Last Updated on April 3, 2023 by pg@petergamma.org
A lot of YouTubers and reviewers on personal websites try to sell us some products in one or the other way. We don’t do this in this personal website.
Among all of those YouTubers and reviewers, we feel sometimes as Roger Schawinski from Radio 24 in Switzerland. We ask ourselves. Is it possible to make a living as a YouTube demo maker? Roger Schawinskis channel was financed by advertising revenues. But what is about all those YouTubers?
Radio 24 was founded by Roger Schawinskiin November 1979, the Italian Pizzo Groppera was broadcasting from a distance of around 130 km with what was then the strongest privately operated VHF transmitter in the world into the Zurich area; the law at the time did not provide for the operation of private radio stations in Switzerland. The broadcasting studio was located in a family home in Cernobbio, in the province of Como, Italy.
We feel sometimes as a Roger Schawinskis among many other reviewers in the web, and broadcast another message, which seems to be somehow illegal for manufacturers in the web, who want to increase their sales rates there. Are we the only ones which are not entangled in one or the other way with a manufacturer which review in the web?
The Swiss authorities tried by all means to persuade the Italian state to close down the “pirate radio station”, of Roger Schawinski which is legal under Italian law. And we feel sometimes that device manufacturers try to do the same with us, they where closing us out of several support forum, since we are not as many YouTubers, who increase the sales rates.
Sometimes we ask ourselves, who is behind of all those YouTubers? Are we the only Roger Schawinskis which are broadcasting some other content, and are we the only ones which are not financed by advertising revenues?
We do not have to goal to do what we do for ethernity, but only until we have found solutions for the issues we publish here. But we will update our journal as long as we live, and continue to be critical.
Many of the YouTubers do what they do with all of their heart, and they have interesting contributions. But there are also examples which make us made us think. As for instance the example of a paper published by the Swiss Federal Institute of Sporst ins Magglingen:
RR interval signal quality of a heart rate monitor and an ECG Holter at rest and during exercise
Rahel Gilgen-Ammann 1 , Theresa Schweizer 2 , Thomas Wyss 2
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31004219/
We reported about this topic intensively in our journal. We did not check, whether this paper was before or after two papers which where published by the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio about accuracy of consumer grade sports sensors, compared to medical grade ECG devices. The paper of the Swiss Federal Institute of Sporst ins Magglingen about the Polar H10 was partly funded by Polar. But what where the condition of the funding? We do not know anything about this.
After what we experienced, in our view, the mentioned paper serves primarily Polar. And it says only half the truth about ECG devices. We have discussed this before in our journal. What where the terms and conditions of this paper with Polar? Did Polar choose which EEC device to choose for comparison, which protocol, etc?
We became interested in studies about sports sensors many through papers of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. Two papers of the Cleveland Clinic are for us personally still some of the best papers which are available.
For us personally, it was clear, that ECG devices are the most accurate devices on the market. Therefore, we contacted Rob ter Horst about this topic, and asked him, why he does not use ECG devices for comparison. Shortly after that, Rob published a video on his YouTube channel about the Swiss paper funded by Polar:
In this paper and in this review, the papers of the Cleveland Clinic where not mentioned, and we where confused. The whole world stood up site down. The Polar H10 chest strap is more accurate than ECG devices? We could not believe that. Therefore, we started to study this topic in more detail, and wrote this review about this topic:
After that, questions came up. Why does Rob only review one selected paper on his YouTube channel, and now others about this topic? This serves also mainly Polar. Then the question arises. What is the relation between sports sensor manufacturers and Rob ter Horst? Do manufacturers offer Rob demo devices to test those for free, and he does not communicate this?
NicoD’s single board computer reviewer mentioned on his YouTube channel, that he reviewed Khadas boards from Khadas for free as review examples. And he says that should not influence his opinion? But is this possible?
But to know this from NicoD’s is for us personally very helpful and important. But what is about Rob ter Horst? Does he buy all the sports watches himself, or are they offered to him by manufacturers? And what about the paper about the Polar H10 chest strap? Was this also a demo which was offered to him? And which where the conditions? Many things which happen on YouTube channels are sometimes difficult to understand for critical minds like us.
Some of the YouTube channels are made very professional. Are they founded in cooperation with marketing agencies? After we started reviewing in our journal some years ago, demo after demo was published on YouTube and personal web sites. And we asked ourselves, where these triggered by us? And if so, who is behind it?
Even How to Electronic from India who makes demos about ECG devices together with a friend of him and publishes those on YouTube, offers us now demo videos which attract our attention. But How to Electronics from India uses Texas Instruments 16 bit A/D converter in his review videos. And we ask ourselves, what is the relationship between How to Electronic from India and Texas Instruments?