The Ben Heck Show is Finishing up - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 08, 2018, 01:10:33 pm
content: History of TBHS and announcing he's quitting the show in June.

author: alanb
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2018, 01:13:16 pm
content: Interesting that he is finishing in June. I wonder if Element 14 will continue the show without him.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 08, 2018, 01:25:12 pm
content: Quote from: alanb on February 08, 2018, 01:13:16 pmThey'd have to either start from scratch with a new talent, or try and recruit an existing popular Youtuber to bring in their audience.They likely still have a big yearly advertising budget for social media, and one of the KPI's will no doubt continue to be a Youtube channel, so odds are they won't drop it entirely.

author: hayatepilot
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2018, 01:32:39 pm
content: Next up:"Element14's The Dave Jones Show"

author: beanflying
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2018, 01:35:16 pm
content: Happy sad times. Done properly Ben can do what he loves and make a $ going forward because of the E14/Heck show back catalogue and fans.E14's advertorial (generally subtle and not heavy) will suffer in the short term no matter what they do or who gets to host it.

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2018, 03:00:14 pm
content: Quote from: hayatepilot on February 08, 2018, 01:32:39 pmlooking forward to it !!

author: lukier
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 08, 2018, 03:08:46 pm
content: Good riddance I'd say. I never really liked his show, it was rather content poor, full of buzzwords, gimmicks and very little knowledge to be gained. Waste of time.Compare that to, let's say, The Signal Path - even though I'm not an RF guy, don't have RF gear and most of his videos are RF oriented (even when he reviews a scope he seems to love the FFT function the most) I still watch his videos, as they are very informational and well presented (experiments, explanations etc).

author: netdudeuk
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2018, 06:50:09 pm
content: Quote from: lukier on February 08, 2018, 03:08:46 pmI think that this is rather unfair.He has done lots of interesting projects demonstrating what it says during the intro - engineering (CAD, 3D printing, laser and CNC cutting), electronics, coding, etc. People got to see all this for free.However, the fairly recent format change (especially that glue gun) really didn't suit me. Although similar design work was included, it just didn't feel like TBHS. The comments showed that others agree. I like Ben and Felix. IMHO though, Karen didn't really add much. She could be a lovely person and all that but she hasn't contributed in a technical way like Felix does.I'll be sorry to see him go.As far as TSP is concerned, we've been very lucky to have Shahriar share his lab, his experiments, his tear downs, his repairs, etc. I subscribe to quite a few channels and reckon that TSP is pretty unique. He does some really in-depth stuff with high end equipment and I always learn something new. I'd say that TSP and TBHS have quite different audiences for the most part.

author: lukier
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 08, 2018, 08:18:15 pm
content: Quote from: netdudeuk on February 08, 2018, 06:50:09 pmMaybe a bit unfair. All the stuff you've mentioned is true, TBHS featured a variety of Maker's tools and demos, but it was all (in my opinion) extremely superficial and gimmicky. Not much substance. One of the saddest was his review of the brand new Tek scope.Compare that with the up and coming OpenTechLab YT channel. You want to learn something about logic analyzers? Then there is a one hour video where you'll learn the basics, see the low and mid-range devices in action, learn how it works and how to use the software etc. That is some real value (people pay for training to learn such stuff) and I guess the author put a lot of effort into making this video, despite not having a huge budget and a production team.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 08, 2018, 08:39:26 pm
content: Quote from: hayatepilot on February 08, 2018, 01:32:39 pmThey asked me (and others) way back when they asked Ben Heck. I said no.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 08, 2018, 08:44:03 pm
content: Quote from: lukier on February 08, 2018, 08:18:15 pmSpeaking of budgets, TBHS used to cost $15k per episode for third party editing and production.Not sure what it cost them in recent times, but the E14 rep in that video did say they had a whole team behind it.

author: janoc
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2018, 08:44:32 pm
content: I think Ben's problem was the creeping mutation of the content from "let's build something silly and fun" into "let's build something as an excuse to show the latest sponsored gadget/gizmo from Element 14 that a normal person would never have/buy".When I started to watch his show it was because he was showing some mechanical construction tricks and techniques that I didn't know and found them useful. That's what he has always been good at, given his background with arcade machines and pinballs.His electronics stuff has frequently been rather superficial and sometimes plain cringe worthy (like that episode where he plugged mains into a breadboard). It often showed that he was out of his depth on many things and was winging it. Which is okay if one realizes it and stays out of it as much as possible - nobody is expert on everything - but he pushed on (or was pushed to push on). With the result often feeling stilted and just not very interesting, especially when it was also an "advertainment" for yet another E14 product.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 08, 2018, 09:21:54 pm
content: Quote from: janoc on February 08, 2018, 08:44:32 pmTo E14 the show was yet another avenue they could offer sponsorship and advertising spots to companies, it would have been a standard part of their advertising rate sheet.When they couldn't fill the spots, they's include their own in-house advertising.All standard industry practice.A decent sized youtube channel can command say $5k per sponsored video spot in this market, but E14 would have been charging much more than that, in the 10's of thousands which would have paid for the episode's production.

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2018, 11:18:56 pm
content: Maybe the keyword here is "show", i.e. something easy to watch and not necessarily making brain work.

author: lukier
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 08, 2018, 11:54:06 pm
content: Quote from: wilfred on February 08, 2018, 11:11:13 pmOf course, as I've mentioned, it is my personal opinion. I just think there are better channels, which in my opinion are not a waste of time, like The Signal Path, OpenTechLab, or for example for people that want to be able to actually build some hobby projects and learn at the same time: Scullcom Hobby Electronics.I don't think TBHS shouldn't exist, for me it is rather the misallocation of resources problem. Think how much more valuable content could some other people produce with such budgets and production crew.

author: @rt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2018, 02:08:38 am
content: Superficial channel. I can’t say I really enjoyed any of it more than a good retro tear down.Getting a HD44780 Display working on breadboard in the 2010’s, and fucking it up? Please!I’m very sure that stuff is popular though.

author: janoc
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2018, 08:05:57 pm
content: Quote from: EEVblog on February 08, 2018, 09:21:54 pmSure, I am aware of that. But there is a difference between a channel that is being sponsored and thus shows an ad or gadget here and there and a channel where the sponsor pretty much becomes the content. I don't mind the first one if it is disclosed but the latter one risks degenerating into a farce. Maybe Ben is also burned out a little bit from all those years of doing this (one can build only so many NES and XBox portables ...) so he let them drive the script writing a bit too much.Also, speaking of the advertising - I have always had the impression that the adverts on Ben's show were very weird and poorly targeted. So you have a show aimed at beginners, the Arduino crowd and similar - but show ads for e.g. industrial switches or some PLC gear? What is the point of that?

author: @rt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 10, 2018, 05:43:42 am
content: The video linked above makes it clear that it’s project for the sake of making a video,rather than making a video because project. The perfect formula for wet dog poo.

author: beanflying
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 10, 2018, 06:39:04 am
content: To look at what it had become from what it was is more than a little unfair some of the earlier videos while yep made mistakes screwed up doing X fixed it by doing Y might seem bad there is a lot to be learned from them.When 'corporate' direction and marketing takes over from creative freedom it is obvious what the result will be, smooth polished stilted managed marketed crap is still crap no matter what.

author: @rt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 10, 2018, 07:07:32 am
content: It’s not like I hate the guy, and I guess nobody else does either.I hear he has little regard for formal programming. We might get alongEven my favourite video of his of all time, getting the Gameboy printer working... reveals some talent, but I could have done that,and still, I didn’t find it any more interesting than any of Dave’s most boring,or even most offensive, retro teardowns, such as the destruction of the CRT calibration equipment.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 10, 2018, 07:24:15 am
content: Quote from: janoc on February 09, 2018, 08:05:57 pmIt's always been a completely mis-aligned show from the target audience to E14's client base.But that doesn't matter, they have a KPI (Key Performance Indicator) to meet for social media content, and as long as they get the views, it doesn't matter who the audience is. They get to tick the box every month for social media content, and they get a platform to sell ad space to pay for it all. Heck, it might even generate a profit.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 10, 2018, 07:28:20 am
content: As for whether or not people like the show, you can't take away from the fact that it'sbloody hardto Come with almost a project a week, and document it on video, and continue to do that almost continuously for 8 years. Very few people could do that.

author: janoc
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 10, 2018, 01:44:19 pm
content: Quote from: EEVblog on February 10, 2018, 07:24:15 amYes, but then they can't be surprised they are unable to fill the advertising/sponsorship spots with external companies. Marketers aren't stupid, they know whether or not they are getting something worth their money or not.Quote from: EEVblog on February 10, 2018, 07:28:20 amAgreed completely. I don't know what Ben's motivations are but nobody can blame him for wanting to take a break from that sort of grind after such long time.I have worked as a radio sound engineer and was responsible for preparing the music for some shows - every week. Even that becomes a chore quickly if you don't want things to be repetitive. A 30 minutes show could take several hours of prep and I wasn't even writing the script, that was someone else's job. So having to write and produce the entire thing, for 8 years, hats off.

author: 3db
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 10, 2018, 08:56:30 pm
content: @lukierAnother unfair comparison.

author: tox3
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 11, 2018, 03:19:56 pm
content: His show was great. Showed loads of different skills, none of them in depth but still great