Soundbite were tasked with Live streaming the adapted Winchester Fireworks 2020, taking the renowned annual Hampshire fireworks display online.
(photo courtesy of Michael Palmer.com / Photo Experience Days )
Winchester Bonfire and Fireworks is organised by Winchester Round Table and remains Winchester’s largest one-day charity event. They have raised in excess of £60K in previous years for local charities and not-for-profit organisations in Winchester and surrounding areas in Hampshire, providing vital fundraising for such worthy causes.
Like so many charity events, Winchester’s annual fundraising firework display had to adapt to the Covid pandemic restrictions – There could not be the usual crowds attending the fireworks in person. The Round Table showed their ingenuity and decided to do things differently, enabling people to watch the fireworks in their own locale. This prevented the need to travel whilst still bringing local communities together on their streets.
Winchester Round Table settled on 3 top secret locations to let the fireworks off from. People didn’t know the locations, so wouldn’t attempt to travel to the sites. People could enjoy the view from their very own doorsteps, or socially distanced at different vantage points across Winchester city centre.
They also wanted to bring the epic display into people’s living rooms via live streaming. As with many things, Covid meant that not everyone would be able to gather outside to watch the fireworks. It was important to the client to be able to create a live web streamed event that enabled people to watch the build-up and show itself all online.
The Brief:
Provide live web streaming via Facebook Live on their organisation’s business Facebook page.
Have the ability to stream various pre-recorded videos during the build-up to the event. This included speeches from the Mayor and the local MP for Winchester as well as introducing the various charities and sponsors for the event.
Live stream live commentary and hosting from a local radio presenter MC’ing the event.
Live stream the fireworks display from 3 drones that were filming the fireworks from different locations.
Soundbite’s Solution:
We arranged and set up a production studio in an office in central Winchester. This studio provided the base for the radio presenter’s broadcast, as well as where all the AV equipment for the video clips were operated from. The entire live stream was successfully transmitted from here.
Using an internet link, we received live footage of the firework display from the 3 drones filming the show from various locations. This live footage was then shared via live streaming to the thousands of viewers on Facebook live.
What were the results?
The online display was a huge success, with people across the city of Winchester and further afield in Hampshire and beyond enjoying their annual fireworks show from the comfort of their own street or homes. You can view the highlights video here:
What did the client have to say?
“The Soundbite team expertly held our hand in a year when we had to adopt, adapt and improve new ways of raising vital funds for the local community. Globally, we reached about 20,000 people from across the world, and the work Soundbite did made sure we raised a huge amount for local charities.”
The event gained plenty of press coverage which can be found here.