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Idealog.co.nz | The Transformation Issue
Entrepreneurship in the funeral industry is a hard
gig to get into due to the innate fear most humans have
of one of the few certainties in life: death. Yet seeing as
33,225 New Zealanders died last year, having to deal
with the administrative and emotional misery caused
by the passing away of a loved one is a situation many
will have to face.
“The main challenge [OneRoom is facing] is
driving change into a very traditional and conservative
sector that has historically been shrouded in taboo,”
Lutterman says. “Being able to tell a clear and
compelling ‘why’ story helps to break through this
barrier. Understanding the typical fears and problems
of funeral home staff in operating technology has also
been key to our product design and service.”
OneRoom is a breath of fresh air in this regard. It
passes on the usual stuffy, dated funeral-business look
and feel in favour of slick, modern branding touting
how its product is “bringing people together when
it matters most”, as well as its tech product that’s
changing up the funeral industry.
Lutterman says the aim is to continue the
conversation beyond funerals and encourage people
to speak openly about death, as it’s one of life’s most
defining moments.
“By using the line drawings, we hoped to
communicate the connections between people that
occurs at an event like this and extends over time. It
also enabled us to abstract our testimonial feedback,
making it more relatable to the cross section of society
and cultures we serve while implying simplicity, the key
aspect of our service,” Lutterman says.
The livestreaming technology is also recorded
and stored, ensuring people’s life stories shared are
captured on film, a bit like the TV show This Is Your Life.
“Maori Tangihanga (ceremony to mourn the dead)
seems advanced in its inclusiveness and time taken to
properly honour and farewell a loved one. In contrast,
typical funeral and memorial services take place within
two to three days of death and last about an hour,”
Lutterman says.
“It is a big ask to get everyone together at short
notice, and then to do justice to their life story. We can
record and share what happens during that hour, so no
one misses it.”
He says OneRoom’s offering taps into three trends:
cultural trends, with digital natives wanting a video-
on-demand option for everything (including funerals),
societal trends, with families increasingly dispersed
across the world, and sector trends, as the funeral
industry needs to adapt their service in order to keep
up with the times and stay relevant.
OneRoom was first founded in 2008, with “too
many ideas, too many people and not enough money”,
Lutterman says. However, when Purewa Cemetery and
Crematorium approached them in 2012 and asked if
their technology could help them to share their funeral
services online, livestreaming becoming the sole focus
for OneRoom’s services.
Lutterman says while the livestreaming of funerals
isn’t a new idea, at the time there was only a handful of
businesses doing it, which allowed OneRoom to refine
its technology and build a great product.
It is a big ask to get
everyone together
at short notice, and
then to do justice
to their life story.
We can record and
share what happensduring that hour, so
no one misses it.
DAVID LUTTERMAN
OneRoom CEOOne Room captures and archives a funeral or
memorial via a secure private broadcast that can be
accessed from anywhere. It’s automated and cloud
based, can also give people at home the chance to tune
in to multiple cameras being streamed, so they can see
the audience as well as the minister.
The platform has also been built natively inside
Amazon Web Services (AWS) for further reliability.
Moving into the funeral industry was a bold step
into the unknown for the former telecommunications
worker and international gymnast Lutterman, who says
nothing could have prepared him for his first funeral
expo in the US in 2013.
Now, he says he knows more about this sector than
he ever expected to. OneRoom has since expanded to
operate in four countries – the United States, Canada,
Australia and New Zealand. In 2018, 80,000 people
attended a funeral service using OneRoom from all over
the world. To date, OneRoom’s live streams have been
watched in 163 countries.
Lutterman says New Zealanders are adopting
funeral live streaming at swift rates, which provided
a good testing ground for the product before taking
it to the world.
“We are focusing on presence in North
America and Australia. Kiwis are generally smart
and early adopters of tech, so we had a chance to
glimpse the future here before driving growth in
other lagging markets.”
What about livestreaming running the risk of
people remotely tuning into funerals rather than
showing up in person, much like livestreamed university
lectures? Lutterman says it doesn’t cannibalise the
market for funeral directors – rather, it just makes the
service reach a wider audience.
“There is no evidence that physical attendance
at funeral services has dropped, we simply allow
more people to be included where distance, time
or circumstances prevent them from attending in
person,” he says.
The vision for OneRoom is to make the
recording and sharing of funeral services a common
offering globally.
“Birth and death are two inevitable life events
that we can count on happening,” Lutterman says.
“And when that day comes, OneRoom will be
there to capture the tears and laughter and everything
in between so that this unifying moment can now
be shared and re-told by the people who cherish the
memory of the one who went before them.” ■L E F T:
OneRoom's branding is
slick and sophisticated,
unlike many businesses
in the funeral industry.