All posts by Conical Sphere Media

New Online Rail Accreditation Testing Platform Launched

January 2022

JourneyRight’s new online testing platform is now available to their clients.

Specific to the TIS Accreditation process laid out by Rail Delivery Group for retailers of rail tickets, the Retail Automated Testing (RAT) platform makes it possible to easily collate all of the test evidence & results together in one place making the process as efficient as possible.

“…It was while we were supporting JourneyRight in helping their clients go through the Accreditation process at Rail Delivery Group that we realised the process was extremely manual and ambiguous. As we were working with a variety of clients, we were able to put together a framework that would help us speed up the accreditation process. With that in place, we then developed a customer front-end and back-end API that would allow us to automate the process for us…”

Richard McLester | Creative Director, Conical Sphere Media

The platform allows users to begin with automated functional testing. Results are stored in reports that can be automatically cross-referenced with RSP compliance standards set out by Rail Delivery Group.

“…We used VueJS for the front-end portal as we wanted a really simple, clean, one page app. As we knew we’d want to integrate with other systems, all of the functionality was opened via in a modern rest API. The framework that then gave us is very similar to a journey planner as used by TIS retailers, but with the added ability that we can automatically cross-reference against the compliance standards and tests that RDG require for TIS Accreditation.”

Toby Gardner | Technical Lead, Conical Sphere Media

Watch the introductory video to discover more below:

To read more about RAT and how it can help streamline your Accreditation process, visit the JourneyRight website.

Click to Continue Reading

Behind The Scenes of MOSAIC Showcase at Audi

October 2021

Producing an immersive performance for Audi is all about the result. But with our large projects, it’s not always apparent that we produce the project right from concept to the finished thing.

So here are some photos taken during the creation of the project…

“…We started with the storyline that Richard came up with and went from there. There were weekly demos where we worked out not only what the content would be, but also how we would go about achieving the projections as we wanted to keep a small footprint on the car showroom floor – which was technically challenging because the area that we wanted to project over was really large…”

Toby Gardner | Technical Lead, Conical Sphere Media

We set to work creating two visual elements for the projections. There was the central screen which combined clips cut together from a range of Audi adverts. To compliment this, we ran up a series of CGI effects that would act as supporting textures. This involved 3D camera work within AfterEffects and the creation of over 150 individual clips to add together.

“…Usually with projection mapping you are working on the outside of a building. But with this project, we wanted to showcase our ability to transform a space inside. So the first thing we did was to measure the showroom and generate a 3D model. This gave us the dimensions we were working with and allowed us to work out the lenses for the projectors we would bring in…”

Richard McLester | Creative Director, Conical Sphere Media

But there was a twist…

“…As we wanted to showcase how accessible our system is, we were strictly limited on the budget we could use to hire additional kit in. So rather than hiring a few large expensive projectors which obviously would have been easier, we instead put together 8 smaller projectors to do the job.”

Sam Tucker | Communications Lead, Conical Sphere Media

The video clips are all triggered live via MIDI from Ableton Live clips. This is done by sending the MIDI to a DMX board, which then in turn triggers our MOSAIC interface modules. There’s one module per projector (or sometimes screens).

A huge amount of the R&D work that went into this project was in order to get two video clips to seamlessly fade between each other creating the appearance of a single video.

We also added in features such as edge feathering and image masking so that we could blend or map the projections. Again, as the modules would be situated remotely, these features were all programmed up to be triggered by DMX commands.

Here’s one of the projectors situated 40 metres away from the main computer (projector circled in orange):

“…This has been a fun project as it’s involved a lot of low level programming – DMX protocols, Bash scripting – which makes a nice change from SQL, Javascript & PHP Frameworks that I’m usually dealing with…”

Toby Gardner | Technical Lead, Conical Sphere Media

To find out more about our MOSAIC wireless projection system…

Remote Clifftop Livestreaming for OCOL

October 2021

We loved getting down to Devon to produce an epic livestream production from the edge of a beautiful clifftop. Watch the result below, and remember – everything is live!

Throughout 2020-21, we took the time to develop our remote broadcasting capabilities running multiple livestream productions for our non-profit project One City One Light.

The result is that we have the ability to produce live content from literally anywhere! To make everything happen, we encode multiple cameras & drone and send the result over a wireless point to point link to our production vehicle. For this particular shoot, that was parked up around 2km away.

“…With the production vehicle 20 minutes walk away from the location, I rely on everyone in the team to set everything up 100%, communicate back to me – and finally when we are live to follow my every command. It’s awesome seeing everyone come together together to create something that is so in the moment…”

Toby Gardner | Technical Lead, Conical Sphere Media

Everything is done live, including the music – and although having a tight team is important for most projects, live broadcasting is certainly one discipline where the teamwork is key.

“…In previous film productions we were involved in there were large teams and a lot of post-production involved. Livestreaming opened up the possibilities that we could create cinematic & engaging content without all of those overheads…”

Richard McLester | Creative Director, Conical Sphere Media

See all the photos from behind the scenes:

Our Product Photos Launch on John Lewis

May 2021

We’re thrilled to see our product photography feature on the John Lewis & Partners website.

Working on a range of products for Totally About You, we were asked to shoot both the studio shots and the supporting lifestyle images. There are a multiple angles for each product and each lifestyle shot was carefully crafted to be in keeping with the John Lewis brand.

“…It’s really great to see our images on such a household name. And I know a huge amount of work went on behind the scenes at Totally About You to get this sorted…”

Richard McLester | Creative Director, Conical Sphere Media

John Lewis Underground Red Curvy Canteen Product Photography

Unicorn Curvy Canteen John Lewis & Partners Product Photography

Hudson Blue Curvy Canteen John Lewis Product Photography

John Lewis Curvy Canteen 350ml Product Photography

Curvy Canteen John Lewis Product Photography

Life Collection John Lewis 500ml Product Photography

To find out more about our product photography services…

Our Product Photography makes Joules

February 2021

We’re delighted to see the results of our product photography for Totally About You make it onto premium lifestyle brand Joules.

“…Every online platform has a slightly different specification that the photos have to conform to. So we spent a lot of time working through the photography guides to make sure that every photo we took was compliant with Joules…”

Richard McLester | Director, Conical Sphere Media

For the shoot, we needed to do a mixture of photography styles. We started with the traditional white background shot that we’re all familiar with. The item shown as clearly and cleanly as possible on a blank background.

Finally for the lead images, we needed to get out into the country and photograph the products “in-situ”. So we visited a beautiful trout fishery in West Meon, Hampshire.

“…It’s very rewarding to see everything come together. There’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes collating the photos and making sure they conform to what the retailer stipulates. Usually on a shoot like this we end up with at least a couple of hundred photos back to the client…”

Sam Tucker | Communications Lead, Conical Sphere Media

Do you need product photography?

We got fed up with Zoom…

December 2020

With lockdown accelerating the move to working from home, video conferencing was always going to be key in facilitating this. But we weren’t satisfied with existing solutions being as easy to use as they said they were…

This is the story of how we ended up with our own custom solution.

“…We wanted something that even non-technical people would find easy to use, as simple as making a phone call. The focus had to be on the conversation that we were having, not on navigating URLs or remembering how to access a video call.”

Richard McLester | Director, Conical Sphere Media

The solution we came up with was to create easy to navigate buttons that linked to our secure video rooms. This meant that clients could easily navigate where they needed to go, just as if they had come into a physical office.

We even called these “Meeting Room 1” and “Meeting Room 2”, just like a real-life office. Staff members could book out a meeting room and arrange to meet clients face to face.

5 Reasons to Choose Conical Sphere MeetAt.Work…

1. In-Browser (No App Downloads)

Our meeting rooms work in a normal web browser. So you don’t have to download another App or any other software to your computer.

This means that literally anyone with access to the internet can immediately contact us.

“…Most people are comfortable using a web-browser so it made sense to use to use that as the basis for communication. Installing a programme or App just seemed a barrier to a lot of customers – it’s like saying you can only talk to us on our terms. We wanted to make sure there was no reason why the conversation couldn’t take place…”

Toby Gardner, Technical Lead | Conical Sphere Media

2. No Time Limits or Sudden Upgrades

As we are hosting the platform on our own servers, there are no time limits. The room can remain open for as long as you like. In fact, as we usually have a room open all working hours for the time to work together.

It also means that the software only updates when we choose to which means that we can migrate seamlessly to new features without compromising projects that rely on the software working.

“…We started out using 3rd party cloud hosted software, but one day our provider changed the features without warning. As we were reliant on certain features always working, it was safer to host our own solution.”

Sam Tucker | Communications Lead, Conical Sphere Media

3. Security

There has been a lot of press coverage of the Zoom security issues. Our rooms are fully secure with both password protection and an integrated lobby system.

When facilitating an online event, we always provide in-person technical support and identity verification.

“…If we have a high profile client we are working with, or using the room to facilitate a live broadcast then it’s imperative that the room works as expected. From experience we know that if the stakes are high, we have to have full control to provide guarantees.”

Richard McLester | Director, Conical Sphere Media

4. Customisation

We offer custom branding as standard with all our meeting rooms. So when you meet it really feels like your office and customers know they have come to the right place.

But we also offer additional feature requests if there is something extra that you need. Feel free to ask!

“… We’ve been using Conical Sphere MeetAt.Work since May and not only has it been easier to use than any other platform, they’ve always known where to find me if I do get stuck for any reason… It’s now integral to our work and I spend most of my day on it in one form or another.”

Melvin Mayes | Director, JourneyRight Limited

5. Cost

When we looked at the charges other competitors were charging for services such as Zoom, Webex, etc. we realised that actually we could even compete with them on price, despite offering a more personal, hands-on service.

For a full list of prices and features, do have a look here…

But probably the easiest way is just to get in touch and ask for a demo in person. We’ll speak to you, … that’s right, in our meeting room!

Demo Our Online Meeting Room

How We Launched a New Rail Industry Company During Lockdown

October 2020

When the world went into lockdown in 2020, the gradual trend to working from home suddenly fast-tracked to becoming normality.

So when JourneyRight approached Conical Sphere Media to help set up their company in May 2020, we knew that our Agile cloud-based approach was the perfect way to kickstart their business.

“…It was important for us not only to implement the appropriate infrastructure for JourneyRight, but also that they knew why we were recommending the tools.

Otherwise people drift into using their own individual processes. In an office environment that wouldn’t be such a problem, but when working remotely that is a really fatal mistake to make… ”

Richard McLester | Director, Conical Sphere Media

We thought it would be valuable to share the story of how we set up JourneyRight with the tools to run a successful company in a future post-Covid world.

“…Conical Sphere Media did a great job of not only providing the solutions to the problems, but also showing me and JourneyRight how to use them for our specific use cases…

I am amazed at what we were able to achieve completely remotely in such a short space of time. I still haven’t seen Richard face to face for 8 months but this hasn’t held us back in any way!”

Melvin Mayes | Director, JourneyRight Limited

So how did we do it? There were 5 main stages…

1. Communicating Together

The first issue we knew we had to tackle was communicating between all stake-holders.

With the directors of JourneyRight isolated over 800 miles apart, it was important that we were able to communicate frequently and easily so that everyone was on the same page at all times.

“…Although products like Zoom have come into their own this year, we wanted a solution that didn’t involve setting up meetings or having to download third-party software.

So we decided instead to come up with our own in-browser self-hosted solution that we could link directly from our website. It meant clients and our team could easily meet without having to worry about the technicalities of setting up a meeting.

We’ve been using it for 6 months now and it’s been absolutely key to keeping us together online. People are still surprised by the simplicity of the solution we came up with.”
Toby Gardner, Technical Lead | Conical Sphere Media

2. A Virtual Office

To provide easy access to the virtual office, the first thing we did was get a website up with a prominent link. As with a real-world office, we added custom branding to make the online office feel personal to JourneyRight.

This meant that not only could we regularly meet with together, but JourneyRight could also immediately start holding meetings with potential clients.

“…Our experience in virtual-event management led us to creating a virtual meeting room that could be easily accessed via a simple link on our website.

We also provided the same facility for JourneyRight with an easy to find link on the front of their website. For the first 3 months the website was simply the JourneyRight logo and a link to their meeting room. JourneyRight director Melvin used this to start initial conversations with potential clients.”

Sam Tucker | Communications Lead, Conical Sphere Media

3. Working Together

There is a tendency with a lot of new businesses that the first thing to get up and running is a complete website.

Instead we were keen to take a very lean approach with JourneyRight and focus first on their internal infrastructure & workflow processes.

One of the first things we provided forJourneyRight were instances of Atlassian Confluence & JIRA to get the team collaborating together.

“… Melvin’s background at Rail Delivery Group meant he was already familiar working with JIRA, but only in with regards to issue tracking.

So as part of weekly sessions, I mentored Melvin in collating information into Confluence and then drawing out the action points into JIRA stories.

Using a combination of the virtual meeting room combined with the collaborative editing features of Confluence and allows you to work as if you really are in the same room. In fact, as many companies have found this year it’s arguably quicker and more productive…”

Richard McLester | Director, Conical Sphere Media

4. Marketing JourneyRight

With more potential clients forthcoming, attention turned to the JourneyRight website in order to provide support and context to the marketing.

As from the outset, we kept it simple, functional and direct avoiding adding any additional overheads to the company workload.

“…Given the expertise and standing that Melvin has in the rail industry, we knew that the website had to put Melvin into context and provide a professional looking framework for JourneyRight’s projects going forwards.

So we kept it really simple with an integrated Twitter timeline, a short About page and an easy to use Portfolio section for the company to post about ongoing projects.

Importantly however, the thrust of website is still to facilitate (virtual) face-to-face conversations and so the frontpage has retained the ability to immediately walk into an online meeting room…”

Sam Tucker | Communications Lead, Conical Sphere Media

5. First Deliverables

As we were able to take all of the heavy-lifting out of setting up the company infrastructure, this left JourneyRight free to reach out to industry contacts.

It wasn’t look before initial conversations had become confirmed contracts going forwards.

“…With deliverables now needing to go back to clients, we linked JourneyRight across to our own cloud sharepoint via WebDAV to provide clients with an entry point to the workflow.

Going forwards this will either migrate into a more purpose built CRM or link in directly with Confluence & JIRA instances syncronised with the client.”

Toby Gardner | Technical Lead, Conical Sphere Media

A Final Word…

The Covid-19 pandemic has pushed the digital revolution onto the next level. Over the last decade, Agile working practices have allowed smaller teams to be more dynamic & productive. Corporations such as Barclays and T-Mobile have made large investments changing to the way modern tech companies such as Google & Netflix operate.

When we started Conical Sphere Media, I knew that this was the way in which we would have to run in order to be successful. We implemented a “total Agile” approach to our projects. That we have a large portfolio of projects covering a variety of skillsets with only a small team is purely down to the way that we work and the tools that we employ to support us.

So when we started working with JourneyRight I knew what the outlines of setting up the company would include. As well as industry specific requirements, there are some standard pre-requisites that facilitating an Agile project requires such as open communication between stakeholders, visual project tracking & centralised storage repository.

But although there we have a roadmap and recommended toolset to achieving that, I knew that it would be the education of JourneyRight and team interactions of all participants that would be key.

But the most important part of the process was to mentor Melvin as director through how these tools allow him to unlock the potential of JourneyRight as a company.

Richard McLester | Director, Conical Sphere Media

Livestream Essentials For 2020

June 2020

2020 has definitely been an unexpected year. One of the results of these unprecedented developments has been the turn towards digital services as a replacement for high capacity events. At the heart of these new digital replacements has been live-streaming.

As a media company involved in the facilitation of live events, including through our own community project One City One Light, livestreaming has been key for us to keep connected through this turbulent period.

We recently published a livestream demonstration for Rail Delivery Group’s Melvin Mayes about the essential elements needed for a professional livestream. You can watch that here:

We recently helped Young Enterprise livestream their award ceremony, facilitating the entire production for them. The key elements we used to produce this livestream for them are as follows:

Professional studio broadcast. We provided equipment, training & a script for the host.
Facilitation of guests including all the judges & young entrepreneurs who were being judged.
Multiple camera angles to focus on different participants & allow conversations between host & guests.
Incorporation of high quality branded graphics, video & imagery to make the livestream engaging and coherent.

Are you looking to livestream your event in 2020?

We Livestreamed the Young Enterprise Awards 2020

June 2020

Over 100 students came together to celebrate the Dorset Young Enterprise Awards this year, with one difference… Everything was celebrated online!

For the past year, budding young entrepreneurs across Dorset had been working hard to create companies, products & business initiatives ready to be judged at the Young Enterprise Awards 2020. However, with the Covid-19 restrictions that recently came into place, these awards had to be cancelled. This was a shame for the young entrepreneurs. They had put a lot of effort into their companies and it wasn’t fair that they wouldn’t be able to show this. So, we decided to step in and re-create their award ceremony virtually!

Watch the full livestream:

Working with Young Enterprise rep Mel Bissagar, we were able to walk her through all the stages of the livestream production. This involved:

Creating the content
Organising the technical delivery
Facilitating the shows guests

The virtual event was a success! It was broadcast to over 400 live viewers, each student company was able to showcase their company and the winners were announced live in-front of their family and peers.

“…I’m not a techie, so initially I was nervous about hosting the livestream, but you guys made it so easy. Our plan was just for me to announce the winners from my phone, so to have all the graphics & smooth transitions made the whole thing look so fancy…”
Mel, Young Enterprise

Are you looking to livestream your event in 2020?

5 Fundamentals Of Video Editing

April 2020

There are lots of creative ways that you can edit your film clips to bring your story to life. But if you’re struggling with ideas, here are a few tips to help you get started…

Keep it as short. Every clip that you leave in your edit should have a reason for being there. So if it doesn’t have a purpose, take it out. Nobody wants to sit through a 10 minute film if you could make your point in 30 seconds…
A good tip is to close your eyes and just listen to what is being said… You can practice by putting on a film or TV and closing your eyes. Can you still follow the story? You’ll find you can cut a lot of un-necessary words out!
Illustrate the points that your speakers are making by cutting to pictures/screenshots/video taken over the project. This B-Roll footage keeps the piece interesting and will help the viewer to really understand what you are talking about.
Pick a piece of music that fits with the overall theme you are trying to get across. This works best if the music doesn’t have a singing that will cut across any talking.
Don’t wait to finish the video before sharing it with your business mentor! Send over a very rough draft as soon as possible… They may spot something that you need to leave in that will otherwise get cut out, or something that you need to put in to tell the whole story.

There are plenty of free video editors out there that you can use including:

Discover more tips on how to make your video stand out…

Quick Tips For Setting Up Your Film Set

Your story is the most important thing. But before you press record it’s worth just checking a couple of things first to make sure that your story is going to come across in the best way.

Windows. Face your camera away from any windows. DO make sure your main source of light is behind the camera. DON’T sit in front of a window or bright lights as this will mean your face will be dark.
Lights. Make sure the room is well lit. The more even light you can get in the room, the better the image will look on camera. But keep in mind point 1 – make sure you have more light behind the camera than in front. Don’t shine a light directly in your face as it will make you squint and your face appear all shiny. Instead, point lights up and away from you. This will create a more natural looking image!
Background.Remove any distracting items from the background. It’s never a bad thing to have a quick tidy up; and try not to have moving objects in the background that might take the focus away from you.
Camera.Try and place your camera or phone on a steady surface rather than hand-held. This removes un-nessecary camera-shake which again is distracting. Use a tripod if you have one, but if you don’t just balance it on a book or shelf.

Here’s an example of what can be achieved by following the advice above – all done on a standard webcam…

Discover more tips on how to make your video stand out…

7 Easy Tips For Presenting On Camera

The first thing you should remember when presenting a video is that it’s not about you. It’s about your company and your product. So when someone watches your video, contrary to popular belief you are not being judged on what you look like. You are being judged on your story…

This usually helps focus minds a little before you shoot your video. But if you are struggling with what to say, here are some tips to help…

Start with your name and your position in the company.

Tell us a favourite moment from your project. Chances are that it will highlight a point you are trying to tell us anyway.

Tell us something you have learnt from the project.

Tell us something that you thought your company did really well.

End your story just by smiling at the camera for 5 seconds. That will give the editor a bit of breathing space to cut to the next person!

For the best results, try to link these points above back to what you are selling.

So if you are selling mouse-mats, then you might say:

“Hi, I’m Richard and I’m in charge of mouse-mat production at MouseMatts.com. My favourite moment was when we first came up with the concept as I we had so many new ideas on how we could make our mouse mats stand out. Developing our mouse mats was actually really difficult and I learnt that it actually took 12 weeks between designing the product to actually seeing the product in real life. But we really do have a product that stands out from other mouse mat competitors – the pink and yellow bubble-wrap mouse mat always makes me smile!”

See how you automatically discover about the product and the back story…

QUICK TIP:

Write out what you are going to say on a cue card.
Learn the first and last sentence off by heart.
Deliver the first line to the camera, then read out the rest of your presentation, and deliver the last line to the camera.
When you edit together the video, cut to photos/videos/screenshots of the things that you are talking about whenever you are not looking at the camera.

We actually used this method when shooting this video. Toby was bit nervous doing his first ever piece to camera, but we used this method and he came out great.

Discover more tips on how to make your video stand out…

All posts by Conical Sphere Media

New Online Rail Accreditation Testing Platform Launched

Can I Help You?

With...

Behind The Scenes of MOSAIC Showcase at Audi

Like What You See?

Remote Clifftop Livestreaming for OCOL

Like What You See?

Our Product Photos Launch on John Lewis

Like What You See?

Our Product Photography makes Joules

Like What You See?

We got fed up with Zoom…

1. In-Browser (No App Downloads)

2. No Time Limits or Sudden Upgrades

3. Security

4. Customisation

5. Cost

Can I Help You?

With...

How We Launched a New Rail Industry Company During Lockdown

1. Communicating Together

2. A Virtual Office

3. Working Together

4. Marketing JourneyRight

5. First Deliverables

A Final Word…

Can I Help You?

With...

Like What You See?

We Livestreamed the Young Enterprise Awards 2020

Like What You See?

5 Fundamentals Of Video Editing

Like What You See?

Quick Tips For Setting Up Your Film Set

Like What You See?

7 Easy Tips For Presenting On Camera

Like What You See?