SYNC YOUR VIDEO WITH YOUR AUDIO By Mwangi Ndegwa

Sasha was seated with her dad watching her favourite kid’s show. She was secretly happy that she was having more time with her father. The COVID-19 pandemic had seen to it that her dad was at home until the government confirmed it was okay for people to return to work. The only group of people allowed to go out were those responsible for essential services i.e:medical, security, and other emergency services like the fire brigade.

Her father was also in a way happy that at least, he could slow down and unwind from the marathon that his work had been and he was now able to stay home without feeling guilty. He rarely had time to be with his lovely wife and daughter because he was always traveling from one county to another or from one country to another. The business meetings would sometimes go late into the night and he would always arrive home when his daughter was already asleep. The morning hours were no different because he usually left the house very early in the morning before his daughter had woken up.

He was maximizing on this moment because he was not sure whether there would be another like it once ‘normal’ life resumed. The show he was watching with his daughter was cartoon comics and although he wasn’t a fan of cartoons, he was willing to overlook that for the sake of his daughter. As they were enjoying the show, something happened. The show went to a commercial break and up popped a video of a local artist. The song that was playing was a very popular one but the daughter noted something: the video and audio were not in unison. They were totally not in sync. The sound from the speakers and the lip movement were not in tandem.

Sasha asked her father what the problem was. It was at this juncture that her father explained to her that during the recording and editing of the video, the editor had not balanced the audio and the visual and that was why one first saw the lip movement before the sound. It was called in production language SYNCING. Videos with this error are not enjoyable to watch because it’s like you are watching two different things at the same time.

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While the above may be a story, it is very commonly found in a very large percentage of the populace. You hear somebody talking big, saying what they are planning to do: a mega project worth billions or somebody saying they are going to be in perfect physical shape in a month’s time or a student saying what they want to be in future and yet for all their big talk, all the people mentioned above are not putting the necessary efforts in to achieving their dreams & aspirations. How can you say, you expect a bumper harvest while you have not even prepared the land you intend to plant your crops on?  You cannot expect to be in good physical shape when you are just feeding on junk while giving the gym a wide berth. A student can never pass their exams or have a good career if they are not putting enough effort in to their studies.

Wishes have never translated into reality and if all you do is wish, wish, wish, then you can be sure that you and success will never meet. We need to match our word with actions and it is only then, that we can say we are expecting good returns.

NB:COVID-19 is real so please let’s heed the precautions given by the government. It is for our own good. To read more posts by Mwangi, click HERE