22 July 2024Bruno Amaral

agora's debut

Bondalti's Encontro 2024, with a new room the day before

On 19 July 2024 we ran the livestream and recording of Bondalti's Encontro 2024 at the Vila Galé in Sintra. It was agora's first job, and the day before, the event moved to a room almost three times larger.

The control room at Bondalti's Encontro 2024, with the multiview, the Stream Deck and the camera controller in the foreground and the full room in the background, facing the screen

At half past seven in the morning on Friday 19 July 2024, we unloaded our kit at the door of a function room at the Vila Galé hotel in Sintra. At noon, Bondalti would go live to the staff who were not there. In between, we rigged a control room, four cameras and the sound for an audience of sixty, in a room we had only known on paper since the day before.

It was agora media production's first job. On our project sheet it is number 1.

Bondalti, the Portuguese chemicals group, already knew Rafael Reigota and brought us in for Encontro 2024, the meeting at which the board presented the 2023 results and the outlook for 2024 to its staff. The brief was the livestream and the recording. The stream was internal communication: we streamed to agora's YouTube channel as an unlisted video, embedded on a Bondalti page for those who were not in the room.

The plan from the day before

We prepared the job in drawings: a floor plan of the room, with the place of every camera, light and power box, and a diagram with every connection, from the cameras to YouTube. On 12 July we were on the third version of the plan, for a room of 8 by 9 metres with forty seats.

On 18 July, the day before, the event moved to another room to fit more people: 12.5 by 16 metres, with sixty seats. The fourth version of the plan went out that day, with the control room in the opposite corner and the metres of cable from each camera to it, 38 to the furthest.

The floor plan of the new room, with the projection screen, the lectern and the top table at the top, sixty chairs in the middle and the control room in the bottom left corner — The floor plan of the new room, drawn on 18 July, the day before. Cameras in blue, lights in yellow and power boxes in red.

Three hours to rig

We arrived at half past seven, with until half past ten to rig. We set up three PTZ cameras and a Panasonic GH5, with the control room on a laptop running vMix.

An agora technician in the control room, wearing headphones, with agora's test card on the laptop and the Encontro 2024 card on the monitor, and the room still empty behind — The control room halfway through the rig, with agora's test card on the laptop and the room still empty.

The new room had a wall of windows facing the hills. We drew all the curtains and lit the room with our own lights only, so the picture would look good and stay the same from the start of the stream to the end, whatever light came through the windows.

The room in darkness, with empty chairs and two lights on at the back — The room with the curtains drawn and our lights on, before the audience came in.

What nobody asked for

The brief was the livestream and the recording. We also made the graphics for the stream, which nobody had asked for: two sets of animated transitions, a corner bug with the Bondalti logo, lower thirds with each speaker's name and role, and a one-minute countdown before the opening. Bondalti approved them and liked them a lot.

The two transitions, between shots from the stream: the light blue of Bondalti Water and the dark blue of Bondalti.

The end of the countdown and going on air, with the wide shot of the room.

An hour and a quarter on air

We went live at noon, with Bondalti's corporate video. Then came the talks from the board and a question-and-answer session, with questions coming in through Mentimeter and also going on the stream.

The monitor of a GH5 camera in the foreground, showing the full room, with the audience out of focus behind — The GH5, next to the control room, during the stream. On its monitor, the full room.

At 13:15 we came off air with a transition and the agora card. Everything went as planned, and Bondalti was delighted.

What stays with us

A new room the day before could have forced us to improvise on the day. We redrew the plan on 18 July and, on the 19th, rigged what was on paper.