Here at DobreTransmisje.pl we’re close friends with books, because our technologies and our workflow work great for authors events. It’s not surprising that people behind book festivals and events took notice – here are the largest book events we’ve had the pleasure of live streaming.
Big Book Festival
First and foremost, Big Book Festival – one of the most important book festivals in Europe, held yearly from 2013 in Warsaw. Uncompromising, independent, open and non-profit, Big Book Festival takes place in Big Book Cafe and in other venues – cultural centres, museums and on the streets of Warsaw.
We’ve been longtime friends with the festival creators, Paulina Wilk and Anna Król. Back in 2018 the two girls decided festival events should be available live on the internet, and it was only natural for us help them. Starting from 2018, we have proudly provided live streaming and video recording services for every edition. The amount of our work varies from several events to several dozen events each year, subject to the editors and to sponsorship agreements.
Big Book Festival goes beyond regular meet the author stuff, we’ve live streamed or recorded panel debates, including round (literally!) table discussions and opening and closing live theatrical performances. Big Book Festival has remained a staple in our calendar every year.
„Apostrof” International Literature Festival (Empik)
Empik is the largest multimedia store chain in Poland. Video games, music, and books are sold on the internet and in 300+ retail stores all over the country. Back in early 2019 we started live streaming authors meetings from Empik bookstores for their „Premiere” project. The cooperation turned out great, and Empik decided to hire us to live stream their „Apostrof” Literature Festival in Warsaw.
The festival was curated by future Nobel Prize in Literature winner, Olga Tokarczuk, and the venue was Warsaw’s revered Teatr Powszechny. During the festival, we live streamed 33 single events to YouTube and Facebook, and the authors line-up included Nobel Prize winners (Svetlana Alexievich and Olga Tokarczuk), Pulitzer Prize Winners (Charlie LeDuff) and notable Polish writers and public figures.
Live streaming of „Apostrof” festival was a real test for us – never before have we streamed so many events over such a short period of time. Add 3 cameras for each event, on-screen graphics, sign language interpretation. Meticulous planning helped us achieve our goals with no hiccups!
Virtual Book Fair by Empik
Fresh off of „Apostrof’s” success, we already expected to work on next year’s edition in 2020, only to find the country halting all public events due to COVID-19 pandemic… but there was the internet! The Empik executives came up with the idea for „Virtual Book Fair”, that is, a fully virtual (no in-person audience) book festival. The live streaming was (obviously!) provided by DobreTransmisje.pl.
The preparation was key. Some of the authors arrived at our studio, but foreign authors had to use remote connections since travel was difficult back then. Each author needed to have their connections tested and briefed, because doing a remote interview can be very different from a regular sit-down interview.
The actual live streaming was just really just an icing on the cake. Throughout the festival, we streamed live 19 events on Empik’s Facebook page, with some live streams exceeding 1000 concurrent viewers! We provided multi-camera live streaming with remote video connection feature, Polish Sign Language interpretation and Polish-English translation for foreign authors. The line-up included popular horror writer Graham Masterton.
The first edition of Virtual Book Fair was a huge success, and it was only natural to capitalise on it and run the autumn edition – this time Empik had a custom studio decor set up at their flagship store in Warsaw. More live streamed events (33) and over twice the books sold during that next edition. The Virtual Book Fair has proven to be a great success, so much that Empik have been holding it twice a year, and it looks like they’re not stopping any time soon.
Noc Księgarń (Bookstore Night)
There is no mention of „festival” in the name, but their website clearly describes it as a nation-wide festival, run by book distribution company, OSDW Azymut. The Bookstore Night, in the spirit of popular Museum Nights, is being held yearly from 2019. It includes author meetings, workshops and debates predominantly in bookstores across all Poland – as of now, 150+ bookstores participate.
Our first Bookstore Night happened in 2020, when we were tasked with live streaming from 2 Warsaw bookstores. It was a „pandemic” year and all in-person events were halted, so there was no other way but to make a move to online – we were happy to contribute. Since then we work with the Bookstore Night providing live streams from Warsaw’s Big Book Cafe.
Summary
Every recurring event makes for an interesting experience – on one hand, we can anticipate the expectations and many requests require no explanation, on the other hand, there’s always the novelty, because authors, hosts and locations keep changing. Now, how about we put your book event online?