Livestream required for Queen’s Jubilee Beacon lighting in Guernsey

Earlier this week we were challenged with a unique opportunity from the States of Guernsey to livestream the lighting of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Beacon at Castle Cornet. A pre-event site visit was a must, given that the beacon itself was going to be lit in what can only be described as the location that is most open to the elements in the Bailiwick, on the top of the Citadel at Castle Cornet. The Castle keepers looked after us as the building of scaffold towers, erection of gazebos and provision of power was all part of the service they provided to ensure Guernsey was given the best platform to show off to the world.

Live-streaming the event itself posed many challenges, as it included two musical performances, a speech and the lighting of the Beacon itself which was to be broadcast under the cover of darkness. But we do like a challenge and accepted it willingly. The pre-site visit revealed a number of advantageous filming positions to ensure St. Peter Port featured in the background of the beacon lighting itself and this would be our preference to film from, as we were conscious that these pictures would be available to view all around the world. Four cameras were positioned at a number of fixed positions around the citadel to ensure the best coverage for those watching remotely.

Multiple microphones were used to ensure every spoken word was captured as well as all notes of the two musical performances, and that they were broadcast as clearly as possible. On-screen graphics were used throughout the broadcast to illustrate the subjects on screen, as well as featuring some background to the beacon lighting tradition, which began back in 1897, when beacons were lit to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.  The broadcast was made available to view on two different content delivery networks, the adaptive bitrate video player featuring one of them was embedded onto the Jubilee website ensuring as wide an audience as possible was able to enjoy it regardless of their device, internet speed or location wherever they were around the world. You can watch the recording of the livestream below and we hope that you will agree that we can really broadcast live high definition video from anywhere, regardless of the location.