Case Study: He Whenua Taurikura, NZ's anti-terrorism hui
Communicating peace with live streaming
Main services:
Live streaming to publicly accessible YouTube event
Delayed stream to avoid broadcasting offensive content
Integration with event AV equipment
Positive change following tragedy
The Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Terrorist Attack on Christchurch masjidain recommended that Government host an annual hui, to bring together relevant central and local government agencies, communities, civil society, the private sector and researchers to create opportunities to build relationships and share understanding of countering violent extremism and terrorism.
The two-day conference was made up of panel discussions of key government officials and experts (including Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and representatives from Facebook and Twitter in New Zealand/Australia) that was viewed by about 200 people in attendance at the Town Hall, as well as the few thousand viewers that joined in to watch online.
Our team of experienced producers spent the following few months working with the DPMC team (as well as many others from Venues Otautahi, the NZ Police and Christchurch City Council) to set up the many different elements needed for this event being held at the Christchurch Town Hall on the 15-16 June.
Our four-person crew provided coverage of the whole event, with a wide shot of the room and the other two cameras focussing on what was happening on stage. The full live stream feed was also connected to screens placed throughout the room so the audience further away from the stage were able to watch everything up-close.
A key requirement was for the live stream required to be delayed (from what was happening in the room to viewer at home) so the stream can be cut if needed. Due to the nature of this event, precautions such as these were planned well in advance in the event that issues arose with the audience in the room. The aim was to minimise the reach of any problematic events to make sure that viewers were not affected considering the sensitivity of the subject.
All events were streamed to YouTube, and our team designed name keys and titles to show during the event to introduce speakers and topics. A title was created to ask the online audience to send any questions to a specific email address, which the team at the DPMC filtered through to the event MC who asked the questions during the panel discussions.
Following both events and the conclusion of the Hui, we tidied up both full event videos and delivered these, along with individual videos of each topic/speaker/panel discussion. All videos will be archived and possibly posted online at a later stage by DPMC so the public can view them easily at any time.