Bad Weather rides out storm with StreamWorks
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When the pandemic struck in early 2020, Bad Weather, like many, was forced to revaluate its product and service offering. “Our philosophy revolves around creating a bridge between creative and technical to bring experiences to life,” explains Bad Weather creative director, Jonathan Bandli. “When the live events sector effectively ceased to exist overnight, the transition to virtual solutions offered us a means to continue to service our clients with the same high production standards, allowing us to retain our core values whilst responding 100% to the changed landscape of our work environment.
“We were completely clear on the direction we needed to take and what we wanted to achieve. However, we knew we were going to need help on how we were actually going to deliver the service.”
At this point, Bad Weather turned to their long-standing supplier Stage Audio Works for advice. “We’ve worked with Nathan [Ihlenfeldt] and his team for many years and have a great relationship built on mutual trust and respect,” continues Bandli. “We invested in a complete Blackmagic Design camera and switching chain, as well as Sennheiser microphones and in-ears for our studio, all supplied by SAW. When we it came to streaming, Nathan recommended the StreamWorks platform which is now at the heart of all our streamings offerings, giving us the possibility to provide end-to-end virtual solutions to old and new clients alike.”
“We realised at the outset that even with the most amazing visual production, it means nothing if it doesn’t reach the audience reliably and at the best quality. StreamWorks has a solution for all of this, not only giving us and our clients peace of mind for a stable and reliable stream delivery but also the incredible support that comes with everything that Stage Audio Works offer,” observes Bandli.
Bad Weather delivered a complete end-to-end virtual solution on site in Gaborone, utilising their Unreal Engine virtual production workflow to deliver a 3D virtual environment in which to present both the live and remote talent. Bad Weather handled virtual green room support via their Cape Town studio and had a combination of tracked and untracked cameras on site for both dynamic presentations and panel discussion scenarios.
“As Bad Weather has so ably demonstrated, the StreamWorks platform enables us to provide world class end-to-end streaming services beyond our borders - in this instance it was in Botswana, but our infrastructure is positioned globally, so it could be from absolutely anywhere to absolutely anywhere in the world,” comments Stage Audio Works’ CTO, Nathan Ihlenfeldt. “The StreamWorks platform provides everything that is required for secure, high performance, live streaming, regardless of location.”
