(Covid-19 Video Production Safety Protocol)

With the demand for Livestreaming, the first and foremost that should be on people’s minds is safety.

When I reached out to peers in the Video Production industry on the best safe practice for their team/organization and for the client. A lot of our peers were generous with their responses.

One peer Jan Klier from www.janklier.com notably took it a step further, and put together a safety protocol for his team and outlined with his clients. With his permission he provided me a copy to share with you, others in our video production community and other content creators to either follow or incorporate with your practice.

We hope it’s of help for live streaming work that’s needed for essential personnel/ and essential services.

Jan wrote:

“There is a lot of demand for that, and justifiably so. In some cases, this could even be deemed essential work and be exempted from some regulations as it makes it easier for others to stay at home.

I wrote a safety protocol draft for doing just that. Though there is a lot of work going into remote platforms where you lifestream without on-premise cameras.”

On-premise rules for Livestreaming Production for essential services:

Client’s guideline to follow

• We (Production crew)  are minimizing the number of people in the building to the smallest possible staff. There will only be 3 crew members present, and clients may only bring who is on camera and one producer. We aim to stay well below the 10 people threshold.

• Clients come in via a dedicated path into the building. Doors will be propped open for them for arrival and departure. They go directly to their designated on-air seating which has been disinfected prior to their arrival. No crew member will come within 6’ of the client. They will leave the same way they arrived with minimal touchpoints.

• Clients can have one or more presenters. However, they must remain at least 6’ from each other while on air. If more people are needed they must be time staggered with no more than 2 in the building at the same time, and no group waiting outside.

Production Service’s protocol guideline

• All crew members will wear appropriate protective equipment. Nobody with a cough or elevated temperature will be allowed in the building. We will take everyone’s temperature on the day and write it on a whiteboard for everyone to see.

• We can record audio by boom microphone only if desired. Or we can provide a wireless lav mic that has been sanitized and left at the client’s seating position for them to attach themselves to avoid crew contact points.

• We will provide hand sanitizer and other safety equipment as needed by anyone in the building.

• We have a control room that provides a view of the stage but is physically separate by a glass window. It’s available for one client producer as needed.

• If any of the conditions changes at the last minute for us or the client, we will cancel or postpone the filming without penalty.

With that we can provide 1-3 camera coverage, live switched and streamed to the appropriate platform, with video inserts/slides, green screen, lower thirds and branding, professional audio, and recording for later replay. In the case of multi-cam coverage, only one camera is manned, others are locked off.

Alternatives for livestreaming Production non-essential (smaller scale):

For anything that does not need this level of production quality, just do a zoom or Skype call. Internal communication does not need to be made this way. But companies and organizations will need to communicate with clients and the public at times, where this is warranted.

(Added Footnote: A Suggested collaborative option is for Livestreaming Production company, collaborating with production studios, The purpose to Minimize crew movement, and exposure to a different environment, almost a live streaming pop up the setup. This way it does not put the crew in jeopardy to travel to various client sites, as well as clients, can be isolated from the general public to designated studio space.

Livestreaming Troubleshooting Tips

An extension of our earlier point on a smaller scale live streaming work, such as video conferencing by small business owners with employees or educators with their student,

Here are troubleshooting tips for teachers, small businesses that are live streaming for when you can’t get a hold of your IT guy and have to fend for yourself. At worst if you still have trouble when you do speak with your tech support, at least you can rule out things and share your self-diagnosis with them.

Ever since Fall of last year we’ve shifted our focus onto Livestream project, so while we’re currently upscaling our resources and offers, please reach out to me if you have questions on the video, and if you find other teachers or small business owners that may benefit from the tip, please share the video with them. Our priority is to help others in your time of need.

Be safe and thanks for watching.