Client: U.S. Department of State (Biden Administration)
Agency: Freeman
When President Biden envisioned the first Summit for Democracy, the goal was ambitious: convene 100+ world leaders from 85+ countries across 22 time zones for a multi-day dialogue on strengthening democratic institutions worldwide. The U.S. State Department needed this complex diplomatic event produced virtually with broadcast-quality standards, absolute security, and diplomatic protocols intact.
The timeline was aggressive: 3 months to plan, 9 days to set up on-site.
The Challenge
This wasn’t a typical virtual conference. Every participating world leader would join remotely from their home country, each with vastly different technical capabilities. Some with full broadcast studios and others with just laptop webcams. The production needed to feel like a coordinated global broadcast, not a video call, while maintaining the diplomatic gravitas befitting heads of state.
Historically, events of this nature relied on platforms like Zoom, where all participants joined a single virtual room with relatively open mute/unmute controls. That approach wouldn’t work here. We needed broadcast-level control over every audio and video source, the ability to manage diplomatic protocol in real-time, and failsafe communication with every delegation.
Beyond the remote complexity, we also needed to build physical production infrastructure in Washington, D.C. to support U.S. participation and coordination.
Our Solution
Freeman designed and executed the complete production architecture, both physical and virtual.
Physical Infrastructure:
- 4 production sets in the South Court Auditorium Presidential Studio at the White House
- 3 additional studios at the Washington D.C. Convention Center
- 3 master control rooms coordinating all content
Virtual Production Platform: We built a customized broadcast platform that gave us true production control:
- 216 embedded streams managed through our system
- Audio mix-minus for every delegation feed with interrupt capability
- Program audio ducking to IFB when production needed to communicate
- Visual tally system with “Up Next,” “Live,” and “Welcome, be right with you” cues
- Two parallel control rooms feeding master control, alternating throughout the multi-day broadcast
GXP’s Role: Broadcast Producer for Remote Delegations
I led the team responsible for bringing 100+ world leaders into the broadcast seamlessly. This meant:
Pre-Show Coordination:
Scheduling and executing technical checks with every participating country and speaker. Each delegation had different setups where some had professional broadcast teams, others were working from basic setups. We worked with interpreters when needed and ensured every technical configuration could integrate into our platform.
Show Production:
Every world leader received a personalized production greeting and had a direct IFB (interruptible foldback) audio connection to our team throughout their participation. This allowed us to communicate timing, cues, and transitions without disrupting the broadcast. Our visual tally system gave them clear, non-verbal indicators of their status in the program.
The result was a system that functioned like a traditional TV broadcast—our production team maintained complete control over video switching and audio mixing—but operated across 85+ countries simultaneously.
The Scale
Our 165-person production crew managed:
- 200+ cameras (on-site and remote webcams)
- 548 inputs and 1,132 outputs across the platform
- Live streaming to YouTube for public viewing
- Multiple concurrent sessions across multiple days
- Real-time coordination across 22 time zones
The Impact
The Summit for Democracy represented a new benchmark for diplomatic virtual events. By treating it as a broadcast production rather than a video conference, we gave the State Department the control and professionalism required for this level of global dialogue.
The client’s response was enthusiastic—not only for the flawless execution, but for the expertise and approach our team brought to an unprecedented challenge. The State Department immediately engaged us for Year 2, confident that we understood both the technical complexity and diplomatic sensitivity required for events of this magnitude.
