W1 Productions -Pivot To Digital- Live Streaming

There has been much talk of the changes that must be made in our industry if it is to survive. I have been fairly blunt about the future - streamed events will take us so far, but you cannot beat human contact. As I commented recently on a linked-In post - "There is nothing like the majesty of a waited for person walking from the wings and taking centre stage. There is nothing like the experience of touching, feeling and watching a new piece of equipment at an exhibition and as we all know, often the take away from a conference is that person you meet in the bar who becomes a lifetime client or mentor".

Having said that, we at W1 do take on board the need to offer streaming. As most people know our experience in film speaks for itself, so Lawrence our resident tech genius, on the back of that heritage, has been beavering away putting together a streaming department.

Lawrence will tell you the title picture shows the heart of one of our now numerous V-Mix Live desks - A custom V-mix streaming PC with Magwell capture card for sending high quality video to a platform of the client's choice. How's it all going? Pretty well actually. Bookings are well into Autumn 2021 and it's keeping the wolf from the door, so all good there.

The interesting thing is the value that a traditional production company can bring to streaming client's aspirations. We know about events, we understand and have lived and breathed them for many decades. This puts us in position to offer friendly advice on what works and what doesn't. We can also offer a ready stock of staging, lighting, sound, even backline, so when a client wants to move up a level and say add live entertainment to a stream or stream a 'real world awards show' we have all that inventory at our finger tips, something the office based streaming outfit does not have - If your thinking "hybrid" think of a company like W1.

This ability will become more important when, as I believe, in the future, our industry begins the pivot back into 'in the room' events. Sure this will start off slowly - I am sure from now all events will be streamed to allow people the choice to be there in person or there in spirit, but from the comfort of their own living room. But at that point, companies like W1 Productions (and all our friends like us out there) will become vital, since they will be firmly astride both disciplines making hybrid events so much easier for all our clients.

Let's all try to keep positive and look forward to the next pivot!

Cheers

Alan