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Shot at Europe’s tallest building, The View from the Shard in London, the wedding was granted to a highly deserving couple, Sonya Keating and Paul Brough. It’s the first wedding that The View from the Shard has ever hosted, with the ceremony taking place 800 feet high, on the 72nd floor. Trickbox TV supplied ITV with a multi-camera fly-away solution that included six HD fibre camera channels, and a fly-away control area with positions for the ITV Production team and Trickbox engineers.

Trickbox began rigging the show the night before and continued through the night with the first rehearsal taking place at 6am on the morning of the show. The remit included camera fibre cable drops on multiple floors, to allow for quick repos for different sections of the programme.

“We were very excited to win this project and work with ITV’s This Morning team,” says Liam Laminman, Trickbox TV Managing Director. “Live TV is high-pressure but it’s an environment that we’re used to working in and we have the skills and the experience to ensure a successful production. Broadcasting from different floors of a building 800 feet in the air also has it challenges but it was a spectacular day that will be remembered by the families, the team and the viewers.”

Trickbox TV is proud to announce that it has provided a range of outside broadcast services to Eden Sessions. Based at the famous Eden Project site in Cornwall, Eden Sessions is one of the most spectacular outdoor live music events, featuring a series of one-day concerts from world-class artists during June and July 2017, annually.

Trickbox TV, a leading supplier of equipment and services for studio and location multi-camera productions for broadcast, video production, webcasting and live events, has announced that it has provided a range of outside broadcast services to Eden Sessions. Based at the famous Eden Project site in Cornwall, Eden Sessions is one of the most spectacular outdoor live music events, featuring a series of one-day concerts from world-class artists during June and July 2017, annually.

Eden Sessions contracted Trickbox TV to provide a multi camera set-up, including live vision mixing with talkback, tally lights and a 32-foot track, which runs across the front of the stage. The Trickbox kit was installed onsite and remained at the location for the four-week duration of live shows from renowned artists including Bastille, Madness and Van Morrison. The concerts will be shown at a later date on BBC iPlayer.

“We have a lot of experience providing outside broadcast facilities at music venues and festivals across the UK,” says Liam Laminman, Trickbox TV Managing Director. “The pressure is on at these events, organisers have to plan meticulously and they want to know that they are getting the best OB service and ultimately the highest quality material. That is what they get with us.”

It is well known that there’s currently a shortage of mid to large multi-camera studios in London.

This means that there are productions out there being compromised or not being able to be made. We all know the format of panel shows that span an array of different genres including comedy, sport and news; 8 Out of 10 Cats, Would I Lie To You, Have I Got News for You, Celebrity Juice, and so on.

Each production will have its own requirements; some will need a relatively small space to house a small audience, while some may need to be big enough to drive a car into.. What they all have in common is that they are traditional studio shows shot multi-camera, and for that, they’ll need traditional multi-camera studio facilities spanning from the cameras to the talkback.

So what’s happening to new productions that are being developed or that have been commissioned? Where are they going to shoot the series? If the production isn’t lucky enough to find a studio in town – and it’s likely they won’t be – then there’s a problem…

This situation has come up a few times for us recently; we’ve been approached by several production companies to find a suitable venue space rather than a studio, and install temporary multi-camera studio facilities for either a one-day shoot or for a whole series.

There’s often some initial scepticism from all involved on whether we’ll have all the facilities that they would expect in a studio and whether it will cost more. By the end of the production, however, we’re proud to say that every aspect of the production has been delivered as required – and each one has come in on budget!

A key element of a traditional multi-camera studio is the control room – the gallery – the heart of the production. We take much pride in equipping our temporary control rooms with everything that you’d expect; from flexible video and audio monitoring to digital talkback systems, everything right down to USB charging ports at each position!

Get in touch to see how we can help your next studio production – particularly if you don’t have a studio.

Trickbox TV, the broadcast services provider, has provided an HD multi-camera flyaway facility for Flockstars, Liberty Bell’s new primetime knockout competition for ITV that sees a group of eight stars learning to herd sheep (and geese) and take part in sheepdog trials. The 8x30min show is scheduled for TX from Thursday 30th July.

The competition was filmed over a nine day period at an equestrian centre in East Sussex. Trickbox TV worked with Liberty Bell for two months prior to the shoot to meticulously plan the production workflow, and supplied and installed seven Sony HDC-1500 camera channels, a six-channel EVS server and a flyaway control room, with 10 operational positions. Trickbox TV also supplied on-site technical support staff throughout the production.

Verity Jackson, Line Producer on Flockstars, said, “The Trickbox TV team worked incredibly hard in pre-production and during the set-up to ensure that the production would run without any issues, and it all worked fantastically well in an unusual and complicated location. We greatly appreciated their attention to detail and calmness throughout, it gave us great confidence that the technical side was taken care of.”

Liam Laminman, Managing Director, Trickbox TV, said, “They say never work with animals, but this shoot was a pleasure to work on from start to finish. The core brief was that the production team was producing a studio show that just happened to be an outside broadcast, so we paid specific attention to providing all the features and functions that you’d expect in a studio – everything from the control room lighting, to air-con, to OLED monitors throughout. We’re pleased to have had the opportunity to work with Liberty Bell on such a fun show.”

Trickbox TV planned, installed and supported multicamera flyaway facilities for ITV’s Good Morning Britain show that was broadcast live from Edinburgh for the day of the Scottish Referendum results.

As well as the historic nature of the event, it was also the first time that Good Morning Britain had produced an entire four-hour show outside of the London studio, so it was extremely important to get things right.

The Trickbox TV team provided full ‘studio’ facilities on the roof of a city centre hotel, with three Sony HDC-1500R camera channels – including one on a jib to save space – and radio mics, presenter in-ear monitoring and talkback, as well as engineering support. The flyaway unit was built in a hotel room on the floor below, connected to ITN’s uplink facilities and a return feed for the final output. The feed was sent back to the Good Morning Britain studio where VTs and GFX were added. The team was also on standby for an additional four hour broadcast in the event of a Yes vote.

Alice Gairdner, Senior Production Manager, Good Morning Britain, said, “Trickbox TV adapted well to the fluid brief and answered my many questions prior to the event. On the day, everything went according to plan. They worked very hard and couldn’t have done more for us – I would definitely book Trickbox TV again.”

Liam Laminman, Managing Director, Trickbox TV, said, “We were delighted to work with the Good Morning Britain team on this project. It was rather an early start but the adrenalin of providing critical facilities on such an exciting day, and being at the heart of the action, made it a definite highlight of our year so far.”

What’s a PPU, I hear you ask? What’s a flyaway? There are a few different names and abbreviations for this sort of thing, depending on which area of the broadcast world you’re in. A PPU, or Portable Production Unit, is essentially a broadcast OB truck or a broadcast television production control room in a flight case – a portable, mobile unit, or a series of units that can be taken to any location and set up. Other names and variations on the same theme include ‘flypack’, ‘flyaway’ and ‘de-rig’. Essentially, it all boils down to providing broadcast production facilities, on location, for a temporary period.

But that sounds like a job for an OB truck, doesn’t it? Quite possibly, but it depends on the project. The concept of an OB truck is well known and they’re perfect for those projects, such as sporting events and large-scale televised national events. Where a PPU or flyaway works perfectly is those smaller productions or ones in small or unusual locations. A quick look back at some of our recent PPU jobs show a range from live music to talking heads broadcast programmes to live poker tournaments. What all those jobs have in common is that all the locations were small and space for an OB truck just wasn’t possible.

Another obvious consideration is budget. OB trucks are expensive – but that’s because they’re built for large-scale productions, requiring 30 camera channels and 20 HDCAM VTRs. PPUs are built on a smaller scale and you’re only paying for what you need. Don’t require audio? Then the audio PPU stays at base and you don’t pay for it. Don’t want to ISO every camera? No problem, no charge.

So what don’t you get with a PPU? There has to be a compromise, doesn’t there? Well, they don’t come with air conditioning for a start and you won’t fit 30 people in one! But that’s the point – you choose a PPU because the requirements of the project are different, be it space, budget or accessibility.

When it comes down to the hardware and functionality, a good PPU or flyaway should offer everything your production needs. Our PPUs and flyaways are designed to include all the same standard broadcast features and functionality that you’d expect to find in an OB truck or television studio. They’re also designed to be able to be rigged and setup very quickly. 90% of our PPU and fyaway jobs are one-day wonders – rig, RX (or TX) and de-rig – all in one day. A separate rig day is a nice comfortable way to do it, but if the venue has time restrictions or there are budget restrictions, it’s not always possible. A recent broadcast programme we provided facilities for was in a cinema. Not only did we rig a 5-camera set-up and record a whole broadcast hour long show in one day, but we had to de-rig in 45 minutes as the cinema was opening its doors for the evening screening! The other quirky element of that job was that there very little space anywhere in the building to set up the ‘control room’ (and no space for an OB truck outside). So we built a bespoke compact flyaway in a corridor. Had to buy fold-away chairs for that one!

We’re also fans of designing PPUs and flyaways that have flexible use with multiple options for clients. There used to be a time when a standard Sony triax or fibre CCU camera would be more than adequate for any production. These days there’s so much choice in terms of cameras, it’s important to offer capability for what the client wants. Cine-style cameras like Canon C300s and Sony F55s aren’t traditional multi-camera cameras, but we’ve designed all our PPUs and flyaways to cater for them. What’s great about this is that it ups the production value by adding uniqueness to it.

So next time you hear “we’d better get an OB truck in for that job then”, remember there are other options out there…

An Outside Broadcast (OB) truck was first used for King George VI’s coronation in May 1937, watched by around 10,000 people at home on the BBC’s television service.

Since then, broadcast has changed massively – analogue has been killed off by digital, HD has surpassed SD, and new technologies are set to change things in the next few years even more. Broadcast giant Sony helped pioneer the first 3D OB truck a couple of years ago and built a 4K multi-camera OB truck in 2013. NHK even trialled a modified 8K OB truck during the London Olympics 2012.

So, how has the advance of technology changed the OB market? Well, for one thing, equipment is smaller. Instead of a cumbersome rack of VTR decks, space-saving file-based servers are now the norm. The advent of multi-viewers has changed OB trucks, too – no longer do you need a wall of chunky CRT monitors when large flat screen monitors will do the job instead. Fibre cabling has also increased capabilities. Fibre means longer distances and fewer cables required. At Trickbox TV, we use the most compact kit possible. Not only is this great for our clients, it means our kit rooms and trucks have also shrunk!

The cost of kitting out an OB truck or studio facility has plummeted. A few years ago, for a simple multi-camera set-up, you’d need a vision mixer, a separate multi-viewer, a video server to play the show’s opening title in on, some up-converters for that last-minute SD feed, a video scaler for that PC feed you need to get into the mixer etc. But now, one unit – a vision mixer for under £10K – can do all that! The cost of equipment has reduced considerably, in part due to a fierce market, but largely because the cost of producing components has reduced. CMOS sensors over CCD sensors is an obvious case. The introduction of KA band and 3G and 4G video uplink means it’s easier and cheaper to transmit. Will this mean more outside broadcast? We certainly hope so.

There are some staples of television which OB will continue to dominate, such as sport and large-scale national events. But other traditional OB territory, such as music, events and festivals, can now be achieved on a smaller scale. You can get the same functionality as an OB truck with a portable production unit (PPU) but with a smaller footprint and lower budget. Trickbox TV often get asked to quote for music jobs and big events because, sometimes, an OB truck just isn’t cost effective or there are space limitations. Plus, we work with some smaller broadcast production companies to help provide bespoke solutions for pilots or low-budget productions.

So what other emerging technologies are likely to change the face of OB? IP broadcast technology is sure to grow. BBC R&D has developed Stagebox – a camera adaptor designed to transmit everything you’d expect in a conventional triax or fibre cable (video, talkback, tally lights etc), but it’s all done over a single cat5E cable. The video is encoded at industry standard AVC-Intra 100 compression in real time. With the right software at the other end, you could ISO record all your cameras onto one storage device.

IP control is another technology changing how things are done in the field. Sony has brought out a software application which allows you to rack multiple cameras over IP. Every vision engineer must be thinking: “Do I actually need to get out of bed for this job? I could rack that show from home!”

As IP technologies get stronger, will it get to a point where there’s just a skeleton crew out in the field, but everything’s controlled from another location? Well, since technology is getting better, passion from people in the industry is strong and the demand is high from viewers, it’s clear the future of OB is going to get better and better.

If you’d like to find out how Trickbox TV can help with your next outside broadcast, contact us today.