G20 Leaders Summit
Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, 15-16 November 2022.
CASE STUDY
Congress supports the G20 Indonesia Leaders Summit
Background:
The G20 Bali Summit was held in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, on the 15th-16th of November 2022 under the theme ‘Recover Together, Recover Stronger’. The summit was joined by delegations from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Republic of Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union.
It provided the opportunity for world leaders to meet in person and focus on this year’s three key priorities: global health architecture, digital transformations, and sustainable energy transitions.
Discussions centred around many different topics, including:
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The war in Ukraine and its impact on the global economy
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Challenges to agriculture
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Supply chains and food security
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Global demand for energy supplies being met with affordable prices
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Reaffirming and strengthening the Paris Agreement on climate change
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Funding for future pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response
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Reaffirming commitments to global health governance
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Encouraging international collaboration to develop digital skills and literacy for the digital transformation of the world economy
G20 Bali Leaders’ made the following joint declaration “We recognized, as large global economies, that collectively we carry responsibilities and that our cooperation was necessary to global economic recovery, to tackle global challenges, and lay a foundation for strong, sustainable, balanced, and inclusive growth”.
Participating world leaders included:
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Alberto Fernández, President of Argentina
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Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister of Australia
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Carlos Alberto França, Foreign Minister of Brazil
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Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada
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Xi Jinping, President of China
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Emmanuel Macron, President of France
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Olaf Scholz, Chancellor of Germany
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Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India
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Joko Widodo, President of Indonesia, and Host
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Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister of Italy
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Fumio Kishida, Prime Minister of Japan
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Marcelo Ebrard, Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico
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Sergei Lavrov, Foreign Minister of Russia
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Mohammad bin Salman, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia
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Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa
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Yoon Suk-yeol, President of South Korea
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Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President of Turkey
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Rishi Sunak, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
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Joe Biden, President of the United States
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Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission
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Charles Michel, President of the European Council
In addition, there were many more guest countries and international organisations.
Our solution:
For the meeting, the client needed one fully integrated system to capture audio and video of the delegates, as well as provide 17 channels of simultaneous interpretation so that each delegate could participate in the meeting in their own language, using their own interpreters.
For microphones, we used Bosch DCNM-MMD2 Dicentis Multimedia Devices equipped with conference-style, long microphone stems. This is Bosch’s most premium conferencing system for delivering high-performance, secure, latency-free audio. They were also pre-programmed with a graphic to display the Indonesian presidency’s G20 branding.
For cameras, we used Avonic CM70-IP-B PTZ Cameras. They are high-quality PTZ cameras known for their ability to deliver in low-light conditions with their user-adjustable colour matrix. We pre-programmed them according to the seating arrangements, and they automatically panned to the active speaker upon activating their microphone. The meeting was captured in Full HD 1080p60 video.
Interpreters worked in our Audipack Silent 9300 Soundproof Interpreter Booths. Having been in the interpretation business for over 20 years, we consider these the best you can get. They are fully ISO 4043:2016 compliant for proper sound insulation.
Inside the booths, Interpreters worked using Bosch DCN-IDESK Interpreter Desks. These are reliable and intuitive. They conform to ISO 20109:2016, the internationally agreed standard for interpreting equipment and easily integrate with our microphones.
For Leaders, the languages were provided through the conference microphone ISO 20108:2017, ensuring there was no possibility of feedback. We used the Bosch Integrus Infrared language distribution system to distribute the language feeds to delegates. We sent our audio through the transmitter to our truss-mounted radiators, which beamed a strong, secure infrared signal throughout the room. Delegates tuned in using lightweight receivers with headphones and with a button on the side could easily toggle between channels 0 to 17. A small card came along with each receiver to indicate their preferred language channel.
Besides the key equipment, we used various hardware and software to integrate the system, manage cameras, queue microphones, and ensure clean, stable audio/video feeds.
With this setup, the delegates were able to communicate seamlessly in Indonesian, English, Russian, Hindi, Chinese, German, Spanish (ARG), Spanish (MEX), French (EU), French (FRA), Korean, Japanese, Arabic (SAU), Italian, Turkish, Khmer, and Arabic (UAE).
Setting up:
The main summit took place in the Candi Ballroom at The Apurva Kempinski Bali. To prepare for the setup, we studied the floorplans and created a custom schematic to ensure our cameras and microphones worked best in the client’s desired placement.
We carefully considered the best places to truss mount our radiators to ensure 100% coverage, even when security from various countries brought in jamming equipment.
Once all the cabling and equipment were set up, there were two days of rigorous technical checks to ensure the robustness of our setup.
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“We were able to begin running cable from the 31st of October and setting up equipment from the 3rd of November. Even though the summit was just the 15th-16th, most of our time was spent setting up and testing”.
- Paula Luciana, Event Producer
Client's concerns:
The predominant concern from our client was that they got the highest quality equipment and audio. We supported many lead-up meetings (G20 Sherpa, Finance Ministers, and Central Bank Deputies, among others). During these meetings, the client was able to get to understand the performance of our equipment and experience the audio quality.
At one meeting early in the year, with two concurrent high-level sessions, one room was provided by Congress and the other by an alternative supplier. The end client was able to see the stark contrast between the quality of equipment, audio quality and video quality, as well as the knowledge and capability of staff, such that delegates in the 2nd room questioned why they did not also get the same equipment as was in the Congress room.
After comparing the alternatives, it was clear to decision makers who the preferred company was to support the leaders’ summit.
1st Finance and Central Bank Governors Meeting
17-18 February 2022
Foreign Ministers' Meeting
7-8 July 2022
3rd Finance and Central Bank Deputies Meeting
13-14 July 2022
The venue has large windows overlooking the beach/sea. These windows let in a lot of light, and the client was worried that excessive light pollution would produce an overexposed visual output.
We had initially planned to adjust our cameras to mitigate the problem, through prior on-site testing and checking, but in the end the client decided to shut all the windows with blinds.
We therefore adjusted our cameras for a lower light setting. The final vision was clear and crisp.
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"Over our years of experience in this industry, we have supported plenty of high-level meetings using similar setups. We know what works and doesn’t, so we knew how to create the most fitting system to meet G20 requirements”.
- Lucas Flood, Technical Producer
Unique challenges:
With an event of this scale, the allocation and scheduling of equipment to be brought in started weeks out from event day. The required equipment was sourced from each of three warehouses in Indonesia, Singapore, and Australia, all while supporting other ongoing jobs. Bringing it into the venue was a slow build, with the first cables being laid 15 days before the summit.
The technical producers flew in from these three locations to support the event. The planning, although extensive, had to remain flexible enough to accommodate last-minute changes.
“We learned from the preliminary G20 meetings leading up to the leaders’ summit that there were bound to be last-minute changes, so we expected them. When they came, we were prepared and had extra equipment on hand to fulfil any additional needs.”
- Azren Asbori, Technical Producer
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PLANNING
COMPLEXITY
In the ballroom, we provided 17 simultaneous language channels made for participating Leaders, Delegates and distributed to the press in the room. Each world leader and invited guest had a conference microphone to speak into and a PTZ camera nearby, pre-programmed to pan to the active speaker's microphone automatically.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine called into the meeting via Webex and brought an English to Ukrainian Interpreter who also joined virtually. To accommodate this, we added some hybrid integrations and an additional layer of language integration to the meeting.
Due to the venue's layout, the room where we hosted the interpreters in soundproof booths and equipment was two floors away from the main ballroom itself. Giving the interpreters' live audio and vision of the ballroom required extensive cabling and organisation.
There is always a massive security overlay for a high-level event such as this one. This meant that movement and access to certain rooms were tightly controlled.
We planned to be set up and ready days prior because we knew that the venue would be locked down two days before the event and wouldn’t be able to make any additional changes to the setup.
Various countries also brought signal-jamming equipment, which can potentially interrupt the event. From our experience with other high-level leaders’ events, we had the skills to ensure our signals would remain uninterrupted.
SECURITY
How we overcame challenges:
We had a team of trained technical producers from our Indonesia, Australia, and Singapore offices for this job. Our daily and direct communication was vital to integrating the teams.
There were also critical benefits to having teams from each region work together. It provided each other with unique perspectives and collaborative solutions to any issues that needed to be resolved.
“With all three teams working together, we can share knowledge, and everyone returns with something valuable after the job is finished. This internal learning elevates our standard and drives us further in this industry.”
- Azren Asbori, Technical Producer
“The diverse cultural backgrounds of our team, as well as our experience with event production in many different countries, give us an edge.”
- Oliver Langbein, Technical Producer
