In 2022, I was livestreaming the Kampala World Refugee Day commemoration event on the UNHCR Uganda Facebook account. We didn’t have a professional livestreaming team, but we had to pull it off with just an iPhone. Yes, I was a Communication Associate at UNHCR Uganda, and we commemorate World Refugee Day every 20th June. World Refugee Day is an international day designated by the United Nations to honour refugees around the globe. In Uganda, the national commemoration happens on the 20th of June in a refugee-hosting district, and later, the Kampala event takes place for urban refugees and asylum seekers.
Since we are on the subject of refugees and asylum seekers, let’s clearly define who these are. Refugees are people who have fled their countries to escape conflict, violence, or persecution and have sought safety in another country. An asylum seeker is someone who is seeking international protection. Their request for refugee status or complementary protection status has yet to be processed, or they may not yet have requested asylum but intend to do so.
At the Kampala World Refugee Day commemoration event, several activities take place, such as presentations from different refugee and asylum seeker communities living in the capital city of Uganda. In the tents, we usually have different exhibitions of products made or services offered by refugees and asylum seekers. If you didn’t know, refugees are people like you and me and have skills to offer. It’s always a colourful day filled with shared joy and happiness. Most of these refugees and asylum seekers have harrowing stories of the dangerous journeys they made to seek asylum.
The livestream on this day is meant to share parts of the event online, telling the stories of hope and resilience of refugees and asylum seekers. The livestream also serves as an opportunity for people who don’t know about refugees and asylum seekers to hear their stories, develop empathy, mobilize support for them, and call for peace in their countries of origin. However, for this livestream, there were a number of technical challenges to overcome for it to be successful.
Livestreaming itself has a couple of technical procedures to follow to go live on Facebook or any other platform. Ensuring it’s on-brand adds to the technical difficulty, and using a smartphone doesn’t make it any easier. Photography and videography also follow specific rules to capture good quality pictures or videos, and harsh overhead sun is one of the difficulties to manage.
The iPhone was the camera and streaming device, the Rode mini video mic was used for audio, the power bank kept the phone charged, and the MacBook Pro was used to monitor the video feed and comments. I wore Jabra wireless headsets in my ears for sound monitoring, and in my pocket was a Wi-Fi router for the internet connection. The tripod was used to keep the phone stable, and that was the entire setup.
It’s very difficult to have good lighting in the middle of the day with the sun overhead. All I was wishing for was an ND (Neutral Density) filter for the phone camera to manage the exposure. An ND filter is a physical filter made of resin or glass that attaches to the front of your lens. It’s used to block out some of the light in your image. If certain areas are too bright for your desired camera settings, an ND filter may be the solution.
Although my knees were glowing with pain, it couldn’t match the strain in my hand holding the microphone. I was on my knees to create a shadow on the MacBook screen so that I could monitor the livestream video feed. I didn’t have a phone cage at that moment on which I could rest the microphone on a cold shoe mount. So, I had to keep my hand raised for good sound. If I had a wireless microphone, it would have saved me the pain.
In conclusion, I’ve shared with you the behind-the-scenes of the livestream setup and cleared up some myths about the definitions of keywords such as “refugee” and “asylum seeker.” Since 2021, we’ve acquired powerful video gear for office work. Personally, I’ve acquired some video gear myself, such as wireless microphones, a DJI Osmo Pocket 3, DJI Action 4, DJI Mini 4 drone, and other accessories, including the ND filters for the drone, Osmo Pocket 3, and DJI Action 4. I practice with these now, as storytelling is my passion.
We had a successful World Refugee Day commemoration event in Kampala, and I hope you learned a thing or two about field livestreaming. Today, I can set up and manage a livestream using multiple iPhones with ease, thanks to the new developments in livestreaming software. I wish to get my own hybrid camera, such as the Lumix S5ii X, along with a zoom lens and some prime lenses.
The End.
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Tukundane Yonna 
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