TEDx: How we broadcast a virtual event in a COVID world

Lights, camera, action for TEDxCanberraCountdown

We’re living in a pandemic, with no end in sight. Events as we know them have had to radically adapt to the new world we live in. So when TEDxCanberra came to us for an online solution, we jumped at the chance to make it happen.

We’ve been working with TEDxCanberra for over 8 years now, running the video component of their live events held in theatres and venues across the ACT. Then COVID hit the world. Events everywhere were cancelled. But slowly, organisations began to work out ways to live-stream their events to people in their homes.

TEDxCanberra did a similar thing, running an event hosted through Zoom. It was effective in getting the audiences tuning in via Zoom and Facebook, but it lacked the professionalism of a standard TEDx event – people were in their homes, doing talks over webcams with horrendous internet speeds.

That’s where Newcast came in.

For their next event, TEDxCanberra came to us wanting to do a similar live-stream, just better. They actually came to us with a new platform suggestion, Hopin, which is similar to Zoom, only it acts as a virtual conference with a ‘stage’ – where you broadcast your main show – breakout sessions, a networking section and virtual stalls.

Once we saw the potential for this platform – and also confirmed we could actually stream into it – the work began on staging, lighting and scheduling the runsheet for the event.

Liv Li’s performance on the night looked great on our 6K cameras.

So how was it all put together?

We used 4x cameras (2x FS5’s, 1x FX9, and our always reliable A7S) to cover all the angles – a head on, wide, side angle and an ultra-wide (strapped to the ceiling to show off the studio!).

These feeds, as well as our audio inputs, fed into our system, whereby we switched angles and added overlay titles, graphics and other video content, that simulcast into the Hopin main stage, and onto Facebook for any other viewers who hadn’t registered for the Hopin experience.

In the studio itself, the speakers and MCs were shown a timer on one screen, their notes on another, and we were able to communicate back to them via comms.

The stream was seamless because of our insane internet speeds at our studio, with NBN fibre-to-the-premises.

There was an enormously positive response to the stream.

The audience loved watching the show – they loved both the quality of the production, the quality of the talks, but also the interactivity of the Hopin platform made the whole event shine.

The TEDxCanberra team themselves were so happy with the result – and we can’t wait to do the same, only even better, for the main TEDxCanberra event later in the year.

Watch the whole thing here! And read more on live-streaming solutions for your own events.