SkillsUSA
Connect to My Future
SkillsUSA’s 2022 Connect to my Future Conference was held virtually, live-streamed from White Tie Studios at The Station in Phoenix. White Tie was responsible for production elements from inception through execution including scripting, stage direction, content creation and the live production execution. The conference had three different tracks each with a unique audience. Each track had distinctive branding and different facilitators. Our goal was to make the show feel cohesive and engaging while ensuring a smooth transition between the tracks.
Complete Event Production
Taking advantage of White Tie Studios’ open floor plan, we constructed a 23’ x 10’ curved
LED wall to use as our background for the programming. Custom graphics and live look-in
Zoom overlays were shown on the wall to compliment the presenter’s content.
A three-camera stream was sent out to the virtual audience. We incorporated two static cameras,
as well as one steadicam, all wired to our control room. Our production team was responsible
for controlling the multi-cam feed, graphics deployment, audio mixing, music cues, chat monitoring
and teleprompter control. Additionally, our floor director communicated with facilitators using
in-ear-monitors to maintain smooth facilitation and switching between each session.
Due to the strict scheduling requirements of the client’s audience, along with the availability
of the on-air talent, this show involved livestreaming two sessions simultaneously. This required
a strict schedule that alternated between a live studio broadcast for one session while the
other session was in virtual breakout rooms. Our schedule involved 8 distinct transitions requiring
a great deal of coordination both with our floor director’s scheduling and our production team’s
ability to seamlessly switch shows.
Creative Media Design
Our creative team designed two custom motion graphics packages based on each session’s brand guides. The biggest challenge was to make each session feel unique while maintaining the cohesive brand standards of the organization.
White Tie Studios Infrastructure
White Tie Studios robust infrastructure allowed us to run a multi-cam show through our
central control room and output to a Zoom live stream. Our control room is built on a
Blackmagic ATEM backbone controlled from six modular KVM stations. We also house two
dedicated graphics playback servers operating Resolume Arena and a secondary livestream
monitoring station via OBS.
The White Tie Studios audio package includes a separate, isolated control room containing our
Allen & Heath Avantis mixing console with dedicated monitors for our mixing engineer. We also
integrated IEMs for on-screen talent, wireless microphones and secondary studio boom microphones
for ambient fill.
The camera setup for this production included a variety of stationary cutaways plus a wireless
steadicam operator. The primary steadicam angle allowed our talent to interact with the graphics
on the LED wall and communicate with the audience in an engaging way.
Additionally, our client and facilitators were provided a private conference room to rehearse
as well as greenroom amenities.
Event Logistics Management
At White Tie, we believe in a holistic approach to event management. Thinking through each
event from beginning to end ensures nothing is missed. On Connect to My Future this
involved working backwards from our end product of a multi-session live stream and
tailoring our script to fit those needs.
A large challenge was factoring the national audience participating across multiple time zones
into our script. Each session had a specified start and end time that was provided to the audience,
which meant we had to maintain pacing throughout the sessions to ensure we did not run late.
Not only did we prepare facilitators to be flexible with timing depending on the sessions,
but our floor director was in constant contact with them via IEMs to relay production changes.
This level of pre-planning and in-show communication allowed us to execute the production seamlessly.