Online Events’ Digital Broadcasting
by Alessandra Cianetti
When Producer Gathering asked me to write some reflections on digital broadcasting of online events, my immediate reaction was to think at these two scenarios*:
Me in March 2020: Ok, all the events of this year are likely to be online so let’s make them as much as possible accessible, fair and sustainable to produce, and experimental and stimulating to curate. Going online should be less taxing to organise and less demanding in terms of financial resources. (I know, I know…remember it was March 2020!)
Me in November 2020: Digital events broadcasting? Not straight forward at all, accessibility and sustainability reach a completely different level, absolutely not easier or less expensive! But still, it is a space that allows many people from different geographies to gather, people who are vulnerable and cannot go out of their homes can join, and during this pandemic the digital space helped keep our community sharing in ways that could be interesting to bring forward in a covid-free world. So let’s keep thinking how to make those spaces better and fairer.
I was told that I could be brief but not sure how it’ll go, so before embarking on this writing journey, I will leave to the Care Package curated by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center (www.smithsonianapa.org/care) to be the point to anchor you into “poems, meditations, films, and other cultural nutrients for times like this” when my random reflections below are too dry and/or boring.
Care – in terms of production – translates to me in attention to details and fair balance between labour and time requested to the invited artists and collaborators, and pay and support (technical, legal, emotional,…) you are able and willing to give to them and the audience. So below you can find my random constellation of reflections written with the consciousness that a lot needs to be done for this balance to be achieved, and many of the things listed I collaboratively managed to do in the past year, and many I wish I did and will surely do in the future.
Before the event
Digital Platform selection: we are now well versed in using Zoom as an event space with its different possibilities of meetings, webinars and so on. Obviously there are others with different features such as Crowdcast, that is suggested by the Arts Council England for example, or Slido that I have seen used by various museums for their events. There are so many of them with so many different features and for so many level of pocket and engagement that this research can be endless (there is even a 2020 publication to compare them!). I would say, choose the platform that you feel comfortable with, that allow to achieve what you want for the event but most importantly, make sure your guests are Ok with the platform you use. Zoom is infamous for its data sharing so people might not feel comfortable talking on that one because of governments being potentially able to spy on them. So a good practice is to make sure people are ok with the platform of choice.
Duration of the event/access needs: There is a saturation of digital event, Zoom fatigues, & co. so I am for keeping the events nice and short (that also, incidentally, helps with childcare), however, everyone has different needs related to digital so it feels even more important that this length is agreed with the guests. Artists who are usually ‘durational’ in real life might prefer to have shorter presences digitally, there are access needs with digital that are different from live events so it’s good to have an idea of expectations beforehand.
Be on the same page: More than in live events, when solving any issue can be immediate, in the digital sphere every step of the schedule needs to be though through to make sure that every potential issue is forecast and solved before it happens (although we know that something will happen anyway). Making sure everyone is on the same page on the schedule of the event, how things will unfold, how audience can participate and how support will be given, definitely help when you are not in the same room.
Agreeing on the time to meet before the event for tech, light, mics checks: As for live events, sending all the info to the guest participants in advance with schedule of the event, time and links to meet before the event, info on how to check wi-fi with some potential suggestions (eg. if you have it you can use your 4G mobile network if your wi-fi is weak or connect your laptop to the ethernet port), lighting (eg. use a ring light with tripod if you have one – maybe that could be budgeted and given to the participants too?), and microphone (eg. having a mic close to the mouth is a good way to have good reception of the sound that is VERY important in a digital event…it’s so annoying when the sound breaks). However I’d like to leave this to Roxane Gay’s tweet thread (If you haven’t read her “Difficult Women” book, do it!):
“People have the wildest expectations for online events. Most computers these days don’t have ethernet ports. It KILLS me when they are all like, “Please plug into an ethernet port.” Motherfucker, what? And no I am not logging on an hour early.”
Personally, I think that it would be great if venues could be supported with funds to become better equipped to provide safe and functioning digital spaces, while we organisers have to remember that people are working from home so their tech is what it is. Maybe a bit of thought at the background could be given, we are still working in the arts…but I must admit that I’m guilty of being extra-lazy on that. For example, in some Zoom events all the panellists have the same image as a background that I found as a visually nice way to identify speakers if the audience is in the room.
Reminders/Safety: Good to remind people of the event a few times and, if using a password to access the event, it seems to be good practice to share it closer to it (1h or even less) so that annoying trolls bombing the event can be hopefully avoided.
Access/Live Captioning: I’ll focus only on this specific point because it’s the one I used the most. This year with my colleagues we decided to use live captioning instead of BSL interpretation because working with international partners and on events that involved international audiences that might not be familiar with British Sign Interpretation (while there are very few International Sign Interpreters and we could’t afford them). Also, live captions are useful for people whose English is not the first language and might help understand different accents. The question here is: shall we go with the cheapest AI solutions such as otter.ai, rev.com, or with a human live captioner? If you have the budget I vote for the human one. AI at the moment is 80% accurate (sometimes more, at times less) and it doesn’t catch names or vocabulary that moves from standard English and can cause various embarrassments and misinterpretations. When working with a human live captioner, you are invited to share with them names of the participants, topics, and terms with a potential difficult or non-English spelling in advance so that they can set up their software and minimise mistakes. This obviously requires additional work on your side so, again, it’s a balance on what you can do. Anyway, I suppose the experience of people who rely on live captioning to follow an event might be impacted massively if only 80% of the events is captioned correctly.
A hybrid between live captioning and BSL that I liked in an online conversation I watched recently, featured both of them in a non invasive (visually) way. However, I didn’t rely on live captioning or BSL to follow the event so I’d love to hear from someone who does to see that this way works for them too:
www.london.gov.uk/events/2020-10-27/online-event-mayor-london-conversation
(Always a pleasure to listen to Reni Eddo-Lodge and Bernardine Evaristo by the way)
If as part fo the event, you are screening pre-recorded videos – that is usually good to avoid problems with wi-fi connection – here an easy and not expensive AI way to add subtitles: veed.io
Access/General: For general rules of accessibility I would point you in the directions of Unlimited’s resources: www.weareunlimited.org.uk/resources that know much more than I do.
Audience: These digital platforms are quite tyrannical when deciding what the audience is allowed to do and how they can interact: you can be muted, your video can be switched off, ways of interaction are standardised. So I found helpful to decide in advance the details of this involvement and try to make it clear and understandable for everyone accessing the event’s space.
Beyond Zoom’s aesthetics: We are experiencing digital events on our rectangular desktops, where in this influx of Zoom conversations everyone is speaking form a square in the midst of other squares. There are ways to make those squares more dynamic, highlight one speakers, creating a unifying and personalised design. A free software that does it is OBS Studio, and here one event that uses it in a very simple way. This is very tech specific and not really my domain, however, what I gathered is that OBS Studio works better with Windows, needs some adjustments for Macs, and definitely needs a person that operates it properly during an event, and potentially they have to have access to multiple screens. I got a quote for a 2h event from a London-based tech & design person that could set up the tech, create the design (e.g. tag names, background, and so on) and operate OBS operation during the event for £400+VAT. (I’d love to know of other experiences on this)
During the event
I think the best practices I experienced in various events are:
- to share with everyone a safer space policy. The one I loved so far, is the ‘community agreement and safer space principles’ by artist June Lam for his workshop “Embodied Affective Correspondences” that he personalised inspired by the By Us For Us (BUFU) Community Agreement (image below in the link) and from Asians4BlackLives San Francisco Bay Area Principles;
- to create a moment at the beginning on the event to ground people in that space and time (some has used meditation, someone else silence,…);
- to make people conformable about the recording of the session (if recorded) giving them a moment to switch off their video and change their names if they want;
- to invite people to follow the event in the way they prefer because we in our homes anyway (laying down, videos off, drinking something );
- to clarify to everyone in the room at what point and in which way they can interact (see above)
- to have a dedicated person that follows up any tech or access needs to maintain a channel of communications with guests & audience and maintain a safe space;
- To have a dedicated person who shares the audience’s questions with the session’s facilitator so that they don’t have to read everything in the chat while hosting;
- To set up a Whatsapp/Telegram group (or whatever works) with all the event invited guests for quick and last minute conversations (some people find confusing to just have direct messages on Zoom or the same platform of the event).
After the event
I found really useful having a short feedback session after the event (15 minutes or so…remember Roxane Gay’s tweet before?), and provide space for further conversations in the future for the people involved. Thank the audience and ask for feedback via email (only once please).
All the work you have done and the thoughts you shared are precious so, if you can, share the recordings of your events but if you haven’t recorded it, fair enough that allows also for more freedom for the participants. Now, I know we are all looking for better platforms to share our digital contents so I’ll leave here one that I like:
If you have gone through all my rumbling, I think this is the point when you really need that Care Package mentioned above! This has been a chaotic, intense and incredible year in so many levels and every event I have been part of, attended, curated or produced have thought me something. I haven’t found the ‘perfect digital event’ yet, however, I feel it is a collective learning so let’s keep sharing our best findings and for now…stay safe.
*This piece was written in November 2020
Alessandra Cianetti is a London-based curator, creative producer, writer, and researcher. She has worked in the UK and internationally exploring urgent socio-political issues with a focus on notions and lived experiences of physical, cultural, juridical, racial, gendered, economic borders. She is the founder of performingborders, a curatorial digital research platform and series of national and international public programmes around art and borders. www.alessandracianetti.com
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