Evolution of Mirai Live

[Scrogdor]

* In favor of livestreams, there will be "Mirai Academy", which will "answer all your questions in a timely manner as they come up"

This seems like an untapped source of revenue in bonsai. I'm not sure if this is what is planned, but a mobile app where you can take videos/pictures and either pay a premium subscription service for consultation on design, wiring, etc... or pay per consultation/question. Of course, there is the bnut community which I love, as well as other bonsai forums, but they're more of a group effort and learning/discovery experience. There is no easy source of paid direct professional consultation anywhere. I'm thinking like personal trainers but for bonsai. Seems like there is definitely a market for this kind of thing with how much popularity bonsai has gained in the past 4-5 years.

I also actually just subbed to Mirai to get access to all the old live streams, they are incredibly in-depth, and nothing like them is available elsewhere. It's always great when you get some breakthroughs in your thought process watching educational content.

 

[BrightsideB]

Translated subtitles is one thing. But that robotic ai voice is really annoying at least for me. But I’m aware it will be much better soon.

 

[Wood]

In an interview with a newspaper, Ryan said he struggles to make ends meet. I was surprised to hear that. Do we know how many subscribers Mirai has ?

for example :
1000 subs X $20 per month = $20.000 each month.
10.000 x 20 = $200.000/month

Maybe it could be interesting for him to create a minimal (low cost) account ($5 or $10/month) with a reduced number of lessons in the library. The essential lessons (wiring/watering/ etc)
(For example, Netflix offers a low cost membership with advertisements)

The counterpoint is that live streams have 5(?) people working them simultaneously. Ryan, two operators for the main and detail cameras, someone reading questions, and doing production/switching between cameras. That's a lot of man-hours to pay for

changes and refocuses to the way that in person education at Mirai works. This certainly excites me, as I aspire to take courses there someday.

Good luck. The grapevine rumor (from a former longtime Mirai intensive student) I've heard is that prospective Mirai students must first audition at First Branch with Todd Schlafer to show that they're not wasting Ryan's time

This seems like an untapped source of revenue in bonsai. I'm not sure if this is what is planned, but a mobile app where you can take videos/pictures and either pay a premium subscription service for consultation on design, wiring, etc... or pay per consultation/question.

Doesn't he already do this in the pro-level live Q+As? This has been part of Bjorn's Q+As for a long time -- about once a month he'll go through pre-submitted photos and text questions and suggest design changes, diagnose diseases/problems, etc

 

[B-Trees]

so I have worked in the localization space and what I can say is that it's incredibly difficult and expensive to create good translations. yeah an AI can give it a decent shot and it might even result in a useful output if you don't care about proper nouns or cultural context (or the carbon output of training the models), but even today it's no substitute for what well-paid people can accomplish. it's hugely important for accessibility, not just for translations but for sighted/ deaf/ hard-of-hearing (SDH) folks, but unfortunately the budgets are just not there - and not just for Mirai but for major research universities and government agencies, too.

I can only afford Mirai sparingly, a month or two here-and-there when I know I'll have time to watch or have a specific species or technique I want to learn about. so, I'm just glad to hear we'll get more pictures of beautiful trees on the website

 

[Wood]

yeah an AI can give it a decent shot and it might even result in a useful output if you don't care about proper nouns or cultural context (or the carbon output of training the models), but even today it's no substitute for what well-paid people can accomplish

and I bet the Japanglish we constantly use will really make things easier

 

[BobbyLane]

This seems like an untapped source of revenue in bonsai. I'm not sure if this is what is planned, but a mobile app where you can take videos/pictures and either pay a premium subscription service for consultation on design, wiring, etc... or pay per consultation/question. Of course, there is the bnut community which I love, as well as other bonsai forums, but they're more of a group effort and learning/discovery experience. There is no easy source of paid direct professional consultation anywhere. I'm thinking like personal trainers but for bonsai. Seems like there is definitely a market for this kind of thing with how much popularity bonsai has gained in the past 4-5 years.

I also actually just subbed to Mirai to get access to all the old live streams, they are incredibly in-depth, and nothing like them is available elsewhere. It's always great when you get some breakthroughs in your thought process watching educational content.

What you're suggesting there I'd imagine wouldn't come cheap, that would be extremely time consuming.

 

[WavyGaby]

Translated subtitles is one thing. But that robotic ai voice is really annoying at least for me. But I’m aware it will be much better soon.

Its definitely annoying with all the robot commentator Youtube videos now. I hope it doesnt get too much better though, lol! The thought of an AI voice that I can't tell is fake is frightening, kind of like that deep fake stuff.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

This seems like an untapped source of revenue in bonsai. I'm not sure if this is what is planned, but a mobile app where you can take videos/pictures and either pay a premium subscription service for consultation on design, wiring, etc... or pay per consultation/question... ...There is no easy source of paid direct professional consultation anywhere. I'm thinking like personal trainers but for bonsai. Seems like there is definitely a market for this kind of thing with how much popularity bonsai has gained in the past 4-5 years.

During the pandemic, I contacted Bjorn to ask if he would be interested in doing a video consultation over Zoom. He politely declined - stating that he had tried it a couple of times and it didn't really work out as well as either party had hoped.

I don't doubt that at some point in the future, perhaps when you can model a tree in 3D and manipulate it in 3D in real time, that it might be possible. Right now I don't think the technology is quite there - at least at the household / real-time level.

 

[Maiden69]

During the pandemic, I contacted Bjorn to ask if he would be interested in doing a video consultation over Zoom. He politely declined - stating that he had tried it a couple of times and it didn't really work out as well as either party had hoped.

I completely agree with this at the level that Bjorn work in person, from the feedback given here by a few members like BVF. But I think it would still be beneficial, especially in a case like my own, having very limited experience in bonsai. I am planning on scheduling one with Sergio in the near future, once I have a few trees with decent bone structure to start selecting primary/secondary lines.

 

[clem]

This is huge. With all the talk about AI I have always said - a killer app for AI is a real-time fluent language translator.

Even the best text translator is stilted and awkward and you would never mistake it for a fluent native speaker. Real-time translation of video? Forget about it!

Reminds me of when I was living in Europe and I would go see an American motion picture. The actors were speaking English, it was dubbed in German, and it had French sub-titles. I always laughed when I could lip-read the English - and the German translation was nothing like what was being said!

I dunno if it is youtube AI or a skilled human translator who did the translation on this video, but i think most of people who don't understand english (or japanese) would love to get it on the Mirai lessons ^^

 

[hampton]

I was waiting to see if there was a thread on this, missed this one some how. I've very much enjoyed the livestreams but, similarly to others, I haven't always been able to make them. As someone who is relatively new to the bonsai practice I'm very much looking forward to the calendar - I'm frequently struck with decision paralysis and am hoping this can help direct my energy at key times.

All in all I am looking forward to downloading the app and appreciate Ryan/Mirai for pushing the envelope

 

[BobbyLane]

You guys know you dont have to catch the streams as they go live right, you can catch up after. If lifestyle dictates that you never had the time to watch the livestreams or catch them later on the website then fair enough
I guess youre not really missing out on anything...

 

[ForrestW]

I am interested in where it goes. What I am most interested in thought is -- what I think he indicated, was that he had gone through his library and compressed the 2 hour sessions to shorter narrated videos focusing on all the key parts of the lesson. I enjoyed his long free flow videos but can rarely make the time for that long of a block of time.

 

[Maiden69]

You guys know you dont have to catch the streams as they go live right, you can catch up after. If lifestyle dictates that you never had the time to watch the livestreams or catch them later on the website then fair enough
I guess youre not really missing out on anything...

Yes, but the good thing about catching the streams is that you can ask question pertaining the work, and Ryan answer them on the spot. Also, if there is something he explains that just went over your head a question in the chat can clarify it.

 

[pandacular]

I rewatched the app announcement livestream. The most important quote: On Tuesday nights, I’m going to be a dad.

I also somewhat missed this, but it seems like there is a wider rebrand to Mirai Academy. Along with that includes website changes, which I’m hopeful includes a video player with the re-indexed archive. If I was on the team rolling this out, I’d be very nervous about this big launch!

It is fun seeing Ryan talk about software. He kind of makes it sound like magic, which is probably not too different to how I would sound talking about the details of trees.

 

[BobbyLane]

You guys know you dont have to catch the streams as they go live right, you can catch up after. If lifestyle dictates that you never had the time to watch the livestreams or catch them later on the website then fair enough
I guess youre not really missing out on anything...

Ah I see.
Being in a different timezone i'd never be able to catch them as they go live. But I can still hear the Q n A's on the recorded versions. The videos are long and dense so I usually feel like most things are covered.

 

[Paradox]

To be honest, I always wondered about the work load associated with everything he was doing. To have a livestream once per week is one thing. To have a livestream AND run a nursery AND go to all the big shows is another. It is extremely difficult to keep that level of quality content up for years and years. He had several employees to help - but even that adds a layer of complexity.

I was thinking the same. Weekly streams might have been a bit too ambitious to keep up with (both as producer and audience) and he might be running out of new content?

Once or twice month might have been more realistic.

The "answer all your questions in a timely manner" thing could end up snowballing into an unmanageable issue as well.

How many times would you want to answer those same common questions that get asked all the time over and over? Hopefully there will be some kind of FAQ that can help alleviate that.

 

[pandacular]

Mirai Live is currently down for maintenance, so it seems like the app and site relaunch are coming tomorrow. I’m excited to give it a shot!

 

[pandacular]

The updated landing page for Mirai Live is up, but it seems to only be changed when you’re logged out. This page features some details about the app at the two tiers.

Academy | Bonsai Mirai Live

Bonsai Mirai presents online live video streams of Bonsai professional Ryan Neil from the premier full-service American bonsai nursery and school located just outside of Portland, Oregon.

live.bonsaimirai.com

Standard - $17.99/month

Mirai Mobile Access:​

• Daily Tips
• General Care Calendars for Pine, Juniper, Elongating and Broadleaf Species in the “Calendar” section and one piece of sample content for each of the 15 sub-genres of species specific calendars as they launch.
• Add and track up to 5 trees in the “My Trees” section.
• Access to How to Make a Bonsai and Bonsai Basics Academy Courses.

Pro — $29.99/mont

Mirai Mobile Access:​

• Everything included with Standard, plus…
• Access to all sub-genres of species specific calendar content.
• Tracking of 25 trees, up to 20 images per tree in the “My Trees” section, additional tree capacity available as an upgrade.
• Full access to Academy Courses.
• First access to new feature launches.

 

[Maiden69]

Have not had a chance to check but I thought he said that the app was going to be available starting yesterday. Either way, I plan on staying on the Pro tier until I see that I get nothing out of it. And knowing Mirai content and the direction Ryan is taking it it will be a long time before I reach that state.