“Everything had to be streamlined to give a clean and immersive experience”
Panasonic PTZ cameras like the UE150 proved the perfect partners, capturing Ed Sheeran on the big screen with precision
The next stage Mead and his team had some enormous decisions ahead, namely how production would work with no operators allowed near the stage. “In previous tours, we employed four Bradley Engineering CamBall 3s and three Sony broadcast cameras, but that was no longer an option,” he says. “The obvious answer was to expand the robotics.” Mead decided to look at a mini pan– tilt–zoom (PTZ) camera: “The two options we had were a small-form-factor PTZ or a broadcast head on a PTZ head, which would be remotely operated,” he adds. However, there was no such dilemma for Mead when it came to sourcing the kit and asking for advice. “We’d been using CVP at CTT to service our lenses,” Mead explains. “We have got a lot of Canon lenses with Sony broadcast heads. CVP is just a fantastic partner, in part due to its terrific client base. Service is great, and that’s pre- and post-sale. If anything unexpected happens, the team deal with it and turn things around quickly. I’m very happy with their attention to detail.” Its customer service prowess was evidenced when Mead’s team went to the video equipment specialist for this project. The crew was introduced directly to Ben Arlow and Alistair Brierley from Panasonic Connect – set up by Michael Groom, account director at CVP. “The Panasonic team came to our warehouse in Wiltshire for a demo day,” Mead goes on. “We looked at two high- end PTZs. One was a Panasonic UE100, which we tested at the facility with some basic shooting. Then the UE150, which I love the look and size of, and the fact it’s all networkable with fibre options is a huge plus on this tour design. The UE150 The ambitious Mathematics Tour has been running since April 2022, with more than 100 planned shows across four continents
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also has a 4K-to-FHD crop, which got me thinking about how we could use one camera and get two live shots of Sheeran from one position.” With the kit ready to be deployed, the team was about to do something outside of its comfort zone. Although the set-up was exciting and new, Mead says it was ‘very daunting’ to just be using robotics. “It was definitely hard work for our operators on the tour, when you take the discipline of a front-of-house broadcast camera with a box lens and replace that with a tiny robotic camera,” Mead says. “When operating a broadcast camera, you are at one with the unit – every muscle is engaged to move it and operate the zoom and focus. This was now a plastic joystick and rocker switch.” If reviews of Sheeran’s latest tour are anything to go by, Mead and his team hit the right note.
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