The ramifications of the COVID-19

pandemic have seen social interaction in virtually every facet of our personal

and professional lives adapt in a transformative way. Technology has played a

crucial role in facilitating this, by enabling us to shift into the

pre-dominantly virtual world that we now find ourselves in. From internal and

external methods of communication and collaboration for businesses, to seeking

medical advice, spending time with loved ones and celebrating special occasions;

we have all become accustomed to this new reality.   

 

 

 

 

 

As a result of this, achieving

meaningful engagement has posed one of the biggest challenges faced by many.

After the first few months of global lockdown in 2020, the dreaded online

fatigue set in and both impact and productivity became compromised. Live events

were at a standstill and we were speaking with many of our customers about how

their flagship annual events could quickly and effectively pivot to digital

delivery.

 

 

 

 

 

During this time, due to the success of our multi-award-winning SmartStage facility based at WL in Wimbledon, we partnered with the Science Museum to build an additional, fully COVID-secure SmartStage studio at the venue. By harnessing the full power and potential of xR, this technology enabled over 500 hours of live corporate events to be broadcast. Each client we worked with posed a unique brief and set of objectives, and our expert team worked closely with them all to bring their digital transformation to life.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is an overview of some of our favourite

digital events delivered via SmartStage in 2020:

 

 

 

 

 

• Fusion Comms:

   

  BDO RETHINK Festival

 

 

 

 

 

The BDO RETHINK Festival, which is traditionally held as a bi-annual face-to-face leadership

event, was

instead broadcast to a global audience of over 2,500 delegates. In collaboration with

Fusion Comms and their digital creators MalfMedia, we designed a flexible xR

solution to facilitate three festival broadcasts to BDO’s Managing Partners

from across the world.

 

 

 

 

 

An entire

virtual infrastructure of festival stages was built with the use of digital

assets created in a Media Server system that for the first time incorporated

teleportation, remote callers, in studio presenters and XR and AR graphics. Delivery of the plenary sessions included the live,

full-body teleportation of five presenters directly into the xR environment.

Three presenters were transported from studios in Canada Washington DC and

Israel, with two more from their homes in Scandinavia.

 

 

 

 

 

“Working with WL to harness the potential of this

technology and the mind-blowing capabilities of xR, enabled us to create

something truly game-changing for our client. During these restricted times

that we all find ourselves in, this was no small feat and has re-defined the

reality for virtual events as we know it.”

 

 

 

 

 

Kelvyn Jones, Director at Fusion Comms

 

 

 

 

 

• Leaders in Sport

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As part of

its series of global summits, Leaders in Sport hosted its annual ‘Leaders Week’ conference in June 2020 as an online forum for the first time. The physical

event, originally due to take place in New York, was transformed into ‘LeadersWeek.direct/’ – a broadcast over

four days, which was attended by a remote audience of 2240 delegates from 54

different countries.

 

 

 

 

 

SmartStage

enabled the live presenters to safely host more than 25 high-profile sports

business leaders from around the world, including executives from ESPN, NHL, MLS, AFC Ajax, Amazon, EA and

AT&T, who connected remotely for a series of ‘Leaders Live’

presentations.

 

 

 

 

 

• Creating

   

  Sunshine

 

 

 

 

 

Due to the COVID-19 restrictions impacting on the delivery of live events, Creating Sunshine had a brief timeline to entirely re-design and format their client’s annual Growth and Development Conference. They sought an innovative and flexible virtual platform to enable this transformation and support a fully digital event and SmartStage provided a one-stop solution for this. Read the full case study

 

 

 

 

 

• DPP Tech Leaders’ Briefing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The DPP is the media industry’s

business network, which brings together customers and suppliers from across the

global media supply chain to solve problems and create opportunities. Its

annual Leaders’ Briefing, recognised as being the pre-eminent business

intelligence event for the media industry, was pivoted to a fully virtual

format for the first time in 2020.

 

 

 

 

 

An immersive virtual world was

required, to facilitate 43 speakers and over 650 member delegates coming

together safely in one place. The packed four-day programme also included the

Rise Awards, celebrating the achievements of exceptional women across the

broadcast, technology and services sectors.

 

 

 

 

 

The SmartStage workflow, powered by

disguise xR, allowed for the creation of a fully branded and dynamic content

environment and seamless integration with other technologies. Senior executives

from 30 major media companies, including Facebook, Fox, Eurosport, Reuters and

Sky; presented their strategic priorities, live, each with bespoke titling

content.

 

 

 

 

 

“White Light’s technology and team enabled us to deliver a high-end television style production to DPP members through our own streaming platform, ensuring that the production values matched the quality of the content. The SmartStage made it possible to get a great looking, fully branded environment, from which it was natural to present, in a fraction of the time and cost of a traditional studio build.” Rowan de Pomerai, DPP CTO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For 2021, SmartStage is re-locating to The Mermaid London and will

be available to hire as a fully COVID-secure studio from February.

 

 

 

 

 

To find out more about how you can experience the xR elevation for a new reality of your digital and hybrid events, contact our team today on 020 8254 4800 or email SmartStage@WhiteLight.Ltd.uk

 

 

 

The post Experience the xR elevation for a new reality of digital and hybrid events appeared first on White Light.