Streamingmedia West 2007: Best Practices in Webcast Production

Best Practices For Webcasting Production

Joe Tripician, Medialink

Alan Richardson, Sprint Creative Media

Gordon Castle, Turner Broadcasting / CNN

Wayne Oates, McDonald's Corporation

Larry Kless, Kaiser Permanente

Streaming Media West, Session A102, November 6, 2007

Low Cost – High Quality Production

Turner has developed a new production system and approach that dramatically lowers the cost of live multiple camera production

The SportsKit is a complete four-camera production system with the ability to schedule, produce and stream events live over the public internet

Designed for easy and fast deployment and operation

PlayON! is a new business within Turner developing partnerships with conference, leagues, teams and rights holders

Subscription based products with revenue sharing between partners and Turner

Launched in April 2007 160+ events per season from 12 USL Division One teams Launched in September 2006 Provided 700+ events across 22 sports in its first year

How It Works: The SportsKit

SportsKit in Action

Live and Recorded Production Field Production Crew Switcher Encoder PUBLIC INTERNET Encoded in Windows Media format, dual stream (750 kbps and 350 kbps) Video Servers PUBLIC INTERNET Crew of 4-8 people Separate audio and video inputs Web site, account management, customer service, etc. Consumers ANALOG DIGITAL

ACC Select Homepage

A few examples

What Have We Learned?

Clear consumer passion for these events

Fans are willing to pay to see their sport

On-demand replay is as valuable as being able to watch live

Usage data is 50/50 for live vs. on-demand viewership

Average of 14% week-over-week subscriber growth

Average 11.5% splash-to-order conversion

Industry average is 1-2%

The Sportskit coupled with a successful training program have enabled the production of 1200+ event to date

Access to Sports They Can’t See Anywhere Else Is More Important Than Any Other Feature

McDonald’s Golden Anniversary Restaurant, Chicago, Illinois

Internal Company Event on accessmcd.com

Public Press Event on mcdonalds.com

McDonald’s Golden Anniversary

Showflow – 50th Anniversary Webcasts Dual Event - April 15th, 2005

Internal Event Dedications

External Press Event

Internal Company Event on accessmcd.com

Town Hall Meeting

Worldwide Press Announcement

Webcasting accelerates dissemination of corporate strategies, general communications, training on new products, programs, sales strategies and helps bridge geographic barriers.

Primary audience - employees on internal enterprise network

Employee base of approximately 55,000

Delivering over 300 live video webcasts a year

Delivering over 200 live audio webcasts a year

Served up more than 50,000 replays last year

Regular all-employee events can reach over 40% during live event and another 10% view the replays within 1 week

Department level participation is usually much higher at 80 – 100% participation on live program and 10-20% viewing replay within 1 week

Recent impromptu event with interim CEO (10,000 live, 1800 replays within 1 week)

As webcast program manager, I spend much of my time connecting with stakeholders from different organizations.

IT, Network Services, Video Production, Corporate Communications, Executive Support, Event Planning, Marketing, Investor Relations, Public Relations, Facilities …

Enterprise employees at desk

200K stream standard

Multicast enabled network

On-demand content served from distributed content engines and dedicated streaming servers

High quality videos downloaded and played back locally (progressive download)

VPN connected employees

200K stream

No multicast so we use stream splitting at the edge to serve up unicast streams

Audio only for users who don’t want to saturate bandwidth

Mobile phone employees

3GP streams

Audio only streams

No slides

Audioconference

Operator assisted

Live questions allowed

Best Practices For Webcasting Production Joe Tripician, Medialink Alan Richardson, Sprint Creative Media Gordon Castle, Turner Broadcasting / CNN Wayne Oates, McDonald's Corporation Larry Kless, Kaiser Permanente Streaming Media West, Session A102, November 6, 2007

Planning process

Client request generated through Corporate Communications or other department depending on focus of web cast event

Needs assessment conducted in initial planning meeting

Production management tasks and assignments including timeline, budget, site survey, state of readiness, milestones, project team, production design, vendor negotiations, crew, pre-production of content with clients

Set up, rehearsal, live event, strike, evaluation

Anatomy of a Web cast

Web cast Production Tools

Remote video and audio fly packs with:

Portable video switcher

Scan converter

Preview and program monitors

Camera control units

Black generator

Wireless microphones

Audio mixers

Audio compressor/limiter, EQ

Audio and video distribution amps

CD player

Patch panels

Video Rack Switcher Video set-up Ch. 1 Ch. 2 Switcher out to VDA VDA video out to codec CAM 1 VID PB 5 Slides 4 DSR-50 DVCAM Record IBM laptop (CGs) Confidence monitor CCU RACK CAM 2 CAM 3 RGB Specturm Scan Converter AG-MX70 Panasonic Switcher inputs S-video out DSR-70 DVCAM Playback Laptop to Scan Converter (Video Out) Pre-show Loop Program DSR-45: ISO recording of CAM 3 Firewire Firestore USB

Audio Rack EV-1 Mixer Audio set-up Loop Ch. 3 and 4 Wireless lapel and Handheld from Rack Ch. 2 Gooseneck Podium Ch. 1 SM58 on boom stand (backup podium) Audio Rack Back Panel MIC OUT to codec Ch. 1 Ch. 2 Ch. 5 DSR-70 Monitor out (RCA to Phono) LINE OUT to ADA ADA LINE OUT to Ch. 1 & 2 Record Mackie inputs DSR-70 DVCAM Record DSR-40 DVCAM Playback PA OUT to PA system

Examples

Research Program on Genes, Environment, and Health Press Conference

http://www.dor.kaiser.org/studies/rpgeh/

Healthy Heart Press Conference

http://www.permanente.net/healthyheart/

Northern California Residency Programs Open House

http://residency.kp.org/ncal/

Kaiser Permanente Research Program on Genes, Environment, and Health

http://www.dor.kaiser.org/studies/rpgeh/

Live Web cast Research Programs on Genes, Environment and Health (RPGEH) Web Cast February 14, 2007

Kaiser Permanente Healthy Heart web site

http://www.permanente.net/healthyheart/

Live Web cast Healthy Heart Web Cast April 26, 2007

Live Web cast Portable Web cast Control Center - Healthy Heart Web Cast April 26, 2007

Kaiser Permanente Northern California Residency Programs

http://residency.kp.org/ncal/

Live Web cast KP NCAL Residency Open House Web cast Sept. 8, 2007

The Key to a Successful Web cast

Establishing relationships

Building consensus

Managing expectations

Facilitating change

Being prepared

Day of event

Production team takes over

Staging is set

Cameras set

Audio set

Talent set

Day of event

Back Office preparation

Start Encoders

Watch Questions

Advance Slides

Monitor Phones

User generated content

Streaming from mobile handsets

Streaming to mobile handsets

audience (Mobile/PC) live event video broadcast source Sprint’s video portal

audience (Mobile/PC) live event video broadcast source Sprint’s video portal with real time GPS location on Google map

User generated real-time mobile video User GPS position shown in real time on Google map (video studio) Monitor, manage and map multiple live streams and archived videos, simultaneously. Add new video feeds. Switch between multiple cameras and displays GPS map of live mobile broadcast events.