Live Streaming and Event Production
Live streaming and hybrid event production, from committee meetings to global awards ceremonies.
Floating Harbour, a film production company in Bristol, produces multi-camera live events, studio programmes, hybrid events and public meetings, and streams them wherever your audience is. We are based on a Dutch barge at Welsh Back in central Bristol, with a studio in the city, and we produce live events for conferences, charities, universities, public bodies and professional associations across the UK.
We have produced and streamed the Whitley Awards live every year since 2020, hosted by Kate Humble and Tom Heap, with up to eight cameras. For the Wildscreen Festival we built an expedition camp in our studio and ran what was in effect a live channel for a week: more than 47 programmes produced and broadcast, with live links throughout. We have streamed more than fifty public committee meetings for the West of England Combined Authority, produced the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association's first hybrid event from Portcullis House, and filmed contributors including Sir David Attenborough, Greta Thunberg, David Olusoga, Kate Humble and Tom Heap. Wherever and however you want to reach your audience, we can make it look like television.
More live events we have produced. United Nations, Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data, TEDx Talks, Creative Coalition Festival 2022, Wildscreen Festival, Westminster Seminar on Evolving Parliaments 2022, Creative UK: Creative Coalition Festival, Whitley Fund for Nature, Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, Wildscreen Festival 2020, TEDx Bristol, Whitley Awards 2023: LIVE!.
-
I've worked closely with Floating Harbour on dozens of filming and live streaming projects and it's always a pleasure. They're highly professional, organised and go above and beyond to ensure the best possible results. Highly recommended!
Clementine Crockett
Lead Client Services Manager
Hybrid events, awards and public meetings
Most of our live work mixes people in a room with people online. These are some of the productions behind that.
Sirona care & health: a hybrid Awards for Excellence over two consecutive years, a broadcast-quality live stream that brought more than 60 remote nominees into one programme, hosted by the BBC's Ali Vowles.
Commonwealth Parliamentary Association: the CPA's first hybrid event, filmed and streamed live from Portcullis House with delegates in the room and online.
Culture Pioneer Awards 2021: a hybrid awards show from our Bristol studio, with a bespoke set and broadcast graphics, live in-studio speakers and remote guests joining over Zoom.
Independent Cinema Office: the Young Audiences Screening Days hybrid event, filmed in Lewes for an audience online and in person at Depot.
Accounting Excellence Awards: filmed since 2019, and in 2021 live-mixed and streamed to a YouTube audience when the awards went hybrid.
Bath Life Awards: a six-camera live feed projected throughout the Assembly Rooms for more than 500 guests.
West of England Combined Authority: more than fifty public committee meetings livestreamed for its democratic services.
Watershed: live streaming and technical support for events including This Way Up, the ICO Peer event, Festival of the Future City and Class Festival.
Any combination
What we produce
- On-location or in-venue live-streamed events.
- Studio live-streamed programmes and virtual events, with in-studio presenters and guests creating a live programme broadcast online.
- Remote programmes and virtual events with fully remote presenters and guests.
- Hybrid in-person and remote programmes and virtual events.
- Simulive programmes: pre-recorded content broadcast live at a specific time on your platform.
In the studio and on location
Live events from our studio
Our central Bristol studio is a ready-made venue for your event. We use broadcast camera equipment with feeds going directly to the production gallery, where they are live-mixed into your programme. Choose from a number of pre-configured background options, or we can design and build a bespoke set. It suits keynotes, panel discussions, interviews, presenter-to-camera programmes, conferences, launch events and virtual awards ceremonies.
Multi-camera live production
We provide broadcast-standard multi-camera production, creating complete edited programmes for live streaming, or super-fast turnaround delivery of live-cut programmes. Awards shows, sports events, lectures and talks, panels and almost any other kind of event can be captured and delivered professionally and efficiently.
Virtual events that look like television
Remote production
Webinar and virtual event platforms offer very limited scope for making a programme look like television. We design the screen configurations to give your event a strong identity of its own, slick and on-brand. Picture-in-picture layouts are designed for every combination of interaction that might occur and are live-mixed by a human in real time, so the audience gets a rich and relevant experience from start to finish.
Remote production
Graphics, VT and contributor support
Screen configurations can be static or include motion graphics; animated lower-third name straps, pop-ups, banners and idents help make a polished programme. VT files, slides and images are incorporated with bespoke transitions. We test every contributor in advance, improve their set-up and coach them so they perform brilliantly on the day.
Integration with any platform
If all you need is a platform to give your audience access, YouTube offers a free option that can be embedded in your website with live chat. We can recommend platforms that offer ticketing or paywalls, and if you are using a platform built to replicate a physical event, such as Hopin, we feed our programme directly into it. Wherever your event is hosted and whatever functionality you need, we can advise and provide a programme feed that elevates your content.
Technical
In our studio we stream over a dedicated high-bandwidth leased line with bonded connection redundancy, so your stream stays up at the highest quality the platform can receive. On location, where connections are not good enough, we bring portable bonded solutions and record everything locally at a higher quality for on-demand upload or repurposing. We also record isolated feeds of every component of your programme, so that if you want to change anything later, you can.
Hybrid and live event questions
Can you live stream a hybrid event?
Yes. A hybrid event has people in the room and people online, and we produce both as one programme. For Sirona we brought more than 60 remote nominees into a single live awards show, and for the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association we streamed its first hybrid event from Portcullis House with delegates in the room and online.
Do you film live events outside Bristol?
Yes. We are based in Bristol and produce live events across the UK. We have streamed from the Royal Geographical Society and Portcullis House in London, from the Assembly Rooms in Bath, and from Lewes for the Independent Cinema Office.
Can you live stream public committee meetings?
Yes. We have livestreamed more than fifty public committee meetings for the West of England Combined Authority, as part of its democratic services.
How many cameras can you use?
The number depends on the event. The Whitley Awards, which we have produced as a live stream every year since 2020, are a seven- or eight-camera shoot, and the Bath Life Awards live feed used six cameras. A smaller event can be covered with fewer.
Can you stream live from your Bristol studio?
Yes. Our central Bristol studio has broadcast camera equipment with feeds going directly to the production gallery, where they are live-mixed into your programme. You can choose a pre-configured background or we can design and build a bespoke set. Culture Pioneer Awards 2021 was live-streamed from our studio.
Frequently asked questions
We produce live events for conferences and exhibitions, government and public bodies, charities and NGOs, universities and finance and professional bodies. Our studio is available for live events with our crew. For the full range, see all the films we make. Tell us about the event and where the audience is: contact us.
Can you stream to our platform?
Yes: YouTube, Vimeo, LinkedIn, Teams, Zoom, Hopin and most event platforms, or a player embedded in your own site with ticketing or a paywall if you need one.
What happens if the internet fails?
In our studio we stream over a dedicated leased line with bonded redundancy. On location we carry bonded cellular units and record everything locally at full quality, and we record isolated feeds so you can re-edit later.
Can we have an edited film afterwards?
Yes. Highlights packages, individual sessions and social cuts are usually part of the job.
Do you film events that are not streamed?
Yes. Conference coverage, awards, talks and launches, edited into highlights and session films, with our own camera crews.
Got a film in mind?
Tell us what you want to make. A few quick questions, or attach a brief, and we’ll come back to you quickly, usually the same or next working day.