Video specialists First Sight Media and MyGraduationClip have officially launched Orator Pro, a platform that digitises the organisation of live graduation ceremonies by replacing paper name cards and helping teams manage graduate names, pronunciation, and ceremony flow in real time.
Matt Hoare, director of MyGraduationClip, explains, “Orator Pro is designed to give university teams total confidence in the ceremony, from the point of registration to the day itself. With everything in one place, teams can reduce manual workarounds, support orators with accurate information and keep the ceremony running smoothly."
“We developed Orator Pro alongside First Sight Media as a solution to the endless paper trails and lists often associated with running large graduation ceremonies. The primary objective was to give everyone involved in such an important day the confidence that the right person would be called forward, with their name pronounced correctly, at the right time, by a human announcer,” added Hoare.
The University of Derby recently deployed the technology across its large-scale summer graduation ceremonies to manage presentation flow for thousands of students, replacing its traditional paper scripts.
Emma Baddiley, student Hub and registry operations manager at the University of Derby, explains, "We graduate nearly 10,000 students a year across the summer and in the winter. It's such a special time, but we also want to make sure that the graduates and guests really enjoy their day."
Baddiley continued, "We decided to introduce Orator Pro because we really wanted to think differently about the way we did things. We really wanted to take away that manual process, that piece of paper. But actually, one of the main things that really drove us to use the Orator Pro product was showing the student's name on the screen as they passed during their big moment."
"It's so important to get their name correct. They've spent so many years studying, and they've worked so much to this point in their life", added Baddiley.
"So, like a lot of other universities, one of our big challenges around graduations is paper processes. We would have to print off multiple copies in advance, leaving little time to edit documents as we'd have to keep every version accurate. It’s fantastic knowing that with Orator Pro, we can really offer a great experience for our graduates on the day."
Antonia Fox, student records and awards manager, University of Derby.
The launch of Orator Pro highlights First Sight Media and MyGraduationClip's ongoing commitment to solving real-world event challenges through purposeful technical innovation, replacing high-stress manual tasks with seamless, automated digital workflows.
"The system is designed to support the teams behind graduations, not replace them, whilst maintaining the human recognition that each graduate’s moment truly deserves,” said Rich Belcher, MD of First Sight Media.
“With Orator Pro, we have a practical, digital solution to a genuine problem. Graduates can feel confident their name is pronounced correctly, and orators can feel that same comfort. For organisers, the system lets multiple users drive changes and updates in real time, providing adaptability previously impossible at events of this scale. What this means in practice at graduations is that everyone can enjoy their special day and even graduands arriving late can still cross with their cohort," added Belcher.
