Virtual Production of the 26th Annual Critics Choice Awards posted: 20/03/2021
Bob Bain Productions and Berlin Entertainment Choose TVU Networks' Technology for Seamless Production - Veteran awards show producers rely on cloud-based TVU Partyline to manage more than 170 remote participants for live broadcast
Considered the best predictor of Academy Award nominations, the 26th annual Critics Choice Awards was the first awards show to go live with virtually all of its nominees attending remotely from across the globe. While the host and a handful of presenters were on location in Burbank, nominees attended from their homes or from on-location shoots. Hosted by the Critics Choice Association (CCA), the 26th annual Critics Choice Awards was presented in a predominantly virtual format due to COVID-19 restrictions.
During pre-production, show producers at Bob Bain Productions and Berlin Entertainment determined a single cloud-based video conferencing platform would be best to incorporate potentially hundreds of live remote nominees and other show participants. Standard video conferencing platforms could not meet the team's three critical technical requirements: 1) scale to a large number of participants 2) manage all participants under one cloud-based application and 3) provide a simple set up without the need for extensive equipment.
The producers turned to TVU Networks (TVU) and its cloud-based video conferencing collaboration solution TVU Partyline, to help them address those requirements for the virtual portion of this prestigious show, which aired as a live, three-hour broadcast on The CW Television Network.
With TVU Partyline, we were able to start with 170 nominees in the cloud and bring them into baseband with just a few TVU Transceivers in a seamless process under a single TVU platform, said Russell Spud Murphy, Senior Technical Manager, Spudtek. If wed used a standard video conferencing solution, we'd have to install dedicated hardware for every virtual nominee, adding substantial cost and complexity.
On the day of the show, all remote nominees joined the TVU Partyline conference by either clicking on a link in a standard web browser on their PC or using the TVU Anywhere app on their smart mobile device. Prior to the start of the live awards broadcast, many nominees were separated into virtual tables.' They were able to see and interact with each other at their table and could view the live program as a group using TVU Partyline's integrated Return Video Feedback (VFB).
As each of the categories were announced, groups of six to ten nominees were switched from their remote locations to the live show broadcast. Category nominees were shown in a grid in the TVU Partyline screen next to the award presenter. Once the winner was announced, producers cut to the winner in full frame within TVU Partyline, with undetectable latency. All 26 award category presentations ran flawlessly throughout the evening.
As each of the categories were announced, groups of six to ten nominees were switched from their remote locations to the live show broadcast. Category nominees were shown in a grid in the TVU Partyline screen next to the award presenter. Once the winner was announced, producers cut to the winner in full frame within TVU Partyline, with undetectable latency. All 26 award category presentations ran flawlessly throughout the evening.
We could not be more pleased with the outcome of the show, and TVU really helped us deliver a top-notch production. To have 170 nominees together virtually on one platform for a live event was a first for a major awards show, said Cheryl Teetzel-Moore, Executive-In-Charge of Production, Bob Bain Productions. TVU provided a cost-effective single platform for all virtual participants to connect using TVU Partyline from their homes or hotel rooms or sets all over the world.
TVU did the impossible and brought in more live remote participants than either the Emmys or the Golden Globe Awards, noted Augie Max Vargas, Co-Producer. In addition, they were highly responsive, and we appreciated the support and training we received from their team.
TVU Partyline, a revolutionary development for social production, enables all members in a remote production environment to communicate seamlessly as if they were all in the same physical space. It enables production crews, talent and guests to use production tools and collaborate remotely in real time with full HD video quality, perfectly synchronized audio and video and mix minus one audio feedback. Collaboration within Partyline is made possible through the use of a Real Time Interactive Layer (RTIL). With a simple shared URL, participants can join Partyline to watch all program feeds live and interact, discuss, control and participate in a production in real-time with undetectable latency.
We're delighted to be able to help the producers of this distinguished awards show deliver a live production that could easily scale to a large number of remote guests on our cloud platform, stated Jared Timmins, SVP Solutions, TVU Networks. TVU Partyline is well-suited for entertainment and sports show applications, and we've had many global customers use it for a broadcast quality remote video experience with live guest interaction.
About Bob Bain Productions
Executive Producer Bob Bain is one of the industry's leading producers of next generation event television. For two decades Bob Bain Productions has been at the helm of the popular Teen Choice Awards, Kids Choice Awards and the Critics Choice Awards. Bain has also produced Fox's New Year's Eve LIVE Special as well as the Billboard Music Awards, Miss America Pageant, American Country Awards and numerous music specials.
About TVU Networks
TVU Networks is a global organization with more than 3,000 customers using it
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Virtual Production of the 26th Annual Critics Choice Awards posted: 20/03/2021 
