Jan 2025
Live from Hong Kong: Chrome Expands Global Livestream Production with Christie’s
Christie’s has led the market across many territories during its 250-year existence. With three decades under its belt in the Asia Pacific, Christie’s has relocated its regional headquarters to Zaha Hadid Architects’ striking new building The Henderson. With this move, Christie’s stated its intention to be the premier art & luxury destination for its clients in the city and introduced its first dedicated salesroom in the region. For Chrome, this meant a chance to design a new livestream concept tailor-made to Hong Kong.
Chrome has worked closely with Christie’s since the fall of 2021 to innovate and elevate the venerated auction house’s livestream broadcasts for its marquee auctions – including Paul Allen’s record breaking billion-dollar sale night. Each event has brought with it a unique set of opportunities, but the core philosophy remains the same: engage and entertain virtual audiences and in-room attendees in equal measure.
The goal was no different when we first entered Christie’s new flagship space in Hong Kong. The Henderson’s pillarless floorplan, ample windows, and state-of-the-art technology infrastructure was a perfect foundation to design a production that created global brand cohesion while also finding the perfect expression of Hong Kong’s unique identity as a city and a salesroom.
Our approach to these complex live events is based on a deep understanding of our client, the auction business and a constant dialogue with various teams across Christie’s global organization. To elevate the bidding functionality and entertainment factor of this instance, we introduced dynamic cameras to track the ‘sport’ of the room, re-designed content across the monumental LED’s and consulted closely on the lighting and set design to maximize the in-room experience.
The unique opportunity in Hong Kong, however, was windows. From the moment we first saw The Henderson, we knew that we would have to find a way to capture the incredible views of the city skyline. By introducing a telescoping jib, we were able to create dynamic camera movement throughout the sale and capture cinematic transitions from the exterior world to the auction room at Christie’s. Just as with every element of the production, the placement and footprint of our cameras had to both allow for the most engaging content while not interfering with the elevated experience of the in-room guests.
The inaugural sales at The Henderson were an immense success. The broadcast required over 350 pieces of video content and countless hours of dedication from both the in-house team and our local partners. Demonstrating the excitement for the inaugural sales the first auction, The Au Bak Ling Collection, was 100% sold and achieved 160% of its aggregate low estimate. In total, the inaugural sales generated $1.3 Billion HKD. Further cementing the success of the event, the livestreams drew 6.2 million viewers across the Christie’s website, YouTube, and social media platforms like WeChat, Instagram and Facebook.
