Infor Global SKO Case Study

Client

INFOR is a global software developer with 58 million users and 90,000 corporate customers in 200 countries.

Challenge/requirements

To reimagine a formerly live, Las Vegas corporate team-building event into a Simul-live, streaming, three-day Sales Kick-Off Conference for Infor customers and employees, generating interactive meetings, seminars and study groups simultaneously, in over 180 countries in a global post pandemic environment. The streamed presentations would be viewed by groups in far flung Infor offices across the globe, as well as single, remote customers signing in on laptops or tablets as solo participants.

Solution

Black Watch Productions transformed what was formerly a solo Presenter on stage, with live visuals, music and graphics, into an engaging series of in-depth conversations between key Infor executives, experts and customers. The one-on-one interviews were designed to show off Infor’s beautiful New York City headquarters while keeping viewers engaged with lively conversations that included multiple settings, graphics and visual effects to enhance the digital presentations.

We set up a production center at the Infor offices in Manhattan for two separate shooting schedules including a live, concurrent overseas shoot with participants in Italy, Spain and New York City. Structure and execution employed a single shop approach where all aspects of conceptualization, preproduction, production and postproduction were handled exclusively by Black Watch Productions.

Creative Concept

Taking over the fourth floor of Infor’s New York City headquarters, including the newly redesigned customer service center, we established our video control room in one large meeting room and our production center in another. Since we needed to shoot over thirty different presentations, interviews and panel discussions, we wanted to give the impression that these various elements took place in different locations-not in the same place in the same building.

We engaged production designer, Augie Alexander, who brought in multiple furniture choices, wall art, video screens and set dressing to create the many visually different environments we were able to access by simply shifting the cameras around the available spaces. A full production staff was onboard, including make-up, wardrobe, production managers and assistants, all of whom kept the very tight schedule running at peak efficiency.

Michael Prince headed up the postproduction team. Mike organized and scheduled cutting 30+ 3-camera segments, and produced final cuts of over four hours of material in 5 weeks. Matt Yeager joined the team to create promos and a “hype” video to open the event and get the viewers excited about what the 3 days had to offer. The goal was to substitute virtual content for what would have been live presentations and generate the same level of interest and excitement to Infor’s global employees and clientele and our team was very successful in achieving that goal.

Live Action Shoot

Black Watch Creative Director, Monica Anderson directed the entire enterprise, which consisted of two three-camera, live switched video crews, along with a production designer, prop people, and production personnel. We did one stretch of shooting over ten days in December, 2022, and came back for a shorter session in January of 2023, where we moved to another section of the floor and created all new backgrounds.

Monica conceptualized and scripted the 3-day event, working closely with the Infor’s senior directors of Global Events and Sales to focus the messaging, and teamed up with DP Dan Karlok, who brought the concepts to life, lighting and choreographing the multiple location shoot days.

Each session was shot on 4K with three cameras, all tethered to a central control room that contained a technical director who did the live switching of the 3-camera feed. We also recorded all three cameras as isolated feeds. There was an audio engineer and a video shader as well as a video utility person who set up all of the confidence monitors and video materials that were used in the presentations. The final result was a huge success on all levels, prompting collaboration and positive feedback across all time zones. Our delivery-on-promise provided the impetus for more production projects throughout the coming year.

Timeline

The project spanned November, 2022 through January, 2023 with a screening date of February 7th. Black Watch produced all postproduction, graphics, animation, music, scripting and voiceover work, as well as assembling the entire three-day program and uploading individual pieces to the streaming service.

Results

The Simu-live three-day program was streamed globally to Infor offices, employees, customers and clients beginning at 8am in Singapore on February 7, 2023. The show went off without a hitch and was roundly praised throughout the organization. Portions of the segments we created have since been edited and repurposed throughout the ensuing months on various platforms.