On the 4th October 2018, former Marine, Shane Maddison and PR Manager, Sarah Roustoby got married live on air, on ITV Daytime’s, This Morning. Broadcast live from the Royal Albert Hall in London the wedding marked the 30th anniversary of the popular show and was the highlight of a week of celebrations. It was also the first wedding ever held in the iconic venue’s 150-year history.

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 also managed all the connectivity for the live broadcast, which included three independent circuits to ITV (a main and two backups). As well as the all-important nuptials, the wedding included a performance by The Kingdom Choir who also serenaded Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on their big day in May.

“We’re delighted to have been asked to work on this project for the second year running,” said Liam Laminman, Trickbox TV’s Managing Director. “Our years of experience working in live television enables us to create a relaxed environment within a high pressure situation.”

This is the second consecutive year that Trickbox has supplied its OB flyaway solution to ITV for This Morning’s Live Wedding. Last year, Sonya Keating and Paul Brough said “I do” at Europe’s tallest building, The View from the Shard in London. The first wedding that The View from the Shard has ever hosted, the ceremony took place 800 feet high, on the 72nd floor. Trickbox TV supplied ITV with its multi-camera fly-away, with six HD fibre camera channels and a fly-away control area.

On Sunday 30th September, music legends Soft Cell reunited for the final time at London’s O2 Arena. Marc Almond and Dave Ball performed together for a one-off show, ‘Say Hello, Wave Goodbye’, to celebrate their 40th anniversary as a duo. Their first UK show since 2003, the band who have sold 21 million records worldwide, have had 13 UK chart singles (five of them Top 10) and two gold and one platinum-selling albums, said farewell to fans at this last ever gig. To satisfy the demand for tickets, the concert was also streamed live to over 200 cinemas across the UK.

Trickbox provided Toward Infinity, a multi-camera concert films and music documentaries specialist, with its state-of-the-art, bespoke 9-camera portable production unit (PPU) flyaway. The Trickbox PPU filmed content for the Blu-ray recording, which will be released through live music record Label/Production company, Live Here Now. The expanded Trickbox PPU flyaway is perfect for live OB music projects as it can be rigged and de-rigged in minutes, is built to the highest broadcast specification and delivers a cost-effective solution providing all the tools required for a full-scale production, without the need for an OB truck.

Trickbox has worked with Toward Infinity on a number of high-profile concerts including: Steps, Bananarama, Status Quo, Thunder, Bullet for my Valentine and Marillion. When Toward Infinity wins a project, it supplies Trickbox with the camera plan and production design and Trickbox manages the whole temporary installation, providing the technical equipment to record the show as well as the crew to rig and de-rig it, and an Engineering team as required. The multi-camera setup can be rigged in the morning and broken down and out of the venue by the end of the night, significantly reducing production time and costs.

The HD camera feeds are recorded to separate solid hard disk drives and the line cut is given to Toward Infinity straight after the show so it can transfer the footage before sending the drives back to Trickbox.

For the live cinema stream, Trickbox worked alongside the sound team to deliver a Dolby 5.1 audio mix. Cinema live streaming, which was also used earlier this year to stream a live Steps Q&A from the Everyman King’s Cross Cinema to other sites screening the premiere of their Wembley Arena concert film, opens up a range of possibilities allowing Live Here Now and Toward Infinity to stream from anywhere to cinemas across the UK.

Trickbox was recently selected to deliver a low latency, broadcast quality, two-way video call to enable a live three-dimensional image stream at a press event, which resulted in a first-time technical achievement.

The stream, located at opposite ends of the UK, was used to produce a life size three-dimensional image, with which the presenters and guests at the event could interact. A return feed completed the call. As there was no access to static IPs or the ability to perform any port mapping due to the large scale network address translation (NAT), we were unable to deploy a traditional point-to-point link and had to find an alternative solution.

We used a Haivision Media Gateway on Amazon Web Services to relay feeds between endpoints, eliminating the need for any network configuration. While this effectively doubled the latency, it was still well within limits to perform a two-way call. This, combined with high-efficiency HEVC encoders/decoders and Secure Reliable Transport (SRT), allowed us to keep the latency down and produce a bandwidth-efficient, reliable stream. In addition, care was taken to deploy the Media Gateway logically as close to the IP network as possible, again to reduce the latency between the 5G endpoints. As 5G is still in the test phase, we had to design and deploy the solution in the demo network during the test days. This required us to fine tune the technology to work reliably on the new infrastructure.

The final results spoke for themselves. The 5G network and the video transport solution performed perfectly and wowed both the press and the client’s employees.

This proof of concept paves the way to deliver more and more broadcast content via cellular networks.

Last month, London’s famous landmark and Europe’s tallest building, The View from the Shard, opened its doors to its first ever wedding. Not only was the wedding venue spectacular, the event was broadcast live on ITV Daytime’s This Morning.
The wedding was granted to a hugely deserving couple, Sonya Keating and Paul Brough, who first met at nursery school when they were just three years old. Paul proposed to Sonya when the couple turned 40, but sadly, just months later he was diagnosed with MS. They were determined to walk down the aisle before Paul’s condition stops him from doing so, and they certainly did it in style.

To ensure technical success on the day, ITV Daytime selected Trickbox to supply 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. The cameras supplied by Trickbox included a mixture of hand-held cameras and cameras on Osprey studio pedestals with Sony OLED camera top viewfinders. The team also used a Camera Corps Q-Ball remote camera and a jib, both supplied by ITV Daytime. Trickbox also provided the backup transmission paths and a reverse path for off air.

The ceremony took place 800 feet high, on the 72nd floor at The View from the Shard. As well as this area, Trickbox also had to provide kit for additional areas of the building where Holly, Phillip and Rylan presented other segments of the show. Trickbox began rigging 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 the different sections of the programme. De-rigging had to be completed an hour and a half after the show so that The View from the Shard could be reopened to the public. Trickbox supplied a staggered crew schedule for the entire job, which lasted 17 hours straight.

To help raise vital funds for people with multiple sclerosis, the MS Society held its first ever Christmas Concert at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. The concert took place in December 2016 with performances from St. Paul’s Cathedral Consort, Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir, Robin Tritschler, Gerald Finley, Sir John Tomlinson and Catherine Wyn Rogers performed music. The evening also featured readings specially written by British playwright and screenwriter, Abi Morgan.

Wanting to make the most of such a special occasion and allow for people with MS to be part of the evening remotely, the MS Society asked Trickbox TV if it would live stream the concert via the charity’s Facebook and YouTube pages.

Trickbox provided full multi-camera and live streaming facilities including crew to ensure the event could be broadcast live to people unable to attend the exclusive concert. Large screens were installed throughout the cathedral so the 2,000 MS Society supporters could watch the service without a struggle.

Liam Laminman, Managing Director of Trickbox TV, commented; “We’re honoured to have been involved in the MS Society Christmas Concert. St Paul’s Cathedral is an amazing London landmark to work in and we were thrilled to provide professional live streaming services for such a worthy cause.”

UK Production company Primal Media required an outside broadcast, HD, fly-away solution that would be highly reliable and cost-effective for the recording of its new game show The Wave. It chose Trickbox TV’s multi-camera fly-pack, which included: a beach based control room, five Sony HDC-1500 cameras, a 100:1 box lens; a boat-based RF camera; and technical crew.

The show, which is hosted by popular presenter Rylan, sees pairs of contestants work together to win a cash prize. One contestant stays on the shore answering a series of questions with Rylan, whilst the other swims between six pontoons in the sea. If they get the question right, the pontoon earns them extra prize money, if they get it wrong they win a 1kg bag of pebbles to swim with to the next pontoon. They can decide to cash in their prize at any stage but to win the money they must race the clock to swim back to shore and join their partner. The Wave launched at 8pm, on Monday 15th January, on premium UK entertainment channel W.

The programme was shot over two weeks on a well-known surfers’ beach on the Atlantic coast in Portugal. The Trickbox team set up a temporary studio facility on the beach, with five Sony HDC-1500 cameras, including a 100:1 box lens positioned on a tower to capture all the swimming action. The RF boat-based camera captured some of the close-up shots as the swimmers battled the tide to reach each pontoon.

Positioned approximately 300m – 400m from the beach, Trickbox rigged the boat with a full video, audio and comms link to the studio, with zero latency. They say never work with children or animals; sand, seawater and weather can also be a challenge!

“This was a really fun project and we’re very happy that Primal Media chose us,” explains Liam Laminman, Trickbox TV’s Managing Director. The show, which has five episodes, was shot back-to-back so as one pair finished their game another pair would start. Everyone really enjoyed the shoot and we’re looking forward to seeing the series.”

Back in August, Trickbox received an SOS from Nick Parry, a freelance multi-camera director who specialises in live TV and who’s also a visiting lecturer at London’s University of Westminster. Throughout the year, Nick runs two-day intensive “how to direct music for TV” master classes with Chinese delegates at the University’s China Media Centre. The courses are usually held in the Centre’s studio but on this occasion the studio was undergoing some critical maintenance and wasn’t available, hence the SOS.

Nick says, “I phoned around some studios and got quotes but they were outside the budget, so I called Liam Laminman, Trickbox TV’s Managing Director. I told him that I needed a full outside broadcast facility for a live music multi-camera directing course and gave him the budget. What’s delightful about Liam is he’s very honest; I spoke to him on Friday and he said he thought Trickbox would be able to do it. He then called me back early on the Monday morning and said Trickbox would indeed provide all the kit and the crew within my budget, and by Tuesday we were rigging it. He and the Trickbox team worked to a phenomenal time scale.”

Trickbox supplied full broadcast OB facilities with four Sony HDC-1500 fibre camera channels with Canon HJ lenses and Osprey Elite pedestals. The courses run at the China Media Centre are for working Chinese TV professionals who want to come to the UK to learn how TV is produced in the West. It was essential that Nick source a full broadcast OB facility so that delegates would be learning in a real-world environment. Nick says, “In the west our production standards are different. In the UK there is more emphasis on pre-planning productions and so we focus on teaching delegates how to plan to maximise the time and resources available. It’s all about being cost-effective and creative in production, those are the key elements.”

For each course, delegates work with a live band. They know in advance the type of music that the band is going to perform, the tracks that they will play and the camera scripting. They then recreate their camera scripts in the studio with the band using the four Sony HDC-1500 cameras supplied by Trickbox. The delegates provide all the technical roles directing and operating the cameras. Nick explains, “It’s a two-fold course; it’s about pre-planning and then delivery. A good example of the type of show that the delegates direct is Later with Jools Holland, that’s the model that we work to. We use the same number of cameras and the same production techniques, teaching the Chinese delegates how that show is created.”

The delegates spend between four and six weeks in the UK depending on the budget and the nature of the course that their employer sends them on. During that time, they also work with very senior UK producers to develop programme ideas.

This wasn’t the first time that Nick and Liam’s paths crossed. Nick explains, “I first worked with Trickbox in 2011 when Liam supplied a flyaway solution, as he did on this occasion, for a career retrospective of Sir David Attenborough, which was shot at the Members’ Library at the Science Museum. He did an outstanding job. Our paths didn’t cross again until last year when we worked together on a Brexit Debate for Facebook along with broadcast sound company, Sound Credit and that reminded me how good Liam and his team are. I’m very glad that I asked him for help on this job. He pulled this out the bag very quickly and to a budget that suited our requirements.”

Last summer, Eden Sessions selected Trickbox TV to provide a range of outside broadcast services for its spectacular live music events. Based at the famous Eden Project site in Cornwall, UK, the series of one-day concerts, which take place in June and July, feature world-class artists.

Eden Sessions was the brain child of John Empson, who is Eden’s Musical Director. He first came to the site in early 2000, when working for his own record label, and quickly realised that it would be an incredible place for live music. The first concert took place in the summer of 2002, and over the last 16 years, Eden has played host to huge names including: Pulp, Kasabian, Oasis, Muse, Calvin Harris, Basement Jaxx, Elton John, Lionel Richie, Blondie, Rufus Wainwright, Jack Johnson, Lily Allen, Jessie J, Amy Winehouse, Dizzy Rascal and Plan B and across multiple genres such as rock, pop, grime, blues, dance and electronic.

Eden Sessions Film Producer, Anna Meneer says, “Having a wide variety of genres has huge influence on the audience because the fans are completely different for every type of artist. We love the fact that we can bring renowned artists to Cornwall and give people from every demographic the opportunity to see bands covering multiple styles.”

Eden’s stunning and unique Sessions make these events very different from a lot of classic music venues. Anna explains, “This variety is the premise of Eden Sessions, but it’s also great that visitors pick up on Eden Project’s conservational message because they have the opportunity to walk around the site and go into all of the biomes. The Eden mission is to connect people with each other and the natural world whilst looking at ways we can work together for a better future. It’s almost impossible to come to Eden without picking that up.”

2017 was the first year that Trickbox had been involved with the outside broadcast of Eden Sessions, recording the Van Morrison, Madness and Bastille gigs. The partnership came about after Trickbox worked with Eden Sessions Director, Morgan Lowndes on Channel Four’s Deal or No Deal show. Trickbox provided a multi-camera setup, including live vision mixing with talkback, tally lights and a 32-foot track, which ran 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.

Concerts of this scale call for a huge amount of pre-planning. Anna says, “Last year we had six camera positions, which we discussed with the band manager on the day. Obviously different artists have different requests so that can change a bit but generally we have cameras in the pit, stage right, stage left, front-of-house, top-shot and up-stage. This last position is a lovely shot for us, it’s behind the band and shows them set against the audience. The top-shot is also spectacular, it’s the wide shot that shows the whole setting of the stage and the beautifully lit up biomes.”

Eden Sessions began recording the shows in 2009, starting with a couple of broadcasts on MTV. Then in 2012, they started their own YouTube channel, Eden Sessions TV, which has had over 10 million views. Anna says, “Six thousand people get to come and see the shows live at Eden, but we wanted to take that to a much bigger audience. In 2015 we developed a relationship with the BBC beginning with an Elton John show for BBC iPlayer and in 2016, we continued this partnership by recording Lionel Richie and Tom Jones for BBC iPlayer. Those three shows are among the highest viewed music programmes on BBC iPlayer ever.”

Last year, Eden Sessions’ relationship with the BBC developed further. They now have a collaboration with BBC Music, which has seen epic performances by Madness, Van Morrison and Bastille recorded by Trickbox at last year’s Eden Sessions, shown under the BBC Music “Live at Eden” banner on both BBC4 and BBC iPlayer.

Anna concludes, “We really enjoyed working with Trickbox. Their professionalism and expertise helped us to deliver three great shows.”

Eden Sessions will kick off again in June 2018 with major artists already confirmed including: Gary Barlow, Massive Attack, Jack Johnson and Bjork.

A specialist in multi-camera concert films and music documentaries, Toward Infinity began working with Trickbox TV around 18 months ago. Run by Producer, Director and Editor Tim Sidwell and Producer and DP Jeremy Mason, Toward Infinity is a creative collaboration that works with top flight venues including: Royal Albert Hall, Wembley Arena, the O2 Arena, Shepherd’s Bush Empire and the London Forum, with artists in all genres.

Toward Infinity began to take on a number of 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. Sidwell says, “Steve at Trickbox, who I’ve known for a number of years, has worked really hard to pull together a flyaway, multi-camera solution, which is ideal for us. It’s something they’ve honed over the last year or two and it provides a really easy and quick off-the-shelf solution.”

When Toward Infinity wins a project, it supplies Trickbox with the camera plan and production design and Trickbox manages 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. “Rigging and de-rigging takes place on the day of the show,” explains Sidwell. “That’s really advantageous to us as it keeps costs down. Trickbox 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.”

The camera plan and production design depend on the size of the venue and where Toward Infinity can place cameras. This isn’t always easy as most of the shows are sold out before the planning process. Sidwell says, “Venues like the 02 Arena are much bigger than Shepherds Bush Empire so Trickbox has to be really flexible and have the ability to run cables for any sized venue. One of the major plus points of working with them is that they have a lot of knowledge and experience.”

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 Trickbox. Sidwell adds, “I take all the camera feeds and edit from those and on the occasion where we have a vision mixer, Trickbox provides the line cut straight after the show ends. This is great for me because I can then either pass that on to the client if they want to see it straight away and I can also use it as my offline edit.”

Toward Infinity and Trickbox have shot a number of shows at different venues including: the 02 for Status Quo, the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff for Thunder, Brixton Academy for Bullet for my Valentine and in October they’re shooting Marillion at the Royal Albert Hall. Sidwell says, “Steve at Trickbox and I have always had this dream of creating something really fluid and easy and we’ve kind of achieved that objective.”

The general output for the shows is DVD, Blu-Ray and online depending on the requirements of the end client. Sidwell concludes, “Everything is shot in HD at the moment; 4K is currently budget-prohibitive but we know Trickbox is open to pioneer different ways of recording whenever we’re able.”

The Drum and Bass Arena Awards is an annual awards ceremony founded over 10 years ago, celebrating the exciting Drum and Bass music scene. Heavily attended by all industry types and the award ceremony brings together producers, MC’s, DJ’s as well as labels and event teams. The most recent awards ceremony took place on 7 December 2016 with a night of live music, performances and award announcements.

The 2016 award ceremony was a little different to past award ceremonies, as Go-Macro, the lighting and design production company, had to deliver the awards show online via the Drum and Bass Arena Facebook page. This was the first time for the team to live stream a show of this size and level. Go-Macro turned to Trickbox TV to help build a fly-away kit that could be taken and used at the venue, Brixton Electric. Trickbox provided a HD system for six cameras, 1 VT and GFX feed, plus record bank, talk back system and other engineering kit.

Elliott Linehan-Cross, Designer and Project Manager at Go-Macro, commented “I have been working with Trickbox since 2011, when we first started live streaming. From day one, Liam and the Trickbox team have always been welcoming and so helpful with every production. One benefit to working with Trickbox is they don’t focus on budget restrictions which helps us to grow as a company and focus on the project at hand.”

The Drum and Bass Arena Awards was a great success as the production set up ran smoothly with collaboration between the Trickbox and Go-Macro teams. Also, the fly away kit suited the production requirements perfectly. Linehan-Cross added “We did however have problems with the internet on site which interrupted the live stream. With the help of Trickbox, we managed to get a final full HD production of the awards which was streamed on Facebook Live and will be available on VoD in the run up to 2017 awards.”

Liam Laminman, Managing Director of Trickbox TV, stated “At Trickbox, we’re always keen to get involved in live streaming production projects. The team worked hard to eliminate technical problems to make sure that the Drum and Bass Arena 2016 award ceremony ran smoothly. We’re really looking forward to continuing our work with Elliott and the Go-Macro team in the future.”