Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp: These media were used by almost all participants of the youth convention and many of those who stayed at home during the IYC to inform themselves and others about what was going on. Who puts texts, pictures and videos online?

Heike Stiegler is leading the editorial department Social Media; she works on the intermediate storey of Hall 6. “Bishop Peter Johanning (the spokesman of our church) asked me long before the IYC if I would feel like doing it.” She did. Since she has been working in a similar position at Bayrischer Rundfunk (Bavarian radio broadcasting), she is well equipped for her task. Many elements have to come together so that she can put the video clips online.

Film teams

In the next room, four camera teams are working under the direction of Ingo Fucking; another team lead by Gerhard Grapp is responsible for live streams and spontaneous videos. Gerhard explains what the challenges are: “I am depending on the material that is brought to me from the respective hall. Before taking care of the transmission quality, they need to make sure that the sound quality in the hall is sufficient.” The chats to the live streams also require intensive supervision. The spectators are commenting the live streams - and are expecting answers from the team. That is what social media is about, we want to come into contact with the recipients. “Usually, we do not delete comments, but we are keeping an eye on so-called ‘trolls‘ - users who are deliberately posting many negative comments,” Heike says. “They can completely turn the mood in a live chat around. We decide our course of action depending on the situation.” Despite such challenges and 14-hour work days Heike loves her IYC job: “I like life in a constant network, it is where 1:1 communication is working. We wouldn’t be able to do it without the fantastic support from the team. We have formed a really good group; I am very happy about that!”

Technicians and cutters

The technicians and cutters are working in another corner of Hall 6. The signals from the event halls - distributed via a fibreglass network that extends over the whole exhibition site - are coming together in the broadcasting team’s room. From here, videos - sometimes including simultaneous interpretation - are sent on their journey to YouTube and Facebook. At the cutting stations, cutters and editors create films from the delivered sound and video material of the video teams and broadcasting vehicles. These films could later be watched on the YouTube channel or on Facebook.

Broadcasting teams

Audio and video material for the participants in the halls are mixed at a station in the respective hall. Audio and video material of transmitted events, however, are usually mixed in the broadcasting vehicles. This work is done by the broadcasting team of the Bischoff Verlag, in addition to external providers and teams of the district churches. I found the broadcasting vehicle of the Bischoff Verlag behind Hall 8b. “We are exclusively working on broadcasting of music events from Hall 8b,” Jörg Idler explains to me. “Events such as the Jazz Night or the singing contest ‘Show Your Talent‘ are mixed by us and then fed into the exhibition network for live transmission.” Heike and her colleagues then send this signal into the World Wide Web.

And how do they include simultaneous interpretation? The colleagues from the broadcasting vehicle point towards a small blue FM receiver. With this device, they can receive twelve languages on the exhibition site. The corresponding transmitter and transmitter mast are behind Hall 6. On the gallery of this hall are booths for the interpreters. Original audio track and simultaneous interpretation were mixed here on a mobile console.