Dreamtek - Looking back at 2016

At Dreamtek we like a challenge! And 2016 has certainly brought us some amazing challenges.

The year has not failed to keep us busy, we have really enjoyed ourselves and have met and worked with some amazing people and clients along the way. 

So we thought we would look back on 2016 and some of our biggest achievements.

Product Launch

We kick started the year with our Professional Services team launching our new product, the BroadcastPod+ at Credit Suisse in Zurich, Switzerland. It was a new and exciting experience for all of us, including the client! 

The Broadcastpod+ is a fully automated, self-contained broadcast environment with easy touch screen technology and recording software. The Broadcastpod+ boasts a Full HD, Pan/Tilt/Zoom camera, green screen, teleprompter and can be administered or supported remotely from anywhere in the world. It is totally self-contained, with its own “silent” air conditioning unit too, with an amazing 5 decibel noise volume.

Drone Flying in the Arabian Gulf

Our creative producer Neil Frank had a brilliant opportunity to film over the Arabian Gulf for shipping firm ZMI. Due to the nature of the client’s business and filming requirements, the team used a drone to film vessels as they were being delivered to the end client, this was a great experience and we learnt so much from this about drone filming and also filming in extreme weather conditions.

Exhibiting at Olympia

We exhibited at the Learning Technologies show at Olympia, London. Learning Technologies is co-located with Learning & Skills, and is Europe’s leading showcase of organisational learning and the technology used to support learning at work.

Dreamtek showcased ‘The Dreamtek Academy’ (our apprenticeship scheme); Introducing young, creative talent to come through the AV and Video Production Industry. We offer our customers the opportunity to engage with enthusiastic young people who want to grow, learn and excel in their field.

“Dreamtek love exhibiting at the Learning Technologies show every year, it’s a great show, very well attended and event organisers – Closer Media do a great job of running an excellent conference. Dreamtek’s production team were very proud to film the show and conference again this year with help from our Dreamtek Academy apprentices. We look forward to exhibiting and filming again in 2017’ said Hannah Massam. The Centre Manager of the Dreamtek Academy.

West Coast Expansion

Dreamtek and our sister company The Virtual Forge were proud to announce an expansion programme on the West Coast of America by opening a new office in Silicon Valley. In addition to opening an office in Menlo Park, California, the Company expanded its US Management Team and welcomed Steve Owen to the Dreamtek and Virtual Forge family as Director of Operations for the Pacific Region.

Dreamtek and The Virtual Forge have created a strong presence in the US, since 2014 when it was started by Victoria Neeson, CEO. With business in the US consistently accelerating, Dreamtek and The Virtual Forge continue to investigate additional expansion to build out their presence in the region.

Hola Desde Portugal

By March the year was shaping up to be an amazing growth year for Dreamtek and The Virtual Forge. After establishing new offices located right in the heart of Lisbon in March 2015. We very rapidly realised that we needed to move to bigger premises due to our amazing success and future plans.

“Setting up in Lisbon has proven to be an excellent decision that we are so happy with. Lisbon and Portugal is proving to be a hot bed for progressive software and web development and it’s a fun place to be.”                   Said Garrett Doyle, Director and Co-Founder of Dreamtek and The Virtual Forge.

National Apprenticeship Week

Dreamtek supported the National Apprenticeship Week which is co-ordinated by the National Apprenticeship Service and is designed to celebrate apprenticeships and traineeships and the positive impact they have on individuals, businesses and the wider economy.

We were proud to support this and to show our support we asked our team of apprentices from ‘The Dreamtek Academy’ to create a video showing what an apprentice means to them, you can view our video here:

Google Hangouts Series

Dreamtek loved running a series of Google Hangouts about Dreamtek’s services and how they can be used in educational situations. This took place over 4 months with each one lasting 30 minutes and they were presented by some of our amazing Dreamtek team.

Social Broadcasting: Building your content strategy for learning, where they discussed

• Options when building a learning content strategy covering virtual classrooms
• Explainer videos
• Long form training
• Benefits of both internally produced and agency created video

Portals for LMS: Bringing Learning to the Learner

• What a learning portal is, how it can help you engage and what this means to the end user.
• How can you use a portal to make your presence felt?
• How can you use a portal to share all types of micro, social and integrated learning?

AWS: Managing Learning in the Cloud

• Global learning requires global solutions – sometimes those solutions are practical – how can I reach people around the world simply and quickly?
• Sometimes they are commercial – how can I do it most cost-effectively?
• What Amazon Web Services offers, how it can help distribute learning and how this can save you money?

BroadcastPod

• A studio solution for small spaces

Learning Technologies summer forum 2016

Speaking at the Learning Technologies Summer forum 2016, Matt Wicks, CEO of The Virtual Forge, presented Amazon web services as the future of global learning technologies. Dreamtek and The Virtual Forge have partnered with Amazon Web Services, in order to push innovative, future proofed cloud solutions.

• The seminar discussed the benefits of Amazon eb services, in relation to global learning,
• It explored how the Amazon cloud platform could provide innovative solutions, both practical and commercial, for the global distribution of learning,
• How the use of this platform can create a strong, low-cost infrastructure, for the business model of the future.

Dreamtek and The Virtual Forge provide digital solutions for both corporate and creative companies, and are a certified consulting partner for Amazon Web Services. This partnership enables users to benefit from the security, reliability and flexibility of one of the world leading cloud service providers; a service that lets you choose your own operating system and only pay for what you use.

Why not have a look at some advertising videos that we have created over the last year too.

Zakher Marine International

We paired up with Zakher Marine International who provide services to the Offshore Oil and Gas Industries and Offshore Marine Construction Companies to film an amazing advertising campaign.

AM Sport – Athelete training

We paired up with AM Sport and Reebok to create this intense master piece! Thankfully none of the camera crew were hurt, we're not sure about how the athletes felt though...all fun and games for the love of sport!

Shortlist Craig David

Oh we did it again! The Dreamteam produced another video with Shortlist, and it was with yet another legend! CRAIG DAVID! Watch the whole video...it's definitely worth it.

Dreamtek can help you and your company in more ways than you can imagine, whether it’s video production, event filming, TV Commercial, webcast or complete production, edit & delivery solution we can help.

Here at Dreamtek we are proud of our brand and reputation and we hope that you are too. We have had an amazing year and we hope you have enjoyed it with us. We would like to say a huge thank you to all our staff, customers and families whom without them we would never have been able to make this all happen.