The summer’s nearly over here in the UK but the Trickbox team has some great memories to look back on from some of the UK’s top music events. This year, we provided outside broadcast (OB) services for Toward Infinity, a specialist in multi-camera concert films and music documentaries for world-class bands at concerts across the UK in venues including: The O2 (Status Quo), the Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff (Thunder), O2 Academy Brixton Academy (Bullet for my Valentine) and in October, Royal Albert Hall (Marillion). As well as this, we provided OB services to Eden Sessions, one of the most spectacular outdoor live music events based at the famous Eden Project site in Cornwall for renowned artists including: Bastille, Madness and Van Morrison for a series of one-day concerts held annually during June and July.
Watching bands like these play live at amazing venues is the ultimate experience but to ensure a successful event, organisers must plan meticulously, making sure they have the best OB service and ultimately the highest quality material. Our partnership with Toward Infinity, run by Producer, Director and Editor Tim Sidwell and Producer and DP Jeremy Mason, started around 18 months ago when they began to take on multi-camera projects and needed an OB provider that could supply a fly-away, multi-camera solution that suits the budgets and scope of its clients.
The workflow between us is seamless. Before an event, Toward Infinity supplies us with the camera plan and production design and we manage the whole installation, providing the technical equipment to record the show as well as the crew to rig and de-rig it and Vision Engineers and Unit Managers, as required. We can rig a multi-camera shoot in the morning, get it ready for the show and then break it down and get it out of the venue by the end of the night. All the camera feeds, which are HD, are recorded to separate solid hard disk drives and are given to Toward Infinity so it can transfer the footage before sending the drives back to us.
For the Eden Sessions project, we also provided a multi camera set-up, including live vision mixing with talkback, tally lights and a 32-foot track, which ran across the front of the stage. Our kit was installed onsite and remained at the location for the four-week duration of live shows.
If you’ve got a live music event coming up and you need an experienced OB services provider give us a shout.
