Beyond bringing its Elevation mobile production truck to the event, TNDV provided crewing and streaming services for the premiere, which featured performances from Gladys Knight, Martina McBride and R&B artist Estelle. TNDV’s services incorporated an interactive social media element to the program, using Renewed Vision’s Pro Presenter 5 software to generate a real-time administered Twitter feed in full-screen and lower-third formats.
“The debut of Skyville Live required a turnkey mobile production service to support several live, broadcast-quality web streams, along with a full crew to capture multiple camera angles for future use in postproduction,” explained Nic Dugger, owner and president, TNDV. “This shoot required a great deal of creative skill to capture the intimacy of the performances, and utilized our technology, expertise and crewing to achieve the desired production results.”
The eight-camera shoot captured the event from three perspectives for the live webcast, which was supported using TNDV’s signal encoding infrastructure on board Elevation, and multiplatform streaming delivery from Blue Scout Media, a Texas-based content delivery network. Viewers could switch between the live performances, captured using six Hitachi HD1000 cameras; a robotic camera following the production team working on Elevation; and a separate robotic camera to capture the performances from the backstage vantage point. All HD streams delivered a live multichannel audio mix produced on board the truck.
TNDV additionally employed its Aja KiPro video recorders and ProTools audio recording system to capture the feeds for postproduction. All multi-camera, multi-tracked content was delivered to Skyville Live producers following the event, with the goal of distributing a program to media outlets in the near future.
TNDV’s mobile production experience with programs such as Bluegrass Underground, a live performance series seen on PBS, and CMT Backstage were among the key reasons the Skyville Live team selected TNDV.
“We needed a full-service company like TNDV to capture the true essence of what Skyville Live is about – bringing a mix of iconic acts, popular artists and emerging stars performing in an intimate setting to a worldwide audience using digital media platforms,” explained executive producer Wally Wilson. “With music being at the forefront of the Skyville Live online experience, high-quality audio is one of the most important elements we looked for when considering production partners.”
