While Hibernating - Our previous Live Streaming events

As 5th July comes and goes and another group of UK businesses tentatively open for busy, the event industry continues its long hibernation with no end in sight to the ‘COVID winter’. So, in the meantime we thought we would provide details of some previous streaming events Ground:zero were commissioned to run.

This event, held at the Barbican in London was the second brief from a client in the travel and hotel business, and one not without its own unique challenges. Our client had come to Ground:zero to assist them with the need to communicate seismic changes to their global organisation from a single live event in London. Well, see say single event!

The set and equipment had to be broken down at mid-day and literally trolleyed across the road to another venue

The day before the event the crew went in and rigged the set, AV equipment and streaming equipment so it could be watched around the world. The client was expecting a live audience of about 600 with people attending virtually from around the world, which included staff in their head office in Spain. The meeting was a two hour meeting of presentations with Q&A at the end. Because there was a prompt start the next morning at 0900 GMT it meant that it was not normal working hours for counties west of the UK. For this reason the client planned for a repeat of the event in the afternoon for the Western Hemisphere, who would then be arriving for work. The problem was that the venue was only booked for the morning! All the set and equipment had to be broken down at mid-day and literally wheeled across the road to another venue, The Brewery. There was a three hour window to be rigged and ready for the afternoon show which on this occasion would not have a live audience as the local colleagues had been present at the morning session. The presentations would be for a virtual audience only.

It was while the rigging was taking place that the Producer mentioned to the client that the morning session had been recorded. There was a short moment while the presenters all conferred with one another. The crew paused momentarily. The client came back to the Producer with a question, “Could we replay the morning presentation and would the audience in the Americas notice any difference?” The rig came to a halt as discussions took place about replaying the recording and how to switch to the presenters for a live Q&A in the afternoon.

“Could we replay the morning presentation and would the audience in the Americas know any difference?”

With half a set built and basic lighting provided for the three presenters in tub chairs, the recorded presentation was played out at 1500GMT ‘live’ to North and South America and at the end we seamlessly switched to the presenters in chairs ready for Q&A. It all went perfectly and no one was any the wiser. Well, not at that time. It meant the presenters only presented once and the de-rig for the crew at the end of the day was an hour shorter. A win-win for everyone.

It was truly amazing to be able to reach a global audience in this way, with everyone being able to tune in and watch the event live….ish. We reached 8,000 people in 61 countries across the globe across both sessions.

If you have any questions concerning how we can live stream your event, please do not hesitate to call us on 01634 841663 or email us at info@groundzero.uk.com