Can you sum the project up for us?

Co-produced by BBC Earth, BBC Taster and BBC Worldwide, 'Project Hope' is a live spotlight on three young and critically endangered animals in Sumatra. Each of these animals is part of a different conservation project hoping to turn the tide. Seven live and interactive broadcasts will be simulcast to Facebook, YouTube and BBC platforms. There will also be a variety of short-form films, beautiful stills and 360s to appear on most major social platforms. It’s got us excited because digital projects usually TV programmes. When wildlife's involved, these might be years in the making, eroding away some of the topicality and urgency. This time, we can get the stories out as soon as they're ready. Project Hope allows us to introduce small individual stories to a global audience, ranging from the cute and funny to heartfelt conservational news. Over 11 days we’ll be sending daily updates from the field and encouraging audience interaction to help shape the content we produce. The main website bbc.co.uk/projecthope will host all of the content from articles to broadcasts. On the Live page we’ll aggregate some of the highlights from the trip in real time, as well as some of the audience responses.

What’s the aim of the project?

The aim of the project is to bring little-known but important stories to the widest possible audience. In the age of social media, that’s a goal that has never been more achievable! There is a potential audience of millions, ready to enjoy and share content on platforms where they spend most of their time. To do this we'll be working with our contributors social s, emerging third-party content–sharers and producers like IFL Science, and connecting with other BBC social s like BBC News and BBC Springwatch.

Does it use any new technology?

With recent advances in 3G/4G bonding, portable satellites, and encoders, we’re able to send footage live from some of the most remote places in the world. It's compressed at the highest quality even with low bandwidth. Another great breakthrough is the ability of social networks to host live broadcasts. We can now deliver stories straight to the audience where they hang out, and even giving subscribers a notification to let them know we’re live! As the tech becomes more versatile, and crews become more multi-skilled we’re increasingly able to deliver high quality topical content with a small team on quick turnaround. We’re also using a recorder and encoder that can take in multiple camera feeds, whilst sending out one signal. This allows us to vision mix in the field and send out a more interesting multi-cam set-up.

Any challenges/solutions?

Lots of challenges! One of which being the changing nature of the wilderness – there’s a reason wildlife programmes take so long to make! It will be the end of the wet season, with thunderstorms, imable rivers, landslides, and dense rainforest canopies. All the elements potentially colluding to limit our filming plans and our connectivity to the outside world. So we’re having to be a bit more adaptable on the ground. However, with a mix of satellites, we should be able to take the audience on that adventure with us. So, if there are some ‘exciting’ obstacles we can feature them as content – to add a sense of remoteness and the anything-can-happen live feel! Communication back to HQ in Bristol is also tricky. Especially in some of the more remote locations. But once the satellites are active, we can connect to wifi and communicate by WhatsApp!