Trickbox have had the pleasure of working alongside the production company Proudfoot on several large virtual events this past year. A brilliantly creative company, we have delivered many streamed events for them including several with UBS, an investment and financial services company. One such project was a pilot co-presented between UBS and the Serpentine introducing a series called Artist Worlds focusing on art, sustainability, and technology.
Following Serpentine’s exploration and support of art and advanced technologies, we recently facilitated a virtual art event within a gaming environment, Artists Worlds: Primal Tourism by artist Jakob Kudsk Steensen. Situated on a virtual tropical island, the experience follows the artist and five other contributors as they navigate deserted towns and overgrown forests while engaging with the relationships between nature and technology.
The five participants’ personal camera views, alongside their feeds and two general view drone feeds were sent straight into our remote control room where we overlaid them for the audience view. To ensure the event was as inclusive as possible, we also facilitated both BSL (British Sign Language) and Closed Captions on the feed before streaming into Twitch.
The audience viewed these 14 different shots in a truly immersive journey around the island as academic Alenda Chang, artist Rindon Johnson and writer Mikkel Rosengaard joined Jakob, Kay Watson, Interim Head of Arts Technologies, and Ben Vickers, Senior Strategist at large, at Serpentine, to offer live readings and discussion. Known to many as the ‘digital gardener’ Jakob’s work was highly detailed and the event gave a fascinating insight into the world’s ecology.
For us at Trickbox this was an exciting opportunity, combining gaming technology with a virtual art event. In diversifying the uses of virtual events we find new challenges for our technicians and promote creativity with kit and techniques. From galas to galleries to gaming, we are diversifying fast and we see an exciting future for our virtual events team!
Trickbox TV recently had the pleasure of facilitating a virtual event for the Philharmonia, a world-class symphony orchestra. During a 45-minute live broadcast, hosted by Lord King of Lothbury, Chair of the Philharmonia, he and Alexander Van Ingen, Chief Executive, spoke to high profile guests and chaired a discussion with orchestra members musicians about creating online concerts in socially distanced settings, the challenges this poses, and what they are most looking forward to about a return to live performance in concert halls.
Behind the scenes, Trickbox’s team, including Project Manager Jacob Hamilton and Head of Live Video, James O’Farrell, worked together with the Philharmonia team to coordinate the event. Technical tests were run in advance and a full technical rehearsal was carried out to ensure no faults when streaming conversation and videos during the Live event.
During the broadcast in the Trickbox control room, the individual contributor feeds were vision mixed and the output fed into a Zoom webinar. The event was branded with Philharmonia Orchestra graphics, which included lower third name straps and video playback, as two pre-recorded performances were shown to the audience.
After a memorable evening, William Mendelowitz, Head of Individual Giving for the Philharmonia Orchestra, commented on his Trickbox experience, ‘Overall the event went terrifically, and we were really pleased with the quality of the stream … James (Trickbox’s Head of Live Video) put our speakers at real ease … The rehearsal was an essential element of delivering a great event putting hosts and speakers at ease ahead of the live broadcast.’
Since the launch of the Trickbox Virtual Events service, we’ve found that we’re tasked with an ever expanding variety of challenges. Recently, a large global equities firm asked for live translation during an international virtual webinar. We’re used to managing live translation streams in our studio and at client venues, but we were pretty excited to use this opportunity in launching our first remote version; a Virtual Event live-streamed in multiple languages.
Using some clever technology alongside a friendly human translator, Trickbox streamed live to English and Japanese speaking clients. The real struggle was the time difference – the live broadcast was at 3AM UK time! Thankfully, the team is fully set up to remotely control live streams from home and we cultivate an impressive coffee culture.
Live translation adds yet another dimension to the interactivity of live webinar platforms. Virtualising conferences typically boosts attendance, so there had been a gradual increase in bookings by international clients, even before the lockdown surge. The reason for its popularity is the improved accessibility; attendees engaging internationally without any travel or unnecessary time costs.
We think live simultaneous translation is a key virtual event update needed to extend the reach of international engagement. Global interaction during live events gives valuable perspective to international organisations and if attendees have the language barrier removed, their contribution is amplified. During a year of global change, this interaction is particularly important, so we look forward to many multilingual Virtual Events to come.
Under the threat of the recent pandemic, businesses have been forced to adapt their operations to work entirely remotely. As a facilities company, Trickbox TV responded to this new requirement by expanding their streaming service to host ‘Virtual Events’. Providing an end-to-end live solution, including graphics, slides, video playback and live video of remote feeds of contributors, Trickbox creates an easy solution for presentations and discussion.
Medical Conferencing Provider Reachora used this service in a novel way last week, linking up doctors in Boston and Belfast with the Trickbox remote production solution. The topic of discussion: COVID-19. Slideshows laden with stats and research were intercut with live video feeds streamed directly from hospitals as the doctors spoke. The benefit of this Virtual Events service is the external management of all assets, so that engagement doesn’t rely on people in non-tech jobs for adequate tech competence.
With dressmakers sewing scrubs, 3D-printers repurposed for masks, and veterans marching for funds, the UK has had a collective effort applying our different skills in support of doctors. The Trickbox team were very proud that they could help in their own way, offering their Virtual Event facilities. We’re relying on sharing and cooperation to lift us from this pandemic, so Trickbox hopes to facilitate many more events of this type in future. Let’s get to work!
Current circumstances have had all of us feeling a little stuck in limbo. A lot of us have been kept at home even if we’re not unwell, which we’re learning is pretty hard in itself! But then, it does remind us that some people have to make adjustments in their life even under normal circumstances, due to a condition they might live with. With this on our minds, what better moment will there be to raise much-needed funds, and raise spirits while we’re at it!
The MS Society is a community of people affected by multiple sclerosis, including researchers, fundraisers, volunteers and more. Since the UK lockdown, they teamed up with Trickbox to stream a huge live pub quiz connecting fun-loving supporters on their Facebook page. What’s better, they were hosted by the one and only Scott Mills!
It was a whole lot of fun, and as of the last quiz raised over £55,000 for this important cause. If you fancy a rewatch, you can find the link on their Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/events/216669782897805/. We’re glad to have teamed up for such a great cause.