Polycom Brings Sundance Experience to Life

[Bob Knauf (Bob Knauf)]

The Sundance Film Festival each year finds the best independent films along with incredibly talented directors and producers and brings them into the sleepy little ski town of Park City, UT.  The town of just over 7,000 expands 3-4 times that size during the Festival. 

In the middle of all the excitement and celebrity are Polycom solutions, enhancing the experience for all the movie goers. 

As a relative newbie to the Sundance Film Festival, with 2017 being my third year “to fest”, I have been lucky to experience the festival as an audience member and from behind-the-scene or I guess, screen in this case. 

2017 sets a new milestone for Polycom at Sundance.  This year, Polycom will be using multiple solutions to enhance the movie-goers experience by connecting directors, documentary subjects and others directly to the theater from locations around the world.  In some cases, when a participant is not able to make it to the Festival for various reasons such as, living in a war-torn country, under house arrest, too ill or even stuck on an island, Polycom offers the opportunity for these people to join the Q&A sessions that take place after each film. 

Remote subject LIVE from a South Pacific island joining the audience in Q&A in 2016.

Polycom will be using our integration with Microsoft Office 365 to allow participants to easily connect to various theaters in Park City.  Skype for Business and Polycom Group Series allows the remote participants a simple way to connect, literally with the click of a button.  The result is incredible audio and HD video shown on the big screen which greatly enhances the experience for the audience.

This year we are excited about all of our remotes, but Cries from Syria will test our Polycom solutions to the fullest when we bring in the subject of the doucumentary LIVE from Aleppo, Syria to interact with the audience in the theater during the Q&A session.

Keep tabs on Polycom’s and my involvement through our social channels at http://www.polycom.com/solutions/solutions-by-industry/entertainment/sundance-2017.html.  

Polycom’s own independent filmmaker and Sundance director, Jeffrey Radice, has some advice for independent filmmakers.

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