A digital legacy
James Morgan, founder of Event Tech Lab, discusses how live
streaming from the show floor can increase engagement and ROI
E
xtending the reach of your event to virtual
audiences who are unable to attend is going
to win you points from your exhibitors
and visitors. Live streaming is a vehicle that can
demonstrate a greater ROI through increased
engagement during and post event.
The very simple process relies on capturing
live content, vision mixing and editing it and
then distributing the digital content on freely
available distribution channels as well as on
bespoke channels embedded into websites.
I asked industry experts to demystify the live
streaming phenomenon and offer some tips on
how this technology can enhance experiences
for organisers, exhibitors and virtual attendees.
Phil Wilson from First Sight Media
recommends sending a couple of crew out with
a camera and a microphone and filming some
of the activities on the show floor. This could
be interviews with the organiser, visitors, and
exhibitors. He recommends creating short two-
minute highlight videos than can be edited and
then streamed from the event. The highlight
stream can include WOW show moments, show
floor promotional activities that are used by
exhibitors as stand attractors or just shots of
people interacting. The footage can be sewn
together to produce the short videos that can
then be used to promote the show on social
channels – for example a highlight video of Day
One of a show may get people turning up for
Day Two. The videos that are streamed on social
channels will remain creating a digital legacy
for the event.
Silverstream TV has live streamed content
from various theatres at exhibitions. Simon
Walton, creative director, is of the opinion that
for large events that have a global or national
audience, the reach of live streaming is a big
advantage to both the organisers and exhibitors.
It extends the geographic reach of the event
and encourages sign ups for the next event.
Streaming also helps with activating show
sponsors too. This can be done by overlaying
logos on the stream in the broadcast mode or
selling advertising as part of the streaming
package.
“What’s important is to plan what you are
going to do, what content you want to share
and marketing the content pre and during the
event,” he concludes.
Exhibitors can also utilise live streaming to
drive more traffic to their stands. Phil Wilson
recommends having a high-speed internet
connection or using a 4G phone signal to stream
from a stand. Streaming on social channels
and using the show hashtag can attract more
visitors to a stand.
Making the content newsworthy, promoting
a product discount or offer or providing an
emotional engagement trigger such as a funny
meme will get visitors interested. Simply, set up
a phone, webcam, digital SLR camera or video
camera on a tripod; hook the device up to a
laptop to create a nice little streaming suite.
Exhibiters can use a single social channel
or, by using a distribution platform such as
Push, share content simultaneously across
many social channels. But remember to use the
landscape format to stream the best picture.
Cost is a challenge on tight budgets, so
streaming needs to be efficiently managed.
Knowing what you want to do before the
show is paramount – then that can be costed.
The traditional model for live streaming is a
cameraman, maybe a roaming presenter or
technician to hold a microphone. In content
theatres it could be a single, double or triple
camera connected to an editing desk manned
by another technician before the content is
distributed on social or website channels.
Some organisers may want a TED Talks-style
stream – using theatre lighting and three or
four cameras – but this is expensive. There
are alternatives. Silverstream TV has a remote
camera solution where the technician watches
a screen and can manually remote control the
shots the cameras take then push the stream
to various social channels. And– what do you
know – there is also an artificial intelligence
solution too!
Rocamroll – a France-based company – has
developed a smart streaming solution. The
technology fully automates the whole process.
Cameras are set up in the content theatre,
the AI algorithm automatically changes the
camera shots by detecting speakers’ stage
positions and voice changes (zoom in and out).
The system also detects presentation slide
changes and videos on screens to create a high
production value streaming output that can be
distributed on multiple channels. No one needs
to operate the cameras or the laptop that hosts
the RoCamRoll software system – it can run all
day by itself.
In conclusion, if you want a greater reach
and engagement for your events and content,
then live streaming is a must have. Remember –
video is the preferred format for many people.
Eight billion video views on Facebook every day
is just the tip of the video viewing iceberg.
event w i f i . com
exhibitionnews.co.uk | January 2019
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