Billed as “the biggest global gathering of natural world storytellers”, the Wildscreen Festival is a highly prestigious event that celebrates the achievements and shares stories from all areas of the wildlife film and TV industry globally. This biennial festival is held in the city seen by many as the global hub of the natural history film and TV industry; Bristol.

We were thrilled to have been invited to technically produce and deliver the hybrid Wildscreen Festival 2022, held across various venues within central Bristol and also online, over the course of a week in October. The festival consisted of a combination of headline sessions, panel discussions, masterclasses, screenings, and premieres, alongside many networking and social opportunities for attendees. With the assistance of our friends and filming partners at Mechanical Mouse, we were able to provide full pre-event production, content collaboration services, and the technical delivery of this hybrid festival, along with sourcing custom sustainable printed elements, digital signage, and the creation of bespoke motion graphics for use throughout the festival.

Given the sheer scale of the Wildscreen festival, a large degree of flexibility was required in both the lead-up to the Festival and throughout. With over 120 presenters attending both physically and virtually, we handled huge quantities of content. Virtual presenters were fully integrated into the sessions, allowing them to really feel involved, creating a fully inclusive hybrid experience for all.

The majority of the presentation sessions took place at the Mercure Grand Hotel, Bristol. In the main plenary room, the 'Attenborough Auditorium', we supplied a 9m x 3m LED screen with a pixel pitch of 2.6mm. The combination of our bespoke background animations coupled with the external content supplied by presenters and participants created a breathtaking and memorable impression for all in the Auditorium. Alongside the stunning LED screen, we supplied a PA system of bespoke design with equipment from industry-leading manufacturers such as Nexo, Yamaha, DPA, and Sennheiser, that provided even and complete sound coverage for the entire audience. Our stock of Strand TV lighting alongside other fixtures from Robe, ETC, and Chauvet was used to create a flexible lighting installation, allowing for dramatic contrasts depending on the requirements of the session in progress at that time.

In addition to the Attenborough Auditorium, we supplied further equipment in the 'Parsons Theatre'. This venue was primarily used for masterclasses and commissioner sessions. We installed a stage set on the venue’s pre-existing stage and used a 10,000 ANSI Lumen Panasonic laser DLP projector to rear project onto the screen. We extended the permanent stage to allow space for both a panel discussion and a presentation lectern to be used simultaneously. We further enhanced the overall look of the Theatre with the use of an LED stage and architectural uplighting, with audio reinforcement coming from an additional Nexo PA system with a Yamaha console, Sennheiser, DPA, and Audio Technica microphones.

In both venues, our media partner supplied multiple cameras and operators, plus a vision mixing engineer to mix the content and live footage for the live stream. The provision of a technical producer in both the run-up to, and throughout the festival ensured that all content was received, checked, and distributed to the correct venue for each session - no mean feat given the number of sessions that took place!

The trade show and networking hub were located at the beautiful Bristol Harbour Hotel. In this space, we provided a 14’ 16:9 projection screen with an additional 10,000 ANSI Lumen Panasonic projector, with a smaller Nexo PA system to facilitate workshops and trade show demonstrations. We also provided power distribution to all exhibitors, along with some 55” LED screens for some of the exhibitors.

The highlight of the festival was, without a doubt, the Panda Awards, which took place on Thursday evening. This was held in the Attenborough Auditorium, which was transformed with further bespoke screen content, additional lighting plus the addition of autocue for the awards hosts. We live-streamed the awards to the Wildscreen Festival’s hybrid event platform, and also to the reconfigured setup in the Bristol Harbour Hotel, the host of the Alternative Panda Awards Screening Party. We transformed this venue to create a real party atmosphere following the close of the trade show that had been running all week. We supplied a combination of moving lights, battery-powered uplighters with wireless control, custom gobos, and a full-range large PA system with DJ equipment to bring the party to Bristol. Guests were able to watch the live stream of the Panda Awards and then celebrate with the award winners into the early hours.

For the final day of the festival, we supplied supplementary equipment and a technician in the BBC Studios on Finzels Reach in Bristol. The in-house PA system, projector, and screen were supplemented by additional LED screens on stands from us, plus we streamed these sessions onto the Festival’s platform using a fixed camera feeding into our Blackmagic Web Presenter. We extracted an audio feed from the venue’s PA system and mixed this into the stream. Whilst this final day may have been technically much simpler than the previous 4 days, our team ensured that the experience for those attending these sessions was as consistent as possible with those who attended other sessions earlier in the festival.

Sue Martineau, Head of Events at Wildscreen said:
"Wildscreen highly recommends Andy and the whole of the production team at Enlightened. Their flexibility, can-do attitude, and commitment to the Wildscreen Festival was extraordinary. Having taken on the project with only eight weeks lead in due to Wildscreen being let down by another Bristol production company put a phenomenal amount of pressure on Andy. He remained calm at all times, helped and supported in areas where he wasn't contracted, and quickly established himself as an invaluable member of the Festival Team. Thank you Enlightened, you were integral to the success of the Wildscreen Festival"

Image Credits: Ananya Ramesh, Jon Craig, and Christian  Tuckwell-Smith