A blog to show the story and behind the scene of previous wedding and event video assignments.
Zoom Wedding Live Stream (April 2023)
I did a Zoom wedding live back in April 2023.
I did a Zoom wedding live back in early April 2023. The wedding ceremony started at 1:30pm, I arrived at the wedding venue at about 12pm and commenced setting up. Set up was done smoothly and everything was ready to go at about 1pm. The 4G reception was really poor, luckily I met the couple a week before the event at the venue, whilest I could run an internet speed test on the spot to realise this issue. My great appreciation to the church which let me use their wifi internet on the day.
Apart from the live stream, I was requested if I could take some images during the ring ceremony and certificate signing, of course I can. I took some images during those formalities as well as few group photos outside the church. I was so pleased I could use my photography skills.
There was about 70 people joined the Zoom meeting who were from different places overseas and interstates, I set up the couple as a co-host so that they could manage the meeting when they had a chat with their family and friends after the wedding ceremony.
Please shout out if you wish to have your live stream on Zoom or YouTube, I am more than happy to help out.
Wedding live | ST Bernadette's Catholic Church Lalor Park
Hello Hello Hello!
Last weekend our crew did another live stream wedding event at ST Bernadette's Catholic Church Lalor Park for the lovely Joseph and Veronica.
The couple’s family and friends are based in Philippine so we had a big crowd this time. It was a total of 20 overseas and local guests joining us on Zoom. We have opted for Zoom instead of Youtube this time as Zoom allows interaction among all guests, physical and virtual. This is actually a special request by the groom, he specifically requested to see every viewer especially his parents during the stream. Therefore, we have projected the Zoom on a big screen as we think it would encourage the interaction more by doing this way.
As simple as it sounds, but a livestream event is not as easy as just connecting the camera to a computer with Zoom on. The effort we put in to keep the operation smooth is no less than running a live TV show production. Joseph, the groom also requested to broadcast his prewedding video at the beginning of the ceremony, which created some technical complications for us. There was a lot happening on the stage (MC talking, the prewedding video on screen and then the livestream zoom with everyone) already but it was even more happening behind the screen. Our key panel-controller has world-class switching skills and perfect time management in interchanging screens.
Due to the complex set-up for this wedding, our crew started prepping a week prior to the event including recce to the church to check internet speed and connection to the projector, on-site power points locations, camera set up spots (3x), both hardware and software compatibility etc etc. Without doing these check-ups properly, we wouldn’t have run such a smooth and seamless live wedding.
Zoom Live Stream Wedding | Dunbar House Weddings
Our crew has been busy over the long weekend for another livestream wedding event. We were at Dunbar House Watsons Bay. After having a good run of livestream weddings since the beginning of the year, we are actually addicted to host a live event now. The biggest excitement is that knowing people from other parts of the world are also being part of that, it makes us feel like we help people to connect and make joy no boundaries now.
And we are very thankful for the advanced technology we have nowadays. The entire ceremony and reception were just done via Zoom. We are now able to connect to the world with just a click of a button. The bride’s mum and best friend were overseas (Columbia and the US if you are curious) so they had to do their speeches over Zoom. However, instead of having a small laptop up in the venue, we actually projected the Zoom video up on a big screen to make everyone feels their presence closer.
The biggest challenge was the tight setup time that we were given. We are used to racing with time but this one was by far the tightest. In order to mitigate the issue, our team has done additional research on some technical parts and ensure we have achieved everything required before the deadline.
Here is a quick rundown of the set up on the day:
We set up the live stream control room indoor at Dunbar House, just right across the ceremony spot for close proximity. We also arrived few hours prior to set up and test the transmission of video and audio signals.
3x cameras set up with professional angles switching. Walkie-talkies were used to communicate amongst videographers to ensure smooth scene transitions.
The speeches given by the bride’s mum and best friend on zoom were projected on the big screen.
Working closely with the wedding Master of Ceremony (MC), all formalities were broadcasted.
We broadcasted the first five minutes of the dance party, the guests on Zoom had some dance move altogether with the couple.
Hope this will give a clearer picture for anyone who is interested in the process of a livestream event. As usual, please feel free to leave us a comment if you have any questions or just want to share your own experience with us below. We welcome any DM as well if you prefer to discuss with us privately. Ciao for now.
Livestreaming is a thing! | Bendooley Estate Weddings
Brief
On 20th December 2020, Sunny Siu Films has hosted its very first livestream wedding at Bendooley Estate in Berrima NSW. The couple’s friends and family are in inter states of Australia, South Africa and Asia, and thanks to the pandemic, they are not allowed to travel (obviously) to attend the wedding. Therefore we were asked to host this wedding online for them. Yep! Livestreaming is real! It’s a thing!
Challenge
The biggest challenge was the internet. Living in a digital era, when you know in-flight wifi is available already, sometimes it’s hard to believe how remote some area on earth still is and the reception is still bad. A successful livestream event lies heavily on real-time synchronisation. It needs to be smooth to give the audience the real vibe of the event. As the saying goes, “There are no secrets to succeed. It’s the result of preparation, hard work and learn from failure.” A well-prepped set up has already set us up a successful day. All the hard work of bringing gears down beforehand, repeated testing, and extra internet reception have not gone to waste.
Approach
Honest to god, the set up of this livestream event has no different from live TV production. We have 3 cameras set up at different angles to ensure all the essence is captured, aiming to make the family and friends from afar feeling as close as it possibly could. Our team has literally produced your own show for you. We have also requested the newly weds and the celebrant to wear a microphone for the best sound quality. Imagine how frustrated it will be if you can’t hear them vow! We have opted for zoom for broadcasting the wedding. It’s just easy and handy for everyone. Who isn’t a Zoom expert after 2020 if you know what I mean?! It’s a mature video chat software and also the chatbox feature from zoom allows people in the chatroom to engage and provide real-time response if a plus for us. The full video will then be uploaded on our Vimeo channel or a downloadable file is also available if anyone wants to re-live the day again.
Results
The event was well-received by everyone. We all know it’s not perfect. We all know we want to be together and share the joy together. However. in this crazy world that we are living in, we do the best that we can to bring you love and happiness for your beloved ones. We also received a heartfelt comment from the couple after the wedding and thought we’d share with you.