Client
The City of Rotterdam approached Valo to help think through a quote for building a studio. The City of Rotterdam wanted to build a studio and train its media support department so the team could run live productions on its own. In this way, the city wanted to become self-sufficient and rely less on tenders for external parties.
Starting simple with self-service livestreaming through Valo START
Valo advised the city to start simple, with a small studio and basic equipment. For this, Valo recommended the Valo START package: a compact, portable studio that is easy to set up. Valo then gave the three-person media support team a four-day crash course in becoming self-directing switching technicians.
Crash course and sabotage day
The first day was spent exploring the landscape of livestreaming: after all, you are making television on a small scale. The course covered the various disciplines, such as lighting, sound, IT, producer, direction, set technician, floor manager and switching between shots. The course covered livestreaming via Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Teams Live Events, YouTube, Vimeo and Invitado: all platforms the city works with.
On the second and third days, the team received a crash course in camera operation: which settings do the cameras have, and how do you adjust them? How do you get the right lighting and good colors on screen? And how do you handle challenging situations?
The last day was sabotage day: Valo built a livestream simulation and set up scenarios in which things go wrong. Just like in real life. A few camera settings changed here, a few cables pulled out there. On this day, the team had to rely on itself and learned how to solve problems on its own. The most important lesson: always do a dry run before the event, because you never know whether someone has changed something in the meantime or whether problems will suddenly appear!
