When you want to set up a telepresence project, it is essential to have good coordination to ensure the smooth running of the project. Since multiple teams need to communicate remotely both in preparation and during the event, here are some things to think about and coordination tools that may come in handy.
¶ Who does what
It is essential to clearly determine the role and tasks assigned to each person on the team. In addition, it is strongly recommended to designate a person responsible for the coordination of all the teams (general). This person can come from the artistic team or from one of the show promoters. The same goes for technical coordination, which must prepare the shared technical documentation and ensure the coordination of the technical teams of all the venues involved. It is also recommended to have a responsible person in each venue to report to - often the venue’s technical management - who ensures the smooth running of the set-up, event, teardown, and liaises with other places involved. A general coordinator is also important in order to follow up on the rehearsal schedule and to give “cues” during the show.
- Who coordinates the project? Artistically? Technologically?
- Who is in charge in each venue?
- Who is the general coordinator during rehearsals and the event?
¶ Overview
With multiple venues involved, team members need to see the big picture. During preparation, it is useful to place a wide angle camera capturing the whole scene and broadcast it to the other places. This way, you can easily compare what is happening in each room. The person responsible for directing or coordinating can then more easily direct from a distance.
¶ Communication
¶ Communicating well during the show
Every team/trade should have a way to communicate remotely. It is a good idea to determine the method and tools that will be used during the first preparatory meeting.
- The technical team must be able to communicate at all times - even when a telepresence transmission is not established - by a text or voice messaging tool, such as Discord. This type of tool is also ideal for centralizing all communications between production teams.
- A general microphone available at all times is recommended in each venue outputting to the loudspeakers for general calls and for direction. One could also determine a clear speaking turn between each trade in the case of large teams.
- A separate chat for each department should be established in order to talk to each other on specialized topics.
For example:
- Between those in charge of staging;
- Between performers;
- Between designers (lighting, sound, image, sets, accessories, etc.).
¶ Complete a shared project notebook
A project notebook is a practical tool for communication and coordination, serving in particular as a memory aid for the personnel (whether coordinative, artistic, or technical) involved in a telepresence project. Being in separate places, centralized information should be a priority.
It is important to have all the documents in the same place accessible by computer as well as by mobile phone. A common, online, shared, file for all involved is a good solution and the link should be easy to access and well transmitted.
Here is an example of a Project Notebook. This document brings together all the documents necessary for coordination. It contains common files for technical, artistic, and coordinative needs.
¶ Team directory
A table of team contacts is recommended for each telepresence project; it must be easy to access and available at all times. Information for rapid communication between them should be contained within.
¶ Organize the time
¶ Timeline
A project schedule should be prepared between all parties to get the project started. The crucial, and often complex, step is to find a common date for all broadcasters. Often, the date is determined more than a year before the presentation of the project due to the busy schedule of broadcasters. When the date of the telepresence project is determined, the other steps can be planned around it. At the end, it is recommended to complete a project review with all the teams in order to document learnings and contribute to the continuous improvement of practices in stage telepresence.
Generally, 5 steps are required:
- Determine the partners, the date and the basic concept;
- Elaborate the artistic concept,technical schema, and any coordination tools;
- Artistic, technological and network transmission preparation tests to ensure that everything works properly;
- Preparation for arrival into the venues and event, where one must plan periods of testing and any adjustments;
- Project review and documentation to share any experience gained with the community.
¶ Schedule
Appoint management that carefully monitors meeting times. For example, we could take inspiration from film sets in our organizational concepts. Among other things, the role of first assistant can be a very useful paradigm. Since a good number of people are involved at once, it is wise to try and avoid waiting times.
A common example is this: a venue has to solve a technical problem; the second, which has to wait, decides to start another activity. Then, the first room solves its problem and returns their attention to the other venue. Seeing them working, the first venue might think they should wait for the second to finish, while the second was only biding time. With a named manager, such as a first assistant, who ensures good communication, this situation can be avoided.
Plan the arrival of the technical team earlier, in order to provide a period of installation and technical fitting before the arrival of the other members of the team. It’s a good idea to set aside an hour each day to connect between locations when setup is complete.
¶ Promotion of the event
Given that the event will be broadcast in several places, it is recommended to have a common promotion strategy between all partners. In addition, since many telepresence projects involve audience participation, having an adequate number of viewers in each location is essential for a balanced experience. For this, each broadcaster must get involved in promoting the event. However, it should be noted, the target audiences will often vary according to the context of the different regions where the show takes place.
In order to have good visibility in the media and to have consistency between different partners, here are some recommendations:
- Create a common communication schedule between upstream partners. This should highlight the important milestones of the promotional campaign.
- Use the same descriptive text and the same photo/image to represent the event for each partner.
- Publish an event page on each partners’ official sites. This should include a presentation of the partners and links pointing to the events on their pages. Each venue should have its own booking setup.
- On Facebook, each partner creates their page (with their address and ticket office) and adds their collaborators as « co-administrators ».
The optimal quality for images posted in a Facebook event is usually 1200 x 628 pixels.
- Broadcast the event in a newsletter for each partner.
- For all graphic elements, it is important to name the partners and put their logos.
- Write a joint press release. Each partner should distribute it to its specific media contact list, ideally on the same day.
- Highlight the simultaneity of the event in several places in the event of press coverage. Whether local or national, ideally, journalists should be put in contact with other partners as well.
- Document the preparation of the event with some photos and share these with partners.
- Cover the event by taking photos and video recordings from the event’s point of view. Share the material with the other partners in order to carry out a post-event summary.
- Write a project description sheet to share the event with the telepresence community and maximize outreach.
¶ Budget
It is recommended to make a budget including all creative partners in order to understand the financial obligations between them. Since the project is shared between several venues, it should be noted that the distribution of revenue and ticketing costs must be addressed between all parties. An agreement must be made as each venue may have different needs and expectations.