SEIU 721 Candidate Live Stream

For this project, we partnered with SEIU 721 to produce a series of live-streamed political candidate forums for union members. These events provided candidates with an opportunity to speak directly with members as part of the union's endorsement process. Before the pandemic, these conversations would typically have taken place in person but COVID restrictions required the experience to be rebuilt around a remote audience using Zoom.

Our responsibility extended beyond simply placing cameras in a room and broadcasting the presentations. The stream needed to preserve one of the most important elements of the original event: two-way communication. Union members watching remotely were invited to submit questions and interact with the candidates, requiring us to integrate the Zoom audience directly into the production.

That created a significantly more complicated signal path. Video and audio needed to move reliably from the candidates to the remote audience while questions and responses traveled back into the room. Managing that exchange without creating distracting delays, feedback, or communication problems required careful coordination between the broadcast system, Zoom, audio routing, and the staff managing the event.

The timing of these events presented another unusual challenge. Demand for professional streaming had expanded almost overnight, but many of the production tools that would later make this kind of workflow relatively straightforward had not yet reached the market. Our primary switching and recording system, for example, was built around the available ATEM Mini ISO generation, before later hardware such as the ATEM Extreme expanded the number of inputs and capabilities available in compact production systems.

As a result, the workflow required a considerable amount of creative problem-solving. Systems had to be adapted and combined to accomplish tasks that would eventually become standard features of newer broadcast equipment. Reliability still remained essential; regardless of how unconventional the signal path might have been behind the scenes, the audience needed a straightforward experience in which they could watch, listen, and participate.

Projects from this period helped redefine what small-footprint live production could accomplish. Remote guests, interactive audiences, multi-camera switching, and online distribution became increasingly interconnected, and many of the workflows developed out of necessity during the pandemic remain useful today.