Video Production & Live Streaming of LinkedIn Conferences

3xScreen is a London-based studio that provides online video services for Agencies, Corporates, Events and Sports. 3xScreen specializes in the video production and live streaming of events online – which 3xScreen does for the likes of the BBC, The Football Association, Disney, Universal, The Press Association, Red Bull, EA Sports and VANS. Using our LiveU backpacks, 3xScreen can live broadcast in HD from anywhere without an Internet connection or satellite truck. Recent 3xScreen projects include:

Live production and live streaming of YouTube’s Summer in the City music festival;
Live production and live streaming of UCI BMX Supercross events around the world;
Live production and streaming of music event for Original Penguin;
Live production of VANS BMX and skateboard events around Europe;
Live production and streaming of England Women’s football matches for the Football Association;
Live coverage of England football team training sessions and press conferences prior to all international matches;
Live streaming of Cage Warriors cage fighting championship events;
Live streaming of events for the Facebook and Twitter Q&As for the Hollywood studios;
Live streaming for Manchester City Football Club.

About 60% of 3xScreen’s business today is production and streaming, 30-35% live streaming and 5-10% live crosses for TV.
The unbranded live player we currently use is JW Player, which can be skinned and customised, within an iFrame. We auto-sense the viewing device in the iFrame, giving desktop viewers a Flash stream and iPad, iPhone and Android viewers a HTML Live Stream stream. Both Flash and HLS are adaptive multi-bitrate and consist of 3 or 4 streams each. For corporate clients we have started to use HLS for both desktops and mobiles since it is less impacted by corporate firewalls.

We deliver our own streams via a combination of Tier 1 Global CDNs – Akamai, Limelight and Edgecast – and have no practical limit to the number of viewers. For the royal baby coverage we did for the Press Association this year we had 5.5 million live stream viewers, and at it’s peak, 30,000 viewers per second join the live.

An example live stream player can be seen here.

On-Site. For production, we have a small OB truck and flyaway production kits. We have produced live events this year around Europe, in the US and further afield. We use Tricasters as our production switches and use a combination of manned and robotic HD cameras. The use of HD robotic cameras has three principal benefits – reducing production staffing levels, reducing production footprint and audience interference and providing higher sight lines to the stage over the heads of participants. We have recently been doing all-robotic multi-camera live production of classical music for the BBC. The use of Tricasters as our main production switchers gives us the ability to easily add production graphics such as speaker lower thirds and broadcast bugs, play in clips and other materials, mix and match cameras, projectors, computers and other sources, utilise multiple M/Es for picture-in-picture and other effects and drive the robotic cameras.

Connectivity. We send the live program output produced at the event to the 3xScreen Master Control Room via a LiveU backpack. The key value of utilising LiveU in our production workflow is that we don’t have to worry about the vagaries of the internet at the venue. The LiveU bonds together seven 3G/4G mobile phone circuits along with whatever Ethernet and WiFi is offered up to create a point-to-point, groomed, high quality live video link. If there is no 3G coverage we also have Ka satellite flyaway kits and a Ku dish on our OB van to add bandwidth from those to the LiveU backpack.

MCR Production & Encoding. Our MCR has primary and backup 100 Mbps x 100 Mbps fibre links – so we have lots of bandwidth for live streaming to multiple platforms simultaneously. In addition to being able to take in multiple LiveU feeds, we also have satellite dishes to downlink and live stream feeds – and a bi-directional HD BT Tower connection – so we can take a feed from basically anywhere to live stream – and we can also send live to broadcasters via BT Tower. Each LiveU feed is received in to a Tricaster where additional graphics can be added if needed and we can play slates, tickers and other content prior to and after events. We can also split languages and add stream-specific graphics. We record all productions, clip and upload sessions and turnaround replays all at the MCR. We principally use Elemental encoders for live streaming at the MCR.[clear][/toggle]
[toggle title=”Conference Productions”]A selection of 3xScreen conference-related live stream productions are in the following playlist player. The majority of the productions are shot with robotic cameras.

In 3xScreen’s MCR-oriented live streaming workflow, the clipping and uploading of presentations can occur whilst the conference is running and without the need for on-site video editors. Highlight and promo clips are created after the event utilising vox pops, b-roll, time-lapse and other content recorded in parallel with the live production.

A selection of 3xScreen event promo videos are in the following playlist player.

A selection of 3xScreen productions are showcased in the following playlist player.

Representative pricing for conference live production and streaming

One Day Conference: Three Robotic Camera Production Live To Tape – £2,500

3 x HD robotic camera live-to-tape production including live mixing desk, HD robotic cameras and on-site crew of vision mixer/director and robotic camera operator and producer.

Broadcast bug and lower thirds added onsite.

Projector feed mixed in to live production and shown in full screen or picture-in-picture on the recording.

The on-site crew of two will shoot b-roll and conduct vox pops with an ENG camera in conference breaks.

Conference sessions clipped throughout day and uploaded either through day or at the end of the day.

A full H264 recording and recordings of the individual session clips will be added to a FTP following the conference along with a 2-minute promo/highlights edit – a 2-3 day turn around should be assumed for the highlights/promo clip.

Pricing assumes we are provided with a room audio feed, we have access to the projector’s feed and we have a suitable area to set up our production gallery.

One Day Conference: Three HD Robotic Camera Production and Live Stream – £3,500

3 x HD robotic camera live production including live mixing desk, HD robotic cameras and on-site crew of vision mixer/director, robotic camera operator and producer.

Broadcast bug and lower thirds added either onsite or at the 3xScreen MCR.

Projector feed mixed in to live production and shown in full screen or picture-in-picture on the live-stream.

The on-site crew of three will shoot b-roll and conduct vox pops with an ENG camera in conference breaks.

Live streaming including LiveU connectivity from site, stream graphics, adaptive multibitrate Flash and iPhone/iPad streams. No venue internet required – if it exists it will be added to the LiveU’s bandwidth sources.

Individual conference session clips will be clipped and uploaded from the MCR during the day.

A full H264 recording and recordings of the individual session clips will be added to a FTP following the conference along with a 2-minute promo/highlights edit.

Pricing assumes we are provided with a room audio feed, we have access to the projector’s feed and we have a suitable area to set up our production gallery.

CDN viewing is charged at our cost which is £0.12/viewer hour.

Two Day Conference: Three Robotic Camera Production Live To Tape – £3,750

3 x HD robotic camera live-to-tape production including live mixing desk, HD robotic cameras and on-site crew of vision mixer/director and robotic camera operator and producer.

Broadcast bug and lower thirds added onsite.

Projector feed mixed in to live production and shown in full screen or picture-in-picture on the recording.

The on-site crew of two will shoot b-roll and conduct vox pops with an ENG camera in conference breaks.

Conference sessions clipped throughout day and uploaded either through day or at the end of the day.

Pricing assumes we are provided with a room audio feed, we have access to the projector’s feed and we have a suitable area to set up our production gallery.

Two-Day Conference: Three HD Robotic Camera Production and Live Stream – £5,250