CVP ADVERT I SEMENT FE ATURE .
SERIOUS SUBJECTS The Walk (above, above left) was one aspect of the City of Culture events, an artistic response to the turmoil of displaced people and their plight
of the opening ceremony, but Faith: The Return required five – and the transmission technology that had been used to broadcast the first event, couldn’t provide the guarantee that all five cameras would be able to stay in sync for the live stream. “We found a cellular bonding company called Aviwest, working with them for six weeks on various tests and trials to ensure that we could get five camera feeds, in addition to a spare redundancy feed, all frame accurate. Plus, with the performances moving around the city, we also had to assess cell towers to see where dropouts might occur, deciphering how we were going to manage them by switching networks,” Rozanski explains. “It was then a question of working out how we could communicate with the camera team remotely from the master control room. We settled on a software called Unity Intercom, which was great because it could be integrated with our Blackmagic Atem Constellation to also send tally to the team. Mobile phones were then mounted onto the Easyrigs, so that the tallys were in clear eyesight – but the crew also had to be mindful of that fact there would be a 1.8 second delay from the director Sally Duff’s calls. She was great, though – she just made sure she gave an
additional two to three seconds of warning before pivoting.” IT’S A KIND OF BLACKMAGIC As well as opting for the Atem Constellation as the choice of switcher, Blackmagic equipment made up most of the ecosystem for the City of Culture broadcast and was supplied by Rozanski’s company. It included
ten G2 cameras – all of which had been purchased previously through CVP, chosen for their ability to integrate and provide a complete broadcast pipeline. “I would say that 90% of our equipment comes from CVP, which is largely because the sales staff are so accessible. If I’m ever desperate, for example, I’ve got the Sunday night fear that I don’t have enough CFast
77. MAY 2022
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