There are some events we get involved in which, due to their content and audience, make us immensely proud of the small part we have been able to play in making them happen.
This is My Brave is a non-profit organisation dedicated to sharing the stories of young people who are recovering from (and experiencing) the trauma of mental illness and addiction. By sharing their individual stories as widely as possible, they open the door to the discussion of subjects which are too often glossed over, or even ignored.
Through an initial recommendation, I have now helped with 4 events altogether, focused specifically on college age and teenage students. The format has been similar for each, where the focus is on the screening of a professionally filmed documentary (featuring individuals telling their own unique stories). We first have the founder of This is My Brave on screen introducing the film, then making comments afterwards, and last we have a live discussion with the students who starred in the film.
In determining the best way to schedule this, we had the following challenges:
So here’s what I did, to ensure the event held earlier this week ran smoothly.
Session 1: Introduction by the host, Jennifer Marshall, live and in-browser.
Session 2: In this section, I would stream the pre-recorded video content via RTMP, at 1080p and in stereo. This included Part 1 of the film, the Intermission video, then Part 2.
I streamed these 3 separate video files directly from ManyCam. As an RTMP stream buffers to have a c.40 second delay, I set a holding screen to be visible when I pulled the audience from Session 1.
Session 3: The host, back on screen live, and in-browser, commenting on the content of the video, and introducing the next session.
Session 4: This was a live discussion between 8 guests and a moderator, on the Zoom platform, and streamed via RTMP to the session in Crowdcast. Again, given the buffer delay on RTMP, I hit the Go Live button as Jennifer was introducing the discussion, and pulled the audience to the session at the appropriate time. This was tricky, as I was monitoring Session 3 on my laptop, speaking with the Zoom host, and watching the live show on my phone – with 3 different headphones.
As I said, this was a hugely enjoyable event, for a terrific organisation doing very important work with vulnerable young people. It was vital that the event matched their message of being open, authentic, engaging, and professional.
Altogether I had 6 screens to use:
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