The Most Invisible Yet Crucial Position On Your Virtual Events Team
As the world transitioned from live, in-person to virtual events almost overnight, an indispensable figure emerged on the Kennedy Events’ team. KE Partner Paige Buck recently sat down with KE Technical Director Steve Ratcliff to discuss the technical elements of virtual event planning and production expectations after the pandemic period. Though restrictions are lifting, we foresee his role becoming no less valuable in the future of event planning.
Our trusted production partner EPMC enabled Kennedy Events to produce a seamless virtual event for Bay Alarm Company.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Steve Ratcliff: I think that the expectations for the broadcast from a live event are going to be significantly higher than they were before the pandemic.
Paige Buck: Hi, I’m here with Steve Ratcliff, our Technical Director at Kennedy Events and the owner of Redcliff Technical Services. And Steve, gosh, you and I know how easy it is to take a really good Producer or Technical Director for granted. Can you explain why we need you in the role of technical director at an event?
Steve: Thanks, Paige. So a Technical Director coordinates all of the technical elements of a production. That includes working with the producer to design appropriate solutions that cover those technical needs and to stay within budget. In a live event, that would be CAD drawings, equipment lists, budgets working with vendors, deciding on vendors, et cetera. And one of the things that I can do as a Technical Director is to look ahead and see where those challenges might be, where those road bumps might be, and come up with solutions to alleviate those to make sure that those are not challenges that we run into during actual production.
Paige: You are running, during a virtual event, what I imagine is like a home studio version of broadcast news.
Steve: We’ve built out a number of renditions of a production facility since last March. And, and we've revived it a few different times. We have a few people in the control room, and as you say, we have banks of video monitors. We have laptops for days because everything is managed via some sort of computer. Managing various methods of getting video signals in and out to various audio signal paths on top of having a proper mixing console to managing the Intercom which is, which is an IP-based Intercom, as well as a broadcast style matrix-based Intercom, which is managed with a laptop. In addition to all of those things in the control room, we've also connected with a number of colleagues over the internet, so that we don't have to bring in, you know, a 20 person production team all into the same space in the middle of a pandemic.
Paige: Well, this is one of those things that I've found really challenging in this moment is that you know, we're sending and receiving all our signals through just this space in front of us when in a normal live event, I'd be able to spot the problem from across the room and see that you were working on it over at the tech table and see that someone has already crossed the room to powwow with you about it. Now we're all completely blindfolded unless we find other mechanisms for communicating. And I mean, I've loved some of the solutions that we've come up with like using discord in place of a clear com. But it's interesting the way you feel constrained and limited.
Steve: You bring up a wonderful point, which is communication. You don't see people across the room, which makes communications that much more important. And we have found that with virtual events we have more people on intercom than we would have at a live event. There are certain people walking around the room who wouldn't have any interest in being on intercom and they don't need to be, but in a virtual event, they do so that we can communicate with them. They can communicate with us. We can all work collaboratively towards a solution.
Paige: Or they can just hear we're on it. I hear the problem being solved because they don't have the eyes for that thing, but they do have the ears for it.
Steve: That is the biggest thing is having a good Intercom system and getting everybody who's part of that on that Intercom system. The secondary thing is sending out over discord or various other means a multi-view video feed so everybody can see, oh, great we've got all of our talent lined up. Hey, that's what our program feed looks like, but that's a secondary thing to having the Intercom.
Paige: Can you tell me a little bit about what a run-of-show is and how you use it to make sure everything goes effectively on-site?
Steve: A run-of-show is information about what action each department is performing. And when it's the timing of every element that we're going to see, that the audience is going to see during the show.
Paige: So for instance, like one moment in a program, whether it's virtual and it's here on our screen, or it's live, and someone's crossing the stage to shake hands. Let's say I'm introducing and welcoming someone else to the stage or to the panel. It’s just one moment in my script that says “Paige introduces Katie”, but for the run-of-show, how many cues might that be?
Steve: That introduction could be a few lines on the spreadsheet, but it will also be multiple columns because I've got a lot of departments that I need to sync together. And in an in-person production, there would be lighting, screens, video cues, audio cues, and similarly, with a virtual event we don't have the lighting and we don't have the screens, but we have various video elements and various audio elements that are going to all happen simultaneously and need to be synced together during that transition. And if that timing isn't right, it'll feel off to the audience. And so it's very important for somebody to be directing that and steering the boat. Saying here's the next place we're going to go, but then also keeping everybody in time and synchronized together.
Paige: What are you happy is going to stick around? Like, what are you sure is a huge improvement over the way we did things that you're looking forward to bringing back into the fully live or hybrid world?
Steve: I'm excited about seeing the potential for more remote presenters. I think that's going to happen. I think that it's something that we have been hesitant to do in the past unless there's a lot of money, time, or effort put into it, but everybody's used to doing this now. People are feeling more comfortable about that idea. I think that the expectations for the broadcast from a live event are going to be significantly higher and that's always exciting. That's something we can talk about leveling up. What we're able to do and what the expectations are of event production. The expectations of a webcast of an event are going to be greater than they were before the pandemic.
Paige: Yeah. I'm excited to see what it takes, even if I find it intimidating. I keep describing hybrid as something you should think about as producing three events. You've got your live event experience, your virtual event experience, and then the few moments I would say - unless you have a bottomless budget - where you are bringing those together for a shared experience. If you try to think of it as planning one event, you're going to disappoint everybody. You can't be all things to all people in that moment. Executing on that well, when everybody's going to be trying to do it at the same time is going to be a real challenge. So we are so lucky we have you for this.
Steve: Thank you.
Paige: Yeah, I'm glad we could talk today. And Steve, thank you.
Steve: Absolutely. Thank you so much, Paige.
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