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For hire: Camera operator with Teradek Bond Backpack

Irwin Video have been using Teradek Bond Pro systems for several years now. Adding to our live webstreaming equipment, we have bought the Teradek Bond Backpack – a ‘stream-from-anywhere” solution for broadcasters and event filmers seeking the best in signal reception and video quality. The backpack is battery powered and completely portable, using the mobile or cellular networks for uplinking the web-stream.

backpack

It offers professional HEVC/H.264 streaming and offers a secure way to live-stream the video over the internet. It does so using a protocol called SRT (Secure Reliable Transport) – which uses end to end 128/256 bit encryption. This feature is particulary important when streaming meetings where the content is confidential.

We also have the Cube 775 – HEVC/AVC decoder, so we can provide a full end-to-end streaming service.

If your next project or broadcast requires a high quality live web-stream, please get in touch.

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Building (and filming) a Car Clinic research event

Irwin Video provide filming and AV services for many types of market research events, including car clinics. On a recent UK car clinic for a premium car manufacturer, we supplied a high resolution, 7 metre wide LED video wall, which was used to show real-size video animations of current and future vehicle designs. The LED video wall can be built to any size, sits directly on to the floor and offers a vivid, high definition image which, unlike projection systems, delivers uniform brightness across the whole screen.

We made this timelapse film for Promotor Events, who set up the car clinic on behalf of Northstar Research Partners (UK).

In addition to the video wall, we also provided several camera operators to film multiple streams of focus groups and one-on-one interviews, as well as portable translation systems for focus group interpreters, and wireless multi-channel headsets for attending clients.

Filming focus groups and IDIs at a car clinic.

Camera operators were completely mobile and able to wirelessly follow focus groups and IDI respondents around several vehicles in the hall. Respondents, sometimes up to 8 in a group, wore radio microphones which transmitted audio directly to the mobile camera.

We also provided iPads with video clip logging software which enabled listening-in researchers to note interesting customer quotes and easily locate these video clips after the event.

We continued on to provide our AV and filming services for this project in the USA, China and UAE.

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Market Research Filming and AV in China

Irwin Video have been providing focus group filming services for market research projects in China since 2014. In particular, we have supplied AV technique for car clinics held in Shanghai and Beijing. Such projects require a lot of specialist equipment, much of which can be difficult to rent in China. As well as video cameras and crew, we provide high quality radio microphones (operating on frequencies that are legal in China), high quality audio mixing equipment, video links, simultaneous interpretation consoles and digital wireless headsets. We have also supplied large screen projection and LED video walls for car clinics in China.

Our AV desk on a car clinic project in Shanghai

If you require high quality audio visual for your next market research project in China, drop us a line. We film focus groups, IDIs and ethnographic interviews, and we have a lot of experience of providing AV technique for automotive research in China.

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Car Clinic Filming and AV across the world

Irwin Video have been very busy with car clinic filming this year. We have been as far east as Shanghai and as far west as Los Angeles. In June, we worked on our first car clinic filming project in the beautiful city of Copenhagen. The departure board in the picture shows just some of the trips we’ve made this year. Of course, being based in England, the majority of projects that Irwin Video support are here in the UK.

For those who have not heard of car clinics, they are market research events, commissioned by a car manufacturer, where suitable respondents are invited to provide their opinions on new and forthcoming vehicles.

The event is often held in a large venue, such as a an exhibition hall or film studio. Focus groups and in-depth interviews are often conducted as part of the project.

Unlike focus groups in viewing facilities where the entire discussion takes place around a table, respondents at car clinics are invited to walk around, getting in and out of several different vehicles. With clients eager to hear what everyone thinks of their new automotive ideas and researchers keen to capture valuable killer quotes for their post-fieldwork presentation, it is our job to make sure that we film and record high quality video and audio of all respondent reaction. Not only film, but also transmit the video signal to a client viewing room tucked away somewhere in the venue.

Our Car Clinic Filming and AV Service

We provide a fully HD service, from the cameras to the large screen TVs or projectors in the viewing room. For safe mobile filming we use encrypted wireless video transmission.

We use high grade, long range radio microphones and sound desk equipment for excellent sound pick-up.

Clients listen using digital, wireless headsets. For projects where a translator is required, we provide simultaneous translation equipment. Listeners can easily tune their headsets to listen to their preferred audio channel.

Our camera operators have wireless talk-back headsets so instructions can be passed quickly from clients via our AV desk.

Whilst our master video recordings are of high quality, we also make a compressed version, so clients can quickly take away the video files at the end of clinic, not having to wait for large file transfers.

We offer a secure live video web-streaming service, so clients can watch the focus groups remotely.

And for projects which involve drive tests, we provide professional grade in-car mini cameras and microphones. In addition, we provide a unique live-link service from the moving vehicles so clients in the viewing room can watch the drive test as it happens.

Contact us for more information of our car clinic filming and AV service.

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Filming and AV for Car Clinics

Filming and AV for Car Clinics

Irwin Video specialise in providing car clinic AV and focus group filming. We have provided car clinic AV support for many different market research companies. We work on automotive research projects in the UK and for multi-market projects around the world.

Filming Services & AV for Car Clinics:

  • Operated or Static Camera HD Filming of focus groups and depth interviews
  • Secure wireless mobile filming, useful for filming around vehicles in a car clinic setting
  • High quality radio microphones for all respondents and moderator
  • Audio / Video link to Clients Viewing area: Large screen HD TV monitors and multi-channel digital wireless headphones
  • Simultaneous interpretation equipment for projects requiring live translation
  • High quality MP4 video recordings and MP3 audio recordings delivered on site
  • Professional grade in-car mini cameras
  • High specification HD TVs and projection systems for displaying stimulus
  • Secure, low cost video web streaming

Car Clinic Filming

Car clinic filming

Car clinic filming

Irwin Video specialise in providing car clinic AV and focus group filming. We have provided car clinic AV support for many different market research companies. We work on automotive research projects in the UK and for multi-market projects around the world.

Our car clinic AV technique involves focus group filming, including wireless mobile filming for when the respondents are required to discuss whilst walking around vehicles. Filming can be either single or multi-camera and we include radio microphones for all respondents to achieve great sound quality. At the end of the event, we provide high quality MP4 video recordings for the research team and clients to take away on USB pen drives.

HD video link

HD video link and digital wireless headphones in the viewing room

Video Links & Web Streaming for Car Clinics

More often than not, researchers and clients will want to watch the focus groups from a client viewing room. For this we provide a HD video link to a large LED TV or HD projector. Clients listen in to the discussion using our digital wireless headphones. If simultaneous interpretation is required, we provide the necessary equipment to facilitate this. Viewers can then select the appropriate channel on their headsets to listen to either the local language or the interpreter.

We can also provide secure live video web streaming from car clinics so clients can log-in and watch remotely. See Web Stream Your Research.

Drive-Test Filming

For car clinic AV projects that require dynamic evaluation, we install high quality dash mounted cameras and microphones. We even have the technology to be able to live web stream the drive so clients can watch from the comfort of a client viewing room or indeed their own office/home. See Live video link for further information.

Large Screen Projection

For clinics that require respondents to evaluate 2D images of vehicles, we can supply and install a large screen video projection system.

Large screen projection for market research

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A Busy Month of Car Clinic AV

The Irwin Video crews have been very busy this month providing car clinic AV services. This weekend we have been working on two car research events, one in London and one in Düsseldorf. This totals five car clinics for us this month, including one crew flying out to work on an event in Dubai.

Car Clinic AV Services

Our car clinic AV services include:

  • Operated or Static Camera HD Filming of focus groups and depth interviews
  • Secure wireless mobile filming, useful for filming around vehicles in a car clinic setting
  • High quality radio microphones for all respondents and moderator
  • Audio / Video link to Clients Viewing area: Large screen HD TV monitors and multi-channel digital wireless headphones
  • Simultaneous interpretation equipment for projects requiring live translation
  • Professional grade in-car mini cameras
  • High quality MP4 video recordings and MP3 audio recordings delivered on site
  • High specification HD TVs and projection systems for displaying 2D stimulus
  • Secure, low cost video web streaming

Car clinics are an effective means of conducting automotive research, both quantitative and qualitative, in a controlled environment. Irwin Video have been providing car clinic AV services for over 10 years. The majority of projects that we work on are in the UK, but we have also travelled to other countries to provide AV technique for car clinics. These include France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Russia, USA, China and UAE.

Car clinic AV

Irwin Video crew Eddie and Andrew visit the Burj Khalifa during a recent project in Dubai

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Focus Group Web Streaming

Irwin Video’s low-cost focus group web streaming service has been designed specifically for market research projects. We can securely web stream your focus groups, depth interviews and vox-pops from a hotel, viewing facility, recruiter’s home or wherever you decide to conduct your research project. We can offer focus group web streaming from anywhere, even venues where there is no broadband internet or the connection speed is inadequate. Your clients can then watch the live web stream on their laptop, iPad or iPhone, from the convenience of their own office or the comfort of their own home.

Focus Group Web Streaming

Live Video Web Streaming for Market Research

On the day of the fieldwork, one of our video technicians will set-up the recording and web-streaming equipment at the venue. They will then remain on site to monitor the web stream and operate the camera, if required. After the groups/IDIs have finished, they will hand over the HD video recordings on a USB pen drive for the moderator to take away.

Web Streaming Features

  • Secure Log-in
  • HD Video and Audio
  • Viewer Chat Facility
  • Viewable on Apple devices
  • Stream from Anywhere

High Quality Picture & Sound

Irwin Video have been filming focus groups and other qualitative research projects for over ten years. We use HD video cameras, which can be either static to show a wide shot of the group, or operated for close up filming. We also use the most appropriate microphones for good quality sound pick-up. Viewers with a good internet connection will be able to watch the web stream in high quality: For those with a slower connection, the web stream will automatically drop to a lower quality to avoid buffering.

Focus Group Web Streaming

Viewer portal showing live web stream with chat facility

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Web Streaming Focus Groups from Any Location

Irwin Video have today been web streaming focus groups from Sutton Coldfield in the Midlands. The project was for London based Voodoo Research, from a hotel which couldn’t offer a sufficient broadband connection for web streaming focus groups. However, with our mobile transmission equipment we were able to deliver a high quality, uninterrupted live video stream to remote viewers.

Irwin Video have been web streaming focus groups for several years now, from many places across the UK and Europe. The recent addition of our mobile transmission equipment to our web streaming kit allows us to web stream focus groups from any location, whether that be a hotel, a shopping centre, a recruiters home or on the street. Our aim has always been to offer a high quality, low cost option for web streaming focus groups and other types of qualitative research. Now we can offer this service from any location, so the worry of whether a venue has a suitable internet connection is removed.

Focus-Group-Camera2How it all works

Our technician arrives on site on the day of the web stream to set up a compact HD video camera, several high quality microphones and the web streaming equipment. If the local broadband is not suitable, we will also install a mobile transmitter. This is a small piece of equipment, with only a tidy and compact antenna visible. The antenna is usually positioned outside or attached to the window. The transmitter works by combining multiple 3G and 4G mobile signals across all of the cellular networks. Using the high speed mobile uplink that this achieves, we are able to web stream focus groups with a high picture and audio quality. With testing, this all takes less than two hours to set up. About ten minutes before the start of the research the web stream goes live.

Mobile Web Streaming Antenna

Mobile Web Streaming Antenna

Remote viewers will then be able to log in and watch the web stream via our website, using the log-in details that we will have sent a few days earlier. Viewers can watch on ipads and iphones, as well as laptop and desktop computers. Whilst watching the web streaming focus groups, viewers have the option to use the ‘chat’ feature of the web page as a way of sending messages to other viewers.

After the focus groups have finished, the on-site technician provides the moderator with a USB pen drive containing the HD video files of the groups.

We use several mini table microphones and an audio mixer to achieve high quality sound

We use several mini table microphones and an audio mixer to achieve high quality sound

 

 

 

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Making a Research Documentary

Formal research debriefs and detailed reports have their place.  However, using video can offer a more engaging way of presenting the findings. Working with market researchers, Irwin Video make films which not only bring consumers to life, but also have the power to convey important messages to its audience more quickly and effectively.

We have recently produced a research documentary with GfK Kynetec, who were asked by one of their clients to produce a film depicting ‘a day in the life of’ a professional pest manager (PPM). The research was conducted with PPM’s in the USA.

Our two-man crew of Andrew and Matty flew out to the US to film 11 interviews across two weeks in New Jersey, Georgia and North Carolina. The filming of each respondent was in two parts: The first part was a sit down interview, conducted by Damon, the Research Director from GfK Kynetec. The second part of the filming involved following the respondent around their workplace or going about their duty in clients’ homes.

'A day in the life' research documentary

For the interview part, the video crew used a portable lighting kit to nicely illuminate the respondent, and set up a fixed boom microphone for good quality audio pick up. Andrew filmed the interviews with a Canon C100 cinema camera. Once the interview was under way, Matty left Andrew to it and used a Canon 5D DSLR camera on a portable rig to film B-Roll shots around the respondent’s office or workshop.

At the end of each filming day, Andrew transferred the interview recordings to an MPEG-4 proxy file: This is a compressed recording with on-screen rolling time-code; it is an easy-to-view file which Damon could take away on a USB pen drive.

Once filming was complete we set about editing the research documentary. Referencing the on-screen time-code information, Damon could easily identify the clips that he wished to consider for inclusion in the final film. Our video editor expertly combined the interview clips with selected B-Roll footage and added music and titles to compliment the film.

We uploaded the draft versions of the film to our secure file sharing server for Damon to download and watch. On the first viewing of the research documentary Damon sent us an email exclaiming “Wow – this looks great!  Really, really impressive stuff.”

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Live Video-Link from a Moving Vehicle

For our qualitative researcher friends in the world of automotive research, you might be interested to know that we have some new equipment that allows us to provide a live video link from a moving vehicle. For car research projects with drive test evaluation, researchers and clients can sit comfortably in a central location viewing room, or indeed at their home/office, to watch the research unfold as it happens. We have successfully demonstrated the live video link at a car clinic event held in London, conducted by market research company MM-Eye.

The YouTube link below provides a demonstration of the equipment installation and a sample of the received transmission.

The transmitter uses multiple 3G & 4G mobile signals across all the cellular networks to send the high quality video stream. This means we can stream from anywhere that has sufficient mobile coverage.

Automotive Research Filming Services provided by Irwin Video

Irwin Video have been providing automotive research filming and AV services since 2005. We have worked on many car clinic events held in the UK, as well as Europe, China and the USA.  We supply the camera equipment and crews to film focus groups and we set up video links so clients can watch the groups from a viewing room.

In most cases, filming focus groups discussing cars involves following the respondents in and around prototype and reference vehicles, so we need to supply cameras with mobile capability. To do this safely and securely, we fit a HD video transmitter to our camera which sends an encrypted wireless video signal to the viewing room. We also fit radio microphones to the respondents to achieve high quality audio pick-up.

Clients and researchers in the viewing room watch the discussion groups on a large screen and listen using digital wireless headphones. In addition to recording focus groups and providing an AV relay, Irwin Video also provide the following:

  • Simultaneous interpretation equipment for projects requiring a translator
  • Video clip editing
  • Ethnographic interview filming
  • Live video web-streaming
  • In-car cameras for drive test evaluation
  • Full HD video projection to display ‘full size’ vehicles on a large projector screen
  • LCD / Plasma / LED TVs to display stimulus
  • High-spec laptops
  • MP3 recorders
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Translation Equipment for Research Projects

In addition to our usual filming for research services, Irwin Video also provide translation equipment, including interpreters consoles and multi-channel delegate headsets.  A recent car-clinic event in France gave us a chance to unveil our new simultaneous interpretation console, which will only enhance our reputation for providing interpreters with good quality sound.

Whilst the majority of our research filming services are for projects in the UK, we have worked on many overseas projects requiring simultaneous interpretation, in countries including France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and China.  Occasionally, research projects in the UK also require translation equipment when respondents are flown in from abroad, or when clients from overseas would like to listen to simultaneous interpretation of the focus groups in their native language.

Irwin Video provide professional grade microphones, William Sound IC-2 Interpreters Consoles and William Sound Digiwave wireless headsets. The Digiwave system can accommodate up to 14 channels of audio. Using our wireless digital audio headsets, clients and researchers watching in the viewing room can choose to listen to the live sound in the local language or alternatively listen to the simultaneous interpretation.

Whether you require translation equipment for a research project or simultaneous interpretation equipment for any other type of event, please do not hesitate to contact us if you require any further information or a quotation.

 

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Another Consumer Insight Film Produced

Qualitative research specialists Stratosphere recently commissioned Irwin Video to create a consumer insight film for a leading UK home and garden accessories supplier. The research involved video recording in-home and in-store one-on-one interviews over three days in the North-West of England, and the footage was edited into a highly engaging 15-minute film. Remarking on the completed film, Steve Williams of Stratosphere said, “I think this is absolutely brilliant. I am really chuffed with how this has turned out. Based on this, I plan to offer filming as often as possible on future jobs!”

Qualitative research specialists Stratosphere recently commissioned Irwin Video to create a consumer insight film for a leading UK home and garden accessories supplier. The research involved video recording in-home and in-store one-on-one interviews over three days in the North-West of England, and the footage was edited into a highly engaging 15-minute film. Remarking on the completed film, Steve Williams of Stratosphere said, “I think this is absolutely brilliant. I am really chuffed with how this has turned out. Based on this, I plan to offer filming as often as possible on future jobs!” Irwin Video have completed many consumer insight films and have streamlined the film-making process:

  1. At the end of each filming day, we hand over a USB pen drive to the researcher, which contains a “proxy” copy of all the interview recordings. These files are highly compressed to make the file sizes manageable and can be played in any media player, including Windows, QuickTime or VLC. The files also have time-code “burnt” into the video – a rolling clock on-screen making it easy for the researcher to reference the recordings.
  2. The researcher selects the clips they would like to use by entering the in-point and out-point time-codes of each comment into an Excel spreadsheet (template provided by us.)
  3. Editing with the original high definition video recordings, we use the Excel clipping list to create the required clips and then we upload them to our secure server. The researcher can download the clips and select which ones they would like in the final edit.
  4. We sequence the clips, adding text, graphics and creativity as required, to produce a draft edit of the film.  Once again, the film is made available as a download to our clients so they can quickly offer feedback and request ‘tweaks’ before the final version is encoded in a high quality video format.