Viewing Guide for Care Homes

Our Viewing Guide for Care Homes

We have prepared a comprehensive guide to help get you up and running in no time. You’ll soon be ready to live stream our amazing concerts for all your residents to enjoy.

Not only that but your residents relatives and friends will be able to watch the same concerts from their own homes and will be able to talk about the performances with their loved ones at a later date, bringing a real sense of connection through the shared enjoyment.

Click on the sections below to reveal detailed explanations.

Each week, we will generate a link to a YouTube page for the next concert. This link will be clearly visible on our home page. Simply click on the link for front row seats at the concert!

Please note:

  • You don’t have to have a YouTube account to access the concert.
  • The concert will start automatically at the scheduled time.
  • Remember to connect speakers to your computer for better sound, or stream the concert through a large screen TV.
  • Try to use a cable (ethernet) connection to your broadband (rather than wi-fi) for greater livestream stability and better quality.
  • Enter “full screen” mode in YouTube for the best viewing experience.

Please join in the conversation in the comments box. Tell us where you’re watching from, ask questions to the musicians – anything you like. We’d love to hear from you!

We’ll pass your comments and questions to the musicians, who will reply live on screen.

In more normal times, it was part of daily life to welcome the many visitors, entertainers, musicians and others who came to enrich the lives of the residents.

Just as you would welcome and introduce your guests in person, these concerts also need a host – someone to act as a welcoming, helpful friend, to watch over the proceedings, monitor the equipment and act as go between for the performers and your residents. Ideally, this will be the same person every week.

Open the YouTube link 10 minutes before the concert starts. You should see an image but you wont hear any sound at first. The sound will go live when the concert is introduced.

(You can also check the link in the preceding days as there will be an Artists ’n Residents holding page there.)

To the right of the YouTube screen, you will see a chat column. Here, the dedicated Care Home Concert Host will be able to pass on comments from the audience directly to the musicians, be they praise, criticism, observations or requests. Simply type them in – and between pieces (or sometimes at the end), the musicians will read out and respond to as many as possible.

This is an important aspect of these concerts being live rather than pre-recorded – it’s all about connection.

It’s also worth noting that Relatives and Friends may also be watching the concert, so please be ready to draw attention to their comments and relay them to the resident concerned. This all adds to the live, shared experience.

Some suggestions for improving your broadband/wifi connectivity

We are working with the performers to bring you the best quality experience possible. As much as we can do at our end and all you can do at your end, the final quality of the image and sound is at the mercy of our internet connections.

Some areas of the country have better connection than others, but here are some steps you can take to help improve your connection:

  • Use a cable; If it is practical, try connecting your computer/lap top directly to your hub via an ethernet cable – and then turn your computer’s wi-fi off. A cable connection can often work much better than wi-fi.
  • If you’re using wi-fi, try to have your computer/lap top as close to the hub as possible.
  • You may experience problems if there is a lot of other internet traffic going on at the same time on your network e.g. streaming films, Skype calls etc. If you can cut down this kind of heavy usage at the time of the concert, it can help improve the quality enormously, avoiding frozen images, loss of signal and distortion.

If you have a useful ‘geek’ anywhere in your neighbourhood, please ask them for help with setting up. And if they can’t resolve it, we will try to help walk you through your connections as much as possible.

Each situation will bring about individual challenges. For some personalised tech guidance and general assistance, please mail, message or call Nick Cohen – who will do his best to help: 
nick@artistsandresidents.org 
07944 078 931

Thank you for taking the time to read all of this – and please feel free to offer feedback or suggestions. 

It’s so important for care home residents to connect with the world and to experience and enjoy live music. Without your help, we simply could not bring these concerts to your residents – and we deeply appreciate your support.

Thank you.

Jennie Muskett and Nick Cohen