Premiering January 16th, an All-star line-up of special guests in Episode #5 of Better Live Meetings.

Lisa Boyce – Notified, Co-Host
Dave DeWalt – Founder & CEO of NightDragon
Michael Busselen – Retired CCO, Owner of Woodhawk Vineyards
Richard Cohn – Communications Ambassador

Click this link to reserve your place for this free event!

Better Live Meetings is thrilled to have Dave DeWalt and his former Corporate Communications team from McAfee as special guests to discuss how they made their All Hands Meeting a memorable experience for their global workforce from 2008 to 2012.

Using humor and fun elements, this team engaged and united employees, ultimately leading McAfee to a 7.68 billion dollar acquisition by Intel Corporation.

The production traveled to every major employee population center around the world, allowing each geo to host the meeting while showcasing their unique locations, and cultures through well-produced employee opening videos. The many carefully orchestrated surprise entrances by then-CEO Dave DeWalt, often tied into the hilarious videos, became highly anticipated elements of the quarterly meetings.

Attendees of Episode #5 of Better Live Meetings will have the opportunity to learn from great stories and watch a series of archival video clips that demonstrate the success of these All Hands Meetings. This episode is dedicated to providing valuable insights into how companies can effectively engage their employees and create a sense of unity and collaboration through hybrid internal communications streamed for live and on-demand audiences worldwide.

We shine in the dark rooms

Behind the scenes of corporate video webcast production, we make sure it all runs smoothly. The cameras, lights, computers, data monitors, slides, videos, mics, speakers, projectors, staging…everything. We know your video webcast production is critical to invest in professionals and at Rhea Communications, we thank you for that. Your audiences around the world trust that your video webcasting will come off without a glitch. As we begin our 18th year as corporate video webcast event producers, we continue to support our clients who deliver solid messaging through proven webcast platforms. As we turn the page to 2020, I’m so grateful for the many experiences we’ve had, with the teams we’ve built for the many locations around the world we have had the privilege of serving in.

Plan your work and work your plan

Proper planning makes a professional production. Let us create an event video production plan to get your messages out without incident. We’ve made live video webcasts our passion. We care about the content, the slides, the video playback, encoding quality, the presenters performance and the proper slide display. Sound is also so important. We make sure the levels are proper for the webcast and the Full HD recording. We load in and set up with ample time to test everything from clickers to our text book redundancies.

If you’re searching for a video webcasting team that puts you first for corporate communications, contact us. We’re here to back you up where we shine in the dark rooms. At Rhea Communications, it’s on to 2020 and we’re looking forward to serving you.

“Rhea Communications is an A+ partner in every aspect. Brian and his talented team of professionals have assisted us for years with our quarterly All Hands meetings, and they do it all — expert technical consultation, detailed pre-production planning, and flawless live event production services. You will not find a more dedicated, experienced group of problem solvers who are passionately committed to delivering the highest levels of service for every event.”

Eric Andre – Sr. Manager of Internal Communications at ServiceMax – From GE Digital

View from my “show caller” position in the room. Kevin (audio director) mixes the live mics and bumper music to the room, webcast as well as the incoming caller who is presenting remotely.

We love our great clients!

Thank you Eric. We’re proud of the hard work and dedication to multi-camera video production excellence we provide to you every quarter. Great clients like you make the day run so smoothly. You are organized and passionate each time we partner with you on the All Hands Meeting. Live Internet Streaming can be tricky but you have a talented team at GE with solid execs who bring great work to the stage. Awesome slides, engaging content every time. The pleasure is all ours!

To begin a relationship built around trust and top performance, call us today. We specialize in secure video streaming solutions for your employee meetings. Live or on demand – video can tell your story unlike any other medium.

Our Rhea Communications “A-Team” in the field. Conrad, Danny & Stan

Rhea Communications turns your training rooms to video webcast studios

We love working in corporate employee communications.  We’re always saving clients money by turning cross-functional conference rooms into “studio sets” for live video webcasts.  Offsite meeting space rental is so expensive and the logistics of driving attendance is difficult.  No buses to charter.  Employees can simply walk to meetings in your building.  With Rheacom on-site video webcast production, we bring the studio to you.  Your audience sees a quality product that never distracts from the message.  We keep audiences engaged through a variety of camera angles – up to 4 robotic cameras.   Our veteran crew with top broadcast equipment can set up quickly and efficiently.  We just plug into your public Internet and go live with your presenters and slide content!

We’re a turn-key team player to help you get your message out – on schedule on budget!  If you’re looking to save money and don’t feel comfortable going it alone, let’s sync up.

Before you go live, discover some new ways to make your content more visually interesting.

Are you producing a Corporate Town Hall or All Hands Meeting webcast?  Relax!  We live in the greatest time ever for the real communicators in Corporate Communications.  Until now, it has been impossible to produce content to air over your world wide TV network.

The Internet has given us freedom to bring “live” and “on demand” video content to our audiences with passion and flair.  But before you get on stage – discover some new ways to showcase your Executives.

Time to loose the “big bar stools” and make a comfortable talk set.

If you’re doing a “talk show segment” you don’t need to spend thousands on a custom set.  With drapery, uplights, plants, a table and relaxing chairs and you’re ready for a prime time interview segment.  Nothing to build here.  Just set up a riser, run your drape, trim with plants and lights and it’s almost showtime.

“Can’t we just do this production ourselves to save money?”

It’s tempting to want to run out and purchase all the broadcast video equipment to do this in-house.  We hear this from time to time.  “Can’t we save money doing it this way?”

It’s been our experience working with top companies that providing a technical solution takes a team of dedicated people who do this all of the time, with equipment that is properly maintained, tested and operated.  I’ve said this many times.  “You can buy your art supplies at the same store Thomas Kinkade would buy from, but it took, ‘The Painter of Light’ with all of his talent and years of experience to create a gem”.  Our pact with customers is to keep the budget reasonable – equipment portable, state-of-the-art and bring it to the event every time – so they don’t have to hassle with staying current and paying in-house production staff.

We bring a high quality robotic “multi-camera” fly pack system that sets up quickly on location anywhere bringing quality broadcast video production to give you an image of professionalism.

Turn a meeting room into “video village”.

Town Hall and All Hands Meeting webcasts take a lot of planning.  You work very hard on content.  Don’t let the production (or lack of it) get in the way of your message.

Video webcasting in HD is here.  Create content that cuts through so your audience will “Get The Message”.

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Brian Rhea is the Executive Producer at Rhea Communications – a rollicking band of live event video minstrel’s ready to carry out your next global communication.

brian@rheacom.com

Here’s a few Facebook Video tips from an experienced video webcast producer.

When our phone rings at Rhea Communications, Inc., a boutique digital media production company in the Silicon Valley, the client has an important message to communicate. So, when John Hessler of Hessler Productions called, his client was asked to stream three hours of Facebook video for a large global audience ready to watch and learn.

The great news – this is an amazing time for creative video communications. Your social media audience is liking live and on-demand video content on their desktop and mobile devices. Facebook does this very well and the possibilities for public or private video is remarkable.

So now the producer questions begin:

Where is the event?
Is there a proper hardline IP connection?
Can we come do a speed test and site survey for pre-production planning?
How about distances to the jack?
Who is doing lights/sound?
Can we get a camera riser?
What is the nature of the presentation – speaker with slides, video? A panel?
Will there by any music or copy written material presented?

What we find in some instances, is that there are only guesses about the tech specs and little time for a proper site survey to confirm information. You can be told there’s fast, reliable connectivity but that might not actually be the case. Maybe the camera riser wasn’t ordered or you’re only going to get 2 hours to load in, set up and begin streaming. There’s so many gotcha’s in media production. In any event – it’s all part of our world of planning for success, managing expectations and minimizing risk.

Here’s a few thoughts about Facebook video that I’ve learned.

1. The new publishing tools are great – streaming video to your audience live and on-demand. We bring HD-SDI video to social media from a single camera to multiple camera productions with slides and video playback.
2. 4Mbps 720P video looks great. Finally no more small frame, low bit rate commercial webcasts. The audience now expects this.
3. Stream up to 4 hours – That’s the current max but really that’s a ton of content in a single stream.
4. You have choices for software or hardware encoders. The encoder is how you compress and transcode the video so it will stream. We have found Wirecast to be excellent for Facebook.
5. Don’t start streaming too early. Wait till about 30 seconds before the start of your event as it takes some time for the stream to establish. This is important for your replay audience.
6. Make sure you aren’t sending any content that could be blocked by Facebook. This would include any music or videos.
7. Photography is very important. Make sure your camera operator can properly frame the subject. Focus and iris settings are critical to make sure the video is nice and crisp.
8. Audio can sometimes be low. It’s critical that your sound tech can boost the presenter if they are soft spoken or move off mic.
9. Once the presentation is over, you can end the stream and Facebook does the rest. The replay should be up in minutes – even longer shows like ours at nearly 3 hours.

For more information or to start a conversation about your next Facebook Live event, we’re happy to help.

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Brian Rhea is a veteran Technical Director/Executive Producer at Rhea Communications, Inc.  brian@rheacom.com

We bring the video studio to you

There are times when executive video interviews have to be turned around quickly for playback.  The big meeting is just a day or two away.  Conflicting schedules mean that executives sometimes can’t attend the meeting – live.  In these cases, a location video production can be a very powerful decision to give them important time in the meeting without leaving the office.   Maybe they are in another city but they still want to craft a targeted, personal message with graphics to reinforce their address.  In some cases going live isn’t an option for them either – but they have time-sensitive information to share with audiences live and on demand.   When it’s critical to get it right, we bring the video capture studio right to their location.

Creative uses of your space for video interviews can make your executives look amazing

Rhea Communications Executive Producer, Brian Rhea testing mics and helping his DP light and frame up the shot for the perfect executive on camera interview.

Offices, conference and board rooms can be transformed into ad hoc studios for executive video interviews.  Our professional teams work quickly with the set-up, so the on camera executive talent simply walks down the hall to record.  The producer is waiting with some room temperature water, an outline and “anti-shine” – something we apply just to ensure they look amazing under the lights.  Following the short capture, video can be edited on site or created from our Silicon Valley studio location.  Fortunately for us, we work in a connected society where teams can review, comment, edit & revise video from anywhere.  We know how valuable time is and have mastered the art of keeping the work flowing so the end result can be ready in a matter of hours after the interview – where ever it may be.

5 Camera Live Switch to Facebook Reveals Cadillac’s new Concept Car

Without question, the annual Concours d’Elegance at Pebble Beach, California is an homage to the automobile industry world-wide.  When Cadillac’s social media Agency Rokkan reached out to find a west coast production company, they selected Rhea Communications through Facebook’s relationship with partner Groovy Gecko and our friends at A Crew4U in London.

We loved working on this show.  However, the biggest challenge would be bandwidth on location.  The “Cadillac House” was a top a mountain at a sprawling $35M estate with magnificent views of the Monterey Bay, but the only challenge was an over-taxed cellular network (with no dedicated landline available).  With a few hundred invited guests and eager media competing for cell tower coverage, we had to be sure we could get out with at least 4Mbps for live HD to Facebook.  Our friends at Atomic Imaging provided a bonded cellular package that averaged 5 radios from two carriers.

Once the live shot went off without a hitch, we then captured an interview with the Cadillac lead designer of the “Escala” concept car for on site post production editing and upload to Facebook and YouTube. 

Rheacom Director of Photography and robotic camera veteran Danny Zemanek and Video TD/Engineer Conrad Slater (inset photo) braved the whispy fog and tight rooftop load-in to cut pristine images from 5 cameras for the live video webcast.  The event was elegant at every turn.  No exposed wires, very carefully placed cameras and tight security.  No cameras could take any images at any time until the reveal.  Security made sure all phones were wrapped with a tape over smart phone camera lenses.  The event company transformed the space with comfortable furniture and loads to nosh on for the adoring fans who witnessed the president of Cadillac, Johan de Nysschen cue the slick silk reveal.

Executive Director, Cadillac Global Design – Andrew Smith takes us inside the creation of this sleek one-of-a-kind concept car.

Go ahead take a photo – it will last longer.

That’s exactly what we did.  Pretty picture of confirmed bandwidth for a live video webcast!  When Rheacom goes on site to prepare for a live streaming webcast, it’s important that we have bandwidth to stream live video in HD.  When we logged into a static IP port at a recent customer we were pleasantly surprised that a about half a TB per second was available!  We love this photo and it reminds me that the edge of the network can be blazing fast.  Dedicated bandwidth is essential to maintain a quality feed to the public Internet.  How much speed to you need?  For this connection, 2Mbps is all we needed to withdraw from the “Bank of Bandwidth” at this customer.

It bears repeating – “Marketing and Corporate Communications may build the trains but it’s IT that controls the tracks!”  You can only run as fast as your connection speed will allow.  Great to know this site will never be an issue for their quarterly Town Hall Meeting.

If you’re looking for a partner to live stream your event, let the Rhea Communications Streaming Services Solution – powered by INXPO work for you.

That’s a lot of van trips to pick up kids with disabilities but for 30 years, Nick Palermo has been a servant leader in an area that has done a lot of good in this world.