Category: Zone BBS Icon 2006
Hello, everyone:
As i said in another topick for a first time project i found zone icon really good and very impresive. Having contestants from all over the world was really amasing.
I enjoyed the icon shows very much.
I have got some suggestions about a future zone icon.
First of all i think one of the genres we should be judge should be our ability to sing backing vocals as well as solo.
The only one i know can do backing vocals for sure is lonestar because she always has backing vocals in her profiles. In my oppinion backing vocals are very important for a singer. I don't think i am good at them but i admire people who can perform them.
Also maybe a voice improvisation would be good too.
Also i think there should be an application simmilar to comunity leaders for people to become judges or part of the audio team.
This is what i can think for now.
Again it was a very good job.
Nikos
lol All I have to say is that I am looking forward to seeing Jesse and nick6489 be a part of icon's staff next season. Jesse's definetly got the musical talent to judge propperly, and nick's audio productions are phenominal! hehe You've only got to listen to his audio profiles to know that he'll go places with it! So guys? How about the two of you be in charge of icon's second season? heheheh Oh yeah. And icon should be held in the summer months. lol I think it's less stress for everyone involved that way. Yay for that!
Michelle
I like your ideas Michelle.
Also another thing that should be organised better was the zone icon website. Not the website that members could see but the other website www.zonebbs.com/icon.
This site hasn't been updated for long time. There was a basick introduction about the zone in general and icon but never said anything about the contestants, vote results etc.
But i hope nobody will get me wrong. I said a lot of times how much i enjoyed zone icon. I just say about these little thing to improove next year.
Make it clear what is expected if you make it into the top 10 before the contest starts. This way people who can't be there at the recording times won't enter.
Speaking as one who didn't follow the drama etc. that went along with this year's icon, I thought the shows sounded pretty damned good.
I do think more rules set out ahead of time, could have avoided some problems and headaches. I mean, if you have a rule for something, then everyone knows where he/she stands. Break them and you pay the consequences.
I think communications to us proletariat junkies was ugh lacking. The staff got some criticism at the beginning for "pushing" icon, and I think they became gun shy. However, the icon page was hard to tell whether or not it had been changed and what had been changed on it. A simple date last updated field might have helpped me out, and reorganization with questions like "is there a show going on" and "is there anything to vote on" could have all been put near the top so I could have known what was expected of me. I would have also liked news flashes like what happens when you log on if there is a news update pertaining to happenings in icon.
Anyway, those are just my thoughts, and I just want to say good job folks.
Bob
Michelle,
Regarding Zone icon and my potential involvement in it, as you may now I run an internet radio station. I'll say this here and now. Ever since Jammin backed out of the streaming of Zone Icon, my station, HKC Radio, has been organising a push to bring Zone Icon to the station. We, that is to say myself and the other people on the board of directors, want in and want to have an active role in coordinating and producing zone icon. We understand the reclamation project ahead of us, and believe me, it is a reclamation project, simply to regain the trust of much of the zone colective. And Michelle, if you think my audio is great, you've not seen anything yet. There's an australien on my station whose work exceeds mine in quality by a load, who I'd most certainly put on Icon's audio team.
I've said this before and I'll say it again. icon was a fantastic venture. If much of what my friend and HKC Radio promotional director Chris, zone user west factor, has seen is any indicator, the zone doesn't trust zone icon to succeed. I'd like to work to change that.
Firstly I need to clear up a miss conception that many people seem to be under. Namely that Jammin withdrew their backing from Zone Icon. It was actually an icon staff decision to remove Jammin's streaming rights from the show. This was due to a multitude of problems that we had with the station, some of which are public knowledge, like the week when the station kept dropping out just before The sweetheart's performance was set to play, others which aren't in the public domain and at this stage, I see no good reason why that should change.
I realize that all of the above seems a little off topic but I have 2 reasons for bringing it up on this board. Firstly because as an icon committee member I find it highly irksome that the rumor appears to have been spread that Jammin removed itself backing from the show because of their disappointment with Zone Icon's overall performance, when in fact the case was completely the opposite. Secondly, to give this posting some relevance to this topic, I'm not sure whether or not outside broadcasting would be a good idea next year. Nick please understand that I don't say this in anyway to bash either yourself or your station, it's just that the general feeling after the whole Jammin debacle among the staff of this icon was that keeping it in house was the best option.
Of course we too had problems during our broadcasts after Jammin was dropped, but the important difference was that we were quickly able to identify the problem, namely somebody maliciously crashing the website, and to put a stop to it for future broadcasts.
I must say though Nick that your enthusiasm to take the project on next year is definitely refreshing to see and if it does happen again and your station should get the nod, then I'd wish you all the best.
So far as the show itself is concerned the one thing that I'd strongly suggest to next years icon team is that they have double dismissals every week because we the staff certainly felt that this years contest dragged on too long. I suspect that that goes for quite a lot of the listeners too.
To anybody getting involved next year, the very best of luck.
Signed, somebody who'll definitely not be getting involved next year.
Dan.
Thanks for the vote of confidence. Lol! I'd definitely be a judge next year, but only if I could be working with great people as well, and we'd have to change a couple things.
Other than that, for a first run of the show, let me just say everyone did wonderfully, regarding the judges, audio team, and performers. Sure, stuff got messed up, but what's without mistakes? Even American Idol had it's problems.
On behalf of JAMMIN' I am going to say this about Zone Icon. At the start of the project, we at this station were delighted to work with such awesome people. As time went on however, we realized that some of the Icon staff started taking this project to a fanatical proportion. It was said a few posts ago, that JAMMIN' was voted off the icon staff, due to it's inability to produce an uninterrupted show. After looking at this technical malfunction we realized that the encoding of the file was at fault that week, not our station. I think we must all keep in mind that there is a group of audio guys working on this one file, and using different computers. So we don't know how this encoding happened this way, but it caused a malfunction with our broadcasting software. We noted this because it happened at the same part of the show for the rest of that night. JAMMIN' does its best to produce work that is of excellent quality. We were sad to be kicked from this project, but we felt that the contestants should not have to pay for the issues among Icon staff. So although we were pulled from the project, we did not revoke our sponsorship. There were quite a few JAMMIN' staff who thought we should revoke sponsorship after such treatment, but we all stopped to think about the contestants and how it would effect them. For next years icon, if there is one, rules need to be written out for all persons involved. The Icon became quite furious when one of it's judges leaked information that was to remain confidential. Granted each person is only allowed one vote and what was leaked didn't make a difference in the voting. But there needs to be a confidentiality agreement written out and agreed to by all staff. But also there needs to be a person in charge of public relations. Kai's way of writing to the public was less than desireable. Also like another poster said, all information relating to what will be expected of the contestants needs to be given before a person enters. Icon lost an awesome singer, because she was not well informed. Also the Icon staff needs to remember to be professional when working on Icon, but keep in mind theyare zoners outside that meeting. JAMMIN' hopes that all involved have learned from this experience.
Warmest Regards,
The JAMMIN' 85.3 team
A friendly rebuttle to Dan's comment.
If Icon was to broadcast on HKC Radio, one of two situations would occur.
I still think it'd be safer for whoever's gonna administrate the rest of Icon to be able to administerate the server as well. That way, nobody else gets blamed. Keep it all in-house, agree on file standards, and roll with it.
With the way I'd want to do things though, there would be less behind the scenes magic, and more live stuff going on.
I'll agree with the latter part of that statement. it's just that while I do want to help with zone icon, I am also thinking in the terms of my own internet radio station here.
I vote for keeping things in house.
That way there's less confusion, and less things to go wrong.
Overall I think that Zone Icon was a success.
Hats off to all the Icon staff for putting something out that was a pleasure to listen to.
The only negative thing from my perspective, was the whole thing with Aaron, but, I've said what I had to say about this in another topic.
So, overall, good work, and I really think that Icon should be presented next year again.
2 Minor suggestions though:
Let's create a "ZI ideas" board, so Zoners can post their ideas on the contest, and when time comes, the Icon staff can have a look at all the suggestions/ideas, and maybe incorporate the useful ones into the next Zone Icon.
Secondly:
I think that during each round, the contestanst should prepare 2 songs, each in a different genre.
Cut out on all the talking inbetween, put a limit on the length of
the songs, e.g. 2-3 minutes at the most.
This way, Zone Icon can be more challenging, and we will have a better idea of how the respective contestants will handle different genres.
Speaking of genres, include jazz, blues, ... even more classical genres.
Two songs is good when it hits four people, and then three for the top two. That will give people more of an opportunity to know the vocalists' abilities.
The positive side to having to songs per contestant is if they do bad on one, they get to redeme themselves with the otherone, thouhg the opposite is true if they do good on one then they could do bad on the other and ruin themselves.
But it would make the show longer than it needed to be, and it would also give more stress to the contestants in having to find more than one song.
I think the only advantiages with having more than one song would be the first week if you're having to do acappella, and the last week when it's the two finalists.
Between those times, one song per contestant should do.
Enjoyed it.
I have to agree with post 16:
I think that the fewer contestants are in the running, give them more to sing, cut out a little on all the inbetween talking, and let those finalists sing.
Make it more challenging the further they get.
But over all, a good effort, and I really enjoyed it.