaming was enabled while he was in Boston, and that he did some streaming from his phone while there. He checks the quality of the current streaming. It’s not bad, but he says he’s going to improve the lighting. The phone appears to be limited to 720p, unfortunately. Some viewers report the stream is choppy.

He talks more about some equipment he’s ordered to try to improve the video quality. He’s ordered a bigger tripod for the phone or camera, instead of using the small hand-held tripod he’s been using so far. He also has a ring light on order, to try to improve the lighting.

Unfortunately, he admits that he didn’t have time to do a live stream about the dog while still in Boston. He says he was busy with family stuff instead, but says he’ll try to do it the next time he goes back to Boston.

He emphasizes that he wants to do other kinds of content aside from what he’s made so far. Regarding monetization, he thought it would take a month or possibly longer to get monetized, but while sitting on the plane waiting to take off he checked his email and got an email about monetization.

Steve talks about possibly doing some product reviews. He might get a stool for the kitchen area where he’s filming, instead of standing. He also likes the idea of doing streams on random topics, but he doesn’t want to do too many short random live streams in case it sounds out too many notifications that may start to annoy people. Live streaming also uses more phone battery, so he’ll need to remember to start bringing his battery pack with him.

A viewer reports in the live chat that they couldn’t see the live chat replays. Steve checks, and can’t see it on his iPad, but can see it on his computer. So maybe it depends on the device being used?

Steve talks about his flight from Boston back to Atlanta, reporting that he couldn’t control the TV in his seat. He will inform the plane company about it, and thinks he might get a small credit. He confirms that he is feeling better, and isn’t stick like he was in Boston earlier.

A chatter asks if he’ll do a tour of the room in his apartment that he has set up as his Agenda-Free TV YouTube channel studio, but Steve is hesistant to do that. He doesn’t necessarily want to be helping other people who might want to create a show similar to his. He does go into the studio room briefly, but only to show off the YouTube award that he has mounted on the wall, without really showing the rest of the room.

He says that he has to go grocery shopping at some point. He got some carrots to eat on the plane, but isn’t sure that they’re still good, as they hadn’t been refrigerated for a while. He also shows a container of two week old tuna, adding that he won’t be eating it and will throw it away instead. He couldn’t go shopping since getting back because the flight he was on had been delayed 3 hours due to the weather.

Steve wraps up the video by thanking a number of viewers. One viewer asks if he’ll have a Christmas tree, but he says no, as he doesn’t have a good place in his apartment to put it. He likes a functional apartment, with few decorations.

This probably isn’t a very interesting video for people who haven’t been following Steve and his work on his new Lookner channel. It’s more of an update than anything else, but I think it’s also setting the stage for some promising future videos.

• Karl

I have watched the “Crushing Crunchy & Soft Things by Car! Experiment Car vs Charcoal” video on the Experiment with Everythings YouTube channel:

In this video, a car time is shown driving over various objects. From what I can see, they include things like tomatoes, apples or other fruits, a bottle of some kind of lotion, empty drink bottles with lids on, candy, plastic toy helicopters, drink cans, superhero figurines, ceramic pottery, a drink glass, a plastic toy chicken, and other things I couldn’t recognize!

I wouldn’t try this at home, because of the mess involved and the possible danger, but I did find the video to be entertaining.

• Karl

There is a new video on the Lookner channel on YouTube, entitled “Mobile Live Streaming ENABLED!".

This is the first major non-studio streaming video! Steve is filming from Boston, from a room in his parents’ house.

Somehow he started two streams, so he has to go into another room, to a computer there, to get rid of one of the streams. It looks like a studio with a green screen that he uses when he’s there in Boston. He alerts the viewers of the other stream about the actual one, and deletes the other stream.

He’s filming using his phone, since mobile live streaming had just been enabled. Once he’s back in Atlanta he says he’ll have to figure out the lighting situation.

Steve had made one video outside, but it wasn’t live, so this stream is the first one with live video from his phone. He thinks he’ll use the phone for streams indoors, but not in the studio. He checks the audio, because he’s using a microphone that works with his phone.

He says that he’s submitted the monetization application for his new Looker YouTube channel, but thinks that it might take a month before it’s approved.

A viewer, possibly joking, offers to donate an iPhone to Steve. He does say that he might upgrade his phone if he ends up doing a lot of streaming. One with a wide-angle lens could be useful, he suggests. Some of the viewers suggest a GoPro camera, but Steve isn’t sure if such a camera would be able to live stream to YouTube like his phone can.

Steve explains how he’s been busy with family stuff while in Boston. He visited his dad in a care facility, visited his brother and family, had dinner with his mom, and walked the dog. He also had a high school reunion, and he enjoyed it.

He gets some water, and it shows how flexible live streaming can be. He’s happy that live streaming is enabled, as he can now make a lot more videos once he’s back in Atlanta. Steve talks about how he doesn’t want to buy equipment prematurely. He’d rather try making some videos, to see what he actually needs. He says he has watched some videos about blogging equipment, and might get some small panel lights.

Steve goes downstairs in his parents’ house, as he has to move out of the room he had previously been using. He leaves briefly to check something upstairs about 30 minutes into the video, and points the camera at some window blinds for about 2-and-a-half minutes! So your stream probably isn’t broken, you just need to give it some time until he returns!

He answers a few questions from users, and shows off the external battery pack that he uses with his phone so he can use it longer while live streaming. He’s also using a small tripod to hold the phone. He thinks a wide-angle lens would be good to get, but doesn’t think he’ll get a stabilizer just yet, although he may get a small lavalier microphone. According to Steve, his phone is about 3 years old, but it was a high spec phone back then.

Steve talks briefly about notifications, asking the audience if and how they got notified. He also mentions that there’s a Discord channel that viewers can chat on.

He talks about the predicted snow storm, but doesn’t think that it will interfere with his flight back to Atlanta. Before heading back he’s hoping to do a live stream with the dog, but the dog is currently sleeping and Steve doesn’t want to wake him up.

Steve wraps up by thanking the moderators and viewers.

I found it unusual to be seeing Steve outside of the Agenda-Free TV studio setting where he’s been for so many of the other videos of his that I’ve watched. It is good that live streaming has been enabled, because I think it will give him a lot more freedom to create a much wider variety of content for his new Lookner channel. I’m really looking forward to seeing what he is able to create!

• Karl