媒体和媒体平台:案例研究

[Note: 流媒体 publishes vendor-submitted case studies such as this one based solely upon our assessment of their value to our readers.]

Andrew Irving is manager of webcast operations at Mediaco, one of Canada's largest audiovisual (AV) staging companies. 在他的角色中, Irving has enabled Mediaco to provide a webcasting service that matches the company's reputation for high standards in event production. Mediaco's story is a great example of how an established AV company can make the move to webcasting. 这可能是一个具有挑战性的过程, but the lessons that Irving learned along the way can help us in our corporate webcasting programs.

Mediaco成立于1989年, when AV industry veterans James Brett and Kevin Leinbach realized that the events market in Canada needed an alternative staging, 技术, 和视听公司. 通过“替代," they meant three things: truly great service; the latest and best equipment; and, 最重要的是, 一家真正致力于创新的公司.

他们是对的. 今天, the company has locations in Toronto; Ottawa; Edmonton, Alberta; Calgary, Alberta; and Vancouver, 英属哥伦比亚. Its clients include most of Canada's chartered banks and major
保险公司, 领先的公共关系和传播公司, 以及最大的科技公司. 该公司曾接待过皇室和世界领导人的访问, 英联邦运动会, 总理的会议, 以及主要的商业峰会. Mediaco于1996年制作了第一次网络直播, but it worked with a subsidiary entity for webcasting until 2009. 该公司现在已经把网络直播带回了公司内部.

With this kind of track record and A-list clientele, producing an event webcast is no simple matter. 正如欧文所说, "Webcasting an event for a client that is accustomed to a high level of production value and engagement with an AV vendor is a lot more complicated than just plugging a switcher into an encoding box.“确实, 正如欧文解释的那样, there are a host of issues that need to be resolved before event webcasting can offer the kind of client, 和观众, Mediaco坚持提供的经验.

Irving faced several distinct challenges in bringing webcasting in-house at Mediaco. 一方面, he needed to outfit Mediaco's five locations so that they could each provide an identical webcasting service for local events. He also had to make sure that any event that Mediaco wanted to webcast would result in a viewer experience that would match or exceed that of the live audience. 这比听起来难多了. Getting to a point where the audience experience is enhanced by the webcast involves bringing together numerous elements of the production and client engagement process.

在前端, Irving needed to be able to create a viewer interface that would align with a client's branding and communications goals for the event. 每个客户的情况都是不同的, but what they all have in common is that each client typically wants a specially designed player for the event. The player needs to mesh with the live, on-stage communication elements of the event.

在后端, Mediaco's webcasting solution had to offer the kind of flexible teaming and dynamic production arrangements that are standard operating procedure for such a large AV provider. 在任何情况下, Irving might have to coordinate a half dozen or more remote production teams and presenters, all of whom need to work in sync to produce a live event webcast. Irving needed a solution that would enable him to assign production roles to different people and coordinate multiple live presenter streams. In some situations, each remote location might have its own network and bandwidth peculiarities.

在全公司层面, Irving had to be able to integrate webcasting into an established production process that involved multiple departments at Mediaco. A Mediaco event is produced by a group of interconnected teams, from lighting and sound to stage design and videography. Webcasting would now become another department in this experienced, busy cluster of teams. 他选择的网络直播解决方案必须方便, 不妨碍, coordinating the activities of all of these people and groups.

Irving selected MediaPlatform's webcasting tools to help Mediaco make the move to event webcasting. 在评估了他的需求之后, he realized he was better off with a completely software-based solution. 公司实在是太分散了, 客户的情况太不稳定了, 使硬件解决方案可行. The MediaPlatform tools offer him the range of capabilities that he needed to make webcasting a success. "Each of our clients demands a different viewer experience," Irving said. 借助MediaPlatform的工具, I can design a new viewer interface on the fly and get it out for approval on a rapid cycle. We can incorporate branding elements and functionality according to client need, 不是我们的模板限制."

最后, MediaPlatform's webcasting tools enable Irving to manage distributed production teams with dynamic role changes and multiple remote presenters through a single, 后端接口.