Digital Innovation Award Winners for Live Streaming Solutions

The Digital Innovation Award

This award was new to the award programme this year and sponsored by Winchester City Council. It was to be presented to a business which could demonstrate the use of innovative digital technology plus have ongoing plans to develop this in the future. During the shortlisting process, the judges were looking for an organisation which could show digital innovation and would improve business performance as a result, they thought that was us!

Being innovative to help improve business performance is key for us as part of the Whitwam Group.
Being part of a larger group, which started trading in 1909, we have always continued to develop, invest and make positive changes to stay competitive, and our longevity is a testament to that.

Our submission for the Digital Innovation Award was based on our use and ongoing development of Live Streaming video services. We supply an end to end solution rather than one size fits all offering, enabling our clients to reach a wider audience.

After being shortlisted we prepared for the judging, which was extremely interesting because this gave us the chance to look at all the work we’ve done involving live streaming and really tie down what makes our offering different and innovative. It’s a refreshing challenge to explain the how and why and consider that we were not preaching to the converted or client needing a solution.

We know that using a combination of technology to best fit each client’s needs, alongside their creative ideas, we can enable them to reach a much wider audience, not only being more inclusive but embrace diversity and reach a global audience.

What we do, and how we do it…

A video streaming project starts with “interviewing” the client and collecting together their creative aspirations, the technical infrastructure in place, any environmental considerations and their desired audience.
No combination of the above can result in the same solution. We assess, create, research, innovate and build a solution, keeping the client informed and educated while ensuring that the balance between recourses and budget is kept in check.

To date, dedicated live streaming providers have supplied a much more restrictive solution service. The client must work within their solution and costs are often based on making the best return on expensive hardware purchases, not giving the client the best and most flexible options.

We have the flexibility that can stream to a single viewer or to a global coverage on an open network, or we can provide secure networks with individual viewer logins for data security or push the stream to multiple platforms and languages simultaneously.

We can take multiple digital sources, for example, that could range from cameras to Powerpoint presentations or pre-recorded videos. By working like this we can offer broadcast style live mixed visuals, moving from one view to another, and cutting to presentations as a person on stage talks about them. At events, we often supply additional screens and displays for the audience so they can benefit from receiving the best view too.

The majority of the live streaming solutions we provide are on location, however, with our video production studio, we are able to offer our facilities as part of the solution and complete a live stream seamlessly from our own building. The added benefit of using our studio is the environment is more controlled, not only being soundproof, you can use an autocue, plus rehearse or even pre-record if necessary.

Our bespoke service allows our clients to use their preferred social media platform choice too, for example using Periscope on Twitter to allow for immediate feedback and questions to be asked via Facebook Live. This allows them to communicate more efficiently without the need to spend many hours travelling for individual training or Q&A sessions.

After completing the live stream, we offer the facilities and skillset to complete edited versions, including full length, teaser trailers and social videos, or use the footage taken to advertise the next live stream that the client would be completing.

By being flexible, and working with the client’s needs rather than a one system solution we enable our clients to be empowered by the technology rather than constricted. Each project is unique and we always treat it as such.

Development and growth

By creating bespoke solutions, we are always at the front edge of technology and creative ideas, with technology constantly changing and working with a wide range of clients in locations globally, it is the most sustainable way for us to provide the best solution for existing and new clients.

Livestreaming is a dynamic and fast moving service that improves, updates and becomes accessible to more people daily. We believe that keeping innovation at the heart of our process gives us the best, most flexible, creative and cost-effective offering.

Live streaming is growing constantly, and its use across all sectors, from corporate to public sector bodies conferences, educational learning and development, plus more entertainment and personal development that previously could only have been experienced at the event.
Our experience is building all the time, and we are currently testing new 4K remote camera solutions to fit in less accessible areas to enable live streaming solutions that we have previously been unable to offer.

If you would like to know more about our live streaming and video productions services, please use our contact page, or give us a call on 01962 870 408, we’d love to show you round our video studio and discuss your next live streaming event.