Directing for Blackberry
When Blackberry introduced their brand new Blackberry10 operating system and new phones, the Z10 & the Q10, they had to get the word out, they needed to reach as many people and media outlets as possible. The company’s market share had been shrinking dramatically, in part due to the iPhone’s continuing dominance and the slew of Android and smart phones flooding the market.
Blackberry Z10 and Blackberry Q10
A simple press release or a flashy commercial wasn’t enough to raise the once dominating force in the cell phone industry from its slow demise. They needed a presentation that would wow the market and quiet the critics. And they did that in a big way.
Blackberry hired Hartman Studios to design and produce this multi-million dollar extravaganza and Creative Technology, an international audio/visual staging company, provided the tech and know-how to deliver the impact Blackberry was looking for.
The event needed a home… a real big home. They chose the 70,000 square foot Basketball City on Pier 36, located on the lower East Side of Manhattan, as the venue to house this mega-event. The transformation turned the multi-court facility into an experience of rock concert proportions.
The Blackberry10 visual presentation was made up of dozens of rear and front projections screens, ribbon screens, the narrow height and long length screens typically encircling stadiums and arenas. Each of the screens was being fed a variety of graphics, animations and live video originating from two video switchers and a bank of video and graphic servers.
Barco Encore Video Presentation Switcher
My role was to direct the live webcast feed going out to all of Blackberry’s worldwide satellite offices, the video streaming to the web and to all the news bureaus and outlets on the planet. It was an intimidating thought, but having been doing this for close to 25 years, it was merely just another day at the office…. a real big office. I would later find out that the live stream drew over 75,000 viewers, small by broadcast standards, but huge for the web.
Barco FSN Series Switcher
I was using a Barco FSN-150 production switcher to direct/switch two independent shows. The world web feed included graphics and animations, while a separate “clean feed” (without graphics), went out to one of their satellite offices in London. Other satellite offices included Brazil, Dubai, Johannesburg, Paris, Ontario and Chicago. London had up and down satellite links for two-way communications, while other in-coming video images for other locations were being supplied through Skype.
To show off their two-way video capabilities and novel phone screen interaction feature, the video output via HDMI from the phone in New York and a live HDMI feed from the London phone via the up-link were combined on-screen for a live interactive demonstration.
This was probably the biggest corporate event I’ve ever taken part in, in not only the scope of the importance, the level of production, but in the number of people involved. There were techs, staging, productions, creative designers, writers, satellite coordinators, lighting and lighting designers, electricians and various other jobs and personnel. If I had to guess, I would put the number of people at or near 200. That’s a lot of coordination in not only what you see, but in the number of talented people coming together for a common cause.
