Producing Alibaba’s Investor Day

Seven days of rehearsal for two days of broadcast spanning four countries.

While the viewer sees a polished digital environment, the reality on the ground is a rigorous checklist of physical variables. Here, our team manages the analogue layer, ensuring lighting ratios and floor markers align perfectly with the digital assets generated over 1,000 kilometres away.

The Invisible Layer

Production Avenue managed the Hong Kong leg of the Alibaba Investor Day with a singular directive: seamless integration. The client required a broadcast in which the transition between presenters stationed in different countries was imperceptible to viewers. They saw a polished, unified presentation; they did not see the painted floors, the server integrations, or the behind-the-scenes work that made it happen.

The Technical Layer

A global broadcast cannot feel fragmented. Because the Hangzhou headquarters was assembling final assets, we had to function as a remote extension of their central control room.

This positioning required a level of logistical detail that ensured consistency:

• Visual Continuity: We matched camera sensors, lens heights, and angles to the millimetre. We transmitted real-time screen captures to HQ to ensure a cut from Hong Kong to New York appeared to occur in the same room.

• Environmental Control: We hired technicians to paint the studio floor and walls a specific Pantone shade, matching the global keying requirements of the central editors.

• Security Compliance: For live Q&A sessions, public cloud servers posed a compliance risk. We bypassed them entirely, integrating directly with Alibaba’s internal IT infrastructure to ensure absolute data sovereignty.

In a multi-country broadcast, close enough doesn’t cut it. These floor markings are calculated coordinates. By replicating the exact spatial geometry of the other global studios, we ensure that when the broadcast cuts from a speaker in New York to a speaker in Hong Kong, the visual language remains unbroken.

The “Cold Audience”

Technical specifications are the baseline; the volatile variable in corporate broadcasting is the human element. Having collaborated with people from all walks of life, from Fortune 500 CEOs and pop stars, we recognise that the camera lens often provokes more anxiety than a live audience.

We create a bubble of trust that allows leadership to perform...

The camera is a cold audience; it offers neither applause nor feedback. This lack of a feedback loop often causes speakers to rush or stiffen. We step in to bridge that gap. We transition from technical crew to performance coaches, guiding the speaker through the nuances of pacing and inflexion. We create a bubble of trust that allows leadership to perform, ensuring the delivery matches the gravity of the content.

The paradox of modern production is that we must build a massive industrial machine (jibs, arrays, servers) to capture a moment of intimate communication. Our job is to manage the machinery’s complexity so the speaker can focus entirely on their message.

Agility Over Protocol

Sometimes, the strategic decision is knowing when to discard the standard tools. During the Investor Day shoots, we identified a friction point between industry standards and human connection.

The hallmark of sound production is that the logistics remain invisible, leaving only the message.

The default solution for corporate video is the teleprompter. However, for one key executive, the scrolling script was stifling spontaneity, locking her gaze into a static stare. We realised that adherence to the safe technical choice was compromising the message’s authenticity.

We removed the prompter. We mounted a monitor beside the lens to display slide headers instead of a script. This shifted the dynamic from reading to presenting. The result was a performance that retained the executive’s personality while remaining factual.

The Bottom Line

If you noticed the painted floors, the server integrations, or the coaching moments, we would not have done our job. The hallmark of sound production is that the logistics remain invisible, leaving only the message.