Donea Boiner
Newequipment 4418 Ned Talks 1 Promo
Newequipment 4418 Ned Talks 1 Promo
Newequipment 4418 Ned Talks 1 Promo
Newequipment 4418 Ned Talks 1 Promo
Newequipment 4418 Ned Talks 1 Promo

Introducing "NED Talks," Our Soon-to-Be-Regular Webshow

Sept. 28, 2017
Our somewhat awkward editors venture from their comfort zones to bring you a video interview and demo with one of the wearable industry's top strategists, RealWear CEO Andy Lowery.

You know how we always tell you to learn to stop worrying and love whatever hot new machine or tool on the market is? From collaborative robots to 3D printers, we push a lot of advanced products, services, and methodologies your way. And now, after 81 years, we at New Equipment Digest, or NED, have decided to dive right into the 21st century with a regular web show called NED Talks. (We'd call it a vlog, but we still have some self-respect.)

While the show's name may sound derivative of another very similar sounding (and really awesome) tech-based lecture series, we want to temper any preconceived expectations on current production quality. Please consider this our prototype, or proof of concept, of a product we hope to give you on the regular.

Editor Travis Hessman looks on quizzically as writer John Hitch records RealWear CEO Andy Lowery demonstrating how to use the HMT-1 voice-driven wearable.

We've been talking manufacturing tech since 1936, so we can vouch for the content, but up until this point, most of our video work has consisted of recording kids' birthdays' with low-end smartphones. And as it turns out, my former life as sonar technician in the Navy did not translate to capturing high quality audio that would withstand YouTube's compression meat grinder. Therefore, the audio isn't what we expected, but how many prototypes nail it the first time around? With new equipment, we guarantee this issue will be fully resolved.

The best part about this pilot episode, besides figuring out how to convert this from an AVCHD file to edited iMovies to Youtube, was that we had the honor of having Andy Lowery as our first guest. The current CEO of RealWear, Inc., which embeds bleeding edge voice-recognition software in wearable computers, was a chief engineer at Raytheon, the president of smart helmet maker DAQRI, and recently retired as an officer in the US Navy Reserve, where he worked with nuclear power and radar.

Saying he knows his stuff is an understatement, as is telling you he's down to earth. He demonstrates how the HMT-1 voice-driven wearable with the energy of the late Billy Mays, while providing the context for why your plant needs to invest in wearable technology. One big reason is to have your retiring boomers create "an industrial YouTube" with captured video, so when they retire, there's a video library for every maintenance procedure in the plant.

Check out the HMT-1's specs at the NED Directory.

Here are both videos, broken up into our interview with Lowery, and than a full on demo of the HMT-1, which ends with our editor Travis Hessman trying it on. We think it's a great option that anyone can learn how to use in a  few minutes, and we hope that comes through int he videos. Please take a look and feel free to give us your thoughts in the comment section or by emailing [email protected] or [email protected]. You can also let us know what you want us to feature in an upcoming episode.

INTERVIEW: