Digital Case Study #1: Community Arts Council of Vancouver
As part of our Consultations with members of the arts and culture community, we’ve prepared a series of case studies to help you better understand how to find the solutions to your own digital problems, as well as provide you with resources you may not have considered. In this case study, Community Arts Council of Vancouver consults with digital expert Robert Ouimet.
Community Arts Council of Vancouver (CACV) wants to improve all of its online offerings. They host a festival and a series of artists workshops, as well as panel discussion, and educational workshops throughout the year.
This consultation focused primarily on the festival, but also the workshops that lead up to it (and which generate content that is featured in the festival). We also discussed CACV’s desire to improve all Zoom-type meeting experiences: to make them more accessible to those who may struggle with technology, and also make the experience better to improve return rate (retention).
Questions to Consider
When tackling this consultation, consultant Robert Ouimet asked CACV:
What resources do you have available to you, both financial and human?
How often events take place, with how many participants?
How is a typical session is conducted now?
What has CACV learned, and what challenges have they faced, from the online offerings they’ve already presented?
What technical equipment do they already have in place?
Recommendations and Best Practices
Things to Keep in Mind for all Live Streamed Events (Workshops, Festivals, Meetings)
Rehearse and test to ensure that everything you think is going to happen, happens the way you think.
Typically, these events rely on multiple participants, multiple pieces of software in different environments, etc. There are a lot of things that can go wrong. The goal here is to make your live event as seamless and surprise-free as possible. That means rehearse it by duplicating the set up and running it to see what actually happens.
If your event is three hours long, your testing should be three hours long.
Anything you change after testing is a possible problem waiting to happen. If you change one thing, test it again.
Start your stream early, so that you can fix problems before you go live to your audience.
There’s a lot to do, so use a checklist to ensure you didn’t forget something.
Update your source equipment
Three things, in this order, will improve the Zoom/video cast experience:
Better audio
Better lighting
Better video camera
Audio: With microphones, it really is true that you get what you pay for. Investing in a good microphone is the first step to improving your production output. USB Microphones comes in a variety of shapes, sizes and price points. Non-USB (analog microphones) are professional microphones. To get these mics into your computer, you need a Digital to Analog (DAC) converter. You can run any number of these ‘real’ mics into a mixer to really improve your sound, taking in sources like other audio (music, for instance), the MC’s mic, a room mic, etc. The choices you should make really depend on your application. Consult with a sales pro about your needs, and they’ll make recommendations.
Lighting: Lighting kits are numerous and surprisingly cheap. LED solutions have made these kits lighter, and less prone to breakage. Typical kits have three lights and come in a road case. You can adjust colour and lighting intensity on most of them. If you need to work remotely and power them by battery, there are solutions for that as well.
Video cameras: The camera has to be able to stream to the web, unless you are going to use a hardware device to get the video into your computer. There are a lot of different web cams available, or you could also use a DSLR that is set up for this. Olympus, Nikon and Canon have all announced new cables for some of their cameras that will allow streaming from the DSLR.
Work with the Medium
Zoom is exhausting. We’re too close to the screen, and we’re tethered to our devices. Find ways to change that: move, leave, start a breakout room, come back. Change positions and perspectives.
Facilitate for Zoom. This is different than facilitating in the room. Consider hiring a facilitation coach/consultant to make your Zoom meetings, workshops and events really great. One person you can consult is Sue Biely; get in touch with the BC Alliance to get Sue’s contact!
Your users (participants) will need tech support during the event. Your facilitator can do a better job if they don’t have to worry about doing tech support at the same time as doing a great presentation.
Support your Workshop Participants
Onboarding: Onboarding is the process of getting your participants up to speed with the technology you’ll be using, well before actual event. This means the participants arrive feeling confident in how the software works, and you won’t spend time at the beginning of the meeting getting sorted out.
Provide a human ‘guide’ for onboarding. Onboarding needs to take multiple shapes, since people learn differently. Provide resources on the web, downloadable PDF documents, live interaction via phone, Zoom or chat. Let participants self-book their times — it’s much better than trying to schedule, and they can reschedule themselves in the same system. Limit the tech tools your participants need to use to avoid overload.
Your live event or workshop guide: At events, the host ‘guide’ is key. Take me by the hand and walk me through everything. Connect with me. The host’s job is to look after the participants, make sure they are having a great experience, and change things on the fly if possible, to improve the experience.
Retention: Add some continuity between events by providing support outside of the meetings, through a private Facebook group, Slack workspace, etc.
Make Your online festival great
A combination of website and live stream are still the strongest ways to do this right now. Using the web, you can present multiple types of content, and the user can move to what they want to see/hear/do. If you can’t create a compelling web experience, then make your online live festival great through videos that are well-produced, and specifically created for the screen.
Consider making your three days more like three days of great TV, rather than three days of Zoom. Construct your schedule so it flows and has an arc (slow, fast, experiential, learning, talking, listening). Create a day grid that accounts for all the running times, transitions, breaks, etc. In your grid, make sure you identify what tools being used when. When you put together the programming schedule, ask: what does this look and sound like? Guide me, talk to me, nurture me through the experience.
Collect Feedback
Use polls (online forms) daily to help get feedback from your audience at every event. Allow open responses (“rate this” type questions, as opposed to yes/no responses) to learn from your audience about what worked for them and what didn’t, and what could be improved. Keep it short. Add photos or graphics to the poll to make it fun.
Do not wait until the end of a multi-day even to poll. You might learn something at the end of day one that is easy to change and could improve the experience for the rest of the event.
Tools and Resources
Live captioning
Machine (automatic) captioning is prone to errors, but may be the best solution if you can’t afford real-time in person captioning. Zoom and other streaming solutions allow you to insert captions into the program fairly easily, whether they are being created by a person on a machine. Live, real-time machine captioning solutions include:
Rev (integrates well with Zoom)
3Play Media (info page here)
Streaming platforms
Video Switching Software
Wirecast (Telestream, which makes Wirecast, also has hardware for multi camera switching that is portable, and includes the processor)
Video Switching HARDware
BlackMagic Design web presenter (two cameras, built in simple switcher, small form factor. $500.00 USD)
BlackMagic Design ATEM mini (four cameras, built in multi-function switcher, small and portable, can also use their more robust software switching that comes free with the device. Three models, starting at $295.00 USD)
Local Suppliers
Audio
Long and McQuade
Various locations
Trew Audio
Burnaby
3737 Napier St, Burnaby, BC V5C 4Z5
Mixers
Mackie mixers are robust, a favourite in the audio industry for their road worthiness
Behringer has a large line of gear and is very reasonably priced.
Lights
Almost any camera store can help you. Leo’s Camera on Granville sometimes has used gear.
Video and Audio
Annex Pro is on Venables in East Vancouver. You can contact:
Sarah Krahn
Inside Sales Representative
800 682 6639 x105
www.annexpro.com