Virtual Awards Production for SME Cambridgeshire

SME Cambridgeshire Business Awards Virtual Event

Celebrating small and medium enterprises alongside the entrepreneurs that bring them to life, the SME Cambridgeshire Business Awards is an event that runs annually commemorating businesses in all sectors. Offering a wide range of awards, the event prior to lockdown was operated in a more traditional format, with nominees attending the ceremony.  However, due to current restrictions we were tasked with transitioning the event into a virtual production, that embodied the conventional aspects of an awards ceremony into a live broadcast, allowing nominees to join and participate from the comfort of their own homes.

 

Creating a Set

A bespoke set was designed and created by us complete with company branding, to create an onscreen environment that matched the tonality of previous ceremonies run by the SME Business Awards. Designing the set beforehand allowed us to pre-visualise the look and feel of the event in terms of aesthetics and camera positions, enabling us to streamline our pre-production process for the broadcast. The set itself was comprised of Astera pixel tubes, a 4k Samsung Display and a black backdrop to complement the brighter aspects of the set design. Arranged and installed by our lighting technicians the Astera pixel tubes created an interesting on-screen dynamic, that helped generate an onscreen atmosphere familiar to that of a traditional awards event. Moreover, having a 4k display was extremely useful not only in terms of set design, but it also allowed us to display high quality graphics of sponsors and business involved within the event, to ensure we could visually represent these parties on screen.

 

Behind the Scenes

To ensure the Business Awards were running efficiently we had an onsite team operating and controlling the technical aspects of the broadcast. The live event itself was comprised of an in-house presenter, being filmed on set by our camera operators and live feeds of the participants, nominees alongside the sponsors of the event.  To collate these various elements of the broadcast a vison mixer was required on set, to ensure camera footage and graphics were seamlessly being integrated as the event progressed.

Additionally, as there were several individuals dialling into the event live, there were various different sound qualities and audio levels being thrown into the mix. Therefore, to ensure we were outputting a balanced sound signal, our audio technician was on hand to process and refine the quality of the audio being outputted. To oversee these departments, we had a on location producer, equipped with a coms link connecting each of the technical departments to ensure clear communication between our on-site crew.

 

Overview

We were thrilled to help bring this project to life and pleased with the kind feedback we received from the client. This event was an interesting and welcomed challenge due to the large amounts of participants involved within the broadcast nonetheless, due to advance planning and preparations within the pre- production stages, the event ran smoothly and without any technical issues.