about.

The team at Pixl were commissioned by Dellar Davies Ltd. for their client P&O Cruises, which had previously used the Central London studio at John Henry’s for several successful virtual events. When they decided to produce a Christmas broadcast event, they wanted to repeat the smooth experience.

P&O Cruises had a challenging time during the pandemic, with their fleet of cruise liners in dock or anchored at sea. In normal trading years, P&O Cruises plan several face-to-face events to which they invite members of the travel industry to inform them about their cruise products and new routes/ships. Whilst there were no cruises during the Covid pandemic, there was still a need to communicate with the travel industry. Face-to-face meetings were not possible, so they moved to virtual events to convey their message. These needed to be professional, high-production value broadcasts to reflect their brand and position in the market.

challenges.

The P&O Cruises brief was to create a Christmas themed backdrop in a TV studio. Pixl recommended using Studio 8, which has a 3mm LED back wall and a 4mm LED floor. Using this technology, the Pixl team was able to create an immersive extended reality (xR) environment to surround the presenters. Pixl worked with the client to design and create the virtual environment, while also providing all the crew and labour for the studio, including production manager, vision director, camerapersons, stage manager, makeup artists, audio, lighting, crew catering, and more.

solution.

The 2-hour broadcast took place on December 17, 2021. Jo Whiley hosted the event, which was a mixture of live performance and pre-recorded videos. Viewers also won Christmas themed prizes during the event. The client provided the virtual platform for the broadcast to be viewed on by 20,000 travel agents and travel industry professionals.

The studio was booked for two days with set build and rehearsals on the first day, further rehearsals on day two and the broadcast in the afternoon. The environment needed to be a corporate, P&O Cruises’ branded set, with a Christmas overlay. The environments were approved at the beginning of December. These were created using 3D Mac and were then ingested in the Disguise VX4 servers sitting in the studio. Three 4k broadcast cameras were used in total, of which two were on studio pedestals and one on a 6m jib. Studio 8 is made up of high-resolution LED walls and floor. All cameras had on board autocue. There were 18 crew in the studio to deliver the technical requirement with a further three people in the production office.

Father Christmas made an appearance on stage in a grotto to assist with the prize giving. Remote presenters were able to communicate with the studio and also view autocue, their presentation slides, and the camera view of the host. This was achieved through Quicklink.

results.

The feedback P&O Cruises received was excellent. They were at a point where the business was ready to recommence their cruise liner operation and having a top-of-the-line platform to deliver this message to the travel industry was crucial.

“You all did a really superb job, and we appreciated all the detail that went into the production planning and rehearsals,” said Elaine Dellar, CEO of Dellar Davies Ltd.

about.

Mitel is a global business communications company powering more than two billion business connections with cloud, enterprise, and next-gen collaboration applications. The Mitel Global Kickoff (Mitel GKO) is an annual event held for the benefit of all Mitel employees, educating them on the next steps to success as a company. Mitel’s second large-scale annual event is the NEXT Seminar, a similar event to the GKO, directed at business partners. The events were held to educate audiences about Mitel’s vision and strategy for the coming year. Attendees at both events dove virtually into execution plans and product roadmaps, saw the latest demos in technology, had questions answered by program experts, and capitalized on opportunities to network across the board.

Working with Creative Group Inc, Mitel had used Pixl Studios in 2021 for their broadcasts and received excellent feedback. In 2022, they wanted to push the technology boundaries. Pixl’s dedicated state-of-the-art xR studio in Central London was the perfect geographical location for a global broadcast across several time zones.

challenges.

Pixl began production in November 2021, with the two events booked back two back: GKO in mid-February and NEXT in the end of February. Pixl turned around the intended concept design in three weeks to encompass remote presenters, display presentation material, and cater for a single host and up to five presenters at one time. From ideation to implementation, the eight individual broadcast environments had to then be ingested in Disguise VX4 servers in the Pixl studio for presenters to see where they are in the xR world and interact with objects and live content.

Using xR live, Pixl had to rehearse every move and shot, ensuring the host and presenters were comfortable with their position and camera movement. With over 20 hours of broadcasts in total over the 13 rehearsal days, this needed to be managed very carefully.

Pixl also faced facilitation of four different XR stages to ensure continuity and branding and craft a fully immersive viewer experience. Faced with rendering five remote textures and two Renderstream layers in real time, resources needed to be carefully balanced to ensure the highest quality was achieved and maintained to deliver this event.

solution.

Pixl’s team worked with The Content Studio and Mitel staff to implement common themes and colors complementing each XR stage. Using Disguise RX media servers, sources that were sent into Unreal Engine were translated into a uniform texture on the XR stage, and all textures and reflections were able to be rendered live.

Needing another RX server, Pixl looked to their ETP network and collaborated with BrainHub, the technical team powering ETP, who shipped over extra resources in time to begin the calibration process. The team streamlined the preparation workflow from there, reframing, cropping, and composing content with other technology, prior to sending live inputs to the server.

To account for the importance of the calibration process, Pixl spent five days ensuring the color, spatial, and delay calibrations were spot on. Observing the LED with a sharp eye and staying consistent in the calibration process each day ensured the perfectly balanced image for the client’s viewers.

results.

The feedback Mitel received was excellent. This event enabled them to tell the story about the business and its future roadmap in a way that would not be achievable with standard virtual communications.

The high quality xR sets and branding created realistic sets which, with the use of remote textures, made them extremely flexible. Calibration stayed extremely accurate throughout the event and the transition from LED wall to the set extension was seamless. The colors and spatial mapping were consistent and immaculate in overall cohesion. The end picture was very well received by the client and their viewers alike.

Ultimately, building a strong relationship and good communication with the client led to a clear understanding of intention and goals. Pixl rose to the challenge and delivered two smooth, efficient, and well-received events. The top technological equipment was leveraged to provide the best experience possible for Mitel and their event viewers.

Mitel do wish to get back to live events, as the benefits for face-to-face networking are hard to replicate, but this series of broadcasts proved that one can successfully produce engaging communications using state-of-the-art technology. The next step will be incorporating this into a Live/Virtual hybrid event in 2023.

about.

TikTok is a video-sharing social networking service used to make a variety of short-form videos, with genres like dance, comedy and education. In October 2020, the company aimed to host a new month-long livestream series in honor of Black History Month with multiple presentations and events.
 
 

challenge.

While this event was always designed to be a virtual livestream series, it required the integration of many remote presenters located throughout Europe and the Middle East as well as the coordination of off-site location filming around the UK. This was also an entirely live broadcast, with segments lasting anywhere from 45 minutes to two days, with one day rehearsal and a 4-hour live show immediately following. With stream details continuing to evolve and change throughout the month, the timelines for adjusting to updates were sometimes as short as six hours.
 
 

solution.

Pixl provided full technical production management, broadcast services, studio locations and streaming facilities for the TikTok Black History Month series. The team brought the livestream series to life in the Pixl Virtual Studio at John Henry’s in London, filming most of the segments in Studio 7. The Black History Month celebration was also the inaugural event for the relaunched xR Studio 8 at John Henry’s.

In order to ensure seamless remote presentations, Pixl sent Quicklink ST55 or ST500 “Studio in a Box” packages to presenters across the UK, Europe and the Middle East.
 
 

results.

Pixl’s technical proficiency, combined with the ability to pivot at short notice and still deliver a high standard, ensured a successful multi-day livestream series.

All livestreams were broadcast from Pixl’s master control room, using a broadcast level PPU, through multiple streaming platforms: Live in App on TikTok, Vimeo, Hopin, Wowza, EventCube and Streamup Live. The livestreams were also pushed out through the TikTok UK account, which has 3.2 million followers.

Pixl is committed to the safety and health of their technicians and clients, following all COVID protocols and safety measures for social distancing. During the livestream segments, Pixl hosted up to six live presenters and up to 25 technicians safely, while following all social distancing and COVID protocols to ensure everyone’s safety and health.

about.

Each year, ABTA hosts The Travel Convention, a leading event in the travel calendar. In 2020, for the first time, ABTA held the Travel Convention virtually, enabling the travel industry to come together at this crucial moment in history amidst a global pandemic. The Travel Convention ran as a one-day event with content delivered via a virtual event portal, where attendees could access keynote speakers and business sessions alongside a range of specialist workshops and networking opportunities.

challenge.

Originally, the three-day conference was scheduled to be held in Marrakech with an estimated live audience of 450 people. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, ABTA decided to take their annual convention virtual. Pixl demystified the new world of virtual events, taking the ABTA team through various virtual solutions for the event. ABTA wanted to provide an engaging virtual experience and decided to use Pixl’s Extended Reality (XR) studio at John Henry’s in London, which included an XR stage, three cameras, autocue, XR services, and Mo-Sys tracking. As Extended Reality is an emerging and ever-evolving technical process, workflow examples are not yet abundant and are constantly changing.

solution.

Pixl provided ABTA the opportunity to pre-record their content in the studio, which eliminated the pressures typically associated with a live event and provided peace of mind. Over the course of two days, presenters pre-recorded their segments in the XR studio, with the exception of the event’s single remote presenter. Pixl’s Remote Presenter Kit allowed the State Minister for Transport Grant Shapps to present right from home with the equipment and technical support he needed for a successful presentation.

results.

The conference came to life with the help of 11 Pixl technicians, who used Quicklink for remote presenters and MCR to control the event. Hosted on ABTA’s meeting portals, the conference welcomed an audience of approximately 2,000 people, including 50 journalists, exceeding their initial reach of 450 live attendees. Although this was ABTA’s first virtual conference, it was a resounding success, with attendees remarking that they felt as if they were at the actual conference. The XR stage’s professional appealing background enabled the conference to have a high-quality, TV broadcast feel led by Chris Ship, the event’s professional TV moderator.

The key to successful virtual events is to deliver an entertaining experience. “You have to think ‘TV show’ rather than ‘conference.’ It’s about putting together a slick production that is engaging and interesting to watch on a laptop. It has to hold the audience’s interest and make them want to continue to watch,” says Paul Hutton, President, Entertainment Technology Partners European Operations.