About the project
Every year, the final stage of the World Class competition brings together national competition winners from all over the world to compete for the title of World Class Bartender of the Year.
The World Class 2020 competition final was originally scheduled for July 2020 in Sydney but was postponed to 2021 due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
The event then moved to Madrid to become part of a consumer cocktail festival already planned to take place in the city.
Finally, with safety as a top priority, the decision was made to go virtual. The competition and awards was streamed from Anna Valley’s virtual event facility in London where the delivery agencies were based.
The 50 participating bartenders from as far afield as the US, Canada, Nigeria and the Czech Republic virtually participated in the competition via live video links.
The competitors’ drinks were then recreated for the judges in London by highly skilled avatar bartenders provided by drinks company, Sweet & Chilli. The bartending challenges were filmed in London along with presenter links, interviews and brand content to create an eight hour daily show which was live streamed to audiences around the globe.
Preparing the participants: video solutions for remote contributors
Before the competition could begin, the bartenders were provided with live streaming video equipment to capture broadcast live footage of their participation in the challenges.
The Chorus team worked with Anna Valley to prepare 50 laptop camera systems and lighting kits that were optimised for maximum performance with minimal user setup and with logistics partner, Transglobal Express, to deliver the kits to all the participants.
Once the equipment arrived, the bartenders were taken through an on-boarding process to ensure that secure and stable internet connections were in place and set audio and lighting levels in preparation for the competition.
Delivering the virtual competition
A total of three studio spaces were created for the show; the main studio housed four bar stations to facilitate the bartending challenges and judging, the custom-built second studio featured an LED backdrop for the awards ceremony and the third studio was used to film brand content, presenter links and interviews.
Anna Valley’s master control room was extended and reconfigured around 10 Quicklink media servers and a range of Barco switching systems to manage the remote contributions and redirect them to the relevant studio bars.
All the spaces were linked together via fibre lines so that the systems were seamlessly integrated, and any feed could be sent to any area including the on-site edit suite.
The project relied on the joint efforts of a team of technical service partners working with Chorus’ producers and heads of department for sound and video.
Set build services were provided by Steel the Scene, lighting design and execution by Spirit Design, networking and connectivity by Pylon One and editing and streaming services by Flux Broadcast.
Anna Valley managed the displays, video and audio elements and facility management, including working through the technical specification and delivery of the master control room and a wireless matrix comms system which linked all crew members throughout the building.
Results
Views of the live stream increased from 5.9 million in 2019 to over 20 million in 2021 with 19 million engagements.
