March 12, 2025 • 19 mins
From live sports to record-breaking events, keeping a stream alive is no easy feat. But how do the pros make it happen? In this episode, John Castillo, CEO and Creative Director of Scratch Takes, reveals the behind-the-scenes magic of live production. 🎬✨ He shares how his team overcomes technical challenges and how Dejero ensures high-quality, uninterrupted streaming–even in the most unpredictable locations.
🔗 Watch now & level up your live production game! 👇 📺 SUBSCRIBE: youtube.com/@DejeroLabs 🔍 Explore Dejero’s tech: dejero.com/industry/broadcast 📞 Book a demo & see it in action: dejero.com/contact-sales
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
So a caber toss,
It's a, it's a crazy thing.
world record attempt was to surpass 122
caber tosses in a single hour,
and the man who was trying to attemptthis was called Jason Baines.
The park had no accessible internet.
We had no way to plug in a connection.
And we knew at the same timethat this was going to be streamed
(00:25):
to a lot of people. Having a steadyconnection was absolutely important.
and I came upon Dejero,which seemed to be the perfect solution.
The event was a success.
There was no dropouts,and he broke his record.
(00:49):
Gone are the days of a handfulof traditional media giants
dominating the industry.
Content creators are behindsome of the most innovative
and engaging audio, videoand live performances.
Welcome to Critical Connections, a podcastthat features the people and companies
helping to make our communitiesconnected, informed and safe.
(01:10):
I’m Ivy Cuervo with Dejero.
Joining me today is John Castillo.
He's the CEO and Creative Directorat Scratch Takes.
That's a Montreal production companythat offers a number of services,
from live streaming to sport capture,podcast production and more.
Welcome, John. Hi.
Thanks for having me. John,you wear many hats.
(01:30):
You're a Filmmaker, Live StreamProducer, Technical Director,
Educator, teaching music productionand technology at York University.
What sparked your passionfor all things media?
It all started when I was in high school,and I was trying to decide what it is
that I wanted to do with my life,
with my career.
I was a musician, I loved music,I still am a musician.
(01:54):
And when I was sort of deciding
what I wanted to pursue in the future,I was talking to my mom about this.
And I wanted to find somethingthat combined
both of my passions,which was music and science.
at the time, there was this thing callediTunes University, where you could look up
different lectures from Universities anddifferent parts of the world.
(02:14):
And I stumbled on this lectureby one of my future professors
called Martha de Francisco,and she was talking about acoustics,
She talked about acoustics in a concerthall, how instruments project,
and I just was so fascinated by thisthat I decided to look up
more about this program.
And that's when I sort of came upon
(02:34):
the world of audio engineering.That's very cool.
So, talk to us, then about Scratch Takes.
You’ve founded the company in 2016.
Take us back to that time and tell mewhat inspired you to start this company?
I started Scratch Takesin the middle of my Masters
when I was doing the Masters inSound recording at McGill University,
(02:54):
and at the time, I was full in on audioengineering.
I was recording a lot of orchestras,a lot of jazz bands,
a lot of rock bands, you name it.
I was getting as many musiciansas I could into the studio,
and what I noticed was thata lot of the musicians were focusing
a lot on the the album recording,which is extremely important,
(03:15):
but in this day and age that we livein, video
production is is also vital.
I mean, we're doing a video podcastright now just to showcase the importance
of video, even for somethingthat is primarily, distributed by audio.
And so I decided, what can I do in order
to help these artistsgo further with their time in the studio?
(03:39):
At the same time I
was I started learning a little bitabout live streaming at the university.
I became one of the webcast technicians,
and so I started to learnhow to use cameras,
how to interconnect both of these worlds,the audio and the video world.
And I decided to bringthat knowledge into the studio.
So just bring like two cameras
record the same way we would an album,but with two cameras in the studio
(04:01):
that are just sort of capturingbehind the scenes
at the end of the session, we haveall the raw takes from the recording
as well as all the video recording.
And I decided, well,
you know what these are called,these are called scratch takes.
It's like the first take that you dois called the scratch take
before you edit itall together and create an album mix.
And so I decided to lean into thata little bit
(04:22):
and say, okay, well, here we go.
Scratch Takes.
And the purpose of it was really to helpartists get a little bit
more content, get a little bitmore out of their studio time.
That's interesting.
So let's fast forward now to 2021.
This is the first time you connectwith Dejero,
but it's for an interesting eventthat perhaps some people haven't heard of.
(04:44):
It's called the Montreal Highland Games.
So before we kind of get into the deepof it, explain what it is and talk to us
about this incredible opportunitythat presented itself.
the Highland games in general,are a celebration of Scottish culture.
So that's, you know, Scottish music,dress, dance, and in particular
a big aspect of the Highland Games is the
(05:05):
the Highland Sports,
and there's a lot of sportsthat are involved.
I think the major ones are the tug of warand the caber costs.
And this was in the middle of Covid 2021, in Quebec.
In Montreal, peoplecould not group together at this time.
So we had this challenge of tryingto bring people together remotely.
(05:27):
the proposal was we're going to tryto break a Guinness World Record.
And it was doing something called a caber toss.
Can you explain what this caber toss is?
Because, perhaps people haven't connectedthe dots exactly about what it entails.
A caber toss is essentially, picture a telephone pole.
(05:47):
So this is, I believe, a piece of woodthat's 16 to 20ft tall.
weighs 90 to 150 pounds.
This log, enormous telephone pole.
And what a caber toss is, is
you have to grab it, essentiallybalance it on your hands, flip it over,
if it flips into the opposite directionthat you're standing,
that's considered a successful toss.
(06:08):
The world record attempt was to surpass 122
caber tosses in a single hour,
and the man who was trying to attemptthis was called Jason Baines.
He held the previous record, which was,I believe, 121 caber tosses.
He was trying to surpass itby at least one to break his own record,
and he was able to do 166caber tosses in a single hour,
(06:33):
which is just if you do the math,that's more than two a minute.
Telephone poles.
I cannot stress enough how incredibleit is to see this person do this.
Well. It's incredible.
So it's important to lean intowhat was happening around that time.
So this is 2021.
In the midst of,you know, a global pandemic.
(06:54):
You know, you said at that time, you know,unless there is reliable connectivity,
it would be very
difficult to bring an event like thisto the masses virtually.
So tell us about then the challengeyou face and the role that Dejero played.
Yeah, absolutely.
So because this was donein the middle of a pandemic,
(07:15):
and also it's a sportthat requires a lot of space because,
once again, telephone poles being flipped outside.
It was done remotely,and we were in a park
in Verdun in Montreal.
The park had no accessible internet.
We had no way to plug in a connection.
And we knew at the same timethat this was going to be streamed
(07:38):
to a lot of peoplewho usually get together in person.
A lot of people were going to bewatching this, and also a Guinness World Record attempt
Even more people than the regularcommunity would probably be tuning in.
So having a steadyconnection was absolutely important.
And we were beginning from the factthat there was no tetherable
(07:59):
Ethernet connection, so that was tough.
I started to
do some researchinto what solutions were possible,
and I came upon Dejero,which seemed to be the perfect solution.
I found other companies as well,but what what was really interesting
about Dejero was that I hopped on a call,
one of my favorite things to hop on a calland not just do things over email.
(08:22):
And I had a conversationwith people who were explaining to me
what it is that they did, what it is that how
we can integrate our systemwith Dejero system.
And that reallyjust brought so much confidence.
And I felt securein working with Dejero.
So that is how we,that's how we met for the first time.
(08:45):
That's how we started working togetherfor the first time.
And the event was a success.
There was no dropouts,and he broke his record.
So all the boxes were ticked and I wasI was super happy with the result.
Have you ever heard, before aboutSmart Blending Technology?
I mean, I think a lot of people inthe industry have heard of failover,
(09:05):
but Smart Blending Technology,you sort of takes it a step further.
So I had never heard ofSmart Blending Technology before.
I had heard of failover.
And I remember in my conversationwith the Technical Coordinator at Dejero
I mentioned,I essentially described the failover.
And I remember he corrected me.
He's like, no, no, no, no, this isthis is not the same thing.
(09:25):
And then he explained to me whatSmart Blending Technology was and I was like,
So this is essentiallya improved version of failover.
we use what's called the Dejero GateWay,and the GateWay,
is comprised of multiple different network providers.
So you know, whatever network
providers are in your area,there's at least three of them.
(09:47):
When you are streaming.
What the GateWay does is it uploadsall of that to through all the providers,
and then it reaches the other endsimultaneously,
meaning that if any of them go down,then you have that immediate backup
that is providedby the other two providers.
And something that I found interestingnot possible during
(10:10):
the Montreal Highland Games because again,there was no tethereable Ethernet.
But you can also connectan Ethernet connection to this,
this Dejero GateWay,which is just the best of all worlds.
You have the physical connection, you havethe the Smart Blending Technology.
So you are just safe on multiple accounts.
And as anyone who's in live streamingknows, redundancy
(10:30):
like you can never have enough redundancies.
Yeah.
You know, Smart Blending Technologyis really just a software.
And it's in many of our form factors.
And what it doesis essentially what you said.
It just takes the bestof all the available networks.
And so it it gives you that resiliencyand that reliable connectivity
that you need.
And you know, during such
(10:52):
wild event as it was duringthe global pandemic, to have an event
like this and for people to connectin a different way, what was that like?
What was the reception like, you know, asit was happening and afterwards?
I think to to be honest,I feel like I experienced it
in two waves because the first wavewas on the ground as it was happening.
(11:13):
And just thethe chaos of working this event.
Which, as anyone knows, in live streaming,you zone out the whole world
and you focus on what's going on.
But we were working with theMontreal Highland Games organizers and they
the initial response was just like,wow, this is this is going well,
which is which is really greatbecause a lot of us were nervous.
(11:37):
This was our first time doing a remotelive stream.
It was their first timedoing a remote live stream
and considering the state of the world,
you know, things could have gonewrong on multiple different fronts.
Whether someone got sickall of a sudden, like there's so,
so many differentthings could have gone wrong.
So on the ground, thingswere going quite well and
(12:01):
that was the first thing.
Then after the Guinness WorldRecord was broken
and the event ended and we startedto actually see the response
from everyone who was watching onlineand reading the comments.
It was just one of the most.
It was one of my happiest moments.
I think during the pandemic,to see people actually
(12:22):
happy online, connecting to one another.
You could see the conversations happeningin the chat of people
who hadn't seen each other for a long timeand, sort of
experiencing this moment simultaneously.
That's what really.
That's what I find so amazingabout live streaming
(12:42):
that other video mediums don't allowis that connection to your audience.
That happens live,and everyone's in it together.
Yeah.
That's, That's a really powerful momentwhen you're able to connect with people
that perhaps you're not beside,
but you're feeling that excitementfrom an event that's happening real time.
You know, we.
(13:03):
This then led to another event.
And it was for for a good cause.
Tell us a little bitabout how you collaborated with Dejero,
for some of your fundraising efforts.
we had another eventthat had a similar problem
in that we did not have internet.
The event was called Concert for Peace,
(13:25):
and it was an orchestral eventwith the goal of raising money
to support the, the civilians.
With the warbetween Ukraine and Russia, And
because it was a fundraiser,
everyone was volunteering their time,from the musicians to the technicians.
this event was done at the Notre-DameBasilica of Montreal,
(13:48):
which is a beautiful church.
And it's, it's also huge,which which is its own challenges.
But when we went into the churchto scout the location for the first time,
I asked about the internet connectionand they told me,
you have the city of Montreal Wi-Fi, which
if for anyone who knowsthe city of Montreal Wi-Fi,
(14:09):
it's not the most trustworthy,And listen, to be fair.
Most big cities,internet connection is not reliable.
I mean, right now, you and I are,in different parts of the city,
and big cities,and still there's impact in connectivity.
So you can only imagine how much worseit can get in a big stone building.
(14:29):
Yes. Yes, absolutely.
And so I reached out to Dejero
and I said, hey, we are doing this event,this Concert for Peace,
and everyone is volunteering their time.
Would you be willing to volunteeryour GateWay
in exchangefor putting your name in the credits and
(14:52):
and Dejero came through.
You guys sent us the GateWay,
You had a technician supporting us when
we needed it.
And it's just, it's wonderful
to have people come togetherfor an event such as that one.
We ended up raising,
$160,000 on that event,which was made possible
by all of the people volunteering and allof the companies that helped out as well.
(15:17):
Were people
surprised, to see that an eventwas being streamed from there.
And then actually was gettingto other people in other parts.
You know, I think so.
It's the Notre-Dame Basilicabecause it's a historic site.
It is sometimes difficultto do productions in there because
and rightfullyso, people are nervous about the,
(15:39):
the infrastructureand retaining this location.
But I will say that after we didour live stream, they now have internet
because I went there again in the futureand they actually had a physical
connection that they could use.
So I think, you know, I think, I thinkwe might have changed something there.
That's great.
You are.
You know, still young in your career.
(16:02):
What does success look like for youwhen it comes to Scratch Takes?
And, you know, sort of,
What are you aspiring to reach?
What's that ultimate goal?
Yeah.
I'm very passionate about two things,
which is education and small businesses.
(16:26):
As a professor, I love to teach and to
to teach my errors from the past,to try to, like, allow my students
to not have to go through thosethose same hurdles.
They'll have their own hurdles.
Everyone's always going to have hurdles.
But if what I can do is sort ofallow you to start
(16:47):
two steps forward,then I feel like I'm doing my job.
Education is one thing.
And then the second thingis small businesses.
There's so many small businesses in Canadaand everywhere in the world,
and small businesseshave a have a hard time, you know?
And so what I want to dois bring my knowledge
from my side of the business and tryto help small businesses in any way I can.
(17:11):
And what I know best is
technology, media and distribution.
So what does success look likein a couple of years?
I would say I want to empower
the workers
of tomorrow to be doing amazing things,
and I want to empower small businessesto go further
(17:34):
and reach their audience wherever it isthat that may be in any way that I can.
If there was any advice that you couldshare with these young entrepreneurs
when it comes to distribution,what would you say to them?
I would say things take time.
That's like the the biggest lesson,
I think that I've learnedand that a lot of people will say
(17:54):
as an entrepreneur or as a small businessowner, as a content creator,
is that trust the process.
Things take time.
If you don't see results immediately,it doesn't mean that you're doing
the wrong thing.
You can learn from the feedback
that you get, be analyticalwith your business, be analytical
with your artistry,be analytical with your content creation,
(18:17):
and try to see where you can improve.
But at the same
time, make sure to give yourselfthe runway that's necessary.
And usually I tell peoplelike at the minimum
two years, give yourself a two yearrunway, and once you have
those two years under your belt,you can really look back and compare.
(18:37):
Okay, well, one year ago,what was I doing?
How was that looking two years ago?What was I doing?
How is that looking compared to now?
Am I seeing growth?
Where is that growth happening?
Where is it not happening?
And then tweak the minor things necessaryso that you are growing
in the right direction.
Thank you so much, John.
Thank you so much Ivy,it was a beautiful conversation.
(18:59):
To learn more about Dejero and its game
changing connectivityfor media production services.
Head to Dejero.com
So a caber toss,
It's a, it's a crazy thing.
world record attempt was to surpass 122
caber tosses in a single hour,
and the man who was trying to attemptthis was called Jason Baines.
The park had no accessible internet.
We had no way to plug in a connection.
And we knew at the same timethat this was going to be streamed
(00:25):
to a lot of people. Having a steadyconnection was absolutely important.
and I came upon Dejero,which seemed to be the perfect solution.
The event was a success.
There was no dropouts,and he broke his record.
(00:49):
Gone are the days of a handfulof traditional media giants
dominating the industry.
Content creators are behindsome of the most innovative
and engaging audio, videoand live performances.
Welcome to Critical Connections, a podcastthat features the people and companies
helping to make our communitiesconnected, informed and safe.
(01:10):
I’m Ivy Cuervo with Dejero.
Joining me today is John Castillo.
He's the CEO and Creative Directorat Scratch Takes.
That's a Montreal production companythat offers a number of services,
from live streaming to sport capture,podcast production and more.
Welcome, John. Hi.
Thanks for having me. John,you wear many hats.
(01:30):
You're a Filmmaker, Live StreamProducer, Technical Director,
Educator, teaching music productionand technology at York University.
What sparked your passionfor all things media?
It all started when I was in high school,and I was trying to decide what it is
that I wanted to do with my life,
with my career.
I was a musician, I loved music,I still am a musician.
(01:54):
And when I was sort of deciding
what I wanted to pursue in the future,I was talking to my mom about this.
And I wanted to find somethingthat combined
both of my passions,which was music and science.
at the time, there was this thing callediTunes University, where you could look up
different lectures from Universities anddifferent parts of the world.
(02:14):
And I stumbled on this lectureby one of my future professors
called Martha de Francisco,and she was talking about acoustics,
She talked about acoustics in a concerthall, how instruments project,
and I just was so fascinated by thisthat I decided to look up
more about this program.
And that's when I sort of came upon
(02:34):
the world of audio engineering.That's very cool.
So, talk to us, then about Scratch Takes.
You’ve founded the company in 2016.
Take us back to that time and tell mewhat inspired you to start this company?
I started Scratch Takesin the middle of my Masters
when I was doing the Masters inSound recording at McGill University,
(02:54):
and at the time, I was full in on audioengineering.
I was recording a lot of orchestras,a lot of jazz bands,
a lot of rock bands, you name it.
I was getting as many musiciansas I could into the studio,
and what I noticed was thata lot of the musicians were focusing
a lot on the the album recording,which is extremely important,
(03:15):
but in this day and age that we livein, video
production is is also vital.
I mean, we're doing a video podcastright now just to showcase the importance
of video, even for somethingthat is primarily, distributed by audio.
And so I decided, what can I do in order
to help these artistsgo further with their time in the studio?
(03:39):
At the same time I
was I started learning a little bitabout live streaming at the university.
I became one of the webcast technicians,
and so I started to learnhow to use cameras,
how to interconnect both of these worlds,the audio and the video world.
And I decided to bringthat knowledge into the studio.
So just bring like two cameras
record the same way we would an album,but with two cameras in the studio
(04:01):
that are just sort of capturingbehind the scenes
at the end of the session, we haveall the raw takes from the recording
as well as all the video recording.
And I decided, well,
you know what these are called,these are called scratch takes.
It's like the first take that you dois called the scratch take
before you edit itall together and create an album mix.
And so I decided to lean into thata little bit
(04:22):
and say, okay, well, here we go.
Scratch Takes.
And the purpose of it was really to helpartists get a little bit
more content, get a little bitmore out of their studio time.
That's interesting.
So let's fast forward now to 2021.
This is the first time you connectwith Dejero,
but it's for an interesting eventthat perhaps some people haven't heard of.
(04:44):
It's called the Montreal Highland Games.
So before we kind of get into the deepof it, explain what it is and talk to us
about this incredible opportunitythat presented itself.
the Highland games in general,are a celebration of Scottish culture.
So that's, you know, Scottish music,dress, dance, and in particular
a big aspect of the Highland Games is the
(05:05):
the Highland Sports,
and there's a lot of sportsthat are involved.
I think the major ones are the tug of warand the caber costs.
And this was in the middle of Covid 2021, in Quebec.
In Montreal, peoplecould not group together at this time.
So we had this challenge of tryingto bring people together remotely.
(05:27):
the proposal was we're going to tryto break a Guinness World Record.
And it was doing something called a caber toss.
Can you explain what this caber toss is?
Because, perhaps people haven't connectedthe dots exactly about what it entails.
A caber toss is essentially, picture a telephone pole.
(05:47):
So this is, I believe, a piece of woodthat's 16 to 20ft tall.
weighs 90 to 150 pounds.
This log, enormous telephone pole.
And what a caber toss is, is
you have to grab it, essentiallybalance it on your hands, flip it over,
if it flips into the opposite directionthat you're standing,
that's considered a successful toss.
(06:08):
The world record attempt was to surpass 122
caber tosses in a single hour,
and the man who was trying to attemptthis was called Jason Baines.
He held the previous record, which was,I believe, 121 caber tosses.
He was trying to surpass itby at least one to break his own record,
and he was able to do 166caber tosses in a single hour,
(06:33):
which is just if you do the math,that's more than two a minute.
Telephone poles.
I cannot stress enough how incredibleit is to see this person do this.
Well. It's incredible.
So it's important to lean intowhat was happening around that time.
So this is 2021.
In the midst of,you know, a global pandemic.
(06:54):
You know, you said at that time, you know,unless there is reliable connectivity,
it would be very
difficult to bring an event like thisto the masses virtually.
So tell us about then the challengeyou face and the role that Dejero played.
Yeah, absolutely.
So because this was donein the middle of a pandemic,
(07:15):
and also it's a sportthat requires a lot of space because,
once again, telephone poles being flipped outside.
It was done remotely,and we were in a park
in Verdun in Montreal.
The park had no accessible internet.
We had no way to plug in a connection.
And we knew at the same timethat this was going to be streamed
(07:38):
to a lot of peoplewho usually get together in person.
A lot of people were going to bewatching this, and also a Guinness World Record attempt
Even more people than the regularcommunity would probably be tuning in.
So having a steadyconnection was absolutely important.
And we were beginning from the factthat there was no tetherable
(07:59):
Ethernet connection, so that was tough.
I started to
do some researchinto what solutions were possible,
and I came upon Dejero,which seemed to be the perfect solution.
I found other companies as well,but what what was really interesting
about Dejero was that I hopped on a call,
one of my favorite things to hop on a calland not just do things over email.
(08:22):
And I had a conversationwith people who were explaining to me
what it is that they did, what it is that how
we can integrate our systemwith Dejero system.
And that reallyjust brought so much confidence.
And I felt securein working with Dejero.
So that is how we,that's how we met for the first time.
(08:45):
That's how we started working togetherfor the first time.
And the event was a success.
There was no dropouts,and he broke his record.
So all the boxes were ticked and I wasI was super happy with the result.
Have you ever heard, before aboutSmart Blending Technology?
I mean, I think a lot of people inthe industry have heard of failover,
(09:05):
but Smart Blending Technology,you sort of takes it a step further.
So I had never heard ofSmart Blending Technology before.
I had heard of failover.
And I remember in my conversationwith the Technical Coordinator at Dejero
I mentioned,I essentially described the failover.
And I remember he corrected me.
He's like, no, no, no, no, this isthis is not the same thing.
(09:25):
And then he explained to me whatSmart Blending Technology was and I was like,
So this is essentiallya improved version of failover.
we use what's called the Dejero GateWay,and the GateWay,
is comprised of multiple different network providers.
So you know, whatever network
providers are in your area,there's at least three of them.
(09:47):
When you are streaming.
What the GateWay does is it uploadsall of that to through all the providers,
and then it reaches the other endsimultaneously,
meaning that if any of them go down,then you have that immediate backup
that is providedby the other two providers.
And something that I found interestingnot possible during
(10:10):
the Montreal Highland Games because again,there was no tethereable Ethernet.
But you can also connectan Ethernet connection to this,
this Dejero GateWay,which is just the best of all worlds.
You have the physical connection, you havethe the Smart Blending Technology.
So you are just safe on multiple accounts.
And as anyone who's in live streamingknows, redundancy
(10:30):
like you can never have enough redundancies.
Yeah.
You know, Smart Blending Technologyis really just a software.
And it's in many of our form factors.
And what it doesis essentially what you said.
It just takes the bestof all the available networks.
And so it it gives you that resiliencyand that reliable connectivity
that you need.
And you know, during such
(10:52):
wild event as it was duringthe global pandemic, to have an event
like this and for people to connectin a different way, what was that like?
What was the reception like, you know, asit was happening and afterwards?
I think to to be honest,I feel like I experienced it
in two waves because the first wavewas on the ground as it was happening.
(11:13):
And just thethe chaos of working this event.
Which, as anyone knows, in live streaming,you zone out the whole world
and you focus on what's going on.
But we were working with theMontreal Highland Games organizers and they
the initial response was just like,wow, this is this is going well,
which is which is really greatbecause a lot of us were nervous.
(11:37):
This was our first time doing a remotelive stream.
It was their first timedoing a remote live stream
and considering the state of the world,
you know, things could have gonewrong on multiple different fronts.
Whether someone got sickall of a sudden, like there's so,
so many differentthings could have gone wrong.
So on the ground, thingswere going quite well and
(12:01):
that was the first thing.
Then after the Guinness WorldRecord was broken
and the event ended and we startedto actually see the response
from everyone who was watching onlineand reading the comments.
It was just one of the most.
It was one of my happiest moments.
I think during the pandemic,to see people actually
(12:22):
happy online, connecting to one another.
You could see the conversations happeningin the chat of people
who hadn't seen each other for a long timeand, sort of
experiencing this moment simultaneously.
That's what really.
That's what I find so amazingabout live streaming
(12:42):
that other video mediums don't allowis that connection to your audience.
That happens live,and everyone's in it together.
Yeah.
That's, That's a really powerful momentwhen you're able to connect with people
that perhaps you're not beside,
but you're feeling that excitementfrom an event that's happening real time.
You know, we.
(13:03):
This then led to another event.
And it was for for a good cause.
Tell us a little bitabout how you collaborated with Dejero,
for some of your fundraising efforts.
we had another eventthat had a similar problem
in that we did not have internet.
The event was called Concert for Peace,
(13:25):
and it was an orchestral eventwith the goal of raising money
to support the, the civilians.
With the warbetween Ukraine and Russia, And
because it was a fundraiser,
everyone was volunteering their time,from the musicians to the technicians.
this event was done at the Notre-DameBasilica of Montreal,
(13:48):
which is a beautiful church.
And it's, it's also huge,which which is its own challenges.
But when we went into the churchto scout the location for the first time,
I asked about the internet connectionand they told me,
you have the city of Montreal Wi-Fi, which
if for anyone who knowsthe city of Montreal Wi-Fi,
(14:09):
it's not the most trustworthy,And listen, to be fair.
Most big cities,internet connection is not reliable.
I mean, right now, you and I are,in different parts of the city,
and big cities,and still there's impact in connectivity.
So you can only imagine how much worseit can get in a big stone building.
(14:29):
Yes. Yes, absolutely.
And so I reached out to Dejero
and I said, hey, we are doing this event,this Concert for Peace,
and everyone is volunteering their time.
Would you be willing to volunteeryour GateWay
in exchangefor putting your name in the credits and
(14:52):
and Dejero came through.
You guys sent us the GateWay,
You had a technician supporting us when
we needed it.
And it's just, it's wonderful
to have people come togetherfor an event such as that one.
We ended up raising,
$160,000 on that event,which was made possible
by all of the people volunteering and allof the companies that helped out as well.
(15:17):
Were people
surprised, to see that an eventwas being streamed from there.
And then actually was gettingto other people in other parts.
You know, I think so.
It's the Notre-Dame Basilicabecause it's a historic site.
It is sometimes difficultto do productions in there because
and rightfullyso, people are nervous about the,
(15:39):
the infrastructureand retaining this location.
But I will say that after we didour live stream, they now have internet
because I went there again in the futureand they actually had a physical
connection that they could use.
So I think, you know, I think, I thinkwe might have changed something there.
That's great.
You are.
You know, still young in your career.
(16:02):
What does success look like for youwhen it comes to Scratch Takes?
And, you know, sort of,
What are you aspiring to reach?
What's that ultimate goal?
Yeah.
I'm very passionate about two things,
which is education and small businesses.
(16:26):
As a professor, I love to teach and to
to teach my errors from the past,to try to, like, allow my students
to not have to go through thosethose same hurdles.
They'll have their own hurdles.
Everyone's always going to have hurdles.
But if what I can do is sort ofallow you to start
(16:47):
two steps forward,then I feel like I'm doing my job.
Education is one thing.
And then the second thingis small businesses.
There's so many small businesses in Canadaand everywhere in the world,
and small businesseshave a have a hard time, you know?
And so what I want to dois bring my knowledge
from my side of the business and tryto help small businesses in any way I can.
(17:11):
And what I know best is
technology, media and distribution.
So what does success look likein a couple of years?
I would say I want to empower
the workers
of tomorrow to be doing amazing things,
and I want to empower small businessesto go further
(17:34):
and reach their audience wherever it isthat that may be in any way that I can.
If there was any advice that you couldshare with these young entrepreneurs
when it comes to distribution,what would you say to them?
I would say things take time.
That's like the the biggest lesson,
I think that I've learnedand that a lot of people will say
(17:54):
as an entrepreneur or as a small businessowner, as a content creator,
is that trust the process.
Things take time.
If you don't see results immediately,it doesn't mean that you're doing
the wrong thing.
You can learn from the feedback
that you get, be analyticalwith your business, be analytical
with your artistry,be analytical with your content creation,
(18:17):
and try to see where you can improve.
But at the same
time, make sure to give yourselfthe runway that's necessary.
And usually I tell peoplelike at the minimum
two years, give yourself a two yearrunway, and once you have
those two years under your belt,you can really look back and compare.
(18:37):
Okay, well, one year ago,what was I doing?
How was that looking two years ago?What was I doing?
How is that looking compared to now?
Am I seeing growth?
Where is that growth happening?
Where is it not happening?
And then tweak the minor things necessaryso that you are growing
in the right direction.
Thank you so much, John.
Thank you so much Ivy,it was a beautiful conversation.
(18:59):
To learn more about Dejero and its game
changing connectivityfor media production services.
Head to Dejero.com
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