We have a major upgrade coming soon (in the offseason) & I wonder how long it will be before we outgrow this little shack? For now, it will do. 

Behind the scenes, there are so many elements that go into producing a live show – sound, lights, technology, talent, & content. AND then there’s all the pre & post (but that’s for another day).

Objectives

The idea behind the Big Dog Studio is to be able to sit someone in the chair quickly & we produce everything else to deliver a live & far more engaging viewer experience than your standard Zoom meeting or webinar.

AND without needing a big production crew (& therefore reducing costs). 

Whether for our weekly project The Naked Punt or any other event.

Back in the studio, this week’s focus has been on reducing computer system & network overloads, chroma key improvements & colour correction. 

• Added new dedicated machine for Zoom feeds via NDI into video mixer. A massive difference as the machine is not overloading & freezing. 
• Added virtual Studio Clock to teleprompt display – to keep everything on track. 
• Converted old laptop to the dedicated live streaming unit. 
• This unit has a reasonably good GPU so has increased quality of stream from 1.5 to 6.0 Mbs. Note: Still running 720p for now. (Fingers crossed this delivers a much better image – you can all the testing in the world but you don’t know until you go live). 
• Switched back to Facebook for livestream channel. Hopefully, system upgrade reduces streaming problems. The Youtube chat engine was a fail with our viewers. 
• Added video vectorscope to assist with colour balance corrections across different studio cameras. A whole lot of new learning around LUTs & colour spaces. 
• Improvements to on-stage cabling (it was like crawling through a spider web ) 
• Audio – Studio audio quality now is pretty bloody good but still some Zoom guest tests to do. 

Other items in progress 

• *Virtual production via Unreal Engine (massive learning curve)
• *Scene automation system (using Voicemeeter Macro Buttons)
• *DMX LED lighting control (early research) 
• *Better Music & SFX control
• *CGI system for overlays (on hold) 
• *New shows (on hold) 

videoproduction, livestream, virtualevents, virtual, virtualproduction

Flashbacks and a new chapter for all.

The first blog post for this updated website – a new chapter in the time of Corona.

To look forward it helps to know where you’ve been and it’s hard for me to believe that it’s over 20 years since we got out of the pub, so many great memories and fun times bringing people together.

How times have changed!

Back in 1999 “social media” meant reading the paper at the bar. Tinder was stuff you put in the fire and streaming was what flowed down from the mountains.

Back then we were one of the first pubs (if not the first) in the country to have a website – we had news, an events calendar & offered our customers the ability to place orders via a form & pick up from the bottleshop (pictured above).

To surf the web required a dial-up connection. The user experience was clunky but little did we know how much things would change,

Fast forward to today, in self-isolation, I’ve been back working on our new website & it makes me appreciate how much technology has evolved over that time but yet, the human connection & customer experience is just as important today. 

The early stage of website redevelopment