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.

Today’s government departments and agencies are faced with increasing demands for efficient citizen services, legislative requirements and public safety concerns.  With limited budgets available, how can they better leverage thier existing video technologies to address these challenges?

Consider how an organization can use existing video conferencing investments in new ways. When combined with the the right infrastructure, video conferencing solutions can be used to reach hundreds or even thousands of viewers to create quality recordings and webcasts to streamline the communications around training, one-to-many messages, and knowledge management initiatives. 

Of course, the technology needs to be easy and affordable. I recommend looking into the Polycom RealPresence Capture Server. It complements video conferencing investments with simple self-service workflows - there’s no video production expertise required. End users are empowered to capture what they know, and share those insights with others, creating a more connected and informed organization.

For government departments and agencies, here are the top 5 benefits for using capture-server technology to create great video assets and webcasts:

1. Extending access of information to citizens and employees - when and where they need it. Capture Server offers government organizations a new way to improve services, organize and deliver information anytime, anyplace, any device. One-to-many communications can be made available through webcasting and recorded video archives that are accessible through a browser.   
2. Integration with voice, videoconferencing, and Microsoft Skype for Business for real-time and on-demand content. Justice organizations improve public safety, decrease operational and capital costs and improve training by leveraging a complete unified collaborative communications solution in new ways. Thus, creating high return on investment. 
3. Improved communications such as training, which helps organizations to be better informed, especially during times of emergency. Capture server technology improves public services, increases departmental efficiency, emergency responsiveness, and promotes inter-agency collaboration.
4. Easy-to-use browser-based solutions. Now anyone in the organization can create, share, stream and view videos with simple self-service workflows.   
5. Files are secure  – Capture Server can help governmental organizations archive national defense, internal security, border security and other national security issues in a secure archive.