Macquarie University Linguistics HDR Showcase 2021
Client
Macquarie University Linguistics Department
Location
Australian Hearing Hub / Zoom
Year
2021
Mode
Hybrid
Client Background
The Macquarie HDR Showcase is an annual event hosted by the Australian Hearing Hub. The Showcase aims to explore the diversity of Linguistics research, celebrating the work of recent graduates, promoting recent publications, crowdsourcing expert input for works-in-progress, and workshopping some of the skills specific to conducting research in the global age of communication.
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For the 2021 showcase, the Macquarie Linguistics team wished to host the event in a hybrid format and include their colleagues from interstate and overseas. Understanding the challenges that faced them, they reached out to Congress Rental Australia for their professional experience and knowledge.
Client vision
Professional production – HDR or Higher Degree Research is the culmination of a postgraduate’s efforts to expand knowledge in their field of research. As such, their main goal was to ensure that the production would maintain a high level of professionalism.
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Inclusivity and interactivity – Another major goal was to ensure that the showcase would be just as engaging and interactive for online audience members. Many of the solutions were designed around this principle of inclusivity.
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Showcasing the department – To best showcase the diverse set of disciplines within the linguistics department, the client requested that a hybrid interpretation system be implemented for their language students. The students would provide simultaneous interpretation for both on-site and online participants.
Client Outcomes
Online participants were thrilled with the production level, with some comparing the quality of the stream and interactivity to that of an international conference. On-site audience members were equally impressed by the smooth content management and integration of remote presenters. Overall, the Macquarie University team was able to achieve their initial objectives of hosting an integrated and inclusive hybrid presentation that would allow remote participants to feel as if they were in the room.
"Thank you, Sebastian, for all that you and your team did to help make our hybrid event the success that it was! Your advice and insights during the lead-up to the event really helped shape our vision for the showcase.
On the day of the event, your team delivered an amazing live-stream integration. So many of my colleagues (both online and F2F attendees) commented that the production rivaled that of an international conference. Who knew hybrid events could run so smoothly?
My sincere thanks go to you and the ops team for handling the technology integrations. I can confidently say that without your assistance, the showcase would not have been such a success!"
Kelly Miles, Postdoctoral Research Fellow
(Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University), December 2021
The solution we provided
Congress Rental Australia worked in collaboration with the team at Macquarie University to develop a custom hybrid event solution to ensure that their goals were met.
High Quality Video Capture and Streaming
Our team installed broadcast quality Panasonic PTZ cameras to capture high-definition video streams of the speakers and presenters to increase the immersion of virtual delegates and drive engagement. The cameras would also pan and zoom to different members of the live audience during Q&A sessions to give online delegates a feeling of being in the room.
Live On-Site Stream Management
Live technical producers were on-site to manage and mix the audio and video streams to be combined for the online participants. Our expert producers further managed and queued all speaker slides, online presenters, pre-recorded content and ensured that the showcase ran smoothly.
Participant Interaction and Voting
To maximise engagement, the client wished to create multiple opportunities for both online and on-site delegates to interact during the event. Our team managed questions from online participants during Q&A sessions.
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Audience polling was also implemented to give both online and on-site participants a chance to vote for their favourite presenter. Those on-site used our intuitive Clikapad technology while those online voted using an integrated voting feature. Both live and online results were combined during the event to present the results live at the end of the showcase.
Hybrid Interpretation System
To showcase the wide range of disciplines within the Macquarie linguistics department, Interpretation students were given the chance to interpret simultaneously for the event live in dedicated booths. The language feed from the booths was then broadcasted to on-site audience members through our infrared interpretation system and streamed to remote participants digitally.