Eventagrate creates advanced virtual events platform using Ventuz tools 

Founded in 2010, Eventagrate is a global provider of digital interactive experiences with headquarters in Dubai (UAE) and offices all around the globe: Toronto (Canada), Riyadh (KSA), Johannesburg (South Africa) and Russia. 

The company adopted Ventuz products many years ago, and have has been delivering Ventuz-based high-end interactive graphics content ever since. 

Corona crisis brings new challenges that have accelerated the wide adoption of virtual event solutions  

Eventagrate started working on the virtual events concept prior to the global COVID 19 pandemics, but obviously the current situation has accelerated the need and adoption of such tools by their customers. Therefore, in early 2020, Eventagrate focused their creative and technical efforts in the development of a solution for those requirements, which resulted in the mimic : stage Virtual Events product, launched officially in June 2020. 

The years of Ventuz expertise of Eventagrate’s staff were key for delivering this platform on time and while fulfilling the planned technical requirements, as Nadya Koleva, Marketing Director states, “We have used Ventuz for over half a decade and our clients expect the graphical quality and speed that comes with it. Creating a platform for virtual events with Ventuz enabled us to stay on top of our game and deliver new levels of interactivity for virtual and hybrid events”. 

 

Eventagrate mimic:stage platform is based on a virtual studio concept powered by Ventuz technology

The first phase of the mimic : stage platform is based on a virtual studio concept, where presenters on stage appear integrated in a virtual 3D environment, together with remote participants using video conferencing solutions like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc…   

For this initial iteration of the product, Eventagrate opted for a trackless approach, that uses virtual camera movements, for simplicity and cost reasons, but the system can be easily expanded to use any of the dedicated camera tracking options currently supported by Ventuz. 

Ventuz is the backbone of the mimic : stage virtual events solution, as explained by Ruslan Karimov, Eventagrate’s General Manager: ¨Ventuz is a very flexible tool. In this project it allowed us to easily accommodate multiple virtual event scenarios and make any needed changes on the fly, giving us the degree of customization and interactivity required by our customers”. 

Other Ventuz features were key for the development of this Virtual events platform, like the advanced interop capabilities with 3D creation software, such as the Cinema4D Live Link, that Eventagrate uses in combination with Ventuz internal Primitives to build the 3D virtual sets and augmented reality objects.  – Cinema4D Live Link immediately updates any changes made to the original Cinema4D scene into the Ventuz 3D world, giving users all the creative control needed to adjust their 3D environments in context. 

Ventuz expandability was crucial to integrate 3rd party technologies and control protocols for a very streamlined workflow

Another important requirement of the mimic : stage system was to go beyond what is possible with the standard video conferencing solutions. That is whyerefore, Eventagrate used the functionality that Ventuz offers functionality to extend tools like Zoom or Microsoft Teams and to integrate them into the platform. By using a combination of HDMI and Newtek NDI, together with some custom developments, the video streams received on external systems were transmitted to Ventuz workstations to integrate them into the final project. 

A solution for live virtual events like mimic : stage requires a very streamlined control solution system and Eventagrate developed their own interactive control application based on Ventuz. Ventuz features, like its extensive support for external data inputs and control protocols, combined with its remarkable touchscreen capabilities, were the foundation of such control interface. The result is a touchscreen-based tool used to switch external video stream inputs, control camera movements and trigger onscreen/instudio graphics and augmented reality elements 

In that regard, Ahmed Naggar, Senior Interactive Producer at Eventagrate comments: ”With Ventuz we have a great degree of control freedom, we can check a preview before going live, and all Ventuz connectivity options made it quite easy to connect our custom control panel to the actual stage. Running mimic : stage with Ventuz is quite simple, allowing operators to focus on the virtual event production, not on the technology underneath”.  

 

A production proven virtual events platform adopted by many customers in the Middle East region

As mentioned before, theThe first implementation of the mimic : stage platform was launched in June, 2020 and has been widely used for various virtual events in the Middle East region since then, with projects like the Tech Championss Awards Ceremony 2020, Melecoin Blockchain presentation event, Sanofi Team building event, etc.. In addition, mimic : stage was used for several virtual presentations for the Expo2020, that should have taken place physically in Dubai earlier this year, but was turned temporarily into a virtual format due to the Coronavirus global emergency. 

If you want more information on the mimic : stage virtual event solution, please check here ( https://www.mimic.digital/   https://www.eventagrate.com/virtual-events / ), or contact Nadya Koleva at Eventagrate (nadya.koleva@eventagrate.com ) 

 

See more here on YouTube