“One of my goals was to do a top-quality production, along with some really high-profile people, who would accept the awards and be on the judging panels,” explains event producer and Films United founder Grig Richters. The limits of what is possible – and considered to be a good standard – have advanced rapidly. When lockdowns began in early 2020, just getting something on the air was enough. Now, having live, high-quality, impactful virtual events is expected. “A year and a half ago, I would have been able to produce this with a bunch of Zooms and everybody would be happy – as long as the connection was stable,” says Richters. “But now, people expect something more. We worked to put this award ceremony together in a way that does justice to all the hard work the World Literacy Foundation has done.” READING THE ROOM Richters brought in a raft of amazing talent, including four Pulitzer Prize-winners and Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes. Other nominees and guests included Eddie Izzard, Brooke Shields, Julian Lennon and choreographer Dame Arlene Phillips – as well as Vizrt Group CMO Steve Wind-Mozley. Vizrt Group’s senior solutions architect for its NewTek products, Liam Hayter, returned to oversee the technical implementation of Richters’ vision. In a very compressed time frame, Hayter developed a workflow that incorporated live switching of remote guests and audience with Skype TX and Zoom, to deliver a star-studded event to the world. He worked from his London home, with Richters and host broadcaster Lisa Burke operating from Hamburg and Lisbon, respectively. In what was essentially a desktop set-up, Hayter used NewTek’s TriCaster 2 Elite and Talkshow systems, which gave four additional channels. The TriCaster 2 Elite accommodates Zoom natively; this enables the feeds from nominees to be managed all at once, and selected on the fly through a browser control interface. The workflow incorporated six peer-to-peer Skype TX between the presenters and judges that were switched over to new sets of participants for the second half of the show. “Grig was keen to preserve the element of surprise in the production,” says Hayter. “Normally with these Zoom awards, people know they’re going to be on in advance, or are queued because they have to be prepped in the background. We decided to push against that, with the nominees all in a room on Zoom – and then Grig and his production team would pick whoever won and put them on full-screen.” Camera feeds from the judges, spread around the world, were brought into the TriCaster via six Skype TX connections. But at any point, the team could cut to the room full of nominees as if there were an audience in attendance. The direct Skype TX line, with the presenter and judges, also functioned like a virtual green room, allowing for off-camera
IT’S JUST AMAZING... WHAT USED TO TAKE 12 PEOPLE, LIAMDID AS A ONE-MAN BAND FROMHOME interaction. This brought virtual events one step closer to the typical in-venue experience. Richters and Hayter also kept in touch via WhatsApp, as a backup comms channel. Pre-planned graphics were automated to be easily activated. Each award had a dedicated web page, which could be triggered to incorporate both the winner and accompanying graphics in-frame. These were built in Adobe Photoshop, and supplied by the WLF team. “It’s just amazing,” remarks Richters. “I used to produce events like the Champions League Final with these massive OB trucks, but here, Liam did everything himself. What used to take 12 people, Liam did as a one-man band from home. “It will be interesting to see how we can build on this next year; we might have a hybrid event with people in the room. But livestreamed, remote production is going to continue – people realise they can engage with a wider network.” “Working with NewTek was incredibly easy,” says Burkie. “And we were fortunate to have Vizrt Group’s support: being so engaged with the charity made a huge difference. They want it to be great because they know the end product is helping to fund and raise awareness for literacy causes.”
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