International Web Cast from The Royal Society

This Monday we set of to The Royal Society to set up our part of an ambitious web casting project. The client was based in California USA and had organised a following the sun event where proceeding started in China handed over to London and then to the USA. For our part we provided 8 plasma screens in the room for the London committee to see their slides and we did a live mix of pre recorded video content, two live camera’s, power point slides and audio from 30 push to talk mics. We are told the audience was around 2000 strong and post event whitwam edited the live footage down to bite size summaries and posted them on our clients You Tube account.

The Royal Society proved a prestigous venue to represent London HQ but on this event more than others it became apparent that when communicating to a Global audience the detail in what is in shot is all important. The viewers don’t get an impression of London, The Venue or the ambience of the event other than what they see in the background to the web cast footage. This event had no live audience in the room so the sense of occasion was very different to other on location web casts , it was more of a studio project but on location.

The results were good and all worked well. The webcast lasted three hours in total our client in the USA was pleased with the results. Whitwam was just the technical solutions provider and web cast producers for this event, we were pleased to meet and work with Intellect an events company from Russell Square and of course The Royal Society who hosted the event. I attach a couple of pics I took whilst on camera and for obvious reason I can’t disclose where you can see the footage but if you have any technical questions about this kind of web cast please get in touch?

Buz

Did I mention the Royal Wedding?

The Royal Wedding was a big deal last month, it was hard not to notice it! We at whitwam were involved in the heart of the day, a task that whilst the pressure was on we took it head on and working with Westminster Abbey, The BBC and other parties delivered our services without hitch!

The whitwam installations team have spent the last 18 month or so working at Westminster Abbey installing a complete replacement to the AV system, PA , Video and Communication links in the Abbey, we ran the system up in time for the Popes visit earlier this year but when it came to the wedding the whitwam event production team were bought in to supplement the system with plasma screen relays all over the abbey and links to relay screens and satellite PA in smaller chapels around the Abbey campus.

Planning was key and Production Manager Simon Bobbett over saw our input and system, whilst our senior Installations Engineer Andy Pymm was on site through the service and was on hand to make adjustments to the system and monitor the system out puts to the BBC feeds.

Every job we do has an importance and mistakes cannot be allowed but I’m sure this was the largest audience whitwam has reached out to and the pressure was there but the team pulled together well and we look forward to the Christenings next year!

Our work at Westminster carries on, if you have any questions about this job or the venue , drop me a line?

thanks

Buz

Exhibition News Awards – case study

Working with Mash Media , Event Share and Business Design Centre in Islington we recently and successfully produced the 2011 Exhibition News Awards.

The lead up to the event was approx five weeks and one site visit and two production meetings were arranged to get the production right on track. The brief was to create a wow factor in the huge space of the Business Design Centre and factor in the evening would start at 6pm and daylight would prevail until at least 8pm.

The venue provided power and rigging from Outback Rigging and all was smooth in set up and rehearsal.

Technically, setting up two 10,000 lumen projectors and focussing lights in daylight was tricky and we knew final focus would have to be on the fly. Whitwam pulled in trusted partners Imax lighting to provide extra lighting kit and crew and we used Sound Bite for the hire of the D&B PA rig needed to fill the space with sound.

The evening started with Organic Jam from Sternberg who mixed a DJ and Live Violin player and played over dinner and post dinner Alun Chochrane did a very well received stand up before hosting the Awards themselves.   With live camera relays, bespoke edit music stings and lighting states for every award we kept the show moving at pace and all 19 awards were delivered on time.

The Business Design Centre is great venue and I recommend it highly.  Winter events at night would be easier to work with as the summer sun whilst being nice to be in makes a show look a little pale….

750 guests enjoyed their night our and the winners event more so, the catering was first class and entertainment in the after show bar down stairs seemed to go very well.

I attach a few pics of the event and the following testimonial from Mark Brewster at Mash Media…

 

“Our event (ExhibitionNews Awards) attracts an audience of people that organise awards events
professionally, day-in day-out. As such, there is significant pressure on us to
deliver an event of the very highest quality. Therefore we only work with
suppliers and partners that we know without question will perform for us.
Having considered a number of awards production specialists, we chose Whitwam
and I am absolutely delighted with that decision.

We bought into your
experience and creativity and the benefits of both of these attributes really
paid off for us. You solved problems before we were aware they existed, you
were flexible, reassuring and very patient. I certainly did not expect the
event to look as beautiful as it did and I put this down to the expertise of
your technicians and the creative vision you brought to the party.

We have been blown away
by the number of gushing emails we have had from the market in response to the
awards. When I consider what the biggest factors were in making the event feel
so unique, so special and so meaningful, I would put the quality of the event
production at the very top of the list.

Without hesitation I
would recommend Whitwam to anyone putting on an awards event (except my
competitors!)

A massive thanks to you and
your team.”   Mark Brewster , Mash Media , Awards Director & Head of Events & Partnerships

Thanks for reading

Buz

Video Production is finding its way, sat nav product training

Back in March and April we were set the task of producing Garmin, Sat Nav Product training videos to be used in a national chain of stores.

The challenge was to take the client script, record a voice over and then create three sections of content, the unit animated with features explained, an in store sales situation re-created and finally real-time footage of the unit being used on the road and in detail.

Filming and animating the product was fine, the creative part came in how to film the unit on a dash-board in such away that you can see the SAT NAV screen and not suffer camera shake and wobble. To solve this we filmed the unit on the dash-board in a wide shot , so you can see out the window and what the road conditions were like.  We then re filmed the sequence with the Garmin unit attached (on a home-made bracket that placed the unit) directly in front of the lens. We then over laid this sequence on top of the window shots to create steady SAT NAV images on a moving car unit. The result was great and the five videos are now in use, we are about to make a web version available and when this is done, I’ll post a link so you can see the results.

Buz

whitwam studio 2 hire- work is well under way

Hello and sorry for the huge delay in updating the blog!

I will do a couple of general catch up reports on events and video production over the next few days but this post is show you why I have been off line for so long…

Back in February we completed a few studio based video productions  using the upstairs and empty area of our office.  This went so well that we drew up plans to make the facility permanent.

As you will see from the pics attached to this post its now well under construction.

We were originally just going to build some stud walls but this was not enough. We have now installed floating walls on acoustic rubber, a floating floor , sound proof door and window and rebuilt the ceiling , fitted a lighting grid and work starts this week on cabling this week. To do this we sort building control , consulted with designers, studio makers and filming crews to make sure we build it right!

We are now a couple of weeks away from opening and running up for our first productions, I will of course keep you posted….Buz

.

Video Studio has first clients

this week whitwam web tv had its first real clients, it went really well and they will be back for more! We also have a new contract to create on line video training for product support in a national retail chain, its a great start for whitwam web tv! Buz Feb 2011

Whitwam Go to Confex

In 101 years we’ve never made too much noise in the self promotion dept, but with the economy as it we figure there are event producers out there that would benefit from our flexible approach to Production Supply.

We have booked  stand G611 at COnfex 2011 at Earls Court , March 1-3.

If your reading this, you have some interest in the Event Business and Confex, if you have not been before is the largest pool of event companies of all types under one roof.

Here is the link to the Confex Web Site, www.international-confex.com

Have a look around the site and if you want to see a friendly face , I’ll be G611 stand!

See you there?

Buz

Lighting Up the Street, of London

It was a small one man job last week but never the less worth a mention. As part of the London Boat Show we did some lighting at the newly refurbished Savoy Hotel at the Motor Boat of the Year Awards. The Savoy looks great now and has kept all its charm but with a very new sheen to it. We only lit the entrance to the Ballroom and roadworks made the effect less glamour than intended but it all went well. Lighting like this was delivered set up and taken away for less than £500.00.

London Guildhall -Big Breakfast Presentation

Yesterday my team and I made a very early start at London Guildhall. Our 5th event there in recent years but yesterday was different in setting up an Breakfast Event.

Access was at 3am and we had a busy couple of hours setting up in time for a run through. The client was a global insurance company and their special guest was Tony Blair. With 200 or so guests from the Square Mile and security ramped up for the VIP we had to make sure all was in line and to plan. This was done with the help of the venue. Everything we had requested was in place on our arrival, security were breifed and access was on demand and to plan. Its often the case that venues sell the client an idea and then don’t tell the operational staff that the production crew need access or resources to do something but at London Guildhall every thing was in place, thank you to them.

We bought in fresh crew to run the show who had stayed in a local hotel, there’s  not much point trying to be at your best after 24hrs of no sleep and this I think  makes a huge difference. As one of the over night crew, getting the kit in place and tested was enough, staying on and running the event would risk a mistake or lack of attention.

The event ran smoothly and our VIP came and went without needing to notice what we do, that’s the way it should be. If you have one person that needs to speak to 200 in the audinece, I believe that everyone should walk away from the event without noticing the sublte lighting and the clarity of voice in a huge hall with a very high ceiling. Every presentation, however big the audience, should be delivered as if one to one and that’s what I hope that’s what we deliver.

I can’t supply pictures of the event as it was a private event but London Guildhall is a good venue and can be seen in an earlier post here for the BCA awards or go to  http://www.guildhall.cityoflondon.gov.uk/

Buz

Transporting AV Kit, a forced change in operational practice.

This is really a reaction to developments in truck hire market in the last two months. Later today we are moving from one conference to another, only 50 miles but in four vans!

In the past we hired in 7.5tonne trucks for the small to medium-sized events but we have been forced out of this market. We used to hire on a daily rate the trucks and charge  our clients very reasonable rates but due to a swing in the truck hire market we currently can’t hire a truck for less than three months. We have an Operators Licence, we have qualified drivers and yet we have no tucks.

No doubt we will solve this but at whitwam we have tried hard to reduce client costs, with one man being driver/rigger/ production manager and lighting engineer on the same job. Compliance to Health and safety and the Law is key to us delivering quality services but with this change we have to run many small vans or hire a truck and driver, a cost three-fold more than we have charged previously.

Why don’t you buy a truck , I hear you say….well owning a truck on a commercial licence has a raft of legal implications and costs that make it much more expensive than simply owning a truck. A short lease hire truck gave us agility and flex to move our heavey loads correctly but we would be loosing money on owning a single truck.

I don’t want to see my clients money going on paying a driver to sit in his cab all day but its a problem we will over come.

If you have had to change operational practice to flex with the new financial markets implications , I’d be interested to know?

Thanks

Buz