Webcasting as a tool in the event production kit has really reached maturity in the last couple of years. With the advent of 4G remote connections for cameras and audio, high bandwidth web connections in venues and fast internet at home and the office, webcasts are no longer the dull, static ‘let’s all watch a video together’ presentations they once were. They are now dynamic, interactive platforms delivering multiple types of content at once; both immersive and inspiring. Webcasts can be a pleasure to participate in. Creating an interactive and engaging webcast Customised design
Today’s webcasts are built in their own customized HTML designed ‘skin’ that can house not only the event or brand’s graphics but multiple video, chat and social media widgets. The viewer feels as if they are looking at an extension of the host’s website and can interact in real-time with the event. Live chat for real engagement
Social media feeds such as Twitter can really enhance your webcast. Allowing your audience, both present and remote, to engage with your presentation enables a personal connection to the speaker and the topic. Proprietary widgets such as Chatroll enable a live chat feed for the event participants only, meaning a web viewer can ask questions of a presenter and have it answered in real time. Make sure your guests use the same hashtag and you may even find your event ‘trending’.
Getting up close and personal with mobile cameras
All the action that occurs at your event can now be seamlessly presented via the web using mobile cameras.
Action and reaction
Complex video presentations can include cutaways to audience members during Q&A or for reaction shots. Mobile cameras operating via 4G uplink make this possible, along with a dedicated video director calling the shots. Supplementary interviews
We all love the glitz and glam of a red carpet, so why not add one to your event? As guests arrive, prepare roving hosts to carry out red carpet interviews with the VIPs and luminaries of your industry. This type of content makes the webcast experience as close to (sometimes even closer) than physically being at the event. Mobile cameras with audio capability can add a lot of fun to your webcast and the more your audience engages with the event the longer it will stay with them and the further your message will go.
A record of your event When an event is webcast it becomes a detailed, multi-dimensional record of your event. Think of it as visual, audio and textual proof of audience engagement with your content. The webcast can be hosted on your website, made available for consumption on-demand by anyone who missed out on attending so the content you so lovingly created keeps working for you long after the big show.
Video content at your disposal
All content captured during a webcast can be edited and repurposed. This means you’ve just created a rich mine of video content to deploy according to your marketing strategy. As video is the future of web communication, every organization is currently trying to produce high-quality, engaging video content. Most are struggling due to lack of staff, experience and technology. Considering you’re already putting your company’s best face on at a public event it is sensible to invest in professionals to add a webcasting component to your event. Marketing future events
If you are running an annual event your previous webcasts can be used to market your upcoming event. Email blasts to your database with video highlights packages will remind repeat customers why they came last time and will entice new customers to see what they have been missing out on.
Take charge of your audience In the past if you wanted to ensure you had an audience for your event you had to approach free-to-air or cable broadcasters to film and distribute your event. While you can still approach them it is incredibly unlikely that they will say yes, there are now even several major music and entertainment awards that traditional media don’t think are sellable to their advertisers. The good news is; we don’t need them anymore!
Targeted market
Your event can now hit a targeted market, as large or small as it needs to be and your content can remain viewable to a global audience in perpetuity. You can decided if your content is free or be paid for. You can even sell advertising embedded into your webcast. Everyone is now a broadcaster with only their imagination and ability to impress the market limiting your audience growth.
How to get it right So now that you are convinced you need webcasting at your event, the next question is how to ensure it is technically flawless and engaging to your audience? The answer is lots of preparation on the part of the content provider (the organization hosting the event) and the technicians responsible for delivering the goods. No one wants to see another presenter fumbling on video with his or her PowerPoint saying, “It was working in the office”. Here is a quick checklist:
For the organiser: Are your presenters engaging? Are they rehearsed? Have you checked all presenter’s graphic and video content for quality, formatting and functionality? Make sure you have a functioning internet connection for externally linked web content Questions to ask your webcast provider: Have they webcast from this venue before? Have you had a look at some of their previous work? Are they using a wired connection to the web? If so, have they organized bandwidth to be reserved with the venue’s IT staff and their internet service provider? Streaming quality
Make sure that the webcast includes Adaptive Bitrate Streaming. It’s the intelligence in the web stream that sees the device you are viewing the webcast on and how much bandwidth you have, then automatically adapts the stream to run as smoothly as possible. This means no annoying pauses or ‘buffering’. Ready to go live The main point is preparation and ensuring you have a webcast provider you can trust. At Staging Connections we guarantee a quality and engaging webcast for your event that will allow your content to keep attracting eyes long after the curtains have drawn. Love learning the latest in event technology and delivery? Download our range of free White Papers today. … Read More
Why you should use digital banners at your event
Mar 19 2018
A theatrical set is a combination of engineering, practicality and imagination that, at its best, becomes part of a show’s narrative as it helps tell it. The ubiquity of digital video technology means that your event can benefit from the same attention-grabbing visual techniques that wow Broadway audiences. With the right content, your brand, message and story can fill screens, dance across walls and create long-lasting impressions in your audience’s memories. Even better, your content can be transported to new venues, re-used in electronic communication, broadcast on web and re-purposed as a promotional tool after your event is over.
What is a digital set?
‘Digital Set’ is a catch-all term for a combination of techniques, equipment and strategies that all use digitally created graphic content to enhance a live event. A Digital Set can be any combination of static, animated or video content displayed on screens, projected on surfaces or animated across LED lighting fixtures. The options with projection alone are almost limitless! With one projector you can present an animation on a central screen all the while projection static branding on two peripheral screens.
Set the scene of your event
The first thing you need to consider when using digital sets is the venue you intend to deploy them in and the projection space that allows. Small function spaces - will be well served by projection to a modest central screen, augmented by strategically placed flat-panel displays. Larger theatre-style presentation spaces - can support multiple projection screens and projection onto walls. Extremely large ballroom or gala centres - allow you to stretch your imagination. They can house multiple sized custom screens, curved screens and projection mapped immersive visuals, all on a grand scale. Designing to your message The aim of your event is to convey your message, a digital set is intended to enhance it not outshine it. The development of your content and its technical implementation should go hand in hand. The best AV companies now have graphic designers, computer animator and video content creators in-house, which is the ideal team for enhancing your message. Take your speaker’s PowerPoint or Keynote presentations as a starting point and work through them with the content creators. They will pick out themes, selected static or animated visuals, highlight the most important sections and help structure the presentation with visual markers.
Making use of the natural breaks
You obviously don’t want to subvert attention during your speakers presentations but there are several natural breaks in the proceedings; introductions, walk- ups speaker changes that allow you to use the whole Digital Set to entertain the crowd. For example, introducing a speaker allows you to use all visual displays in unison to immerse the whole venue in a single visual sequence. An image can traverse the room making heads spin, light and fire can rise from every corner in your event. All these transitions should be made with tight, precise timings before bringing the focus right back to the speaker.
Making an experience for your guests
Envisage this:
Video operators ensure that all presentations are queued up on a central computer and can be edited at a moments notice if necessary. All of your creative content will be deployed across projectors and screens via media servers run through powerful video mapping software. Lights go down, animation and video come up and your first speaker will take to the stage, right in the middle of the digital set you have created.
Your presenter speaks. Slow video loops of your logo and slideshows of images pertinent to your theme run unobtrusively on secondary displays, quietly setting the scene in your audiences peripheral vision. At the moment when the major new product/direction/award is unveiled all displays leap to life in concert with the key image and text. As the details are explained, different points and illustrations make their way to different parts of the room, adjusting and focusing the audience’s attention as necessary. As the presentation ends, the room becomes one image, surrounding the crowd in the environment of the idea.
Take your digital set with you
Marketing memory
After the applause has died down and the audience has left, your Digital Set is ready to keep working for you. You should follow-up your attendees via email, framed in the same style and content as the event and send out a link to video highlights. Make sure you tie their experience into your emailed content. You have created a memory that is branded with your visuals in each attendee’s mind, and every time you communicate with them make sure to use these same images. If your content and message were compelling, they will recall the event even more fervently.
Portable set
If your event is travelling its easy to take your digital set with you and adapt it as needed to the new venue. Projections can be scaled up and down according to room size and available surfaces. Similarly, images that were split across multiple devces can be amalgamated to one or vice-versa. Digital Sets are incredibly malleable and coherent content with a clear message with translate well no matter what media is carrying it. Your digital content is now a business asset that cost a fraction of its physical counterpart with the ability to be scaled down to an iPad or up to an arena.
Digital set event packages Staging Connections offer Digital Sets in their Event Create packages. In-house content creators work with you with options for either static or animated imagery. Standard display options include projecting from one projector onto multiple screens or from multiple projectors onto ultra wide screens, if your venue can physically accommodate them. In all cases and all combinations, Staging Connections work with you to bring out the heart of your message, and enhance your event with the right combination lighting, sound and decoration to fit with your theme. Unique boxes
The standard package does not limit your ability to create something truly unique. Staging Connections’ creative team and event planners love to extend themselves by creating totally individual events that create an environment for the organisation’s message. Whether it is bringing a character to life, creating a new display concept for a revolutionary product or finding a way to communicate a radical idea with absolute clarity, the Digital team love a challenge. That’s the great thing about the digital visions tools of modern AV – it’s never been easier to bring the hardest-to-image concepts to life and it’s never been more affordable to create a theatrical experience for your audience that’s every bit as entertaining as a night on Broadway. Want to stay up to date with industry trends? Browse our range of downloadable Event Insights papers ... Read More