SPREAD THE WORD The speech and hologram are available to watch online – in English or Ukrainian
Mandalorian stamping on an Imperial Stormtrooper’s head. “It’s unusual for presidents or heads of government to use a hologram to address people,” Zelensky said. “But this is not the only aspect of Star Wars that we are putting into practice – we will defeat the Empire, too.” “Zelensky has a very young and media-savvy team,” explains Nunez. “The president is 44, his press secretary Serhii Nykyforov is 36 – and the speechwriter was young. It was impressive collaborating with them... Zelensky was wonderful to work with and excited about the technology.” Evercoast’s system has been refined to a near push-button level, allowing the Williams/Nunez two-man crew redundancy recording of Zelensky’s speech, in English and Ukrainian, in case the live transmission didn’t work. The arrival of President [Emmanuel] Macron, Chancellor [Olaf] Scholz and Prime Minister [Mario] Draghi for a special meeting with Zelensky ended up taking priority over the live to operate the entire process. The team captured an initial
FUTURE FOCUS Zelensky spoke to the European tech community to gain support
HE WAS WONDERFUL TO WORK WITH, AND EXCITED ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY
transmission, so it was the recorded version that was sent. THE TELEPRESIDENT Zelensky’s speech was broadcast to seven conference events, introduced by the pre-recorded celebrity tributes. Alongside it, the true AR version of the speech was available for download. Evercoast’s product is so automated that this was delivered 36 hours after capture – and the volumetric output was available almost immediately. “We filmed him, then had the speech on our phones within an hour and a half,” says Nunez. ”We’ve spent so much time trying to make our product seamless, that you can just click record, upload, go to the web interface and launch.”
Nunez returned home to the US, and Williams to the UK, but the gear was left behind. An anonymous donor purchased the Evercoast volumetric capture system as a gift to the Ukrainian government. Nunez had trained several of Zelensky’s media team on how to use the system, and has maintained contact ever since. They are looking towards using the gear not just for further presidential speeches, but also education and other media opportunities, building the nation’s reputation as a digital technology destination for the future. “It’s a seminal moment in volumetric,” asserts Nunez. “It’s the biggest thing to have happened in volumetric by a landslide.”
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