Hope you find this interesting. Among the other things I do, I am the Tech Director for the Ann Arbor Film Festival (AAFF). Since we could not do the Fest in person this year, we made the decision to live stream it all about 10 days before it started. It started on Tuesday March 24.
Our agreement with the filmmakers was that it would be a live-only, one time stream. No files for later playback, nothing that could be downloaded.
The process of figuring the tech out started on Saturday. the 14th. A lot of that was trying different ideas and seeing how they worked. We paid a lot of money to Vimeo to be able to do the live streaming and get strong support. I have since learned that you can do the same streaming using the Premium version, which is about $900 for one year. But you don't get the same level of support, and we needed it. We were writing the playbook, and you can benefit from what we learned with the expensive level of support. Check with Vimeo.
Now that I have actually built all the program show files, I have time to do stuff like this. This is just to give you an idea of what my life has been like these days, taking the AAFF live-streaming online.
A quick description of the work flow here:
These photos show my "office" and my "desk":
Looking at the photo below, the laptop on the left is what I used to generate the stream, using software that acts like a TV control room (Livestream Studio 6). Everything comes into that gets mixed/chosen, and it outputs the live stream to the Vimeo site.
The laptop on the right is what I used to join each Q&A session so I can put it on the stream. It looks like a camera input to the streaming software.
The iMac on the right is playing back the video files that make up each program. The one on the left is our backup, and what I used to build the rest of the Fest once we started.
A quick description of the work flow here:
A computer plays back the files that make up a program, or collection of movies and interstitial bits like program listings, slide shows about upcoming screenings, etc.
Another computer joins the Zoom meetings for each Q&A session that happen immediately after each program. Participants include as many filmmakers as can join, a moderator that handles the questions - both prepared and live from the audience via a chat window on the Vimeo site - and someone from the festival staff that fields those live questions and puts them into the Zoom chat window for the moderator to read.
A third computer acts the hub for collecting these signals and creating the stream that goes out to Vimeo. I used Livestream Studio 6 software, which has an interface much like a TV control room switcher.
Finally, there is a second iMac that is standing by in case we need to generate another input for the stream. Mostly I used this to keep building the show files for the rest of the Festival, but it came into emergency use for the Saturday 4 PM program.
It turned out that the file I had for a 40 minute movie was corrupted, and stopped playback around 6 minutes in. So I had to scramble to get a link from a site from where I could stream it. I connected to that site on the backup iMac, went fullscreen with it, and then switched to that input on the laptop generating the stream. The whole emergency switchover took about a minute, and I was able t start the replacement playback at the same time the original had failed. Viewers had no idea what had happened - they just thought it was a normal glitch that happens in the live festival event.
This is a pic of what the Q&A looks like, along with a large monitor in the background that I use to monitor the live stream. You can also have a closer view of the software I used to generate the stream. If you look closely you can see the little tiles that represent all the possible inputs to the stream.
I have to be part of every Q&A Zoom meeting so I can bring it into the live stream, but I turn off my sound and image. You can see me listed as "Tom Bray Tech Director" in the middle of the top row. When you turn off your video in Zoom you just show up as your name like that.
And since I had some time, I also built this graphic. Viewers that go to the Vimeo site see this:
Most of the work up to Saturday had been building the rest of the shows. We moved into our undisclosed location with just the first day ready to go, so since then I was building the rest of the Fest show files as we are streaming. Kind of like crossing a bridge while the construction crew is just ahead, still working to get to the other side...Also very much like being a filmmaker, producer, VJ, DJ, and Tech Sergeant Chen all at once.
(bonus points for identifying Chen without Googling it...)
At least there are some windows. I seem to have chosen a vocation that usually keeps me in small rooms under artificial light most of the time.
And.......we're clear!
Until next time, have a good time!
-t
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