Project Background:

In 2020 there was a perfect storm: everyone transitioned from in-person to remote meetings and training, I was in my second year virtually onboarding Instructional Designers into web-based platforms, and I was fresh out of the School of Motion Animation Bootcamp. Looking around at how everyone was struggling to keep virtual participants engaged, I looked to streaming platforms for inspiration. In many respects, live video production and audience engagement on streaming platforms were leaps and bounds ahead of where we were.

I was in the fortunate position to have been working remotely for nearly 12 years at this point, so while others adjusted to the new normal, I offered support and set to work to enhance virtual facilitation in our organization. By applying my audio visual experience with Adobe Premiere, Adobe After Effects, Open Broadcast Software (OBS), and my knowledge of video streaming hardware to bring a level of production to WebEx meetings and virtual sessions that no one at my organization had ever experienced.

Early on I built interest by sharing examples with my extended team and new Instructional Designers during onboarding. This led to early positive feedback with nearly everyone asking “how did you do that?” or “how can I do that?”. Several leaders and cross-functional teams asked me to demonstrate the technology, answer questions, and provide a high-level presentation of the hardware and software needed. During this time we uncovered one major hurdle to operationalize this technology - OBS was determined by IT to be a potential security risk, so a software alternative had to be found.

After further research an alternative to OBS was identified. Wirecast, in other good news, was already approved by IT. Once we purchased our own license, the next challenge was to take all of the examples and scenes built in OBS and rebuild the profiles in Wirecast. Since most of the assets could be reused with no modification, the real lift here was becoming familiar with the new software and rebuilding the Stream Deck macros for each of the scenes and assets.

This is still an ongoing effort, the next steps are to share what all of the testing and discovery has uncovered with Wirecast and present the ways in which this technology could be operational across other teams. In order for it to be successful, it needs to be consistent, repeatable, and relatively easy for the facilitator and producer to utilize. Ideally, I’d like to see this as simple as an Instructional Designer creates a custom Wirecast and Stream Deck profile that can be given to Program Managers and Facilitators to produce virtually the entire virtual event. In other words, they become another deliverable along with the Facilitator and Participant Guides.

What was my role in this project?

• Uncovered a trend among co-workers and stakeholders expressing a need to elevate engagement in virtual meetings and training

• Designed and animated motion graphics templates for use during live facilitated events

• Designed and organized mixed reality scenes and sources, placing them into Open Broadcast Software (OBS) and Wirecast profiles which could be shared as a package

• Created example scenes to show the flexibility and customization with a green screen, placing myself in customer scenarios, inside of company stores, or across the desk emulating a performance-based conversation

• Created a digital avatar of my self using Ready Player Me that I exported to animation software which allows me to puppet my avatar with my web camera or with a virtual reality headset

• Drove awareness and interest in the business by demoing the tools and graphics through virtual happy hours and cross-team discussions

• Built example macros for common software to highlight the additional workflow benefits of Stream Deck hardware

• Trained my co-worker on how to use the same software for her virtual facilitation sessions