The Producer Report: Location shoots
BHP TV are also proving Sony’s format original design for the universally recognised
versatility on multi-camera shoots with its ‘stump-cam’. McNeil’s team stripped down a Sony
management (for IMG) of live feeds and recorded FCB H10 block and assembled a new package
content for FIM Speedway, which travels around using the original chip set but replacing the zoom
European circuits mainly centred in Scandinavia lens in a new housing with primes for super, wide
and Eastern Europe. BHP’s Steve Saint takes and tight angles.
charge of two Sony outfitted HD OB trucks to “We’ve modified the middle stump so that it
capture and transmit the live action as well as bulges a little either side but doesn’t affect play,”
compile a highlights programme, posted at BHP says McNeil. “As yet we can’t replace the SD mini-
in the UK, and fast turnaround sequences for cams housed in the outside stumps since this would
output to the web. extend the diameter of the wicket.”
“We use 12 large Sony HD cameras for the live The same technology has been engineered for
transmission but I prefer to take select interview the first time into a high definition ‘curbcam’ by
and location shots with an XDCAM HD because SIS Live for North One’s coverage of the Isle of
we can swiftly take material from the disks and Man TT Races in June. “Five ‘curbcams’ are
import them directly to Final Cut Pro for on-site placed on the street, trees and lamp posts recording
editing and straight to the official Speedway to two Sony hard disks we can trigger by SMS,”
website,” explains Saint. explains McNeil. “When one disk is full we’ll get
an automatic text alert saying recording has
MINIATURE MODELS switched to the second disk. Because time is tight
BHP has experimented with miniature-cameras we’ll then remove the first disk while the race is
on the bikes themselves but the sheer physicality of continuing and begin the edit.”
the motorcycles ripping round mud tracks has so
far proved a barrier to camera and signal durability.
Although mini-cameras are often tailored for
covert filming of wildlife, undercover reportage or
hidden camera LE shows, it is in sports where
innovation is most bold, driven by the broadcaster’s
desire to improve on last season’s coverage.
However, the applications are often so niche that
it is not economically viable for manufacturers to
mass produce them. Instead, production companies
and OB suppliers turn to specialists like SIS Live’s
Special Cameras team, responsible for some of the
most unique camera angles in world sport. “The
overriding current requirement is to substitute mini-
SD cams with mini-HD ones,” explains the
division’s chief Paul McNeil. “The problem is that
the larger size of the HD circuit boards presents big
problems when space is a major constraint.”
SIS Live first solved this for Sky Sports’
international cricket coverage, building on its
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Summer 2009 theproducer 33
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