Success with Production Studio!

[Ray_Harwood]

Jonathan Scott (@jonathanscott) joined me along with panelists Denise Lahat (@DeniseLahat)  and Anissa Barton-Thompson (@anissat) the day after Jonathan's 3-day Language Show 2023 ended.  During the interview, Jonathan recounted his experience planning and executing with Zoom Events, including how his "Cry For Help" post in Denise’s Zoom Events Pros Facebook group ultimately got him the help he needed.

This interview was conducted in a Zoom Sessions Webinar, and the video was directly generated out of Production Studio!  This was my first time using the Production Studio in a production session since the general availability roll-out (I was part of the beta testing group), and I was pleased with the results. About two-thirds of the way through, Jonathan attempted to screen share an email he received, and for some reason I couldn't get Production Studio to bring it into the scene which I attribute to "operator error," but other than that, I didn't have any problems managing Production Studio while also participating in the interview.

https://vimeo.com/884133697

[bstrelko]

Production Studio is definitely a step in the right direction (albeit a few years too late)!

Let's hope that Zoom's dev team continues to refine the product.

As of now, the target userbase is extremely narrow - Production Studio is too complex or provides unnecessary customization/configuration (and requires expensive licensing) for most users without production/broadcast experience, but at the same time, no professional in production/broadcast would touch it with a 10-foot pole due to its lack of features and flexibility required for a true broadcast.

Unfortunately, this means a very small subset of users will adopt Production Studio. Less users = less development.

Wins:

-Demonstrates that Zoom has at least some interest in the far-end experience of a produced event

-Leaps and bounds beyond manual spotlighting

-Plenty of great pre-defined layouts to choose from

-First instance of cropped aspect ratios in Zoom (not desired by me, but good to have the flexibility!)

-Preview and Program busses

Major gripes:

-All layouts must be built before the show and cannot be built/changed on the fly

-No backstage audio channel for off-air communication with panelists

-Switching lags

-Lack of flexible iso recording options for post-production

-Minor bugs with stability

-Lack of full support for Zoom Rooms, which are regularly used in large productions

-Missing designated tools for video playback, content pools, slide control, etc.

-Requires Zoom Events license

Personally, I'll stick with OBS / vMix / ZoomISO , while most non-production folks will stick to standard Webinars (potentially using branding or backstage if really going wild). Not sure where this product fits in. 

Thanks for sharing your experience (and finished recording!), @Ray_Harwood - would love to hear what other users here think of Production Studio thus far!

[Ray_Harwood]

@bstrelko, your points are essentially correct, but I think you’re missing some essential facts relating to Production Studio. 

First, it’s included in Zoom Events. This means it’s not available without a Zoom Events license, which is not expensive when using Pay Per Attendee (PPA) licensing of Zoom Events. If you have Zoom Events, there is no additional charge for Production Studio. 

Next, this is not designed to take the place of high-end, expensive production systems used to feed Zoom with TV-quality video and imagery. It is positioned solely as a way for any Zoom Events Host to level up their video production without any additional hardware or software. Production Studio runs entirely within the Zoom Desktop Client. 

Thirdly, you are correct in your inference that any Event Host wanting to use this needs some training, but it is not so complex that any experienced Webinar Host can’t learn it in a few coaching sessions – and certainly way less training than taking them directly into a “professional in production/broadcast” role with OBS, vMix, ATEM, and a BlackMagic equipped camera crew. 

Lastly, Production Studio has only been in General Availability since August 2023. It’s not perfect yet. But professional-AV level expectations will never be the target for it. 

[bstrelko]

All good points, Ray.

Still curious how large of an audience this actually hits for - many users could care less about the overall 'show' look of a Zoom Webinar and won't want to be bothered with the extra config, while those who do care won't tolerate the inherent lag, dropped frames when switching, lack of on-the-fly flexibility, etc. I have met very few 'webinar hosts' who don't fall into one of those two buckets.

Seems like a hefty development effort for such a small group of adopters, but I don't have the numbers! Would be great to know how many orgs have been actively using this feature.

Glad it's working out for you!!