Creating a Remote Live Event with a Special Look at the Making of a Zoom-Mitzvah

On today's Videoguys Live Webinar, Gary is joined by Adam Noyes (Video Production Specialist here at Videoguys) to go over ways of creating a remote live event and making a better video conferencing experience, with programs like Zoom, Teams, Google Meets and more!

Together they go behind the scenes for a recent Bar Mitzvah that was done completely over Zoom!  This event was created to avoid the typical "Brady Bunch" style grid screen, and give participants a more produced view of an experience that functioned as the next best thing to being there in person.  

Check out the webinar below. 

Workflow: 

Our workfow to create an engaging Zoom Mitzvah involved the gear we use to bring you our show every week.  This includes a NewTek TriCaster (although any capable mixer, such as a Roland Switcher) will do the trick, NDI Virtual Input, NDI Scan Converter, and an operator to manage our zoom call.  

Check out the diagram illustrating this workflow below. 

Pre Production:

Our Zoom Mitzvah included a great deal of pre production and rehearsal.  Dealing with a 13 year old and a Rabi who isn't used to live broadcasting means making adjustments based on your talent.  Marking the floor, and coming up with appropriate camera angles is key, and must take place in a rehearsal with your actual subjects.  

Check out our studio markings, below.

Also important in pre-production is creating your set design, which in our case was a virtual set.  We grabbed an image of a Synagogue, and softened the image to give the illusion that our subject was actually there, while in reality they were in front of our studio green screen. 

Check out the before and after of our virtual set image below. 

Top Tips:

1. Spotlight View in Zoom:

This feature allows for a moderator to select a speaker and have them be centered in your zoom gallery view for all participants.  You can also select multiple participants as well. 

2. Practice, Practice, Practice: 

Remember that your subjects won't always be professional talent, and there are a ton of variables to make a live event work.  At least two rehearsals will set your live stream apart from the rest at a higher quality, as there will be time to work out all of your kinks. 

3. Audio:

The best way to kill a good video presentation is poor audio, which is why this facet of your production is so important.  And, when doing a Zoom or video conferencing presentation, routing can make or break your audio.  It's important to test multiple solutions for mic-ing your talent.  

In addition, the audio your talent hears needs to be correctly routed to avoid feedback, humming or echo!

Check out our Videoguys Zoom Guide to learn more about Video Conferencing Best Practices.