Tag Archive: XR

1. SUSE IPO launch virtually transports global audience to Frankfurt Stock Exchange trading floor via White Light’s XR SmartStage®

   29 June 2021 09:34 Leave a Comment

   

   Last month, SUSE, a global leader in innovative, reliable and enterprise-grade open source solutions, made its initial public offering (IPO) debut on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.  In response to the limitations of physical events brought on by the pandemic and in lieu of being at the Deutsche Börse in person, SUSE reinvented the entire listing day experience with a digital-first approach. SUSE collaborated with Deloitte Digital, using technical solutions specialist White Light (WL’s) XR SmartStage® in London, to create an entirely virtual experience that could reach its global audience.

   Bespoke virtual worlds, and overall storyline, created by Deloitte Digital / ACNE, together with their production partner NSYNK Gesellschaft für Kunst und Technik mbH, using Unreal Engine, were seamlessly integrated into the SmartStage® environment and remotely edited via VPN from Frankfurt. The environment was further enhanced with extended reality (XR) features, such as a virtual drone to visually transport the audience from the stage in London to Frankfurt, and onto the trading floor of Deutsche Börse. SUSE’s success is driven by the power of many, which they showcased by bringing together colleagues from around the world for a virtual bell ringing ceremony celebrating this milestone. WL also worked in close collaboration with Deloitte and SUSE, with creative direction from Hamburg, Berlin, and Seattle.

   Mark Sutcliffe, WL’s Account Manager comments: “The SUSE IPO launch was one of the most technologically-advanced events we have delivered using our XR SmartStage® to date. As well as the multiple remote connections to stakeholders in different locations, NSYNK were driving the Unreal worlds live with multi-user edits and calling camera shots from Germany. To manage this, we specified the Riedel Bolero Artist infrastructure, for flawless VoIP comms.”

   “When faced with a 100% virtual IPO bell-ringing ceremony, we used this as a catalyst to reimagine and completely reinvent what a listing day could look like. Our goal was not only to celebrate a new milestone but also to bring our colleagues into this celebration,” said April Moh, Chief Communications Officer, SUSE. “We were able to push the boundaries of our creativity thanks to the technology expertise of, and collaboration with, our partners.”

   To find out more about XR and SmartStage®, visit www.SmartStage.tech or contact our team

2. Experience the xR elevation for a new reality of digital and hybrid events

   13 January 2021 10:09 Leave a Comment

   The ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic have seen social interaction in virtually every facet of our personal and professional lives adapt in a transformative way. Technology has played a crucial role in facilitating this, by enabling us to shift into the pre-dominantly virtual world that we now find ourselves in. From internal and external methods of communication and collaboration for businesses, to seeking medical advice, spending time with loved ones and celebrating special occasions; we have all become accustomed to this new reality.   

   As a result of this, achieving meaningful engagement has posed one of the biggest challenges faced by many. After the first few months of global lockdown in 2020, the dreaded online fatigue set in and both impact and productivity became compromised. Live events were at a standstill and we were speaking with many of our customers about how their flagship annual events could quickly and effectively pivot to digital delivery.

   During this time, due to the success of our multi-award-winning SmartStage facility based at WL in Wimbledon, we partnered with the Science Museum to build an additional, fully COVID-secure SmartStage studio at the venue. By harnessing the full power and potential of xR, this technology enabled over 500 hours of live corporate events to be broadcast. Each client we worked with posed a unique brief and set of objectives, and our expert team worked closely with them all to bring their digital transformation to life.

   Here is an overview of some of our favourite digital events delivered via SmartStage in 2020:

   • Fusion Comms: BDO RETHINK Festival

   

   The BDO RETHINK Festival, which is traditionally held as a bi-annual face-to-face leadership event, was instead broadcast to a global audience of over 2,500 delegates. In collaboration with Fusion Comms and their digital creators MalfMedia, we designed a flexible xR solution to facilitate three festival broadcasts to BDO’s Managing Partners from across the world.

   An entire virtual infrastructure of festival stages was built with the use of digital assets created in a Media Server system that for the first time incorporated teleportation, remote callers, in studio presenters and XR and AR graphics. Delivery of the plenary sessions included the live, full-body teleportation of five presenters directly into the xR environment. Three presenters were transported from studios in Canada Washington DC and Israel, with two more from their homes in Scandinavia.

   “Working with WL to harness the potential of this technology and the mind-blowing capabilities of xR, enabled us to create something truly game-changing for our client. During these restricted times that we all find ourselves in, this was no small feat and has re-defined the reality for virtual events as we know it.”

   Kelvyn Jones, Director at Fusion Comms

   • Leaders in Sport

   

   As part of its series of global summits, Leaders in Sport hosted its annual ‘Leaders Week’ conference in June 2020 as an online forum for the first time. The physical event, originally due to take place in New York, was transformed into ‘LeadersWeek.direct/’ – a broadcast over four days, which was attended by a remote audience of 2240 delegates from 54 different countries.

   SmartStage enabled the live presenters to safely host more than 25 high-profile sports business leaders from around the world, including executives from ESPN, NHL, MLS, AFC Ajax, Amazon, EA and AT&T, who connected remotely for a series of ‘Leaders Live’ presentations.

   • Creating Sunshine

   Due to the COVID-19 restrictions impacting on the delivery of live events, Creating Sunshine had a brief timeline to entirely re-design and format their client’s annual Growth and Development Conference. They sought an innovative and flexible virtual platform to enable this transformation and support a fully digital event and SmartStage provided a one-stop solution for this. Read the full case study

   • DPP Tech Leaders’ Briefing

   

   The DPP is the media industry’s business network, which brings together customers and suppliers from across the global media supply chain to solve problems and create opportunities. Its annual Leaders’ Briefing, recognised as being the pre-eminent business intelligence event for the media industry, was pivoted to a fully virtual format for the first time in 2020.

   An immersive virtual world was required, to facilitate 43 speakers and over 650 member delegates coming together safely in one place. The packed four-day programme also included the Rise Awards, celebrating the achievements of exceptional women across the broadcast, technology and services sectors.

   The SmartStage workflow, powered by disguise xR, allowed for the creation of a fully branded and dynamic content environment and seamless integration with other technologies. Senior executives from 30 major media companies, including Facebook, Fox, Eurosport, Reuters and Sky; presented their strategic priorities, live, each with bespoke titling content.

   “White Light’s technology and team enabled us to deliver a high-end television style production to DPP members through our own streaming platform, ensuring that the production values matched the quality of the content. The SmartStage made it possible to get a great looking, fully branded environment, from which it was natural to present, in a fraction of the time and cost of a traditional studio build.” Rowan de Pomerai, DPP CTO

   For 2021, SmartStage is re-locating to The Mermaid London and will be available to hire as a fully COVID-secure studio from February.

   To find out more about how you can experience the xR elevation for a new reality of your digital and hybrid events, contact our team today on 020 8254 4800 or email [email protected].uk