Bella Grimwade, BMT Customer Support Executive, gives an update on the admin redesign for Nucleus.

Managing awards and initiatives should be seamless, efficient, and enjoyable. That’s why we’ve given Nucleus a major redesign, focusing on enhancing the admin user experience. Our latest update brings a completely fresh interface designed to make navigating and managing your workflows easier than ever.

We’ve refined the layout, improved navigation, and introduced a more intuitive structure to streamline daily tasks. Whether you’re processing applications, managing payments, or coordinating viewing rounds, the new interface is designed to work with you, not against you.

We listened to feedback from our users and recognised that while Nucleus remained a powerful tool, the admin experience needed an overhaul. The result? A sleeker, more user-friendly design that enhances usability and efficiency. This update ensures that both new and long-standing clients can effortlessly harness the full potential of Nucleus.

If you’re already using Nucleus, you’ll notice an immediate improvement in how smoothly tasks flow. If you’re considering adopting an awards or grants management platform, there’s never been a better time to explore how Nucleus can support your work.

The BMT family would like to acknowledge and thank everyone involved in this project for their hard work, including David Lortal, Muhammad Qasim, Sergio Escudero, Stephen Griffin, Ben Jefferson, Andrew Wilson, Elisabetta Mezzaro, Ezgi Aygan, Bella Grimwade.

Ready to experience the upgrade? Log in to see the new design in action or click here to get in touch for a demo.

BMT (BAFTA Media Technology) is the software research and development arm of BAFTA (The British Academy of Film and Television Arts).

The BMT team examines a piece of work that serves as a reminder to not ask “What does Nucleus do?” but instead “What can Nucleus do for you?”

The film and TV industry is increasingly looking for ways to adopt sustainable practices. To support this shift, Nucleus is now being used to create a directory of sustainable suppliers that productions can easily access, the BAFTA albert Suppliers Directory.

The directory allows any production to look up verified suppliers committed to sustainable practices, streamlining the process of making eco-conscious choices. Suppliers can apply to be included in the directory, ensuring that the listings remain comprehensive and up to date. The current applications close on Friday 21st March 2025.

With Nucleus already known for its robust awards and initiatives management capabilities, this extension highlights its adaptability to industry needs. By facilitating access to sustainable resources, Nucleus is helping productions reduce their environmental impact while maintaining efficiency.

If you’d like to see Nucleus in action, you can click here to book a demo via the BMT website.

BMT (BAFTA Media Technology) is the software research and development arm of BAFTA (The British Academy of Film and Television Arts).

James Cordell, BMT Team Coordinator, takes us through the new BMT website.

The driving goal behind the new BMT website was to create a site that made finding the right software solution as easy as possible, because finding the right technology shouldn’t be a hassle.

Whether you’re a long-time client or discovering BMT for the first time, the new site is designed with you in mind, featuring dedicated pages for each product to offer a more streamlined view of the software solutions that BMT offers across Awards, Initiatives, Events and Sustainability, including:

Where possible, BMT are always delighted to hear feedback and the same goes for the new website. For any questions or to book a demo, the new contact form, located on the Contact Us page, is designed for direct and easy contact with the BMT team.

Looking forwards, BMT will continue to optimise its existing suite of products with new features, improvements and systems, alongside exploring proof of concepts, including the responsible use of AI. To stay up to date with the latest news from BMT we now have a dedicated News page on the BMT website, in addition to the BMT LinkedIn page.

On personal reflection, I’m delighted to have had the opportunity to project manage the new BMT website and would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone in the BMT family who contributed to the new website, in particular Stephen Griffin, Ben Jefferson, Emma Perry, David Lortal, Muhammad Qasim, Isabel Spence, .

If you’re looking for software solutions for your Awards, Initiatives, Events or Sustainability needs, visit us now at bmt.bafta.org and take a tour yourself.

BMT (BAFTA Media Technology) is the software research and development arm of BAFTA (The British Academy of Film and Television Arts).

BMT Team Coordinator, James Cordell, reports from this year’s Nucleus Client Summit, as BMT reflects on recent R&D and exploring the concept of using AI and automation in enhancing Nucleus functionality.

Structured around BMT’s end-to-end awards management system, BAFTA Nucleus, the Nucleus Client Summit is an annual gathering for BMT’s clients to make connections with other Nucleus users, compare learnings and collaborate on ideas to feed into the Nucleus roadmap and learn a bit more about the rest of BMT’s software suite.

Among the attendees were representatives from British Film Institute, British Arrows, FOCAL International and The Royal Television Society.

The day opened with Emma Perry , Director of BMT, reflecting on the last year. During 2023, 42K entries/applications were submitted via Nucleus and we were delighted to roll out key features to further refine the awards and initiatives management process:

  • Entry sharing and address book for entrant users
  • Jury voting and judging features for judging users
  • Custom reporting for admin users

An overview of the Nucleus roadmap for 2024 was given, with automation and public voting among the features commissioned for development. An interactive session followed where attendees were invited to discuss potential features for 2025.

In addition to Nucleus, attendees were also provided introductory sessions to BMT’s end-to-end event management system, BAFTA Events, and cloud video-streaming solution for branded and non-branded virtual / hybrid events, BAFTA Cloud Studio. Both systems achieved significant milestones in 2023 including:

  • 774 events and 69K tickets distributed across the UK & US, via BAFTA Events
  • 70K views on BAFTA Cloud Studio-supported content across YouTube, Zoom and in-person

 

While BAFTA Events already provides a fully accessible and customisable booking interface, the addition of an accessible seating workflow was noted in the Events roadmap, as part of BMT’s focus on accessibility. In the Cloud Studio session, Ryan Coney , AV Technician and Software Support noted the following features were in development for Cloud Studio:

  • 4K video conferencing
  • Vision mixing
  • Line cut

 

Rounding the day off, three workshops were led separately by:

  • Ben Jefferson , Chief Technical Officer, on proof of concepts using AI within Nucleus including assisting with entry checking and automated categorisation
  • David Lortal , Product Manager, on automation
  • Elisabetta Mezzaro , Customer Support Executive, and Emma Perry, Director of BMT, on the Nucleus Admin Interface and admin workflows

 

The Nucleus Client Summit 2024 was held at BAFTA 195 Piccadilly on Monday 20 May.

 

BMT (BAFTA Media Technology) is the software research and development arm of BAFTA (The British Academy of Film and Television Arts).

BMT Product Manager, David Lortal, reflects on the process to redesign BMT’s end-to-end events management product, BAFTA Events.

 

In the dynamic landscape of digital solutions, the redesign of the BAFTA Events platform stands as a testament to the power of vision, collaboration, and technical know-how. This article shares insights from this journey, reflecting on the challenges overcome and the innovative outcomes achieved, while also illustrating BMT’s commitment to excellence and innovation.

 

Collaboration as the cornerstone

A pivotal aspect of the redesign was the collaboration between designers, developers, and stakeholders. This dynamic interaction was crucial in ensuring that the redesign not only addressed aesthetic concerns but also enhanced functionality, accessibility, and responsiveness. By integrating feedback from all parties, we were able to identify and implement features that significantly improved user experience, such as advanced ticketing workflows and a more intuitive admin interface.

The genesis of transformation

The inception of the BAFTA Events redesign project was marked by a need for evolution. Originally launched in 2020, the platform aimed to support BAFTA’s extensive events calendar, including ticket sales, member events and fundraising initiatives. However, as the digital environment and user expectations evolved, so too did the necessity for a platform that was more user-friendly and adaptable to the changing landscape. The project demanded not just a facelift but a rethinking of how the platform served its users – admin and audience alike. It required balancing the legacy of BAFTA’s brand with the forward-thinking approach that defines BMT. This balance was achieved through extensive stakeholder engagement, user feedback analysis, and a deep dive into the intricacies of the existing system to identify opportunities for improvement.

 

Navigating the path to white labelling

One of the redesign’s significant milestones was preparing the platform for white labelling, thereby extending its utility beyond BAFTA to other organisations facing similar challenges. This expansion not only demonstrates BMT’s capabilities in delivering versatile digital solutions but also underscores our commitment to supporting the broader industry.

 

Training, testing, and launching with precision

A critical phase in the project was preparing the stakeholders and admins for the transition. Through comprehensive training sessions and feedback mechanisms, we ensured that the transition was as smooth as possible. The launch plan was meticulously crafted to minimize downtime and ensure a seamless user experience from the moment the new design went live.

The outcome is a modern, fully accessible platform that not only meets the current needs of BAFTA and its users but also sets the stage for future growth. The redesign has significantly enhanced the user experience and streamlined workflows, introducing a deep level of flexibility for easy adaptation to emerging requirements. Notably, we’ve integrated standout features such as:

  • A curated events leader section
  • Clearer event and accessibility information
  • Improved filtering capabilities
  • Event tagging
  • Enhanced ticket selection
  • Visual messaging for sold-out events

 

A clearer payment process

As we look to the future, we are excited about introducing a new accessible booking workflow. This innovation will allow bookers to flag their accessibility requirements and select relevant seats directly through the booking process, eliminating the need to contact the venue separately. Additionally, the implementation of a newsletter registration option is set to significantly improve engagement with bookers, further enriching the BAFTA Events experience.
As we forge ahead, the potential is to further refine and expand the platform’s capabilities. These upcoming features underscore our ongoing commitment to inclusivity and accessible user experience, ensuring the BAFTA Events platform continues to serve and exceed the evolving needs of BAFTA and its diverse community.

 

A testament to BMT’s vision

This project stands as a testament to BMT’s dedication to delivering high-quality, innovative solutions that effectively address the complexities and challenges of the real world. As we celebrate this success, we extend an invitation to organisations embarking on similar digital transformation journeys. BMT is pleased to continue to offer its expertise and insights externally for those who might benefit from it.

 

BMT (BAFTA Media Technology) is the software research and development arm of BAFTA (The British Academy of Film and Television Arts).

BMT Product Manager, David Lortal, looks back at how BAFTA View was readied up for the 2023 BAFTA Games Awards.

 

Background

The Games Awards are unique within BAFTA because awards judging involves playing the games instead of watching video content. Where video content is supplied as supporting material alongside written statements, images and documents by entrants, the key component for the Games Awards is the distribution of codes to members and highlighting the bundles where the games are available for members to review. What does a VOD (Video on Demand) service look like when it doesn’t supply any video?

BAFTA View was designed as a VOD service, exclusively used by BAFTA members to review content entered into BAFTA’s Awards; the platform launched in 2021 for the Film Awards. One of the key development aims for 2022 was to update the platform to support BAFTA’s Games, Television and Television Craft Awards. BAFTA had been hosting and streaming television programmes for over 10 years and supplying game codes to members for eight years. However, the previous system design was outdated and could no longer support the larger metadata sets and assets now required for the judging processes. BAFTA View was designed to be content-rich, with API links between Nucleus (BAFTA’s Awards management system) pulling in entry data and assets. It is also integrated with our Voting Site, which holds user data, so it seemed like an obvious next step to develop BAFTA View to support more workflows.

The key issue was attracting Games Awards voters to log into the platform when the core asset being judged lives outside of the BAFTA View ecosystem; the game. The awards team have overcome this challenge by supplying a wealth of additional content that acts as a companion piece for the games. They have used the full range of functionality available to them to encourage members to use BAFTA View as the gateway to reviewing entries. They can make notes, mark games as played and use the filters to track and review all of the entries. The assets supplied by the entrants when populated on BAFTA View make the site look visually stunning, enhancing the slick user interface (UI) designs, which entice the members to return time after time. This is evident in the screenshots below.

BAFTA View user interface

How did we do it?

The key challenge of this project was to support additional content types and additional awards workflows within the existing system architecture without an extensive rewriting of the code. This was achievable due to early pre-planning during the initial development phases.

While the designers worked on incorporating the new features into the existing designs, we broke down the different components for each award and listed them in a grid to determine the crossover. From the grid, it was evident that the requirements could be broken down into five component categories. These categories could be turned into controls that admin users could switch on or off on a per award basis:

  • has video
  • has category page
  • has primary judging media
  • has runtime sorting
  • has download button

Within these controls, we could specify all of the unique parameters required. We took a decision to build the controls into the existing dashboard of the Voting site. Admins have full control over setting up BAFTA View for each different award but without us having to build a new mapping control page in BAFTA View. This reduced cost and time.

 

Particular requirements for Games UX

To simplify the process for members, some games can be added to bundles, such as Steam, which means that members need to only claim one code and the game is added by the entrants to the bundles. We wanted to reflect this in the BAFTA View UI so that entrants who provided individual codes were not at an advantage. A much-needed solution was to create a bundle section that appears in the same UI as the game code. This is illustrated in the example below.

BAFTA View user interface

Feedback

The launch of the UI for the Games Awards has been well received:

“The new BAFTA view has been streamlined into a system that makes accessing content simple and intuitive. Being able to filter by dates, game systems and category is perfect for what we needed when assessing games.” – BAFTA Member

“BAFTA View has a modern design that collates all the information related to each title, which makes it much easier to track and record my impressions on entered games.” – BAFTA Member

“The revised BAFTA View is not only visually appealing, but also provides practical features that help to track status of entries. We particularly appreciate the ability to add games played alongside annotated notes, previously we had to cross reference a separate spreadsheet. Now this is conveniently all in one place!” – BAFTA Member

By the end of 2023, all BAFTA awards viewing will take place on BAFTA View, which is a huge technical achievement for a small in-house development team. We are immensely proud of the work that we have delivered, which brings benefits to BAFTA members and highlights the creative work that went into each entry, allowing the games, films and television programmes to be viewed in their best light.

 

BMT (BAFTA Media Technology) is the software research and development arm of BAFTA (The British Academy of Film and Television Arts).

BMT Product Manager, David Lortal, reflects on the work behind re-creating the interface for BAFTA View.

 

Background

BAFTA View is a VOD service, exclusively used by BAFTA members, to review film content entered into the BAFTA Awards. Before the EE BAFTA Film Awards 2020, distributors sent DVD screeners directly to members, which had a net cost of up to £50k per film. We had a challenge – DVDs were fast becoming obsolete and we wanted to level the playing field for film-makers with smaller budgets.

BAFTA had been hosting and streaming television entries for over 10 years for BAFTA’s annual Television Awards, however, the security requirements needed by the studios for pre-release content had been a sticking point for BAFTA hosting feature films. This issue was solved in 2019, when Screener Hub, an API integration platform, was built by BAFTA Media Technology. Screener Hub is middleware which enables studios to host films on the platform of their choice, whether their own or a third party – as long as it has been integrated via API). This ensures their security requirements are covered and that studios and distributors retain ownership of their assets. The film is then streamed to pre-authenticated BAFTA members from within BAFTA’s software architecture.

Screener Hub was an instant success, as it addressed the concerns of the studios and enabled access for members to entries online all in one place. Before this, members had been emailed links and passwords within hundreds of emails throughout the season.

Against a backdrop of limited cinema screenings in 2020, due to Covid-19, the service provided a solid base for members to watch film entries. With Screener Hub, the biggest missing piece of the puzzle was a sophisticated VOD front end where all the video content and entry metadata could be listed together to replace the existing viewing workflows.

During the development of Screener Hub, the decision was made to build a new front end for Film Awards viewing and was named BAFTA View. UI Centric, an external design agency, were commissioned to design a front end VOD platform, which would look modern, represent BAFTA and be flexible enough to support the complex workflows required by the awards judging process. Our task was to turn the designs into a successful platform for Film Awards viewing due to open in September 2021.

The Process

The complexities of delivering such a project are significant. We had some beautiful and feature-heavy designs, which were great, but they didn’t always consider the technical challenge of importing the huge amounts of metadata and digital assets now collected in BAFTA Nucleus – the awards management system also built and managed by BAFTA Media Technology – which needed displaying on the BAFTA View front end.

Commercial VODs can control their voice, BAFTA needs to display what the entrant has supplied. Taking this into consideration, our first challenge was to see how the designs translated into reality. Did they match awards processes? Could we display data in the format stipulated in the designs? For stakeholders and members, it is very easy to request a feature; the designers can consider the User Interface and create beautiful designs for that feature. It’s a different question to deliver this in code.

To illustrate the complexity of integrated systems, we’ve included a system diagram. The relationship between each of these systems had an effect on the final implementation of BAFTA View.

Our approach was to deliver a clean site with a basic level of features to start with. We wanted to conduct in-depth user research after the site had been used for a whole awards season. Our previous experience had shown that once users access the site their requests change. And this proved to be the case.

Development

The challenge was to build a fully responsive, fully accessible mobile-, TV- and desktop-friendly web application, which would adapt depending on the number of awards, categories and entries available to view at any one time. And one that would be adopted by BAFTA members.

The Result

We are immensely proud of BAFTA View and the huge amount of technical work carried out by our then small team on a short timeframe. Feedback, which was largely positive, with 98% of members using BAFTA View by viewing for the EE Film Awards 2022, highlighted areas of improvement. We have responded each year with further iterations, delivering improvements year on year. For viewing for the EE Film Awards 2023 (which begins in October 2022), we also delivered an app version supported on 4K Fire TV Sticks.

By 2023, most of BAFTA’s Awards will use BAFTA View, including Games, Television and Television Craft.

 

BMT (BAFTA Media Technology) is the software research and development arm of BAFTA (The British Academy of Film and Television Arts).

BMT Product Manager, David Lortal, provides an in-depth look behind the redesign for BAFTA Nucleus, BMT’s awards and bursaries application management system.

 

Launched commercially in 2015, Nucleus has gone from strength to strength and this refresh has brought a wide range of improvements to the Entrant and Viewer Interface including:

  • Fully responsive clean modern design
  • Accessible interface
  • User customisable CSS
  • Customer-supplied logos
  • New entrant dashboard entry management features
  • Simplified registration and welcome journey
  • Clear entry form design
  • Improved payment workflows
  • Updated viewing experience for judges

Approach to Design

Nucleus is very personal for me as I worked closely with the developer, now BAFTA’s CTO Ben Jefferson, to develop a new system from scratch to deliver the BAFTA Awards. The true testament to our work was confirmed when in 2015 we signed the first two clients after they approached BAFTA to license the technology. This became the seed of BAFTA Media Technology before we engaged on the wide range of products that we subsequently built and now manage.

I was very excited to lead on the implementation of the new design. The opportunity to improve the user experience and breathe a new lease of life into a long term friend had been on my agenda for several years. My concept was to unite all of our clients and BAFTA, who had customised CSS implementations of the previous design, into a standardised framework. I wanted to move away from a static CSS and create functions that enable clients to select the colours and update logos without development assistance. Core elements such as font and background are now standardised within the design allowing BAFTA Media Technology developers to better implement front end features having removed the complication of working with multiple designs.

I began by creating workflows for each of the current pages, highlighting the user interactions and listing the features that existed on each page. After reviewing the features, I made notes for the designers stating which should be retained, removed and added. This was based on a combination of stakeholder engagement, user feedback and system testing.

Before engaging with the designers I wanted to provide some ideas for them to work with. I researched blogs and features on well known and similar sites to choose elements that I felt would best suit Nucleus, focussing on the following areas:

  • Log-in screens – Nucleus exists as an extension of the client’s website and the Nucleus log-in page is the first point of engagement the user has with Nucleus, setting the tone for the rest of the system. I wanted a slick, simple and modern page which welcomed the users and clearly displayed the UI.
  • Forms and Input Fields – One of the core Nucleus components is a very sophisticated form-building solution. Nucleus collects huge amounts of metadata as well as assets (including video, image, audio and documents). Users spend a significant amount of time preparing and submitting forms and the form page was key to get right. Pre-project, I spent a lot of time in my research examining UI that was successful and UI that was not.
  • Tables – Much of the Nucleus interface features tables. Often the best method of displaying the large data sets that Nucleus collects from users is in tables. The most prominent page for tables is the dashboard and I focussed on finding slick designs which would present the data as the main focus of the interaction.
  • Dashboards – The entrant dashboard is where users manage all of their entries/applications. After completing the entry/application form users spend most of their time on the dashboard. Nucleus clients service many different entrant/applicant types, some which return year after year creating hundreds of awards submissions, and others who may submit one bursary application and never return. The dashboard needed to service these two user stories and all of those in between. I spent a great deal of time trying to understand how the display of the functionality could be used to benefit all users and fed this into the designers.

After some initial calls with RF Media, the designers, providing them with access to Nucleus, and presenting research and user workflows, I was presented with the initial designs. Initially I had wanted a much more radical approach to the design changes but the designers convinced me that cleaning up and modernising the current UI, while adding new features was a better approach. After engaging stakeholders with the first designs, I understood this was better for existing system users. The clutter of the existing designs had been removed, leaving a clean interface for users to access the functionality without having to learn how to use a completely new interface.

Improved workflows

The payment workflow is one area that we wanted to improve. The previous iteration of Nucleus had a table for invoices at the top of the dashboard page, which caused issues for returning users as the table grew larger – more scrolling was then required for a user to access the entry/application tables. I had previously moved historic invoices to a newly created page but I wanted to remove all invoices from the dashboard but alert users to pay for their invoices. RF media added clear alerts which users can follow to pay for their invoice. Other workflow improvements include:

  • Entrant registration
  • Creating the first entry
  • Invoice generation
  • Payment process
  • Entry management and filtering on dashboard
  • Viewing of entries
  • Submission of judges’ scores

Implementation

Although Nucleus appears simple on the surface, hidden behind each page is thousands of lines of code. It took a lot of work from the BAFTA Teach development team, Randy Clouse began implementing the Bootstrap code before Sergio Escudero took over supported by Ben Jefferson, Andrew Wilson, Xingzhi Qian and Venkat Jjammalamudi. They are owed a huge thanks as without their effort, immense skill and hard work this would not have been possible.

RF media delivered the design code using Bootstrap, a CSS framework aimed at supporting responsive design. The approach was favoured as one of the core drivers for the project was responsive design which would reduce the workload on BAFTA Media Technology’s developers. Having the Bootstrap code meant that any developer could apply the existing code to the pages without needing to create components from scratch. It also saved me having to describe and define how the components should look in detail. The approach was successful as the components look exactly as the designer had specified and this saved a huge amount of implementation and component development.

There are multiple features which are configurable by admin users, all of which can be turned on or off. The developers needed to replace the existing html with the newly provided Bootstrap mark-up. Once completed, I painstakingly tested all of the features, which of course led to multiple Jira tickets for amendments.

For the user-controlled CSS, I reviewed the designs and grouped the components into 14 different controls for admin users to change. There are hundreds of components in the site and giving admin users functionality to update each one would result in a highly complex and unusable interface. The 14 controls provide clients with the flexibility to apply their approved colour schemes to design without over complicating the process. Nucleus is designed to be an extension of a client’s website, sitting on a subdomain, so it is essential the site colours represent a logical step for their users. After the control panel was coded the developers needed to apply these values to each of the components in order for the selected colours to be applied to the pages.

Accessibility

One of BAFTA’s core requirements since the 2020 review is accessibility in all areas. Accessibility was a key component in the redesign, to ensure that all users on all devices with differing abilities are able to use Nucleus. Accessibility covers a range of requirements from users who have limited colour contrast visions (which applies to me) to those who use only keyboard controls, or screen readers or users who only have small screens to access the system. The design and implementation factors in:

  • Colours and contrast
    Application of correctly formatted html
    Correct application of keyboard-only controls
    Screen reader support

Next Steps

Now that the Nucleus 2.0 design is live the job is not over. There are a range of features for the design that were not included in the initial release. I take this approach for many reasons. Firstly I want to see how users interact with the site. I might have ideas for many processes but users require different features to assist and spending resource fully creating a feature users do not require is a waste of resource. Secondly once the design is live I can use agile development to release feature by feature quickly, prioritising those that users require the most. Releasing the design has brought instant improvement to users and waiting six months to introduce more features feels wasteful. Instead there is greater value in taking an agile approach.

The new design has updated the Entrant and Viewer Interfaces but not the Admin Interface. The next step is to review all of the administration processes and update the interface so that admin users have better and clearer access to the multitude of features within Nucleus.

BMT identifies how BAFTA Cloud Studio achieves a dependable professionalism for virtual and hybrid events by providing dependable and high-quality video streaming.

 

Over the past 15 months, we’ve all become (over) familiar with Zoom and, indeed, ‘Zoom fatigue’.

As we emerge into a post-pandemic reality, what’s clear is that not only will hybrid working be the norm for many of us but so will hybrid events. Savvy event organisers are unlikely to abandon some of the undeniable gains made from Zoom and similar remote conferencing technology – such as reductions in travel time, venue hire costs and carbon footprint – and will schedule a mixture of physical and virtual events in their calendar.

At BAFTA, it’s no different. We have always had a busy events calendar comprising everything from our flagship red carpet Awards ceremonies to regular workshop and learning sessions featuring some of the most recognisable and emerging names in the entertainment industry. While we anticipate that demand will be greater than ever for our physical in-person events, we have been developing a solution that will enhance the experience of our now-established virtual events, too.

 

Limitations… and the bigger picture

Having pivoted very quickly to the Zoom webinar/workshop format during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic in Spring 2020, BAFTA was encouraged by the uptake of the format by attendees and star talent alike. As the pandemic progressed however, we felt the urge to really stretch the possibilities of the format – especially now it is clear it will be here for the longer term.

To overcome this, we scoped out and developed BAFTA Cloud Studio – an enhanced take on the Zoom format, that opens up valuable commercial opportunities, while also enabling all content to played back in the glorious full definition it was created in.

The Zoom webinar re-imagined

Once we freed ourselves from the limitations of the standard Zoom presentation, we soon realised we could push the creative envelope further. By taking creative control of the production, BAFTA Cloud Studio enables the addition of commercial revenue streams – such as having a partner sponsor frame the overall production, something not available on native Zoom. It makes sound marketing sense to have such solutions available when you think of the captive audience that is delivered by your average Zoom call or webinar:

  • Attendees who have been invited, or actively registered, makes for a highly engaged and relevant audience
  • Typical duration of 60 minutes (often more) offers incredible continuous exposure
  • Personalised Waiting room and Event Close holding screens give bonus coverage
  • The existence of Chat and/or Q&A streams gives live engagement opportunities to tie in

And, of course, now that we can guarantee full definition playback of featured clips then the inclusion of short ad spots or idents to book-end the main presentation also becomes viable – with no concern of the brand identity being compromised by poor visuals.

The Rollout

Having developed and tested the solution, BAFTA was ready to roll out Cloud Studio in time to host our annual TV Sessions – a series of Q&As with some of the nominees for the upcoming Virgin Media BAFTA TV and Television Craft Awards. As the screenshots in this article illustrate, the headline features were showcased to maximum effect in Sessions including The Visual World Of Small Axe (which included a montage of clips from Sir Steve McQueen’s ground-breaking BBC anthology series of the same name) and a short promo for headline sponsor TCL at the top of the Leading Actress session.

With the successful delivery of the TV Sessions under its belt, Cloud Studio looks set to become a regular feature of BAFTA’s event schedule going forward. We look forward to working closely with our partners across both the entertainment and commercial worlds, bringing them together to create bespoke and visually sophisticated webinars that re-define the remote experience, making it an essential part of everyone’s event mix.

 

For more details on how Cloud Studio can upgrade your virtual event experience, click here to get in touch for a demo.

BMT (BAFTA Media Technology) is the software research and development arm of BAFTA (The British Academy of Film and Television Arts).