Silent House takes CrowdStrike into the XR World
When 2020 began, the plan was that the fourth annual CrowdStrike Cybersecurity Conference — Fal.Con — would once again bring together the best business and technology minds in cybersecurity, in-person. With the pandemic, the need to move to a virtual event was recognized, but for CrowdStrike going virtual was not to be merely a pivot, it wanted a game-changing virtual event.
CrowdStrike’s event producer, experiential marketing firm George P. Johnson (GPJ), brought in Silent House Productions to design the 2020 Fal.Con as an in-person event, so they looked to Silent House, led by design partner, Alex Reardon and studio design director, Vincent Richards, for a new virtual concept. Silent House suggested to GPJ and CrowdStrike the idea to move Fal.Con as a virtual event into the eXtended Reality (XR) world.
CrowdStrike, an industry-leading provider of cybersecurity services with their core Falcon platform technology, saw the potential to offer a singular event experience on the cutting-edge of both technology and the cultural moment. Delivering a world-class virtual experience, Fal.Con was a success thanks to Silent House and GPJs proper planning and preparation. PLSN asked Reardon and Richards, along with XR Studios president, Cory FitzGerald, to take us through the process of producing this XR corporate event.
Creative Development
“This was the first time we had worked with CrowdStrike,” says Reardon. “Though Silent House is known for big music tours and events, we actually do a fair number of corporate gigs as well. So, we do fully understand the idiosyncrasies and needs of the corporate world. That knowledge helped when we had to change from an in-person event to a streaming event.”
The Silent House team was tasked with bringing creative ideas, concepts and energy into the virtual realm for Fal.Con, so they showed the GPJ and CrowdStrike how moving the event into the XR world would fill this brief. “We first asked ourselves, ‘How do we still have an impact on a streaming event?’ A lot of the creative process that we had gone through with them for the in-person event was still valid,” explains Richards. “We could still use the creative already developed for the live show. That could all still be carried through into the XR setting. Now, the designs changed, but those relationships and thought process were consistent in that transition.”
XR, as explained by disguise, a technology leader in the field, uses LED screens to place performers and props in a fluid three-dimensional environment, captured in-camera without the need for post-production visual effects. In XR, a camera tracking device mounted on each camera figures out where the camera is and where it’s pointing (position, angle, and field of view). The XR system working with a game engine (like Notch, Unreal, or Unity) and powerful computers quickly draws the background scene from that point of view and then renders the resulting image onto the screens on stage. Looking from the point of view of the camera, you experience the illusion that the performers and props are actually “in” the virtual scene.
With the decision made to move the event into the XR world, the team chose to work with XR Studios in Los Angeles. The expert XR Studios’ team includes award-winning designer Cory FitzGerald, XR Studios president, and the visual visionary technologist, Stefaan “Smasher” Desmedt. The event was produced on site using XR Studios’ 70-foot-wide stage, three LED walls and an LED floor.
“We did initial demos to show everyone involved what we could do,” explains FitzGerald. “That included a walk-through in the space with the client’s corporate team and creative executives, and the George P. Johnson team. Along with Silent House, we went through the options, and what was realistic with our real-time content integrators and our partners, Silent Partner Studios, who would build the content. We looked at what would be possible with the budget and the timeframe. We were able to help facilitate how we were going to do this with what they wanted to do.” As a technology company themselves, the team from CrowdStrike quickly understood the XR technology approach and were excited by the possibilities for their event.
With decisions made and plans agreed upon, the teams from GPJ, Silent House and XR Studios moved forward. “We are a fully functioning XR studio space,” describes FitzGerald. “We have a pipeline of people, workflows and technologies that allow us to work with the teams to create the concepts, as well as facilitate the capture, edit and release the final product to either the client or direct to an online platform. As the technology and facility provider as well as advisor on the technical part of XR, we worked closely with Silent House. We advised on what things we should be handling, how they should approach the content and the space, and then Silent House worked directly with the client on the look and feel. We sat at the implementation level between the idea and the reality of show.”
Adapting to Change
One inevitable fact of corporate shows and events is that often clients want and need to make last minute changes and adjustments. This idea wasn’t too far from mind as Reardon and the Silent House team planned the XR event for Fal.Con. “Almost every corporate event does a speaker rehearsal the night before the CEO’s keynote address, and the script writers and PowerPoint people work all night making changes needed to the presentation,” says Reardon. “With this in mind, we quite quickly developed a very easy way of communicating with CrowdStrike, and we were able to speak truth to power — professionally and respectfully — about what could and could not be changed at the last minute in XR. We knew we had to give them something that they would be able to change. It was Vince’s idea to subdivide what we were designing into worlds and props. The props became portals for the CrowdStrike team to — in real-time and live — pipe in a slideshow just as they would do through a PowerPoint presentation in the real world. That enabled the client to still be part of the process, which is vital.”
“We were able to have an XR environment that we all planned out and agreed on what it was going to be and that it wouldn’t change,” notes Richards, “but we were also able to have a large part of the experience — which was filming, getting closeups, and even going to isolated shots of their slides — that they could change very rapidly. We did that for both technical and creative reasons since some of their content would need to change because of it being based upon what was happening in the world. I am glad we were able to find a way to help their needs while still delivering on a high level.”
To provide easy ways for the CrowdStrike PowerPoint presentations to be displayed in the XR world that the Silent House and XR Studios teams had conceived, they essentially created Picture-in-Picture placeholders for the presentations. “CrowdStrike brought in their PowerPoints, which were plugged right into the disguise servers at XR Studios,” says Richards. “And then the disguise servers were running Notch, which controlled the world and the cueing.” Reardon continues, “We could easily map PowerPoint slides to moving objects in X, Y and Z space. There were slide holders that would come up from behind the props, and then the presenters could move around. Because it’s XR and not a green screen, the presenter could turn to the presentation and see it.”
The CrowdStrike team for the PowerPoints worked off-site due to the pandemic, yet they could easily make updates to the PowerPoint presentation as needs dictated. The remote teams all communicated via Slack and Zoom. “Because we were portaling the PowerPoint in directly — in real-time — they could bring up their slides and make updates,” says Richards. “Even very minute things like a line weight that wasn’t reading and needed to be changed. They would be able to make those changes instantly. It worked very well.”
The Best Surprise is No Surprise
A key point to note when considering working using XR technology is the need for meticulous planning ahead of actual production. The CrowdStrike Fal.Con 2020 event would take five months of design and development, with seven days scheduled for production in the XR Studios’ facility. “The XR Studios team did two days of physical prep before we arrived on site,” says Reardon. “There was a lot of very focused thinking and preparation by everyone before we got on site, so we were all ready to go before we rolled in. In reflection, I think we were really, really fortunate to work with this particular client and GPJ, who had the vision, at one of these seminal moments in the world of production. It’s important to remember that there’s a lot more to an XR event than just putting on an event in XR. It takes planning and understanding of what it is, and what it is not.”
When working in XR, every decision in one area of the production affects every other area of the production, so a team that communicates well is paramount. GPJ, Silent House and XR Studios worked closely with key partners to achieve the right team dynamic for this ambitious project. The content, including a digital world to underscore CrowdStrikes’ messaging and branding, was created by Silent Partners Studio led by J.T. Rooney. Lighting and video support were supplied by Fuse Technical Group, and Joe Cabrerra handled lighting programming. Eighth Day Sound/Clair Global provided audio equipment, and RailCam supported robotic camera tracking. Delivery of XR content was via disguise with Notch as content engine. Entertainment Industry Response handled the Covid safety compliance and testing.
Perhaps the only surprise for the team was that the Fal.Con event was executed with no surprises. In fact, they finished production a day early. “I think that was a testament to the collaborative nature of the process,” comments Reardon. “We just blazed away and listened very carefully — not just to the client, which is what you always have to do — but we also listened to the people that we’re partnering with to make sure that we didn’t have anything explode. If there was actually any surprise, I think it was how well it went.” Richards concurs. “That was my surprise, too,” he says. “All the planning that was put in ahead of time really helped us finish early. It just goes to show the professionalism of the people we were working with that it was a very straightforward professional experience that we could plan, and the plan was executed.”
For FitzGerald and the team at XR Studios, the Fal.Con event was a perfect example of what XR can do for a corporate client. “We feel strongly that XR is a cost-effective way to do not only corporate meetings, but presentations and product displays,” says FitzGerald. “Once clients see the processes with their own eyes, it really does click and make sense how powerful this technology can be in the right situations. This event illustrated how much we can do — and how much more we could do next time. It opens your eyes to what is possible and how to better push the creativity forward on the next go round.”
The New Standard
Though they weren’t able to host Fal.Con in-person, CrowdStrike feels it was fortuitous timing that brought the company to Silent House and in to the world of XR. “The CrowdStrike brand has always been strong, edgy and distinct,” says George Kurtz, CrowdStrike co-founder and chief executive officer. “Over the years, our events have delivered some of the strongest brand experiences, and we knew we had to do something unique for our first major virtual event. Silent House Productions brought us into the limitless potential of eXtended Reality (XR) and designed a virtual event that allowed us to engage our global audience in a way no other corporate event has delivered.”
Both Richards and Reardon felt that the clients were satisfied with their first foray into the XR world. “CrowdStrike and GPJ were fantastic clients and they got it very quickly,” says Richards. “This Fal.Con event was the first major corporation to do an XR event, and it wasn’t just a successful proof of concept; it was a really good and successful event,” adds Reardon. “As George Kurtz from CrowdStrike was heading out the door,” says Reardon, “he just looked back to the studio and said, ‘The new standard met.’” That statement is a well-earned credit of success by George P. Johnson, XR Studios, and Silent House Productions.
