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| LG is offering $10,000 and a chance for budding vloggers to build the computer rig they've always wanted as part of its Dream Setup competition. Photo: LG |
Since the dawn of YouTube, anyone with a webcam and something to say has had a chance to become a bona fide superstar.
A huge portion of the vlogging celebrities on the Tube make their name and fame by reviewing technology or games — searching “let’s play,” the genre of YouTube videos in which vloggers entertain viewers by getting way into playing video games, yields some 7 million hits. “Unboxing” — literally videos of someone unboxing some new toy or gadget — pulls up more than 20 million.
That’s a lot of people vying for a lot of eyeballs, so it’s a bit strange that something like LG’sDream Setup competition hasn’t come around before. Singers need recording contracts, so they go to America’s Got Talent; inventors need investors, so they go to Shark Tank. What about aspiring vloggers, who need lots of expensive computer and recording gear to create competitively polished video content?
Dream Setup is part of LG’s UltraWide Festival 2015, and it’s also a competition to do for vloggers what Project Runway does for fashion designers: give them the opportunity to share their ideas for the perfect media-making rig, then help them realize it with a $10,000 prize.
The Dream Setup terms are simple. Applicants submit pictures and videos of their current hardware setups, whether at home, work, in the studio or wherever they get creative with their computers. These get uploaded along with a description of the rig they wish they had — their Dream Setup.
Winning rigs will be the most productive and efficient at giving users maximum creative control. It’s a rare chance for the vlogging community to get their hardware ideas heard, and a chance for LG to hear what vloggers have to say about hardware.
After the polls close on September 25, a crop of 30 semifinalists will be selected by three judges, each of them vlogging “Inspirers” in their own right: Linus Sebastian from computer review page LinusTechTips; Lewis Hilsenteger from Unbox Therapy, a popular (you guessed it) unboxing channel; and widely watched Let’s Play vlogger Jahova Witniss.
Each of the 30 semifinalists will get one of LG’s brand-new UltraWide Monitors, the envy of any computer geek. They’ll use this monitor for a new video, after which three finalists will be selected, each of whom will nab $10,000 and mentorship from one of the superstar vlogger judges.
On November 20, the winners will each get to unveil their dream rigs, using them to create an extended video showing off what they’re capable of.
With UltraWide Festival 2015’s Dream Setup contest, the competition for recognition in the vlog-o-sphere will reach new heights. For the winners, it could mean the chance to realize their dream rig — as well as their dream gig.
To catch the drama, or to enter yourself, visit LG’s UltraWide Festival 2015 website before time runs out.
